Edmund Spenser

Amoretti 34• sea voyage metaphor

• conceit: love ~ sea journey

• lover ~ ship

• mistress ~ North Star

• grief, sadness ~ cloud or storm

Amoretti 34• sea voyage metaphor

• conceit: love ~ sea journey (danger)

• lover ~ ship (lost)

• mistress ~ North Star (bright, constant)

• grief, sadness ~ cloud or storm

• abab bcbc cdcd ee

• idea 1: the ship that sails the dangerous ocean without direction and possibly lost because the guiding star had been hidden due to the storm

• idea 2: the speaker is the abject lover who suffers from the pang of unrequited love for the mistress is like the lost ship sailing through the dangerous ocean

• idea 3 (volta or turn): the lover believes that the mistress will look at him (that the star will shine on him) with love again, and he will no longer be sad (like when the ship has safely sailed through the storm)

• conclusion: the speaker accepts the position/role of abject lover

The Ptolemaic Model of the Universe

Primum Mobile or the Prime Mover

cesspool of the universe (mutability, subject to change)

movement of the heavenly bodies generates the music of the sphere

Fixed stars (perfection, unchanging)

The Ptolemaic Model of the Universe

more perfect

less perfectsublunary

superlunary

Amoretti 54• play metaphor

• conceit: love ~ play, theatre

• lover ~ actor

• mistress ~ audience

• happiness ~ comedy

• sorrow ~ tragedy

• abab bcbc cdcd ee

• idea 1: comparison of love/life to play, himself to actor, and his mistress to audience

• idea 2: comparison of his happiness in love to comedy, and his suffering from love to tragedy

• idea 3 (volta or turn): the mistress is not an ideal audience; her reaction is very peculiar: sometimes she just looks on indifferently, other times her reaction is the very opposite of what’s going on the stage (i.e., she is strange or “unnatural”)

• conclusion: the mistress is cold and unfeeling; she is no longer human but a stone (i.e., she has no soul); by accusing her of having no heart, the speaker refuses to play the role of abject, obedient lover any longer—anti-Petrarchan element)

God

angel

man

animals

vegetables

minerals

The Chain of Being

Perfection

pure intellect or rational soul

rational soul and sensible soul

sensible soul (having five senses)

vegetative soul (having no sense, but is capable of reproduction)

no soul

more perfect

less perfect

Amoretti 79• abab bcbc cdcd ee

• idea 1: two kinds of beauty: physical beauty (through the eyes) and spiritual beauty (through the soul or intellect)

• idea 2: spiritual beauty (“true fair” in line 3) is the only valuable kind since it is permanent and not subject to change

• idea 3: spiritual beauty comes from God

• conclusion: perfection begets perfection; God, being perfect, only makes or creates perfect things; everything else fades away (his love for her will ultimately unite him with God)

God

general beauty

intellectual/spiritual beauty

physical beauty

The Ladder of Love

end

means

The Idea Itself

from the particular to the universal

the cause of outward appearance

through the eyes

God

general beauty

intellectual/spiritual beauty

physical beauty

The Ladder of Love

end

means

The original source of all beauties

all other beauties in the creation, form of beauty (not only one beautiful mistress)

her virtuous mind (essence)

the beautiful mistress (appearance)

Neoplatonic ideal of love• Love is the love for the thing one does not possess.

• The end of love is to be one or become one with what one desires.

• The more impossible the physical union between the lover and his mistress is, the more he longs to unite instead with her soul.

• The end of love is to eventually unite with the original source of all beauties (i.e., God).

• Consolation of unrequited love: unrequited love for the beautiful mistress leads to love of higher forms of beauty.

• Reconciliation between love and religion.(for the conduct of courtier in love, please see Sir Thomas Hoby’s The Courtier (translated from Count Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano) https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/pdf/27636_16u17Hoby.1_10.tp.pdf; for Plato’s idea of love as explained in Symposium, please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_epistemology#An_example:_love_and_wisdom)

https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/pdf/27636_16u17Hoby.1_10.tp.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_epistemology#An_example:_love_and_wisdom