Re architectonic I'm reminded a bit of Alma's Castle in
Spenser:
Of all Gods workes, which do this world adorne,
There is no one more faire and excellent,
Then is mans body both for powre and forme,
While it is kept in sober gouernment; (FQ II.ix.1)
The Castle's potentially Vitruvian proportions have been
invoked to explain the famous stanza (II.ix.22) on its
proportions ("The frame thereof ... partly circular ...
the first and last proportions ... a quadrate was the base
/ Proportioned equally ... goodly diapase.").
And compare the ethical structure invoked after Arthur's
successful defense of it, where "goodly" and "frame" of
the stanza just cited recur:
Now gins this goodly frame of Temperance
Fairely to rise, and her adorned hed
To pricke of highest praise forth to aduance,
Formerly grounded, and fast setteled
On firme foundation of true bountihed. (FQ II.xii.1)
If Sidney's "well knowing" means one's acquaintance with
one's ethical character (piety, self-control, chastity),
then perhaps his "well doing" means taking right actions
in friendship, justice, and courtesy.
In passing one can note that a body's physical and
architectural integrity in space may be compared to its
temporal counterpart, a life's maintenance of moral
integrity over time:
If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd,
As subject to Time's love or Time's hate,
Weeds amoung weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto th'inviting time our fashion calls:
It fears not policy, that heretic,
Which works on leases of short number'd hours,
But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with the showers.
To this I witness call the fools of Time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.
(Shakespeare, Son. 124)
On Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:20:23 -0400
"Judith H. Anderson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> After Rob's response, I'll dare to venture to mention
>his discussion(s) of
> the concept architectonike in his wonderful book Philip
>Sidney and the
> Poetics of Renaissance Cosmopolitanism. If memory
>serves, he relates the
> concept to Melanchthon-Philippist piety, which would tie
>in with the
> biblical injunction you cite. I imagine you know the
>book, but it might be
> worth another look if you read it some time ago, as did
>I.
>
>
>
> Judith
>
>
>
>From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Stillman, Robert E
> Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 4:30 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Sidney and architectonike
>
>
>
> That is a terrific question, and and an important one
>for getting right
> Sidney's notions about how and why poetry does its work.
>Answering it well
> would mean looking hard at those contemporary sources
>through which
> Aristotle's Ethics were mediated for him. You might
>want to have a look at
> Joachim Camerarius the Elder's commentaries on the
>Ethics, posthumously
> published by Andreas Wechel's press in Frankfurt after
>Sidney's request to
> his sons for its publication. Sidney didn't read
>Aristotle as we do. He
> read him through the specific lens of a particular brand
>of reformed
> humanism that found one of its most learned expressions
>in Camerarius--also
> the translator of the Cyropaedia, which is another of
>Wechel's publications.
> The commentary has a useful, searchable index both for
>Greek terms and for
> Latin. You might have a look there for architectonike
>and entelecheia, and
> then compare notes on what Camerarius has to say about
>energeia--a good
> Aristotelian term appearing some 600-plus times in the
>corpus, and of some
> real interest to Camerarius and to Sidney where concepts
>of the self and
> self -knowledge and the work (energon) of becoming or
>making or knowing a
> self matter.
>
>
>
> I hope the suggestion helps, and apologise for my
>short-hand notes, but I'm
> traveling right now and away from my books.
>
>
>
> Rob
>
>
>
>
>
> I'm writing to ask whether anyone knows of a precedent
>for Sidney's gloss on
> 'architectonike' as self-knowledge.
>
>
>
> It looks like he's putting together two classical
>passages: Aristotle on
> the master-science, which he compares to architecture
>because other forms of
> techne are controlled by it as workmen are controlled by
>the architect; and
> Plato on the Delphic oracle's "know thyself."
>
>
>
> What I'm wondering--if this interpretation passes
>muster--is whether Sidney
> is making this leap himself, or repeating something
>fairly commonplace. It
> doesn't look to me as if Aristotle's 'architectonike' is
>really about
> self-knowledge in Aristotle; and Sidney's way of
>glossing the term ("which
> stands as I think, in the knowledge of a man's self")
>seems to imply that
> he's the one drawing this conclusion.
>
>
>
> --
> David Lee Miller
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
> (803) 777-4256
>FAX 777-9064
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>
>
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