Hallmarks of Platonism and the Sons of Agape (Faerie Queene IV.ii–iv)

Abstract

IntroductionTHIS ESSAY SERVES a dual purpose. First, after situating my approach among certain trends last eighty years of Spenser scholarship, it surveys hallmarks of Platonism, as opposed to those images or doctrines which could by some stretch of imagination be considered Platonic. The hallmarks of Platonism are as follows: (1) Ideas or forms, (2) four divine frenzies, (3) concomitance of beauty with goodness, (4) ladder of love, (5) preexistence of soul, and (6) emanation. Other hallmarks might be discovered Spenser by other critics and also by philosophers. In outlining final hallmark, I apply this approach to an in-depth explication of a specific episode, Sons of Agape IV.ii.41-iv.45-my second project, with which essay ends. This paper has evolved. In Neoplatonism Spenser Once More (2000),2 I published a list of notions somewhat similar to one which follows, but it was flawed. From this earlier article, I will incorporate for sake of completeness some themes and some entire sentences here and there, especially my treatment of Spenser's doctrine of preexistence. On other hand, I will illustrate some of hallmarks differently than before, especially sixth and final one, emanation, by means of an interpretation different from and more Platonic than that which I published Neoplatonism, so that present article constitutes an updating of earlier one.There are (at least) two different approaches whereby critics of early to middle periods of twentieth century addressed or alluded to Spenser's relation to Plato-approaches that are contrasting yet still visible present essay. Spenserians have greeted Platonic interpretations of Spenser with different degrees of credulity and empathy different periods. In 1930s and 1940s, a wave of Platonic interpretations washed over Spenser.'' Also born 1930s but fundamentally European languages, origin, and interests was movement associated with Institute. Starting 1930s and continuing until present day, Aby and scholars of Institute which he assembled around his library and which he brought with him to London when he fled Nazi Germany, began to influence not only art history and cultural history but literary criticism. was from outset interested ongoing influence of Greco-Roman antiquity, particularly of its gods but also of its philosophy; he and his followers, however, found it strange places and a variety of what Jon Quitslund calls the Mediterranean cultures.Warburg was dedicated to interdisciplinarity, and Warburgians study topics such as emblems, astrology, and numerology which cross boundaries of nations and disciplines, and hence usually escape notice; their documentation also draws on many disciplines. They are dedicated to iconography and iconology, a discipline invented, seeking to decipher social and cultural meaning of a visual image with aid of written texts, as study of emblems. On other hand, Warburg was not interested, says Michael Ann Holly, in spiritual world of Middle Ages. Scholars most intimately associated with Institute and its methods include Warburg's original associates Fritz Saxl and Gertrud Bing, Ernst Cassirer, Frances Yates, Erwin Panofsky, Raymond Klibansky, Jean Seznec, Sir Ernst Gombrich, D. P. Walker, Charles Schmitt, Joseph Trapp, and, younger generation, Anna Baldwin, Sarah Hutton, Malcolm Smith, Penelope Gouk, and Jill Kraye, and by career and/ or intellectual kinship Edgar Wind and Alastair Fowler, which pair achieves importance later this essay. Because of their penchant for interdisciplinary and their avoidance of Christian, scholars came up with esoteric sources and analogs, though continuing like aforementioned Spenser group to cite Plato and his followers as well, especially abstruse and neglected followers. …