Bill,
I've no answer to your question about other writers who use the form
"Mart" for Mars -- it is weird, indeed -- but it makes me wonder in
tandem about the odd language of the proem to 1.3, which describes how
Una (or perhaps the Lion) "Marrs blind Devotions Mart." How does that
play out in the Spenserian echo chamber?
Ken
On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 4:49 PM, william oram <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm about to start a discussion of the language of the proem to book I, and
> I wondered if anyone else has come across a writer who refers to Mars as
> "Mart." It's easy enough to see how Spenser might have created that form of
> the name, but is he playfully coining it for himself, or is there a
> tradition of calling Mars "Mart" that I don't know of? Elsewhere in the
> poetry he calls Mars "Mars." Bill Oram
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