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The Allegorical Meaning of Spenser's Muiopotmos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

C. W. Lemmi*
Affiliation:
Goucher College

Extract

It is my contention in this paper that Spenser's Muiopotmos is an allegory of the life and death of Sir Philip Sidney much like Astrophel. My reasons, in brief, are the following. The two poems tell fundamentally the same tale. The symbolical meaning of the butterfly is peculiarly suited to Sidney. The episode of Astery favors the supposition that it alludes to Stella. The departures from classical authority noticeable in the episode of Arachne combine to allegorize an important event in Sidney's life.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 1930 , pp. 732 - 748
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1930

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References

1 El. 169-180.

2 Ibid., 163-167.

3 Mui., 35-36.

4 M. W. Wallace, The Life of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 250.

5 Mui., 44-47.

6 Elegie, 90-98.

7 Mui., 105-108.

8 As., 37-40.

9 Mui., 241-243.

10 As., 91-94.

11 Mui., 204, As., 104.

12 Mui., 234.

13 As., 79-80.

14 Mui, 93-94.

15 El., 167-168.

16 El., 163-167.

17 Mui., 17-18.

18 Haight, Apuleius and His Influence, p. 163 et seq.

19 Mui., 157-158.

20 Mui., 174-175.

21 Haight, op. cit., p. 162.

22 Ibid.

23 Compare F. Q. III. 6. 16-26 with Golden Ass, V. 31.

24 Mui., 329-336.

25 Mui., 289-294.

26 Mui., 261.

27 Cats, Emblems; Amoretti, LXXI, etc.

28 An Epitaph upon the right Honourable Sir Phillip Sidney, 39.

29 Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, pp. 273, 284, 294, 299.

30 Beesly, Queen Elizabeth, p. 120.

31 Hume, op. cit., p. 237.

32 Hume, The Great Lord Burghley, pp. 372, 379, 382.

33 Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, p. 322.

34 Wallace, op. cit., p. 218.

35 Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, p. 161 et seq.; p. 199 et seq.

36 L. Celler, Les origines de l'opéra, pp. 156-170; 308-310.

37 Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, p. 237 et seq.

38 As., 181-199.

39 Mythologiae, X, sub De Hecate.

40 Horace, Carm., III. 7.

41 Wilson, Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor, pp. 3-4.

42 Mui., 140-143.

43 Mui., 144.

44 Mui., 97-101.

45 Brutus, 17.66.

46 Orat. pro P. Quintio, 12.10.13.

47 De Orat., 3.25.96.

48 Golden Targe, 117.

49 Comf. Afflict., VII.

50 Lud. Lit., X. 153.

51 Mui., 132-133.

52 Wilson, op. cit., p. 53.

53 Wallace, op. cit., 294.

54 Ibid., p. 245.

55 Mui., 143.

56 Mui., 138-139.

57 Fox Bourne, Sir Philip Sidney, p. 2

58 Wilson, op. cit., p. 210.

59 Wallace, op. cit., p. 244.

60 Ibid.

61 Fox Bourne, op. cit., p. 238.

62 Ibid., p. 239.

63 Wilson, op. cit., p. 126.

64 Wallace, op. cit., pp. 247-248.

65 Addleshaw, Sir Philip Sidney, p. 327.

66 Wallace, op. cit., p. 257.

67 Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth, p. 284.

68 Van Dyke, Catherine De Medicis, I. 283.

69 Op. cit., II. 170.