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
Primum Mobile or the Prime Mover Fixed stars (perfection, unchanging) cesspool of the universe (mutability, subject to change) movement of the heavenly bodies generates the music of the sphere The Ptolemaic Model of the Universe
more perfect superlunary sublunary less perfect The Ptolemaic Model of the Universe
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)
more perfect less perfect God angel man animals vegetables minerals 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 The Chain of Being
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)
end God general beauty The Idea Itself from the particular to the universal means intellectual/spiritual beauty the cause of outward appearance physical beauty through the eyes The Ladder of Love
end God The original source of all beauties general beauty all other beauties in the creation, form of beauty (not only one beautiful mistress) means intellectual/spiritual beauty her virtuous mind (essence) physical beauty the beautiful mistress (appearance) The Ladder of Love
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)