On Jan 23, 2011, at 7:33 PM, william oram wrote:
> Thank you all. It looks as if this is another Chaucerianism, with
> the possibilities of echoes (Ken) and anticipations (Jim) that
> Spenser plays with. I should have thought to look at the OED,
> though. Thanks, again. Bill
I think it's only Chaucerian insofar as poets writing in English will
do anything for a rhyme word and neither Chaucer nor Spenser would
flinch at using a Latinism for this purpose. Chaucer normally uses
"Mars" but does use "Marte" in a handful of cases: to rhyme with
"darte" (LGW 2244); "departe" (Troilus 2.435 and 2.988); "carte" (KT
2021); and "parte" (KT 2581). Well, he does use the genitive "Martes"
quite a bit but I'm not sure that counts; "Marses" probably sounded as
slushy in ME as it does in ModE.
In your Spenserian example (FQ 1.Prol.3), "Mart" rhymes with "dart,"
"hart," and "apart." If Spenser happened to compose the stanza in
order, "Mart" is in line 7 and thus the last rhyme he'd have to come
up with. The necessity of converting desperation into elegance may be
an entirely sufficient explanation for the spelling choice.
Likely just me and not Spenser, but the other thing that occurred to
me is that in this stanza Cupid is the actor and is being implored to
"bring triumphant Mart / In loues and gentle iollities arrayd." The
God of Love is more or less being asked to drag the God of War to the
party as a bauble or piece of merchandise. If we allow the place of
display and the thing being displayed to trade places, "Mart" may be a
pun on "mart" as in marketplace. Perhaps a stretch, and even if true,
just a bonus side effect of finding the right rhyme word.
________________________________________
Craig A. Berry
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"... getting out of a sonnet is much more
difficult than getting in."
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