DAME NATURE'S SHIFTING LOGIC IN SPENSER'S "CANTOS OF MUTABILITIE"

The trial in Spenser's "Cantos of Mutabilitie" does not fully resolve the issue addressed, for Dame Nature's dismissal of Mutabilitie's claim to complete sovereignty depends on a juggling of terms and a trick of argumentation, both of which compromise the judgment that Dame...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 1982-01, Vol.83 (4), p.451-456
Main Author: Davidson, Arnold E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Legal judgments
Literary criticism
Perfection
Poetic movements
Poetry
Prayer
Refutation
Religious poetry
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The trial in Spenser's "Cantos of Mutabilitie" does not fully resolve the issue addressed, for Dame Nature's dismissal of Mutabilitie's claim to complete sovereignty depends on a juggling of terms and a trick of argumentation, both of which compromise the judgment that Dame Nature finally asserts. First, Nature several times changes the meaning that she gives to "change," and with each change she limits — but only according to her own sophistical terms — the scope of change and thus the powers of Mutabilitie. Equally dubious is Nature's trump card, the argument that all-pervasive change would change Mutabilitie into some principle of order. The rule of chaos is, of course, anything but the establishment of order. Mutabilitie, moreover, is orderly only to the degree that she asserts, and the visible evidence does suggest that everything changes in time. Yet Nature still, through transcendent force, wins the argument. It is not then suprising that Mutabilitie speaks more directly to men than does Nature and that the poet, at the end of the poem, still muses on a question that has not been finally settled for him. He can pray that Nature shall be ultimately right, but that prayer rests on his faith, not on Nature's logic.
ISSN:0028-3754