Measure for Measure Act 1, Scene 1a

17 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by memoirandremains in Shakespeare

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Measure for Measure, Play analysis, poem, Shakespeare

Measure for Measure has provoked a rather mixed appraisal among critics. While the play hinges on a very improbable plot point, it raises questions of morality in a rather pointed manner. I have been fascinated by this play and want to think it through

Scene 1

Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords, ⌜and Attendants.⌝

Duke

[1] Escalus.

Escalus

[2] My lord.

Duke

[3] Of government the properties to unfold

[4] Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse,

[5] Since I am put to know that your own science

[6] Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

[7] My strength can give you. Then no more remains

[8] But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,

[9] And let them work. The nature of our people,

[10] Our city’s institutions, and the terms

[11] For common justice, you’re as pregnant in

[12] As art and practice hath enrichèd any

[13] That we remember. There is our commission,

⌜He hands Escalus a paper.⌝

[14] From which we would not have you warp.—Call

[15] hither,

[16] I say, bid come before us Angelo.

⌜An Attendant exits.⌝

[17] What figure of us think you he will bear?

[18] For you must know, we have with special soul

[19] Elected him our absence to supply,

[20] Lent him our terror, dressed him with our love,

[21] And given his deputation all the organs

[22] Of our own power. What think you of it?

Escalus

[23] If any in Vienna be of worth

[24] To undergo such ample grace and honor,

[25] It is Lord Angelo.

This introductory scene is all exposition, typically the dullest part of a story. Let us consider how Shakespeare handles this.

First, the entry of the characters.

Duke

[1] Escalus.

Escalus

[2] My lord.

We would have the advantage of seeing the way the men are dressed. But the costumes alone would only convey a limited amount of information. This interaction is necessary in any conversation, the two people acknowledge one-another.

We also learn that one character is named “Escalus” and the other character is more important, he is address, “My lord.”

The Duke (we do not necessarily know exactly what his status before this speech):

Duke

[3] Of government the properties to unfold

[4] Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse,

[5] Since I am put to know that your own science

[6] Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

[7] My strength can give you. Then no more remains

[8] But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,

[9] And let them work. The nature of our people,

[10] Our city’s institutions, and the terms

[11] For common justice, you’re as pregnant in

[12] As art and practice hath enrichèd any

[13] That we remember.

Details

[3] Of government the properties to unfold

[4] Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse,

There is no need for me to explain [unfold] how our government works. To explain that to you would be an affectation.

[5] Since I am put to know that your own science

[6] Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

[7] My strength can give you.

Your “science” is your knowledge. You already know more about the government than I could tell you. This particular element is not a significant point in the remainder of the play, so one could see this as perhaps a slight misstep. On the other hand, the Duke is about to put someone else in charge of the state while the Duke leaves. Perhaps we can understand this as flattery meant to soften the fact that another will be given the reigns and not Escalus.

Then no more remains

[8] But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,

[9] And let them work. The nature of our people,

[10] Our city’s institutions, and the terms

[11] For common justice, you’re as pregnant in

[12] As art and practice hath enrichèd any

[13] That we remember.

He continues on with the praise of Escalus. But here we have our first pun –which is not apparent on the first encounter as it will be later. Escalus is “pregnant/in art and practice.” This play will turn upon the question of pregnancy, art (skill) and practice. Also, Escalus is “enriched” in this knowledge. And to “know” something also has double meaning.

The Duke continues:

There is our commission,

⌜He hands Escalus a paper.⌝

[14] From which we would not have you warp.—Call

[15] hither,

[16] I say, bid come before us Angelo.

The Duke gives instruction to Escalus and tells him he may not vary anything in the direction. The irony here is the question of varying from the strict application of the law is the main moral quandary of this play. Escalus reads the paper and the Duke continues:

⌜An Attendant exits.⌝

[17] What figure of us think you he will bear?

[18] For you must know, we have with special soul

[19] Elected him our absence to supply,

[20] Lent him our terror, dressed him with our love,

[21] And given his deputation all the organs

[22] Of our own power. What think you of it?

This information which Escalus does not have and which he needs. Also, this is all we need to know about the circumstance to permit the play to get going. The Duke asks Escalus whether he agrees with this decision. This allows us to learn this point of exposition, but it is not given mere talk so the play can get going.

It also sets up a dramatic question which underlies the remainder of the play, Is Angelo able to handle this power.

We then here the answer:

Escalus

[23] If any in Vienna be of worth

[24] To undergo such ample grace and honor,

[25] It is Lord Angelo.

There is an interesting ambiguity here. If any be worthy is Angelo. Does this mean that Angelo is the best or that no one is worthy.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 42

04 Friday Nov 2022

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Edward Taylor, Edward Taylor Meditation 42, poem, Poetry, Poetry Analysis

Apples of gold in silver pictures shrined

Enchant the appetite, make mouths to water.

And loveliness in lumps tunn’d and enshrined

In jasper cask, when tapped, doth briskly vaper:

Brings forth a birth of keys to unlock Love’s Chest, 5

That Love, like birds, may fly to’t from its nest.

(World’s largest wine tun)

Such is my Lord, and more. But what strange thing

Am I become? Sin rusts my lock all o’re.

Though he thousand keys all on a string

Takes out, scarce one, is found, unlocks the door. 10

Which ope, my love crincht in a corner lies

Like some shrunk crickling and scare can rise.

Notes

To “tun” to store in a tun, a cask.

Vaper: turn to vapor? (There is a contemporary definition of the word meaning one who “vapes.)

Crinch: An obsolete dialect form of “cringe”. The idea being to grind or to be a small ground down bit. Here the meaning is to be folded or cramped into a corner.

Crickling: something small, shrunken

The Motto as printed mistakenly reads Revelation 3:22, but quotes from

Revelation 3:21 (KJV)

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

This comes at the end of the seven “letters” which Jesus sends to seven churches. In addition to various warnings and commendations, Jesus makes promises to the church. This is the final promise to the churches. To sit on the throne with does not mean two people physically sitting in the same chair but rather sharing in one’s inheritance and power. To this extent the promise echoes:

Romans 8:14–17 (KJV)

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ¹⁵For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ¹⁶The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: ¹⁷And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Apples of gold this line is an allusion to Proverbs 25:11 “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

Here “shrined” must mean placed.

Enchant the appetite, make mouths to water. The sight of something delicious stimulates the appetite. A side note: I just finished teaching the chapter on motivation for introductory psychology. The textbook reports the finding that sensory exposure to food can stimulate the appetite. Apparently Taylor happened upon this scientific discovery some years earlier.

And loveliness in lumps tunn’d and enshrined

In jasper cask, when tapped, doth briskly vaper.

These lines function as a repetition of the concept from the first two lines: When exposed to something beautiful or desirable, the effect to create positive response. I must admit that the use of the word “lump” with a positive connotation is difficult for modern ears but the sound of the line is excellent. There the repetition of “l” loveliness/lumps. The repeated “u” “lumps tunn’d”. The repetition of the “t” and “d” tunn’d/tapped creates a near rhyme. The “enshrined” parallels the “shrined” of the first line.

The last word “vaper” must then parallel the conceit of a positive response (mouths to water = vaper), but I am not quite certain of Taylor’s meaning.

Perhaps it means to turn to vapor which then leads to the next image:

doth briskly vaper:

Brings forth a birth of keys

Here the subjective effect of the sight moves from taste/appetite, to vapor, to mental state which is akin to keys which open a chest. The move between psychological states and concrete images is something.

One could either find the shift between mental states and physical objects too remote and dissonant to be effective. But as I work with this idea, I like the movement here. I come to a sight. The sight strikes and creates a strong desire. That desire is a key which will open a chest.

In that manner I find the movement of images effective: Desire certainly can be a power which opens “Love’s Chest.” In fact, it is hard to conceive of love without desire for the beloved:

Brings forth a birth of keys to unlock Love’s Chest, 5

That Love, like birds, may fly to’t from its nest.

The sight of this chest creates strong desire in me, which opens this chest. This chest, “love’s chest” welcomes love to enter, like a bird it will there.

The difficulty of Taylor’s images can either be taken as a needlessly difficult puzzle, or as a faithful representation of manner in which ideas move from one-association to another. The poem is not impenetrable. Rather the difficulty can lie in the difficulty of tracing another human being’s thought.

What is interesting, is that we do not know yet what Taylor has seen. The references to the apples of gold or loveliness in lumps are stand-ins for what he has actually come to see. But that is not revealed until the first line of the second stanza:

Such is my Lord, and more.

We can now fill-in the movement of thought. The sight of my Lord creates such desire, that it opens a chest for love to enter and remain. The Second Meditation refers to a soul as a cabinet wherein the Lord could be present as something of inestimable value.

This then leads to an overarching theme of Taylor’s poetry: the beauty/holiness/wonder of the Lord when brought into contrast with the unworthiness of the poet. There is an absurd difference between the greatness of God and the sinfulness of the man.

But what strange thing

Am I become? Sin rusts my lock all o’re

Here we have language which echoes Mediation 36, But am I thine? Oh! What strange thing’s in me? https://memoirandremains.com/tag/meditation-36/

The next movement of the story should “obviously” be he will open his life to this beauty. But instead, sin has intervened. The key of desire cannot open the chest for love, because Sin rusts my lock all o’re

Here his imagery becomes a bit confused but still consistent in its emphasis:

Though he thousand keys all on a string

Takes out, scarce one, is found, unlocks the door. 10

Which ope, my love crincht in a corner lies

Like some shrunk crickling and scare can rise.

If one opens “Love’s Chest”, love will be found inside, but it is shrunken and whithered in a corner. The just of the obsolete dialect “crincht” and “crickling” sounds wonderful to me. They are words that sound like what they mean. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/456303/word-that-sounds-like-its-meaning-not-onomatopoeia-ex-twinkle

Edward Taylor, Meditation 41.7

27 Thursday Oct 2022

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Edward Taylor, Meditation 41, poem, Poetry Analysis

Reason, lie prison’d in this golden chain.

Chain up thy tongue and silent stand awhile

Let this rich love thy love and heart obtain

To tend thy Lord in all admiring style.

Lord screw my faculties up to the skill

And height of praise as answers thy good will.

Notes

Having examined the impossible goods of the Lord to pay his debt and set him free from the debtor’s prison of death by overing the debt from the prison, the grave, what can be said. This makes no “sense”: What does God obtain from saving me from my own rebellion.

In trying to make sense this, the poet can do no more but turn to his reason, which would seek to explain all and tell his reason to stand back and just admire:

Reason, lie prison’d in this golden chain.

Chain up thy tongue and silent stand awhile

The repetition the word “chain” and the repetition of the image of the prison work well here. The Lord has set me free from the prison, so you stand here imprisoned and be silent. The chain is golden because it is so wonderful, but it is a chain of goodness and release. William Ames had years previous published his “Golden Chain” to speak of God’s salvation and predestination. The image of a golden chain of salvation was taken up by other Puritan writers:

The gracious purpose of God is the fountain-head of all our spiritual blessings. It is the impulsive cause of our vocation, justification, glorification; it is the highest link in the golden chain of salvation. What is the reason that God has entered into a covenant with fallen man? it is from his eternal purpose.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 5 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 316–317.

To give just one more instance:

Again, tell me, O despairing soul, is not the grace of God free grace, is not man’s salvation of free grace?2 ‘By grace ye are saved,’ Ephes. 2:8. Every link of this golden chain is grace. It is free grace that chose us, Rom. 11:5. Even so then at this present time also there is ‘a remnant according to the election of grace.’ It is free grace that chooses some to be jewels from all eternity, that chooses some to life, when others are left in darkness.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 375.

By referring to this salvation as a golden chain is thus unique to Taylor. But what Taylor does with this image is turn it upon reason which would seek a reason for God’s love. That golden chain of salvation is a golden chain which chains up the mouth of reason.

It has nothing more to say.

Reason seeks to capture and limit and make a thing comprehensible. But this love is to be praised, not to be parsed and understood.

He then explains to his Reason to rather receive what is being given:

Let this rich love thy love and heart obtain

It reminds me of John Donne’s Poem The Canonization which begins

For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love

I do not know if Taylor was familiar with this particular poem, but the progression of images is similar.

And yet, it does not stand in complete silence: but rather than explain he praises:

To tend thy Lord in all admiring style.

Receive this love, then praise: “tend thy Lord” and how so, “in all admiring style.”

He then turns to the Lord with a prayer asking for help to praise the Lord:

Lord screw my faculties up to the skill

And height of praise as answers thy good will.

Lord give me the powers (screw up my facilities). This means to tighten up to prepare. As Lady Macbeth says to her wavering husband: “But screw your courage to the sticking place.”

Prepare and make ready by abilities. Do not let them fail. Make me able to provide the praise which makes the good which you have done me.

This means then that the poem and the act of prayer in the poem are self-referential. Lord help me praise you. The poem is itself the praise which he prayed to receive.

This is an interesting facet of Taylor’s poetry: the degree to which the poem references itself. The preceding stanzas of the poem, which were all praise to the goodness of God are the praise for which he prays at the end of the poem.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 41.6

20 Thursday Oct 2022

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Edward Taylor, Meditation 41, poem, Poetry Analysis

Stanza 6

Why didst thou thus? Reason stands gastered here.

She’s overflown: this soars above her sight.

God’s only Son for sinner thus appear

Prepare for dirt a throne in glory bright!

Stand in the door of glory to embrace 35

Such dirty bits of dirt with such grace!

Notes

Here is one of the unfathomable mysteries of the Gospel: Why would God do this:

Why didst thou thus?

The creature can never provide any benefit to the Creator. Even the bare existence of the creature is at the will of the Creator. When the creature rebels, what reason would God have to rescue the creature of its rebellion:

Reason stands gastered here.

God’s mercy and love are unreasonable, in any metric which we could use. When reason looks upon this situation it causes perplexity and fear, it is “gastered”. The word “gastered” is related to gast, agast, and aghast, all meaning to be afraid. The idea here is as if reason looks upon what God has done and is as frightened as if it had seen a ghost.

Now it may seem strange to combine the idea of God’s mercy and sacrifice with fear. However the Scripture does just that:

Psalm 130:3–4 (ESV)

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,

that you may be feared.

When reason looks about grace, it seems inexplicable:

Micah 7:18–20 (ESV)

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us;

he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our fathers

from the days of old.

The language “pardoning iniquity” is literally “bearing iniquity” or carrying it away, hence pardoning. But the iniquity is carried away because it is carried by the body of Christ:

²²He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:22–24 (ESV)

To seek to explain the act of God on here on some “rational” basis will fail:

She’s overflown: this soars above her sight.

We are left with no explanation than the “praise of his glory.” Eph. 1:12.

We are left here with the repetition of the words and images of dirt and glory:

God’s only Son for sinner thus appear

Prepare for dirt a throne in glory bright!

Stand in the door of glory to embrace 35

Such dirty bits of dirt with such grace!

The foulest are brought up to the highest. Mud, for we are dirt and water, is elevated to a rank above the angels, to share an inheritance with Christ.

Why would God such a thing? A parable by Kierkegaard alludes to this absurdity:

“Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents.

“And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden who lived in a poor village in his kingdom. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist-no one dared resist him. But would she love him?

“She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know for sure? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal.

“The king, convinced he could not elevate the maiden without crushing her freedom, resolved to descend to her. Clothed as a beggar, he approached her cottage with a worn cloak fluttering loose about him. This was not just a disguise – the king took on a totally new identity – He had renounced his throne to declare his love and to win hers.”

The parable however should not end here. The king then raises the beggar to the throne. It is ridiculous. Why would God even trouble himself?

We do not tremble at the thoughts of God’s action here as we should. Perhaps our natural pride is such that we do not see ourselves as the humble maiden but as someone who should be loved by the King. With Heinrich Heine we could think, “Of course God will forgive me; that’s his job.”

What is strange in our pride is that grace ennobles us. Anyone reasonably acquainted with human beings cannot have an overly high valuation on the manner to which we live up to that we profess to be best. We are ridiculous and become increasing absurd. We certainly do nothing to ennoble God.

We have the dignity of a dog standing on its hindlegs begging for snacks.

But God’s love and mercy ennoble us, because God conveys his glory to us and values us so. It the high value which God places upon us which makes of infinite value. And that leaves us with the mystery:

Psalm 8

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David.

¹O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. ²Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

³When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ⁵For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ⁶Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: ⁷All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; ⁸The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. ⁹O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Edward Taylor, Meditation 41.5

15 Saturday Oct 2022

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Edward Taylor, Meditation 41, poem, Poetry analys

Stanza 5

What wonder’s here? Big belli’d wonders in’t 25

Remain, though wrought for saints as white as milk.

But done for me whose blot’s as black as ink

A clew of wonders finer far than silk.

Thy hand alone that wound this clew I find

Can to display these wonders it unwind. 30

Note

This stanza answers the question: What sort of wonder is here found:

What wonder’s here?

The image of the wonders being bursting full is quite striking:

Big belli’d wonders in’t

I don’t believe I could have described the wonder as “big bellied”. The two B’s in this image are matched later by the B’s in “blot’s as black as ink”.

But this strange image is set up for a further description. The argument runs as follows: If this rescue had merely been for perfect people

saints as white as milk

It would have been a big bellied wonder. But this miracle extends further than perfect people, it extends to me:

But done for me whose blot’s as black as ink

I am as opposite of a perfect person as could be found. They are “white as milk.” I’m as black as ink. This contrast sets up a second description of the wonder:

A clew of wonders finer far than silk.

A clew (a ball) of wonders is a repetition of the first line of the poem, albeit with the additional description that it is “finer far than silk.” The use of “fine” here carries the connotation of something delicate and small, thin; rather than “fine” as in good quality like “fine art.” This conclusion is based upon the next two lines:

Thy hand alone that wound this clew I find

Can to display these wonders it unwind.

Only the hand which wound the clew would be able to unwind the clew. The idea here is of fine silk thread.

It seems that Taylor had experience with silk. A silk plantation existed in South Carolina in 1689, Ben Marsh, “Silk Hopes in Colonial South Carolina”. The Journal of Southern History Vol. 78, No. 4 (NOVEMBER 2012), pp. 807-854.

There is a description of the silk clothing worn in the colonies in 1669 in The Textile Industries of the United States Including Sketches and Notices of Cotton, Woolen, Silk, and Linen Manufacturers in the Colonial Period · Volume 1, By William R. Bagnall (1893), p. 62.

Taylor pictures the wonder of his rescue as a bundle of wonders all tightly wound together, fine as silk thread, impossible to examine unless God himself unwinds the ball and displays each wonder at a time.

Theologically, this is a recognition that one cannot understand the grandeur and greatness of what has done unless God displays and explains that wonder.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 41.4

14 Friday Oct 2022

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(I’m back from traveling:

Stanza 4

He broke her cramping talons, did unlute

The sealed grave and gloriously up rose

Ascendeth up to glory on this sute.

Prepare a place for thee where glory glows

Yea yea for thee, although thy grief out gush

At such black sin at which the sun may blush.

Notes

The primary musical feature of this stanza is the alliteration on the letter “g”. Grave, gloriously, glory, glory glows, grief, gush.

The accent on this stanza is regular, although the “gloriously” must be fully pronounced.

The argument of the stanza moves on from the escape from Debtor’s prison pictured at the end of the third stanza:

Who having in this prison paid the debt.

And took a ‘quittance, made Death’s Valet fret.

The escape from the grave, the “quittance” of stanza 3 is described in its effect:

He broke her cramping talons, did unlute

The sealed grave

The word “her” must refer to the grave. The Latin word “tumba”, tomb, sepulcher, is feminine. The tomb is pictured as a beast with talons holding it victims tight. The picture of a hawk holding the dead as prey makes the grave an active agent in the incarceration.

The Bible does reference the grave or death as an active agent in procuring the dead, although this personification is not frequent.

Psalm 89:48 (KJV)

⁴⁸What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

Job 28:22 (KJV)

²²Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

To “lute” a thing is to seal it. To unlute is to break apart, to unseal. Hence, he

did unlute

The sealed grave

He unsealed the sealed grave. The grave itself was sealed:

Matthew 27:62–66 (KJV)

⁶²Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, ⁶³Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. ⁶⁴Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. ⁶⁵Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. ⁶⁶So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

Taylor leaves out the 40 days of “many proofs” of his resurrection (Acts 1:3) and moves on to the Ascension:

and gloriously up rose

Ascendeth up to glory on this sute.

Acts 1:6–11 (KJV)

⁶When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? ⁷And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. ⁸But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. ⁹And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. ¹⁰And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; ¹¹Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

“on this sute” must refer to Christ’s legal vindication, his “suit.” The word “sute” can also refer to a collection of mallard ducks.

In this place, the Lord now “prepares a place”, an allusion to John 14:

¹Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

⁴And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

John 14:1–4 (KJV) Btw, “mansion” refers to a place to live, not a spectacular house. That meaning came later.

And now we turn to the paradox which runs through Taylor’s poetry, Lord gives glorious good mercies to those who are undeserving:

although thy grief out gush

At such black sin at which the sun may blush.

That “although” is the key to relationship which Taylor portrays between us and God. God is good and loving and mercy, while we are rebellious, unthankful, unworthy.

It is here that the repetition of the “g” supports the meaning of the passage. Until this point in the stanza, the “g” was associated with good: the vanquished “grave”, and glory: Grave, gloriously, glory, glory glows. But here, when we come to our participation, all we can add is gushing grief at our sin.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 41.3

29 Thursday Sep 2022

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(It’s been a while. The previous post on this poem will be found here:

Stanza 3

Any why thus show? Hark, hark, my soul. He came

To pay thy debt, and being come most just.

The creditor did sue him for the same.

Did win the case, and in the grave him thrust.

Who having in this prison paid the debt.

And took a ‘quittance, made Death’s Valet fret.

Notes

In the first two stanzas, the praises this sight, this man, this “clew of wonders”, the question arises: What precisely is here to be seen and praised. Why is this sight so wonderful:

Any why thus show? The poet is in conversation with his own soul. The soul asks what is here to see, he responds “Hark”. Listen to what I am to tell you.

The image that Christ came to pay a debt owed by sinful humanity was not new with Taylor. Here is just one example of among many prior to Taylor:

that he might become Lord over all sin; he suffered, died and was buried, and made satisfaction for me, paying my debt, not with silver or gold, but with his own most precious blood. And all this that he might become my Lord; for he had no need to do this for himself.

Martin Luther, Luther’s Catechetical Writings: God’s Call to Repentance, Faith and Prayer, trans. John Nicholas Lenker, vol. I, The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther (Minneapolis, MN: The Luther Press, 1907), 118–119.

But what Taylor does is to not take this image as a threadbare cliché, but rather draws out the image in detail: If Christ really came to pay my debt, how does this work? Yet, rather than describe the process in theological terms, he describes in terms of the commonplace of a debtor’s prison.

A debtors prison works as follows: When one fails to pay his debts he is imprisoned until the debt is paid. How this works in a particular instance may vary. Famously, Charles Dickens’ father was imprisoned for debt, sending the young Charles (12) out to work in a shoe blacking factory. (https://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/life/childhood/)

If Christ came to pay my debt: there could be lawsuit brought to enforce the claim:

and being come most just.

The creditor did sue him for the same.

The “being come must just” is bit ambiguous. Christ was just in coming. The creditor is just in bringing suit. The creditor sues Christ on my debt. Not surprisingly:

Did win the case,

At this point, the genius of this passage springs forth. A creditor who wins, places the debtor into jail. What jail was available for this debtor? The grave:

and in the grave him thrust.

This making of the grave, the debtor’s prison for sin combines the theological, the historical, and the poetic. But Christ could not be kept in the grave. Being just himself and being of infinite merit, he can pay my debt. Moreover, being without debt himself, the jail will not hold:

Who having in this prison paid the debt.

Christ was vindicated legally: he was acquitted and came forth. Death is the keeper of the jail. Death’s Valet is a wonderful touch: It is as if Death kept a servant in place to make sure the prisoner stayed put. Perhaps this is a wry reference to the guards kept about the tomb.

And took a ‘quittance, made Death’s Valet fret.

Death’s Valet is in then in fear because the grave did not hold. The grave has been the most secure prison in the history of the world. Even the resuscitations of life, such as calling Lazarus forth were only temporary. Lazarus went on to die. It is as if he received a furlough. But Christ came forth with a full vindication and acquittal. Death’s most dangerous enemy was walked out the front door of the prison and is now looking for death.

Edward Taylor Meditation 41.2

06 Saturday Aug 2022

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(The previous post on this poem may be found here)

Stanza Two

The magnet of all admiration’s here.
Your tumbling thoughts turn here. Here is God’s Son,
Wove in a web of flesh, and blood rich gear.
Eternal wisdom’s housewifery well spun 10
Which through the law’s pure fulfilling mills did pass.
And so went home the wealthiest web that was.

Notes

This stanza will draw together imagery which at first seems completely unrelated: weaving, webs, mills, flesh and blood, death, and victory. And magnets.

The tone of this stanza is interesting in that the poet is speaking to himself. The first line could potentially be an objective state: The focus of all admiration the “magnet” of all admiration could be understood a fact beyond the poet’s particular concern: If he wrote the “sun is hot”, he would mean it is hot for everyone; but not just for him alone.

But in line 8, he clarifies that he is speaking about himself: “Your tumbling thoughts turn here.” This is the magnet of poet’s admiration: this is where his thoughts turn. It is a subtle aside, for certainly when he makes an apparently objective observation it would include himself. But by speaking directly to himself, he implicitly ignores the rest of the world. For me, this is the magnet of admiration, this is where my thoughts turn.

Referring to Christ as magnetic is interesting. Calling some “magnetic” is so cliché as to not even be used a cliché, but magnets were a far more curious object at this time.

In 1618, a book was published which contained the known scientific investigation of magnetism (begun by William Gilbert, d. 1603), the title page reading as follows:

MAGNETICALL Aduertisements: OR
DIVERS PERTINENT obseruations, and approued ex∣periments, concerning the natures and pro∣perties of the Load-stone.
Uery pleasant for knowledge, and most needfull for practise, of trauelling, or fra∣ming of Instruments fit for Trauellers both by Sea and Land.
Whereunto is annexed a breife Discouerie of the idle Animaduersions of MARK RIDLEY Dr. in Physicke, vpon this Treatise entituled Magneticall Aduertisements.

ACTS 17. 26.He hath made of one bloud all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seeke the Lord, &c.
The second Edition.
LONDON, Printed by Edward Griffin for Timothy Barlow, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of Time. 1618.

Richard Sibbes (two generations before Taylor) made use of magnetism in an image similar to Taylor’s use here (the magnet as an image of desire):

Christ’s love in us, is as the loadstone to the iron. Our hearts are heavy and downwards of themselves. We may especially know his love by this, that it draws us upwards, and makes us heavenly minded. It makes us desire further and further communion with him. Still there is a magnetical attractive force in Christ’s love. Wheresoever it is, it draws the heart and affections after it.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet And Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 77. And:

Desires are the immediate issue of the soul, the motion and stirring of the same to something that likes it. When there is anything set before the soul having a magnetical force, as the loadstone, to draw out the motions thereof, we call that desire, though for the present it enjoys it not.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 338.

This object of desire is the Son of God:

            Here is God’s Son,

Wove in a web of flesh, and blood rich gear.

The 9th line begins with an accented “wove”. The lack of a pause before this word gives it a special emphasis, it is further underscored by being alliterative with “web.” The image startling: wove and web bring an air of a spider’s web. The Son of God is now utterly bound-up in flesh. The second half of the line “blood rich gear” is even more striking. By gear, we outstanding that the Son of God has been outfitted, but outfitted with “blood.” Blood rich at first seems to indicate the color of the gear. But this also alludes to the eventual death of Christ where his blood was poured out.

What weapon does Christ then possess, what gear? Death. The gear will be blood. There is yet another possible use of blood here: When a warrior is proceeding and covered in blood, the implication is that he is covered in his enemy’s blood and that he will not be stopped:

Isaiah 63:1–6 (ESV)
63 Who is this who comes from Edom,
in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”
2 Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
3 “I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

By using the phrase “blood rich gear,” Taylor manages to evoke multiple aspects of Christ’s work and life.

The weaving now comes back as image of domestic industry. This is a good example of how one must be careful not to impose one’s own expectations upon a text: The idea of web and wove, although appropriate of a spider, are not the aspects which Taylor draws out. Domestic weaving is something completely beyond my experience, but would be commonplace for Taylor.
Eternal wisdom has brought forth this work of God in Christ: God made flesh, well-spun. That workmanship (the housewifery) passed through the law: Christ fulfilled the demands of the law: he went through the “wringer” as we might say. To pass through a mill would be grain broken between two millstones. But the effect upon Christ was not his destruction, but rather to be possessed not of a destroyed garment but one the costliest of all:

Eternal wisdom’s housewifery well spun 10
Which through the law’s pure fulfilling mills did pass.
And so went home the wealthiest web that was.

The admiration is the success of the Son of God in so passing in blood rich gear.

This last set of images evokes the weaving & the blood image: for to pass through the mill would be completely destroy – and yet here, not destroy.

The alliteration on the “w” throughout this stanza also draws it tight

T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton, Section IV

17 Friday Jun 2022

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The longer I work with this poem (the previous post on this poem is here) the more evocative and allusive it becomes. It certainly does not fit to into any easily assigned “meaning.” There is no quick code here to “understand” it. Rather it provokes pondering.

Time and the bell have buried the day,

The black cloud carries the sun away.

Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis

Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray

Clutch and cling?

Chill

Fingers of yew be curled

Down on us? After the kingfisher’s wing

Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still

At the still point of the turning world.

The third section ended as we “descend lower” from the “place of disaffection.” Down from the world which can only distract with distraction, down into “the world of perpetual solitude.” A place of “abstention from movement” which is contrasted with “the world [which] moves in appetency, on its metalled ways.” The world is craving its metalled ways (which reminds of Blake’s satanic mills, and the nightmare of factories in The Old Curiosity Shop) The day – presumably of the “real world” have been buried, which is a grim picture. The burial has come from the movement of time, and the bell which marks the movement of time and the end of the world.

The cloud that carries the sun away reminds us of the sun which filled the pool with water, in the speculative, memory world of the first section:

And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight …

Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.

Here the cloud has come has taken all the light out of the world; yet here the light does not merely pass, it is carried away. The cloud is not merely coming before the sun, it is a black cloud which extinguishes the sun.

Will the sunflower turn to us,

He then turns to the sunflower – which famously tracks the movement of the sun as it passes the sky. This makes the question curious: A sunflower does not track people. But in this place, with the sun itself gone, perhaps this flower will provide a substitute.

It is hard to know what to make of this question.

will the clematis

Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray

Clutch and cling?

When we come to the climbing, flowering vine, the question shifts slightly. Will the garden grow with flowers. This again reminds us of the garden where speculation and memory brought us in the first section.

The third question brings this to a grim resolution:

Chill

Fingers of yew be curled

Down on us?

A yew tree is poisonous. Moreover, the trees are planted in churchyards in England. The sun is gone, the sunflower will ignore us, the garden will not grow for us. Will we face poison and the graveyard? This section began with the verb “buried” as the end of the day.

This monstrous tree seems to be clutching down toward the poet.

We come to yet another allusion to the first section. At first, it was a thrush which led them to the speculative garden. Here, rather than a thrush is a kingfisher.

After the kingfisher’s wing

Has answered light to light, and is silent,

The meaning seems to be that the color of the kingfisher’s wing is a light which answers back to light. It is interesting that the flowers are questionable in their interaction with “us”. The yew tree is coming for us, but the bird belongs to a different sphere.

That is further emphasized because the kingfisher is “silent” as to us. It answers the light, but not us. The thrush called the poet along. The kingfisher is otherwise engaged.

It is possible that the kingfisher also is a more violent bird than a thrush.

As noted in the beginning, this section enters after the “descent” of section III. With the buried day and the bird who no longer speaks to us, it would be easy for the poem to descend wholly into despair. But this section ends with this:

the light is still

At the still point of the turning world.

The day may be buried, but the light is not extinguished. There is a place for hope at the still point of the turning world.

The tone of this section reminds of the jarring mix of registers at the beginning of The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

The section begins with the very song-like lines:

Time and the bell have buried the day,

The black cloud carries the sun away.

The rhythm and the sound carries the lines along. But the content is deadly. Looking back at these words, especially after the encounter with the yew tree, “Time and bell” are more than just the marker for the end of a workday. This is a funeral bell. This is a burial.

The understanding of the lines thus change as you consider more of the context. A burial of sorts has come to us. Is there any hope here? If we cannot have the sun can we have a sunflower? No. At least a flowering vine? No. Instead the yew tree has come to poison and bury us. What about that thrush that led us to the garden – this is sort of like a garden. Here there is no thrush, there is a kingfisher who is silent. What then? Well, there is still light at the still point. Time perhaps will kill, but there is a still point still.

My life? The black cloud will drag away the sun. Time and the bell will put out the light. I may look at the flowers and birds, but it is the yew tree which will come for me.

And even now, as I think about it, I see another allusion lying behind the poem: flowers and birds:

““Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:25–33, ESV)

This allusion to things which will perish so quickly: flowers and birds. He is looking to them for some sort of protection against the loss. It is these things which Jesus holds up as examples of that which quickly perishes.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 40 conclusion (Was ever heart like mine)

07 Tuesday Jun 2022

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Tenth Stanza

Lord take thy sword: these Anakims destroy: 55

Then soak my soul in Zion’s bucking tub:

With holy soap and nitre, and rich lye

From all defilement me cleanse, wash, and rub.

Then rinse and wring me out till th’water fall

As pure as in the well: not foul at all. 60

Eleventh Stanza

And let thy sun shine on my head out clear

And bathe my heart within its radiant beams:

Thy Christ make my propitiation dear.

Thy praise shall from my heart break forth in streams.

This reaching virtue of Christ’s blood will quench 65

Thy wrath, slay sin, in thy love me bench.

Notes

These two stanzas should be taken together for they concern the resolution of the whole. Since there is hope, the poet presses his case. In this he makes three interrelated petitions.

First, there is the petition to kill his devilish enemy:

Lord take thy sword: these Anakims destroy:

Anakim is a reference to an enemy of Israel whom God destroyed to save the people. Deut. 2:21. The Devils are here referred to as “Anakims.” References to the destruction of Anakim, used as a figure or illustration was not uncommon among the Puritans, for instance: “Jesus doth not free us from Egypt, but from wrath to come: 1 Thes. 1:10, ‘To wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.’ He doth not vanquish Anakims, but the devil; to deliver us from the hurt and fear of him: Heb. 2:14, ‘That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.’ He doth not only lead us into Canaan, but into heaven, into a better land of promise.” Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 19 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 455.

Second, is the petition to be cleansed from sin:

Then soak my soul in Zion’s bucking tub:

With holy soap and nitre, and rich lye

From all defilement me cleanse, wash, and rub.

Then rinse and wring me out till th’water fall

As pure as in the well: not foul at all.

Buck here refers to alkaline lye used to bleach linen or yarn. This was referred as “buck washing.” Nitre is potassium nitrate, used for washing. The plea here is for every sort of bleach and cleanser to be used on his heart and to make him clean from all sin.

The biblical allusion which seems closest comes David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51”

Psalm 51:1–12 (ESV)

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

³ For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The prayer for cleansing continues into the next stanza where he prays that having been scrubbed he may be set out to dry, like washed clothes.

And let thy sun shine on my head out clear

And bathe my heart within its radiant beams:

The third petition is for forgiveness of his sin, “propitiation”:

Thy Christ make my propitiation dear.

“Thy Christ” comes from Psalm 2:2

Psalm 2:2 (ESV)

² The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

Anointed is “Christ” (κατὰ τοῦ χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ)

The poem then ends with the praise for what God has done for him:

Thy praise shall from my heart break forth in streams.

This reaching virtue of Christ’s blood will quench 65

Thy wrath, slay sin, in thy love me bench.

The last line explains that the blood of Christ will turn away judgment (thy wrath), turn his heart from sin (slay sin), and will leave him resting in the love of God (in thy love me bench).