Spenser’s “Theana”: Two Notes

Abstract

IN COLIN CLOUTS Come Home Againe, the twelve nymphs attending Cynthia are depicted with similarly appropriate fictional names: the second among these is Theana,Whose goodly beanies though they be over dightWith mourning stole of carefull wydowhead,Yet through that darksome vale do glister bright;She is the well of bountie and brave mynd,Excelling most in glorie and great light:She is the ornament of womankind,And Courts chief garlond with all vertues dight.Therefore great Cynthia her in chiefest graceDoth hold, and next unto her seife advance,Well worthie of so honourable place,For her great worth and noble governance.1The of this passage has long been understood to represent Dudley (nee Russell), countess of Warwick, an identification that steins from an early seventeenth-century marginal note.2 In thorough discussion of the relationship between Spenser and Russell (as well as her sister, Margaret, countess of Cumberland) Rosemond Tuve notes the important web of patronage connections (Russell, Sidney, Dudley) of which she was part.1 Russell, who became countess of Warwick with her marriage to Ambrose Dudley in 1565, was longtime gentlewoman of the bedchamber and friend of Queen Elizabeth. She was significant power broker of the late Elizabethan court, with continual access to the Queen.4 Spenser had also extensively celebrated her as chaste widow dedicated to the memory of her husband in The Ruines of Time (244-59), and dedicated The Fowre Hymnes to her and her sister Margaret, the countess of Cumberland (where he oddly misnames her Marie Countesse of Warwicke). Tuve notes how Spenser's references to Russell all stress her zeal for things of the mind rather than her beauty or more generalized virtue.1Of the twelve nymphs that attend Cynthia, Urania (representing Mary Sidney) and Stella (Penelope Rich), have received significant attention. However, nothing it seems has been written about the meaning or rationale of the fictional name Theana. It does, of course, reproduce form of Anne the countess' first name, and the opening syllable may suggest the Greek 0COC- It might also have been attractive as an anagram of Athena. Beyond this etymological significance, however, it was name with long and significant classical history, one that establishes it as suitable to be borne by one close to Cynthia/Elizabeth.Renaissance lists of worthy women often include the classical Theana, as Sir John Harington does in list that culminates in Queen Elizabeth, in note to his translation of Orlando Furioso. The name derives from Greek history and mythology, where there were number of women of antiquity with the name or Theano. (The name is more often spelled but the two spellings are frequently interchanged.) These figures, who were frequently conflated or confused, share the attributes of wisdom and chastity. One contemporary of Spenser describes Theana simply as a Greeke Ladie of notable fame and memorie,8 and worthy model of chastity and modesty. The widely used Latin-English dictionary, Thomas Cooper's Thesaurus Linguae Romanae (1565), describes her as A woman of the seate of Pythagoras, excellently learned in philosophie and poetrie.9 Cooper leaves the association with Pythagoras as general one: some classical sources identified her as Pythagoras's wife, others as his pupil. Another historical Theano is recorded by Plutarch in his Life of Alcibiades; she is priestess of Athens, who alone among the priestesses refuses to curse Alcibiades for his profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries.10Readers of the Iliad would find another Theano (or Theana), the wife of Antenor of Troy and priestess of Athena:11Chaste Theano, Antenors wife and of Cisseus race,Sister to Hecuba both borne to that great king of Thrace;Her, th'Ilians made Minervas Priest, and her they followed all,Up to the Temples highest Towre; where, on their knees they fall,Lift up their hands, and fill the Fane with Ladies pittious cries. …