figurative language in the phoenix and the turtle28 May figurative language in the phoenix and the turtle
Shakespeare's 'The Phoenix and Turtle' Shakespeare follows Chester in making the Swan figure the poet's own troth; Apollo's bird, unlike the shrieking harbinger, prophesies at death 'prosperity and perfect ease'. With the authority of a long dramatic tradition behind him, Shakespeare celebrates this ideal, in spite of death and disaster, as chorus to a tragic scene. Further, it is the proud aspiration of the individual who. in the same volume have drawn dissent, argues strongly for his authorship. For instance, the syntax of chaste love is absolutely and explicitly positive and full of promise, drawing the lovers towards each other in mutual expectancy ('So . To what degree Shakespeare's phrasing may have been prompted by the biblical thought that in the resurrection "they shall neither marry nor be married" remains conjecture. Accept my body as a Sacrifice Nature fears the fires of this kingdom are too 'dull and base' to renew the Phoenix. Fortunately, I pulled up an article on it which said it is one of the more confusing poems in English literature, so I feel a little better. 5 C. S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford, 1954), p. 508. That this tradition survives to Shakespeare's time is indicated in Hamlet, I.i. His God is the One of Plotinus. . So unless an explicit statement were made to the contrary, it would not I think have occurred to Shakespeare's contemporaries to imagine any bird other than the Phoenix on the tree. Word Count: 13369, Sister Mary Bonaventure (essay date 1964). But precisely how such influence exerted itself is much less clear. This relation, as J. V. Cunningham has demonstrated, is "modelled" on the relations of the three Persons of the Trinity as expounded by the scholastics.6 The focus on the metaphysics of the Antheme has, however, tended to keep critical attention away from the connection between the Antheme and the Threnos. The originality of Shakespeare's handling of the Phoenix theme stands out more clearly from a comparison with other Phoenix poems in his own and previous ages.35 The compositions of Lactantius and Claudianus were narrative and pictorial. Reason's reaction is first to analyse the behaviour of the lovers, and then to rationalize it. Love and Constancie is dead,Phoenix and the Turtle fled, In discussing the relation of the lovers to each other, Cunningham makes the important point that, though the lovers become one through love, they remain distinct. Two distincts, Diuision none, It is especially remarkable that these two achieved such unity in love, and they are, in the an-them, further praised for doing so in the face of their peculiar relationship. Grace is an inward virtue appearing in outward conduct, but it is, one feels, a 'sublime', highly abstract concept of sexual love that can be summed up as 'Grace'. Yet the point of the lines lies perhaps in the Platonic distinction between the reality of physical reproduction and its idea. Only a naive scepticism will ask whether the bird on the Arabian tree is the old or new Phoenix. 10). "Whereupon," it says, Reason "made this Threne." 9 'Robert Parry's Diary', Archaeologia Cambrensis (1915), p. 121. "The Dead Phoenix." Since the proof of beauty is the response it evokes in the beholder, rebirth can only occur for a chorus of faithful who sing the requiem; the believers' chant assures their miracle. XL, No. Nature tells Jove and the assembly of gods that though her Arabian bird is an Angel, whose beauty is 'devine maiesticall', she will soon die and leave the earth without its exemplar of perfection, because in the Arabian climate she cannot regenerate herself. It is, in fact, far more metaphysical than Ficino's. There is a way of ascent, which is often an arduous one, often demands even the complete self-surrender of ecstasy, and a way of return to the earthly, in which at least some vestige of the heavenly perfection won through the ascent is brought down. The phrase "Grace in all simplicitie" may carry the full theological weight of sanctification assured through divine mercy, in this case without pride or austerity, or it may simply mean natural charm without any artifice. 24 From the limited view of "chaste wings"? "Raritie," unmatched excellence,22 is the quality most frequently represented by the unique phoenix. As I, but I alone; Various, too, are the interpretations invited by the opening line. . Compressed syntax and a diction suggesting scholastic logic have been used in the anthem to express the commonplaces of mutual love carried to their furthest paradoxical extremes. But we can see that this stanza and the last one contradict each other. Daughter to John Salusbury Esquier and heire of lleweny was baptized the xth daye of October.'. See A. Alvarez, 'Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle', in Interpretations, ed. Their virtues, dignified by celebration, substantiated by logic and gaining power by the associations of their mystical paradoxes, are consummated in the act of chaste love and remain. Hume, Anthea. The Phoenix and the Turtle 1 The subtitle may well have been added by the editor or the compositor of Loues Martyr (see Chapter 3, footnote 4), but the division is, at any rate, clear in the text. One and none such, since the wide world was found 10 For a similar hyperbolic praise, which remains figurative, see Ben Jonson's "Though Beautie be the Marke of praise," from which I quote three stanzas: His falling Temples you have rear'd In 1611 the old sheets of Chester's book were reissued by a different publisher with a new title page: The Anuals [sic] of great Brittaine, the only known copy of which is in the British Library. The Phoenix and the Turtle In 1601 England's future seemed to depend on the miracle of the Phoenix. It is possible, in other words, either that childlessness is being explained, or excused, as due to the lovers' having attained an unusually delicate Platonic balance, or that the relationship is being criticized as having had no practical result. In so far as "Whereupon" implies not merely sequence but motive, I would take the singer of the anthem to be saying that Reason, as a result of having been confounded and vanquished by Love, offered its respects to the Phoenix and the Dove by composing a dirge. Though we desire it, if it were attained, one or both would be destroyed. The swan-poet divines death, perceives and foretells it, but his immortal song also makes death itself divine, revealing it as the cause of new life, so he is essential to the miracle: The Crow which, in bestiary fashion, creates its young by the breath it gives and takes shadows another aspect of the miracle: the new Phoenix is created simply by the breath of a mutual vow: And thou treble dated Crow, In short, the vulgar lover knows neither self-control, respect, responsibility, gentleness, nor fidelity. The Anthem, then, dramatizes the striving of the Turtle to redeem the Phoenix. Honigmann's attempt to connect Shakespeare intimately with the Stanleys in the decade before the 1590s weaves a more than usually elaborate conjectural tissue; but space precludes doing more than raise a quizzical eyebrow at it here. Marston's fortunes were always checkered, and he was not in a position to sneer at patronage. Du Monin aimed at writing metaphysical poetry. It was not merely the usual compound of simples, but a compound resulting impossibly in a simple, for here, as in the sixth stanza, a singular form (here a noun, there a verb) is used where a plural would be expected; the impossible unity is thus effected in the verse and not merely described by it. And in the entire neoplatonic tradition, from Plotinus onwards, the divine Mind eternally loses itself in ecstasy in the contemplation of the One. In 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', despite the dramatic setting, one almost loses sight of the individuals involved when their love is described: the attention is focused on universals. And as the turtle Dove The Phoenix of the poem is accounted for elsewhere, and this bird, mentioned in the first stanza only, would require much more attention were it to be considered a new Phoenix to replace the old. WebFigurative Language Definition. The word here does not point toward symbolic meaning, but back from symbol to fact. 7 Carleton Brown, ed. Nature exclaimes for Justice, Justice Fate, Mutability is still found on the isle but, after her historical journey, Phoenix is able to see in each of the creatures and plants that principle which makes earthly things 'eterne in mutability'. B. Grosart, who published an edition of Loves Martyr in 1878, was convinced that throughout the book the Phoenix stood for Queen Elizabeth and the Turtle for the Earl of Essex. And put to flight the author of my fears. The mood of Troilus and Cressida is even more bitter. It was intended, as Chorus Vatum declares, 'to gratulate an honourable friend' who had just been 'worthily honoured' with a knighthood. See, too, A. J. Smith, 'The Metaphysic of Love', Review of English Studies 9 (1958), 363-70. Elizabeth Watson, writing principally about Chester's contribution (and assuming that Shakespeare followed his lead), proposes the identification with the Queen and then says that the Turtle need not represent anyone particularly; 'the allegory operates on the spiritual plane . The fourth stanza of the threne returns to the rhythm of the anthem to set forth the metaphor of praise once more as though it were literally true. The poet is concerned only with the perfect union achieved by the lovers' souls, an idea perhaps more closely related to Christian mysticism than genuine Platonism. A) simile B) personification C) metaphor D) onomatopoeia 3. [In the following essay, Bonaventure dismisses tragic or paradoxical readings of The Phoenix and Turtle, highlighting instead the poem 's final "harmony of. The power of the Phoenix's song is mentioned, too, in the Anglo Saxon Phoenix (line 128) in a phrase which means literally 'louder raised' (beorhtan reorde) (The Exeter Book Part I, ed. As the fourth stanza, organized around "Let. Nor has there been incentive to challenge the clear parallels between the sonnets and the verses of the Phoenix lyric,4 which have convinced readers that the doctrine of The Phoenix and the Turtle "consummates that of the Sonnets. .," parallels the first; so the fifth, addressing the crow directly ("And thou . Elias Schwartz characterized the poem as a funeral elegy and emphasized the thematic implications of the phoenix's failure to be reborn from its own ashes. Hither, thither, and whither are typically locational; most uses of hitherto are temporal. Reason in itselfe confounded, Some scholars and critics, including A. H. Fairchild in his long and illuminating essay, have denied that there is any significant connection between Shakespeare's poem and the bulky poem, or miscellany, by Chester which precedes.3 Many others have denied it in practice, by ignoring Chester's work. WebPhoenix and the turtle fled In a mutual flame from hence. 17 See W. Knight's Mutual Flame, pp. Without denying the excellence of the relationship, it yet modifies the sophistical praise by introducing common sense. But, unlike Shakespeare, he did not really call in question the principle of identity for the conceit only applied to the bird reborn from its ashes, a wonder in natural history but no contradiction in the realm of logic and ontology. I would maintain that the three lines are part of the anthem, and that the ambiguous punctuation of the 1601 printing might be clarified by placing a colon after the first line of the stanza. None of that kinde, of which he is, but hee. slaine.". That the Turtle saw his right, Uploaded by Ava Jakubowski. He is a greedy opportunist, a violator of decorum, having anticipated even the devil, who has not yet arrived to capture the souls of the dead birds. . Shakespeare's Phoenix may now be securely 'pigeonholed' in the tradition. 25], written about 96 A. D., onwards); and the Dove is a figura of the Holy Spirit: Than sayd the phnix, With the breath thou giu'st and tak'st, On this the 13th day of June 2020 Queen Elisabeth II official birthday I have made an amazing discovery about the first Queen Elizabeth, which should theoretically change the way Tudor history of England is viewed. These birds therefore sing the anthem, which, far more single-mindedly than Chester's poem, "allegorically shadows the truth of love'they show that pure, unwavering love can find its perfect fulfilment in death, and that its power can extend even beyond death. The following section, which critics have called a lapidary, herbal and bestiary, is a fulfilment of the poet's promise to 'those of light beleefe' that they shall see with new eyes, discovering 'herbs and trees true nomination'. That she was never yet that ever knew An Anthony were Natures peece, 'gainst Fancie, Shakespeare Survey 15 (1962): 18-30. They are Love and Constancy, Beauty and Truth, Phoenix 9 'Shakespeares lyrische Gedichte', Jahrbuch, 28 (1893), 274-331. whom Eros himself has formed as the Inter-assurd of the mind, This is why Cunningham's interpretation of the Threnos is mistaken. Which the deere tongue would afford, As Chorus to their Tragique Scene. 18 Grosart, pp. William Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle" is a poem that may be characterized as both an allegory and an elegy. '"7 Yet a direct antithesis is reached by Alvarez in his clearly articulated study, in which by close analysis of the languagethe "terms" of the poemhe structures the conclusion that "Shakespeare, in this poem at least, is the more honest logician and not at all the Metaphysical poet."8. But since the occasion was a marriage the Phoenix could not be praised alone: it must (whatever the consequent disruption of myth) be provided with a mate; and what better than that recognized symbol of marital constancy, the Turtle-Dove? Made one anothers hermitage; Saue the Eagle feath'red King, It is this that appals Propertie. The first speaker in the poemperhaps the Pelican, who witnesses the immolation in Chester's miscellanyintends to summon all sympathetic birds to the 'sad' ceremony, and so calls upon the new Phoenix to lead the procession. Again, both in Romeo and Juliet and in Anthonie and Cleopatra the consummation of love in death has a wider significance than for the lovers themselves.
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