The Garden of Adonis

THE GARDEN OF ADONIS

She brought her to her ioyous Paradize,
Where most she wonnes, when she on earth does dwel.
So faire a place, as Nature can deuize:
Whether in Paphos, or Cytheron hill,
Or it in Gnidus be, I wote not well;
But well I wote by tryall, that this same
All other pleasant places doth excell,
And called is by her lost louers name,
The Gardin of Adonis, farre renowmd by fame.

In that same Gardin all the goodly flowres,
Wherewith dame Nature doth her beautifie,
And decks the girlonds of her paramoures,
Are fetcht: there is the first seminarie
Of all things, that are borne to liue and die,
According to their kindes. Long worke it were,
Here to account the endlesse progenie
Of all the weedes, that bud and blossome there;
But so much as doth need, must needs be counted here.

It sited was in fruitfull soyle of old,
And girt in with two walles on either side;
The one of yron, the other of bright gold,
That none might thorough breake, nor ouer-stride:
And double gates it had, which opened wide,
By which both in and out men moten pas;
Th'one faire and fresh, the other old and dride:
Old Genius the porter of them was,
Old Genius, the which a double nature has.

He letteth in, he letteth out to wend,
All that to come into the world desire;
A thousand thousand naked babes attend
About him day and night, which doe require,
That he with fleshly weedes would them attire:
Such as him list, such as eternall fate
Ordained hath, he clothes with sinfull mire,
And sendeth forth to liue in mortall state,
Till they againe returne backe by the hinder gate.

-33-
After that they againe returned beene,
They in that Gardin planted be againe;
And grow afresh, as they had neuer seene
Fleshly corruption, nor mortall paine.
Some thousand yeares so doen they there remaine;
And then of him are clad with other hew,
Or sent into the chaungefull world againe,
Till thither they returne, where first they grew:
So like a wheele around they runne from old to new.

-34-
Ne needs there Gardiner to set, or sow,
To plant or prune: for of their owne accord
All things, as they created were, doe grow,
And yet remember well the mightie word,
Which first was spoken by th'Almightie lord,
That bad them to increase and multiply:
Ne doe they need with water of the ford,
Or of the clouds to moysten their roots dry;
For in themselues eternall moisture they imply.

-36-
Daily they grow, and daily forth are sent
Into the world, it to replenish more;
Yet is the stocke not lessened, nor spent,
But still remaines in euerlasting store,
As it at first created was of yore.
For in the wide wombe of the world there lyes,
In hatefull darkenesse and in deepe horrore,
An huge eternall Chaos, which supplyes
The substances of natures fruitfull progenyes.

-37-
All things from thence doe their first being fetch,
And borrow matter, whereof they are made,
Which when as forme and feature it does ketch,
Becomes a bodie, and doth then inuade
The state of life, out of the griesly shade.
That substance is eterne, and bideth so,
Ne when the life decayes, and forme does fade,
Doth it consume, and into nothing go,
But chaunged is, and often altred to and fro.

-38-
The substance is not chaunged, nor altered,
But th'only forme and outward fashion;
For euery substance is conditioned
To change her hew, and sundry formes to don,
Meet for her temper and complexion:
For formes are variable and decay,
By course of kind, and by occasion;
And that faire flowre of beautie fades away,
As doth the lilly fresh before the sunny ray.

-39-
Great enimy to it, and to all the rest,
That in the Gardin of Adonis springs,
Is wicked Time, who with his scyth addrest,
Does mow the flowring herbes and goodly things,
And all their glory to the ground downe flings,
Where they doe wither, and are fowly mard:
He flyes about, and with his flaggy wings
Beates downe both leaues and buds without regard,
Ne euer pittie may relent his malice hard.

-40-
Yet pittie often did the gods relent,
To see so faire things mard, and spoyled quight:
And their great mother Venus did lament
The losse of her deare brood, her deare delight:
Her hart was pierst with pittie at the sight,
When walking through the Gardin, them she spyde,
Yet no'te she find redresse for such despight.
For all that liues, is subiect to that law:
All things decay in time, and to their end do draw.

-41-
But were it not, that Time their troubler is,
All that in this delightfull Gardin growes,
Should happie be, and haue immortall blis:
For here all plentie, and all pleasure flowes,
And sweet loue gentle fits emongst them throwes,
Without fell rancor, or fond gealosie;
Franckly each paramour his leman knowes,
Each bird his mate, ne any does enuie
Their goodly meriment, and gay felicitie.

-42-
There is continuall spring, and haruest there
Continuall, both meeting at one time:
For both the boughes doe laughing blossomes beare,
And with fresh colours decke the wanton Prime,
And eke attonce the heauy trees they clime,
Which seeme to labour vnder their fruits lode:
The whiles the ioyous birdes make their pastime
Emongst the shadie leaues, their sweet abode,
And their true loues without suspition tell abrode.

-43-
Right in the middest of that Paradise,
There stood a stately Mount, on whose round top
A gloomy groue of mirtle trees did rise,
Whose shadie boughes sharpe steele did neuer lop,
Nor wicked beasts their tender buds did crop,
But like a girlond compassed the hight,
And from their fruitfull sides sweet gum did drop,
That all the ground with precious deaw bedight,
Threw forth most dainty odours, & most sweet delight.

-44-
And in the thickest couert of that shade,
There was a pleasant arbour, not by art,
But of the trees owne inclination made,
Which knitting their rancke braunches part to part,
With wanton yuie twyne entrayld athwart,
And Eglantine, and Caprifole emong,
Fashiond aboue within their inmost part,
That nether Phoebus beams could through them throng,
Nor Aeolus sharp blast could worke them any wrong.

-45-
And all about grew euery sort of flowre,
To which sad louers were transformd of yore;
Fresh Hyacinthus, Phoebus paramoure,
And dearest loue:
Foolish Narcisse, that likes the watry shore,
Sad Amaranthus, made a flowre but late,
Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore
Me seemes I see Amintas wretched fate,
To whom sweet Poets verse hath giuen endlesse date.

-46-
There wont faire Venus often to enioy
Her deare Adonis ioyous company,
And reape sweet pleasure of the wanton boy;
There yet, some say, in secret he does ly,
Lapped in flowres and pretious spycery,
By her hid from the world, and from the skill
Of Stygian Gods, which doe her loue enuy;
But she her selfe, when euer that she will,
Possesseth him, and of his sweetnesse takes her fill.

-47-
And sooth it seemes they say: for he may not
For euer die, and euer buried bee
In balefull night, where all things are forgot;
All be he subiect to mortalitie,
Yet is eterne in mutabilitie,
And by succession made perpetuall,
Transformed oft, and chaunged diuerslie:
For him the Father of all formes they call;
Therefore needs mote he liue, that liuing giues to all.

-48-
There now he liueth in eternall blis,
Ioying his goddesse, and of her enioyd:
Ne feareth he henceforth that foe of his,
Which with his cruell tuske him deadly cloyd:
For that wilde Bore, the which him once annoyd,
She firmely hath emprisoned for ay,
That her sweet loue his malice mote auoyd,
In a strong rocky Caue, which is they say,
Hewen vnderneath that Mount, that none him losen may.

-49-
There now he liues in euerlasting ioy,
With many of the Gods in company,
Which thither haunt, and with the winged boy
Sporting himselfe in safe felicity:
Who when he hath with spoiles and cruelty
Ransackt the world, and in the wofull harts
Of many wretches set his triumphes hye,
Thither resorts, and laying his sad darts
Aside, with faire Adonis playes his wanton parts.

GLOSSE

Stanza 29
1-9 Legend of Adonis: Adonis, a very handsome young man, loved by Aphrodite (Image). A talented hunter, he disregards the warnings of the goddess to retreat in the face of a boar that stood its ground and was fatal injured by the boar (Image). The grieving Aphrodite sprinkled nectar on the blood-soaked ground and the anemone blossomed forth (Ovid's Met. 10.708-739). [Gr. prop. name, Adonis comes from the Phoen. ad)n=lord, title of a Phoenician divinity, and a name of a God in Heb. (OED)]. See Venus and Adonis below.
4 Paphos: City on the western side of Cyprus, near which (1km away) Aphrodite arose from the foam of the sea. Cytheron: An island off the southern coast of the Peloponnesus; this island is known principally as a cult center of Aphrodite, who is often called Cythereia; Herodotus said that the Phoenicians founded her shrine there). Two sources, Boccaccio 1976:3.22 and Chaucer's Knight's Tale1936-37.
5 Gnidus (or Cnidus): According to T. Cooper (1565), Cnidus is "a city of Caria where Aphrodite was worshipped."
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Stanza 30
7 progenie: the offspring (of a father, or a mother, or of both), more widely, descendants (OED).
8 weed: a) a herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty, growing wild and rank, and regarded as cumbering the ground or hindering the growth of superior vegetation; b) a garment; c) transf. and fig. (e.g. our 'garment' of flesh) (OED). See also, II xii 55.8 and VII vii 42.2.
8 bud: a) Bot. applied to a flower (or leaf) at any stage of growth until fully opened; b) anything in an immature or undeveloped state, usually said of children or young persons, or as a term of endearment (OED).
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Stanza 31
2 girt: (OE. gyrdan = OS. Guardian): To surround as with a belt, to tie firmly or confine, to encompass (OED).
5 gate: opening in the wall made for entrance and exit; it also means the gate (s of heaven, hell, paradise, where the word may originally have been apprehended in a material sense or, the gate (s of death, used to denote a near approach to death) (OED). In the Bible, the references to the gate of hell (death) in Matthew 16:13-20, and for the gate of birth in Job 3.10. A second reference, Plato's Republic X. VII vii 45.7
8-9 genius: from Lat. gignere 'to beget, to give life.' It can also mean a person's good, evil genius: the two mutually opposed spirits (in Christian language angels) by whom every person was supposed to be attended throughout his life. Hence it applies to a person who powerfully influences for good or evil the character, conduct, or fortunes of another (OED). Best source, Cebes' Pinax, translated by Sir Frances Poyngz in the 1552 edition. Genius is also related to Latin "ingenium," (mind; intellect; genius; talent OED), roughly synonymous with ME "inwit" (conscience, reason, intellect, understanding; wisdom OED). See also, VII Xii 47.1.
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Stanza 32
3 naked babes: naked means unclothed, stripped to the skin, nude. Figuratively, it means unfilled, unembodied spirits (OED), referring to the preexistence of souls. The best source, Virgil's Aen., 6.679-714.
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Stanza 33
5 thousand: (an Indo-Euro. Root: *t(s means 'multitude, force'), the cardinal number is equal to ten times one hundred (OED). Biblical references list numerous usage of ten and its multiples, including one thousand. Biblical numerologists refer to ten as a biblical favorite symbolic number suggestive of a rounded total, large or small, according to circumstances. Other source, see Virgil's Aeneid, 6.743-51. Also, see II xii 1.9; II xii 25.1; VII vi 10.4; VII vi 48.9; VII vi 54.9; VII vii 6.8; VII vii 23.9; VII vii 25.3; VII vii 28.4.
9 wheel: images of a wheel found in the doctrine of Pythagoras, Ovid, Met.15.165-7 and Plato's Timaeus (79). See also, II xii 20.6; VII vi 1.1
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Stanza 34
9 moisture: Liquid part or constituent of a body, living plants, and animals; also, in early use freq. in a spiritual context: inspiration, refreshment (OED).
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Stanza 35
2-9: The images in this stanza resemble 1 Corinthians 15.39 where Apostle Paul says: "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of fishes, and another of birdes."
2 uncouth: srtrange; arvelous (OED). formes: In the Scholastic philosophy: The essential determinant principle of a thing; that which makes anything (matter) a determinate species or kind of being; the essential creative quality. (OED)
3 sundry: Separately (OED).
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Stanza 36
8 Chaos: The 'formless void' of primordial matter, the 'great deep' or 'abyss' out of which the cosmos or order of the universe was evolved. (OED); Ovid's Met. (1.5-20); Genesis (1.2); Augustine Literal Meaning of Genesis (Bk. 1 Ch. 13); "great Earth, great chaos child" VII vi 26.6 9. substances: That which underlies phenomena; the permanent substratum of things; that which receives modifications and is not itself a mode; that in which accidents or attributes inhere (OED).
progenyes: That which originates from or is produced by something (material or immaterial); issue, product, outcome, result (OED).
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Stanza 37
2-3 Forme and matter: the two terms are wholly central to the metaphysical theories of Plato and Aristotle. In Plato's Theory of Form, forms were conceived of as separate existents, which were responsible for particulars being of the kind they were. Aristotle, by contrast believed in immanent forms. Neither prime matter nor pure forms can exist independently. Any work of Plato will mention his theory of forms while the discussion of Aristotle can be found in Metaphysics. Aristotle dominated philosophical thought until the seventeenth century though Spenser would have known of Plato. See Oxford Companion to Philosophy: form and matter; Forms, Platonic.
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Stanza 38
1 substance in 37 and 38 has been discussed as used by Spenser to mean matter. While this is surely possible its important to note than in philosophical discussions, substance differs from matter (see 36.9), and that assuming both words as the same means Spenser changes several key philosophical theories. 4. VII vii 51.2; VII vii 18
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Stanza 39
3-4 VII viii 1;VII vii 47-49
7 flaggy: Hanging down limply or lankly; flag was a term to describe any reed or rush (OED).
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Stanza 40
7 no'te: could not, knew not how too.
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Stanza 41
6 fond: Infatuated, foolish (OED). 7. Every lover his spouse knows.
9 felicitie: happiness (OED).
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Stanza 42
1-6 Common traits of the paradise garden; Homer Ody. (7.112-119); Genesis (1.12); Ovid Met. (1.107-110) 4.
4 Prime: The first season of the year (OED).
5 eke: also (OED).
attonce: With the temporal sense weakened: In one and the same act, position, condition, circumstances, manner, degree; equally, both. (OED)
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Stanza 43
1 Right in the Middest: Being in Stanza 340 of 679, excluding the proem and the arguments to the cantos, therefore being the center of Book Three.
3 Mirtle or Myrtle is one of Venus' symbols, the other being the dove, in Greek mythology, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is also used as a symbol of love
7 bedight: Bedeck, to equip or furnish, apparel. (OED)
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Stanza 44
2 arbour: a term used to name a flower bed a lawn covered with grass or a shady retreat. (OED)
4 rancke: Dense, excessive. (OED)
6 Eglantine and Caprifole: Sweetbriar and Honeysuckle, respectively
8 Phoebus: the Sun
9 Aeolus: the Wind
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Stanza 45
3 Hyacinthus: In Book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphosis, Hyacinthus is accidentally killed by Phoebus. Grieved by the death of his companion, Phoebus causes a flower to grow from the fallen Spartan's blood, looking much like purple lily.
5 Narcisse fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and died at the side of the pool because he would not leave his image.
6 Amaranthus: An eternal and unfading flower used in a poetic sense. Also a Genus of plant of which Love-lies-bleeding and Prince's Feather are species.
7 Amintas is the name of a man who died over the love of a Phillis and was turned into the Amaranthus. (Thomas Watson's Amyntas 1585, Ed. Walter F. Staton, 1967)
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Stanza 46
1-2 Venus and Adonis: Ovid's Metamorphosis bk. 10, Venus, accidentally scratched by Cupid's arrow, falls in love with beautiful Adonis, the son of an incestuous coupling. He is killed by a boar and a red flower springs from his blood. See Legend of Adonis above.
7 Stygian: Pertaining to the river Styx. (OED)
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Stanza 47
1 Sooth: Truthfully, in truth. (OED) also used in FQ III iii 13.
5 Mutabilitie: A disposition to change, variableness, inconstancy. (OED) 9 Mote- Expressing Permission, "May." (OED)
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Stanza 48
4 Cloyd: The feminine usage of the word "Cloud," carrying the connotation of, to darken, cast in shadow or shade (OED).
6 Ay: Ever, always, continually, for eternity.
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Stanza 49
3 Winged Boy: A reference to Cupid.
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-29- She brought her to her ioyous Paradize, Where most she wonnes, when she on earth does dwel. So faire a place, as Nature can deuize: Whether in Paphos, or Cytheron hill, Or it in Gnidus be, I wote not well; But well I wote by tryall, that this same All other pleasant places doth excell, And called is by her lost louers name, The Gardin of Adonis, farre renowmd by fame.	-30- In that same Gardin all the goodly flowres, Wherewith dame Nature doth her beautifie, And decks the girlonds of her paramoures, Are fetcht: there is the first seminarie Of all things, that are borne to liue and die, According to their kindes. Long worke it were, Here to account the endlesse progenie Of all the weedes, that bud and blossome there; But so much as doth need, must needs be counted here.	-31- It sited was in fruitfull soyle of old, And girt in with two walles on either side; The one of yron, the other of bright gold, That none might thorough breake, nor ouer-stride: And double gates it had, which opened wide, By which both in and out men moten pas; Th'one faire and fresh, the other old and dride: Old Genius the porter of them was, Old Genius, the which a double nature has.
-32- He letteth in, he letteth out to wend, All that to come into the world desire; A thousand thousand naked babes attend About him day and night, which doe require, That he with fleshly weedes would them attire: Such as him list, such as eternall fate Ordained hath, he clothes with sinfull mire, And sendeth forth to liue in mortall state, Till they againe returne backe by the hinder gate.	-33- After that they againe returned beene, They in that Gardin planted be againe; And grow afresh, as they had neuer seene Fleshly corruption, nor mortall paine. Some thousand yeares so doen they there remaine; And then of him are clad with other hew, Or sent into the chaungefull world againe, Till thither they returne, where first they grew: So like a wheele around they runne from old to new.	-34- Ne needs there Gardiner to set, or sow, To plant or prune: for of their owne accord All things, as they created were, doe grow, And yet remember well the mightie word, Which first was spoken by th'Almightie lord, That bad them to increase and multiply: Ne doe they need with water of the ford, Or of the clouds to moysten their roots dry; For in themselues eternall moisture they imply.
-35- Infinite shapes of creatures there are bred, And vncouth formes, which none yet euer knew, And euery sort is in a sundry bed Set by it selfe, and ranckt in comely rew: Some fit for reasonable soules t'indew, Some made for beasts, some made for birds to weare, And all the fruitfull spawne of fishes hew In endlesse rancks along enraunged were, That seem'd the Ocean could not containe them there.	-36- Daily they grow, and daily forth are sent Into the world, it to replenish more; Yet is the stocke not lessened, nor spent, But still remaines in euerlasting store, As it at first created was of yore. For in the wide wombe of the world there lyes, In hatefull darkenesse and in deepe horrore, An huge eternall Chaos, which supplyes The substances of natures fruitfull progenyes.	-37- All things from thence doe their first being fetch, And borrow matter, whereof they are made, Which when as forme and feature it does ketch, Becomes a bodie, and doth then inuade The state of life, out of the griesly shade. That substance is eterne, and bideth so, Ne when the life decayes, and forme does fade, Doth it consume, and into nothing go, But chaunged is, and often altred to and fro.
-38- The substance is not chaunged, nor altered, But th'only forme and outward fashion; For euery substance is conditioned To change her hew, and sundry formes to don, Meet for her temper and complexion: For formes are variable and decay, By course of kind, and by occasion; And that faire flowre of beautie fades away, As doth the lilly fresh before the sunny ray.	-39- Great enimy to it, and to all the rest, That in the Gardin of Adonis springs, Is wicked Time, who with his scyth addrest, Does mow the flowring herbes and goodly things, And all their glory to the ground downe flings, Where they doe wither, and are fowly mard: He flyes about, and with his flaggy wings Beates downe both leaues and buds without regard, Ne euer pittie may relent his malice hard.	-40- Yet pittie often did the gods relent, To see so faire things mard, and spoyled quight: And their great mother Venus did lament The losse of her deare brood, her deare delight: Her hart was pierst with pittie at the sight, When walking through the Gardin, them she spyde, Yet no'te she find redresse for such despight. For all that liues, is subiect to that law: All things decay in time, and to their end do draw.
-41- But were it not, that Time their troubler is, All that in this delightfull Gardin growes, Should happie be, and haue immortall blis: For here all plentie, and all pleasure flowes, And sweet loue gentle fits emongst them throwes, Without fell rancor, or fond gealosie; Franckly each paramour his leman knowes, Each bird his mate, ne any does enuie Their goodly meriment, and gay felicitie.	-42- There is continuall spring, and haruest there Continuall, both meeting at one time: For both the boughes doe laughing blossomes beare, And with fresh colours decke the wanton Prime, And eke attonce the heauy trees they clime, Which seeme to labour vnder their fruits lode: The whiles the ioyous birdes make their pastime Emongst the shadie leaues, their sweet abode, And their true loues without suspition tell abrode.	-43- Right in the middest of that Paradise, There stood a stately Mount, on whose round top A gloomy groue of mirtle trees did rise, Whose shadie boughes sharpe steele did neuer lop, Nor wicked beasts their tender buds did crop, But like a girlond compassed the hight, And from their fruitfull sides sweet gum did drop, That all the ground with precious deaw bedight, Threw forth most dainty odours, & most sweet delight.
-44- And in the thickest couert of that shade, There was a pleasant arbour, not by art, But of the trees owne inclination made, Which knitting their rancke braunches part to part, With wanton yuie twyne entrayld athwart, And Eglantine, and Caprifole emong, Fashiond aboue within their inmost part, That nether Phoebus beams could through them throng, Nor Aeolus sharp blast could worke them any wrong.	-45- And all about grew euery sort of flowre, To which sad louers were transformd of yore; Fresh Hyacinthus, Phoebus paramoure, And dearest loue: Foolish Narcisse, that likes the watry shore, Sad Amaranthus, made a flowre but late, Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore Me seemes I see Amintas wretched fate, To whom sweet Poets verse hath giuen endlesse date.	-46- There wont faire Venus often to enioy Her deare Adonis ioyous company, And reape sweet pleasure of the wanton boy; There yet, some say, in secret he does ly, Lapped in flowres and pretious spycery, By her hid from the world, and from the skill Of Stygian Gods, which doe her loue enuy; But she her selfe, when euer that she will, Possesseth him, and of his sweetnesse takes her fill.
-47- And sooth it seemes they say: for he may not For euer die, and euer buried bee In balefull night, where all things are forgot; All be he subiect to mortalitie, Yet is eterne in mutabilitie, And by succession made perpetuall, Transformed oft, and chaunged diuerslie: For him the Father of all formes they call; Therefore needs mote he liue, that liuing giues to all.	-48- There now he liueth in eternall blis, Ioying his goddesse, and of her enioyd: Ne feareth he henceforth that foe of his, Which with his cruell tuske him deadly cloyd: For that wilde Bore, the which him once annoyd, She firmely hath emprisoned for ay, That her sweet loue his malice mote auoyd, In a strong rocky Caue, which is they say, Hewen vnderneath that Mount, that none him losen may.	-49- There now he liues in euerlasting ioy, With many of the Gods in company, Which thither haunt, and with the winged boy Sporting himselfe in safe felicity: Who when he hath with spoiles and cruelty Ransackt the world, and in the wofull harts Of many wretches set his triumphes hye, Thither resorts, and laying his sad darts Aside, with faire Adonis playes his wanton parts.