The Specter of Dido: Spenser and Virgilian Epic

220 Pages·1995·12.453 MB·English

by  John Watkins

~JOHN WATKINS,<I")
The Specter of Dido
Spenser and Virgilian Epic
Yale. University Press New Haven and London
Frontispiece: One of twenty-four engravings by P. Galle illustrating Virgil\ Aetwid dedicated
by Aemilius Gandmus to Albert, Archduke of Austria. Printed on silk. c. 1595, in Amwerp
Courtesy of the llodleian Library, Oxford.
Published with assistance from the Elizabethan Club. Yak University
Copyright © 1995 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustration,, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections ro7 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright LJw and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher-;.
Set in Bembo type by Rainsford Type, Danbury, Connecticut.
Printed in the United States of America by Book Crafters, Inc .. Chdsea, Michigan.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watkins, John, 1960-
The specter of Dido : Spenser and Virgilian epic / John Watkins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
lS!JN 0-300-05883-7 (alk. paper)
1. Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1 599-knowledge--Literature.
2. Spenser, Edmund, I 552?-1599-Characters-Queens. 3. Dido
(Legendary character) in literature. 4. Epic poetry, English-Roman
influences. 5. Queens in literature. 6. Virgil--Influence.
7. Virgil. Aeneis. I. Title.
PR2367.L5W38 1995
821'.3--dc20 94-3J(i43
Cll'
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this
book 111eetst he guidelines for permanence and durability of the Com111ittee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For
John Allen Watkins, 1922-1993
Rita McClard Watkins, 1921-1992

(',CONTENTS/I')
Acknowledgments 1x
Note on Sources x1
Introduction
0 NE
From Homeric Romance to Augustan Epic:
Virgil's Revision of the Odyssey
9
TWO
Remembrances of Dido: Medieval and
Renaissance Transformations of the Aeneid
30
THREE
Paulo maiorac anamus:E pic Anticipations
and Alternatives in The ShepheardesC alender
62
Vll
CONTENTS
FOUR
From Roma Aeterna to the New Hierusalem:
The Virgilian Origins of Book I of The Faerie Queene
90
F I VE
Tempering the Two Didos:
Romance and Allegorical Epic in Book II
J J 3
S I X
"Diverse Folk Diversely They Demed":
Virgilian Alternatives in Book III
144
Afterword 175
Notes 179
Index 205
Vlll
~ACKNOWLEDGMENTS/T')
I
n ,cknowledg;ng those who h,ve ;n
fluenced this book, I am reminded of Spenser's own "endlesse worke" of num
bering "the seas abundant progeny." I am especially grateful to John Pitcher of
St. John's College, Oxford, for first sparking my interest in the relationship
between the Renaissance and classicai antiquity. This particular study began as
a doctoral dissertation directed by John Hollander, who has long encouraged
and inspired my work on poetic origins.
Several scholars have commented valuably on chapters at different stages of
composition: Carolyn Asp, Marie Borroff, Leslie Erisman, Ralph Hexter, G. K.
Hunter, Tim Machan, Lawrence Manley, Michael McCanles, Lawrence Rhu,
William Sessions, James Stephens, and Jennifer Wagner. I am grateful to the
Spenser Society and to the Spenser at Kalamazoo Committee for opportunities
to present my work at Kalamazoo and at the Toronto meeting of the Modern
Language Association. My three Kalamazoo respondents-'-Donald Cheney.
Craig Berry, and Mihoko Suzuki-offered me excellent suggestions for revision.
I have also benefited from conversations with Albert Ascoli, Christopher Bas
well, John Carey, Rita Copeland, Karen Ford, Carol Kaske, Kevis Goodman,
A. Kent Hieatt, Claudia L. Johnson, William J. Kennedy, Christine Krueger,
IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Charles Ross, and David Wallace. At 'a crucial point in the project's reconcep
tion, Theresa M.' Krier read and commented on every detail of the manuscript.
I will always be grateful to her for asking me questions that radically transformed
my understanding of Spenser's relationship to classical antiquity. As a reader for
Yale University Press, William Oram offered invaluable suggestions for final
rev1s1011.
I owe a special debt to my students and colleagues at both Marquette Uni
versity and the University of Minnesota for their suggestions and encourage
ment. Galina Y ermolenko at Marquette was a superb research assistant, and
Ruth Jeffries at Minnesota an indefatigable fact-checker, proofreader, and vol
unteer copy editor. Jonathan Brent, Elaine Maisner, and Jane Hedges guided
the manuscript through its final stages at Yale University Press.
Grants from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the Newberry Library, and
Marquette University have supported my research. The Elizabethan Club at Yale
University contributed generously toward the book's publication. I am grateful
to the Journal ef Medieval and Renaissance Studies for permission to incorporate
portions of my article on Virgilian ekphrasisi n the second and sixth chapters of
this book. To avoid publication conflict, Arthur Kinney allowed me to with
draw a version of my fourth chapter slated to appear in English Literary Renais
sance. The Bodleian Library granted me rights to reproduce Galle's I 595
engraving of Aeneas's meeting with Dido.
While writing this book, I often wished that someone had written a com
prehensive survey of medieval responses to Dido. On the day I began marking
my final proofs, I received my fresh copy of Marilynn Desmond's 1994 Reading
Dido: Gender, Textuality and the Medieval Aeneid. It is a superb book, and I regret
that it did not appear in time to influence my discussions.
Andrew Elfenbein has supported my work on Spenser and Virgil from its
inception. He has read countless drafts and helped me to refine both individual
readings and central arguments. To him and to my parents, who died just before
this work was accepted for publication, I owe my greatest debts.
X
~NOTE ON SOURCES.I')
R,fecenm
to Spenscr '" to The
Works efE dmund Spenser: A Variorum Edition, ed. Edwin Greenlaw et al., 9 vols.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1932-49). References to the Aeneid are to P.
Vergili Maronis Opera, ed. R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969);
English references are to The Aeneid of Virgil, trans. Allen Mandelbaum (New
York: Bantam, 1981). I am grateful to these presses for rights to quote from
their editions. Since Mandelbaum's line numbers do not correspond to the orig
inal Latin, I include citations to both Mynors and Mandelbaum at the end of
quotations. The Mandelbaum citations are marked with an "M."
Xl