Note confusion with Virgil's Georgics IV.395? In that passage Cyrene tells
the story of Proteus that includes that line, "et turpis pascit sub gurgite
phocas"; hence the "ugly" seals would be an implied contrast with her own
beautiful and sweet-smelling self (like "ambrosia") and that of her radiant
nymphs; perhaps Spenser was remembering the context as well as the tale and
thought of "stinking," not only "ugly," for the seals as a contrast to
Cyrene's perfume (and by contrast "Cynthia" of CCCHA).
OED tells me that the word "turpentine" existed in that spelling in the
late 16th cent., though of a different root than "turpis." Other spellings
have "terebentine," etc., closer to the real root, the terebinth tree,
*Pistacia Terebinthus.* Perhaps Sp. was playing with false etymologies.
Note Nashe's olfactory use of the proper root, c. 1632, from the Latin
phrase "turpe lucrum," "filthy lucre":
"How the nostrils savour nothing more than turpie lucre." (OED)
cf. also Metamorphoses I. 299-300, re Deucalion's flood:
et, modo qua graciles gramen carpsere capellae,
nunc ibi deformes ponunt sua corpora phocae.
and where but now the slender goats had browsed,
the ugly sea-calves rested [Loeb translation]
I've never met a handsome-smelling goat, either, so the comparison fits.
--Tom H.
>Sinking seals? I think one tack might be to pursue some classical thoughts
>on seals (the variorum cites Ovid's Met. 1.10 "et turpis pascit sub
>gurgite phocas" as translated by Golding: "The ugly seales and pork pisces
>now to and from did flote." Maybe ugly mammals smell bad? What does Pliny
>or one of the bestiaries say about seals? Anne Prescott.
>
>On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
>
>> 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...
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
>> Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c.
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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