I should think that one ought to start with the literal glow worm
(see also firefly or "lightening bug" that we kids in Oklahoma used
to catch on warm summer nights and keep in jars); the glow worm is
the larval form of the firefly or a wingless, grublike female of a
firefly according to the Am. Heritage Dictionary. Since neither
their light nor the little critters themselves last very long, I
think the idea of transience and changeability is a good reading.
Glosses are misleading, the product of politics rather than
philosophy, perhaps?
Theodore C. Humphrey
>Does anyone know what the image of "glowe-worme lights" refers to? OED has
>it referring figuratively to contemptible persons in the 17th century and
>relates it to "glose-wormes" or "glass worms" a sixteenth century variant
>which seems to be associated with changeability.
>
>Fulke Greville uses the term in A Letter to an Honorable Lady, where it is
>compared to false remedies and deceiving visions: "as the weak become
>terrified with those glow-worm lights; out of which wise subjects often
>fashion arts, to govern absolute Monarchs by" (170.3-5, Gouws, Prose Works
>of Greville); he also uses it in Caelica 78: the thoughts of changeable
>counsellors are "shadowes of Princes might; / Which glow worm like, by
>shining, show 'tis night."
>
>Could "glow worm lights" refer to glosses? Are glosses viewed with
>suspicion by Tudor/Stuart writers?
>
>Has anyone seen "glow-worms" elsewhere, and in what contexts?
>
>It also seems to me that "wise subjects" in the passage from A Letter needs
>to be taken ironically. Any ideas or suggestions?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Joel Davis
>Department of English
>205 Morrill Hall
>Oklahoma State University
>Stillwater, OK 74078
>405-744-9474
>
>
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