124-5). Ovid's bird is in fact a parrot, but Baldwin observes that in Metam. strikes some readers as a light-hearted Falstaffian quip on a prim pair,34 and others as a compliment in good faith. The conflict between Reason and Passion, the subject of so many sonnets of the time, found its resolution in an ideal Love guided (as Pietro Bembo says in The Courtier) by Reason. In the first possibility, the praise consists in the suggestion that these lovers surpassed what was wonderful for others; in the second, it consists in their having attained the common state of lovers in spite of special disabilities. . 38. This week's poem, William Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle", was first published in 1601, in an anthology entitled Love's Martyr. Lover and beloved are completely one in the unity of the divine Ratio, where Reason is made perfect by Love. After five introductory stanzas, the sixth informs us "Here the Antheme doth commence," while the last five stanzas not only differ from the rest in length, but are formally introduced"Whereupon it [Reason] made this Threne"and are set off by a subtitle, "THRENOS. Shakespeare, like all the poets of Love 's Martyr, was writing in anticipation of an historical moment of transition. It is of course the Paphian turtle, forever seeking his lost love. There is an effect, even if it seems to come about per accidens rather than to follow from the nature of the love-death. God, Man, nor Woman, but elix'd of all 359-9) and F. T. Prince (op, cit. Fire, it is true, is a Neoplatonic symbol of love: 'Love converts the thing loved into the lover, as the fire, among all the most active elements, is able to convert all the other simple and complex elements into itself.4But the poem's ideal of love is very far indeed from the noble love of Florentine Neoplatonism. With tunes mylde Another contributor, George Chapman, was a careful man who had helped bring Hero and Leander to posthumous birth under the auspices of the Walsingham family; he was not likely to miscue the possibility of profitable self-ingratiation with the reviving Salusburys. To vie strange formes with fancie, yet t'imagine 12 A. Alvarez, "The Phoenix and the Turtle," in Interpretations, ed. Next, follows the imaginative journey called 'A meeting Dialogue-wise betweene Nature, the Phoenix and the Turtle Doue'. Another Damsell, as a precious gemme, Its offspring, seen with the eyes of faith, will be another Phoenix, ensuring the political blessing 'Peace': Let her not wither Lord without increase, See also S.M. The mutual flame is, of course, simultaneously a metaphor of their love, and the an-them is devoted to setting forth the paradoxes involved in a love of such quality as theirs. The praise of the two birds is part of the traditional eulogy of the dead. by John Wain, p. 4. X, 15, p. 491). We need not suppose that Shakespeare studied the Summa Theologiae: this terminology was current in his day, and not only among recusants. by John Wain (London, 1955), p. 4. . Be that as it may, this bird, this unharmonious prefigurement of evil, is excluded from the company of "chaste wings.". O twas a moving Epicidium!20 Skeat) VII, Chaucerian and other Pieces, 409 ff. Against the Princely Eagle in his flight, To deny this one must ignore the context of the poem's first appearance and its integral place in Shakespeare's work. 59-60. None the less, they convince the reader that what they describe is rare and astonishing. or as the exaggeration to be expected in a song of commemorative praise? On the contrary, Shakespeare's Phoenix dies and is gone forever. It is the paradox that was stated already by Meleager (Anth. In Statius' imitation of Ovid (Silvae II 4), the birds sing an anthem at the parrot's funeral-pyre, in which the parrot is symbolically identified with the phoenix: Sent to the shades, but not ingloriously, Further, it is the proud aspiration of the individual who. Nothing is gained by Grosart's attempt to make the word apply to "great proprietors, or the nobility" (p. 243). Word went round among the circle of poets to whom Sir John was known, and they decided to celebrate the knighthood, which had completed his restoration of his family's fortunes, by reusing Chester's theme. Ben Jonson's name occurs twice, each time after two poems. For the ear of the tyrant bird is a gross and insensitive instrument, lacking both the subtle discernment of the Swan and the refined creativity of the Crow. The bird was first associated with Venus in the Pterygion Phoenicis of Laevius, some lines of which have been preserved in the Ars Grammatica of Charisius (IV, 6) and the Saturnalia of Macrobius (III, 8, 3), both available to the Elizabethans. The iguanas make deep dives in the ocean to feed on marine algae. Is the Phoenix lyric to be read as a road sign pointing backwards to the author of the Sonnets, of As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream, but already forecasting the bitter world of King Lear and of the Problem Comedies? In essence, according to Axton, The Phoenix and Turtle symbolizes the relationship between monarch and subject, and, perhaps, represents the poet's own view of Elizabeth. Foule precurrer of the fiend, The line may simultaneously refer to the bird as the fiend's forerunner and the fiend's foul procurer, the pun on "Foule" being fully exploited. Such is the opinion of Carleton Brown, who edited the poems (though not Loves Martyr) of both Chester and Salusbury, giving detailed consideration to the biographies of both men.12. 2 May 2023 , Last Updated on June 8, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. Either was the others mine. Any triumph involved was a matter of the past; nothing now remains. may enter human affairs. And neuer with a poore yong Turtle graced. Mention of the 'sole Arabian tree' indicates but does not confirm that the Phoenix is intended.30 Other candidates are the 'crane, the geaunt, with his trompes soune' (Parlement of Foules, line 344), the cock, the lark, and the nightingale.31 In fact no bird may be particularly signified, only aspects of birds. Heliodora, The Phoenix symbolised constancy and chastity, and Chester's stanza makes it clear that the fire is that of passion finding its true consummation in a pure heart. But since the occasion was a marriage the Phoenix could not be praised alone: it must (whatever the consequent disruption of myth) be provided with a mate; and what better than that recognized symbol of marital constancy, the Turtle-Dove? Nature identifies the ancient founders of noble civilizations by giving an account of 'Britain Monuments' reminiscent of the Faerie Queene, Book II canto 10. The story of Phoenix and Turtle Dove became what its authors had predicted, a remarkable chapter in a book of Britain's Monuments. We entered this world of birds and found them symbolic; ornithological naturalism was irrelevant. Donne introduced a further innovation in describing the two lovers as making up one Phoenix. . Compare the Pelican's contemplation, in Loves Martyr, of the love-death of the Phoenix and the Turtle: O if the rarest creatures of the earth, Let the Priest in Surples white, Probably Pembroke was seeking to restore the balance between rival factions in North Wales.14 Clearly John Salusbury was succeeding, by means other than the indefatigable begetting of a large family, in his efforts to revive the house of Salusbury; and on 14 June 1601 the Queen set the seal on his success by conferring on him the honour of knighthood.15 The Salusbury Phoenix had assuredly risen again from the ashes of Thomas's disgrace and death. Pal. To use Coleridge's terms, the poem has more than usual emotionand at the same time more than usual order. .," parallels the first; so the fifth, addressing the crow directly ("And thou . Salusbury's appointment, though not of much importance any longer, at least showed that he had regained the royal favour, and two years later, on the recommendation of the Earl of Pembroke as Lord President of the Council in Wales, he became Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire. But linked in binding bands This is not puzzling if one remembers the age's continuing pre-occupation with the theory of the monarch's two bodies, single nature's double name. One is selfish and degrading; the other is sterile, cautious, and dogmatic. It is clear that the arguments posed in modern re-examination of Shakespeare's Phoenix are not to be resolved in the light of literary tradition and conventions. The question of Shakespeare's use of traditional forms has also To eternitie doth rest. The startling tunefulness of the Phoenix, together with the appropriateness of the 'defunctiue Musicke', the customary dirges that round life off, are the positive values by which we judge the distasteful 'shriking'. It is, I feel, by the light of this last line that we must interpret the poem. 100-8) gives a broad survey of the classical, Platonic, and Petrarchan influences, while J. V. Cunningham tries to show that the central part, or anthem, reflects the medieval scholastic refinementand consequent displacementof Platonic (specifically Plotinian) thought. The Turtle by him never stird, The excluded fowls of "tyrant wing" stand in direct contrast to "chaste wings," an opposition suggesting that the purity required goes beyond mere sexual continence to rule out those who are despotic or coercive in any social relationship. The threne ends as the poem began, with a clause governed by "let," but a vastly different clause it is. Moving on, Chester next identifies Dove and Phoenix in an Elizabethan context. 10The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (ed. But, as Heinrich Straumann observes, at about the time of the publication of the poem, Shakespeare's belief in the human (predominantly female) embodiment of such qualities as beauty, truth, and 'grace in all simplicity' seems to falter; figures such as Ophelia, Cressida, Desdemona, and Cordelia can for various reasons no longer offer that inspired confidence in love that the heroines of the great comedies optimistically promised.25 1601 seems an appropriate date for a poem which, while still pledging faith in an ideal love, despairs of its earthly incarnation. Word Count: 420. In the third stanza, the poet temporarily turns from the symbolic use of bird voices to the symbolism of power and rank. When, for instance, Reason says that the two birds made their own deaths, instead of making a nest in which they could brood'Death is now the Phoenix nest'we know that the line can also mean that death has become the beginning of the Phoenix's new life. Figurative language refers to words or phrases that are meaningful, but not literally true. The poet prays for himself, his fellow subjects and for his Queen; they are all earthly doves, mortal, subject to imperfections of heart, and he calls for divine grace to free them from the serpent Envy, to transform them to the Paphian Dove, that they may share 'perfect troth'. And this suggests that such a relationship is possible only in the supra-human order. Each of these must be acknowledged and only a reverent, loving response will sustain the miracle. A pair of poems by 'Vatum Chorus' is succeeded by a pair by 'Ignoto'. Yf that my lines be blunt, or harsh, or ill, In the Summons, the two incompatible responses to death dramatize a conflict similar to the Neoplatonic idea of a noble and a vulgar love. (So made such mirrors, and such spies, Chaste love is a new level of individual consciousness. As great in admiration as herself, The imperatives are impelling, with the long vowels of "lowdest lay" in the first line setting the slow, solemn pace. As a working principle I feel I cannot do better than to quote J. The imperatives'Let. the emphasis is on the consummation of the Phoenix's virginal nuptials in death rather than on any personal relationship of the Queen's'.5 Marie Axton, applying the ideas of Ernst Kantorowicz's book, The King's Two Bodies, brings attention back to Shakespeare's poem and argues that the key relationship of The Phoenix and the Turtle is that of the Queen to her subjects, both parties being represented by either bird.6 Her argument corresponds effectively to the two-inone strategy which carries the poem's central thrust and gains, like Watson's, in not tying the Queen to the fate of a particular contemporary.
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