Reading the Allegorical Intertext: Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton

449 Pages·2008·3.28 MB·English

by  Judith H. Anderson

READING THE
ALLEGORICAL INTERTEXT
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READING THE
ALLEGORICAL INTERTEXT
Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton
(cid:1)
Judith H. Anderson
FordhamUniversityPress
NewYork 2008
Copyright(cid:1)2008FordhamUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin
aretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans—electronic,
mechanical,photocopy,recording,oranyother—exceptforbriefquotations
inprintedreviews,withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Anderson,JudithH.
Readingtheallegoricalintertext:Chaucer,Spenser,Shakespeare,
Milton/JudithH.Anderson.—1sted.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-8232-2847-8(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Englishliterature—Historyandcriticism—Theory,etc. 2.Spenser,
Edmund,1552?–1599.Faeriequeene. 3.Chaucer,Geoffrey,d.1400.
Canterburytales. 4.Shakespeare,William,1564–1616.KingLear.
5.Milton,John,1608–1674—Criticismandinterpretation. 6.Inter-
textuality. 7.Symbolisminliterature. 8.Influence(Literary,artistic,
etc.) I.Title.
PR21.A85 2008
820.9(cid:1)15—dc22
2008003833
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Firstedition
For Sarah Massey-Warren,
who will read from within the fullness of
the intertext
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Contents
PriorPublication ix
Introduction:ReadingtheAllegoricalIntertext 1
Part 1: Allegorical Reflections ofTheCanterbury
TalesinTheFaerieQueene
1. Chaucer’sandSpenser’sReflexiveNarrators 27
2. WhatComesafterChaucer’sButinTheFaerieQueene 42
3. ‘‘Prickingontheplaine’’:Spenser’sIntertextual
BeginningsandEndings 54
4. Allegory,Irony,Despair:Chaucer’sPardoner’sand
Franklin’sTalesandSpenser’sFaerieQueene,BooksIand
III 61
5. Eumnestes’‘‘immortallscrine’’:Spenser’sArchive 79
6. Spenser’sUseofChaucer’sMelibee:Allegory,Narrative,
History 91
Part 2: Agency, Allegory, and History within the
Spenserian Intertext
7. Spenser’sMuiopotmosandChaucer’sNun’sPriest’sTale 109
8. ArthurandArgante:ParodyingtheIdealVision 126
9. Chaucer’sParliamentofFowlsandRefractionsofaVeiled
VenusinTheFaerieQueene 135
10. TheAntiquitiesofFairylandandIreland 154
11. Betteramischiefthananinconvenience:‘‘Thesaiyingself’’in
Spenser’sViewofthePresentStateofIreland 168
Part 3: Spenserian Allegory in the Intertexts of
Shakespeare and Milton
12. TheConspiracyofRealism:ImpasseandVisioninThe
FaerieQueeneandShakespeare’sKingLear 183
vii
viii Contents
13. VenusandAdonis:Spenser,Shakespeare,andtheFormsof
Desire 201
14. FlowersandBoars:SurmountingSexualBinarismin
Spenser’sGardenofAdonis 214
15. AndrocentrismandAcrasianFantasiesintheBowerof
Bliss 224
16. BeyondBinarism:Eros/DeathandVenus/MarsinAntony
andCleopatraandTheFaerieQueene 239
17. PatienceandPassioninShakespeareandMilton 259
18. ‘‘RealorAllegoric’’inHerbertandMilton:Thinking
throughDifference 272
19. SpenserandMilton:TheMind’sAllegoricalPlace 280
Notes 321
Index 423
Prior Publication
(in wholeorin substantialpart)
‘‘NarrativeReflections:Re-envisagingthePoetinTheCanterburyTalesand
The Faerie Queene,’’ in Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance, ed. Theresa
M. Krier (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), 87–105: now
entitled‘‘Chaucer’sandSpenser’sReflexiveNarrators.’’
‘‘What Comesafter Chaucer’sBut: AdversativeConstructions in Spenser,’’
in Acts of Interpretation: The Text in Its Contexts, ed. Mary J. Carruthers
and Elizabeth D. Kirk (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim, 1982), 105–18: now
entitled‘‘WhatComesafterChaucer’sButinTheFaerieQueene.’’
‘‘‘A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine’: The Chaucerian Connec-
tion,’’ English Literary Renaissance, 15 (1985), 166–74: now entitled
‘‘‘Pricking on the plaine’: Spenser’s Intertextual Beginnings and End-
ings’’((cid:1)Blackwell/Wiley).
‘‘Allegory, Irony, Despair: Chaucer’s Pardoner’s and Franklin’s Tales and
Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Books I and III,’’ in Textual Conversations in the
Renaissance:Ethics,Authors,andTechnologies,ed.ZacharyLesserandBen-
edictRobinson(Aldershot,Hampshire,U.K.:Ashgate,2006),71–89.
‘‘‘Myn auctour’: Spenser’s Enabling Fiction and Eumnestes’ ‘immortall
scrine,’’’inUnfoldedTales:StudiesinRenaissanceRomance,ed.GeorgeM.
Logan and Gordon Teskey (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1989), 16–31: now entitled ‘‘Eumnestes’ ‘immortall scrine’: Spenser’s
Archive.’’
‘‘Prudenceand HerSilence: Spenser’sUseof Chaucer’sMelibee,’’ ELH, 62
(1995), 29–46: now entitled ‘‘Spenser’s Use of Chaucer’s Melibee: Alle-
gory,Narrative,History’’((cid:1)JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress).
‘‘‘Natworthaboterflye’:MuiopotmosandTheNun’sPriest’sTale,’’Journalof
Medievaland RenaissanceStudies,1 (1971), 89–106:now entitled ‘‘Spens-
er’s Muiopotmos and Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale’’ ((cid:1) Duke University
Press).
‘‘Arthur,Argante,andtheIdealVision:AnExerciseinSpeculationandPar-
ody,’’ in The Passing of Arthur: New Essays in Arthurian Tradition, ed.
ix