Post Info TOPIC: True Loves & Primroses
Noel

Date:
True Loves & Primroses
Permalink Closed


Greetings one and all.

Someone has posed a question to me, and I'm stumped.  In Donne's "The Primrose," he walks "to find a true love."  Now, I'm assuming he's not just wandering about on the hill, looking for a girlfriend, although that's possible I suppose.  Just highly unlikely.

Having done a bit of research, it appears that what he means by "true love" is a four- or six-petaled Primula vulgaris (cowslip), an oddity (in the vein of a four-leafed clover) given that normal primroses are always five-petaled (a fact which Donne references later in the poem).  Sort of like looking for hen's teeth.

I know my plants and my horticulture, but this little nugget has got me perplexed.

My problem is that he seems to be on only person to have ever come up with this concept, i.e., a "true love" being a flower with a petal count other than the norm.  Or at least to have articulated it in this way.

Spenser mentions "true love" as a descriptive phrase, as does Coolridge (both obliquely reference knots), but there the trail goes cold. 

Nothing I could find in Willy Boy.  So I'm stumped.

Any thoughts? 

As I don't check this often (I'm a bit too thick-headed to get Donne), I'd appreciate any responses to be forwarded as well to ngieleghem@cwclaw.com or lapageria@aol.com

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.  You must be quite the daunting crew if you can parse Donne.  Yikes!!!!!

__________________
Mitch Harris

Date:
RE: True Loves & Primroses
Permalink Closed


Noel-

You're right. I've never seen anyone else do this with a flower; however, I believe Donne's focus is numerological, not horticultural. 5 is a number of infidelity (or promiscuity), whereas 4 and 6 are numbers of faithful love. I would suggest Gary Stringer's fine essay "Donne's 'The Primrose': Manna and Numerological Dalliance" in Explorations in Renaissance Culture 1 (1974): 23-29.

Best,
Mitch Harris

__________________
Noel G.

Date:
Permalink Closed

Thank you for the recommendation.  In fact, reading Gary Stringer's excellent analysis was what originally led me to your group, via Google. 

If anyone is intested in the origin of my query (and the end result of your kind assistance), check out http://tribes.tribe.net/renfairehistorysnobs/thread/6cee7f50-a50b-4ab5-9a99-7a4b4b23a92e.

This is a group devoted to authentic Elizabethan re-enactment.  Rather fierce, really, for a non-scholastic group, but we try to get it right, so to speak.

Horticultural sleuthing is much fun indeed.

Granmercy to y'all.

Noel G.

__________________
Let's Get Meta-Physical!

Date:
RE: True Loves & Primroses
Permalink Closed


I like flowers


They smell nice

__________________
Forrest Hall

Date:
Permalink Closed

Flower that nice one, I like the Love birds, lovebirds resemble parrots. They can sing, and some can even imitate the human voice. Many say that true love requires no test..
But i don't believe that opinion..


__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard