In his 1616 Folio edition of Cynthia's Revels Ben Jonson identified the Italianate gentleman Signior Amorphus as the Earl of Oxford.
The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 23 May 1601, with the title Narcissus the Fountain
of Self-Love. It was published in quarto
later that year by the bookseller Walter Burre under the title The Fountain of Self-Love, or Cynthia's Revels.
“O for Hermes’ wand
|
To touch this flower into human shape! - Keats, Endymion
|
*****************************
Alciato's Book of Emblems
Emblem 69
Self-love
Because your figure pleased you too much, Narcissus, [or - because your beauty (forma) was excessively pleasing to you] it was changed
into a flower, a plant of known senselessness (stupor). Self-love is the
WITHERING (marcor) and destruction of natural power (ingenium) which brings and has
brought ruin to many learned men, who having thrown away the method of
the ancients seek new doctrines and pass on nothing but their own
fantasies (phantasia).
Emblem 69
Self-love
Because your figure pleased you too much, Narcissus, [or - because your beauty (forma) was excessively pleasing to you] it was changed
into a flower, a plant of known senselessness (stupor). Self-love is the
WITHERING (marcor) and destruction of natural power (ingenium) which brings and has
brought ruin to many learned men, who having thrown away the method of
the ancients seek new doctrines and pass on nothing but their own
fantasies (phantasia).
****************************
Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount-from Cynthia's Revels
By Ben Jonson
Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;
Yet slower, yet, O faintly, gentle springs!
List to the heavy part the music bears,
Woe weeps out her division, when she sings.
Droop herbs and flowers;
Fall grief in showers;
Our beauties are not ours.
O, I could still,
Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
Drop, drop, drop, drop,
Since nature’s pride is now a withered daffodil.
****************************
Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Eric Langley
...Revisioned as an advice book, the Metamorphoses becomes part of the speculum text tradition, readable
as a sequence of emblems or exemplary mirrors. Geffrey Whitney’s Choice of Emblemes includes verses that,
displaying their debt to the translators’ additions, demonstrate how Ovid’s
text becomes something akin to a source book for morality figures, a vice
figure lexicon: Whitney is quoting Golding when he describes how ‘[t]he riche,
the pore, the learned, and the sotte’ all ‘[o]ffende therein: and yet thy see
it not’. Again, the latent moral of the Ovidian tale is clarified and
systematized for its Renaissance audience, just as the ‘secret sore’ of
self-love that ‘lies hidden from our eyes’ within the individual is revealed
until ‘plainlie see[n]’ and safelie visible. Finally, by the mid-sixteenth
century, Narcissus becomes almost exclusively a cautionary figure, employed as
a warning for vain courtiers and those susceptible to flattery, or as
chastisement to those unsusceptible to the charms of the courting poet.
Narcisssus, accordingly, often appears in briedf verses dedicated ‘To a Lady
wearing a Looking-glass at her girdle’ or ‘To his Mistresse…being at her
Looking-glasse’. The paradox – and Narcissus is a figure for whom paradox is
peculiarly apposite – is complet’ warning the reader against looking in the
mirror, these texts demand we read them as mirrors. A mirror condemns a mirror:
I would have them to behold themselves in this glasse’ not
doubting, but that as Narcissus, viewing himself in that pure cleare Fountaine,
wherein he saw his own most beautifull Image, dyded overcome with…selfe-love’
so these men will either die, or their vices in them, through…hate of
themselves.
Narcissus therefore acts as cautionary metonym for the
broader speculum tradition as categorized by Herbert Graves, enlisted to make
clear otherwise worryingly blurred distinctions between the Socratic mirror of
self-knowledge and the vain mirror of self-idolatry. Discussing the Delphic
injunction carved into the stone of Apollo’s temple (‘know theyself’), Socrates
explains to Alcibiades that it should be understood as ‘see thyself’; ‘the eye
[should] be looking at something in which it could see itself’, he continues,
suggesting either a mirror or the reflective surface of the beloved’s eye (‘then
will an eye see itself if it observes and eye’).
*****************************
Ovid - Adstupet
stupeō uī, ēre STIP-, to be struck senseless, be stunned, be
benumbed, be aghast, be astounded, be amazed, be stupefied: animus stupet, T.:
cum hic semisomnus stuperet: exspectatione, L.: aere, H.: in titulis, H.: in
Turno, V.: ad auditas voces, O.: stupet Inter se coiisse viros, V.: Pars stupet
donum Minervae, are lost in wonder at, V.
—To be benumbed, be stiffened, be silenced, hesitate, stop: stupuitque Ixionis orbis, O.: stupente ita seditione, L.: stupuerunt verba palato, O.
—To be benumbed, be stiffened, be silenced, hesitate, stop: stupuitque Ixionis orbis, O.: stupente ita seditione, L.: stupuerunt verba palato, O.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin stupor
(“insensibility, numbness, dullness”), from stupeō (“I am stunned, I am
numb”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-.
Distantly related (from Proto-Indo-European, via Proto-Germanic) to stint,
stub,
and steep.
stupor (plural stupors)
- A state of reduced consciousness or sensibility.
- A state in which one has difficulty in thinking or using one’s senses.
Shakespeare:
SONNET 62
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye,
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
*********************************
Upon Ben: Johnson, the most excellent of Comick Poets.
Mirror of Poets! Mirror of our Age!
Which her whole Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The spots return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D estate
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate,
But Vertue too, as well as Vice is clad,
In flesh and blood so well, that Plato had
Beheld what his high Fancie once embrac'd,
Vertue with colour, speech and motion grac'd.
The sundry Postures of Thy copious Muse,
Who would expresse a thousand tongues must use,
Whose Fates no lesse peculiar then thy Art,
For as thou couldst all characters impart,
So none can render thine, who still escapes,
Like Proteus in variety of shapes,
Who was nor this nor that, but all we finde,
And all we can imagine in mankind.
E. Waller
Mirror of Poets! Mirror of our Age!
Which her whole Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The spots return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D estate
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate,
But Vertue too, as well as Vice is clad,
In flesh and blood so well, that Plato had
Beheld what his high Fancie once embrac'd,
Vertue with colour, speech and motion grac'd.
The sundry Postures of Thy copious Muse,
Who would expresse a thousand tongues must use,
Whose Fates no lesse peculiar then thy Art,
For as thou couldst all characters impart,
So none can render thine, who still escapes,
Like Proteus in variety of shapes,
Who was nor this nor that, but all we finde,
And all we can imagine in mankind.
E. Waller
*************************************
John Beaumont , Jonsonus Virbius
...Twas he that found (plac'd) in the seat of wit,
DULL grinning IGNORANCE, and banish'd it;
He on the prostituted stage appears
To make men hear, not by their eyes, but ears;
Who painted virtues, that each one might know,
And point the man, that did such treasure owe :
So that who could in JONSON'S lines be high
Needed not honours, or a riband buy ;
But VICE he only shewed us in a GLASS,
Which by reflection of those rays that pass,
Retains the figure lively, set before,
And that withdrawn, reflects at us no more;
So, he observ'd the like DECORUM, when
*He whipt the vices, and yet spar'd the men* :
When heretofore, the Vice's only note,
And sign from virtue was his party-coat;
When devils were the last men on the stage,
And pray'd for plenty, and the present age.
...Twas he that found (plac'd) in the seat of wit,
DULL grinning IGNORANCE, and banish'd it;
He on the prostituted stage appears
To make men hear, not by their eyes, but ears;
Who painted virtues, that each one might know,
And point the man, that did such treasure owe :
So that who could in JONSON'S lines be high
Needed not honours, or a riband buy ;
But VICE he only shewed us in a GLASS,
Which by reflection of those rays that pass,
Retains the figure lively, set before,
And that withdrawn, reflects at us no more;
So, he observ'd the like DECORUM, when
*He whipt the vices, and yet spar'd the men* :
When heretofore, the Vice's only note,
And sign from virtue was his party-coat;
When devils were the last men on the stage,
And pray'd for plenty, and the present age.
*********************************
Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Eric Langley
Since that first translation of T.H. in 1560, Narcissus’
tale is accompanied by the advice that through its careful consideration we ‘maye
be learned how to perceiver/synne to abhore [and ]virtue to use’. T.H.
explains, in his ‘Moralization of the Fable’, how ‘I meane to shewe, according to
my wytte/That Ovyd by this tale no folllye mente/But soughte to shewe, the
doynges far unfytte/Of soundrye folke’ (ll.15-21); his conclusion is simply
that Ovid ‘by Narcissus warnith us to be ware/Of the mishap, that PRIDE doth
still repare’ (ll. 174-5). Any potentially ambivalent message, any sense that a
Narcissus narrative may in fact be charged by an admittedly precarious and
ultimately subsumed self-celebratory individualism, is masked by unconditional warnings
for the reader ‘who dothe covet him selfe of wiser skole’ and doth [therefore]
prove him selfe a fole’ (ll. 572-4). The Narcissus of these texts’
semi-apologetic authorial commentaries is ‘rash and ignorant’, ‘infected with
that poison’, ‘transported with self-love’, ‘intoxicated with self admiration’,
and, for Golding, ‘of scornfulnesse and pryde a mirror cleere’.
Concocting a social critique from the episode, Sandys
explains how those who ‘sequester themselves from publique converse and civill
affaires’ and surround themselves only with those who ‘applaud and admire them,
assenting to what they say, like as many Ecchoes’, become ‘depraved, puft up
with uncessant flattery’. Here, Sandys is echoing Francis Bacon’s description
of Narcissus, almost word for word; both Bacon and Sandy’s even allegorize the
moment of metamorphosis, suggesting that the self-admirer contracts ‘a
wonderful sloth, as stupefies their sences, and deprives them of all their
vigour and alacritie’, until ‘Narcissus is therefore converted to a flower of
his name, which signifies stupid’.
‘Neither is it impertinent that this Flower is said to be
consecrated to the infernal Deities’, concludes Bacon, adding, in the vein of
Shakespeare’s early sonnets; ‘because Men of this disposition become
unprofitable to all humane things: For whatsoever produceth no Fruit of it
self, but passeth, and vanisheth as if it had never been, (like the way of a
Ship in the Sea, ) that the Ancients were wont to dedicate to the Ghosts, and
Powers below.’ While these social
allegories certainly fit the Ovidian narrative, Bacon and Sandys have converted
a tale that in its original form acknowledge the guilty thrill of a proffered
individualism to something merely prohibitive; the alluring quality of Ovid’s
undisturbed virginal pool and the comforting fiction of potential
self-affirmation are absent from Sandy’s commentary as moral arbitrator: ‘which
signifies stupid’.
*********************************
Signifying Stupid:
Gainsborough ‘Damn the original picture [Droeshout Engraving]…I
think a stupider face I never beheld.’
*******************************
ALL FOOLS Chapman
And what is beauty? a meer Quintessence,
Whose life is not in being , but in seeming:
And therefore is not to all eyes the same
But like a cozening picture which one way
shows like a Crow, another like a Swan.
Whose life is not in being , but in seeming:
And therefore is not to all eyes the same
But like a cozening picture which one way
shows like a Crow, another like a Swan.
*******************************
Cynthia's Revels, Jonson
Amorphus:
...For, let your Soul be as-
sur'd of this (in any rank, or profession whatever) the
more general, or major part of Opinion goes with the
Face, and (simply) respects nothing else. Therefore,
if that can be made exactly, curiously, exquisitely,
thorowly, it is enough:
Amorphus:
...For, let your Soul be as-
sur'd of this (in any rank, or profession whatever) the
more general, or major part of Opinion goes with the
Face, and (simply) respects nothing else. Therefore,
if that can be made exactly, curiously, exquisitely,
thorowly, it is enough:
*******************************
Narcissus and the Invention of Personal History
By Kenneth J. Knoespel
Deception At Pool
Although Narcissus appears attracted to the pool because he
is tired from hunting, there is a more profound affinity between the person and
the place. As he approaches the pool, Ovid tells us, he is drawn to the water
and the appearance of the place: ‘faciemque loci fontemque secutus,”. Here the
use of FACIES not only denotes appearance but hints at the face he is about to
discover. As the water quenches his physical thirst it carries into his body an even more intense desire.
[While he tries to quench his thirst another thirst rises
within him, and while he drinks he is overwhelmed by the form he sees. He loves
an unsubstantial hope and believes that a body which is only water.]
Narcissus quite literally drinks from the image before him
and is poisoned. Hearing his own voice return from the woods, he is described as someone deceptus imagine vocis. Here, visae conreptus imagine formae, does
more than recall and amplify the earlier line. He is no longer simply deceived
but seized by a reflection on the water’s surface or a shadow which in Latin is
associated with death. Here Ovid probably alluded to the mythological
association of the narcissus flower with Persephone. There is no extended
comparison, however. Ovid was attracted to
the settings of such Greek stories for their potential in depicting
subtle mental changes, not their ritual meaning.
Gradually the evolving narrative intensifies the confusion
within Narcissus. Earlier when he was deceived
by the rebounding image of his voice, Ovid described him as astonished,
stupet. Now after he is seized by his reflection, Ovid emphasized his
astonishment with a word of his own invention, adstupet. The addition of the
preposition ad (meaning toward or near to) intensifies the meaning of stupere
and indicates even more active involvement. His experience renders him
senseless and he appears suspended as it he were a beautiful marble statue. By
comparing Narcissus to a statue, Ovid at once remind us of Narcissus’
remarkable beauty and his numbness. The comparison also depicts Narcissus’
growing alienation from himself because as he looks into the water he becomes a
spectator viewing his own image as an abstracted form.
*****************************
Jonson, Cynthia's Revels
Amorphus. That's good, but how Pythagorical?
Phi. I, Amorphus. Why Pythagorical Breeches?
Amo. O most kindly of all, 'tis a conceit of that fortune,
I am bold to hug my Brain for.
Pha. How is't, exquisite Amorphus?
Amo. O, I am rapt with it, 'tis so fit, so proper,
so happy. --
Phi. Nay do not rack us thus?
Amo. <>. Give me
your Ears. Breeches Pythagorical, by reason of their trans-
migration into several shapes.
Mor. Most rare, in sweet troth.
****************************
Henry Reynolds
...This Ecco descending vpon a Narcissus, or such
a Soule as (impurely and vitiously affected) slights, and stops his eares to the
Diuine voice, or shutts his harte from
diuine Inspirations, through his being enamour'd of
not himselfe, but his owne shadow meerely, and (buried in the ordures of the Sence)
followes corporall shadowes, and flyes the light and purity of Intellectuall
Beauty, he becoms thence (being dispoyled, (as the great Iamblicus
speakes) of his propper, natiue, and celestiall vertue, and ability,) an
earthy, weake, worthlesse thing, and fit sacrifize for only eternall obliuion,
and the dij inferi; to whom the Auncients (as is before noted)
be|queathed and dedicated this their lazy, stupid, and for-euer-famelesse Narcissus.
FINIS.
**************************
Cartwright, Son of Ben
Cartwright, William, Jonsonus Virbius
...Blest life of Authors, unto whom we owe
Those that we have, and those that we want too:
Th'art all so good, that reading makes thee worse,
And to have writ so well's thine onely curse.
Secure then of thy merit, thou didst hate
That servile base dependance upon fate:
Successe thou ne'r thoughtst vertue, nor that fit,
Which chance, and th'ages fashion did make hit;
*Excluding those from life in after-time*,
Who into Po'try first brought luck and rime:
Who thought the peoples breath good ayre: sty'ld name
What was but noise; and getting Briefes for fame
Gathered the many's suffrages, and thence
Made COMMENDATION a BENEVOLENCE:
THY thoughts were their owne Lawrell, and did win
That best applause of being crown'd within..
...Blest life of Authors, unto whom we owe
Those that we have, and those that we want too:
Th'art all so good, that reading makes thee worse,
And to have writ so well's thine onely curse.
Secure then of thy merit, thou didst hate
That servile base dependance upon fate:
Successe thou ne'r thoughtst vertue, nor that fit,
Which chance, and th'ages fashion did make hit;
*Excluding those from life in after-time*,
Who into Po'try first brought luck and rime:
Who thought the peoples breath good ayre: sty'ld name
What was but noise; and getting Briefes for fame
Gathered the many's suffrages, and thence
Made COMMENDATION a BENEVOLENCE:
THY thoughts were their owne Lawrell, and did win
That best applause of being crown'd within..
O for Hermes' wand
To touch this flower into human shape!
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. 24 February 1821 - Keats
