So interesting, Elizabeth. Perhaps the difference between human and Elf is not so great in Book 2, though it the difference is important, somehow, in Book 1. I very much like your idea that "her race is deliberately left ambiguous, so that Guyon can read her story as an elfin tragedy and the reader can think of it as a human one, because that way Amavia can achieve maximum pathos." I would not have thought of that, but it makes so much sense when we look ahead in canto 2, when Medina tells Guyon
Tell on, faire Sir, said she, that dolefull tale,
From which sad ruth does seeme you to restraine,
That we may pitty such vnhappy bale,
And learne from pleasures poyson to abstaine:
Ill by ensample good doth often gayne.
Then forward he his purpose gan pursew,
And told the storie of the mortall payne,
Which Mordant and Amauia did rew;
As with lamenting eyes him selfe did lately vew. (2.2.45)
Pity seems to be the thing to be inspired, and Medina seems to be both human and allegorical? Pitying Mordant and Amavia is legitimized by the fact that the emotion connectes to a moral lesson. Guyon is later moved to pity when seeing Furor tormented by Occassion, "The noble Guyon mou'd with great remorse," but pitying Furor and trying to destroy him prove useless. According to the Palmer, "neuer thinke that so / That Monster can b maistered or destroyed / He is not, ah, he is not such a foe" (2.4.10). I've never thought too much about the Palmer's "He is not, ah, he is not such a foe" until now, this strong emphasis that Furor is somehow differnt in kind from the other characters Guyon meets. Pity is wasted on him, and he is unable to be helped/transformed/converted--a racial logic?
Dennis
########################################################################
To unsubscribe from the SIDNEY-SPENSER list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=SIDNEY-SPENSER&A=1
|