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
In keeping with his character he tries to entice The Lady to drink his
magic potion. He reminds her that about him are all the pleasures that
fancy can beget; he praises the marvellous efficacy of his elixir in
stirring joy within; and pleads with her not to be cruel to the dainty
limbs that were given for gentle usage.
“See, here be all the pleasures
That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,
When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns
Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
And first behold this cordial julep here,
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,
With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.
Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.
Why should you be so cruel to yourself,
And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent
For gentle usage, and soft delicacy?
But you invert the covenants of her trust,
And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,
With that which you received on other terms,
Scorning the unexempt condition
By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,
That have been tired all day without repast,
And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin,
This will restore all soon.”
(ll. 668–689.)
To this argument The Lady replies simply that no real pleasure can
result from mere physical gratification, but only from the enjoyment of
the moral quality of goodness. Thus she says to Comus:
“I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None
But such as are good men can give good things;
And that which is not good is not delicious
To a well-governed and wise appetite.”
(ll. 702–705.)
But when Comus reveals the more subtle trait of his nature, the response
which The Lady makes rises to the height of the threatening danger. The
Circean strain in his character is his power of deceiving the soul
through sense illusion, and his insidious desire to win his way into the
hearts of men by courteous words and gay rhetoric. Thus, when he first
is conscious of the approach of The Lady, he says:
“Thus I hurl
My dazzling spells into the spongy air,
Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,
And give it false presentments.”
(ll. 153–156.)
The effect of this sense witchery is seen in the forebodings of The
Lady’s fancy and in the hallucinations that haunt her mind as she comes
within the range of its spells. She says: