Astrophil and Stella: sonnet 14
Robert Stonehouse
Alas, have I not pain enough, my friend,
Upon whose breast a fiercer gripe doth tear
Than did on him who first brought down the fire,
While love on me doth all his quiver spend?
But with your rhubarb words you must contend
To grieve me worse, in saying that desire
Doth plunge my well-formed soul even in the mire
Of sinful thoughts, which do in ruin end?
If that be sin which doth the manners frame,
Well stayed with truth in word and faith of deed,
Ready of wit and fearing nought but shame,
If that be sin which in fixed hearts doth breed
A loathing of all loose unchastity,
Then love is sin, and let me sinful be.
1. Oh, my friend, am I not hurt sufficiently,
2. when my heart is torn by a more ferocious clawing
3. than Prometheus was as punishment for bringing the fire of Zeus to
men,
4. as Cupid uses up all his arrows on me?
5. Need you, with bitter purgative words, strive
6. to hurt me more, by preaching that lust
7. thrusts my otherwise healthy soul into the morass
8. of evil thinking, leading in the end to sin and hell?
9. If something can be a sin, when it improves character,
10. firmly supported by truth-telling and loyalty in action,
11. with presence of mind, afraid of nothing but disgrace,
12. if it can be a sin, when in a constant heart it inculcates
13. hatred of everything inconstant and promiscuous,
14. then yes, love is sinful; and I mean to be a sinner.
Line 1. A friend of the poet tries to recall him to Christian virtue
and away from courtly love, which was always hard to reconcile with
it. There is no difficulty in recognising this as a response to what
has happened off-stage, because the friend is explicitly addressed.
Line 3. Prometheus was chained to Mount Caucasus, where the eagle of
Zeus came every third day to feed on his liver, which grew back in
between.
Line 5, 'rhubarb words'. Alas, now comical. This rarely seems to
happen to Shakespeare.
Line 7, 'well-formed soul'. I am not sure I have got this right.
Line 11 seems to sum up Sidney's ideal – and indeed his achievement.
It is as much chivalric as Christian.
Line 14, after all these qualifications, is not Don Juan's defiance of
God and Satan alike.
--
Robert Stonehouse
To mail me, replace invalid with uk. Inconvenience regretted.
Gary Kosinsky
(Robert Stonehouse) wrote:
SNIP
>Line 5, 'rhubarb words'. Alas, now comical. This rarely seems to
>happen to Shakespeare.
I thought "rhubarb words" was a pretty good phrase,
too. It's the kind of thing where you don't know for sure
what he means, but it's probably not too flattering.
- Gary Kosinsky
Art Neuendorffer
> >Line 5, 'RHUBARB words'. Alas, now comical.
> too. It's the kind of thing where you don't know for sure
> what he means, but it's probably not too flattering.
Lestrygonians ( Ulysses by Joyce)
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/ulysses/index.html
Flakes of pastry on the gusset of her dress: daub of sugary flour stuck
to her cheek. RHUBARB tart with liberal fillings, rich fruit interior.
Josie Powell that was. In Luke Doyle's long ago,
Dolphin's Barn, the charades.
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MACBETH ACT 5, SCENE 3
That should applaud again.--Pull't off, I say.--
What RHUBARB, senna, or what purgative drug,
Would scour these English hence? Hear'st thou of them?
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"David L. Webb" <david....@dartmouth.edu> wrote
an acid found in, and characteristic of, OXalis, and
with acid-tasting trifoliolate or multifoliolate leaves.
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Art Neuendorffer
Jimbosir
I agree--esprcially if you read "rhubarb words" as "rue barb words"--i.e. sharp
words that cause sorrow or regret.
MENTOR (:-)