--But then there's "D U Z, D U Z, D U Z does everything!"
Randall Jarrell, thou should'st be living at this hour.
Cheers, Jim
On Sun, 2 Oct 2011 11:49:54 -0700
Harry Berger Jr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> All, Jim, All. Less foam. Easier on your inner duds.
>
>
> On Oct 2, 2011, at 11:30 AM, James C. Nohrnberg wrote:
>
>> It's the occurrence of Argante's name in the (dire)
>>situation at the end of Layamon's/Lawman's Brut that's
>>suggestive--the fatally wounded and dying Arthur is
>>speaking to his designated heir/legatee the boy
>>Constantine. I have Eugene Mason's serviceable
>>archaic-modern prose version to hand:
>>
>> "... I give thee here my kingdom, and defend thou my
>>Britons ever in thy life, and maintain them [sic] all the
>>laws that have stood in my days, and all the good laws
>>that in Uther's days stood. And I will fare to Avalun,
>>to the fairest of all maidens, to Argante the queen, an
>>elf most fair, and she shall make my wounds all sound;
>>make me whole with healing draughts. And afterwards I
>>will come again to my kingdom, and dwell with the Britons
>>with mickle joy." Even with the words there approached
>>from the sea that was a short boat, floating with the
>>waves; and two women therein, wondrously formed; and they
>>took Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, and laid him
>>softly down, and forth they gan depart. Then was it
>>accomplished that Merlin whilom said, that mickle care
>>should be of Arthur's departure. (Layamon's Brut: p.
>>264 in Everyman's Lib., Arthurian Chronicles.)
>>
>> If Avalon, reached by boat, is a sempiternal isle of the
>>dead or lost, then compare the situation in store for the
>>Squire of Dames, as the cougar-like Argante's prey in FQ
>>III.vii:
>>
>> But over all the countrie she did raunge
>> To seeke young men to quench her flaming thrust,
>> And feed her fancy with delightfull chaunge:
>> Whom so she fittest findes to serve her lust
>> Through her maine strength, in which she most doth
>>trust,
>> She with her bringes unto a secret Ile,
>> Where in eternall bondage dye he must,
>> Or be the vassal of her pleasures vile,
>> And in all shamefull sort himselfe with her defile.
>>(Stanza 50)
>>
>> Thus Spenser chooses legendary names for both twins, one
>>from Arthurian legend, or the matter of Briton, and the
>>other from Charlegmagne's peerage, or the matter of
>>France. (I.e., phallic Ollyphant suggests Roland's
>>(elephant-) horn Olifant.) And this is so even if
>>Argante is "A corruption of the name Morgan, that of
>>Arthur's faery sister," and Arthur's conveyance to Avalon
>>is ultimately a Breton tradition. (So Roger Sherman
>>Loomis.) The last word of The Brute is "Bruttes" -- re
>>Arthur's return "to help the Brits," we might translate.
>> Argante is being chased by Britomart.
>>
>> [Layamon, as I think I've somewhere elsewhere noted,
>>also provides a kind of etiological tale for the name
>>Uther Pendragon that gives us a possible ultimate or
>>remote source for the Welsh hood ornament on Arthur's
>>helmet. This relic-like effigy (or two such) is
>>manufactured in honor of Merlin by Uther: "...ever since
>>they called Uther, who for a standard bare the dragon,
>>the name they laid on him, that was Uther Pendragon;
>>Pendragon in British, Dragon's-head in English." (P. 168,
>>EL vol. cit.) Uther's man Gorlois is also introduced
>>hereabouts.]
>>
>> -- But back to Prof. N.'s Sunday Morning Service, at the
>>altar of the Maytag with a chalice of Cheer.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 2 Oct 2011 11:52:06 -0400
>> Anne Prescott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> Dear list--for a note to the new Norton (yes! at last! a
>>>preliminary MS is
>>> due in four weeks and may even make it)--is there any
>>>chance that Spenser
>>> could have read Layamon? Or is the latter's queen
>>>Argante's name just one of
>>> those overlaps and coincidences? Argante's name does
>>>recall brightness and
>>> speed (now I know where the Argo may have got its name,
>>>although it hardly
>>> was the "white streak" that I'm told is what the Greeks
>>>called our "blue
>>> streek"). My classicist sister, whom I consulted on the
>>>Greek, says that the
>>> name reminds her of Narnia's White Queen but faster
>>>moving. For me Argante
>>> is too hot for that. I like the thought of her, though,
>>>as a sort of comet
>>> swooping down on incautious young men.
>>> Andrew Hadfield and I are cutting back on
>>>interpretative notes (it's a
>>> new world since the Third Edition with more Google and
>>>more ways to check up
>>> on who says what about which passage), avoiding
>>>identifying characters
>>> before Spenser does, something that requires heroic
>>>self-restraint, but we
>>> do want to give as much basic information as we think
>>>the kids who might use
>>> the edition would need. And we've added MHT and RR,
>>>dropping some to make
>>> room. Sorry about the drops.
>>> So: any reason to think Spenser might have known
>>>about Layamon's nice
>>> Argante (well, as a version of Morgan she may be only
>>>sort of nice)? Or even
>>> have heard of Layamon--and I do know I'm spelling him in
>>>an ignorant modern
>>> American way. All suggestion welcome, on or off list.
>>>Anne.
>>
>> [log in to unmask]
>> James Nohrnberg
>> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
>> Univ. of Virginia
>> P.O Box 400121
>> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
|