> The reason I think this
>might be relevant to Spenser is that in a curious way Saul's demon and the
>many, many arguments over how it operated, and where, and just exactly what
>made it go away, has parallels with how we read Redcrosse's adventures chez
>Archimago and elsewhere: how much of this is inside George, so to speak (his
>*ge* part, the flesh, being so subject to sexual fantasies that can also
>represent, it's wise to remember, the temptations of Roman Catholicisim's
>visual and auditory beauty), and how much outside. Does Redcrosse come down
>with a case of demons, or are the demons external even if still real?
For some help with these issues (and much else besides), members of this
list might want to consult Harry Berger Jr.,'s article on Archimago in the
most recent Studies in English Literature 43.1 (2003): 19-64.
Peter C. Herman
>According to the classical and Renaissance authorities I have been reading,
>Archimago could also have tried the Lydian mode, to which the antidote is the
>Dorian. Since Redcrosse seems to have a touch of melancholia (perhaps from
>thinking to much, Ficino would say), medicinal music would have helped
>him--but aborted the narrative, of course. Anne Prescott
>
> >===== Original Message From Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
><[log in to unmask]> =====
> >The images might also be thought of as "coming from the memories of"
> >Virgil, Ovid, and others. For this poet there could be other targets,
> >other categories of allusion, than (or, at least, in addition to)
> >contemporary lore about demons or humors or faculties. The question
> >might then be, which categories seem more attuned to the interpretive
> >project of the episode? Are they represented as subjects of
> >allusion? Is the representation straight or in scare quotes? What's
> >the gender of the Una-spright?
> >
> >
> >>It might be important to note that 16th-C demonology and faculty
> >>psychology both take it for granted that demons can simply implant images
> >>into the phantasy -- right into the mind's eye, as it were -- producing
> >>both false dreams ("demonological dreams," in Robert Burton's phrase) and
> >>things that we would take more as hallucinations. These writers were very,
> >>very silent on how demons could so implant images in the imagination
> >>(whereas following Aquinas they had a rather elaborate theory of how
> >>demons could affect someones *mood*, by mechanistically pushing various
> >>humors around, and so forth), but none as far as I know ever said that
> >>demons would have to use ideational material that was already stored in
> >>the memory to deceive human beings.
> >>
> >>It seems to me that the demon gets a generic sort of wet dream from
> >>Morpheus ("the fit false dream" in 43.9), but that he also asks Morpheus
> >>to
> >>send the dream for Archimago's "intent" ("He bids thee to him send for his
> >>intent / A fit false dream, that can delude the sleepers sent") -- as if
> >>Archimago still needs to mediate the dream that's going to come back from
> >>the depths. And, indeed, it turns out in stanza 45 that just as Archimago
> >>has to teach the spright who impersonates Una to "imitate that lady true,"
> >>so does he have to teach the spright who comes back with the dream to
> >>abuse RCs fantasy with false shows "privily," that is, using the image of
> >>Una that makes the dream personally relevant to Redcrosse. That's not
> >>much,
> >>but in any case it doesn't *demand* that we read the images as coming from
> >>RCs memory, as lustful or otherwise.
> >>
> >>
> >>Best,
> >>Genevieve Guenther
> >>
> >>
> >>On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, James W. Broaddus wrote:
> >>
> >>> Does Redcrosse's dream of "loues and lustfull play" (I.i.47.4) come from
> >>> Morpheus supplied with those images or does Morpheus provide only a
>generic
> >>> "fit false dreame" (i.43.9), i.e., not a true, prophetic dream? Does
> >>> Archimago supply the images in toto or by schooling either the dream or
>the
> >>> spright (46.5)--I can't tell which--how to change innocent images
> already
>in
> >>> Redcrosse's memory into the lustful? Do those images, as lustful, come
>from
> >>> Redcrosse's memory?
> >>>
> >>> Jim Broaddus
> >>>
>
>anne prescott
>english, barnard college
