Dear Anne and James,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my query. Your comments and suggestions have already proven to be very useful indeed.

As ever, I am indebted to your kindness.

Many thanks,

S.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James C. Nohrnberg
Sent: 16 September 2011 19:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'Froward' / 'Forward' - VI.x.24.7 - w/ 'then' / 'than'

The important cross-reference for
then/than and froward/forward and the
circulation and/or reciprocation of
benefits, in FQ VI.x.24 (and its
editorial [?] "correction"), is of
course to "EK" on SC, "Aprill," the
poem where Spenser's "dea
certe/quarta" originally appears,
along with (in the gloss) "then" and
"fromwarde":

"The Graces) be three sisters ...
otherwise called Charites, that is
thanks. Whom the Poetes feyned to be
the Goddesses of al bountie and
comelines, which therefore (as sayth
Theodontius) they make three, to wit,
that men first ought to be gracious
and bountiful to other freely, then
[=then, "secondly" OR
"thereafter/thereupon"] to receiue
benefits at other mens hands
curteously [gratefully, thankfully],
and thirdly to requite them
thankfully: which are three sundry
Actions in liberalitye [= (1) giving
benefits generously, (2) receiving
benefits gratefully, and (3)
gratefully reciprocating or requiting
or repaying them]. And Boccace saith,
that they be painted naked, ... the
one hauing her backe toward vs, and
her face fromwarde, as proceeding from
vs: the other two toward vs for the
benefit, we haue done [the one having
her back towards us, and her face away
from us, as if she emanated out of us,
and the other two facing us, as a
double return upon or for our generous
deed]."

I.e.: The text/s ask/s to be read
both ways (a benefit produces twice as
much benefit for the giver in returns
upon it, and/or the gracious &
generous giver will give twice what
s/he gets (since s/he gives both a
gift to another and thanks for
another's gift to him or her).

See also AnFQ pp. 699-700 (with notes
103 & 104)

Even the cannibals prove susceptible
[to divine or prevenient grace] in
their way; they decide to devote
Serena to their god, "since by grace
of God she there was sent"
(VI.viii.38). ¶ In Pico's Commento,
the Graces stand for what comes from
God to us, and returns from us to God
[n.103]-a similar allegory appears in
the Englishman, Stephen Batman.[n.104]
 The eucharistic theology devised by
the cannibals, who take Serena to be
an instance of "heauenly grace"
(VI.viii.37), exhibits the same
circulation of gifts. Landino, in the
opening pages of his commentary on
Dante's Commedia, explained the three
ladies that initiate the pilgrim's
salvation as prevenient, illuminating,
and proficient grace. ... Spenser's
Graces-"daughters of sky-ruling Ioue,
/ By him begot of faire Eurynome"
(VI.x.22)-share their parentage with
Landino's.

103 Commento, II.xv; in the Stanley
trans., II.xii (edn. of Boston, 1914),
p. 35.
104 Stephen Batman, The new ariual of
the three Gracis into Anglia (London,
ca.1580). The book is a graceless
medley, offered as a gift to the
author's father. The dedication
explains the courtesy of returning
benefits (Sig. A2rff.). Batman begins
with a Somnius (Sig. A5r) in which one
Charites comes to aid him in writing:
she is from Elohim, and came into
being with man's creation (Sig.
Biir-v). Charites gives the writer
three graces to guide his pen:
Thankfulness (Sig. B3v), who gives one
the grace to seek virtue;
Plenteousness (Sig. C2r), God's
plentiful grace; and
Liberality (Sig. C4r), who is
particularly God's mercy.

--And, further, AnFQ, p. 701, with its
note 106:

The configuration of the Graces
themselves, we are told, illustrates
"That good should from vs goe, then
come in greater store" (VI.x.24). The
"then" is decidedly ambiguous: will we
receive more than we have given, or
should we give more than we may expect
to receive? Yet another paradox of
grace may be here. Grace is multiplied
for those who are not intent upon
benefiting themselves: those who
expect little will receive
much.[n.106] Good turns and benefits
in Book VI correspond to the various
"charities" inculcated at the Holy
Hospital in Book I. Although inspired
by it, these charities are not the
divine charity of God's grace, nor can
they compel it; and gift-giving,
however genuine the courtesy that
prompts it, does not bestow Calidore's
mysterious gift.

106 This ambiguity meets us in
Meliboe, who, "hauing small," does not
"wish for more it to augment." Yet the
little that he has "growes dayly
more"; "What haue I," he asks, "but to
praise th'Almighty, that doth send
it?" (VI.ix.20f.). Cf. Pastorella's
"gracing small" of the pirate captain:
"A little well is lent," the poet
moralizes, "that gaineth more withall"
(VI.xi.6). After Calidore dispatches
the tiger, Pastorella thanks him a
thousand times: "From that day forth
she gan him to affect, / And daily
more her fauour to augment"
(VI.x.36f.). The allegory that makes
the two returning Graces the double
requital due for benefits derives from
Servius, ad Aen. I.720, and is found
in Fulgentius, Mitologiarum, II.iv;
the 2nd and 3rd Vatican Mythographers
(Bode edn., II.36, III.11.2),
Boccaccio, G.D.G., V.xxxv, and
Cooper's Dictionary. But [FQ] VI.x.24,
like Pico, reverses to two "froward"
Graces.

-- What seems important (at least to
the tiresome undersigned) is that FQ
VI.x.24 more or less conserves the
problems or ambiguities of EK's
original note and the problems or
choices of Spenser's editors or
revisers in his wake, and thus nearly
the very the grammar, in itself,
constitutes one more instance or
evidence of this text as
Colin's/Spenser's "signature."

-- Jim N.

PS On the subject of Webbe's
(sub-)poetical "A" perhaps one could
quote as a related instance
Shakespeare: As You Like It,
V.iii.18, "With a hey, and a ho, and a
hey nonino" [Clown's song, at the
play's end] (or, lilkewise, at the end
of Twelfth Night, V.i.399, "With hey,
ho, the wind and rain" [to rhyme, sort
of, with "day"]; also, likewise, Lear
III.ii.75 [the Fool], ditto on the
rhyme; and Hamlet IV.v.165, "Hey non
nonny, nonny, hey nonny" [Ophelia,
mad]). (Always near meaningless
lexical or phatic putty in a terminal
position ((like punctuation)), and yet
perhaps not such a far cry from the
attention-getting "Hey" that begins --
rather than ends -- Beowulf itself
[Hwaet, "Listen up"]: however
subsequently degraded?)

       On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:12:47
-0400
  Anne Prescott <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Galbraith's essay is wonderful. But
>also, although I assume they're on
>the
> List, Joe Loewenstein and David Lee
>Miller are walking encyclopedias on
> different editions. On the graces
>and how they face and what they mean
>I
> have found Edgar Wind's *Pagan
>Mysteries* wonderful.
> I had hoped to get most of the
>new Norton Spenser into Norton by the
>end
> of the month or (don't tell Norton)
>early in October. I may miss the
> deadline, but not by much. So any
>advice on what to say in the footnote
>to
> this bit would be welcome. I hadn't
>realized there's a textual issue. Oh
> boy.
> On another but related matter,
>and since I'm (very
>temporarily--don't
> worry--no messages needed) in the
>hospital and I can't check my recent
> purchase for details and am going by
>memory: I have recently bought, and
> very cheaply because no
>book-collector would want them, some,
>much or most
> (I've not finished checking) of the
>Complaints part of the 1611 that
> somebody ripped out of the volume.
>The pages are in fairly bad shape and
>the
> pencil markings don't seem to mean
>anything and could be just the marks
>left
> by almost anything with a straight
>edge. But nothing from the FQ. I
>don't
> need answers for this, but just for
>my amusement I've been
>fantasizing--this
> is an angry Cecil family heir
>ripping out MHT and more for good
>measure? Or
> somebody who might also resent
>Spenser is walking up to the
>door--quick rip
> out MHT before he gets here? Rip out
>these pages to show a cousin what it
> was that bummed out the Cecils? Or
>was a 1611 hung in the privy and the
> family moved away before getting to
>the minor stuff? Fantasies welcome.
> Anyway, it's not a whole and
>expensive 1611 Spenser, but it *is*
>the bits
> that had bugged the authorities.
>Anne (widow of one who smuggled Lady
> Chatterly into the USA past the US
>Post Office in 1957 by wrapping it in
> pink paper and saying "Happy
>Birthday from your Aunt
>Violet"--probably not
> necessary, although the book was
>still banned and slithering it from
>Paris
> to New York was a thrill for my late
>husband, then 22).
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:27 AM,
>Stuart Hart <[log in to unmask]>
>wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>> I am currently researching the
>>textual crux of VI.x.24.7-9 involving
>>the
>> spatial positioning of the three
>>Graces.
>>
>> In the 1596 and 1609 editions of the
>>FQ, the lines reads:
>>
>> 'That two of them still forward
>>seem'd to bee,
>> But one still towards she'd her
>>selfe afore:
>> That good should from vs goe, then
>>come in greater store.'
>>
>> In the 1611 edition, line 7 has been
>>changed to read: 'That two of them
>> still froward seem'd to bee'. Much
>>has been written about the
>>implications
>> of this rerendering of line 7. By
>>positioning two Graces with their
>>backs to
>> the viewer, and one looking 'afore',
>>the sugegstion is that it is better
>>to
>> give than to receive. This
>>interpretation is dependent upon us
>>reading
>> 'then' as a conjunction ('than')
>>rather than as an adverb ('then') as
>>in the
>> 1596 and 1609 editions. As Geller
>>(1972) and Bates (1992) acknowledge,
>>this
>> reordering of the Graces' position
>>invites a more altruistic reading of
>> their significance, and indeed their
>>role in relation to the book's
>>titular
>> virtue of courtesy. It encourages us
>>to to read it in the light of
>>Christian
>> charity.
>>
>> My question to the list is whether
>>anything has been written
>>specifically
>> about the 1611 edition of the FQ. Do
>>we have any sense as to whether it is
>>a
>> good copy of the text? Do we know
>>whether the editors intentionally
>>changed
>> 'forward' to 'froward'? Could it be
>>seen as a wilfull revision...perhaps
>> working from Spenser's manuscri[pt,
>>or is it merely a textual error?
>>
>> If any one on the list has a
>>knowledge of a study that might be
>>relevant to
>> my questions then I would be
>>extremely grateful.
>>
>> As always, many thanks in advance,
>>
>> Stuart Hart
>> PhD researcher,
>> University of Birmingham.
>>

[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121


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