|
< Previous Page | Next Page > Chapter 3a: Literary AllegoriesThe Assembly of Gods is full of allegories borrowed from literary sources of the time. Triggs and Gradon note many of the conventional materials included in the poem (Assembly l-lxxvi) and the treatment of those materials (Gradon 62; 369-73), but they are primarily concerned with connecting them to the literature of the time, not with explaining how they relate to the themes of the poem. Borrowing from existing literature was a common custom in medieval writing. The authority of texts was central to the medieval world view and the references helped to involve the reader’s existing knowledge in the reading of the work at hand. In addition, medieval people had a love for encyclopedic collections of information, for example Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Dante’s Comedy and the extensive visual programs incorporated into medieval cathedrals. The conglomeration of well-known allegories in The Assembly of Gods is probably a result of all these influences, but it also enhances the poem’s theme. To take the Comedy as an example, the narrator, his guides and the organization of the poem in three roughly even sections—the first of which takes place in Pluto’s domain which quite obviously represents the Christian hell,* “Cerberus, the porter of hell” (37) is here with Pluto who is, “Foule, derke & dymme,” “With a derke myst enuyrond all aboute,” smells of “fyre and sulphure” and is the father of Vice (309-14, 601-2). the second of which is in an intermediate realm where the soul is purified and the last of which takes place in a heavenly realm where Doctrine is portrayed enthroned, with the Holy Ghost hovering above her—loosely connect the poem to Dante’s influential work. These similarities connect The Assembly of Gods with the tradition of visionary literature, make connections to the themes of Dante’s work and places this important allegorical form in the constellation that the poet constructs on the surface of his poem. In addition, it provides a perfect example of an allegory which requires that the reader bring the rational and the sensual together if they are to understand. Examples of this kind abound in the poem, and while this is common in medieval literature, in this poem the examples are selected and arranged to emphasize the role of reason and sensuality. Two of the most important literary allegorical traditions that The Assembly of the Gods makes use of are the dream vision and the battle of the virtues and vices in the style of Prudentius’ Psychomachia. A. C. Spearing notes the “astonishing popularity of the dream-poem among medieval English poets” and gives the works of Chaucer and Langland as examples of the way that the form influenced the most important writers of the time (1).*See also Spearing 4 and Hieatt 9. By the time The Assembly of Gods was written the dream vision was a well known and popular poetic form. The form seems a natural choice for the poem because it allows the poet to write about abstract ideas and illustrate them with various other popular allegorical devices. In addition, “The dream convention lends a certain sort of authority, and authority was dear to the medieval public” (Hieatt 20). After mentioning the difficulty of arguing for a “fully homogeneous tradition” of dream visions, Spearing explains the essential aspect of dream poems,
The Assembly of Gods takes advantage of this idea of the dream poem as a work conscious of its own constructedness and the role of the narrator when it invites the reader to question the conclusions that Doctrine provides. It is important that the reader recognize that the poem is a constructed allegory which, like all the allegories referenced in the poem, must be interpreted by applying reason to what is read. The poet also uses the dream vision form to emphasize the theme of the accord of reason and sensuality in the opening stanzas of the poem. The narrator is, “Musyng on a maner how that [he] myght make/ Reason & Sensualyte in oon to acorde” (5-6), when he is overcome with the sleep that brings him his vision. In many medieval dream poems the meaning of the dream must be discovered from what takes place within the dream because the narrator gives no clear explanation of what brought the dream on. In Chaucer’s House of Fame and Langland’s Piers Plowman there is little explanation of what the dreamer is doing when he falls into his sleep and in Lydgate’s Temple of Glas and his translation of Reason and Sensuality, although the narrator describes his state of mind or the circumstances at the time he was overcome by sleep, the themes of the poem do not become clear until the dream is underway. In The Assembly of Gods the process is reversed. The narrator openly declares the question that brought on the vision, but the dream does not directly address the theme. This deviation from what readers might expect in the dream form places emphasis on the theme of the accord of reason and sensuality and accentuates the inconsistencies that invite the reader to consider the content of the dream more carefully and look for a meaning beyond the surface of the narrative. In addition, the dream-vision poem is, as Constance B. Hieatt says, “very much a vision: the imagery and description of the poem are richly visual, and the poem is to a very large extent an account of what the poet sees rather than of what he hears or thinks” (18). The choice of a form that relies on visual description is particularly appropriate for the poem, because at every point the reader is reminded that what he or she gets on the surface of the poem comes through the senses. Another major allegorical motif that the poet of The Assembly of Gods employs to emphasize the role of reason and sensuality is the battle between the virtues and vices in the second section of the vision. Scholars who have written about the work have focused most of their attention on this section of the poem. Most agree that an obvious early source of the image and the allegory is Prudentius’ Psychomachia,*See Schick cxvii; Assembly xl, lxvii; Lewis, Allegory 260; Spivack 92; Bloomfield, Seven 227; Joanne Norman also talks about the development of the psychomachian theme in medieval art and literature, and while her work does not mention The Assembly of Gods specifically, it, and the work of Bloomfield, Seven, Jennifer O’Reilly and Rosemond Tuve, provide important information about the period in which the poem was written and the way that poets and artists of the day perceived the battle between virtue and vice. but by the time The Assembly of Gods was written, Prudentius’ allegory had been developed and altered in various ways and was used widely in literature, the visual arts and drama. There are many ways in which this battle differs from others found in medieval literature. For example, Virtue and Vice themselves appear as characters and their hosts include not only personified abstractions, but also all the people who are influenced by those various vices and virtues. The inclusion in the psychomachia of characters who represent human beings influenced by Vice and Virtue is unique to The Assembly of Gods and provides an interesting connection between the poem and conventional medieval allegoresis. Without the inclusion of these characters, the battle between Virtue and Vice for control of Microcosm could simply be understood as a depiction of the struggle that takes place within individuals, a struggle that was common in the popular literature and drama of the time. But, after listing numerous personified abstractions who are Vice’s captains and petty captains, the dreamer sees Vice’s commoners, “The were bosters, braggars, & brybores,/ Praters, fasers, strechers, & wrythers,/ Shamefull shakerles, soleyn shaueldores,” and the list goes on for 41 lines (Assembly 673-714). On the side of Virtue, the dreamer sees “notable and famous doctours,/ Example yeuers of lyuyng gracyous,/ Perpetuell prestes and dyscrete confessours,” and many more (897-924). Conscience’s counsel to avoid Atropos, given to the members of Vice’s host who came looking for repentance, would be unnecessary if those characters were, like Virtue, abstractions who were outside the jurisdiction of nature. The inclusion of these characters representing types or classes of people, if not individuals, gives the battle, and its conclusion, meaning on another level. The battle becomes not just a spiritual conflict which takes place within the individual, but the final battle between good and evil which is to come before the earth is cleansed. The description of the judgements of Prescience and Predestination are typical of depictions of the final judgement, and the burning of the field that accompanies the coming of Death recalls apocalyptic biblical descriptions of the end of the world. This subtle change in the standard elements of the battle between the virtues and vices gives the battle a teleological or apocalyptic sense common to the allegorical interpretation of the Bible and connects the poem with the tradition of biblical exegesis. Not surprisingly, Doctrine’s interpretations of the vision does not address this adaptation of the psychomachian motif. Her assertion that, “Macrocosme, hit ys no more to say/ But the lesse worlde, . . .” (1828-29) is both another example of her inability to explain the deeper significance of the poem of which she is a part and a further invitation for readers to find a meaning beyond her interpretation. Perhaps the most obvious way that the middle section of The Assembly of Gods differs from typical psychomachias, and one that has gone unmentioned in discussions of the work, is the prominent role of Reason and Sensuality. Reason and Sensuality often appear in the allegorical literature and drama of the time, but not generally in those that take the form of a pitched battle between the virtues and vices. In most psychomachia literature, including Prudentius’ poem, the focus is on the vices and virtues and their relationship to each other. In The Assembly of Gods Reason and Sensuality play as large a role as any of the other characters in the battle and become the principal players in the aftermath. In fact, the poet seems to de-emphasize the other characters with limited and iconographic personifications. The seven deadly sins, usually the preeminent characters in the psychomachia are described in 11 lines.
The inclusion of the beasts that the vices ride (and the corresponding virtues with their mounts and the animals on their crests) connect the poem to the bestiaries, another popular allegorical literary form,*The connection to the fourteenth century Etymachia which drew on the bestiaries and was popular in Germany and Austria also seems clear, though the level of English exposure to the poem is uncertain. According to Norman, the poem was never produced outside Germany and Austria. but they are also the only details given to identify or personalize the vices who are not mentioned again by name in the poem. The lists of combatants on both sides are long, but few receive any attention beyond being named, while Reason and Sensuality are central to both the battle and the scenes that follow. By using the psychomachia motif, but de-emphasizing the usually prominent characters and including, even highlighting, Reason and Sensuality, the author again draws attention to his theme with the help of conventional materials of the day. The Assembly of Gods is filled with examples of literary allegories like these. By altering well known motifs, the poet gently draws attention to the main theme, invites the reader to look more deeply into the poem and makes a connection in the minds of readers to all of these popular allegories. Many of the most popular literary allegories of the day are compiled to form a poem that reminds readers that the proper understanding all allegories relies on the accord of reason and sensuality. < Previous Page | Next Page > |
ContentsChapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3: Literary, Visual and Dramatic Allegories Chapter 4: Death and the accord of Reason and Sensuality Appendix 1 Appendix 2: Critical response to The Assembly of Gods |
Copyright © 2010 ThirstyBob. All Rights Reserved. |
|