Not to reignite the embers of the tense exchanges we all suffered through last fall, but isn't it possible that the less complicated/conspiratorial explanation of these lines is at work? Could the blind-seeing boy just be Cupid, conventionally depicted as a blind archer, whose arrows/love inspiration cost Collin his liberty, Astrophel his joy, caused Amyntas to weep, and annoyed Rowland?
---Original Message----
Bill Godshalk wrote:-
>Was this a club for gay poets? Marlowe, Greville, and Sidney have been
>seen as homosexuals. How about Ed Spenser?
But of course -- please don't tell Bert Hamilton.
'Richard Barnfield' wrote --
By thee great Collin lost his liberty,
By thee sweet Astrophel forwent his joy;
By thee Amyntas wept incessantly,
By thee Rowland liv'd in great annoy;
O cruel, peevish, viled, blind-seeing Boy,
How canst thou hit their hearts, and yet not see?
(If thou be blind, as thou art feigned to be.)
After 1593, Marlowe, aka Barnfield, was blind in one eye (a wound
from a twelvepenny dagger). He was the "blindseeing Boy" who had
been a "catamite" to all of them!
Peter Zenner
Phone/fax (0) 1246 271726
Visit my web site 'Zenigmas' at
http://www.pzenner.freeserve.co.uk
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