"Strange showes": Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities
by Jenny (Walicek) Clendenen
Studies in Philology - Volume 105, Number 3, Summer 2008, pp. 304-335
San Jose State University | James D. Phelan Literary Award - First Place, Critical Essay (2004)
Under working title "The Calamities of the Vanities: Spenser's Vision of Parallel Lives"
Thanks to the mentorship of professors Janine Gerzanics (West Valley College) and Andrew Fleck (San Jose State University), this article reached the eyes of renowned Spenser scholar Anne Lake Prescott (Barnard College), who generously assisted in its completion; upon her recommendation, Studies in Philology accepted the article "with enthusiasm." Many thanks to these eminent scholars for their invaluable assistance.
Studies in Philology - Volume 105, Number 3, Summer 2008, pp. 304-335
San Jose State University | James D. Phelan Literary Award - First Place, Critical Essay (2004)
Under working title "The Calamities of the Vanities: Spenser's Vision of Parallel Lives"
Thanks to the mentorship of professors Janine Gerzanics (West Valley College) and Andrew Fleck (San Jose State University), this article reached the eyes of renowned Spenser scholar Anne Lake Prescott (Barnard College), who generously assisted in its completion; upon her recommendation, Studies in Philology accepted the article "with enthusiasm." Many thanks to these eminent scholars for their invaluable assistance.
Abstract: Visions of the Worlds Vanitie is considered one of Edmund Spenser’s minor poems, and has received little attention from scholars. Each of its nine “story” eclogues tells of a large, vain animal plagued by a small one; the poem is usually seen as an allegorical reference to the vanities that allowed small problems to proliferate and eventually destroy the Roman Empire. But Visions is far more than a lament about vanity, or the transitory nature of power as exemplified by the fall of Rome. Within each of the nine allegories Spenser has hidden two separate biographies of a pre-Fall emperor and a pre-Reformation pope.
In two chronological sequences totaling eighteen accounts, Spenser draws on history, myth, symbolism, word play and anecdotes to connect each of the large animals to a Roman emperor and a Catholic pope, and each of the small animals to something (or someone) which causes the death of each emperor and the demise of the Catholic Church. To summarize one striking example, the seventh stanza is about a wealthy elephant that parades around wearing a “gilden towre” until he is pained by “a little Ant, a silly worme”. The emperor referenced is Trajan, who looted 150 tons of gold from Dacia (as recorded on Trajan’s Column, or tower) and took Rome to its peak of wealth. While in Antioch sentencing his outspoken critic Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch) to death by lion, Trajan suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. The pope referenced in this allegory is Leo X, who actually owned a pet elephant that was paraded about wearing a tower, and who was the pope when Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses and began the Reformation. Furthermore, Luther was condemned at the Diet of Worms.
Visions of the Worlds Vanitie is not a minor poem, as thought by scholars, but a richly layered study of powerful individuals and empires spanning fifteen hundred years: their greatest faults, most visible leaders, and the demise of all of them.
Click here to read this article on JSTOR.
In two chronological sequences totaling eighteen accounts, Spenser draws on history, myth, symbolism, word play and anecdotes to connect each of the large animals to a Roman emperor and a Catholic pope, and each of the small animals to something (or someone) which causes the death of each emperor and the demise of the Catholic Church. To summarize one striking example, the seventh stanza is about a wealthy elephant that parades around wearing a “gilden towre” until he is pained by “a little Ant, a silly worme”. The emperor referenced is Trajan, who looted 150 tons of gold from Dacia (as recorded on Trajan’s Column, or tower) and took Rome to its peak of wealth. While in Antioch sentencing his outspoken critic Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch) to death by lion, Trajan suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. The pope referenced in this allegory is Leo X, who actually owned a pet elephant that was paraded about wearing a tower, and who was the pope when Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses and began the Reformation. Furthermore, Luther was condemned at the Diet of Worms.
Visions of the Worlds Vanitie is not a minor poem, as thought by scholars, but a richly layered study of powerful individuals and empires spanning fifteen hundred years: their greatest faults, most visible leaders, and the demise of all of them.
Click here to read this article on JSTOR.
Unpublished Scholarship
Between 2003 and 2016 I spent thousands of hours writing papers for my English Lit and MFA classes at SJSU. I had--still have--a passion for research and for discovering evidence for theses. Rather than throw out all my papers, I've decided to let some of them live here. Proper indentation isn't replicable on this platform, so everything's in block format. Please cite the relevant page if an essay is useful to you in your own research.
Table of Contents
Renaissance Literature
On Shakespeare - Various essays and notes (2003-17)
When Civilizations Collide: Power Surges in The Tempest (2017)
The Predator as Patron and Protector: Soaring with John de Gaunt in The House of Fame (Nov 2015)
Burn, Babylon, Burn: The Vatican Goes to Hell in Paradise Lost (2005)
Sisters, Suitors, and Supremacy: Elizabeth's Issues Personified in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Apr 2005)
The Drag Queen in the Garden: Thomas Randolph Dresses Down Elizabeth I (Dec 2004)
She's Come Undone: Robert Herrick on Sex and Art (Nov 2004)
Notes on Satan in Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 589-604 (Feb 2004)
Victorian Literature
Electrified: The Destructive Power of Light in Heart of Darkness (2005)
Notes on Water, Cycles, Holes, and Ivory in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (Apr 2004)
Heat Rises: Jane Eyre's Ascension to Power (1999)
American Literature
Mrs. Ansley's Yarn: Fabrication in Edith Wharton's Roman Fever (May 2003)
Table of Contents
Renaissance Literature
On Shakespeare - Various essays and notes (2003-17)
When Civilizations Collide: Power Surges in The Tempest (2017)
The Predator as Patron and Protector: Soaring with John de Gaunt in The House of Fame (Nov 2015)
Burn, Babylon, Burn: The Vatican Goes to Hell in Paradise Lost (2005)
Sisters, Suitors, and Supremacy: Elizabeth's Issues Personified in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Apr 2005)
The Drag Queen in the Garden: Thomas Randolph Dresses Down Elizabeth I (Dec 2004)
She's Come Undone: Robert Herrick on Sex and Art (Nov 2004)
Notes on Satan in Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 589-604 (Feb 2004)
Victorian Literature
Electrified: The Destructive Power of Light in Heart of Darkness (2005)
Notes on Water, Cycles, Holes, and Ivory in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (Apr 2004)
Heat Rises: Jane Eyre's Ascension to Power (1999)
American Literature
Mrs. Ansley's Yarn: Fabrication in Edith Wharton's Roman Fever (May 2003)