> Perhaps Denny begins with something like Andrew suggests,
>> Whose vaine comparison for want of witt
>> Takes up the oystershell to play with it
>> Yet common oysters such as thine gape wide
>> And take in pearles or worse at every tide
Hi all,
Sorry -- I took it as read that by the third line the oyster was very
firmly Wroth's vagina. On oysters and vaginas, see among other sources the
long and very copious discussion in Gordon Williams' Dictionary of Sexual
Language and Imagery in Shakespeare and Stuart Literature, 3 vols (London:
Athlone, 1994), pp. 982-3. As Williams notes, we need to be alert not only
to conches, but to the periwinkles, octopus, cuttle-fish, shrimp, and
whelk. Denny is being clever; indeed, his delight in his own cleverness
still seems almost palpable, four hundred years later. He starts by
suggesting that this sort of satire is too delicate for Wroth's
clumsiness, then proves his point by revising his own metaphor. In the
first half, the oyster is tight and prehensile; in the second half, it
gapes. The misogynistic comparison of Wroth's allegory to her vagina is
one of the more peculiar insights in literary history, and one I want to
forget!
andrew
|