I think an analogue may be found in the early vision in
Dante's LA VITA NUOVA of Amor (who, interestingly, speaks
Latin) carrying a semi-nude Beatrice appears in Dante's
room, removes Dante's heart from his chest and feeds it to
Beatrice. Like LA VITA NUOVA, FQ III is much involved in
articulating chastity in relation to sexual desire on the
one hand and faith on the other. I find it particularly
interesting that Britomart is the third person, who
witnesses the scene and perceives the bliss/blesse of
sexuality in the process--rather like the older Dante
reinterpreting the events of his earlier life in LA VITA.
I will leave to the more scholarly questions of whether
or not Spenser knew Dante's "little book." It seems to me
that its influence either directly or through Petrarch's
re-make is all over the Renaissance.
On Mon, 12 Nov 2001 11:17:08 -0800 Irina Dumitrescu
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thank you all very much for your guidance. Perhaps I should explain what it
> is specifically that I'm interested in. In second year I became obsessed
> with a number of uncanny similarities between Portia in the Merchant of
> Venice and Britomart. One similarity that really nagged at me was that they
> both rescue individuals who are or are about to have their hearts somehow
> cut up. (Probably a coincidence, but I still wonder.) Then, reading
> Crashaw's "Flaming Heart", I was reminded again of Book III, Canto 12,
> Stanza 21:
>
> "At that wide orifice her trembling hart
> Was drawne forth, and in siluer basin layd,
> Quite through transfixed with a deadly dart,
> And in her bloud yet steeming fresh embayd:"
>
> It almost seems too odd a form of torture to be unrelated to anything else.
> What do you think?
>
>
> Irina
>
>
>
>
>
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----------------------
Marshall Grossman
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