This isn't much better than idle curiosity, but I've been worrying about
the Palmer of late: what is he doing in a Protestant epic? There's been
lots written about what he represents, but nothing (that I have found over
the weekend) on the more blockheaded question of why Spenser makes him a
pilgrim returned from the Holy Land. Romeo talks about palmers, of course.
Are they still common in Reformation England c. 1590? Or are Spenser and
Shakespeare remembering something that had gone the way of the mass?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|