canto 12

Stanza 57
So she to Guyon offred it to tast;
Who taking it out of her tender hond,
The cup to ground did violently cast,
That all in peeces it was broken fond
And with the liquor stained all the lond
Whereat Excesses exceedingly was wroth
Yet no’te the same amend, ne yet withstond,
But suffered him to passé, all were she loth
Who nought regarding her displeasure forward goth

In this stanza, Guyon is being offered a cup of wine by a young lady who has just squeezed the fruits to make it. However, instead of accepting it, he takes it and throws it on the ground, seemingly in defiance of excess. The woman feels so awful that she allows him to pass through into the Bowre of Blisse.

There are a lot of things happening here. Spenser is literally promoting temperance on the surface but strongly suggesting otherwise on various other levels. What he describes as temperance is “moderation, self-control, and sometimes abstinence in regard to anger, sex, greed, ambition, and the whole spectrum of passions, desires, pleasures and material goods.” In this stanza, Guyon openly strikes down the cup of wine offered to him, essentially in defiance of excess. Yet oddly enough he is then allowed to pass forward into the “daintie Paradise” that is filled with pleasure. It’s as if Spenser is saying, hey, you did good by resisting the wine so go ahead and reward yourself by indulging in other pleasures.

One of the other major things to notice in this stanza and ones surrounding it are the sexual implications. He really sets up the sexual undertones for this stanza in the one before as he describes her squeezing the fruit in lines such as, “whose sappy liquor, that with fulnesse sweld.” Then, when Guyon enters in 57, the reader already has a pretty clear picture of what’s on his mind. The first line describes her as offering him a taste. Although it is of the wine, on a more figurative level, he is getting a taste of her and realizing that he can not restrain himself and wants the whole thing. The last two lines describe him being allowed entrance but what it really sounds like is that she lets him enter her. Here the cup of wine could be viewed not as a critique on temperance, but as Guyon casting aside the church and religious values and giving in to his sinful temptations. Women are painted here with so much sexuality that Spenser seems to be asking why God would create such beauty and the desire for it if he did not intend for men to fulfill those desires. It reminds me a lot of the Wife of Bath’s argument that if genitals were made for more than urination and sexual determination, then we should appreciate and use them for all of their functions, not just those two.

The words that he chooses in this stanza accentuate the ideas that he is attempting to convey. He presents a sharp contrast between male and female in the lines, “Who taking it out of her tender hond/The cup to the ground did violently cast.” The use of “tender” in the line brings about a very feminine and soft image but at the same time, whether intended by Spenser or not, it presents her as a piece of meat. So not only do we perceive her on a womanly level but on a level that portrays her as an object for man to take and do with what he pleases. The line following it depicts males, in this instance Guyon, as violent and powerful; a very drastic change from women in the previous line. Interestingly enough however, because the line describing Guyon appears under the one of the woman, it makes him seem subordinate. Although his actions indicate dominance, Spenser seems to dismantle this with the placement of the lines.

The line “Whereat Excesse exceedingly was wroth” employs incredible use of language. He describes excesse as exceeding and grinds the concept into his readers with the sound of the words. Not only does he put two extremely similar words back to back, but the alternating pattern of the sounds ex, s, ex, s, clearly makes his point. Also the “s” sound provokes very malevolent thoughts because it is reminiscent of snakes and villains who draw out their s’s. Although he emphasizes the idea of excess in this line, it’s almost in a comical way. “Excesse exceedingly” is quite a tongue twister and a bit ridiculous sounding. While he may be criticizing excess, he may also be criticizing those obsessed with moderation.

Finally, the second to last line, as mentioned earlier, offers a potential sexual undertone. Three words make this line seem like more than a woman allowing a man to pass through an entrance. First, he chooses “suffered” to mean “allowed,” which makes it seem as if he forced himself on her. Choosing “to passé” seems to imply that he literally passed through her chastity belt and personal wishes and into her. And finally, that she “loth” it implies that she was reluctant but that she had no choice. In just nine lines, he manages to expose an array of issues on numerous different levels using little else but language.