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I hope this is not entirely off the mark, but this image put me in mind of the intervention of the Sabine women when they placed themselves in the conflict between the Sabine men and their Roman husbands in an attempt to bring about a peaceful resolution. I am, of course, thinking quite anachronistically of the painting by David. The Sabine women seem not merely vulnerable but add the element of childbirth as a form of reconciliation. Best regards, Richard Ramsey Oxford Brookes University Andrew Zurcher wrote: > David, > > It seems to me to make perfect sense for Medina to conjure Huddibras and > Sansloy by their love for their mothers in this way (that is, not by their > love for their ladies' mothers). She goes on to conjure them by their love > for their ladies, and their love for their queen (we assume, on the > Spenserian model of, say, Amoretti), which constitutes the standard appeal > to the three types of social bond (natural, erotic, social/political) that > we see so often rehearsed in Book IV. I don't think Medina is necessarily > trying to conjure them by shared allegiances, except insofar as they both > have mothers, ladies, and queens. > > If you would nurse at fullest breasts of fame... (Astrophel and Stella). > > az > > > Whilst thus they mingled were in furious armes, > > The faire Medina with her tresses torne, > > And naked brest, in pitty of their harmes, > > Emongst them ran, and falling them beforne, > > Besought them by the womb, which them had born, > > And by the loues, which were to them most deare, > > And by the knighthood, which they sure had sworn, > > Their deadly cruell discord to forbeare, > > And to her iust conditions of faire peace to heare. (FQ 2.2.27) > >