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Tom Bishop wrote: >OK. I'll play. The situation would be rather like that obtaining with >that other Elizabeth (the Glorious One), wouldn't it? Does the myth >call forth the woman, or vice versa -- or do both "dilate" one >another? Tom's mention of the analogy between the two Elizabeths makes me think of Spenser's anxiety about how his works would be interpreted -- and the cautious commentaries he makes on interpretation in Book 6 of the FQ, especially. Do the Amoretti exhibit as much anxiety over how they will be interpreted? Do they get more anxious as their topic gets closer to the royal Elizabeth? I also wonder about the warning against romanticized biographical interpretations: no doubt it's valid, but then again, isn't the similarity (and repetition) of names like Elizabeth an important part of how the Amoretti mean something? If we want to say the Amoretti ventriloquize Spenser into being as a poetic persona, isn't it significant that they do it by invoking the name, Elizabeth? And can't we say that the figuratively rich language of the Amoretti, full of ambiguities and overdetermined signifiers, effectively gives Spenser some cover in case someone interprets his poetry as offensive? It seems to me that some of the most interesting questions we can ask center on intentionality, and that we ought to concede (at the very least) that poems are the products of (dare I say artistic? political? social?) intention. Cheers, Joel Davis *************************** Joel B. Davis Visiting Assistant Professor Department of English 205 Morrill Hall Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 74078 405-744-9468 *************************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com