Thomas Lodge (1) (–1625)

Two more works from 1595 which are typical of the sort of secular literature which was rolling off the old printing presses: they are both satirical in nature. Neither of them could claim to be great literature, but both have their moments of charm and for readers versed in the works of the time, they may provide some entertainment.

Robert Wilson is one of those playwrights who worked in a theatre company in collaboration with others during the 1580's and 1590's It is thought that he worked for Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre. The Pedler's prophecy is written in mainly rhyming couplets and contains a number of stock characters who recite their parts with no call for any stage action. A Pedler appears on stage claiming to have wondrous articles in his heavy pack, a young maiden approaches and asks for some sharp needles. The Pedler is more intent on telling her about the problems of the world. A mother and then a father join their daughter and the pedler carries on in the same fashion, warning them of devastation to come and angling for food and wine and a place to stay. A traveller, a mariner and an artisan join in and the pedler tells them he has magic stones in his pack to help them in their profession. A Landlord, a judge and a government official join the crowd and the pedler tells them how badly people in their profession behave. Everybody has something to complain about and they all vent forth. This is the mother complaining about the immigrants:

Yea either they be Alians, or Aliant sonnes indeed,
Who through marriage of English women of late,
Hath altered the true English blood and seed,
And therewithall English plaine maners and good state.
All the naughtie fashions in the world at this day,
Are by some meanes brought into England.
If by some meanes they be not commanded away,
Within a while they will vs all withstand.
For here they do not only deuoure and spend;
As they be most deuourets truly:
But our commodities away they do send,
Rob and steale from English men daily.

The play ends with all the characters paying homage to Queen Elizabeth and praying for her safety.

Charles Sisson says of Thomas Lodge; "There was never a truer Elizabethan" in that he explored ways of earning a living or paying his debts, by endless zest and persistence, challenging circumstances by asserting his own wit, his own powers and his own desires. He trained as a lawyer, but there is no record of him practising, however he used his knowledge in a series of endless litigations many of which were against his brother. In Sisson's view he paid a heavy price for the privilege of writing a few charming lyrics, a poor play or two, some second rate satires, a few novels and a pamphlet in defence of the stage. This is a little harsh because Lodge adapted a story by Geoffrey Chaucer [Tale of Gamelyn] into a prose romance [Rosalynde; Euphues Golden Legacy] which proved popular and his play [The Wounds of Civil War] was also not without merit. A Fig for Momus was his last printed work and although he lived for another thirty years nothing more from him was printed.

Momus in Greek mythology was a personification of satire. Momus as a sharp tongued spirit of unfair criticism was eventually expelled from the company of the Gods on Mount Olympus; perhaps Lodge took this as a hint and decided not to write any more. A Fig for Momus is a variety of longer poems, there are satires, eclogues and epistles. Epistle number one is addressed to Ad Momum and warns of the dangers to the world and looks at examples in the animal kingdom. There are four eclogues which are pastoral poems usually written and sung by educated shepherds musing on the perils of making ones way in the world outside Arcadia. One is an old persons reflections on life and the contentment to be found when one is at peace as compared with young people striving in the real world for gain. A couple address the problems of being a poet, poorly paid, difficult to find sponsors and a lack of appreciation. The fourth eclogue takes the form of a debate between a poet and his love of the arts and a young man who sees glory in war. This ends on a note of compromise:

Peace, doth depend on Reason, warre on force,
The one is humane, honest, and vpright,
The other brutish, fostered by despight:
The one extreame, concluded with remorse,
The other all iniustice doth deuorce.

This said, he ceast, and would no more proceed,
Felicius left him setled in this thought,
I, hearing both the reasons they had brought,
Resolu'd that both deserue true fame indeed,
And pray that wit may thriue, & war may speed.

There are five satires on similar subjects, with the final two looking at covetousness and ambition. Amongst the seven epistles are a note to his mistress following a letter from her worrying about getting fat. There is a letter to Michel Drayton on how to use poetry and one in praise of his mistresses dog, quoting extensively from classical literature. These works are very much representative of popular books at the time and both of these authors needed to earn money at the writing game. 3 stars.… (más)

[Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles II]: Thomas Lodge - Phillis: Honored with Pastoral Sonnets, Elegies and Amorous Delights]. Part of a cycle edited by Martha Foote Crow (Free at Project Gutenberg)

In the mid 1590's there seemed to be a rush to get poetry collections into print, perhaps caused by the publishing of Sir Philip Sydneys Astrophil and Stella in 1591. Many of these collections have been filed away under the genre of The Elizabethan Love Sonnet. They took as a template Petrarch's Canzoniere in which the poet by means of sonnets, odes, elegies and songs proclaimed his undying love for Laura. Petrarch took over 44 years to put his collection together only brought to its completion by his death in 1374. Over two hundred years later and still feeling the legacy of the idea of courtly love the Elizabethans who followed Sidney were seeming to make their collections little more than poetical exercises. In many cases there seems to be no actual unrequited love affair involved; it is more an exercise for the poet to describe his degrees of suffering for an unobtainable love match. The poetry has become academic and abstract as the search for: or in many cases the refinement of existing imagery is the reason for the appearance of the collections at the publishing houses.

When approaching one of the love sonnet collections I ask myself what's new. Is there anything here to distinguish it from those that have gone before. In the case of Thomas Lodge's Phillis the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second question is 'not much' and if the reader was interested in "Amorous Delights" promised in the subtitle then he would be disappointed. Thomas lodge was the son of the Lord Mayor of London and tried his hand at various types of written work: plays, pamphlets, social and morale tracts, historical prose, romantic stories and of course poetry. His most successful work was the romantic love story Rosalynde, which does contain some poetry. He undertook at least three sea voyages and on one of them he wrote Phillis, sonnet II:

You sacred sea-nymphs pleasantly disporting
Amidst this wat'ry world, where now I sail;
If ever love, or lovers sad reporting,
Had power sweet tears from your fair eyes to hail;
And you, more gentle-hearted than the rest,
Under the northern noon-stead sweetly streaming,
Lend those moist riches of your crystal crest,
To quench the flames from my heart's Ætna streaming;
And thou, kind Triton, in thy trumpet relish
The ruthful accents of my discontent,
That midst this travel desolate and hellish,
Some gentle wind that listens my lament
May prattle in the north in Phillis' ears:
"Where Phillis wants, Damon consumes in tears."

The positives from the collection are the freshness of Lodge's poetry; he does not draw so much on classical antiquity and obscure imagery and his poetry can sing with a more natural voice than some. Although the collection does not seem to go anywhere; there is no story line, it has been shaped as a pastoral and so there are a couple of eglogs (ecologues) and a debate between Damon and Damades while they tend their flocks of sheep. Perhaps a man like Lodge who was adept at satirical works and many other kinds of writing felt constrained by the love sonnet format. The frustration of the speaker comes through in the final five eight line stanzas ending with:

"Prime youth lusts not age still follow,
And make white these tresses yellow;
Wrinkled face for looks delightful
Shall acquaint the dame despightful;
And when time shall eat thy glory,
Then too late thou wilt be sorry.
Siren pleasant, foe to reason,
Cupid plague thee for thy treason!"

The final sonnet is ambiguous and seems to take the poet back to wondering if his poetry will survive. A collection of poems not without interest, but they might seem dull to some readers and so 3 stars.
Here is one of his more successful sonnets from the collection even if that final line does not quite fit.

Burst, burst, poor heart! Thou hast no longer hope;
Captive mine eyes unto eternal sleep;
Let all my senses have no further scope;
Let death be lord of me and all my sheep!
For Phillis hath betrothèd fierce disdain,
That makes his mortal mansion in her heart;
And though my tongue have long time taken pain
To sue divorce and wed her to desert,
She will not yield, my words can have no power;
She scorns my faith, she laughs at my sad lays,
She fills my soul with never ceasing sour,
Who filled the world with volumes of her praise.
In such extremes what wretch can cease to crave
His peace from death, who can no mercy have!

[Elizabethan Sonnet-Cycles II] Licia or Poems of love in honour of the admirable and singular virtues of his lady, to the imitation of the best Latin poets and others by Giles Fletcher. This is the second sonnet collection in the book edited by Martha Foote Crow >31

Giles Fletcher came from a well to do family, educated at Eton and Trinity college. He was known for his public services, not as a poet or courtier. He claimed that Lucia was written at a time of idleness and he did it only to try his humour. He claimed that love was a goddess and the subject was not for a vulgar head, a base mind, an ordinary conceit, or a common person. He was claiming that his collection of poems were an exercise in writing poetry and it is clear that there never was a Licia; she was an invention that would be the object of his poems.

When the title of the collection refers to them as being "the imitation of the best Latin poets" it is no surprise to find them unoriginal in form and subject. There are 52 sonnets, an ode, a dialogue, a poetical maze and finally an elegy. On the plus side is that they are well composed and read easily. They are written without some of the poetical flourishes of his contemporaries with his imagery being less fantastic than some, mainly sticking to the well worn template. He does occasionally rise above the commonplace take sonnet 6 as an example:


My love amazed did blush herself to see,
Pictured by art, all naked as she was.
"How could the painter know so much by me,
Or art effect what he hath brought to pass?
It is not like he naked me hath seen,
Or stood so nigh for to observe so much."
No, sweet; his eyes so near have never been,
Nor could his hands by art have cunning such;
I showed my heart, wherein you printed were,
You, naked you, as here you painted are;
In that my love your picture I must wear,
And show't to all, unless you have more care.
Then take my heart, and place it with your own;
So shall you naked never more be known.

He proved to be more unselfish than some:

First did I fear, when first my love began;
Possessed in fits by watchful jealousy,
I sought to keep what I by favour won,
And brooked no partner in my love to be.
But tyrant sickness fed upon my love,
And spread his ensigns, dyed with colour white;
Then was suspicion glad for to remove,
And loving much did fear to lose her quite.
Erect, fair sweet, the colors thou didst wear;
Dislodge thy griefs; the short'ners of content;
For now of life, not love, is all my fear,
Lest life and love be both together spent.
Live but, fair love, and banish thy disease,
And love, kind heart, both where and whom thou please.

The last sonnet of the collection hints that he has gained the object of his desire, but it is fairly pedestrian and no cause for celebration. The final three part elegy pus the reader out of his misery:

Down in a bed and on a bed of down,
Love, she, and I to sleep together lay;
She like a wanton kissed me with a frown,
Sleep, sleep, she said, but meant to steal away;
I could not choose but kiss, but wake, but smile,
To see how she thought us two to beguile.

It is not difficult to read Fletcher's collection, but most of his poetry slips by without making an impression and the long A Lover's Maze is best avoided. It is a further example of a sonnet collection which will be most appreciated by people that enjoy the Elizabethan sonnet form. I found some enjoyment but would rate it as 2.5 stars.… (más)

[Rosalynde or Euphues' Golden Legacy] by Thomas Lodge.
Published in 1590 Rosalynde is a pastoral romance and it proved to be very popular in its day and has been reprinted a number of times. The Golden Legacy in the title is an interesting concept, because the story was adapted from a 14th century tale; "The Tale of Gamelyn" once attributed to Chaucer, however more famously Shakespeare used Lodge's story as a source for his play "[As you Like it]" and so we have a sort of lineage stretching from Chaucer to Shakespeare. The Legacy in the title refers to [Euphues; the anatomy of wit] the novel published ten years earlier by John Lyly seen as the earliest precursor to what we now understand as a novel and certainly Lodge uses the ornate writing style of Lyly throughout his book, however the sources which I think have the most significant influence on Rosalynde are Edmund Spenser's [The Shepheardes Calender] and Philip Sydney's Arcadia. Not a bad lineage then stretching from Chaucer to Shakespeare by way of Lyly, Spenser and Sydney. Rosalynde uses a similar formula to other pastoral romances most of which contained poems: songs, roundelays and sonnets and so it wins no points for being original, but it does combine the story telling and poetry to produce a short novel length book, which sold well. It suffers a little in comparison with Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia which was a much longer work published in the same year but written ten years earlier and published posthumously.

The story involves the usual tropes in that two brothers Rosader and Saladyne who are in receipt of legacies from their wealthy father after disputing their inheritance find themselves banished at different times from court and seek shelter in the countryside of an Arcadian forest (The forest of Arden) where they separately fall under the spell of the idyllic lives of the shepherds. Two princesses Rosalynde and Aliena are also banished by the usurping king Torismond and they travel in the forest disguised as Alinda and her squire Ganymede. Rosader is in love with Rosalynde but does not recognise her as Ganymede, while Alinda falls in love with Saladyne. The shepherds are also suffering from problems of the heart with Montanus trying to woo Phoebe, but Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede. Gerismond the usurped king is also living in the forest and he is the father of Rosalynde, but with the assistance of Rosader and Saladyne he plans to win back his kingdom. There are plenty of opportunities for poems and songs as the protagonists have much to be unhappy about express their sorrows in sonnets and roundelays. The most interesting love story is that between Phebe and Montanus where Ganymede (Rosalynde in disguise) must say to Phoebe that:

"I will never marry myself to woman but unto thyself."

to placate her tears and to extract a promise from her that she will entertain the lovelorn Montanus if things do not work out between herself and Ganymede. This is the most complex of the love affairs and Lodge handles it well.

Readers today may fall for this tale of romance, it does have some charm but they will have to be prepared to read through passages of archaic ornate prose in the style of John Lyly and also the frequent stops for the poetry of unrequited love where Lodge proves to have an unexceptional talent. Lyly's influence was starting to abate in the 1590's, his prose with its three distinct mannerisms: a balance of phrases, an elaborate system of alliteration, and a profusion of similes taken from fabulous natural history was starting to sound old fashioned. Lodge collaborated with Robert Greene on various projects and their play A looking glass for London was successful, they both tried their writing hand on various projects, but Greene who in 1590 only had another four years to live was quicker to leave behind the old fashioned stylings. A three star read for me.… (más)

Thomas Lodge - [Glaucus and Silla, with other lyrical and pastoral poems]
Thomas Lodge was a university man who made his living as an author in Elizabethan England. He never finished his law degree, but instead became a prolific writer in fiction, non fiction, drama and poetry. Glaucus and Silla is an early poem and closes out my reading from 1589, some of the additional lyrical and pastoral poems must have been written at a later date, because their subject matter is the speaker looking back on his youth. Lodge died in 1625 around the age of 66.

Glaucus and Silla is an extended poem based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphosis and seems to have been written to amuse the university men The printed version that I read has an ababcc rhyming scheme in iambic pentameters for the most part. It is printed in one continuous stanza, but might have been written in sestets. The speaker of the poem is in melancholy mood walking beside a stream and meets the sea-God Glaucus who is an even worse state of grief. Glaucus tells his story of unrequited love for Silla. Venus and her son Cupid appear and Cupid fires an arrow into Glaucus wound so curing him of his love fever. He is then encouraged to seek out Silla who lives in the ocean and takes the speaker with him on the back of a dolphin, meanwhile Cupid has fired an arrow into Silla and the roles are reversed. Glaucus rejects the advances of Silla who dashes herself against some rocks, eventually becoming part of the rocks and a hazard to passing sailors. The poem ends with the speaker saying

"Ladies he left me, trust me I missay not,
But so he left me, as he wild me tell you:
That Nymphs must yield, when faithful lovers stray not,
Least through contempt, almightie love compel you
With Scilla in the rocks to make your bidding
A cursed plague, for women proud back-sliding"

And so ends the poem with a typical sentiment from an Elizabethan man's point of view. The poem is well structured and moves towards its climax of Scilla's fate with the introduction of Echo to finally add some pathos. The sundry poems and sonnets that are included with the title poem are of varying quality with two major themes. The advantages of a quiet life in the country over the wasteful and dangerous world of serving at a Royal court and the others are in the form of lovers lament. The longer poem Beauties Lullabie is a poem addressed to a beautiful women and has some interesting lines although the chug of the Poulters measure (14-16 stresses to the line) can be heavy going. Nothing of special note here, but good examples of the poetry of the era 2.5 stars.… (más)