Colin:
> Of course Dryden's particular Sh-- has to be two syllables (Shadwell I
> should say was alas the most notable literary graduate of the College of
> which I am a Fellow, apart from Jeremy Taylor; literature was not really
our
> thing).
A crumb of comfort: although he was associated with Kings rather than
Gonville and Caius, I'm sure I remember reading that it was in your college
Phineas Fletcher watched the dissections that inspired him to write that
great Spenserian work, *The Purple Island*.
Dryden's vision of Shadwell riding in triumph down the Thames brings to mind
another Spenserian topos, too, as my subject line suggests: after all, the
Shadwell is a minor tributary of the Thames.
And what, I wonder, does this notion of the polluted Thames do to any
reading of the Thames in *Prothalamion*, where the river is described as
'sweet', and 'crystal'? Indeed its purity is emphasized in this description
of the 'swans': "So purely white they were / That even the gentle stream,
the which them bare/ Seemed foul to them." All this, note, within walking
distance of the Inns of Court - so we're not talking about a place way
upriver.
Charlie
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