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"Strange showes": Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities

"Strange showes": Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities by Jenny Walicek DMuNDSpenser's"visionsoftheworldsvanitie"waspublished in1591asoneofseveralpoemsinhisComplaints,whichincludes sometranslationsandoriginalworksoftensharingclassicalmotifs.Itisavisionarypoemaddressedtoa"faireLadie"andconsisting oftwelvestanzas,nineofwhicharefablesaboutalarge,vainanimal orthingplaguedbyasmallone.Theminimalscholarlyattentionthe poemreceivedoveritsfirstthreecenturiescanbesummedupinW.L. Renwick'sstatementthat"thesevisions...[are]parablesofthelimitationsofpower[and]havelittlebuthistoricalinterestforus.Thesingle ideatheyencloseisobviousenough;Icanfindnolineofconnexionbetweentheimages,exceptthattheyallconcernanimals,asifSpenserhad been reading his Aesop." He even cautioned against deeper readings ofanyoftheComplaintspoems,notingthattheirprimaryfocusisthe "fleetingnessofstrengthandpowerandbeauty."Thisscholarlystance hascalcifiedinthelasthundredyears.WilliamSipple,inhis1984Spenserianreferenceguide,observesthat"thebulkofthescholarshiponthe individualpoems[inComplaints]concernsSpenser'svariedexploration ofthethemesoftheworld'svanity."RichardMcCabe,commentatingin 1999,findsin"visions"merelya"seriesofminiaturebeastfablesemblematicallyillustratingtheinsecurityofpowerbutdesignedtolead, intheclimacticallypositionedsonnet11,toaperceptionofthevalueof `meanthings'orlowlypersons,"andin2001AnneLakePrescottbriefly All quotations from "visions of the worlds vanitie" (13), The Shepheardes Calender, Amoretti,andothershortworksbySpenserarefromEdmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems, ed.RichardMcCabe(London:Penguin,1999),andwillbecitedparentheticallywithinthe textbylinenumber. 304 ©2008TheuniversityofNorthCarolinaPress Jenny Walicek assessesthepoemasasonnetsequencethat"recountsvariousinstances ofsmallcreaturesthatbringdownthemighty." In1957,however,AlfredW.Satterthwaitecited"generalcriticalagreement that the Visions of the worlds vanitie is `unimportant and derivative'"butallowedthereismeritinFrancescoviglione'stheorythatthe poemmaybeinterpretedasreferringtothedemiseoftheChurchof Rome.Henoted,though,thatifthetheoryweretrue"onemightexpect tofindinthesonnetsthemselvessomeclearindication,whetherexplicit orsymbolical,ofpropagandisticintention.Onesearchesinvain,however,foranyimpliedconnectionbetweenthe[fabled]examplesofpride andtheRomanChurch." Satterthwaiteandothercriticsmayhavesearchedinvain,butacloser readingofeachbeastfabledoesindeedrevealexactlysuchconnections. Eachstanzaisdenselypackedwithhighlyspecificallusions--gleaned from such Spenserian sources as Plutarch and john Lydgate--to two parallel,chronologicalseriesofmightyindividuals:themostnotorious leaders of the Roman Empire and of the Roman Catholic Church. In these fables we find that thevain, powerful beasts or things connote pre-Fall emperors and pre-Reformation popes, and the small, seemingly weak creatures represent the individuals of lesser stature who were responsible for their downfalls. For instance, the fifth stanza's seamonster,stabbedintheneckbyaswordfish,suggeststhemonster Nero,whowasalsokilledbyastabwoundtotheneck;inparallel,it may also connote the monstrous Borgia pope Alexander vI, vociferouslycondemned by the "sword of the Lord" Savonarola.The eighth stanza's pompous, tower-decorated elephant, downed bya mere ant, evokesthegifttoPopeLeoxofatower-bearingelephantwhichsoon died; the parasite-afflicted pope's excessive mourning of his beloved beastgaveMartinLutheramplefodderforhisfirstpamphlets.Basedon anabundanceofsimilarallusionsandthechronologyofbothparallels, Iwillarguethat"visions"isfarmorethanadesultorylamentabout vanityortheephemeralnatureofpower.ItisalsoapropheticcommentaryonspecificleaderswhoseflawsmadethemandtheirrespectiveinRenwick,ed.,Complaints [by] Edmund Spenser.(London:TheScholartisPress,1928), 255,184;Sipple,Edmund Spenser, 1900-1936, A Reference Guide.(Boston:G.K.Hall,1984), xv;McCabe,ed.,Edmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems(London:Penguin,1999),637;Prescott,"Spenser'sShorterPoems,"inThe Cambridge Companion to Spenser,ed.AndrewHadfield(Cambridge:CambridgeuniversityPress,2001),150. Satterthwaite,"MoralvisioninSpenser,DuBellay,andRonsard,"Comparative Literature9,no.2(1957):137­39;viglione,La http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Studies in Philology University of North Carolina Press

"Strange showes": Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities

Walicek, Jenny.
Studies in Philology , Volume 105 (3) – Jul 17, 2008
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Abstract

by Jenny Walicek DMuNDSpenser's"visionsoftheworldsvanitie"waspublished in1591asoneofseveralpoemsinhisComplaints,whichincludes sometranslationsandoriginalworksoftensharingclassicalmotifs.Itisavisionarypoemaddressedtoa"faireLadie"andconsisting oftwelvestanzas,nineofwhicharefablesaboutalarge,vainanimal orthingplaguedbyasmallone.Theminimalscholarlyattentionthe poemreceivedoveritsfirstthreecenturiescanbesummedupinW.L. Renwick'sstatementthat"thesevisions...[are]parablesofthelimitationsofpower[and]havelittlebuthistoricalinterestforus.Thesingle ideatheyencloseisobviousenough;Icanfindnolineofconnexionbetweentheimages,exceptthattheyallconcernanimals,asifSpenserhad been reading his Aesop." He even cautioned against deeper readings ofanyoftheComplaintspoems,notingthattheirprimaryfocusisthe "fleetingnessofstrengthandpowerandbeauty."Thisscholarlystance hascalcifiedinthelasthundredyears.WilliamSipple,inhis1984Spenserianreferenceguide,observesthat"thebulkofthescholarshiponthe individualpoems[inComplaints]concernsSpenser'svariedexploration ofthethemesoftheworld'svanity."RichardMcCabe,commentatingin 1999,findsin"visions"merelya"seriesofminiaturebeastfablesemblematicallyillustratingtheinsecurityofpowerbutdesignedtolead, intheclimacticallypositionedsonnet11,toaperceptionofthevalueof `meanthings'orlowlypersons,"andin2001AnneLakePrescottbriefly All quotations from "visions of the worlds vanitie" (13), The Shepheardes Calender, Amoretti,andothershortworksbySpenserarefromEdmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems, ed.RichardMcCabe(London:Penguin,1999),andwillbecitedparentheticallywithinthe textbylinenumber. 304 ©2008TheuniversityofNorthCarolinaPress Jenny Walicek assessesthepoemasasonnetsequencethat"recountsvariousinstances ofsmallcreaturesthatbringdownthemighty." In1957,however,AlfredW.Satterthwaitecited"generalcriticalagreement that the Visions of the worlds vanitie is `unimportant and derivative'"butallowedthereismeritinFrancescoviglione'stheorythatthe poemmaybeinterpretedasreferringtothedemiseoftheChurchof Rome.Henoted,though,thatifthetheoryweretrue"onemightexpect tofindinthesonnetsthemselvessomeclearindication,whetherexplicit orsymbolical,ofpropagandisticintention.Onesearchesinvain,however,foranyimpliedconnectionbetweenthe[fabled]examplesofpride andtheRomanChurch." Satterthwaiteandothercriticsmayhavesearchedinvain,butacloser readingofeachbeastfabledoesindeedrevealexactlysuchconnections. Eachstanzaisdenselypackedwithhighlyspecificallusions--gleaned from such Spenserian sources as Plutarch and john Lydgate--to two parallel,chronologicalseriesofmightyindividuals:themostnotorious leaders of the Roman Empire and of the Roman Catholic Church. In these fables we find that thevain, powerful beasts or things connote pre-Fall emperors and pre-Reformation popes, and the small, seemingly weak creatures represent the individuals of lesser stature who were responsible for their downfalls. For instance, the fifth stanza's seamonster,stabbedintheneckbyaswordfish,suggeststhemonster Nero,whowasalsokilledbyastabwoundtotheneck;inparallel,it may also connote the monstrous Borgia pope Alexander vI, vociferouslycondemned by the "sword of the Lord" Savonarola.The eighth stanza's pompous, tower-decorated elephant, downed bya mere ant, evokesthegifttoPopeLeoxofatower-bearingelephantwhichsoon died; the parasite-afflicted pope's excessive mourning of his beloved beastgaveMartinLutheramplefodderforhisfirstpamphlets.Basedon anabundanceofsimilarallusionsandthechronologyofbothparallels, Iwillarguethat"visions"isfarmorethanadesultorylamentabout vanityortheephemeralnatureofpower.ItisalsoapropheticcommentaryonspecificleaderswhoseflawsmadethemandtheirrespectiveinRenwick,ed.,Complaints [by] Edmund Spenser.(London:TheScholartisPress,1928), 255,184;Sipple,Edmund Spenser, 1900-1936, A Reference Guide.(Boston:G.K.Hall,1984), xv;McCabe,ed.,Edmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems(London:Penguin,1999),637;Prescott,"Spenser'sShorterPoems,"inThe Cambridge Companion to Spenser,ed.AndrewHadfield(Cambridge:CambridgeuniversityPress,2001),150. Satterthwaite,"MoralvisioninSpenser,DuBellay,andRonsard,"Comparative Literature9,no.2(1957):137­39;viglione,La

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Published: Jul 17, 2008

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