humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

On Mar 5, 2:56 pm, Art Neuendorffer
wrote:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> "Author of all being, FOUNTAIN of light, thyself INVISIBLE." --Milton
> .
> . *VEER* : (Dutch) *FeATHER/QUILL* , PEN, *FOUNTAIN* ,SPRING.
> .
> Lear. This *FeATHER* stirs she liues, if it be so,
> . It is a chance which do's redeeme ALL sorowes
> . That EUER I haue felt.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> St. Augustine is portrayed as a bishop BAPTIZING the king of *KENT*,
> . in the black habit of the order, with a *PEN* or BOOK,
> . or obtaining by prayer a *FOUNTAIN* for BAPTIZING.
> .
> SUSAN VERE Herbert born: St. Augustine Day, 1587
> SUSANna Shakespeare Hall BAPTIZED: St. Augustine Day, 1583
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> On Mar 5, 3:33 pm, Dennis wrote:
>
> > *************************************
> > TO THE SPECIAL FOUNTAIN of MANNERS,
>
> > The Court.
> > THou art a Bountiful and Brave Spring, and waterest all the Noble
> > Plants of this Island. In thee the whole Kingdom dresseth it self, and
> > is ambitious to use thee as her GLASS. Beware then thou render Mens
> > Figures truly, and teach them no less to hate their DEFORMITIES, than
> > to love their Forms: For, to Grace, there should come Reverence; and
> > no Man can call that Lovely, which is not also Venerable. It is not
> > Powd'ring, Perfuming, and every day smelling of the Taylor, that
> > converteth to a Beautiful Object: but a Mind shining through any Sute,
> > which needs no False Light, either of Riches or Honours, to help it.
> > Such shalt thou find some here, even in the Reign of C Y N T H I A, (a
> > C R I T E S and an A R E T E.) Now, under thy P H OE B U S, it will be
> > thy Province to make more: Except thou desirest to have thy Source mix
> > with the Spring of Self-love, and so wilt draw upon thee as welcom a
> > Discovery of thy Days, as was then made of her Nights.
> > Thy Servant, but not Slave,
> > BEN. JOHNSON.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> . Odyssey - Homer (tr. Samuel Butler) ** BOOK VII
> .
> <<"First find the QUEEN her name is *ARETE*. . ."
> Ulysses went straight through the court,
> still hidden by the *CLOAK of darkness* in which Minerva
> had enveloped him, till he reached *ARETE* & King Alcinous;
> then he laid his hands upon the KNEES of [*ARETE*] and at
> that moment the miraculous darkness fell away from him.>>

**********************

From _Strategem and the Vocabulary of Military Trickery_ Everett L.

Wheeler

"Stealing" in English may have an immediate negative moral coloring,
but the Greek kleptein (to steal, to deceive, to conceal) and its
cognate nouns klope (theft, deceit, surprise) and klemma (theft,
stratagem, fraud) portray a variety of nuances. The contrast between
force (bia) and trickery (dolos) extends in a sense to the distinction
in Greek Law between robbery (harpage) and thievery (klope) - once
again a matter of open vs. secret means. The root definition of
kleptein, moreover, is not "to steal" but "to act secretly". Hermes,
particularly in his capacity as Hermes Dolios, was a god of stealth,
whose trickery assumed connotations of magic. In fact, according to
myth Hermes' talent for trickery was passed to Odysseus : Autolycus,
Odysseus' maternal grandfather and a som of Hermes in post-Homeric
sources, excelled all men in deceitfulness (kleptosyne).
(snip)

The final group in the first category of the most frequent terms for
STRATAGEM includes PANOURGEIN (to play the villain), PANOURGIA
(villainy), and PANOURGOS (as noun: villain, rogue; as adjective:
cunning, crafty, clever). This group of words in contrast to others in
this category, lacks Homeric roots and originates in the Athenian
theater of the fifth century BC. Villains of the stage display
intelligence and cleverness, but misapply their creative talents for
the wrong goals - hence a pejorative tone for these words. Plato
distinguishes PANOURGIA from Sophia as knowledge divorced from justice
and other virtue, while Aristotle makes a similar dichotomy between
clever men who are prudent (phronimoi) and those who are panourgoi.
The concession made to the intelligence of the villain appears in the
coupling of PANOURGOS with other adjectives: for Demosthenes Philip II
of Macedon is PANOURGOS and DEINOS (cunning and clever) in a negative
sense. Plato links PANOURGOS to sophos only later to turn this
positive association on its head, and the same technique is applied
elsewhere, when he asserts wily men (POLYTROPOI) , such as Odysseus,
owe this trait to their PANOURGIA and phronesis (prudence).
> ------------------------------------------------

Ben Jonson, _Cynthia's Revels_
Ulysses-Politropus- Amorphus speaks:

The C H A L L E N G E.

Be it known to all that profess Courtship, by these Pre-
sents (from the white sattin Reveller, to the Cloth of
Tissue and Bodkin,) that we, Ulysses-POLITROPUS-Amorphus,
Master of the noble and subtil Science of Courtship, do give
leave and license to our Provost, Acolastus-Polypragmon-
Asotus, to play his Masters Prize, against all Masters what-
soever in this subtile Mystery, at these four, the choice and
most cunning Weapons of Court complement, viz. the bare
Accost; the better Reguard; the solemn Address; and
the perfect Close. These are therefore to give notice to all
comers, that he, the said Acolastus-Polypragmon-Asotus,
is here present (by the help of his Mercer, Taylor, Millener,
Sempster, and so forth) at his designed hour, in this fair
Gallery, the present day of this present month, to perform
and do his uttermost for the atchievement and bearing away of
the Prizes, which are these: viz. For the bare Accost, two
Wall-eyes, in a face forced: For the better Reguard, a
Face fovourably simpring, with a Fan waving: For the
solemn Address, two Lips wagging, and never a wise word:
For the perfect Close, a Wring by the hand, with a Ban-
quet in a corner. And PhOEbus save Cynthia.

************************
Panourgos -- all-working, villain, rogue, FACTOTUM, jack-of-all-
trades, ready-for-all-crimes

**********************************
Panourgos
skilful, clever
in a good sense, fit to undertake and accomplish anything, dexterous,
wise, sagacious, skilful
in a bad sense, crafty, cunning, knavish, treacherous, deceitful

**********************************

Those who were deinoi legein, "skillful in speaking and
interpretation," assumed political superiority over the untrained
idiotai, "laymen," whose reaction to the Sophists Voit describes as
"the uncanny wonder of laymen at the expert, uncomprehended and out of
reach." To be deinoi legein, that is, meant to be deinoi in general,
flat out wonderful. Dionysius of Halicarnassus reports that Gorgias
"astounded (Kateplexato) the Assembly," and lumps him with those who
"confused the ordinary members of the audience (ton idioten) by using
recondite and exotic words, and by resorting to unfamiliar figures of
speech and other novel modes of exxpression" ("Lysias," 3). Plato
satirizes Sophistic claims to deinotes in the opening of the
_Apology_, where Socrates, the ironic layman, resists his accusers'
insinuation that he is deinou ontos legein, "a skillful speaker" -
"unless, of course by a skillful speaker they mean one who speaks the
truth" (17B). Deinotes is thus equated with PANOURGIA, deception, a
charge that echoes in Renaissance critiques of styles as sophistic.
These charges, from Plato on down, are only in a minor sense
aesthetic: they register anxiety about the political power the
eloquent can wield. Those pursuing and defending admirable style in
the late sixteenth century may have resurrected sophistic
epistemology, which embraced contingency, but te power accruing to
those capable of evoking wonder was at least as great an attraction,
and was certainly the focus of most attacks. (James Biester, _Lyric
Wonder_, p.46)
***********************




> The Author B. J.
> .
> Nasutum volo, nolo polyposum. Mart.
> ------------------------------------------------

Nasutus, Polyposus:these character names derive from a line in an
epigram by Martial: 'nasutum volo, nolo polyposum', which translates
as, 'I approve of a man with a nose: I object to one with a polypus'
The phrase 'with a nose' meant to be an excellent critic; hence,
Nasutus is a worthy critic, while the judgements of Poluposus are ill-
informed and malevolent.

**************************

'Apologetical Dialogue' spoken at the end of Poetaster, but once.

http://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692poetaster.htm

T O T H E R E A D E R.

I
F, by looking on what is past, thou hast deserv'd that Name, I am
willing thou should'st yet know more, by that which follows, an
Apologetical Dialogue; which was only once spoken upon the Stage, and
all the Answer I ever gave to sundry impotent Libels then cast out
(and some yet remaining) against me, and this Play. Wherein I take no
pleasure to revive the Times; but that Posterity may make a difference
between their Manners that provok'd me then, and mine that neglected
them ever. For, in these Strifes, and on such Persons, were as
wretched to affect a Victory, as it is unhappy to be committed with
them. Non annorum canities est laudanda, sed morum.
The P E R S O N S.
N A S U T U S, P O L Y P O S U S, A U T H O R.

*********************

http://books.google.ca/books?id=bWzpVcRlTpcC&pg=PA452&lpg=PA452&dq=jonson+Nasutum+volo,+nolo+polyposum&source=web&ots=dFh_FWiLc5&sig=7NR-wD_tqklUJnGdyAtnKFbtiiw&hl=en

> . The fourth, in White, is Apheleia, a Nymph as pure and
> simple as the Soul, or as an Abrase Table, and is therefore
> called Simplicity; without Folds, without Pleights, with-
> out Colour, without Counterfeit; and (to speak plainly)
> Plainness it self. Her Device is no Device. The Word under
> her Silver Shield, Omnis abest Fucus; alluding to thy spot-
> less self, who art as far from Impurity as from Mortality.
> . My self (Celestial Goddess) more fit for the Court
> of Cynthia than the Arbors of Cytheree, am call'd Ante-
> ros, or Loves Enemy; the more welcome therefore to thy
> Court, and the fitter to conduct this Quaternion, who as
> they are thy professed Votaries, and for that cause ad-
> versaries to Love, yet thee (perpetual Virgin)
> they both love, and vow to love eternally.
> ------------------------

Omnis abest FUCUS

J.J.M. Tobin
Boston State College
American notes and Queries; May 78, Vol. 16 Issue 9, p134, 2p

On the Name Ophelia

The question of the origins of the names which Shakespeare gave to his
characters in _Hamlet_ is still worthy of investigation. I suggest
that
the source for the name 'Ophelia', is not so distant as the frequently
adduced 'Ofelia' of the swain in Sannazaro's _Arcadia_, but is rather
quite proximate in the 'Apheleia' of Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_.
_Cynthia's Revels_ was acted in 1600 and first published in 1601.
It is a work with a number of words and phrases which appear in
Hamlet.
Among these are: 'Niobe,' 'retrograde,' (both used for the first time
by Shakespeare in the tragedy and within thirty-five lines of each
other in I.ii), 'common stages,' 'yes, sir: this play is cal'd the
Crab, it goes backward' (compare Hamlet's 'for yourself, sir, shall
grow as old as I am...if like a crab you could go backward' at
II.ii.202-4). and 'one of my mistresse cioppini' (the 'chopine' unique
in the canon at Hamlet II.ii427. 'my young lady and mistress...by the
altitude of a chopine').

In Cupid's masque of _Cynthia's Revels_ V.vii Jonson introduces the
last of his procession of virginal nymphs who reflect the virtues of
Cynthia herself:

"The fourth in white, is Apheleia, a Nymph as pure and simple as the
soule, or as an abrase table, and is therefore called Simplicitie;
without folds, without pleights, without colour, without counterfeit:
and (to speake plainly) Plaineness it selfe. Her device is no device.
the word under her silver Shield, Omnis Abest Fucus. Alluding to thy
spotlesse selfe, who art as farre from impuritie, as from mortalitie."

Shakespeare has Hamlet end his most famous soliloquy with 'Soft
you
now,/ The fair Ophelia - Nymph, in thy orisons/ Be all my sins
remembered' (III.i.87-9). Her shock at his subsequent behaviour
towards
her suggests that her nature as well as her name is like that of the
Apheleia in _Cynthia's Revels_.

The vexed question of the date of the composition of _Hamlet_ is
made still more complex by Shakespeare's habit of revision. Yet it is
clear that Jonson's editors, Herford and Simpson, assume the priority
of _Cynthia's Revels_ to _Hamlet_ in their gloss on 'common stages',
which has a reference to Hamlet's description of the 'eyrie of
children' that 'so berattle the common stages' and their observation,
'
this (i.e. Hamlet's remark) may be a direct reference to the present
passage.' If Shakespeare had been thinking on Jonson's recent
Apheleia,
he may indeed have modified the spelling in the light of Sannazaro's
Arcadian swain, 'Ofelia,' but he would have begun with the correct
gender and the appropriate virtues of character. The
over-determination, the intensification, of Shakespeare's vocabulary
by
the replication of sources makes difficult the singling out of a
particular stimulus to his composition, but whatever other
contributing
factors there are to his having chosen 'Ophelia,' Jonson deserves some
recognition.

(note to text - 3. Dover Wilson in the New Cambridge Shakespeare
Hamlet
agrees, noting that the 'War of the Theatres' was begun by Jonson in
Cynthia's Revels.)

********************

Shelley, Adonais

The splendours of the firmament of time
May be eclips'd, but are extinguish'd not;
Like stars to their appointed height they climb,
And death is a low mist which cannot blot
The brightness it may veil. When lofty thought
Lifts a young heart above its mortal lair,
And love and life contend in it for what
Shall be its earthly doom, the dead live there
And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air.

The inheritors of unfulfill'd renown
Rose from their thrones, built beyond mortal thought,
Far in the Unapparent. Chatterton
Rose pale, his solemn agony had not
Yet faded from him; Sidney, as he fought
And as he fell and as he liv'd and lov'd
Sublimely mild, a SPIRIT WITHOUT SPOT,
Arose; and Lucan, by his death approv'd:
Oblivion as they rose shrank like a thing reprov'd.

And many more, whose names on Earth are dark,
But whose transmitted effluence cannot die
So long as fire outlives the parent spark,
Rose, rob'd in dazzling immortality.
"Thou art become as one of us," they cry,
"It was for thee yon kingless sphere has long
Swung blind in unascended majesty,
Silent alone amid a Heaven of Song.
Assume thy winged throne, thou Vesper of our throng!"

*******************

CIX



1. O! never say that I was false of heart,
2. Though absence seemed my flame to qualify,
3. As easy might I from my self depart
4. As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
5. That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
6. Like him that travels, I return again;
7. Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
8. So that myself bring water for my stain.
9. Never believe though in my nature reigned,
10. All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
11. That it could so preposterously be stained,
12. To leave for nothing all thy sum of good;
13. For nothing this wide universe I call,
14. Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.

**********************

> Art Neuendorffer


Dennis