SPENSER’S INTERNATIONAL STYLE WhydidSpenserwritehisepic,TheFaerieQueene,instanzasinstead ofaclassicalmeterorblankverse?Whydidheaffectthevocabulary of medieval poets such as Chaucer? Is there, as centuries of readers havenoticed,somethinglyricalaboutSpenser’sepicstyle,andifso, why?Inthisaccessibleandwide-rangingstudy,DavidScottWilson- Okamurareframesthesequestionsinalarger,Europeancontext.The firstfull-lengthtreatmentofSpenser’spoeticstyleinmorethanfour decades,itshowsthatSpenserwasEnglishwithoutbeinginsular.In hisexperimentswithstyle,Spenserfacedmanyofthesameproblems, and found some of the same solutions, as poets writing in other languages.Drawingonclassicalrhetoricandusingconceptsthatwere developedbyliterarycriticsduringtheRenaissance,thisisanaccount oflong-term,internationaltrendsinstyle,illustratedwithexamples fromPetrarch,DuBellay,Ariosto,andTasso. david scott wilson-okamura is an associate professor of EnglishatEastCarolinaUniversity.HeistheauthorofVirgilinthe Renaissance(),alsopublishedbyCambridgeUniversityPress. SPENSER’S INTERNATIONAL STYLE DAVID SCOTT WILSON-OKAMURA cambridge university press Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown, Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity CambridgeUniversityPress TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecbru,UK PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle: www.cambridge.org/ (cid:2)C DavidScottWilson-Okamura Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Wilson-Okamura,DavidScott,– Spenser’sinternationalstyle/byDavidScottWilson-Okamura. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn----(hardback) .Spenser,Edmund,?––Criticismandinterpretation. I.Title. pr.w  ′.–dc  isbn----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. ThestrengthofStesichorus’imaginationisclearevenfromwhat he sings about: by celebrating the greatest battles and the most famous generals, he freights lyric with epic concerns; he gives characters the dignity that belongs to them, in actions as well as speeches;andifhehadobservedmoderation,hemighthavebeen considered Homer’s nearest rival. Instead he piles on and spills over–afaultwhich,thoughitmustbechecked,isoneofrichness allthesame. Quintilian, Institutiooratoria.. Contents Listofillustrations pagex Acknowledgements xi Textsandabbreviations xiii Introduction:thepersistenceofform  Method  Tasso  Periodstyle  Theoryandpractice  Reluctances   Whystanzasforepic?  Technicalitiesandtechnique  SpenserasthemodernVirgil  Gothicv.classical  Stanzaicprosody:Englandv.Italy  Whynotblankverse?  Whypoetswantedtowriteinquantitativemeter  Artificialstanzas  Stanzasandsubstitution  Seedsandsurfaces   Historicalassessments  Twoargumentsforstyle  Epicstyleasacriticalproblem  Archaism:Gothicsurvivalorclassicalrevival?  “Thesong/That,likeasnake,dragsitsslowlengthalong”   Flowerystyle  Defininglyric  Thethreestyles  Definitionsofthemiddlestyle  Howtoidentifythemiddlestyle  vii viii Contents Middle-stylefiguresofspeech  Wheretheflowerystyleshouldnotbeused  Lyricallineendings  Theproblemofamixedstyle  Lasciviousfiguresofspeech  Practicaleloquence  Leisurelyandnon-leisurelyepisodes  LyricalfiguresofspeechinTheFaerieQueene   Triumphoftheflowerystyle  Ariosto’slyricism  Tasso’sdefenseofAriosto  Loveasthesubjectofmodernpoetry  Loveandthestyleofmodernpoetry  Sweetnessandromance  Poetryaspraise  Ciceroandrhyme  ImitatingPetrarch  Sermonstyle  Copia,orfakingthegrandstyle  Ornamentequalsgravity  Figuresofspeechaspoeticdiction  Vernacularanxiety   Ornamentalism  Substitution  Tragicintensity  Ornamentalism  Thegarmentofstyle  Animalsandangels  Thenakedword  Arsgratiahumanitatis  Ornamentalanddramaticcodesofrepresentation  Properorprobable?  Indefenseofobscurity  Femininerhyme  Alonewithhisbooks  Larimeriche  Themeaningoffemininerhyme  Thegardenandthecity   Privatevirtues,comicstyle  Tasso’sroughness  Theepicwithoutwar  WarandSpenser’sliterarycareer  Contents ix Secondtenor  DidSpensergiveup?  Publicandprivate  Contemplation,thenaction  Comedyandtragedy  Spenser’scomedyofprivatelife  Epilogue  Indexofnames,subjects,andsources 