A sword that sends out rays of light to blind the Turks is used by Don Juan
at Battle of Lepanto in Corte Real's *Felicissima Victoria* (1579), as cited
in Murrin, *History and Warfare in Renaissance Epic* p. 184.
Given the naval context, a good model for Arthur's blinding shield in the
Soldan episode (itself allegorizing the Armada) if not RCK's sword in Den of
Error.
The Armada, infidel and Irish threats could be intimately linked in the
figure of Sir Richard Bingham, hard-liner and Governor of Connacht when the
Armada stragglers landed in that province. A hazy footnote to his biography
is that he fought at Lepanto against the Turks; the arrival of the Spanish
Armada, raising rebellion amongst the O'Rourke's et al in his jurisdiction,
would have revived the pagan/infidel/Irish threat in new epic circumstances
from Sp's POV, whether or not he figures Bingham in the fight.
Cf. further discussion the Armada/Irish/Souldan connection [with reference
to Irish mythology but not Corte Real] in my book, *Spensers Irish Work:
Poetry, Plantation and Colonial Reformation* (Ashgate 2007). Arguments for
Irish connections with Den of Error also made in the book.
Plug plug plug.
Is RCK's shining sword also that of Justice in worldly circumstances?
--Tom Herron
On 5/30/08 6:40 PM, "James C. Nohrnberg" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Perseus is the original knight in shining armor, according to AnFQ 136,
> 194f, with citations of Ren. allegorizations of that hero that go back to
> Boccaccio GDG. Perseus' shining mirror-shield is behind Ruggiero's near the
> end Orlando Furioso X where the ugly Orc is to be conquered Gorgonically by
> bedazzling him with said shield (st. 72 in Harrington trans.). Tasso's
> allegory for Michael's diamond shield (so gems do count!) in Ger. Lib. makes
> it "the special safeguard of the Lord God." Arthur's shield is diamond and
> also makes a dazzling light in battle with Orgoglio etc. Also said,
> proverbially, of virtue (i.e., its being its own light), by Elder Brother in
> Comus 373-75 and RC to Una at FQ I.i.12. (Gorgon in Comus converted to uses
> of the shield at 447ff.). "Corrival" Harry Percy and Harry Monmouth compete
> for the image of chivalric Perseus--Perseus on Pegasus--at 1 Henry IV, I.iii
> (Hotspur's project, "to pluck drowned honor up by the locks") and IV.i (Hal
> arisen with those up in arms "Glittering in golden coats"). Swords/brands
> that glow seem a part of romance--cp. light-swords (that also hum) in Star
> Wars. The glow is magical-sacral, like the bleeding of the lance in Grail
> legends. Also cp. swords that flame, as Britomart's does in FQ III.i.66;
> cp. with "her bright arms about her body dight" in next stanza. "The armour
> of a Christian man" (Letter to Raleigh) is, of course, rightly glossed with
> Romans 13, apart from Ephesians' "whole armour of God," where, at 6:17, "the
> sword of the spirit," gets at the idea, a spiritual sword. A sword that
> glows in an epic might be a thunderbolt or a solar shaft or solar ray in a
> myth, the RC vs. Error episode translated into Apollo vs. Python.
>
>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Dr. David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
>> English Department Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
>> East Carolina University Sparsa et neglecta coegi. -- Claude Fauchet
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> [log in to unmask]
> James Nohrnberg
> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
> Univ. of Virginia
> P.O Box 400121
> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
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