A couple (somewhat non-scholarly) theories in response to this question :
I once found myself downwind of a dead seal that had washed up on a beach in La
Jolla. The stench was powerful enough to forever couple in my mind the concept
"seal" (whether dead or alive) with the epithet "stinking."
Also, if Spenser was a fisherman, or Ralegh had simply lent him a pole during
their voyage back to England in 1589, then the term would have been apt. Seals
are notorious for stealing fish from the lines of deep-sea fisherman.
Finally, thinking of the tuna-breath on my cat, I can see how the term applies.
So, yes, I incline toward the "bad encounter" explanation. But, then again, I
usually lean this way when it comes to Spenser.
Tom Atwell
University of California, Irvine
MFA Program in Writing
435 Humanities Instruction Building
Irvine, CA 92697-2650
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----- Original Message -----
From: "David Wilson-Okamura" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 9:44 AM
Subject: stinking seals
Like most of you, I am hard at work on my paper for next month's
conference; in the meantime, though, perhaps some of you will be able to
spare some time for the following, admittedly trivial, query:
In "Colin Clouts Come Home Again," 240-51, Raleigh explains to Colin that
Cynthia's pastures are the waves of the sea:
These be the hills (quoth he) the surges hie, 240
On which faire _Cynthia_ her heards doth feed:
Her heards be thousand fishes with their frie,
Which in the bosome of the billowes breed.
Of them the shepheard which hath charge in chief,
Is _Triton_ blowing loud his wreathed horne:
At sound whereof, they all for their relief
Wend too and fro at euening and at morne.
And _Proteus_ eke with him does driue his heard
Of stinking Seales and Procpisces together,
With hoary head and deawy dropping beard, 250
Compelling them which way he list, and whether.
My question is, why "stinking Seales"? Presumably they do smell a bit
fishy. But why does Spenser single them out for stinkiness? Was their odor
actually more offensive than that of the porpoises and the "thousand fishes
with their frie"? Did Spenser have a bad encounter with a seal? Or did the
printer misread his text? In which case, would anyone care to propose an
emendation? "Slinking," in my opinion, does not recommend itself; "winking"
is probably even worse...
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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c.
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