It's the occurrence of Argante's name in the (dire)
situation at the end of Layamon's/Lawman's Brut that's
suggestive--the fatally wounded and dying Arthur is
speaking to his designated heir/legatee the boy
Constantine. I have Eugene Mason's serviceable
archaic-modern prose version to hand:
"... I give thee here my kingdom, and defend thou my
Britons ever in thy life, and maintain them [sic] all the
laws that have stood in my days, and all the good laws
that in Uther's days stood. And I will fare to Avalun, to
the fairest of all maidens, to Argante the queen, an elf
most fair, and she shall make my wounds all sound; make me
whole with healing draughts. And afterwards I will come
again to my kingdom, and dwell with the Britons with
mickle joy." Even with the words there approached from
the sea that was a short boat, floating with the waves;
and two women therein, wondrously formed; and they took
Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, and laid him softly
down, and forth they gan depart. Then was it accomplished
that Merlin whilom said, that mickle care should be of
Arthur's departure. (Layamon's Brut: p. 264 in
Everyman's Lib., Arthurian Chronicles.)
If Avalon, reached by boat, is a sempiternal isle of the
dead or lost, then compare the situation in store for the
Squire of Dames, as the cougar-like Argante's prey in FQ
III.vii:
But over all the countrie she did raunge
To seeke young men to quench her flaming thrust,
And feed her fancy with delightfull chaunge:
Whom so she fittest findes to serve her lust
Through her maine strength, in which she most doth trust,
She with her bringes unto a secret Ile,
Where in eternall bondage dye he must,
Or be the vassal of her pleasures vile,
And in all shamefull sort himselfe with her defile.
(Stanza 50)
Thus Spenser chooses legendary names for both twins, one
from Arthurian legend, or the matter of Briton, and the
other from Charlegmagne's peerage, or the matter of
France. (I.e., phallic Ollyphant suggests Roland's
(elephant-) horn Olifant.) And this is so even if Argante
is "A corruption of the name Morgan, that of Arthur's
faery sister," and Arthur's conveyance to Avalon is
ultimately a Breton tradition. (So Roger Sherman Loomis.)
The last word of The Brute is "Bruttes" -- re Arthur's
return "to help the Brits," we might translate. Argante
is being chased by Britomart.
[Layamon, as I think I've somewhere elsewhere noted, also
provides a kind of etiological tale for the name Uther
Pendragon that gives us a possible ultimate or remote
source for the Welsh hood ornament on Arthur's helmet.
This relic-like effigy (or two such) is manufactured in
honor of Merlin by Uther: "...ever since they called
Uther, who for a standard bare the dragon, the name they
laid on him, that was Uther Pendragon; Pendragon in
British, Dragon's-head in English." (P. 168, EL vol. cit.)
Uther's man Gorlois is also introduced hereabouts.]
-- But back to Prof. N.'s Sunday Morning Service, at the
altar of the Maytag with a chalice of Cheer.
On Sun, 2 Oct 2011 11:52:06 -0400
Anne Prescott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear list--for a note to the new Norton (yes! at last! a
>preliminary MS is
> due in four weeks and may even make it)--is there any
>chance that Spenser
> could have read Layamon? Or is the latter's queen
>Argante's name just one of
> those overlaps and coincidences? Argante's name does
>recall brightness and
> speed (now I know where the Argo may have got its name,
>although it hardly
> was the "white streak" that I'm told is what the Greeks
>called our "blue
> streek"). My classicist sister, whom I consulted on the
>Greek, says that the
> name reminds her of Narnia's White Queen but faster
>moving. For me Argante
> is too hot for that. I like the thought of her, though,
>as a sort of comet
> swooping down on incautious young men.
> Andrew Hadfield and I are cutting back on
>interpretative notes (it's a
> new world since the Third Edition with more Google and
>more ways to check up
> on who says what about which passage), avoiding
>identifying characters
> before Spenser does, something that requires heroic
>self-restraint, but we
> do want to give as much basic information as we think
>the kids who might use
> the edition would need. And we've added MHT and RR,
>dropping some to make
> room. Sorry about the drops.
> So: any reason to think Spenser might have known
>about Layamon's nice
> Argante (well, as a version of Morgan she may be only
>sort of nice)? Or even
> have heard of Layamon--and I do know I'm spelling him in
>an ignorant modern
> American way. All suggestion welcome, on or off list.
>Anne.
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
|