War In Spencer's Amoretti
October 1, 2002
The eighty-nine
sonnets that compose Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti emphasize his interest in the beauty of human relationships.
His ideals of beauty drive the sonnet sequence in a search for peace
and acceptance (De Vere 2). Spenser’s
devotion to form produces a clear rhetorical structure consistent with the
liturgical calendar of the Church of England.
The sonnets, “were written to correspond with consecutive dates, beginning
on Wednesday 23 January 1594 and running, with one interval, through to Friday
17 May 1594,” sequentially coinciding with the scriptural readings for each
day (Larsen 3). Beyond this enthusiasm
for form, Spenser uses the sonnet sequence to tell the story of his own courtship
with Elizabeth Boyle (or Elizabeth Peace) (Jones 336). Spenser employs the subtle, yet rigid structure
of the liturgical calendar while addressing the pain and torment of his courtship
of
The conceit
of capture and siege, which appears within the first sonnet of the Amoretti, contributes to the war motif
that appears throughout the sonnet sequence.
Spenser writes, “Happy ye leaves when as those lilly hands,/ Which hold
my life in their dead doing might,/ Shall handle you and hold in loves soft
bands,/ Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight” (Spenser 343). Within these lines, “captivity is clearly
metaphoric,” representing the ultimate goal of the
Spenser associates the pursuit of love as war later in the Amoretti with sonnets LVII and LXIX. He writes, “High time it is, this warre now ended were:/ Which I no lenger can endure to sue,/ Ne your incessant battry more to beare” (Spenser 372). Here, one clearly sees that Spenser refers to his pursuit of his mistress, his desire for her mutual love, as a war. Further, the use of ‘sue’ to mean follow implies to both pursue and prosecute. Spenser identifies courtship with a warfare that he wants to end. By sonnet LXIX, the tone has turned to one of reflection. He addresses the subject of poetic immortality through an examination of the spoils of war. He records the, “labour and long toyle,” that reveals love as his captor (Spenser 379). Just as the spoils of war commemorate the battles of war; his sonnets will immortalize him and his war of courtship.
Spenser not
only uses war to describe the tormented courtship, but also addresses his
mistress in military terms. Spenser
clearly evokes the Petrarchan conceit of the “sweet warrior” as he describes,
addresses, and complains to his cruel beauty (Jones 339). As one reads the Amoretti, the Canzoniere’s
influence is obvious. Petrarch’s
twenty-first sonnet addresses Laura, “I have offered you my heart a thousand
times/ O my sweet warrior, only to make peace/ with your lovely eyes: but it
does not please you/ with your noble mind, to stoop so low” (Petrarch). This sweet warrior with lovely eyes closely resembles
Spenser’s
Reason rules sonnet XXXVI as Spenser directs his thoughts to the lady who he loves. He reminds her, “But when ye have shewed all extremityes,/ Then thinke how little glory ye have gained: By slaying him, whose lyfe though ye despise,/ Mote have your life in hoonour long maintayned” (Spenser 362). Here, Spenser makes a logic-based argument in order to defend himself against the cruel torment of his mistress. He points out the lack of glory in hurting the man who honors her regardless of her despising him. His argument attempts to justify his worthiness for peace and love. Further, this statement emphasizes the lady’s being either oblivious or unfeeling. The unfeeling and cruel nature of Spenser’s love continues to emerge in terms of tyranny and captivity. He clearly spends much time using war to describe the woman herself.
The lady’s
cruelty is undoubtedly a matter of perspective.
The association between fairness and goodness, firmly established within
the Amoretti, develops as a result of
the constant conflict between kindness and cruelty (Gibbs 74). Just as Spenser devotes sonnet XXXVI to a
reasonable argument in defense of fair treatment, he directly speaks to his
love in sonnet LVII expressing his weakness and pain. He, again, evokes rational thought to ask,
“Ye cruell one, what glory can be got/ In slaying him that would live gladly
yours?” (Spenser 373). In this argument,
the reader again sees Spenser’s view of his mistress as cruel. Yet, he continues to seek her love and
acceptance. One of the most striking
Petrarchan martial references lies within this sonnet as Spenser asks, “Sweet
warriour when shall I have peace with you?” (Spenser 372). This first line of his defense echoes the
second line of Petrarch’s twenty-first sonnet.
Beyond the concept of rational argument and the literal reference to his
‘Sweet warrior,’ Spenser writes of his
Expanding on his mistress’ cruelty, Spenser focuses on her specific weapons. The Petrarchan conceit of eyes as weapons permeates throughout the Amoretti. In sonnet X, Spenser writes, “See how the Tyrannesse doth joy to see/ The huge massacres which her eyes do make:/ And humbled harts brings captives unto thee/ That thou of them mayst mightie vengeance take” (Spenser 348). These military images serve well to emphasize the torment that her eyes generate. The eyes become “an engine of war” (Johnson 89). Sonnet XII begins with Spenser seeking “her hart-thrilling eies” (Spenser 349). This idea of her eyes as ‘hart-thrilling’ recalls the idea of heart-capturing and further, the concept of the eyes as forces, which lie waiting to ambush the lover’s heart. This ambush occurs later within the sonnet when, “A wicked ambush which lay hidden long/ In the close covert of her guilefull eyen,/ Thence breaking forth did thick about me throng” (Spenser 349). The ambush from her eyes captivates him. Notably, he examines the eyes separately from the mistress. They, alone, perform the capture and the ambush. Thus, the fragmentation Petrarch performs on Laura arises.
Sonnet
XXXVI maintains the relationship between the mistress’ eyes with
captivity. Spenser writes, “Is there no
meanes for me to purchace peace,/ Or make agreement with her thrilling eyes:/
But that their cruelty doth still increace,/
And dayly more augment my miseryes” (Spenser 362). As Spenser tries to make peace with the eyes,
he furthers the fragmentation of his
Love as war and the woman as warrior are prominent notions throughout the sequence. While the poet as warrior occurs less, it is yet another use of the war conceit to address the torment of courtship. In sonnet XIV, the poet addresses his own military strength. He writes, “Retourne agayne my forces late dismayd,/ Unto the siege by you abandon’d quite,” in a discussion of upon his own physical strength (Spenser 350). His artillery comes in the form of, “Playnts, prayers, vowes, ruth, sorrow, and dismay,” in contrast to the lady whose eyes serve as her weapons. Sonnet LII also shows Spenser in the terms of a warrior. Here, however, he has failed. He is the, “prisoner led away with heavy hart,/ Despoyld of warlike armes and knowen shield.” Spenser admits, “I now my selfe a prisoner yield,/ To sorrow and to solitary paine” (Spenser 370). Love has stripped him of his weapons. He has become a prisoner of solitude just as Petrarch considered himself caught in an “earthly prison” in his eighty-sixth sonnet (Petrarch). These poetic demonstrations of the lover’s failure focus on the attempts “to dominate and possess woman’s will by art, by magic, by sensory illusions, and threats – by all instruments of culture except and normal means of persuasion” (Johnson 36). While Spenser does use logical arguments to defend himself against the lover’s rejection, when he assesses his own military might, the reader sees hopelessness and distress. Here, one can see the function of the sonnets as “a means of self-realization…he treats the theme of love’s progress concomitantly with the theme of a poet’s progress” (Johnson 13). Thus, the poet as warrior appears as Spenser fighting against himself and his own failure. Further, the poet as warrior essentially appears as the poet as prisoner.
Throughout
the constant allusions to war in terms of captivity, bondage, weapons, and
tyranny, Spenser clearly keeps one goal in mind: peace. His seeking peace is the ultimate trial as he
complains to, honors, and laments his lover.
Spenser begins sonnet XI writing, “Dayly when I do seeke and sew for
peace” (Spenser 348). This daily
challenge to find peace relies on
Success and
peace lie in the captivity of both the poet and the mistress. This idea, carried from the first sonnet, drives
sonnet LXV. In this complex sonnet,
Spenser likens
When the
poet’s peace comes with the captivity of the lady, questions surrounding gender
reversal within the sonnet sequence confront the reader. By describing
Through
examining the progression of the use of the Petrarchan conceit of captivity,
one sees that Spenser utilizes war to evaluate love itself, the lady as
warrior, the lady’s weapons, him as failed warrior, and the search for
peace. Peace, in the end, comes at the
expense of freedom. However, A. Leigh Deneef argues that Spenser justifies this captivity as, “an opportunity for speaking metaphorically rather than a
condition of semantic reduction” (Deneef 70).
Unfortunately, the false power given to
Works Cited
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Amoretti: A Critical Study.
1990.
Johnson, William C. Spenser’s
Amoretti: Analogies of Love.
University Presses, Inc., 1990.
Jones, H.S.V. A Spenser Handbook.
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Martz, Louis L. From
Renaissance to Baroque: Essays on Literature and Art.
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http://petrarch.reeservers.com
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