The proem begins with confusion \u2013 \u201cbad vibes\u201d \u2013 on earth and in heaven.\u00a0 The compounding series of descriptions in passive voice in the first stanza even seems confused itself.\u00a0 Are the disorders on earth and in heaven congruous, or does one cause the other?\u00a0 Which way does the cause run?<\/p>\n
We paused at the idea of \u201cthe world … runne quite out of square\u201d (1.7).\u00a0 The world naturally turns in a circle, so the \u201csquare\u201d order is externally imposed.\u00a0 A circle inside a square historically symbolized God enclosing humanity.\u00a0 We also recalled the square of magically transformed friendship in the Cambell-Cambina\/Triamond-Canacee marriages in Book IV.\u00a0 Must justice be externally imposed?\u00a0 We also noted an emphasis on naming, another form of external order.<\/p>\n
We also wondered whether the narrator\u2019s complaint is urgently clear-sighted or just a reflexive commonplace complaint.\u00a0 How should we hear fluctuations in tone like the humor in \u201cfleecy Ram\u201d (5.6)?\u00a0 Is the poem mesmerized by the prospect of an apocalypse of ancient origin (as in 8), or is this just brushed off as an almost comical confusion?<\/p>\n
Artegall is an \u201cinstrument\u201d (11.9) of justice, rather than being<\/i> justice. Does justice rely on an instrument? What does this representation have to do with origin and causation? How does emblem-rich justice relate to emblem-poor friendship? The proem seems to reflect a dissatisfaction with friendship as an insufficiently coherent public virtue \u2013 and looks to justice to put things in order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The proem begins with confusion \u2013 \u201cbad vibes\u201d \u2013 on earth and in heaven.\u00a0 The compounding series of descriptions in passive voice in the first stanza even seems confused itself.\u00a0 Are the disorders on earth and in heaven congruous, or does one cause the other?\u00a0 Which way does the cause run? We paused at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/edspenser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}