Friday, October 11, 2024

A Greek Paean in Shakespeare's "Love's Labor's Lost"????




Crikey!  Has it been over a year since last I posted?  Tempus fugit, nocte venit.  (and there seems to be a lot more veniting of nocte as of late - getting old I suppose).  ANYWAY!



Reading this very strange early play by Shakespeare and came across something intriguing.

Here is the rough process of thought so far.

In Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labor’s Lost” the bard has his four main characters attempt to create an academy of learning so that they might win renown in the world.  To do this the four characters agree to completely excise women from the academy and take a vow of celibacy for at least four years.  What follows, though, is a comical study of the futile attempt to learn in a cerebral, celibate, dispassionate world separated from the physical world of romantic love and physical attraction.

Bobbyann Roesen writing in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1953) comments on this artificial world of academic study created by men.

With the coming into the King's park of the Princess of France and her companions a new stage in the development of Love's Labour's Lost has been reached, and a theme we have not heard before begins slowly to rise in the musical structure of the play. Before the arrival of the ladies, it has been made clear that the Academe must fail, and it is no surprise when in the opening scene of the second act we find each of the four friends stealing back alone after the initial meeting to learn the name of his love from the obliging Boyet. As life itself breaks swiftly through the artificial scholarship of the court, the vitality of the play rises to an amazing height; the Academe is kept constantly before us, the reasons for its failure elaborated and made more plain, but at the same time, while the world of the royal park becomes more and more delightful, while masque and pageantry, sensuous beauty and laughter flower within the walls, it becomes slowly obvious that more than the Academe will be destroyed by the entrance of the ladies. Not only its scholarship, but the entire world of the play, the balance of artifice and reality of which it was formed, must also be demolished by forces from without the walls. 

The Princess and her little retinue represent the first penetration of the park by the normal world beyond, a world composed of different and colder elements than the fairy-tale environment within. Through them, in some sense, the voice of Reality speaks, and although they seem to fit perfectly into the landscape of the park, indulge in highly formal, elaborate skirmishes of wit with each other and with the men, they are somehow detached from this world of illusion and artificiality in a way that none of its original inhabitants are. The contrived and fashionable poses which they adopt are in a sense less serious, more playful than those of the other characters, and they are conscious all the time, as even Berowne is not, that these attitudes are merely poses, and that Reality is something quite different. With them into the park they bring past time and a disturbing reminder of the world outside, and from them come the first objective criticisms which pass beyond the scheme of the Academe to attack the men who have formed it. Maria, remembering Longaville as she saw him once before in Normandy, criticizes in her first speech the unreality with which the four friends have surrounded themselves, and points out for the first time in the play the danger of attitudes which develop without regard for the feelings of others, of wit that exercises itself thoughtlessly upon all.

In the wit of the ladies themselves, it is a certain edge of reality, an un- compromising logic, which cuts through the pleasant webs of artifice, the courtly jests and elaborations in the .humor of the men, and emerges victorious with an unfailing regularity. Unlike the women, the King and his companions play, not with facts themselves, but with words, with nice phrases and antithetical statements, and when their embroidered language itself has been attacked, their courteous offers disdained as mere euphemisms, they can only retire discomfited. Even Berowne is utterly defeated when he approaches Rosaline with his graceful conceits.

Ber. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.

Ros. Pray you, do my commendations;

I would be glad to see it.

Ber. I would you heard it groan.

Ros. Is the fool sick?

Ber. Sick at the heart.

Ros. Alack, let it blood.

Ber. Would that do it good?

Ros. My physic says "ay."


Witty as Berowne, as agile of mind, Rosaline attacks his conventional protestations with a wit based on realism, a ridicule springing from a consciousness of the absurdity of artifice. That Berowne could be expressing a real passion in these artificial terms never enters her mind; he is merely mocking her, and she defends herself in the most effective way she can. Berowne is, however, like the King, Dumain, and Longaville, suddenly and genuinely in love.

Roesen’s point is that the men who vow so eagerly to forego the pleasure of women’s company in their pursuit of higher learning cannot but quickly succumb to the charms of the fairer sex when they actually come into contact with them.  Cerebral thought cannot be divorced from carnal, or incarnate, existence.

The exchange that follows in Act II of the work enters into a musical cadence of lilting couplets.

ROSALINE

Alack, let it blood.

BIRON

Would that do it good?

ROSALINE

My physic says 'ay.'

BIRON

Will you prick't with your eye?

ROSALINE

No point, with my knife.

BIRON

Now, God save thy life!

ROSALINE

And yours from long living!

BIRON

I cannot stay thanksgiving.

Retiring

DUMAIN

Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same?

BOYET

The heir of Alencon, Katharine her name.

DUMAIN

A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well.


Then shifts into a series of exchanges between Boyet and the three men who have taken vows of chastity.  Each one asks the obliging Boyet about the identity of the masked women with whom they have become smitten.

LONGAVILLE

I beseech you a word: what is she in the white?

BOYET

A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.

LONGAVILLE

Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.

BOYET

She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame.

LONGAVILLE

Pray you, sir, whose daughter?

BOYET

Her mother's, I have heard.

LONGAVILLE

God's blessing on your beard!

BOYET

Good sir, be not offended.

She is an heir of Falconbridge.

LONGAVILLE

Nay, my choler is ended.

She is a most sweet lady.

BOYET

Not unlike, sir, that may be.

Exit LONGAVILLE

BIRON

What's her name in the cap?

BOYET

Rosaline, by good hap.

BIRON

Is she wedded or no?

BOYET

To her will, sir, or so.

BIRON

You are welcome, sir: adieu.

BOYET

Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.


Shakespeare is employing in this passage the prosodic foot called the anapest, a rhythmic pattern generally consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (xx/)

Anapaestic verse is always found in dimeters (two feet) or tetrameters (four feet), each dimeter consisting of four feet. The most common type of foot is the spondee (– –), followed by the anapaest (u u –), then the dactyl (– u u). 

We see examples of anapestic rhythm in other familiar poems.


Anapestic bimeter is a form frequently employed by Theodor Geisell; thus the statement that Shakespeare’s verse is “Dr. Seussy”:

The Cat in the Hat by Theodor Geisell (Dr. Seuss)

Then our mother came in anapest anapest (xx/ xx/)

And she said to us two, anapest anapest (xx/ xx/)

“Did you have any fun? anapest anapest (xx/ xx/)

Tell me. What did you do?” anapest anapest (xx/ xx/)


The comic author, Lewis Caroll, employed the anapest in several of his comic poems.  In You are Old Father William, for instance, we find Anapestic trimeter:

"You are old, father William," the young man said, 

anapest anapest anapest iamb (xx/ xx/ xx/ x/)

"And your hair has become very white;

anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/)

And yet you incessantly stand on your head —

iamb anapest anapest anapest (x/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/)


Byron employed an unwavering Anapestic tetrameter in the famous poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib:

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)


Hilaire Belloc, the great Catholic humorist and essay writer, composed many of his Cautionary Verses in an Anapestic tetrameter / trimeter combination:

The Yak 

As a friend to the children commend me the Yak.   

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

   You will find it exactly the thing:

anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/)

It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,   

anapest anapest anapest anapest (xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/)

   Or lead it about with a string.

iamb anapest anapest (x/ xx/ xx/)


In the passage in Act II, the exchange between the characters is a hidden lyrical song.  If we remove the identification of the characters we can more easily scan the poetry and see it as a series of tetrameter calls and responses.

Alack, let it blōōd. iamb anapest

Would that do it gōōd? iamb anapest

My physic says 'ay.' iamb anapest

Will you prick't with your eye? anapest anapest

No point, with my knife. iamb anapest

Now, God save thy life! iamb anapest

And yours from long living! iamb 3rd paeon 

I cannot stay thanksgiving. iamb iamb amphibrach  

Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same? anapest anapest iamb anapest

The heir of Alencon, Katharine her name. iamb anapest anapest iamb

A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well. anapest iamb iamb anapest

I beseech you a word: what is she in the white?

anapest anapest: anapest anapest

A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.

iamb anapest anapest anapest

Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.

anapest anapest anapest iamb

She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame.

iamb iamb anapest; 3rd paeon anapest

Pray you, sir, whose daughter? anapest amphibrach

Her mother's, I have hēard. amphibrach anapest

God's blessing on your bēard! amphibrach anapest

Good sir, be not offended. amphibrach amphibrach

She is an heir of Falconbridge. iamb iamb iamb iamb

Nay, my choler is ended. 3rd paeon amphibrach

She is a most sweet lady. iamb iamb amphibrach

Not unlike, sir, that may be. 3rd paeon anapest

What's her name in the cap? anapest anapest

Rosaline, by good hap. anapest anapest

Is she wedded or no? anapest anapest

To her will, sir, or so. anapest anapest

You are welcome, sir: adieu. 3rd paeon anapest

Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. iamb anapest iamb anapest


Taken as a whole the entire “song” could be “sung” like a traditional Paean.  The rhythmic pattern flows like this:

x/ xx/

x/ xx/

x/ xx/

xx/ xx/

x/ xx/

x/ xx/

x/ xx/x

x/ x/ x/x

xx/ xx/ x/ xx/

x/ xx/ xx/ x/

xx/ x/ x/ xx/

xx/ xx/ xx/ xx/

x/ xx/ xx/ xx/

xx/ xx/ xx/ x/

x/ x/ xx/ xx/x xx/

x/x xx/

x/x xx/

x/ xx x/x

x/ x/ x/ x/

xx/x x/x

x/ x/ x/x

xx/x xx/

xx/ xx/

xx/ xx/

xx/ xx/

xx/ xx/

xx/x xx/

x/ xx/ x/ xx/


Why is this significant (if it is significant)?

In the passage in Act II, Shakespeare is using a particular type of anapestic rhythm here which is most intriguing b/c it seems that he is creating what the Ancient Greeks called a paean.

In prosody a paeon (or paean) is a metrical foot used in both poetry and prose. It consists of four syllables, with one of the syllables being long and the other three short. Paeons were often used in the traditional Greek hymn to Apollo called “Paeans.” Its use in English poetry is rare(emphasis mine) Depending on the position of the long syllable, the four paeons are called a first, second, third, or fourth paeon. 

Shakespeare makes use not of the four-foot paean but the three-foot paean, or cretic.

Also known as amphimacer, the cretic is a Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of a short syllable enclosed by two long syllables. Often found in folk poetry, its use in English poetry is rare, though instances can be found in proverbs and idiomatic expressions such as “After a while, crocodile.” Contemporary uses of the cretic can be found in slogans and advertising phrases, and it is often used to make comparisons. 

The cretic or amphimacer metrical foot… is sometimes also called a paeon diagyios.

As stated previously, the paean rhythmic pattern was most commonly used for the longer song form also called “A Paean”:

Musically, the paean was a choral ode, and originally had an antiphonal character, in which a leader sang in a monodic style, with the chorus responding with a simple, informal phrase.

In Homer, Paeon was the Greek physician of the gods. In Iliad V he heals the wounded Ares and Hades with his herbal lore. In time Paeon (or Paean) became an epithet ("byname") of Apollo as a god capable of bringing disease and propitiated as a god of healing. Hesiod identifies Paeon as a separate god, and in later poetry Paeon is invoked independently as a health god. Later, Paean becomes a byname of Asclepius, another healer-god. 

Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods, like Dionysus, Helios, and Asclepius. About the 4th century the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. Its connection with Apollo as the slayer of the Python led to its association with battle and victory; hence it became the custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.

  • The title of the work; not “Love’s Labors Lost” but “Love’s Labor’s Lost”

  • Connected to Andrew Marvell’s The Garden wherein a man images a garden with no women

  • Women camping out (a military image)


Versions of the play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HABrs1bzejM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEP3pI1Hpm4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbbAlpRHKXU

Articles

The lack of song in

Mercury vs. Apollo

Dancing to Poetry

Poetry and Dance

https://antigonejournal.com/2022/05/shakespeare-greek-latin/

https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/TOX20_Stritmatter_Misquotation.pdf

http://karagiorgos.blog-net.ch/articles-and-essays/shakespeares-classical-knowledge/#:~:text=The%20opinion%20widely%20held%20among,world%20on%20original%20Greek%20texts



There be dragons!