Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Plato — John Shaqi
Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Plato · en
Although Platonism as a system of ethical philosophy determined the
structural unity of the first two books of the “Faerie Queene” and as a
system ceases to be felt in the construction of the later books, the
purity of its ethical teaching is present throughout the entire work.
The truths of Platonism were a strong influence in moulding an ideal of
noble love. The cardinal doctrine of this ethical philosophy was that
true beauty is to be found by the soul only in moral ideas. This
conviction, which was so powerful in ennobling the Christian conception
of holiness, was carried over into the realm of man’s social relations,
and through the genius of Spenser made to dignify the conception of
human love, and to inform with a profound spiritual truth the idea of
chastity in its broadest signification as the purity of the soul.
The influence of the ethical conception of beauty upon the subject of
romantic love is found in the work of Spenser. Although Spenser’s mind
had a strong bent toward philosophy, so that it could interpret the very
spirit of Plato’s conception of wisdom and temperance, it was still a
mind in which the genius of the poet was always uppermost. It thus
resulted that in him the teaching of the beauty of moral ideas came to
fruition in ennobling the conception of human life by an appreciation of
the true beauty of woman’s inner nature, her womanhood, and by a
conception of love that placed its source in the reverent adoration of
this spiritual beauty.
The exposition of the true inward beauty of woman is found in the
“Epithalamion” and in a minor episode of the “Faerie Queene.” In the
account of the dialectic, by which the lover gains a sight of absolute
beauty, Plato has stated that at one stage the lover will see that
beauty of mind surpasses beauty of outward form. Plato says, “In the
next stage he will consider that the beauty of the mind is more
honourable than the beauty of outward form.” (“Symposium,” 210.) This
idea lies at the basis of Spenser’s praise of beauty in the
“Epithalamion.” In his marriage hymn he dwells in exuberant Renaissance
fashion upon the physical perfections of the bride, each detail an
object of delight to the senses. The sight of such beauty amazes the
beholders. But after this is done, Spenser draws attention to the truth
that, although these perfections that are visible to the eye may daze
the mind, there is a higher beauty of soul which no eye can see. His
admiration for the bride’s beauty is then caught up into a more lofty
pitch and blended with his love of her moral qualities.