More rare is the reversal in which a character addresses
the poet to interact with the composition as in "Upon
Appleton House" where Thestylis comments "He called us
Israelites / and to make his saying true, / Rails rain for
quails, for Manna dew" (quoted from memory and therefore
approximate.)
On Wed, 3 Jan 2001 09:04:03 -0500 John Leonard
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Milton addresses Eve in his own voice at PL 9 404-7, partly to chide, but
> mostly to express his pity for her bad decision to work alone:
>
> O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve,
> Of thy presumed return! event perverse!
> Thou never from that hour in Paradise
> Found'st either sweet repast or sound repose.
>
> Milton's apostrophe clearly imitates Homer, Iliad xvi 787, where the epic
> bard addresses Patroklos: 'there, Patroklos, the end of your life was shown
> forth'. Patroklos, like Eve, had asked to work alone. Achilles, like Adam,
> had prayed for his safe return. Martin Mueller discusses the Milton - Homer
> parallel in CLS 6 (1969). I do not recall that he mentions Spenser.
>
> John Leonard
>
>
>
> >Is Spenser's act in FQ 6.10.20 unique in literature, namely a poet entering
> >into his fiction under his well-known persona to reprimand one of his own
> >characters, so ticked off that he tells him to expect considerable
> >unhappiness when the story continues. In the next stanza, he denies even
> >knowing him. A.C. Hamilton
> >
> >A.C.Hamilton
> >[log in to unmask]
> >Cappon Professor Emeritus
> >Queen's University, Canada
> >Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759
----------------------
Marshall Grossman
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