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Burton on Spenser
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Robert Burton has never been known as a commentator on The Faerie Queene and he certainly did not aspire to that honor, but it is my purpose in this article to show that unconsciously he left a valuable set of notes on Spenser's work. Burton was not a critic and his one critical remark about The Faerie Queene sounds oddly to-day, although readers of M. Jusserand's remarks in his Literary History of the English People on Spenser's borrowings from Ariosto will remember some ideas that chime with what Burton says in the passage in question. In his analysis of love-melancholy in the Third Part of The Anatomy of Melancholy he remarked casually:
Our new Ariostoes, Boyards, Authors of Arcadia, Urania, Faerie Queene, &c., Marullus, Leotichius, Angerianus, Stroza, Secundus, Capellanus, &c., with the best of these facete modern poets have written in this kind, are but so many symptoms of love. Their whole books are a synopsis or breviary of love, the portuous of love, legends of lovers' lives and deaths, and of their memorable adventures, nay more, quod leguntur, quod laudantur, amori debent.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926
Footnotes
*
The edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy used is that published by J. W. Moore, Philadelphia, 1847. References are given first to Burton's divisions; the Parts are indicated by capital Roman numerals, the sections by small Roman numerals, the members by Arabic figures and the subdivisions, where they occur, by Arabic. Page references follow.
References
1 III, ii, 3, 1, p. 522.
2 (a) In II, i, 3, F. Q., IV, ix, 1-2 is quoted. The reference is wrongly given as F. Q., V., ix, 1-2.
(b) In III, ii, 2, 2, F. Q., V, viii, 1, is quoted.
(c) In III, ii, 3, 1, F. Q., IV, ii, 17, 7—18, 9, is quoted.
3 Yale Review, January, 1914.
4 “The Loveres Maladye of Hereos,” Mod. Philol., XI, 491-546.
5 Ibid., p. 543.
6 Vide Professor J. B. Fletcher's “Study in Renaissance Mysticism: Spenser's Fowre Hymnes,” P. M. L. A., XXVI, 452-475.
7 III, iv, 1, 1, p. 594.
8 Cf. Hymne of Love, 112-140, 169-175, Hymne of Beauty, 99-137, Hymne of Heavenlie Love, 29-35, 113-119, 176-182.
9 III, i, 1, 2.
10 III, iv, 1, 1, p. 595.
11 III, iv, 1, 1.
12 An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie, 120-140.
13 III, iv, 1, 1, p. 596.
14 Augustine
15 III, iv, 1, 1, p. 594.
16 Attributed to Heinsius.
17 Democritus to the Reader, pp. 15-17, passim.
18 Ep. 21. 2. ad Donatum.“ Burton's reference.
19 Democritus to the Reader, p. 28.
20 A Short History of English Literature by George Saintsbury, p. 378.
21 Democritus to the Reader, p. 16.
22 II, iii, 2, p. 345.
23 Il Penseroso, lines 169-175.
24 P. Q., I, x, 46, 5—47, 6.
25 III, iv, 1 2, p. 611.
26 “Spenser and Lucretious” Studies in Philol., April, 1921.
27 “Lib. 1, pract. med. cap. 16. cap de malanch.” Burton's reference.
28 III, iii, 1, 1, p. 593.
29 III, iii, 1, 1, p. 598.
30 III, iii, 1, 1, p. 598.
31 Professor Padelford in The Allegory of the First Book of the Faerie Queene, p. 30, speculatively identifies Sansjoy with the melancholy Cardinal Pole. His evidence and reasoning are persuasive and, if correct, make against the interpretation which I offer.
32 F. Q., I, iii, 18.
33 F.Q., I, viii, 31.
34 III. iv, 2, 1, pp. 631-632.
35 F. Q., I, vii, 9.
36 F. Q., III, vii, 47, 1-48, 3.
37 F. Q., VI, vi, 9-12.
38 F. Q., VII, vi, 2.
39 F. Q., VII, vi, 35.
40 Ecclesiastical Polity, I, iii, 2.
41 De consolatione Philosophiae, IV, meter 6, and II, meter 8.
42 F. Q., VII, vii, 58.
43 III, ii, 5, 3, p. 543.
44 F. Q., III, vi, 38, 1-7.
45 III, iv, 2, 2-6 inclusive.
46 III, iv, 2, 2, p. 640.
47 III, iv, 2, 3, p. 643.
48 F. Q., I, ix, 48.
49 II, iii, 5, p. 373.
50 F. Q., I, ix, 49.
51 III, iv, 2. 6. p. 657.
52 III, iv, 2, 6, p. 649.
53 F. Q., I, ix, 53.
54 P.M.L.A., XXX, 830-850.
55 III, ii, 1, 2, p. 448.
56 III, ii, 1, 2, p. 450.
57 F. Q., IV, x, 45-48.
58 Introduction to her edition of Book IV.
59 A curious evidence of the vogue of the Lucretian passage in literature is furnished by the play upon its phrases which Guarini put into the mouths of his shepherds; Il Pastor Fido, edited by Gioachino Brognolino, Bari, 1914, pp. 17-18.
60 Vide E. B. Fowler's Chicago dissertation, Spenser and the Courts of Love, Menasha, Wis., 1921.
61 Mod. Philol. XI, 543.
62 F. Q., II, iv, 35, 2.
63 III, iii, 2,1, p. 535.
64 III, iii, 1, 2, p. 566.
65 III, iii, 3.
66 F. Q., III, ix-x.
67 F. Q., III, ix, 5.
68 Democritus to the Reader, pp. 28-29.
69 F. Q., II, v, 1.
70 F. Q., II, ix.
71 “Spenser's Twelve Moral Virtues according to Aristotle,” Mod. Philol., May, 1918.
72 “Spenser's Twelve Private Virtues as Aristotle hath Devised,” Mod. Philol., Jan., 1906 (i) and “The Virtue of Friendship in The Faerie Queene,” P.M.L.A., XXX, 831.
73 Ed. of The Faerie Queene, Book II, p. liv. 74 F. Q., II, 1, 57-58.
75 I, ii, 3, 3, p. 161-162.
76 I, ii, 3, 4-15.
77 F. Q., II, i, 35-61.
78 II, iii, 5, p. 374.
79 F. Q., II, v, 24, 6 and II, xii, 29,2.
80 Act I, scene 2, 11.87-108.
81 Act I, scene 1.
82 F. Q., VI, iii, 5.
83 F. Q., II, ii, 19.
84 F. Q., I, iv, 30-32.
85 F. Q., V, xii, 28-42.
86 F. Q., IV, x, 28.
87 F. Q., II, xii, 58.
88 Cf. An Hymne of Love, vv. 259-267.
89 I, ii, 3, 9, p. 169.
90 F. Q., II, v, 16.
91 I, ii, 3, 11-12.
92 I, ii, 3, 12, pp. 176-177.
93 F. Q., II, vii, 12.
94 F. Q., II, vii, 13, 2.
95 F. Q., II, vii, 44-51.
96 F. Q., II, vii, 46, 8.
97 Bous of Fame, Part III, 221.
98 I, ii, 3, 13, p. 179.
99 I, i, 2, 8, p. 103.
100 I, i, 2, 11, p. 108.
101 I, i, 2, 8, p. 103.
102 F. Q., II, xii, 86.