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
The second and third folds of Psyche’s vest are very closely identified.
They are called Arachnea and Haphe, by which the life of sensation is
meant. Haphe, or touch, sits in the finely spun web of Arachnea, and is
aware of every manifestation of life resulting from the soul’s contact
with the outward world. In this life of sensation Psyche sees as in a
mirror all the stirring life within the universe. (I. 48, 49, 50.)
The fourth fold of Psyche’s garment is called Semele, by which
imagination is meant. This is the loosest of the four veils, having the
fullest play in its movements. It is universal imagination, and from it
arises the inspiration of the poet and the prophet. (I. 57.) The
individual powers of imagination are conceived as daughters of the one
great Semele.
“She is the mother of each _Semele_:
The daughters be divided one from one;
But she grasps all. How can she then but see
Each _Semels_ shadows by this union?
She sees and swayes imagination
As she thinks good: and it that she think good
She lets it play by ’t self, yet looketh on,
While she keeps in that large strong-beating flood
That gars the Poet write, and rave as he were wood.”
(I. 59.)
These three persons—Ahad, another name given by More to God (I. 34),
Æon, and Psyche—form, says More, “the famous Platonicall Triad; which
though they that slight the Christian Trinity do take for a figment; yet
I think it is no contemptible argument, that the Platonists, the best
and divinest of Philosophers, and the Christians, the best of all that
do professe religion, do both concur that there is a Trinity. In what
they differ, I leave to be found out, according to the safe direction of
that infallible Rule of Faith, the holy Word.”[24] To signify the union
of these persons More represents Ahad joining Æon, his son, in marriage
to Psyche, and by holding their hands in his, maintaining a perpetual
unity.
“My first born Sonne, and thou my daughter dear,
Look on your aged Sire, the deep abysse,
In which and out of which you first appear;
I _Ahad_ hight, and _Ahad_ onenesse is:
Therefore be one; (his words do never misse)
They one became.
“They straight accord: then he put on the ring,
The ring of lasting gold on _Uranure_;
Then gan the youthful Lads aloud to sing,
Hymen! O Hymen! O the Virgin pure!
O holy Bride! long may this joy indure.
· · · · ·
(I. 34, 35.)