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SIDNEY-SPENSER  October 2011

SIDNEY-SPENSER October 2011

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Subject:

All is less

From:

"James C. Nohrnberg" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sun, 2 Oct 2011 15:32:28 -0400

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text/plain

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--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

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