This is the frM compendious study of the infuence of Plato on

the English literary tradition, showing how English writers used

Platonic ideas and images within their own imaginative work.
Source texts include Plato's Dialogues, and the writings of
Neoplatonists and the early Christians who were largely responsible
for assimilating Platonic ideas into a Christian culture; and there
are essays on more than thirty English authors from the Middle
Ages to the twentieth century, including Shakespeare, Milton,
Blake, Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Iris Murdoch.
The book is divided chronologically, showing how every age has
reconstructed Platonism to sui. t its own understanding of the
world, and there is a bibliographical guide to further reading.
Established experts and new writers over a range of disciplines
have worked together to produce the frst comprehensive
overview of Platonism in English literature.
PLATONISM AND THE
ENGLISH IMAGINATION
Detail showing Plato from Raphael's Shool o Athens, engraved by G. Volpato
(I77S), reproduced from a print at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The
original picture i in the Vatican Museum.
1.^1`! .^i 11
^!11`1 1!.'1^.1^
EDITED BY
ANNA BALDWIN and SARAH HUTTON
lABVIOGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
+`
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University I)f Camhridge
The Pit( Building, Tnuupingtoll Street, Cambridge LV IV'
40 WCSt 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 SWllIf()rd Road. Oakleigh. Melbourne 3166. Australia
Camhl'idge Univcrsity Press 119'(
First published 1994
Reprinted 1995. 1996
Transferred to dgt prnting 1998
Prnted in the United Kingdom by Biddles Short Run Books
A calalogue record for this book i auailable from the British Librar
Librar of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Platonism and the English imagination/edited by Anna Baldwin and
Sarah Hutton.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical reference and index.
ISBN 0 521 40308 I
1. English literature - History and criticism. 2. English
literature - Greek influences.
3. Philosophy, Ancient, in
literature. 4. Platonists - Great Britain. 5. Plato - Infuence.
6. Ncoplatonism. I. Baldwin, Anna P. II. Hutton, Sarah, 1948-
PR127P57 1993
8209'384-c20 93-9341 CP
ISBN 0 52 I 40308 I hardback
33
PR7.P37
M Iy
Platn5Iad te Engls Iagnaton
I 1II11111111 III 11\11 1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIImllllllililii 1I11
OOZOl08!2
VN
(.c/sc/s
Notes on contributors page x
Piace xiii
ANTIQUITY
Plato and the Neoplatonists 3
Anne Sheppard
I I THE EARLY CHRI STI AN PERI OD AND THE
MIDDLE AGES 19
2 Introduction 21
Anna Baldwin
3 ,he Christian Platonism of St Augustine 27
Janet Coleman
Boethius and King Alfred 38
Janet Bately
Chaucer's use of Neoplatonic traditions
Yasunari Takada
6 Platonism in the Middle English Mystics 2
Andrew Louth
,
I I I THE RENAI SSANCE AND THE SEVENTEENTH
,
Gj ( CENTURY
,
7 Introduction 67
Sarah Hutton
vii
V1l1 CONTENTS
8 The transformation of Platonic love in the I talian
Renaissance 76
Jill Kraye
9 Uses of Plato by Erasmus and More 86
Dominic Baker-Smith
IO Italian N eoplatonism and the poetry of Sidney,
Shakespeare, Chapman and Donne 1 00
John Roe
II Shakespeare on beau ty, tru th and transcendence I I 7
Stephen Medcalf
1 2 Platonism in Spenser's Mutabili! Cantos 1 26
Thomas Bulger
1 3 Reason, Recollection and the Cambridge Platonists 1 39
Dominic Scott
1 4 Platonic ascents and descents in Milton 151
Anna Baldwin
15 Platonism in some Metaphysical poets 163
Sarah Hutton
I V THE EI GHTEENTH CENTURY 1 79
1 6 Introduction 181
Pat Rogers
1 7 Blake and Platonism 186
Ed ward Larrissy
V THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 199
1 8 Introduction 201
Richard J enkyns
19 Recollecton and Recovery: Coleridge's Platonism 207
Keith Cunlife
20 Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimations ofImmortali! 2 1 7
A.W. Price
CONTENTS IX
2 1 Shelley, Plato and the political imagination 229
Jennifer Wallace
22 Arnold, Plato, Socrates 242
M.W. Rowe
23 Flux, rest and number: Pater's Plato 257
Anne Varty
VI THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 269
24 Introduction 271
Angela Elliott
25 Yeats and Platonism 279
Brian Arkins
26 Virginia Woolf and Plato: the Platonic background of
Jacob's Room 290
Brenda Lyons
27 Plato and Eliot's earlier verse 298
Dennis Brown
28 The Cantos of Ezra Pound: 'to build light' 308
A.D. Moody
29 Platonism in Auden 3 1 9
Daphne Turner
30 Platonism in Iris Murdoch 330
Peter Conradi
Bibliography 343
Index 351
Notes on contributors
Editors
ANN A BALDWI N is an associate member of the English Faculty at
the University of Cambridge. Her publications include The Theme
ofGoverment in Pers Plowman ( l g81 ) .
SARAH HUTTON is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and
Education at the University of Hertfordshire. Her publications
include New Perspectives on Renaissance Thought, edited with J.
Henry ( 1 990) and The Conway Letters ( 1 992).
Contributors
ANNE S HEPPARD is a Lecturer in the Department of Classics at
Royal Holloway College, the University of London.
JANET COLEMAN is a Reader in Ancient and Medieval Political
Thought in the Department of Government at the London School
of Economics.
JANET BATELY is a Professor in the Department of EngIish at
King's College, University of London.
ANDREW LOUTH is a Lecturer in the Department of Historical and
Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths' College, University of London.
YASUNARI TAKADA is an Associate Professor in the Graduate
School of Comparative Literature and Culture at the University
of Tokyo.
JILL KRA YE is a Lecturer at The Warburg Institute, the University
of London.
DOMI NI C BAKER-SMI TH is a Professor in the School of English at
the U niversi ty of Amsterdam.
x
NOTES ON CONTRI BUTORS XI
J 0 H N ROE is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Related
Literature at the University of York.
STEPHEN MEDCALF is
'
a Professor in the School of European
Studies at the University of Sussex.
THOMAS BULGER is Dean of the Arts Division of Siena College,
New York.
DOMI NI C SCOTT is a Lecturer in the Philosophy Faculty at the
University of Cambridge.
PAT ROCERS is a Professor in the Department of Liberal Arts and
Sciences at the University of South Florida.
EDWARD LARRISSY is a Lecturer in the Department of English at
the University of Warwick.
RICHARD JENKYNS is a Fellow in Classics at Lady Margaret Hall
at the University of Oxford.
KEI TH CUNLIFFE is Museum Research Assistant at Moyse's Hall,
Bury St Edmunds.
A. W. PRICE is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the
University of York.
J ENNIFER WALLACE is a Research Fellow at Clare College,
Cambridge.
ANNE v AR TY is a Lecturer in the English Department of Royal
Holloway College, the University of London.
M. W. ROW E is a Visi ting Research Fellow in the Department of
Philosophy at
t
he University of York.
ANGELA ELLI OTT is an Associate Professor of English in the
Division of Liberal Arts, Centenary College, Hackettstown, New
Jersey.
BRENDA LYONS is a Tutor at the University and at the Stanford
Centre, Oxford.
BRIAN ARKINS is a Professor in the Department of Classics at
University College, Galway.
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
DENNI S BROWN is a Professor in the School of Humanities and
Education at the University of Hertfordshire.
A. D. MOODY is a Professor in the De+artment of English and
Related Literature at the University of York.
DAPHNE TURNER is a Lecturer in the Department of Humanities
at Kingston University.
PETER CONRADI is a Professor in the Department of Humanities at
Kingston University.
Priace
This is a study of the way-that Platonism and Neoplatonism run like a
changing thread through the web of English literature. Not all of the
authors here represented are English, and some did not even write in
that language. But they have all contributed to a tradition which can
be defned and which still continues. Our main aid to that defnition
has been to confne ourselves to writers who knew at least part of the
corpus of Platonic texts at frst hand. As can be seen from the
bibliography, these texts include not only Plato's Dialogues but also
the writings of the Neoplatonists, especially Plotinus, through whom
Plato was read for so long. Our choice of writers has necessarily had to
be selective but our chronological range from antiquity to the present
ofers, for the frst time, a comprehensive overview of the influence of
Platonism on English literature.
That very comprehensiveness is, of course, a source of danger, and
our account must of necessity be both partial and personal. But this is
also true of the readings of Plato and his followers by the writers who
are discussed here. Plato himself was a rich and diverse writer, and
every age has rediscovered Plato in a diferent way, and reinterpreted
Platonism to suit its diferent understandings of the world. This is not
the story of a nexus of mummifed ideas carried forward by authors
with a nostalgia for antiquity, but of particular people who read
within a related group of philosophical texts and responded to them
individually in very diferent contexts from the pagan culture in
which Plato and Plotinus lived. The process of transmission was
inevitably one of transformation: strands of Platonic and Neo
platonic thought were often used to question or redefne the beliefs of
many of the authors discussed here. In some cases writers applied
Platonic principles to the political circumstances of their own times.
Others assimilated tenets of ancient philosophy to their Christian
outlook. So this is often a story of non-conformity and debate, and
xiii
XIV PREFACE
often of the liberation of the imagination to explore meaning outside
the confnes of dogma.
It is always the imaginative use of Plato which we discuss: this is a
collection of literary studies not a history of philosophy. We have,
however, tried to give it some historical shape. Accordingly, we have
divided it chronologically into periods so as to give a broad sense of
how the perception of Platonism changes. There are both surprising
correspondences between authors of very diff erent dates, and diversity
within each period. An account of each period is given at the
beginning of each section, to set the chosen authors into a context,
and to indicate some of the gaps which our telling of the story must
leave. These introductions could all be read in sequence as a very
general account of continuities and discontinuities of the Platonic
tradition.
Each study has been specially commissioned to give an individual
critical perspective on the writer or writers with which it is concerned.
We begin with a summary of some of the principal strands of thought
of the Platonic corpus (Anne Sheppard) and we include accounts of
how they were to some extent incorporated into the Christian faith by
Augustine and his predecessors (Janet Coleman), and how these and
other Platonic authorities were used in Old and Middle English prose
and poetry (Janet Bately, Andrew Louth and Yasunari Takada) . We
continue into the Renaissance by way of the I talian revival of
Platonic studies (Sarah Hutton), exploring the role of Platonism in
humanism (Dominic Baker-Smith and Thomas Bulger) and the
philosophy oflove (Jill Kraye), as well as the adaptions of Platonism
in the love poetry of the Elizabethan era (John Roe and Stephen
Medcalf). Religious issues dominate again in the seven teenth century
in the eclectic Christian Platonism of the Cambridge Platonists
(Dominic Scott) and the poetry of Milton (Anna Baldwin) and the
metaphysical poets (Sarah Hutton). The eighteenth century marks a
waning of interest in Platonism in general (Pat Rogers) although
Blake continued to engage with it (Edward Larrissy) . The renewal of
interest in Plato in the nineteenth century (RichardJenkyns) was at
once more secular and more scholarly. And we fnd among the
Romantic Poets and their Victorian succes
s
ors a detailed focus on
Recollection (Keith Cunlife, A.W. Price), on society (Jennifer
Wallace, M.W. Rowe) and on art (Anne Varty). The use of Plato to
appraise society is even more characteristic of the twentieth century
(Angela Elliott, Daphne Turner, Petcr Conradi). Some writers reject
PREFACE xv
or parody Platonic idealisation (Brenda Lyons) , although others
continue to exploit the transcendent symbolism of both Plato and the
Neoplatonists (Brian Arkin" A.D. Moody). Plato is now generally
treated very much as a p
h
ilosopher whose dialectical method is itself a
focus of interest (Dennis Brown) , and who must be analysed by
scholars rather than reinterpreted to buttress faith.
The bibliography provided at the end is not intended to be
exhaustive but rather to enable readers to take their study of
Platonism further and in directions not covered by this collection.
This volume is thus presented as a point of departure rather than a
definitive statement of the subject. For this reason it is entirely
appropriate to conclude as we do with a study of someone whose
philosophy and fiction testifes to the continuing vitality of the
Platonic tradition in the twentieth century, Iris Murdoch.
ANNA BALDWIN
SARAH HUTTON
PART I
o/toat|,
CHAPTER I
Plato and the Neaplatanists
ss:S/:ttsJ
Jhisctcrwil| bcnccrncdbothwith!lato'sownthought and
withtheOreekphi|osophers knownasNeoplatonistswhoBourished
fromthc thintote sithcenturyu.|JheirunderstandingofP|ato
had a profound eect on Iaer writers and 1hinkets an|a. proper
appreciation of P|ato's in.ence requires some knowledge of
Neop|atonicthought. Itisworthremembcringhoweve:uaTlc:inus
|bco||j- co), thc hrsi Neop|atonist, |ived near|y Goo years alter
Plato himse|fJhc Ncop|atonists trcated Plato'sthought as aunity
andsoughttointcrprethisworksa sacoherentwho|c.

3|usomctimcs
kd thcm to b|ur contradictions bctwcen dierent dia|ogucs; in
pa: ticu|ar, thcydid otnvsageamchroiio|ogicalucvc|opmentin
!|t'svicws. Sm cc thcninetecnthtury,I|atonicscho|arshiphas
takcn such deve|opmcnt for granted. Plato is now usuallysecaas
progrcssingfromcar|ydia|ogucssuch ashc x,.tb
6/s-i1:s through the grand theory-bui|ding of thc P/s:1., the
S,-tsie- and thc R:s//i: to a hna| phasc of qucst.and
scl-criticism rcprcscntcd by dia|ogucs such as the Psr-:sid:s thc
St/is|, thc T/:s:|:|esand theP/i/:/es.
.
In most of lto's dia|ogues his tcachcr, Socrates, is the main
spcaker. Jheear|ydia|oguesshowSocratcsscarchingfordehnitions
ofmora|termssuchascourageandtemperancc. Jcdoesthisnot

by
propounding dc6nitions of his own but by testing de6nitions put
forwardbyhisinterlocutors.Jhe:rccgular|yfoundwanting and
thcintcr|ocutors'prctcnsionstoknow|cdgcareexposedasfa|id
empty. Socratcs' activityin dialogesttthc picturcgivcn in
lato'sAt./ q S.:st:s. isurports
tobc Socratcs'

d
againstthe+aargcsofimpictyandcorruptingthcyoung,onwhiche
was tried and ut to death by his fel|ow-Athenians inaasc.
A|thoughtheAt/.wasprobab|ywrittensoonaer~wedonot

z svzrrzo
knowhowcloseiIsoanvihing8ocraiesaciually said.However, in
boihihevsl:grandrhe<dv.dia|oguesTaioseems(1_xuaq g
t" 3! I!x!09'^-r.9!-!-
on
yer.,_t-m By
i
:
iimehewroteihcmiddIe dialogn

n c|!ing_i|:1pol|c,Plato!
z d
movedonfrom 8ocrai 9 uesiioning)oil osoph al
iheoriesofhis own.8ocraies siillappearsasahara cier an d siil| a sk
quesiions1a1nowPlaioaiiribt.uesiohimdocirin es st:hasiheihe ory
ofiwhichwerenever+.eld1yhehisioriaIccra(: s.
Whereas8ocraies' ieaching wa inforotal,Plaio himself foundeda
philosophical school,(+e cademy,andfic |is :aih in ahis
saccsscrs,Seusippus.:d Xenocrates, developedhis e
iheories uriher Plaio's msi|mous pupil, risioile

!fi :c
cadem eeped his own im

oriani andnlue niial phiIo-

sophicalsysiem.
Philosophy didnoisiandsii!lbeiween ris:ot`:and Ploi|

. !n
ihe:hirdandsecondeniuriesc).cwscl:oolsofphilosophyxo,ihe
'Hellenisiic' schools of 8ioicsm,E.
i
tism and8cepcim. We
canseefromCicero'sphilosophicalworksihaibyihe itenIuxyac
Paio, cs ioile and ihe Hellenisiic schoolsalhadiheir adherenis.
A readyaiihisperiodphilosophersof dierentschoolswereborrg
ideas from one anoiher. !n ihe subsequeni ceniuries8ioicism and
Plaionism became ihe dominani philosophies. Noi much survives
from:he works wriiienby Plaionisi philosophers ofiheq::iodbui
manyofiheideasofihese'Middle Plaion|sis'canbefoundinsuch
philosophically educaied wriiers as Philo of lexandria |c.cjac-
o:.jo)and Pluiarchof Chaeronea |o:j-:.1cj).

!
si
1|-
iur
Ir
e
r
all mber

o:Higio us
d

me
''!=99!i- !
si

ygos andOr|nialcu|_|m

increanl yrr-Roma

ck

u
.
used

p
!
i
PIJAI!Ii:c
io

tm.. lti

_)_(_ arhfni=ihets,am ain

Cl e

zo:joc) e_:e |zot8j-cj)

; inihc! tp)ag: e=: , PN'l :asof
. zo:.rjo). laionism ss! c
.
_ <Y _a raiher
J
s
i.i.i=~riIi;ghe,! ic, a
h
i
usco|Irc))din.Eg\i,

oi|.oeu

ibl i
ando|nceitiries zoand s
e iiih.al gure ofHermes
ism
gis

ih
i_0!^
ond
ce
' '"

'
ol
'! 9
i

he
P/s|.s-J|/:J:.t/s|.-:s|s j
:hinIe:smentioned soa:in0uenced sub s cqtco: agesand manyo
them wiII be men:ioned againla:e: in :his booI. Te H:-:|::s
a:ticuIa: :oused g:e at |ute:es: in thePenaissance . JIcwevcr,:
in.ceofA:is:o:IeandA:isto:eIianthough:Jiesoutsidethescoeof
this voIme,s:pt in so fa: as ce:tain A:istoteIian i deas wete
abso:bed in:o XeoIa:onic thoughi. |The XeoIa:onis:s t:ied :o
ha:moniseJIa:oandA:is:o:IeasmuchasossibIeandoBe:edIa:geIy
A:isto:eIianaccoun:sofbo:hthest:uc:u:eof:hehumansouIandthe
natu:eofthe hysicaIwo:Id.)
Thewo:IofJIot in usma:I anewd ea::u:e:nhiIosohy bccause
hedeveIoedacomIeme:hysic
_
vstnde:r:o:ithe_3)j e
asitsuItima:e!.r.!ipk JIotinus'Oneisenvisagedasthet:anscendent
sou:c<ofaIIbeingsandisa mo:eIof:y steme:inciIethan anyaf
:hose ostuIated by :cvious hiIosohe:s.JIotinus, howeve:, saw
himseIfasan inte::e:e:ofJIatoandhissucccsso:sIiwise egr ded
thcseIves|us:asJIa:onists. |The:e:mXeoIatonism'isamode:n
invention.)JIotinus`hiIosohicalw:itingswe:eeditedanda::anged
insi--:sJsbyhisuiIJo:hy:y |nzz-t.oj)af:e:his dea:h.
XeoIatonic metahysics wa fu:the: deveIoedlyam bIhus
|nc.zjo-c.zj)whomayinhis:u:n havebeenauiIofJo:hy:y.
!ambIichean XeoIatonism was enthusiasticaIIyado:ed by 1he
me:o:Jtilian('|uIian:he Aos:ate',o:-6)andas taugh:
intheJIatonisthiIosohicaIschooIsa:A:bcsandAeand:iainibe
fou::h,nf:handsithcen:u:iesn.J:ocIus|n+oo:+z-8j),vho
:augh:inAthens,uas the mos: imo:tan:and inuen:iaI of these
Ia:e:XeoIa :onists.Hew:o:ee:ensivecommen:a:iesonan umb rf
JIato:vicdiaIogues,inHudingthe Ti-s:sand ta-Ps-:-:J:s.WhiIe
hiscommen:a:ies :eo:t and synthesise theviews`many ea:Iic:
ni titato:s,his/:-:-ts./T/:./.oBe:sasys:ema:ic:esen:a:icn
ofa:ereoIaonis:metahysics.
eopltonistideas con:i::ued toexe:: conside:ablnuenceon
Ch:istianthought.IntheNest,Augus:ine(nj-o)andfae:hius
|n8o-jz) bmh tooIave: many1coIaionistconc eoo |see
beIowCoIeman,.z;-;andBateIy,.8-o). In:heie
aviho:JnownasDio ysivs|Denys)theA:eozitein:he Ia:enho:
ea:I sith cen:u:v

cvwos e :heoIogy mi::o:s the

mahysicaI system ofJ:ocIus |see Lou:h, .jz-5 beIow).
See epecially Enead N. 1.8.
Sec ProcJu5, The Elemm/s oj Theolog, cd. E,R, Dodds, 2nd cdn (Oxford, (963).
r) :- . : r:
J r iI';\ ).!.
6 ANNE S HEPPARD
PHILOSOPHI CAL THEMES I N PLATO AND THE NEOPLATONISTS
S..niiuii Plaio himss beenadmircd n(t. ot:ly_aa
philosophrutIoua wriier. Hiskilful command of
rY
di ereni siylesof wriiir:helpsioexplainiheexienianddivetsi\of
his in6uence. Some readr

sarr !+!U|rd b__ollouial,

conversa:iona:he eanydialogues,oiherpreFUparc,
absiracln|osophising o|he Theaetetus or ihe Sophist;. siilloi|:crs
rcpondmosisr ongly |ohe lyvirl, pocu:tyofPlaio's ihs.
I
II
philosophyioo,successivegeneraiionsofinierpr eiers have coceniried
onpariicularfeaturesIhi~vrk,1gnoring ortscIdingoiher Jhe
N o a ions

s i rss . r:

__PI_
io
'
s

eip

si
40.

w
! P '
i

par
!& v
hi
J
a

sio
9
o
.!'
asprations.u>'be>.;9]_| . ^n
acconit|eirpbilosophy lUS! ihero tebegthieir :aeiaphsics.
In a nunrberofhisdialoguesandarii:I alyi:: iheRepublic,

se

i
4
i

iwo
1
he

e
qs |'Iorms' or'Ideas')onihe onehandandonihoiheri

cdriirgsacsbleiosensc

:r cepiioS o
iheIormofeauiy,forexample,maybet:iraJiihrticuLr
bu ihis.Jhe Iorm
: t g iru: _ectsof knowled
,Q only ihey are iruly real^lihough_+hepart:culIc1he
erfeciionofiheIormiheyareneverihelessregardedas 'imiiaiing'
ihIorm, ihyare like.tvcn ihough o1llsIoiQl.ln'ie
Republic, IormsareiniroducedinQJq."j.fx.\h,W-.Jl
i oIiiical.g uesiiQJ). w:rd.oib,an>l ui

i
r
PIaio

bes
:,!.
eal si

u

,
-ith
erfeciw

.
The members of ihe siaie are divided inio ihree classes: ihe

~

,ihe auxiliarieswho, as n
defed|]vstaieoihekfarmersandcrah. Plaio '
draw> ancaIo

beiwe

n ihe siaie

an d ih

6nd`.'
t hre corr_nzarisin_Iesou so

s rp.he
philosopherwl:ose.soul:rtIdbyr+onisiheidealr|craure
onl
/
he

has

g
Iii
. ..,\ iom
knowledgeofihe Iorms.
TheNeoplaionisisiooli:rIeinieresi1nPlaio'spoliiicaliheory1ui
iheydevelopediheconirasibeiweenIormsandpariicularsinioan
^^ ~**~~.*~~
* "*^
J
P/s|.ssJ//:J:.c/s/.s:s/s 7
e|aboraemetaphy :

a|svs:cm . .i.I
.
. wheaclivclnl|I)verse
re6ec:t.i
tls hc one.

aIoe . Jhese leve|s were ... +e

hy:stasesann the meIaphvscsofIlc|nu s :hereareth re
hpcsts:thene,^n d trn:c||gence(s.s) and SouL Jhe
cendnt

n
.
)ac_essblenot

o:iIym sct)

e-per cpuoba!so
totbe_ntel|ectual operation oF the mnd, s the soucecIaIltI)er
tl

rigs. JhsshowP|otnusdescrbestheway nwhch:heOne gves

rsetoheestof(heunverse:
+ . . . .... , ...
-
~~~ ~. ... ... ..

..,.,.. ,, ,...

+ ~ -- . - ,
So if there is a second afer the One it must have come to be without the One
moving at all, without any 'inclination or act of will or any sort of activity on
its part. How did i t come to be then, and what are we to think of as
surrounding the One in its repose? It must be a radiation from it while it
remains unchanged, like the bright light of the suuwhich, so to speak, runs
round it, springing from it continually while it remains unchanged. All
things which exist, as long as they remain in being, necessarily produce from
their own substances, in dependence on their present power, a surrounding
realty directed to what is outside them, a kind of image of the archetypes
from which it was produced: fre produces the heat which comes fiom it;
snow does not only keep its cold inside itself. Pefumed things show this
particularly clearly_ As long as they exist, something is diffused from
themselves around them, and what is ncar them enjoys their existence. And
all things when they come to perfection produce; the One is always perfect
and therefore produces everlastingly; and its product is less than itself. (Enneads
v+ L6+ 27

40)
P|oiitiishereuscs'he atia|ogcsofsun|gh :,6retid nev tot::ke::
c|ear

tlia eOnc. .caall thngs wthou: uI_|Ierng any

miIonan:Itf]da

snot a delberate crea:or
:
.
,_" ,"",,"",'"""._",",""....,,_,_,,,_ ^I 1 . t
P|otnus'vewof there|atonshpbetween:heOnea
0!0.
e

of
the unverse has sgn6cant mplcatons For

the Neop!a:onst
understandtigo|ato's T-s::Jhe T i
y modern phlosophcal nterpre ts ofI'aIn,_~s rmch ;:d i:
an:qutyandwas:he on|yllatoi:cialogt:ewhchcontnued to

be
ava|ablc1nesternTuropethroughou:thcNdd|eAges.IntP|ato
descrbesthemakngofthevldbythe demurgs
iS hs m1ihe demurge oroc_J. evsb|e wor
F
lc

'.

mnmated

oi.sin~
antquty, nterpreters of P|ato`s accoun: have dsagreed on two
f1xm

nta|ssues: 6rst,s :he:t v!tyo|1h dmurgeto betaken
> '
"*^
_
-.._.
.

+
,_

8 ANNE SHEPPAR D
Iiteral|y,imp|yingthattheworldha da5cgnaing, andsecond|y,does
P|ato imply that theateria|wod isinhereniy

iI?Two+ci nt
interpreters, P|utarch o| Chaeronca (ADC.45-c. 1 25) and\tti cus
(ADC. 1 50

200) understood P|ato as holding that the wor|d ~a

createdbyt|ie+emiurge.JtWa not,however,createdouto|riotl:ing
butouto|arevious|yexistingdisorder.Il.laws x'.96 sq.|atohad
sttggestedthat aswel|saben 6cent wor|dttlherewas a

ra
!/
sou|whichwas responib|e |orevi|.P|utarch cot::binedxiwith:he
disorder|ynovemenImentionedat Timaeus goaandsoade1|atoa
dua|ist:nmetaphysicswhohe|dnoijustthatmattersevibutxha
theuniversecontainstwo:ppsit:gpit\ciples,oneo|good and oneo|
evi|.Itisc|ear |ron:theasJe,theRepuHic and otherdia|ozueshat

cho|oy,i.e.heutvks:|th<sou|attd:hctody
a

wparateentitient kint t whth hc is

a|saa dua|ist;
,
metaphysis. The Neop|atonists were duaIusn
psvUo
j
:.

tnotinmetaphyslcs.Theyreecteaataae.t|oath=t
thewor|d had a beginning. Instead, they understood1he ma:a.'
creation-storymetaphorica||y andarguedagaitst
h

e
8l^
o|a
princip|eo|evi|. TheNeop|atonicOne didnotbringtheunivcrse
intobeingatanygiventime,rather,itis:hecausemIIthings)
U
e
sensethat itcontinuous|y s.tstainsandndernsevcr)tbir.g.
orP|otinustheP|atonicormsbe|ongtothe|eve|o|Mind,whi|e
8ouIencompa:s:1o
j
thewo|d-sou|descridinthe mosa. and
individua|h:i
,_
so

|s.

Bodiesan
~
materi

|thi

owthese
hypostasesand|acktruerea|ity.Matterisnotsomuchevi|assteri|e.
InpassagessuchaEnneadS I.8.g. 1
3
-1 7 P|otinusdescribesevi|entire|y
in termso|negation.
one might be able to arrive at some conception of evil as a kind of
unmeasuredness in relation to measure, and unboundedness in relation to
limit, and formlessness in relation to formative principle, and perpetual
neediness in relation to what is self-sufcient; always undefned, nowhere
stable, subjectto every sort of infuence, insatiate, complete poverty.
Thismetaphysica|picturewasdeve|oped|urtherbyIamb|ichusand
his successors. They oered more detai|ed accounts o| the three
hypostases and their re|ation to one anotheras we||as introducing
. cr. the mention of the 'variable cause' at Timaeus 48a and see further R. Sorabji. Time, Creation
and the Continuum (London, 198
3
), pp. 268ff.
P/st.s-Jt/:J:.t/st.-ists
0
someiniermediaielevels.Inpariicular,we6ndinProclusihenotion
thai beiween ihe One and Mind ihere are divine 'henads' which
mediate the transitionfrom the One io the rest ofreality. Proclus
identiedihesehen adswiththetraditionalCreekgods,holdingthat
eachgod,whileprimarilyahenad,wasalsomanifestedateachofihe
lowerlevels.8o,forexample,aswellasthe henadwhichwasZeus
therewasanintelligibleZeusonthelevelof MindandanotherZeus
onihelevelof8oul.
IntheP/s:J.Platoattemptstoexplainhowweacquireknowledge
oftheorms.HeappealsioiheTheoryofRecolleciion .s-s--esis),
arguingthaithereasonwecanrecogniseparticularsiicksandstones
as equal is ihai our soul has seen ihe orm of Equality in a
disembodiedexisiencebeforewewereborn.Hehadalreadyusedihis
theoryin the earlier M:-.to account |orour sti.iknowledge of
mathematicaltruihsand,byimplication,ofmoralvalues,although
ihetheoryof ormsisnotclearlypreseniinthatdialogue. Inboih
dialogues,recolleciionisconneciedwiihtheimmorialityofihesoul
andiniheP/s:J.itis madeexpliciithatihesoul'siruehomeisthe
world of unchanging orms, life in the body is only a iemporary
episode in the soul's timeless existence. In a third dialogue, the
P/s:1s,PlaiousesamythiocombinetheseideaswithiheR:t//::'
iripartite division of ihe soul. He compares the soul to a winged
chariotwhose driverstrugglesto coniroltwodisparatehorses,one
goodand one bad. Before ii enters the bodyihe soul inhabiis the
realm of ihe gods wherereason,ihe charioteer, beholdsiheForms.
The unruly horse of appetite drags the souldown,pulling it away
from pure intellectual coiemplation. 8ome souls ihus become
'burdenedwith a load of Iorgeifulness and wrongdoing' .P/s:Js
z8c), they lose iheir wings and fall inio bodies. There remains a
possibility,aileasiforphilosophicalsouls,ofrecollectingtheirformer
life andgrowing their wingsagain.
TheTheoryofRecollectionimpliesthatwearebornwithinnate
ideasanddo notderiveallourknowledgefromsensoryexperience.
Laterchapiers in this volume will show howboih ihe Cambridge
PlatonisisandtheRomaniicsused Plato to developanti-empiricisi
viewsofknowledge.|8ee8coii,pp.)
0
-jo,Cunlie,pp.zc;-)0,and
Price,pp.z);-z8).TheNeoplatonistsof lateantiquitymadelitileuse
ofiheTheoryofRecollectionbuttheydidtakeupPlato'sviewofthe
IO ANNE SHEPPARD
re|ationshipbetweentheimmortalsoulandtheperishab|ebodyand
thePhaedrus mythprovidedthemwitha|ruit|u|sourceo|imagesand
ideas|ordescribinethc|a|lo|thesou|anditsreturntotheinte||igib|e
wor|d,|orProHus,themythactual|yrevea|edthestructureo|parto|
thatworld.
Moreimportant|ortheNeop|atoniststhantheTheoryo|Reco|lection
wasP|ato'saccountin theS,-tsie-o|thesou|'sabi|ityinthis|i|eto
ascend |rom the perception o|particu|ars to a know|edge o|the
orms. In the S,-tsie-it|s|ove (eros) whichprovide the driving
|orce behind thesou|'sprogress |rominterest inbeauti|ul bodies to
concern|orbeautyo| characterandbeautyo|mindandsoatlasttoa
visiono|trueandunchaneingBeauty,theormitse||.P|atodescribes
thatvision in astrikingpassage which combines|yrica| enthusiasm
w|th the |aneuaeewhichhereeu|ar|vuses to characterize orms.
waoeveraasoeenin|t|ateaso|ar|ntaeavster|eso| Loveanaaasv|eweaa||
taeseasoectso|taeoeaut||u||nauesuccess|on,|sat|astaraw|neneartae
|na|reve|at|on.Ananow, 8ocrates,taere ourstsuoonh|ataatwonarous
v|s|onwaica|s taevervsou|o|tae oeautyaeaas to||easo|one|or.Itisan
ever|ast|ne|ove||nesswa|ch ne|taercoaesner eoes, wa|chneitaerowers
nor|aaes, |orsuc|.oeautv|staesaaeonevervaana,taesaaetaenasnow,
aereastaere, ta|swavas taatwav, taesaaeto evervworsa|ooeras|t|s:o
evervotaer.
Norw|||aisv|s|ono|taeoeaut||u|ta|etae|orao|a|ace,or:|aanas,or6|
anvtainetaatiso|tae6esh.Itwi||oe neitherworas,norknow|eaee,nora
soaeta|ne taat ex|sts |nsoaeta|nee|se, sucaas a ||v|ne creature, or tae
earta,ortaeaeavens,oranvta|netaat|s- outsuos|st|neo||tse||anaov|tse||
|naneterna|oneness,wa||eeve:vlove|vta|neoarta|eso| |t|nsucasorttaat,
aeweveraucataepartsaavwaxanawane,|tw|||oene|taeraorenor|ess,
outst|||tae saae |nv|o|aoIe wao|e. (Symposium 2 1Oe2r ro)
TheascentdescribedintheS,-tsie-maybere|atedtothePhaedrus'
mentiono|thesoul'sabi|itytoerowitswingsagainand returntoits
|ormer|i|eamonethegods.ThePhaedrus mythoccursprecise|yinan
accounto||ove,whichisdescribedasmadness,butamadnesswhich
canbringthegreatestbene6ts.Plato'streatmento|lovebecameinthe
Renaissanceoneo|themostinuentia|aspectso|histhought.In|ate
antiqueNeoplatonism,however,theS,-tsie-andthePhaedrus were
readnotsomuch|ortheirviewo||oveas|ortheirpictureo|thesou|'s
See PlotillUS, Enneads IV, 8.1 and 4; V, 8.10; Hermias, In Plalani! Phaedrum &holia, ed. P.
Couvreur (Paris, 1901); Proclus, Platonic Theolog IV, 4-26 and pp. ix-xlv of the introduction
by H.D. Saff rcy and L.G. Wcstcrink to their Bud edition of Platonic Theolaglv (Paris, Ig8I).
P/s/ssJ|/:J:c/s|.s:s|s II
ascent|romthema:eria|worldtoahigherrea|m.Asimilaraccountis
suggestedbytheCaveanalogyinR:c//icVII. Here8ocratesdescribes
boundprisonersin anunderground cave. Behindthemisahreand
behindthataparapeta|ongwhicharecarriedaserieso|imagesand
statues.Theprisoners,whoare'|iketous'.R:c//ic+a)seeon|ythe
shadowso|thestatuescastbythehre.I|oneo|themwerere|easedhe
cou|dnoton|yturnroundandseethehreandthestatues butcou|d
alsomakehiswayouto|thecaveandgradua||yprogresstothesighto|
objectsin theworld above ground and hna|lytolookingatthe8un
which, accordingtoanear|ierana|ogyinR:c//icVI, representsthe
supremeorm,theormo|theCood.
R:c//i:VII, liketheS,-csi-and theP/s:Jss,suggeststhatthe
individua|sou| can ascend |rom apreoccupation with theshadows
andimageso|theperceptibleworldtoagraspo|truereality,|oundin
the wor|d o| orms. What |or P|ato is perhaps on|y a theory,
expressed through myth and ana|ogy, becomesinNeop|atonisman
essentialdoctrine.ortheNeop|atonists,thebelie|thatthesou|can
ascendtohigher|eve|so|realityandthusreturntoitsownu|timate
originsis|undamenta|. InNeop|atonicterms,however,anascentto
the wor|d o| orms is an ascent only as |ar as Mind. The
Neop|atonistsdidbelievethatitwaspossib|etogo|urtherandreach
the|eve|o| theOne.8incethetranscendentOneisstrictlyunknowable,
anycontactwithitmustbebymeanso| mystica|experience.Plotinus,
indeed,describeshimsel|ashavingo|tenhadsuchanexperience,he
achievedit|ourtimesduringthesixyearsPorphyryspentwithhim
while Porphyry himse||attained iton|y once. But P|otinuswas a
phi|osophica|mysticandinthess:sJsmystica|experienceisalways
regardedassomethingwhichcomeson|ya|tertherigorousintellectual
eortrequired to reach the|eve| o|Mind
A|though|aterNeop|atonists continuedtota|kinaP|otinianway
aboutmystica|experience, theya|sopractisedtheriteso|theurgy,a
type o|re|igious magic associated with the c/s/Js:ss o:sc/:s. The
be|ie|thatthesecou|dassistthesoulinitsascentopenedthewaytoa
|esssevere|yintel|ectua|approachto mysticism. Atthesame time
6 Sec Plotinus, Enneads IV. 8.1.1 ff.; Porphyry, Lie ofP/otilws XXlll, 7f.; E.R. Dodds, Pagan and
CIn"sluIin all Age of Allxier (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 83-9I.
7 It i unclear just how far the later Ncoplatonists modifed Plotinus' attitude here. Two recent
discussions are G. Shaw, 'Thcurgy: Rituals of Unifcation in the Ncoplatonism of
Iamblichus', Traditio, 41 (1985), 1-28, and A. Sheppard, 'l'roclus' Attitude to Thcurgy',
Classical Qarfer{, ns 32 (1982), 212-24.
12 ANNE SHEPPARD
their view o!the universe ando!the individua| sou|'s p|ace in it
remained essentia||y thesameasthato!P|otinus.
Ihavea|readysaid thatP|otinussawhimse|!asaninterpretero!
P|atoandmanyo!histreatisesbeginbydiscussingaprob|emraised
byaP|atonictext.Thesameistrueo! hissuccessors.romthetimeo!
Porphyry onwards, commentaries were the main vehic|e !or the
expositiono!Neop|atonistideas.TheNeop|atonistscommented on
Aristot|e as we|| as P|ato, reecting the c|ose study o!both great
phi|osophers in the phi|osophica| schoo|s o! the period. To the
modern reader, the Neop|atonists appear to be reading their own
metaphysicsintopassageso!P|atothatdonotwarrantitand to be
mis|edbyanexcessivedesiretoexp|ainawaycontradictionsnoton|y
withinP|ato but between P|ato and Aristot|e. Wemust, however,
rememberthatrightupunti|thenineteentbcenturytheNeop|atonists
wereseenasoeringanunderstandingo!P|atonism, not adistinct
phi|osophy. Many |ater writers read P|ato through 'Neop|atonic
spectac|es', using the surviving works o!P|otinus, Porphyry and
Proc|usas aidsin theinterpretation o!P|ato.
THE CONCEPT OF I MAGI NATI ON
This book i s main|y concerned with the use o!P|a

tonist and
Neop|atonist ideas in |iterature. A number o!the authors to be
discussed!oundinP|atonismaspurto|iterarycreativityandpoetic
imagination. Yet P|ato himse|!, !or a|| his abi|ity a a writer, is
notoriouslydismissive about the va|ue o!|iterature.To unrave| this
paradox we need to consider !urther both P|ato's own view o!
|iterature and Neop|atonistattitudes to it. We sha|| hnd that here
abovea|| itwas the Neop|atonist readingo!P|ato that turnedhim
inioasource o!inspiration!or|aterages.
WhenP|atodiscusses|iteratureheisconcernednotwithindividua|
creativityorartisticimaginationbutwith the truth!u|nesso!poetic
representations.Heho|dsconsistent|ythatpoets,howeverhnetheir
work,|acktheknow|edgewhichistheha||marko!thephi|osopher.In
theRc//::heisconcernedtodecidewhatpoetry,i! any,issuitab|e
!oruseineducatingthe!utureru|erso!hisidea|state. InRce//i:II
andIII heattacksmucho!Homerandtragedyasmora||yunedi!ying:
it does not te|| the truth about the gods and presents heroes as
unsuitab|y prone to violent emotion. He a|so criticises dramatic
P/s/s-J//:J:c/s/-s/s 13
representationc:s:,ontwocounts.heregardstheactingo!anevil
characteras potentiallycorruptingand,perhaps more importantly,
he thinks that theversatilityrequiredo!theactorwill producean
unstablepersonality. InR:cs//::X Platopresseshisattackonpoetry
!urther,basingitnowonthemetaphysicso!Formsandparticulars
expoundedinooksV-VII. Heusesadiscussiono!paintingtomake
hispointsandcomparestheartisttosomeoncwhoholdsupamirror
andsoproducesreectionso!everythinginthevisibleworld.While
particularsimitateorms,theproductso!theartistimitateparticulars.
Theyare only imitatlons o!imitations. Thesame applles topoetry
whichisdescribedasmereappearance,'threeremoves!romreality'
.R:cs//::gga).
TheR:cs//::thusoersbothmoraland metaphysicalreasons!or
not taking poetry seriously. Elsewhere however Plato's tone is
dierent. In the i- 8ocrates appears to praise poetic inspiration.
For the poets tell us, don't they, that the melodies they bring us are gathered
from rills that run with honey, out of glens and gardens of the Muses, and
they bring them as the bees do honey, flying like the bees? And what they say
is true, for a poet is a light

and winged thing, and holy, and never able to

compose until he has become inspired, and is beside himself and reason is no
longer in him. |a-b)
Thatpassage may be ironicalsince8ocratesgoes on to argue that
rhapsodes|pro!essionalreciterso!Homer)areinspiredtooandtouse
this point in demonstrating that the vain and pompous rhapsode,
!on, derives his ability to discourse uently about Homer !rom
inspirationratherthanknowledge.Lessequivocalisapassageinthe
P/s:Jss ca. e!ore he discusses the benehcial madness o!love,
8ocratesconsidersthreeothergoodtypeso!madness.Oneo!theseis
themadnesso!theinspiredpoetand8ocratesassertsthat'i!anyman
come to the gates o!poetry without the madness o!the Muses,
persuaded thatskillalonewillmakehimagoodpoet,thenshallhe
andhisworkso! sanitywithhimbebroughttonaughtbythepoetryo!
madness'.Poeticinspiratiooisclearlyanirrational !orceherebutit
seemstobeoneo!thevery!ewsuch!orceswhichPlatoispreparedto
v
welcome.
TheP/s:J:-putsthemadnesso!thepoetandthemadnesso!the
loverinthesamecategoryanditistemptingtoturntotheS.-cs:s-'s
accountotanascenttoper!ecteauty,stimulatedbylove,as!urther
evidence !ora more welcoming attitude to aesthetic value. Careis
) z :vrrzo
neededhere.Platodoesnotmentionanyart-|orminthatpassageo|
theS,-c.si-andtheCreekword'ks/.s',o!ientranslated'beauti|ul',
isaverygeneral term o|commendation,asgeneral astheEnglish
word'hne'.Itcanbeus.ed toindicatemoralgoodnessornoblebirth
just as well as aesthetic attractiveness. However, the possibilities
whichtheS,-c.si-oheredtoaesthetictheorywereexploitedbythe
Neoplatonists.
Modern interpreters o| Plato's attitude to poetry have given
greatest prominence to the R:c//i:'s arguments against it.The
Neoplatonistsattemptedtocountertheseargumentsanddrewonthe
S,-c.si-andthePls:Jsinorderto doso.Plotinusinss:sJsr. 0
usesks/.sinamoreclearlyaesthetisensethanPlatointheS,-c.si-,
|orhe starts the treatisewith thestatement that 'Beauty .ks/.s) is
mostly in sight but it is to be |ound too in things we hear, in
combinations o|words and also in music'. Nevertheless, as he
describestheascent|romtheseperceptiblebeautiestohigheroneshis
concern,likePlato's,iswithmoralandmetaphysical'beauty'andhe
does not mention works o|art. Art is mentioned in V.S.I where
Plotinusarguesthatanartistincreatinghisworkimitatestheorm
directly.ThiscontradictsPlato'sargumentinR:c//i:xthattheartist
imitatesonlyparticularsandsoproducesonlyimitationso| imitations.
Plotinus mentions the statue o|Zeus by the great Creek sculptor,
Pheidias, as an example of a sculpture whose model is in the
intelligible, not thesensible, world.
Platoisalwayshrmthattheartistdoesnothavcknowledge.How
then could a Platonist artist imitate the objects o|the intelligible
world? We might expect the Neoplatonists here to appeal to some
capacitysuchastheimagination.Thistheydonotdo.Plotinustalks
o|theartist'havingtheorminhis mind . . . becausehehadsome
share o|art' but that is all he oers byway o|explanation o|the
artist'sgrasp o|theorms. Proclus does give usanexplanation, at
leastasregardspoets,buttheexplanationiscouchedintermsnoto|
imaginationbuto|inspiration.Be|oreweconsiderProc|us'accounto|
poeticinspiration,itmaybehelp|ultorelatetheNeoplatonistviewo|
imaginationtootherancientvicwso|that|acultysoastoseewhyitis
that the Neoplatonists lack the concepto|creative imagination.
Plotinus docs here draw on Plato but on Hippias Major 297(. .. 2g8a rather than lhe Sympositlm.
9 PlotilluS draws on and develops a tr<ldition here. Sec E. }lanofsky, Iea, A C01lcept ill Art Theory,
trans. J.J.S. Peake (New York, 1998), eh. 2.
P/st.s-Jt/:J:./s/.-:s/s t
!heGreekword,/s-/ss:s,whichis regu|ar|ytrans|aied 'imagin-
ation',meansorigina||y'appearancItisthere|oreappliedasmuch
to whatweimagine ast the |acu|iy o|imaginaiion, and ancient
discussionso| /s-/ss:sicndioconirasitheimaginarywiththetrue,-- I
themere|yapparentwiihthereal.P|aiohimse||saysvery|iii|eabout
imagination buiinS./:s/0:the de6nes/s-/ss:sas 'a b|end o|
percepiionandjudgement|J:rs]

J !nihesamedia|ogueihere|aied
adjeciive,/s-/ss/:k.s,isusedo|the|owero|twokindso|imiiaiion.Ai
S:/is/ e. P|aiocontrasts 'eikastic' and 'phantastic' imiiationor
image-making. Boih are o||owvaluebut'eikastic'imitaiion isnot
quiieasbad as 'phantastic'. Whi|e'eikastic' imitationdocsat|east
produceaccurate|ikenesses,'phantastic'makesdeceptiveoneswhich
appearaihrsttoresemb|etheorigina|sbuionc|oserinspeciionturn
outnotto.orP|aio,/s-/ssisandihe'phantastic' be|onghrm|yto
therealm o|appearance andi||usion. V
The noiion o|creativity is introduced in a complete|y diereni
P|atonic contexi, the accouni o|ihe |ormaiion o|theworld in the
1:s:as.Herethedemiurge ispreseniedasadivinecralsman who
shapesand|ashions thepercepiib|eworld. orP|atotheaciivityo|
the demiurge is quiie diereni |rom ihai o| ihe human artist,
nevertheless, the 1is:as provided a power|u| impetus io laier
conceptionso|man himse||as creative. i|ihedivinecreatoro|the
wor|disacosmicartisithenconverse|yihehumanariisicoulda|sobe
seenasacreator. '
P/s-/ss:sp|ays a more signihcant part in Arisiote's psycho|ogy
than in P|aio's. or Aristot|e, /s-/ss:s is ucither perception nor
judgementbutadistinctcapacityo|thesou|,ihecapacitywithwhich
werespondtoappearances,wheiherthesecome|romsense-percepiion,
|rommemoryor|romdreams.` In theHe||enisticperiod, the8ioics
a|sogave/s-/ss:sanimporianiro|ebuiiheyusediheiermrathero|
whatappearstous, thepresentationorimpression whichwereceive
whenweperceivesomeihingwiihthesenses.'Thehrstwriiertoca||
ihe |acu|ty o| producing visua| images /s-/ss:s is ihe sophisi
Phi|ostratus, writing in the ear|y third ceniury AD. In his L:}: .
A::-:as . 1,a-s Philosiraius contrasis /s-/ss:s wiih imitation
l0
Sec further G. Watson, Pmtasia in Classical Tlouglt (Galway, ' g88). pp. 80-93.
I!
Sec especially De anima 111.3.
12
Sec Watson, PllQil/asia, pp. 44-58; M.W. Bundy, Tle Theor q Imaginatioll ill Classical alld
Metieval Thol/glt (Urbana, 1927), pp. 87-96.
ANNE SHEPPARD
.-i-esis). In v:. : gApol|onius isengaged in conversation with an
Egyptian,Thespesion.WhenApo|loniusridicu|estheanima|images
o|gods|oundinEgypt,Thespesionaskssarcastica||ywhethersuch
Creek sculptors as Pheidias and Praxite|es went up to heaven and
copiedthe|ormso|thegods there.Apo||oniusrep|ies thattheCreek
scu|pturesweremadenotby-i-esisbutby/c-/csic,|or/c-tcs:ccan
|ashioneventhingswhichithasnotseen.Thisdoessound rather|ike
themodernconcepto|imagination,althoughweshou|dnotethatin
Philostratus/c-/cs:cenab|esscu|ptorstoconceiveo|independent|y
existinggods,not tocreatesomethingnew.
Phi|ostratus' concept seems to have emerged |rom the eclectic
blendingo|phi|osophica|ideaswhichcharacterisedthecu|tureo|his
time.'TheNeop|atonistshoweverstucktoanessentia|lyAristote|ian
accounto|/c-/cs:c. Theydivided thesou| into a rationa| and an
irrationa|partandmosto|themplaced/c-/cs:catthe|unctiono|the
two,abovesense-perceptionandbe|owreason.Theydidnotusethe
termtodescribetheimaginationo|theartist. Wehaveseenthatwhen
Plato regards poetry with approva| he speaks in terms o|poetic
inspiration,simi|ar|y, Proc|us turns to the concept o|inspiration to
account|orthepoet's abi|ity toreectatranscendentworld. Inhis
6:--:-/c :- //: R://ic ProHus de|ends Homer against P|ato's
attack.Mucho|hisde|encetakesthe|ormo| a||egorica|interpretation
o| the specihc passages o|Homer criticised by P|ato. He a|so,
however,takesupR:/l:cx andarguesthatP|atothereisattacking
onlyimitativepoetry,poetrywhichrepresentsthingsinthewor|do|
sense-perception.Proc|usc|aimsthattherearealsotwoothertypeso|
poetry,thepoetryo|know|edgeandinspiredpoetry.Thepoetryo|
know|edgestates truths either about the physica| wor|d or about
ethics.Inspiredpoetry,thehighest kind, is thepoetrydescribed by
PlatoinP/c:Jsejaand,accordingtoProclus,inthel-,whichhe
takes at |ace-va|ue. Homeric descriptions o|the gods 6ghting or
making|ovearetobeunderstoodal|egoricallyasvei|edpresentatlons
o|highcr rea|ities. 8uch a||egories can on|y be composed by the
inspired poet whosesou| isunited with thegodsina madness more
va|uablethansanity.` Proc|us'descriptiono|inspiredpoetryimplies
that the inspired poet even goes beyond the inte|ligib|e wor|d to
' Watson, Phanlasia, pp. 59-95; D.A. Russell, Criticism in Anliquiry (London, Ig81)
'
pp. 108-10.
' sophrosynes kreiUorl, Proclus, Commentary on lfe Republic, ed. W. Kroll, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1899), 1,
178.24-5. cr. Plato, Phaedrs 24d.
!/s/.s-J//:J:.]/s/.:s/s 1 7
achieve

akindo|mysticalunionwiththesupremegodswhoarethe
divine henads. He thus uses the Neoplatonic be|ie| in mystica|
experienceasawayo|c|aiming|o|tyandnoblepowers|orthepoet.'
Proclus is evident|y distorting Plato in claiming that much o|
Homerisinvu|nerab|etotheR:c//::scriticisms,yetheremainstrue
tothespirito|P|atoinappealingtoinspirationratherthancreative
imagination to exp|ain the poet's powers. It is notjust that hehas
Platonicauthority|or praisinginspirationand that, |oraPlatonist,
imagination,c/s/ss:s

concernson|ylIeetingappearance,atbesta
distant reection o|reality. or Proclus, as |or P|ato, the highest
praise goes to those who reveal the truth and that truth exists
independentlyo|itsinterpreters. Wedonotadmirethepoets|orany
abi|ity to create newworlds but rather |oraninspired capacity to
revea|whatisa|waysthere|orthosewhosesoulscanrisetoapprehendit. .
TheNeoplatonistinspiredpoetdoesnothoweverreportmetaphysica|
truthdirect|y,i|hedid,hewould be aphi|osopher. Heconcealsthe
truthbehindaveilo|a||egory.Proc|us'examp|eso|inspiredHomeric
poetryareo|passageswhichhehasa|readyinterpreteda||egorical|y,
suchas the union o|Zeusand Heraon MountIda inI/:sJXIV. He
contrasts the symbo|ic representation used in such passages with
imitativerepresentation (mimesis) :
How coul
d
the poetry which interprets the divine through symbols be called
imitative? For symbols are not likenesses [mimemataJ of the things of which
they are symbols. Opposites could not be likenesses of opposites, the base of
the fne and the unnatural of the natural; symbolic understanding [theoria]
reveals the nature of things even through their complete opposites. I 6
1
ThisinnovativetheoryrescuesHomeratthecosto|turninghiminto
aNeop|atonist, harnessing the inspiration o|the poet to thecaro|
Platonistphilosophy.
TheNeop|atonistswerephi|osophers,notpoets,buttheyemphasised
justtheaspectso|Platowhichhavemadehisphi|osophyattractiveto
the |iterary imagination. the belie| in a wor|d o|higher realities,
I Proclus' theory of inspired poetry may be found in his Comlmtary 01 lle Republic, I, 1 77-205.
Parts of this text arc translated in Russell, Criticism ill AlIliqui{y, pp. 1 99-201 and in A.
lreminger, D.B. Hardison, Jr and K. Kcn'allc (cds), Classical alld Medieval Literar Criticism
(New York, 1974L pp. 31 3-23. For complete translalion, in French, see AJ. Festugicre,
Proelus, Cammtlltairc sur fa ripublique, 3 vols, (Paris, 170), pp. 197-201 .
I G Proclus, Commtlitary on llle Republic, 1, p. '98.13-19. The tl'anslation is my own.
ANNE SHEPPARD
beyondthe|a||ib|erea|mo|sense-perceptlon,thebe|le|thatthesoul
be|ongs in that higherworld and can hnd itsway back there, and
hna||ytheidea that the|orceso||ove ando|poeticinspiratloncan
asslstthesou|inits return to lts truehome.
PART I I
T/t!cr/, C/rts/tco Itrt:scos//t
Mtss/t Agts
CHAPTER 2
Introduction
Anna Baldwin
The story o| the inuence o| P|ato and the Neop|atonists on
English|iteraturecannotbeto|d withoutsome exp|anationo|how
these pagan ideas were Christianised. The origina| Creek texts
were scarce|y trans|ated into Latin at a||, and so were in a way
|ost unti| theirrediscoveryand comp|ete translation intheRenais-
sance. But they were assimi|ated by key authors who had indeed
read some Creek origina|s, and they were both trans|ormed into
something compatib|e with Christianity, and themse|vesbecame a
major inuence upon Christianity. Itis thisstorywhich I wi|| now
brieHy out|ine, to provide a context |or the |our chapters which
|o||ow.'

Theprocesso|trans|ormationwasmadea||theeasierbythe|act
that Middle P|atonism was itse||one o|the inte||ectua| inuences
upontheNewTestament.Thisinuenceisgenera||ytraced tothe
worko|Phi|o, a]ewish phi|osopher who|ived inA|exandria|rom
about20BC toADSO, andwhomadeasystematicattempttoHe|lenise
1ewishtheo|ogy,using|amongothers)P|atonicand8toicideas.His
accounttrans|ormedtheanthropomorphicDeityo|mucho|theO|d
Testamentintoanimmateria|Being,abovespaceand time,whose
mani|estationinthiswor|disthroughthe/s|Word), described|to
quoteChadwick) , as '"thesecondCod',thepatternandmediatoro|
thecreation,thearchetypeo|humanreason'.Actingverymuchas
theDemiurgeinP|ato'sT:-ses,the/smakesthemateria|worldin
imitation o|the Divine incorporea| wor|d, but out o|an in|erior
materia|.Manisacompositebeing,andshou|dattempttore|easehis
spirit|romthes|averyo|matterso thatitcanascendandbeooded
I I have been greatly assisted in this by Peter Dronkc and Andrew Louth.
, H. Chadwick, 'Philo', pp. 137-57 in The Cmbridge History of llcr Greek and EaTry Medieval
Philosopl, ed. A.H. Armstrong (Cambridge, 1967), p. 143. See also C. Bigg, The Christian
Platonists ofAleandria (Oxford, 1913), pp. 41-5.
2 1
cc ANNA B ALDwI N
with the Divine Light.Thisi snot the p|ace to try to sortoutthe
inuencesonor|romPhiloinanydetai|,butitis at|east c|ear that
there is an amnity between such ideas and parts o| the New
Testament.Moststriking|y,ChristisunderstoodverymuchasPhi|o
understood the/..sinthePro|ogue to 8t1ohn's Cospe| and in 8t
Pau|'sEpist|etothe Co|ossians i . I -c. Phi|o'soppositionbetween
thebodyandthespiritremindsoneo|8tPau|'soppositionbetween
theO|dandNewAdam|e.g.ICorinthiansIS); andNewTestament
writers|requent|yurgetheChristiantoturnaway|romthemateria|
wor|d towards the truthinChrist.
During the next hve centuries both Platonism and Christianity
deve|opedindependentlybutwithanincreasingawarenesso|each
other.A|exandriacontinuedtobeacentre|orsuchdiscussion,where
both C|ement |:. ijo-ci ) and Origen | i 8-c) deve|oped ideas
aboutthe natureo|Codwhichgo back to Phi|o and u|timate|y, to
P|ato. C|ement in particu|ar accepted the P|atonic emphasis on
Reason,whichhebe|ievedtobetheimageo|the/..sinthehuman
mind,andurgedtheChristiantoascendbeyondpassiontowardsan
'apathetic|ove'whichdesireson|ythatothersshou|dpossesswhatit
possessessoabundant|y.Origen,usinganotheraspecto|theP|atonic
tradition,de6ned the8onand theHo|yChostas 'hypostases', and
be|ieveditwas theHo|yChostwhocreatedin man thecapacityto
receiveChristandsoto|oveasChrist|oves.TheseTrinitarianand
other Christian ideas had a para||e| deve|opment to some pagan
P|atonistso|thetime,inc|udingthegreatthird-centuryNeop|atonists
P|otinusandthe|vio|ent|yanti-Christian) Porphyry|see8heppard,
pp. j-i c above) . Their |o||ower Proc|us |c. i o-8j) deve|oped a
system o|hierarchies, and a theo|ogy o|negation and amrmation
|reminiscento|bothPhi|oandP|otinus),whichinspiredthemystica|
writings o|Dionysius the Areopagite in the sixth century. Large|y
through the work o|1ohn 8cotusEriugena |d.8;o) this became an
important part o| the Western mystica| tradition |see Louth,
3 See Philo, cd. and trans. F.H. Colson and C.H. Whitaker, 10 vals. (Loeb Classics, London,
1 929), De Opicio Mundi, I, '5-22, 6g-71, 1 34-5; Olis Rmm DivinarUln Heres, IV, 182-7. 25.
Chadwick, 'Philo' cites many similar passages. Sec also DJ. Riunia. Philo (fAlexandria and the
Timaeus ojPlato (Lcidcn, 1 986).
` Bigg, Christiall Platollists, pp. 31-50; Chadwick, Philo, p. 143; C.K. Barrett. The Gospel according
10 St John: An Introduction with Commentar and Noles on lhe Greek Text, 2nd edn {London, 1978},
pp. 34-6, 73. '52-5.
A. Louth, 'Apathetic Love in Clement of Alexandria', Sludia Palrislica, 1 8 ( lg8g). 413-19; see
also Chadwick, 'Clemenl of Alexandria' and 'Origen', pp. 1 68-g2 in Cambridge HislorojGreek
and Medieval Philosophy; Bigg, The Christian Plalonists, pp. 7'-90, 151-215.
T/::s/,6/:s|:ss::.J
pp.e-below).Buttheinheritanceo|Plot in uswasimportedmore
immediately into the West by 8t Augustine |-o), who was
pro|oundly inuenced by the numinous theology o|Plotinus and
Porphyry. Althoughitwashewho6naIly made thebreakbetween
Christianity and heathen Neoplatonism |see Coleman, pp. e;-;,
below),itwasnotuntilhehadalreadyincorporatedsomeo| themost
importantNeoplatonicideasintoWesternChristiantheology,witha
precision and perception which allowed them to develop without
losingtheircharacter.
ProclushadalsodevelopedtheNeoplatonicnotiono| aprogression
out|romCodanda6nalreturntoHim,intermso|theDivinepowero|
:.s|love) .Thisowsdownthrough thecosmos, bindingallintoa
unityandenablingwhatittouchestoreturntoitssource.Itmayhave
been|romhimthatBoethius,aChristianlivingin Romec.8o-eq,
derived his extraordinarilyinuential account o|thechain o|love
withwhichCodbindstheUniverse.However,sinceBoethiuswasalso
able to read Plato and Aristotle in Creek, his notion o| :.s is
undoubtedlyinuencedbybotho|themdirectly. 8adly,hisplansto
LatinisePlato's |andAristotle's) works, mosto|whichwereshortly
alerwardsvirtuallylostuntiltheRenaissance,were|rustratedbyhis
imprisonmentanddeath.Buthisimprisonmentalsogavehimthetime
and the impulse to write his 6.ss./s|:.:}P/:/.s./., which gave
popularpoeticembodimenttosomeo|Plato'smostimportantideas.
Theseincludenot only theascentthrough:.stoCod, but alsoan
epitomeo|thecosmologyo|theT:-s:asanditsaccounto|therelation
o|timetoeternity,anexplanationo|how themindmayrecoverits
originalknowledgeo| ahigherworld,andmuchencouragementtouse
thisknowledgeo|theCoodinordertopursueitentirely.Boethiuswas
wellknowni nEnglandinhisoriginalLatinbe|oreaswellasa|terKing
Al|red|8q-qoi ) translatedhim|seeBately,pp.8-,below)andis
o| courseaninuenceonChaucer.:.io-:.i oo),aswellasonmost
otherwriterso|themedievalperiod|seeTakada,pp.-e,below) .
Chaucer was also interested in science and society, and used
another, more secularpart o|the Neoplatonic tradition to analyse
natureandman'splaceintheuniverse.ThiswastheLatintradition
6 See]. Marenbon, Ear{ Medieval Philosophy 480115: Al Iltroduction (LondoD, 1983), pp.
18-19; C.S. Lewis, Tie Discarded Image (Cambridge, [ 964), pp. 70-4.
7 J.M. Rist, Eros mId Psyche (Toronto, 1964), pp. n 3-2o (quote pp. 216).
Sec Lewis, The Discarded Image, pp. 75-91 ; MUCnboO, hoT9 Medieval PWosophy, pp. 27-42; S,
Gersh, Middle Pla/oT/ism (ld lie Neaplalolic TraditioT, 2 vols. (London, Tg86) II, pp. 647-7 I8; H.
Chadwick, Bocllius: the COlsolaiiotls ojLogic, Mllsic, Theolog and Phil(sophy (Oxford, Ig81).
24 ANNA BALDWI N
inspiredbythe 1:-s:s,whichhad been partiallytranslated |until
b)byCalcidiusinthe|ourthcentury.Calcidiusaddedacommentary,
heavilydependentonPorphyry,thoughalsoincludingsomequotations
|rom Plato's other works. The continuing availabi|ity o|this text
when all theother Dialogues were lost, ensured that Plato himsel|
wouldbeknown throughouttheMidd|eAgesasagreatcosmologist,
thewisepaganwhohadanticipated thedoctrineo|theTrinity.The
1:-s:s

andthewritingso|Plotinus andPorphyry,aLoinhuenced
thec--:tst/:D:s-;::c:byMacrobius |endo|the|ourth
century), whichincludes an accounto|Neop|atonicHypostases o|
TheOne,Mens|mindors) ,and8oul,a wellasmuchaboutthe
Universeandman.MartianusCapella,writinginthe6hcentury,is
even more encyclopaedic, collecting Neoplatonic as well as much
othermaterialaboutsuchenormoussubjectsasNature,ArtandLove.
A renewed interest in these three authors is a |eature o| the
'twel|\h-century Renaissance' centred on Chartres in Northern
rance. William o|Conches wrote commentaries on the 1:-s:s,
Macrobius, andMartianusCapella |thislasttransmittedindirect|y,
bywayo|alorentinemanuscript),andusedthema wellasCenesis
in his great study o| the created world, the P/:/sc/:s -J:.
Bernardus8ilvestris'cs-sc/:s,drawsontheseandawiderangeo|
relatedtexts,andAlaino|Lilleusedthemmoremetaphorical|yinhis
D:c/s:tJsts:.Anaccounto|thisNeoplatonicrevivalliesoutside
the scope o| this book, but Takada illustrates how Chaucer's
descriptionso|loveandnatureowesmuchtothiskindo|learning. '
Also outside the scope o|this book is any discussion o|how
Aristotle's works came to be rediscovered and trans|ated in the
twel|th century, and, in the thirteenth, to displace the interest in
Platonism, at least|orscholars. |!nabout i i 6othe 8icilian schoar
HenricusAristippusalsotranslatedPlato'sM:andP/s:J,butthey
werenotwidelydisseminated.) However,literary6gurescontinued
toreadWesternPlatonictextssuchasMacrobiusandBoethius,and
, On Calcidius, Macrobius and Martianus Capella, sec Lewis, The Discarded Image, pp. 49-60;
C.S. Lewis, The Allegor ofLove (Oxford. 1936), pp. 78-82; Marenbon, Erly Medieval
Pfosoph). pp. to-l2; Gersh, Middle Plalomsm, M, 421-646. T. Gregory, 'The l'latonic
Inheritance', pp. 54-80, in A Histry of Twelfth-Cntur Wester philosDf, ed. P. Dronke
(Cambridge, Ig88).
10
On the twelfthccntury Renaissance, see Marenbon. EarlY MedieualPhilosophy, pp. I 1-27; D.
Elford, 'William of Conches' , pp. 308-27, in P. Dronkc, T wellh-Cenlur Philolopt. P. Dronkc
discusses the Florentine Manuscript in P. Dronke, Fabula: Explorations into the Uses o Myth in
Medielal Platonism (Leiden, 1974), ch. 3 and Appendix B.

See L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilsoll, Scribes and Scholars ( 1 g68, Oxford 1065), p. 106; P.
Dronke, T welfh-Cenlur Philosophy, p. 14.
1/eestc/:s/:ssce:.J e
theEasternP|atonismo|DionysiusandEriugenaexercisedastrong
inuence on at |east one |ourteenth-century Eng|ish mystic, who
wrote 1/ec/.aJusls.o:s.Thisa|soshowsadeepknow|edge o|
Augustine,asdothewritingso|his|ellowmysticsWalterHiltonand
1u|ian o|Norwich, and indeed most re|igious writers o|the later
Midd|e Ages. Thisis why Augustine has been inc|uded in a book
about Eng|ish |iterature, |or it was |arge|y because o|him that a
Patonic interpretation o|Christianity continued to deve|op even
a|ier the impact o|the new scho|asticism inspired by Aristotle's
ana|yticmethods.
But outside this group o|mystics itis hard to nnd writers who
deve|op P|atonicideasin the Eng|ish|anguage unti| onearrivesat
Chaucerandhis|o||owers.Wi||iam Lang|and, itis true,writes that
Envyadvised the|riars to
preche.men of Plato, and preve it by Seneca,
That aIle thynges under heuene oughte to be in comune.
B.XX.275-6"
But he may have been usingpagan authorities` praise o|common
ownership||oundinthePro|oguetothe1:-seasandSeneca'sc:s//es
IX+ ), rather than Luke's |Acts e., .e) because he wanted to
discredittheidea.AmorepositiveamnitywithPlatomaybedetected
intheMidd|eEng|ishpoemPes/.Hereanupperanda|owerwor|d
aredennitelydepicted,andcorrespondencesbetweenthemshownin
termso|imageandarchetype.Thewhitenesso|thePear|-maidenis
an image o| the brightness o| the Lamb, her innocence o| His
per|ection, her adornmento|His power to adorn and i||umine the
wor|d. Although this kind o| Platonism could be derived |rom
AugustineorBoethius,mightithavebeenthecirc|ingimageryofthe
1:-seasitse|||0b)whichinspiredtheauthortocomparethehuman
sou| to aspherica| pearl, madeintheimageo|aheavenwhichis
'ende|esroundeand b|ytheo|mode' (I. ;8)?'
Whatismostorigina|abouttheseauthors' useo|the traditiono|
Latin |earning,inc|udingitsP|atonice|ements,is theirreadiness to
express itin Eng|ish. It is with Chaucer that this e|evation o|the
nativetonguebecomesthorough|yestab|ished,|orheclear|yaimsto
' W. Langland, Tle Vision afPiers Plowman, ed. AV,C. Schmidt (London, 1978), pp. 260, 357
for Seneca reference; the Plato reference was suggested to me by Peter Dronkc.
' Pearl elf, cds A.C. Cawley and J.A. Anderson (London, 1962, 1976), p. go. The
Ncoplatonism in the poem is discussed by Eugene Vance in 'Pearl: Love and the Poetics of
Participation', in Poelics: Theor (nd Practice in Medieval English Literature, cds. P. Boitani and
A. Toni (Suffolk, 1991 ).
ANNA BALDWI N
educate his vetnaculat teadets. Heknew Mactobius' wotk we|l,
p|ayinginseveta|wotkswiththenotiono|thesou|'sascent,andheis
a|sointtiguedbytheidea|whichgoesbacktothe1|sessthoughhe
mayhaveteaditinAlaino|Li||e) thatthecteativepoweto|Natute
otthepoetisanimageo|God,andshatessomechatactetisticswith
Him.Abovea||histtans|ationolBoethius,andhisextensiveuseo|his
wotk in the K-|//'s 1s/e and 1|/sss-ecr|s:ee,''may be seen as
paving the way|ot theEng|ishRenaissance,inwhichtheascento|
loveisptovokedasmuchbyapatticu|atwomanasbyatecognitiono|
the Good.
' See c.g. Knight's Tale I, 2987-2990, Parliament ofFow/rs, 379-82 in which Go or Nature
appears to act Ua crafsman, and compare T6naeus goe, Boethius, Consolations I\ pr.G. He
could have found the idea that language should be appropriate to its subject, which he
ascribes to Plato (C.T. 742, I. 208) in Timaeus 2gb, or in Boethius, Conolalons III. pr.', or in
Romance o the Rose 7099f. (these three references from Robinson).
C H A PTER 3
The Christian Platonism if St Augustine
Janet Coleman
The writingo|
t

u1i_-|)xru1
e
im

ucnc_nrn|vc))tb sD b|crar.

irn=gio=)
.
1
.

^i
the deve|etio|kv=|scIo|=:tinhoso|h; and
Ut
|
g;
,
and thmergenxoltheWcstcuv

ysucaLditiooi
ditin_s
a|scbe.cacuvaIto . the.
Tenaissance andtbe.Rf.Lg.i..I. A.s. the
product

ofthe.Roman educationsys:em oftheRurth .. centUJ.y,J:

w asone

_ oIaenetationthaLabsorbed\n

igh|yec|ectic1ashion.the
themcs ihathadben ontbehi|osophIca|and :hco|ogicalgendao|
pagan . .l Chrsa.

thinkers or more than 1our centuries and

whcltretcbe.h.(k . to pre-CIristi=u.. S touis audHe||enisic
Jdm. During this period a kind olP|atonism continued to be
deve|opedrough|ycontemporaneous|ywiththeriseanddeve|opment
o|Christianity. Indeed, the ear|y history olChristianity and the
evo|utiono|C ceticisman bedscribedas thestor_ola
: !cti ve__noporation o|_a:nge..

oLP1ac nsigt i a
C.riliaJ
r
l!!i
ed
#w re|atioipt
d
thecreatedwor|dandmanandGod.Butwemustbeawareolthe
ecic
q

ol
]~u

c}
t

and P|atonism in thisperiod.

]ust as what scho|ars now ca|| Neop|atonism was not a nxed
quantity, neither was Christianity |rom its inception to C.AD600.
Indeed, theterm 'Christian P|atonism' lor thenrst 1 000 years AD
coverssowideavarietyo|dierencesthatitisdimcu|ttodenneit
accurate|yasasing|ething.BylocusingonAugustine'sP|atonism,
which was on|y one kind o| P|atonica||y in|!uenced Christian
' Werner Jaeger, EarlY Chrislialliry and Gre k Paidein (Oxford, 1 961 ).
2 A.H. Armstrong. Sf Augustine and C/lristiml Platonism (Villanova. 1967). reprinted with
corrections in AlIgl

stir/e, A Collection ojCrilical Esays, cd. R.A. Markus (New York, 1972), pp.
3-3
7.
P.3
JANET COLEMAN
thought,wentend to high|ightwhat, arguab|y, became themost
inuentia|renderingo|theP|atonictradition|ortheChristianLatin
West.
Augustine, theson o|a Christan motherand apagan|athero|
humb|e means,came|roma rura| hi|| townintheLatin-speaking
provinceo|Roman North A|rica |now Algeria). Hewaseducated
|ocally to pursue a career which eventua||y led him to become a
pro|essor o|Latin rhetoric in Ita|y. He |earned Creek to a |eve|
sumcienttotrans|atequite technicalphi|osophica|textsa|thoughhe
nevermastered HomerandCreek|iterature. Nordoesheseem to
havemadeadirectstudyo|anyCreek texto|P|atoa|thoughsuch
were avai|able' Wedo not know i|Augustineread Cicero's Latin
trans|ation o|P|ato's Timaeu on which Ca|cidius had written an
e|aborate commentary in the |ourth century. In his ownwritings,
Augustine neverrevea|s which texts o|the 'P|atonists' he read or
heardiscussed, butitisc|ear thatthe|orm o| P|atonicphi|osophy
thateventua||ycaptured himoncehcarrived in Ita|y topursuehis
career, wasthe 'modern' Neoplatonism o|the|ate third centuryo|
P|otinusandPorphyry.8oenduringwastheirinuenceonhim that
whenhe6na||ylaydyingatHippoduringthe\andalsiegeo|hiscity,
hislastrecordedwords werea quotation|rom P|otinus.
Augustineexperiencedaserieso|lurcom throughouthis
turbu|ent|i|e.6stotbeph_o|li|eexressedb_Ci,mn
tothedua|_relijqussect_nic!sm,.third|ytopgan P|atons
and6na|lytoChristianity|80) .I nhisConfessions, Augustineretells,
stage by stag

-
ne||ectua| and spiritua| journey he had
undertaken throughout his |i|e. He exp|ains here how at 6rst he
thoughttheshi|t|romNeoplatonismtoChristianitytobeeasy, but
gradua||yhereinterpretedthemoveasapaln|ulbreakwltho|dways,
atakingo|sidesandacavernousdivide.At6rst,however,hewrote
works to demonstrate his optimistic commitment to the kind o|
ChistianP|atonism|orwhich 8tPaulwason|yashortstep|urther.
3 We need only mcntiOll the variety oftypcs o(twclfthcculUry Platonism thal derived not only
from Augustine but from Bocthius, PscudoDionysius, Islamic Neoplatonism - principally
from Pradus's Liber de Callsis. Sec M.D. Chenu, L tMalogic du dou.: itme sieee (Paris, 1957),
chapter 5. Also R.A. Markus, The &,d o Ancient Christianit (Cambridge, 1990), p. xii .
. Henry Chadwick, Augustine (Oxford, 1986). pp. 7[ Augustine benefted from the Latin
translations or Greek Ncoplatonists made by Marius Victorinus. See Pierre Hadot, Mati/I
Viclon'nus, recherches sur sa vie el ses oeuvres (Paris, 1971).
Chadwick, Augustine, p. 25.
T/:6/ris/issP/st.ss-:}S/Aees/s: 29
Inhesceat|ywotksweseeAugustine'sdebttoCiceto'sP|atonism,
to that ptecursor and source o| Chtistian Platonic thinking, the
He||enistic]ewPhi|oo| A|exandria,totheGteekFathetsC|emento|
A|exandria,Otigen, the

Cappadocians |Basi|o|Caesatea, Gregoty

Nazianzen and Gtegory o|Nyssa) and to P|otinus and Porphyty.*
Wtitingwiththehindsighto|aconvetttoChristianitymotethan
thitteenyears after the event, Augustine te|ls us:
Therefore You brought in my way by means of a certain man -an incredibly
conceited man - some bOQks of the Platonists translated from Greek into
Latin. In them I found, though not in the very words yet the thing itselfand
proved by all sorts of reasons, [But 10t all of Christ was there]. (Confssions,
VII, o)
InBookVIII.2 hewrites. 'intheP|atonists,GodandHisWordare
evetywheteimp|ied'.Hetel|susthattheseP|atonistbookscame|rom
Athensandtheyspokeo|O|d1estamenthistotyandhowthe1ews
changed the glory of Thy incorruption into idols and divers images . . . in
fact into that Egyptian f09d fol' whieh Esau had lost his birthright . . , For it
pleased You, 0 Lord, to take away the reproach of the inferiority fromJacob
so that the elder brother [the Jews] served the younger [the Christians]: and
You have called the Gentiles into Your inheritance. From the Gentiles
indeed I had come to You; and I fxed my mind upon the gold which You
willed that Your people should bring with them from Egypt: for it was Yours
wherever it was, And You had said to the Athenians by Your Apostle [Paul]
that in You we live and move and arc, as certain of their own writers had said.
Augustinete|lsusthatwhenhecametoIta|yandencounteredBishop
Ambroseo|Mi|au,aGteekteaderwhoabsorbedmuch|romPhi|o,
On Cicero's 'platonism', sec Janet Coleman, Ancient and Medie/al McmoritS, Studies ill flu
Reconstruction oftie Past (Cambridge, 1 992), especially chapter 3, pp. 39-62. See Cicero's De
ortore, 1.12 on mcn gifted with divinc eloquence; Tusculan Disputations, I, pp. xix-xxv on
Plato's authority and on the self idcntified not with thc body but with incorporeal soul.
, On Philo, see Henry Chadwick 'Philo" in TIlt Camhridge Histor ojLaler Greek and Early
Medieval Philosophy, ed. A.H. Armstrong (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 137-57, and B.A. Wolfson,
Philo, 2 vols (Cambridge, Mass., '947), Sec also Philo, in len volumes and two supplemmtar
volumes, ed. and trans. F.H. Colson, G.B, Whitaker and R. Marcus (London, 1929-62).
" See Jaeger. Early Christianity and Greek Paideia, pp. 43-4, and in general H. Chadwick,
'Clement of Alexandria' and 'Origen', in Cambridge Histor, cd. Armstrong, pp.1 68-g2 and
182-92 for editions of texts. In general, see Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christi(s i" the
Mediterranean Worldfrom the Secord Centur AD /0 the Conversion ojCOl/sialtine (London, 1986).
Also, Judith Herrin, The FormatioTl ojC/lrislendom (Oxford, 1987).
9 Translation of Augustine's Cifessiolfs used here: F J. Sheed (Londoll, (944). Translations of
other works of Augustine are my own.
JANET COLEMAN
Origeu aud Plotiuus aud theu traus|ormed their Platouism to
produceamarked|yasceticimageo|theChurch,' he did uotthiuk
hisowu ideasou mauaudtheuuiverse thathehadabsorbed|rom
Ciceroaudthe'P|atouists'requiredauychauge.Someo|thethemes
Augustiue treats |rom the Christiau Neop|atouist ageuda o|these
ear|yyears cau be outliued here. '
Thewor|dcaubeseeuwithhumaueyesaudcompreheudedbythe
humau miud as a measured aud ordered hierarchy olbeiugs. A|l
beiugisgoodaudGodisthecauseo|good,ueverolevi|.God,asthe
iucorporea|,trausceudeutsourceo|beiug,thetrausceudeutOuewho
isiuHimse||iueab|eaud uuthiukable, 'kuowu betteriuuot beiug
kuowu' (De ordine II. i 0.), uouethe|esscommuuicates bydesceut
through a|| |eve|so|spirit aud body, |rom His uuity dowu to the
mu|tip|icityo|matteraud uou-beiug, |ike light uutodarkuess.The
humau soul is created aud there|ore, is uot parto|God. Although
|al|euitretaiussometraceo|thediviueimageaud |orm throughits
ratioua|ity aud |reedom. It is iu exi|e a|though immorta| aud it
|o||ows the hierarchical order to asceud vertica|lyiureverse toits
goa|,itstruehomeaudorigiu.Themateria|wor|disuotevi|a|though
itiscoutrastedwith theiutel|igiblewor|d. Theseusib|eworldisau
imageo|theiute||igibleworldwhichisitsexemplar(Contra academicos .
Ill. 1 7. 37: III. 1 8.o) .Theseusible,asauimage,isthere|ore|ikethetrue
(verisimilem). There|ore,hesays that'whateverisdoueiu thiswor|d
throughtheso-calledcivi|virtues|whichvirtuesareou|y|ike-thetrue
virtues,whi|ethetruevirtuesareuukuowutoa||butthe|ewwhoare
wise) cauuotbeca|ledauythiugmore thau|ike-thetrue'. 'Forthis
reasou, the body's right|u| p|ace iuthehierarchica| cosmosis as au
iustrumeut. its purpose is to euab|e iute||ect's work iu the ratioua|
orderasitisexpressedatthe|ower|eve|so|beiug.Butthebodycau
also be au obstacle to mau's asceut aud |u|h|meut. Evil, as a
corruptiouo|good,isadisp|acemeut|romrightorder.]ustasorder
l9
Peter Brown, The Boq and Scieg, Men, Women and Sexual Renu11cialio1l ir Early Cnrislialliry
(London. 1989), especially part III: 'Ambrose to Augustine', pp. 339-427.
1 1
Edward Crnm, 'The Development of Augustine's Ideas on Society before the Donatist
Controversy', Harvard Theological Review, 47 ( 1 954). 255-31 6 and for a list of early works and
their dates. This is reprinted in Markus (cd.), AlIgluline, pp. 336-43- Also see R.A. Markus,
COlwersioll aud Disellchanlmmt il Augustine'S Spiritual Career (Villanova, Ig8g). Sec A.H.
Armstrong, 'Augustine and Christian Platonism' in Augustine, ed. Markus, pp. 3-37.
1?
Contra academicos III. 17. 37. Sec also De libero arbilrio, 1f 15-33 and De mllsica VI. l. , 3.
Standard editions of Augustine'S works are Clrplls chrisfiQlJrllm series latinG, ClrplIs scrptores
ecclesiaslicorum/alil1orum, and, when texts are nOl available in these, Patm/agia lalina, edited by
J+ P. Mignc.
The Christian Platonism oj St Augustine
3
1
bringsaboutcreatedbeingsoitscontrary,disruptiono| order,brings
about non-being. And what undergoes corruption tends towards
non-being. 'Hence, sensual delightis distrusted and must beused
rightly,|oritis therationa|mind,|ree|romsensualslaverythrough
reason's ordered control, that leads man to God (De libera arbitria
1.6. 1
5
) . The ideal li|e is one o| contemplation and a certain
asceticism through which one withdraws |rom the distraction o|
materialmultiplicity.Itisassistedbysolitudeandliberalstudiesthat
trainthe mind away |rom the ordero|sense, leading the spiritual
mind to its goal within

this li|e. Described here, then, is a certain

paideia o|thesoul,aneducationo|mindaway|romthechangeable
andcorruptiblethingso|theworldtoitstrueandnatural|ocus,the
incorporealtruthsandGod.Liberalstudiesarethemeansbywhich
thesoulis educated.
Inthisli|emanisestranged|romGod,thereisagul|tobeovercome
and this can be achieved by a kind o|human sel|-determination
through moraldisciplineencouraged through the liberalstudieso|
theclassicalGreekpaideia, aninstructiono|mindconcerningitstrue
ob|ects.I S Augustine believed that nothing in the material world
(signijcata) thatisexternaltomindcan,in the last resort, beregardedas
thesource o|itsknowledge.Neitherthesensedata o|experiencenor
thesigns thatpointtosuchsensedatainlanguageandgesturecan
giveknowledgewithouttheInteriorTeacherwhoisthesourceo|all
truthand knowledge. Thisis Christ, dwellingin the mind. Butthe
soulmustbeginatthebeginning.Man'sreasoncanmove'asitwere
bysuresteps|romthingscorporeal tothingsincorporeal' (De musica
VI. ! . I , ). Therearestagesincognitionthatleadtosalvation.Thereis
aladdero|per|ection consistingo|theseven-|oldworko|thespirit
whichleadstoGod,beginningwith|earandascendingthroughpiety,
|ortitude,knowledge,counsel,understandingtowisdom,thesupreme
gradeo|per|ection. Wisdom is o|theintelligible order, '|or God's
kingdomis thewholeworld whichsensedoesnotknow' (Salilaquia
1.
3
) , and 'His law, hxed and unshaken in Him is, as it were,
transcribedintowisesouls' (De ardine 1l.8.25) . Thistheoryo|mind's
education|rom thingscorporeal tothingsincorporealwouldbethe
most inuential paradigm |or all western theories o| knowledge
I De ordinc I. 7. IB;-De libero arbilric 1. 16. 34. 35.
'` These views infuenced the Secretum of Pctrarch in lhe fourteenth century, Sec Coleman,
Ancient and Medieval Memories, pp. 551-4.
I De sermo1le Domini ill monle, r. 2. 9; I. 4. I I , De qU(lIlilafe animac 76.
32
J ANET COLEMAN
dutingthemidd|eagesunti|theteinttoductiono| Atistot|e'swtitings,
ttans|atedinto Latin, dutingthe twe||ih and thitteenthcentuties.
]ustastheteisaseven-stageascento|thesou|(De quantitate animae
76; Sermo CCLlX.2-3) , sotoothehistotyo|theunivetseisdividedinto
sixageswithaseventhwhenthesaintsand|ustmeno|Godwi||en|oy
thesabbathoneatth."Thisviewwou|dinuencea||histotiogtaphy
thtoughoutthemedievalpetiodandbeyond,thesou|'sownhistoty
pata||e|ingthehistotyo|theunivetse.Thepassionscanbeintegtated
bysub|ectiontoteason'scontto|andmindotteasonisitse||sub|ectto
whatis aboveitin the hietatchy, God' U|timate|y, catna|desite
mustandcanbetamedtathetthan e|iminated andtheconsequent
achievemento|peacethtoughatightsub|ectiontoGod'sotdetisthe
achievemento|pet|ectwisdominthis|i|e.Hence,man'squestisthe
questo|hissoul|otwisdomand itisachievedbyoneo|twoways.
eithetbyteasonguided bya!latonistundetstandingo|the|ibeta|
atts, ot by authotity, whichis Chtist and his cc|esia, whichis a
schoo| o|insttuction. Indeed, the divine authotity ofChtistis the
highestteason,|otChtististhewisdomo|God(De ardine ::.e0-;).The
teachingo|theChutchis 'P|atonism|otthemu|titude',!addtessing
unphi|osophica| minds in pictotia| and hgutative ways in otdet to
guide theitconductwith teason.
Man'sidentityishiscontemp|ativemindandhissenseexpetiences
ate mete|y images o| a highet, inte||igib|e wot|d that can be
contemp|atedbymindwhenitisdivotced|tomthesenses(De trinitate
xrv.-r,e-) . Thewise man's |i|eis aptogtessive|ibetation|tom
the wot|d o|sense, whete the sou|is ca||ed back to the inte||igib|e
wot|d.'Thisisthepeacewhichisgivenoneatthtomeno|goodwi|l,
thisisthe|i|eo|themanwhohasachievedpet|ectwisdom'.'Inthe
wot|d o|sense, thesoul is blinded bydatkness o|ettot and made
|otget|u|bybodi|ystains,imagesthatwou|ddominatethewtitingso|
StBetnatd in the twe||ih centutyand Pettatch in the |outteenth.
Manmustchoose|tee|ywhethetotnottoaccepttightotdetandhe
hasin himsel|and in his poweta|l thatis necessaty |ot the tight
choices. To choose the ptopet otdet o| sou| is the necessaty
ptetequisitetoptopetotdetinsociety.Itis possib|etoattain|ustice,
comptehensib|einhumantetms,thtoughtheotdetedattangements
t6 De Gmtsi contra Maniclaeos 1. 23. 35, De vera Tciigionc, passim.
17 De Semumc Domini ill monle 2. 9; De vera religiont 23. 44; De musica NI. 5 13; 15. 50.
10
Chadwick, Augflstine, p. 25.
'" De sermolU Domini in monle 1. 2. 9; Contra ncademicos 111. 19. 42.
The Christian Platonism if St Augustine
33
o|socia|

|iving.1usticeistheotdetbywhichthesou|setvesGodand
dominatesnonebutbestiaIandcotpotea|natutes,imagesthatwou|d
inuencepo|itica|theotyandptacticeo|medievalchutchandregnum
|'state`) |ot centuties.(
D
e musica VI-15.50)
Augustine'seat|yoptimismconsistedinthebelie|thatthegoalo|
humansttivingwasattainab|ebyhumaneottthtoughtationa|ity
andhedesctibestheapostlesashavingachieveditinthis|i|e."1he
c|assica|debate,towhichCicetohadconttibuted,ovetthemetitso|
thethteekindso||i|e,active,contemp|ativeotmixed,wasdecidedin
|avouto|anotium liberale (awithdtawa||tompub|icaaitstoputsue
|ibeta|studies) (De ordine 11.5. 1 4) . The|i|e o|action is |inked with
mu|tip|icity and that o|contemp|ation is |inked with unity. The
active|i|ecanon|ybeconsidetedtheinitiatingsteponthetoadtothe
sou|'stetutn|otthesou|begins|i|easapi|gtim,|at|tomitshomeand
seekstosteetitse!|tothehatbouto|phi|osophy,'imagesthatwou|d
stittheimaginationso|Renaissancethinkets.Hence,themaintheme
o|Augustine'seat|ywotksasaChtistianP!atonististhesou|'squest
|otwisdomandasa Chtistian heiscettainthathewill notdepatt
|tomtheauthotityo|Chtist.AsaNeoplatonistheisequa||ycettain
that teason wi|| hnd in P|atonism what is in agteement with
Chtistianity(Contra academicos 111.20-43). Chtistianityistheonettue
phi|osophy,|ocusingasitdoesonthesou|andtheothet,inte||igib|e
wot|d.Augustinemoveswithease|tomthephi|osophica|distinction
between thesensib|e and the inte||igib|e to theBib|ica| distinction
betweeneshandspitit.P|ato,StPau|andCicetoseemtobetalking
to one anothet. Hehas no dimculty in teconci|ing P|ato with the
Bib|e,identi|yingthestageso|God'sptovidenceinhistotywith the
stageso|theP|atonistsou|'sascent. 1ewishhistotyis,thete|ote,tead
asanimageo|theChtistianpeop|eandtheconsequenceisanout|ine
o|histoty in tetms o|univetsa| ptogtess. Histoty is God's gtadual
educationo|thehumantace (De vera religione) .
Because Augustine began his cateetas an otatot and became a
pto|essoto|thetoticitisptobablynotsutptisingthathehasatheoty
o|cognitionthatdependsextensive|yonlanguage. Indeed, mucho|
thegtammatical, logica| and thetotica| ttadition o|antiquity was
concetnedwith thewaysinwhichlanguagete|ated ontheonehand
?0
De .sermonc Domini i'l monle 1. 4. 12; I. 9, De aoctrillfl c"ristiolla I. 27-8, De liherQ arbitrio M. 25. Sec
Markus, Conversioll and Discndtanlmenl, p. 1 6.
?1
De libero arbilrio II. 38. 53: Dc bealo vita I. 1-2.
1 De Genesi contra Manic/lacos I. 23- 3Sr., De vera religiollc, passim.
34 JANET COLEMAN
tonon-|inguistictea|ity |appeatancesand expetiences) and on the
othet, to the way in which human minds think and speak about
appeatancesandexpetiences.Augustine'swtitingsinttoduced|atet
agestotheseancientconcetnsandhisteachingon|anguagewouldbe
lundamenta|tomedieva| monasticandscho|asticattitudestotexts
andtheitintetptetation. Hence,histeachingon|anguagewou|dbe
centtal to|atetattitudesto the|itetaty imagination.
In his Soliloquies Augustine speaks ol an intetnal dia|ogue ot
convetsationwiththese|linwhich theob+ectsolknow|edgeatethe
patticipants, btought to consciousness thtough speech. Hete the
ptob|emolknow|edgeistheptob|emol|anguageasasystemolsigns.
Augustine's discussion wou|d gteat|y inuence medieva| monastic
schoo|s' tteatmentoldivineandhuman|anguageassignsespecial|y
thtoughhislutthetelabotationinhistwoeat|ywotkstheDe magistro
andtheDe doctrina christiana.'4 Hetehe exp|ainstheteis acognitive
teality behind wotdsandilweknowwhatthewotdssignilyweate
teca||inganimp|icit|yknownttuthwhichAugustineca||steco||ection.
1hisisamodihedPlatonismbecausethettuthisnotinnateinman's
mind, lot Augustine, but must be |eatned. 1he commemotative
lunction olspeech is most impottant lot the Chtistian because
Augustinebe|ievesthatthtoughptayetandtheteadingolthewotds
olSctiptuteman'smemotyisstimu|ated.Thtoughptayetamanis
temindedolthetea|ityolGodwhomheaddtesses.Theknowledgeol
Godisstotedawayinman'smemotyandthebe|ievetisaidedbyhis
memotyolthis antetiotknow|edgewhen he teads and studies the
Bible. Chtistthewotdactsasaptiot,intetiotteachetandsomeone
whohasnoantetiotknow|edgeandmemotyolGodwithinhismind
cannotundetstand anymeaningin thesacted page.ButasStPau|
hadsaid,anyonewhoseeksGodinthegoodthingsthatateseencan
hndhim. Menwhohavenoantetiotknow|edgeolGodatewithout
excuse |Rom.I . I o-eo).Augustinesaysthatthevastma|otityolmen
tequite|atgequantitiesolhumanspeechtootientthemtowatdsGod
and stimu|ate theit memoties olthe intetiot teachet. But a sma||
minotitydonotneedtotelyonthesensotystimu|ationptovidedby
the sight and sound olwotds because they have access to the
intelligible, acquiting laith thtough that inwatd divine speech
achieved thtough contemplation. Signs signily divine tealities,
teachingusnothing,butpointingbeyond andcausingustothinkol
:3 Sec Coleman, Ancie1lt and Medieval Memories, chapters 1-7. pp. 3-1 l 1 .
` Sec Markus, 'Augustine on Signs'. ill Augustine, cd. Markus, pp. 61-88.
1/:c/r:s/:sP/s/:s}/Aas/::
35
whatisbeyondtheimptessionthewotd,assign,makesonthesenses.
This attitude was |undamental to |utute monastic /:ct. J:s
|teadingo|sctiptute).
Augustinewouldmodi|yandtennehistheotyo| cognitionovetthe
yeatsbuthewouldalwaystetainhisconcetntoestablishadominant
tole|otthepoweto|thoughtinotdetthatitmaybteakthtoughthe
sut|aceo|appeatanceand habit, disclosing beyond it theob|ective,
etetnal,immovablesttuctureo|the natuteo|things,o|manando|
histoty,knowabletothecontemplativemindalone.Asaconsequence
hewillmaintain aPlato

nisthietatchyintheob|ectso|thoughtthat
tuns|tomaknowledgeo|tempotalthingstoaknowledgeo|etetnal
objects and itis in the intellectual tealm, divotced ltom all sense
expetience,thatmotalandphilosophicalttuthsteside,anintelligible
wotldo|ideasconsonantwiththoseo|thedivine mind. Suchmotal
and philosophical ttuths divotced |tomsense expetience wete, |ot
him,themani|estationso|God'sintetiotptesenceinthemindo|man
wheteChtistthewotddwellsinthehumansoulas thewotdo|God,
illuminated as the intelligible ::r/ :/:s |wotd o| the mind) .
Human speech, be it wtitten ot spoken, could bting |otth that
immutablettuth,acondencethatwasnotshatedbyPlatobutone
whichwouldinspitelitetatyattistso|the|ututetotegatdtheitwotks
as capableo|tevealingptophetic ttuth.
I|wewetetostophetewiththediscussiono|thoseeatlywtitings
that demonsttate the ovetwhelming Neoplatonism o|Augustine's
eatlyChtistianyeats, wewould haveptesented an Augustinethat
wasmote|amiliattotheRenaissancethantotheRe|otmation.But
Augustine'sthinkingdidnotstandstill. Latetageswouldnottead
Augustine's wotks as having evolved and changed thtoughout his
tutbulent li|e and |ot this teason Augustine, like Soctates, would
becomeallthingsto all men atttacted tosomekindo|Platonically
inhuenced Chtistianity. In |act, duting the 390S when Augustine
te-teadSt Paul, hegtadua|ly |ounditdimcultto see howapagan
thetotot a Neoplatonist could pass so easily into the tanks o|the
Chtistians.Hislatetwotksthete|oteatgue|otadtamatictenunciation
o|his past conhdence in man's tational and motal capacities to
achieve pet|ection. The otdeted cosmos, which he continued to
believein,was nownotopentotationalcomptehension.Itwas,like
1 Markus, End ojAncient Christianity, pp. 29. 485 1-
" COlissiollS VII. 21 . Sec Mrkus, End ojAncient Clristianity, pp. 506, and Cerald Bonner,
Augustine oj Hippo, Lit and Controuersies (London, Ig63).
J ANET COLEMAN
God's|udgemeuts, iuscrutab|e. Likewise, he surreudered his ear|y
coundeuce iu a possib|e orderiug o|meu's |ives, iudividua|ly or
socia||y.Therewou|dbeuoeu|ighteuedru|ertocoutro|societywith
reasou. Humau experieuceaudtheChristiauphi|osopher'sstriviug
towards |e|icity uow seemed impossib|e o| achievemeut except
throughGod'sgrace.Mausimp|ymustbe|ieve.Hecauuotkuow.Siu
tookouauewpoweriumeu's|ivesto the exteut thatitseemed to
Augustiue that mau was power|ess to |ree himse||without God`s
grace.Siuwasuo|ougertobecouceiveda adisruptiouo|theright
ordero|the cosmos uor was it au iguorautsurreudero|reason to
scusua|ity. 1he ear|ier csee:s describiug a se||-wi||ed aud se||-
per|ormed per|ectiouism was rejected. Now good wi|| cau ou|ybe
brought aboutiu usby God's actiou. No|ougerwasthere asimp|e
oppositioubetweeueshaudspirit,sou|aud body.Rather,thesou|
was to be seeu as the batt|ehe|d o|turbu|euce aud the esh, uow
ueutra|,becamecorruptedbythesiuso|thesou|,byitsvarious|usts -
|or thebody aud |or domiuatiouo|othermeu.Therewas tobeuo
victoryo|miud overbodyiuhimse||, uoradistiuctioubetweeu the
ratioua| phi|osophica| Christiau 'saved by |ibera| studies' aud the
averageChristiau,savedbytheauthoritativeteachiugo|theChurch
providiug'P|ato|orthemu|titude'.NowGoda|oue,uoteducatiou,
wasseeu to|ead to truth .c.-;ess:.-sVII.ZO).
Iutheeudtherewasou|youedivisiou.betweeuthosedestiuedtobe
savedaudthosewhoarereprobate, thecityo|Godaudtheearth|y
city.Thereasou|orthisdivisiouwashiddeuiutheiuscrutab|edepths
o|God'swi||butwhatdistiuguishedthemiuthis|i|ewastheobjecto|
their|ove, be it se||orGod. I|theordiuaryChristiauwas uow uo
|urther away |rom grace thau the erudite or the ascetic, theu
imper|ectiouistheiuescapab|ecouditiou|ora||a|ikehere.Maukiud
a|terAdamisamasso| siu.Per|ectiou- thatdistautgoala|ter|i|eaud
history- cauou|ybeduetoGod'swi||.GodchoosesHise|ectouthe
basis o| His |orekuowledge o| His determiuatiou o| their wi||s.
ReadiugNeop|atouistswithueweyes,Augustiuehua||yiusistedthat
thegu||betweeu God aud mau cou|d uot be bridged throughse||
kuow|edgebutcou|d bemeditated by gracea|oue.
Augustiue wou|d coutiuue to speak o|our iguorauce o|God's
esseuce as, uouethe|ess au iu|ormed iguorauce, usiug Porphyriau
|auguage wheu hespeaks o|the be|ievercoutemp|atiugGod as au
' Markus, Conversion lnd jisellclanlmetll, pp. 18-23. 36-4. Sec also Markus, SaeculumJ Histor
alld Sociery ill Ihe Theology of SI AI/guslim (Cambridge, 1 970), pp. 8792.
The Christian Platonism ofSt Augustine
37
expetiencebeyondintel|ection,suchthingsbeingbestknownbynot
being known. He would stil| speak o|salvation as, in a way, a
deihcationbydegreethroughparticipationinGod.Hewou|dremain
aChristian Neoplatoni

t to the end.But a|tet uc.oo hewou|d

incteasing|yseek to dtawuponNeop|atonist insights only to serve
Christiandoctrineasithaddeve|opedintheLatinWesto|thetourth
and h|th centuries, rather than conlotming Chtistian doctrine to
Neop|atonistexpectations.ItwasthewrItingso|theo|detAugustine
thatwouldinuence theRe|otmation's mode| olman.
R, Russell, 'Ncoplatonism in the De civilate dei'. in Neoplatollism alld Er( Christian Tloug!/, cd.
HJ. Blumenthal and R.A. Mal'kus (London, Ig8t), pp. [60-70.
CHAPTER 4
Boethius and King Alred
Janet Eater
BOETHI US
Auygeuera|isatiouaboutthekuow|edgeolGreektextsiumedieva|
Eug|aud is lraught with dauger. However, it wou|d appear that
duriug thenrstha|lolthatperiod acquaiutauce with theworksol
P|ato was at secoud or eveu third haud, through the writiugs ol
authorssuchasMacrobius,MartiauusCape||a,Augustiue,Boethius
aud|viaCa|cidius'traus|atiouoltheTimaeus) John ScctusEriugeua,
audthroughLatiuaudO|dEug|ishtextsdrawiugououeorotherol
thesewritiugs. The mostimportautcoutributiou iu theveruacu|ar
wasprovided by the |ate uiuthceutury reworkiugolBoethius' De
consolatione Philosophiae' byA|lred,KiugolWessex, thoughP|atouic
orNeop|atouicideasarea|solouudiuA|lred'sSoliloquies |bywayol
Augustiue) aud iu a coup|e olO|d Eug|ish homi|ies |by way ol
A|lred'sBoethius).4 Theear|iestsecureevideucelorkuow|edgeolthe
Consolatio iu Eug|aud is provided by A|lred's Boethius, a|though,
thauksappareut|ytotheEug|ishmauA|cuiu,itwasbeiugreadouthe
coutiueutlrom theCaro|iugiauReuaissauceouward.Theworksol
Macrobius aud Martiauus Cape||a had a|so become kuowu iu
Eug|aud by the eud olthe uiuth ceutury, whi|e commeutaries ou
Cape||aaudBoethiuswereiucircu|atiouthereby thebegiuuiugol
theteuth.
Iuthe|atermedieva|period,Ca|cidius' Timaeus wasjoiuedbythe
, Boe/hills, cd. H.F. Stewart, E.K. Rand (1918), revised and trans. by SJ. Tester (London,
1973. reprinted 1978). Referred to hereafter as COl/solatia.
Killg Alred's Ol English Versioll ofBoethills De COl/solal;ollc Phiiosophiae, ed. Walter John
Sedgcfcld (Oxford, 1899). RcfclTCd to hereafter as Boetfius.
3 Killg Alred's Versio11 oj Sl Augustine'S Soliloquies, cd. Thomas A. Carnicclli (Harvard, 1969).
especially p. 9I . J-4.
Sec M.R. Godden, 'AngloSaxons on the Mind', Leami1lg (lid Lierature ill AlIgloSxon Elgllld,
cd, Michael Lapidge and Helmul GI1CUSS (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 296-8. Boclhian ideas have
also been detected (sometimes controversially) in a range of Old English poems.
Boethius and King Alfred
3
9
twe|tthcentuty Latin ttans|ations otthe Meno and the Phaedo by
HenticusAtistippus .d. r r 0e). Howevet, theimpottanceotpattistic
andothetma+otauthotswtitinginLatinasttansmittetsotP|atonic
thought temained undiminished, with the Consolatio p|aying a key
to|e. As in the eat|iet petiod, this text exetted its inuence both
ditect|y.intheotigina|otinttans|ation)andthtoughcommentaties.
O! these, the most inhuentia| seems to have been the Latin
commentatyotNicho|asTtevet,awotkwhichincotpotatesmatetia|
ttom both Altted's Boethius and Wil|iam otConches' Commentator.
Ttevet'scommentatywasanimpottantsoutcetotChaucet'sBoece .a
ptose ttans|ation otthe Consolatio, which dtaws a|so on1ean de
Meun'sLi Livres de Confort) andtot]ohnWa|ton'sBoethius. r i o,a
vetse tendetingwhichinits tutn uses matetia|ttom Chaucet) .
TheimpottanceotBoethiusasthemediatotot Gteekphi|osophica|
|eatningtotheChtistianWestetnwot|dcannotbeovetestimated.His
wtitingstevea| a ptotoundinte||ectua| debt to both P|ato and the
Neop|atonists.I ndeed, theessentia|shapeottheConsolatio hasbeen
desctibedas'aNeop|atonicthesisthattheimpettectionsotthiswot|d
atea||owed totaci|itatethetetutn otthesou| toitsotiginin God'.
TheP|atonicdocttinesotReco||ectionandtheAscentottheSou|ate
combinedandintetptetedintetmsotP|otinus'ascentotthesou|toits
otigina|home.Thequestions' IttheteisaGod,whencecomesevi|?
But whence comes good, itthete is not?' ate taken ttom Ptocus
(Parmenides roj0, Consolatio, i.pt.iv. r oj-0) a|ong with a

be|iet in
toteknow|edgebyGod, towhomevetythingisknown,outsidetime,
inthesimu|taneityotetetnity (Consolatio, v.pt.vi. ). Godisseentobe
wotkingthtoughFate.Howevet,whiletheteatenoovetttetetences
to Chtistian docttines, suchas thetemissionotsins, tedemption,ot
etetna||ite, thete isnothingotP|ato that cannota|sobe tound in
Augustine.'
TheteatemanyteasonswhyA|ttedshou|dhavechosento make
avai|ab|e to his peop|e an Eng|ish vetsion ot the Consolatio, a
phi|osophica|wotkot gteatpowet,otigina|ityandauthotity,co|outed
by its authot's petsona| ttagedy. Neat|y ;oo yeats |atet anothet
Eng|ishmonatch- QueenE|izabethI- wastoundettakethesame
) Sec Roetnius. His lif, Thoug/lt and Ill jrunce, cd. Margaret Gibson (Oxford, 198r) and Til
Medieval Boe/iiIIS. Sludies ill the Veracular Trans/alions ofDe COlIsclatiOlle Pltilosophiae, cd. A.J.
Minnis (Cambridge, (987).
6 H. Chadwick, 'Introduction', Beelhius, cd. Gibson, p. I I .
7 See further Boe/Mus, cd. Gibson, Pan I , :lso Henry Chadwick, BOe/lius. The Consolations oj
Music, Logic, Theola,V, and Philosophy (Oxrord, 1981, reprinled 1990).
JANET BATELY
task. YetAltred'sisuoclose trauslatiouiuthemoderuseuseotthe
word. Rather, it is a reiuterpretatiou, made iu the light ot his
experieuceaudobligatiousasamedievalChristiaukiug,reectiughis
owupersoualquesttorauauswertotheproblemsotaworldiuwhich
evilaudsiuotteuseemedtohavetheupperhaud.Eveuiutheceutral
discussiousotFate,Fortuue,Freewi|laudProvideucemajordiereuces
emergebetweeutheattitudesofthetwomeu.Altredcertaiulytollows
Boethius iu his acceptauce otFate as the ageut by which God's
provideuceworks out its will iu the temporal world. However, he
partstromBoethiusiuhisemphasisouapersoualGodwhoisvery
clearlytheChristiauGod.So,toriustauce,whereBoethiustakestrom
the Neop|atouists the image ot couceutric circles to represeut
ProvideuceaudFate(Consolatio, iv.pr.vi.0j-8e),A|tred,iutroduciug
theAugustiuiau themeotthesoul yearuiugtor God, but reachiug
Him ouly through contemptus mundi |coutempt tor the world), uses
iustead theimage ota cartwheel. Its axlerepreseutsGod aud the
uave,spokesaudtelliesrepreseutmeu,whoaregradedasthebest,the
middlesortaud theleastworthy,accordiugto theexteuttowhich
thevsettheirloveueartoGodauddespiseearthlythiugs(Boethius,
i eo. io-r o. e;). Aud as his ultimate auswer to theproblemsotthe
secretworkiugsott ateaudtortuueAltredproducesthedoctriueot merit.
ALFRED
'
S BOETHI US
Itisuotpossibletodo +usticeheretoa|lthemodincatiousaudchauges
madebyAltrediuhisreuderiugottheConsolatio' aud thevarietyot
waysiuwhichhehaudlesthosematerialswhichBoethiushimselthad
iuherited trom the Platouists. Exploratiou otthree liuked themes
must sumce by way otillustratiou. the Platouic doctriues otthe
Pre-existeuceottheSoul, Recollectiou aud theAsceutottheSoul.
These,aswehaveseeu,aredoctriueswhichBoethius,tollowiugthe
Neoplatouists, explicitly associated together iu the Consolatio, aud
Altred reactstothemiuavarietyotways.Ououeoccasiouwhere
Boethius' Philosophiadescribesallhumaukiud astrom oueorigiu,
ouetather,who'|ockediuto limbsspirits broughtdowutromtheir
highabode'(Consolatio, m.m.vi.j),herEuglishcouuterpart,Wisdom
(alias Reasou)summarisesiusteadChristiauteachiugsouthecreatiou
" Book length studies include K. Otten, Kiilig Aled!Boehius (Tibingcn, 1964), and F. Anne
Payne, Kilg Aled and Boelius (Madison and London, 1968).
Boetli!!s and King Alfred
4
'
olmau.(Boethius, 69. 1 7-23)" Ouauotheroccasiou,A|lredpreserves
Boethius' relereuces to reco||ectiou a|oug with his Neop|atouist
emphasisou se|l-kuow|

dge, the turuiug-iuupouitse|lolthesou|.

Whoever wishes to search deeply with inward mind after right and does not
wish to be hindered by any man or any thing, let him begin to seek within
himself what he previously sought outside . . . For no heaviness of the body
nor any vice can completely take away the righteousness from his mind, so
that he does not have something ofit in his mind, though the sluggishness of
the body and the vices often trouble the mind with forgetfulness and lead it
astray with the mist of error, so that it cannot shine as brightly as it would,
and nevertheless a grain of the seed of truth is ever dwelling in the soul while
the soul and the body are united. (Boethius, 94.27-95. 1 4)
For,hecoutiuues,
it is a very true saying that the philosopher Plato spoke: 'Whoever', he said,
'is unmindful of righteousness, let him turn to his memory; then he will fnd
the righteousness there, concealed by the weight of the body and by the
tribulations and preoccupations of his mind', (Boethius, 95, 1 9-
23)
1 0
However, A|lred's reuderiug olthis aud the passage immediate|y
lo||owiug (Consoiatio, III pr.xii. 1 -4; Boethius, 95.24-3 1 ) coutaius uo
detai|thatrequiresiuterpretatiouiuthe|ightolP|ato'sDoctriueol
Pre-existeuce, the emphasis beiug ou lorgetlu|uess by mau olhis
esseutia|righteousuess.
Iu hisversiou olConsolatio) IV . m. r, iu coutrast, A|lred preserves
Boethius' relereuceto thesou|'sreco||ectiouolalormerhome.This
meterbegiuswithadescriptiouolthemiudputtiugouPhi|osophia's
wiugsaudbeiugboruea|olt- itse|lauimportautP|atouicimageaud
ouewhich is uot ou|yretaiued here by A|lted but may we|| have
iuueucedhimiuthebeautilu|audorigiua|simi|eoltheeag|ethathe
putsiutothemoutholWisdomiuBookn: 'ButwheuItrave|upwith
myservauts,theuwescoruthisstormywor|d,just|iketheeag|e,wheu
hesoars upiustormyweatherabove thec|oudsso thatthestorms
cauuot harmhim' (Boethius, 1 8. 1 1-14) . Ou that occasiou,Wisdom
expressesa wi||iuguesstotakeMod (Mind'q a|iasBoethius) upwith
9 Cf Alfred's transformation of Bo k lIJ.m.ix, 'Oqui perpetua' (which draws heavily on Plato,
Timaeus. and Proelus) , into what is esentially a celebration of Cod and His creation, with the
Platonic World Soul reinterpreted as the human soul.
10
cf
Com%lio, m.m,xi 1-[6, which concludes:
If Plato's muse rings true,
What each man lears, forgetful he recalls,
JANET BATELY
him-providedhereturntoearthagain,lorthesakeol goodmen.'In
Consolatio, :v.m. l ,thesou|,onceithasascendedto'theoutsideolthe
swilt upperair' speakson|y olremaining.
IlIhe road bring you back, returning to this place,
Which you now seek, forgetful,
'This,' you will say, 'I remember, is my native land,
Here I was born, here Ishall halt my step'.
(Conolalio, IV. m.i. 23-6)
In A|lred'sversion olthismeter, Wisdomcommentssimi|ar|y.
But if you ever come on that path and to that place that you have yet
forgotten, then you will wish to say, 'This is my true homeland; I had
formerly come from here and from here Iwas born; I now intend to stand fast
here; I do not wish ever to depart from here'. (Boethius 1 5.204)
And in yet another striking passage the idea ola return home is
actua||yinsertedbyA|lred,bringingtogetherthethemesolreco||ection
and the ascent ol the sou| in an expansion ol Phi|osophia's
exhortation, 'Let us be raised up, ilwe can, to the height olthat
highest inte||igence' (Consolatio, v. pr.. o). Havingrendered this
with some de|ity 'Letus now raise our minds as high as we can
towards the high rool ol the highest inte||igence', he puts into
Wisdom'smouththelurthercomment'sothatyoumaymostspeedi|y
andeasilycometoyourownhomelromwhereyouprevious|ycame'
(Boethius, 1
4
6.26-9).
The ideas olascent and a|ourneyhomearea|socombined by
A|lredinhisversionofConsolatio, :::.pr.e.,whereBoethiususeshis
ce|ebrated simi|e olthe drunken man. 'man's mind, though the
memoryolitisc|ouded,yetdoesseekagainitspropergood,but|ikea
drunken man cannot nd by what path it may return home') .
A|lred`sextendedversionintroduces theimageolasteeps|ope.
Now then although their minds and their natures are dimmed, and they
have sunk down on the descent to evil and are inclined thither, nevertheless
they desire the highest good, as far as they know how and are able to. Just as a
drunken man knows that he should go to his house and to his rest and yet
cannot fnd the way thither, so it is with the mind when it is made heavy by
I
I n a rewriting of a reference by Forluna to her wheel (CtJoialio, 1I.pr.2, 28-33). Jut as
Bqethius has no place for Plato's gods in his system, so Alfred docs not accept the
personifications Fortuna and Natura.
Boethius and King Alfred
43
the cares of this world; it is sometimes intoxicated and led astray by them, to
the extent that it cannot very directly fnd the way to good (or God?) (Boetldus
55. 1 5-22)
WemaycompareChau

cer'sexploitationotBoethius'drunken-man
imageinaverydierentcontextintheKnight's Tale (c. I 382), where
Arcite,havingsucceededinobtaininghis|iberty,realisesthathehas
in the process deprived himse|t otwhat was in tact even more
importanttohim- sightotEmi|y.
We witen nat, what thing we preycn hccre:
We faren as he that dronke is as a mOllS.
Adranke man woot wei he hath an hous,
But he noot which the righte wey is thider,
And to a dronke man the wey is slider.
And certes, in this world so faren we;
We seken faste afer felicitee. I Z
(11 . 1 260-6)
Perhapsthemostiuterestingexampleot useottheP|atonicdoctrineot
theAscentottheSou|inA|tred'sBoethils is,however,intherendering
otBook1Il. m.xii, ameterwherethe turningbackotOrpheusashe
|eavestheUnderwor|disused- undertheinuenceot thea||egoryot
theCavein Plato'sRepublic - toportraythe|ai|ureoasou| in its
ascent towards the|ight.AccordingtoBoethius'version the tab|eis
intendedtorthosewhoseek to |ead their mind into the upper day.
For he who overcome should turn back his gaze
Towards the Tartarean cave,
Whatever excellence he takes with him
He loses when he looks on those below.
Allred's Wisdom both provides a di!erent moral' and shows
greatercompassion to thebacks|ider.
these false tales teach every man who wishes to fee from the darkness of hell
and come to the light of the true goodness (or God) that he should not look
round at his old sins, so that he again commits them as fully as he once did.
For whoever with entire will turns his mind to the sins that he previously
abandoned and then fully commits them, and they then fully please him, and
he does not think ever to forsake them, then he will lose all his former good,
unless he atones for it again. (Boethius, 1 3. 1 4-21 )
1?
Tie Riverside CJlalcr, srd cdn, cd. L. Benson (Oxford, I g88).
' For the interpretations in contemporary commentaries, sec Joseph S. Wittig, 'King Alfred's
Bocthius and its Latin Sources, a Reconsideration', I I (rg83), AlIglo.Saxoll England, 157-98,
44
JANET BATELY
Etetua|puuish

meuti sthetewatdlotevi|,whichWisdomdesctibesas
themisuseolthelteedomGodhasgiveutomeu(Boelhius, i i . e i-e) . '
But A|lted's God is a metcilu| God who a||ows lot tepeutauce
(Boelhius, r.ee-o)audtheteatep|eutyolescapeclauseshetelotthe
|ess thau hatdeued siuuet. P|atouic thought, as ttausmitted by
Boethius, has beeu adapted aud ttauslotmed by a medieva| kiug,
seekinglothimsellaudhispeop|eadeepetuudetstaudiugolmau's
p|aceiutheschemeolthiugs.
'" Alfred foHows Boethius (Book lII.pr. 12, 80-2) in the Platonic view that evil is nothing
'because ifcyi\ were anything, then God would be able to do it' (Boethius, 100.3-4) ' However,
his reasons for agreeing that evil men arc happier when punished (Collso/alia, Iv.pr.4. 42-4.
Boethius, 1 18.21-2) are lhat those who arc unpunished for their wickednes in this world will
[ace the worst retribution after this world (Boct/tius, I lg. I S-IS). And whereas Philosophia
claims that the wicked are punished because evil i its own punishment (Iv,pr.3, 37-8).
Wisdom on the one hand sees eternal punishment as the reward for evil ( 1 13.21-2), which, he
claims, is the result oflhe misuse of the freedom God has given to men, but on the other hand
maintains that God determined that if men sinned in that freedom, they might amend it
afterwards with repentance in that freedom ( ( 43.22-9). There is nothing comparable to this
in Consolatio, v.pr.4.
CHAPTER 5
Chaucer's use ofNeoplatonic traditions
YaSllnar Takada
Theteateuotab|eteteteucesiuChaucetto theNeop|atouicauctores
suchasMattiauusCape||a,Boethius,MactobiusaudA|aiuotLi||e.
They stand us ingood stead iushowingChaucet wotkiug uot iu
insu|atsec|usionbutinauactivedia|oguewiththegteatcontineutal
ttaditionotNeoplatonism.TheimageotChaucetasacosmopo|itau
poetisiudeedtami|iateuough, patticulat|yto theteadetotTroilus
and Criseyde, wheteissuggestediu aDantesquemauuettheauthot's
ambitiou to amliate himse|twith the gteatEutopean ttadition ot
'poesye', i.e. 'Vitgi|e, Ovide, Omet, Lucan, and Stace' |v,
i
;oe) . '
The ttauscu|tuta| uegotiation hete is in a sense simple aud
sttaighttotwatdandevenaustete.Butiuthecaseotthedia|oguewith
Neop|atouicauctores tathetthauthoseot'poesye',thiugsateasotteu
as uot chatactetised by ob|iqueness, a sense othumout aud eveu
itouy.Pethapsthiscanbebestseeuifwetocusoutatteutiouonsome
ot the ideas and motits which have a c|ose association with
Neop|atouism. |ove, theasceut toheaveu, aud Natute.
LOVE
Tota|kottheseideasaudmotitsintheintel|ectualmi|ieuo|the|atet
Midd|eAgesmeausan inevitableteteteuce,ouewayotanothet,to
the so-ca||ed 'twelih-ceututy teuaissance'. Amoug tepteseutative
ngutesotthemovementateA|aiuotLi|le,Wi|liamotCouchesaud
Betuatd Si|vestet, who detive theit chatactetistica||y Neoplatouic
ideaslatge|yttom the Latinised Timaeus, Boethius, Mactobius aud
MattiauusCape|la.I t ischatactetisticotthemovemeuttoemphasise
the te|eo|ogica| aspect ot the cteated univetse, whete man as
' All quotations rrom Chaucer arc from Tie Riverside Chaucer, general editor, L.D, Benson
(Boston, 1987).
45
YASUNARI TAKADA
microcosmi si uesseutia|sordaiuedtoactasparto|audiuharmouy
withthemacrocosm.Thecosmic|i.e.harmouious)correspoudeuce,
whichiso|teuiuvokedaudvarious|yeuvisagediuapoeticvisiou,cau
perhas ud its most basic aud symbo|ic representatiou iu the
Boethiau |ove, 'the ho|y boud o|thiugs'. Love is the overridiug
priucip|eo|harmouyiuboththemacro- audmicrocosm.Asmightbe
expected,suchavisiouiuevitab|ygoesto|ormauimportautparto|
Chaucer's imagiuatiou, his Neop|atouism is derived |rom these
twelih-ceutury authors as we|| as theirsources.
Totake|orexamp|eTroi|us'|ove.Atthecousummatiouo|the |ove
whichhehas|ougwished|or,Troi|usgivesthaukstovariousgodsaud
goddesses,iucludiugamougothersHymeu.
Than seyde he thus: '0 Love, 0 Charite!
Thi moder ek, Citheria the swete,
After thiself next heried be she -
Venus mene I, the welwilly planete! -
Audnext that, Imeneus, I the grete,
For nevere man was to yow goddes holde
As I, which ye han brought fro cares colde.
'Benigne Love, thow holy bond of thynges,
Whoso wol grace and list the nought honouren,
La, his dcsir wol fe withouten wynges?'
(III, 1 254-63)
TogetherwithHymeu,thedeitiesiuvokedareLove|orCupidiuthe
capacityo|caritas), Veuus|couceivedasp|auetarydeityaswe||),aud
ouceagaiuLove|thistimeiuthestatuso|theBoethiau'ho|yboudo|
thyuges').The |ast-uamed Love, which is to be giveu au exteuded
treatmeutsome5
00 |iues|ateriuthe'CauticusTroi|i'( 1 744-7 1 ) , isa
Chauceriautraus1atiouo|theMetrumVlll o|theDe consolatione, audis
here dovetai|ed iuto St Beruard's prayer to the B|essed Virgiu
(Paradiso, XXXll1. l 3-8). Faced with the appareut varieties o|these
amorousdeities,themoderureadermaywe||wouderhowtheycaube
accommodatediusomekiudo|hermeueuticuuity,theaua|yticmiud
ishardputtohudacouuectiug|iukbetweeucharityaudmarita|love.
To so|vethishermeueuticcouuudrum,itseemshe|p|u|to takea
brie||ookatthecommeutarytraditiouwhichwas|ormedarouudthe
workso|theauctores, especia||yiuthisparticu|ariustauce,Martiauus
Cape||a's h|th-ceutury De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii aud its
Chaucer's use if Neoplatonic t.aditions 47
ttadition otcommentaties. Betote coming down to the hand ot
Chaucet, the De nuptiis hadbeen tutnished with commentaties by
suchgutesas1ohannesScotusEtiugenaandRemigiusotAuxette,
andsincethetenthcentutyhadbeenenlistedasoneottheauctores ina
notmativecutticulum.Thewotkopensnotab|ywith thehymnto
Hymen,thegodotmattiage,andthisHymenisapetsonihcationot
theNeop|atonic totceot'mutua| atttaction' bywhichate btought
into ttuittu| hatmony and cohetence the vatying e|ements that
composethe univetse. Thecommentaty ttadition hadintetpteted
thisgodastheBoethian

cosmichatmonizetandbondotthings.We
hndthisintheso-cal|ed'F|otentineManusctipt'. Accotdingtothis
manusctipt, a seties otnotes on theDe nuptiis, Hymenaeus can be
intetptetedinthteeways.nattative,scientihcandphi|osophical.At
the|ast-named'philosophica|'|evelthecommentatyteadsastollows.
Take Hymenaeus as the natural power of propagation, that is to say the
lovers which they (who love) cherish mutually in glory: and these lovers are
regarded as reciprocal where Philosophia says:
This order of things is bound
by the love ruling earth and sea
and dominating heaven.
If this love relaxes its reins,
all things that now love each other
would at once wage war.
This is the Holy Spirit, who infuses an ardent charity in all things. He is
called god of weddings, that is, he composes the holy conjunction ofelements.6
Identiedtstota||with'thenatuta|powetotptopo gat ion',Hymen
isthente|ated, thtoughthecelebtatedquotationttomBoethius (De
consolatione Philosophiae, II. m.8, r -r 8) , to the spiritus sanctus, 'who
intuses anatdent chatity [caritas] in al| things'. Theauthot otthe
'F|otentineManusctipt'isunknown,butithasbeenpointedoutthat
2 For Chaucer's humorous rererence to Martianus Capella's Hymen, sec The Merclant's Talc,
11.1 729-37.
3 Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Annola/iottts in MarcilRum, cd. C.E. Lutz (Cambridge, Mass.,
1939}i Remigius of Auxerrc, Catmentum in Martimwm Capcllam, 2 vols, cd. C.B. Lutz (Leidell,
1962); compare E. R. Curti us, EtTOpean Litera/tlTe and the LatIn Middle Age, trans. W.R. Trask
(New Yo,k, 1953), p. 49.
W.H. Stahl, R. Johnson and E.L. Burge, MaTliantls Capell(l and tile Scucl/ Iibcral Arts, V vols,
(New York, 1977), P. 31l.
'fhe ',Florentine Manuscript' (Florence, Bib!. Naz. Cony. SOPPI'.I. 1.28) is printed in selection
in Peter Dt'onke (cd.), Fabtll(l: Explorations into Ihe Uses ofMyth ill Medicval Platonism (Lcidcl1,
1974), pp. 114-18. Sce Appcndix B for the stl'angc f
.
1.tc of this foul'tccnthcentul'y MS.
Dronkc, F(hu[a, p. 103.
YASUNARI TAKADA
the para||e|s which are touud iu Wi||iam otCouches' Philosophia
mundi, particu|ar|y iu the expositiou otHymeu, show at |east the
author was 'iu siguicaut respects uuder the iuhueuce otWi||iam
Couches',' oue ot the represeutative iute||ects ot the Chartriau
Neop|atouicReuaissauce.
Here iu the case otthe 'F|oreutiue Mauuscript' such disparate
diviuities as caritas
,
the Ho|y Spirit aud the Boethiau amor are
eective|ymobi|isedtoatu||eruuderstaudiugotMartiauusCape||a's
Hymeu.Audilthismobi|isatiouismadepossib|eou|ybyrecourseto
thespiritotChartriauNeop|atouism,thesametoa|argeexteutho|ds
trueu the case otTroilus and Crised. I t does uot matter whether
Chaucerhadachauceto|ookatthecommeutaryiuthetormoteither
the 'F|oreutiue Mauuscript' or Philosophia Mundi. The importaut
thiugis that Chaucer makes use otthe characteristic Neop|atouic
discourse ot |ove iu describiug Troi|us' ecstasy aud |oy, whose
'summer's|ease',wemayuote,|astsou|ytorashortperiodmarkedo
by'thedoub|esorrow'.
THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN
Whattheaboveargumeutimp|iesi sthatChauceri suotcomp|ete|y
positiveabouttheNeop|atouicviewotthewor|d.Thereisaseuseiu
whichweseesomeirouyiuhisuseotNeop|atouictopos.Thepassage
tocousummatiouwhichTroi|usuudergoesiuBookIII isdescribed by
the aua|ogy with the Neop|atouic 'cosmichight' orascensus audis
actua||ycomparedbybothPaudarusaudtheuarratortoauasceutto
heaveu, be it earth|yorce|estia|. 'Make the redy right auou,jFor
thow sha|t iutoheveue b|isse weude', says Paudarus at the outset
(II. ;o-)aud,atthetu|h||meutotthejouruey,theuarratordescribes
thehero'smeuta||audscapeas 'this heveue b|isse' |l. i ee). I uthis
'asceut'thereisobvious|yte|tChauceriauirouyaudparody,whichis
detectab|ea|mostthroughout,begiuuiugwiththepoiutotdeparture,
tromthe'stewe'|l.0or ) - meauiug'brothe|'aswe||as'sma||room'-
throughPurgatoria|para||e|,audeudiugwiththece|ebrateda||usiou
toStBeruard'sprayertotheB|essedVirgiu,which,aswehaveseeu,
is merged iuto the geuera| Neop|atouic discourse ocosmic |ove.
, Ihid., p. 179.
Cr Winthrop Wetherbee, Chau.cer (/nd the P(cis: All Es ay0R Troilu (nd Crisyde (New York,
1981), pp. 145-78.
Chaucer's use ofNeoplatonic traditions o
Appare

ntly, the ascent otTroilus' mind has attained its heavenly

destination,andyet'thishevene' |l. r ejr ) reachedatteranarduous
itinerary|ocatesitseltnowherebutinCriseyde'sbody |ll. r e;-jo),
arguablyoneofthemostunreliableentitiesonearth.Intheauthentic
topos ottheascensus mentis ad deum oritinerarium mentis in deum | the
ascentotthemindtoGod) themindhndsitseltatonewithGodinits
ultimatevision,liketheoneweseeattheendottheDivine Comedy or
theMetrum:ot Book:vottheDe consolatione. Bycontrast,thevisionot
unity Troilus experienced when alive had nothing ultimate and
transcendental whatsoever about it.
ItNeoplatonicloveisconceivedotasthecvclicaluntoldingotan
originaloverhowing (emanatio) , which produces 'avivityingrapture
(raptio) whereby the earthly beings are drawn back to heaven
(remeatio)
,
,' 'the ascent' can be seen as consisting ottheraptio (the
mindmindtulotitstruehome)andthesubsequentremeatio. I t istrue
thatTroilus'spirit, |'goost') hasnnallygonetoheavenattheendot
the story otTroilus and Crisryde, but the ascent is not specically
characterisedasremeatio, norishisspiritbyanymeansthoughtotas
beingtaken in raptio. Theemployment otthetopos ratherhndsits
proper utility and power only in describingTroilus' this-worldly,
vivitying butephemeralraptio.
ForallhistrequentdeploymentotNeoplatonictopoianddiscourse,
ChaucershowslittlepredilectiontortheNeoplatonictranscendental
vision,whoseultimateendis tobeatonewiththeOne.Rather,we
hnd theorientationothisvision- particularlyin The House if Fame
and The Parliament if Fowls - directed in the nnal analysis to the
opposite. ThusinBookII otThe House ofFame, thecosmichightot
Chaucerthedreamer-poetisattemptedatterthemannerreminiscent
otDante'sParadiso. Butwhatseemstoallintentsandpurposestobe
theultimatedestination- whichproveswithsomeironyandbathos
to be the toundationless House otFame |Book Ill) - is turther
relegatedto,andeventuallyreplaced bytheHouseotRumour. At
thisproper|yunhnishedendottheworkweareletwithagroupot
people,whoinevitablyremindusottheworldottheCanterbury Tales.
Asit turnsout,atairlymundanehorizonopensitseltat the closeot
whathasoriginallybegunasacelestialascent. '
9 Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in lhe Renaissance ( 1 958; Harmondsworth, 1967). p. 37.
10
For further discussion on the use of tIle Ncoplatonic traditions in Tht House q Fame, see my
'From TheHouseoJFame to Politico-Cultural Histories', in Chaucer 10 Shakespeare, ed. R. Beadle
and T. Takamiya (Woodbridge, 1992) Pp. 45-59.
50
YASUNARI TAKADA
T!11
I ntheNeop|atonicvision,theJons e/ origo i sessentiaI|yto hesougn

in
the One ot nous, ttom which evetything emanates and to wh:ch
evetythingu|timate|ytetutns.Butequa||yimpottantisthevisiouaty
momentinwhichthiscyclicpattetn is ttanstetted to thesub|unaty
wotIdandcousequeutIytheIattetattaiustheimagiuativeIeveIwhere
: cao be ceoceee as |te ase tIe Sen:eran cctam) 'c|crncn
mutabi|itie' undet theptocteativecateotGoddessNatute. Such a
visionatymomentisgivenitsbestexptessionbyChatttianNeop|atonism
iuitschatactetisticmythico-a||egotica|mode, whichmakesmuchot
the 'specia| awateness ot a continuity betweeu cteation aud
tedemption' . ' Hetetedemptionmeansman'simagiuativetestotatiou
othisptopetp|aceinthenatuta|otdetotthingsotdainedbyGod.It
is notamattetot|ineatptovidentia|histotyaschatactetisedbythe
IncatnationandRedemption. Asistypica||yseeuinA|ainotLiI|e's
De planetu Naturae, one ot the exemp|aty wotks ot Chatttian
Neop|atonism,itisnotChtistbutapptoptiate|yGeuius,theptiestot
Natute,whoistoaccomp|ishtedemptioubyptonouncingthedectee
ot excommuuicationonthosewhoactagainsttheptoptietyot uatuta|
otdet.Thisisjustied,initstutu,byhetcapacityasviearia Dei, 'the
vicaiteotthea|myghtyLotd'|touseChaucet'sowntendetingiuThe
Parliament of Fowls) . Hete, God, Natute,Venus, andGeuiusate'ot
imaginationa|lcompact',buttheimagination, inconttadistinction
to the ittationa| dteam visiou otmidsummet, chatactetistica||y
be|ougs to tationa| otdet and cosmos. What is at stake in this
visionatytedemption isthesenseotcottespondeuceandcontinuity,
psycho|ogica||yenvisaged,betweenman[mictocosmandGod'sgtand
design[mactocosm- theessentia|boudbetweeuthembeingthatot
Boethiau|ove.
A|thoughitisthecase,aswehaveseeuin Troilus and Crieyde that
Chaucetdoestakeadvautageotthis kiudotChatttiauNeop|atonic
discoutse, hemakes on|y a |imited use otit and hatdIy shows an
iuc|inationtocommithimse|twho|e-heatted|yto thatgtaudvisiou.
Rathet theteseems to be a sense inwhich it is too much to tteat
Natute as viearia Dei. He wou|d a|so wish to avoid a teductionist
!
For a standard study on Nature in the Neoplatonic tradition, see George D. Economou, The
Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, Mass., 1972). For the belt introduction to
the Chartrian Ncoplatonism, see Winthrop Wetherbee, Platonism and Poetr in the Twelth
Centur: te Literary Infuence if tie School oj Chartres (Princeton, 1972).
Chaucer's use rif Neoplatonie traditions
5
'
treatmeut otthe vatieties otthiugs aud eveuts uudet the moou.
Nowhete is Chaucet's critical attitude towards the Chatttiau
Neop|atouicvisioushowusocleat|yasiuThe Parliament ofFowls, that
isiuwhatpurportstobethenua|episodeolThe Parliament. Iuspiteot
theexp|icita||usioutoDe planetu Naturae, wheteNatuteisiudeedthe
viearia dei, the sectiou ou Natute's patliameut cau be tead most
approptiate|y as a Chaucetiau critique o!A|aiu. Iu this respect
Natute'scasua|statemeutto the 'totme|'seems crucial.
But as fqr counseyl for to chese a make1
If I were Resoun) thanne wolde I
Consseyle yow the royal tercel take.
As seyde the tercelet ful skylfully
(11.63 1-4)
Natutecoutesses thatsheis uotReasou. But this wou|dhatd|ybe
couceivableiuAlaiu'svisiou.Whatguarauteesthecosmiccortespou-
deuce,thevita||iuk thatcouuectscreatiouaudtedemptiou,isuoue
othetthautheNatuteolChartriauNeop|atouism,audtotuuctiouiu
such a positiou aud capacity Nature should be au uureplaceab|e
tepreseutativeoldiviueLogos,orReasou.Natute'sstatemeutheteis
justauotheriudicatiouotthecharactetisticro|ethattheNeop|atouic
ttaditioushavetop|ayiuChaucer.Theyateiudispeusabletraditious
lrom which Chaucet mostltuittullygtows.
.- ------
I
(::'.I

I
``
:' :, : : '''I:'lSU

: ' "

.
CHAPTER 6
P|c/.cisoic/ksMi11|s Ecg|isk Ms/iss
Andrew Louth
TodiscusstheinhuenceotP|atouismoutheMidd|eEng|ishMystics
istocousidersomethugratherdi`erent6omtheother examp|esot
P|atouic iuuence in Eng|ish |iterature discussed in this vo|ume.
E|sewhereitisusua||ypossib|etopointtosomeP|atouictext,either
by P|ato himse|tor one othis epigoui. With the Midd|e Eug|ish
mysticsthisisoccasional|ypossib|e.variouswritiugsbyStAugustine
audDionysus|orDeuys) theAreopagitewou|dhavebeenavai|ab|e
totheEng|ishmystics.Buttocoucentratecutheinuenceotspecihc
textswou|dbetomisconstrueinatundamenta|waythenatureotthe
P|atouiciuuenceoumedieva|Eng|ishmysticism.Forthatinuence
was,hrstotal|, theinuenceota tradition: a traditiou ottheology,
concerned especia||y with ways otprayiug, that over theceuturies
had been decisive|y impregnated by P|atonic ideas and ways ot
thiuking. The history o!the inueuce otP|atouism ou Christian
theo|ogygoesbackat|easttothesecondcenturyotheChristianera,
i|notear|ier,andbecamesopervasivethatitisa|mostimpossib|eto
euvisageChristiau theo|ogyaparttrom its P|atonicdress. '
THE CHRISTIAN PLATONIC TRADITION
Theprincipa|reasontorthisinueuceissimp|ythatP|atouismaud
Christianityhadsomuchincommon.that,combinedwiththegreat
respectaccordedtoP|atonismbymanyottheirpagaucontemporaries,
meautthat Christian theo|ogiaussooncameto|ooktoP|atouismtor
argumentswithwhichtodetendChristianity.Audtherewasiudeed
' On the history of the infuence of Platonism on Christian theology see especially E. von
Iv:nka, Plato Chrst;anus (Einsiedeln, 1964).
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics
53
muchthattheyhe|diucommou.be|ieliuouetrausceudeutGodwho
caredlorhiswor|d,be|ieliuaua|ier|ileiuwhichhumaubeiugswou|d
be rewarded lor the good hey had doue aud puuished lor their
wickeduess,audacouvictiouthathumau beiugswerelreetochoose
betweeugoodaudevi|.Butitwasuotexact|ytheP|atouismolP|ato
that they embraced as a provideutia| a||y, it was what their
coutemporariesiudeed ca||edP|atouism, butwhatmoderuscho|ars
havecometoca||'Midd|eP|atouism',amixtureolmaiu|yP|atouic
audStoicdoctriuesthatcaubetracedbacktoAutiochusol Asca|ou,
thelouuderoltheso-ca||ed 'FilthAcademy'iuAtheusear|yiu the
hrst ceutury Be. Such P|atouism, as R. E. Witt has put it, 'was
characterized byitspredomiuaut|yre|igious aud theocratic wor|d-
view. . . Secoud-ceuturyP|atouismistheo|ogica|audotherwor|d|y.'
Itwas the productolau age 'attracted uotsomuchby P|ato the
ethica|teacherorpo|itica|relormer,asbyP|atothehierophaut,P|ato
who|accordiugtoauo|d|egeud)hadbeeucouceivedolApo||oaud
boru ol the virgiu Perictioue'. Not that Christiau theo|ogiaus
swa||owed P|atouism uucritica||y. Certaiu P|atouic doctriues were
lair|yuuilorm|yrejected,uotab|ythedoctriueolthePre-existeuceol
Sou|s, gradua||y the Christiau doctriue olcreatio ex nihilo came to
distiuguish Christiau theo|ogy lrom deve|opmeuts iu P|atouic
phi|osophy,uotab|yiuNeop|atouism,thatexp|aiuedtheorigiuatiou
oleverythiuglromtheOuebymeausola|mathematica||yiuspired)
theory olemauatiou, aud eveu though Christiaus embraced the
P|atouicuotiouolthesou|'simmorta|ity,theysoughttowedthisto
thewho||y uu-P|atouic idea olthe resurrectiou olthe body. This
piecemea|adaptatiouolP|atouismmakes it, iu lact,dimcu|ttoput
oue's huger ou uuambiguous|y P|atouic e|emeuts iu Christiauity.
Christiaumouotheismisc|ear|yuotderived lromP|atouism. butitis
olteuexpressediuawaythatowesmuchtothe|aterP|atouicdoctriue
thateverythiugderiveslromauiudivisib|e uuity. It wi|| be uselu|
uouethe|esstolocusourdiscussiouoltheiuhueuceolP|atouismou
theChristiaumystica|traditiouououeP|atouicdoctriue,viz.thatol
the two wor|ds.

R.E. Witt, Albinus and tie History ojMiddle Platonism (London, 1937; reprinted Amsterdam,
1971), p. 123.
" See]. Trouillard, 'Procession Ncoplatonicicnnect crcationjudeo-chretiennc', in Nioplalollisme.
Milanges ojerls a Jean Trouilard CFontcnay aux Roses, Ig81).
ANDREW LOUTH
THE DOCTRI NE OF THE TWO WORLDS
Iti stundamenta|toP|atonism,i nvirtua||yanyguise,thatthiswor|d,
thewor|dweperceivethroughthesensesandaboutwhichweho|da
vatietyolopinions, is not the rea| wor|d. This wor|disa wor|d ol
change,decay,and,lora||olus,death:a||otwhichbearthemarkol
unreality. The rea| wor|d is change|ess, incorruptib|e, a p|ace ol
enduring|ile.itis,torP|ato,therea|moltheForms.Onelundamenta|
wayolcontrastingthesetwowor|dsistosaythatoneismateria|,the
otherspiritua|. there are two wor|ds- thewor|d olthesenses, the
kosmos aisthetos, andthewor|dotspiritua||orinte||igib|e) rea|ity,the
kosmos noetos. Wehumanbeingsbe|ongtobothwor|ds. clear|ytothis
wor|d |which is why we ca|| it this wor|d), but in virtue olour
possessing |orstrict|y. being) asou| |strict|y. an inte||ect,nous), we
be|ongtothespiritua|wor|d.ForP|atothewho|epointotphi|osophy
is to secure our passage to the spiritua| wor|d. phi|osophy is
'practising death', melde thanatou (Phaedo 8r a) , lor death is the
separationotthesou|tromthebody.Butthespiritua|wor|d, asthe
p|ace oleterna|, change|ess, incorruptib|e |ite, is the ob|ect otour
deepest|onging.our|ove|:r.s)lortruth,|orbeauty,ison|ytu|||ed
when we tree ourse|ves trom the shadows otthis wor|d and gain
entrance to thespiritua|wor|d,asP|atoexp|ains mostcompe||ing|y
through Diotima's speech reported by Socrates in the Symposium
|eor e-er eb).Thesou|'sgainingthespiritua|wor|disexperiencedas
a homecoming (nostos) . P|otinus' writings are lu|| ol e|oquent
expressionotthesou|'snosta|gia.inapassagethatevokestheGreeks'
|onginglorhomeoutsidethewa||solTroyandOdysseus'ighttrom
theenchantmentolCirce and Ca|ypso, hesays, 'our tatherland is
whencewe have come, and thereis theFather' (Enneads i .0.8.ei ) .
Christians|appedthisup.Theytoobe|ievedi ntwowor|ds.Theyle|t
themse|ves tobea|iens (peregrini) inthis wor|d. 'herewehave no
abidingcity'|Hebrews r.i).Theysawthehuman|otasexi|etrom
Paradise. there the dying thielhad been received by Christ (Luke
e.), there the martyrs were united with Christ, there, too,
Christianshoped to bewe|comed ilthey died taithlu|to Christ. Or
theythought olheaven and earth. the twowor|dsconjoined when
human voicesming|ed with ange|icsong in the ce|ebration olthe
` Sec for example, Saturus' vision as recounted by Perpetua: Passio SS. Perpetuae el Feticilalis,
1 1 r. and the apse in the Church or Sao Vitale, Ravenna,
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics
55
Eticharist.P|atonismprovidedthemwithtermino|ogywithwhichto
articu|atesuch be|ief. Itwas not who||ysatisfactory. in particu|ar,
P|atonic|anguage and concepts tended to e|ide the notion oftwo
successive agesofChristianbe|ief|thisoneandtheagetocome) .Butin
doingthatiton|yacce|eratedatendencya|readypresentinChristian
thoughttomovefromwhatmoderntheo|ogiansca||a'futurist'toa
'rea|ized' eschato|ogy.
Thedoctrineofthetwowor|dswasopentomanyinterpretations.
FortherestofthischapterIwanttotakethreeoftheseandshowhow
theyareusedbytheEng|ishmysticsofthefourteenthcentury.The
threewaysofinterpretingthedoctrineofthetwowor|dsare these.
hrst, the two wor|ds conceived as an inner and an outer wor|d,
second|y,asthewor|dofange|sandthewor|dofhumanbeings,and
third|y,asthewor|dperceivedbythespiritua|sensesincontrasttothe
wor|d ofthe physica| senses. These three ways cannot be kept in
separatecompartments. someover|ap wi|| beunavoidab|e.
I NNER AND OUTER WORLDS
P|atonevercontraststhetwowor|dsasinnerandouterbutP|otinus
c|ear|yidentines thespiritua| wor|d with the innerwor|d. 'we are
eachof ustheinte||igib|ewor|d'(Enneads :ri... ee). It|iesbehindone
ofhisfavouritemetaphorsforthere|ationshipbetweentheOneand
a||otherrea|ity:thatof acirc|ewiththeOneasthecentreandtherest
ofrea|ityasthecircumference.ToseektheOneistoseekwithin.This
chimes in with the emphasis in Christianityon inward re|igion, as
opposedtooutwarddisp|ay. Theidea that thehigherwor|d is the
inner wor|d becomes axiomatic for Augustine, for whom God is
interior intima mea et superior summa mea .'moreinward than myinmost
se|f and higher than the highest part of my being')(Conftssions
rrr.0. i i ) . ThebeginningofthesearchforGodistoreturnwithin.in te
ipsum redi |'returnintoyourseI|) |Dvera religione u. ;e) . Inasense,
interiorityisa||.ergo intus age tatum . . . in te ora |'there|creactentire|y
within. . . praywithinyourselr).Suchsentimentsechodeafening|y
insubsequentChristiantradition,sothatWa|terHi|tonisrepeatinga
Sec the words introducing the Soneils in virtually any liturgy.
6 This was a longdl'awout process. Colin Morris, Tle Papal Monarcly (Oxrord, 1989). pp.
378-80, sees it still taking place in the twelfh century.
1 Sec for example, Matthew 5.6-7.

Augustine, Traciaills in Joallnis Euange/iul ' 5.25. The translations or this and the preceding
quotations arc mine.
ANDREW LOUTH
commonp|aceottheChristian traditionwhenhesays, 'thereisone
usetu|anddeservingtaskonwhichto|abour,and. . . ap|ainhighway
tocontemp|ation. . . andthatistorapersontogointohimse|ttoknow
hisownsou|anditspowers,itstairnessanditstou|ness'.Thesehna|
words remind us how tar this P|atonic idea has trave||ed trom its
P|atonic source. inwardness is no |onger in itsel an unambiguous
ascent, tor the tracturing otrea|ity as a resu|t otthe Fa|| reaches
inward,andtheinteriorrealityothumanbeingsneedshea|ingbetore
it can disc|ose the u|timaterea|ityotGod.

Asimportantassuchinjunctiontoinwardnessistheexp|orationot
man's inner wor|d. Here Augustine's importance is unpara||e|ed.
BothinhisConfssions, especia||yintheintrospectiveBookx, andin
hisprotoundesttheo|ogica|work,De T rinitate, heexp|orestheinner
rea|ityotthehumanmind.Hisguidingbeaconhereis theBib|ical
doctrinethatmaniscreatedintheimageotGod,adoctrinethathad
a|readybecomepivota|inthetheo|ogyottheFathers.Theideathat
man,ormoreprecise|ythehumansou|,iscreatedintheimageotGod
makesthehumanmindthetu|crumonwhichthedoctrineotthetwo
wor|dsturns.thehumanmindisnolongersimp|ypoisedbetweentwo
wor|ds,itisawor|d onitsown reectinginitse|tdivinity.Theword
Augustineturnstotor this innerwor|d |perhapshampered by the
|imitationsotLatinwhichhasnowordasevocativeastheGreeknous)
is memoria: more than memory, it reca||s the Platonic doctrine ot
anamnesis, a|thoughbyatranspositioninwhichnothingotthesoul's
pre-existenceremains.InDe T rinitate IX-X, Augustinepressestheidea
that an image ota Trinitarian God must be itse|ttrinitarian and
ana|ysesman'sinnerrea|ityintomemoria, intelligentia, andvoluntas |or
amor) . Gradua||y,thiswayotunderstandingthesou|estab|isheditse|t
intheWestandcanbec|earlyseeninthepsycho|ogyotbothWalter
Hi|ton (Scale, I.43) and theCloud i Unknowing."
This notion otman's inwardness rehecting the divine takes a
curious twist in the West in the thirteenth century. The twe|tth
century had seen an enormous growth in the nuence ot St
Augustinebutitalsosawtheintroductionotasignihcantinuenceot
the writings otDenys the Areopagite. Denys had already been
trans|atedintoLatinintheninthcentury.onceincomprehensib|yby
" Walter Hilton, SaleojPerficlion, 1.42. trans.J.P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward (Mahwah,
NY, 1991), p. t 1'.
10
The Cloud ojUnknowillg, 63-7. ed. Phyllis Hodgson (218), (London, 1944). pp. t tS-'1 . Early
English Text Society.
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics ;
Hi|duin, Abbot otSt-Deuis, aud ouce by the Itish scho|at,1ohu
Scotus Etiugeua, who may have hiudeted the iuueuce othis
ttaus|ation ot Deuys by his owu teputation tot obscutity |aud
doubttu|otthodoxy) . 'Butitseems thatitwas]ohu the Sataceu's
tevisiouotEtiugeua's ttaus|atiou, uudettakeu iu thesecoud ha|tot
thetwe|hceututyatthebehestofhisttieud1ohuotSa|isbuty,that
nua||yiuttoduced Deuys to the West. AsAugustiuehad absotbed
iuto Chtistiau theo|ogysomeottheNeop|atonism otP|otiuus |and
hisdiscip|e and editot, Potphyty) , so Deuys had absotbed Neo-
p|atouism, but thetathetdieteutNeop|atouism thatweassociate
withProc|us,thePlatouicdiadochus attheAtheuiauAcademy,who
died iu 8. Thete ate mauy dieteuces betweeu Procus aud
P|otiuus, buttot outimmediate putposes whatwe ueed touoteis
Ptocus'systematicdeve|opmeut otapophaticaudkataphatictheo|ogy
| theo|ogyotuegatiouaudtheo|ogyotamtmatiou),withhisptivi|egiug
otthetotmetovetthe|attet|iutact,P|otiuusisscatce|ylessapophatic
thauPtocus,butapptoachedttomPotphytythissideothimismuch
|ess evident) . Denys embtaced this watm|y aud touud a Bib|ica|
symbo| ot apophatic theo|ogy in Moses' asceut iuto a c|oud ot
impeuettab|edatkuessouMountSiuaiinotdettoteceivetheLaw
ttomGod|attaditioua|themethatgoesbacktoPhi|oandthatDeuys
hadtakeuovettromStGtegotyot Nyssa). 'Denyssimplymeautthat
iuitsascenttoGodthec|osetthemiudcametoGodthe|essitcou|d
makeout.itwasasititeutetedanimpenettab|ec|oud.Themiudis
teducedtoawoudetiugsi|euce,audhe|dthetebyits|ovetotGodas
HeisiuHimse|, tathetthaubya|ovetotauythiugitcaugetttom
God, tot iu the datkuess it is awate ot uothiug. Such apophatic
theology totms a tcttain thtoughout Deuys' wtitiugs, and attains
couceuttatedexptessiouiu hisshotttteatise,theMystical Theology.
TheauthotottheCloud had ttaus|ated1ohu theSataceu's Latiu
vetsiouotthe Mystical Theolog iutoEug|ish aud kuew it we||. He
iuttoducestheuotiouotthecoudotuukuowiugiu auautheutica||y
Dionysianway. 'LittupthinhettevntoGodwithameekstetyugot
|oue, aud menehim-se|t, & uoue othisgoodes. & therto|oke thee
|othetotheukououghtbotonhym-se|fsothatuoughtwotcheiuthi
witte ue iu thi wi||e bot ouly him-se|t' (Cloud, , p.r 0) . But this
Dionysiau sttaud is i uttoduced iuto a tuudameuta||y Augustinian

For a very brief survey of Denys's influence in the Wet, sec my DC1!S the Areopagite (London,
1989), pp. 1207
l?
Ibid., p. 87 for Denys on apophatic theology.
5
8 ANDREW LOUTH
tradition. Augustinian psychology, analysing the humansoul into
memory,understandingandwill,wasopentoanoppositionbetween
understanding|orintellect.intelligential andwill|anoppositionquite
toreigntoAugustinehimsel) thathadalreadybeenexploitedbySt
Bernard.Bernardistondotsettingup anoppositionbetweentruth
and love (veritas-caritas) , knowledgeand teeling (cognitio-afectus), to
thedetrimentotthetormer. Itisloveand tee|ingthat touches man
mostdeeply,itisatthatlevelthatmancomesclosetoGod.Welearn
otGodwith theheart. 'corde, . . . cordis afectu, id est voluntas'. 13 1he
authorottheCloud iswhollyotBernard'smind. 'Bylovemayhebe
getyn & holden: bot bithoughtneither' |0,p.e0). And hedrawsin
Denys'apophatictheologytoexpressthis. 'torwhenIseyderknes,I
menealackyngotknowyng'(4, .e) .Apophatictheologymeans,tor
theauthorottheCloud, shuttingdownthe'principalworchingmight,
the whiche is clepid a knowable might' and relying wholly on
'another principal worching might, the whiche is clepid a louyng
might', tor, as hesays, 'otthewhichetwo mights, to thenrst, the
whiche is a knowyng might, God, that is the maker othem, is
euermore incomprehensible, & to the secound, the which is the
louyng myght, in ilch one diuerslyhe is all comprehensible at the
tulle . . . ' |, p. ig). Denys certainly did not mean that God was
accessib|e to onehumantacultybutnottoanother.rather,torhim,
God is utter|y unknowab|e. The author ot the Cloud is in tact
inconsistenthere.alreadyinchapterhehadsaidthat'thisderknes
andthiscloudeis,how-so-euerthoudost,bitwixtheeandthiGod,&
letteth thee that thou maist not see him cleerly by light ot
vnderstanding in thi reson, ne telt him in swetnes otloue in thin
aeccion' |, p.i7). These problems are probably traceable to
dierentemphasesinhissources.AsDom1ustinMcCannnotedlong
ago,'theauthorottheCloud introducedintohis translationotthe
Mystical Theolog theideathatGodisknown'withaeccyonabouen
minde''tromThomasGallus |d.i240): inotherwordstheideathat
the deepest taculty n man is theprincipalis afctio which alone s
capableotGod.Buttorthemostpartin the Cloud itsauthorseemsto
stickclosertoAugustineinseeingunderstandingandwillasparallel,
even though he entertains a doctrine that really requires an apex
1 3 St Bernard, Senna in Canlica Canlicorum) 42.4.7 in Sandi BemaTdi Opera, II,J. Leclcrq OSB, C,H.
Talbot and H.M. Rochais QSE (Rome, 1958), p. 37.
I In his edition of The Cloud ofUnknowing (London, 1924), p. 252.
Deomse Hid Divinile, 1 1 .25f., cd. Phyllis Hodgson (EETS 231 ), (London, 1955), p. 2.
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics 59
a.f ectus, as Bonaventure called it:" the highest (or deepest) part of the
soul that transcends the intellect and is the seat of love.
WORLD OF ANGELS AND WORLD OF MEN
Another way i n which the doctrine of the two worlds is articulated is
by seeing these two worlds as the world of angels and the world of
human beings. It is an old idea, recalling both the Homeric
distinction between gods and mortals, and the Biblical distinction
between the heavenly court where God is surrounded by his angels
and the earth. In Plato himself it is difcult to see his two worlds as
foreshadowing the distinction between angels and men: the realm of
the Forms is a realm of object of intellection rather than purely
intellectual beings. But in two places Plato introduces ideas that
prepare the way for the realm ofthe Forms to becomes a realm of pure
intellects. One place occurs in Sophist 249b-d where the Eleatic
Stranger forces the concession that there must be change in the realm
of the Forms if intelligence is to be found there. The other place is in
Symposium 202e-203a where Plato introduces the notion of the
daemon (daimon): a daemon is a being intermediary between the
changeless perfection of the gods and the changeable imperfection of
humans - Eros, the god of love, is such a daemon. Later Platonism
developed both these ideas to produce a much richer upper world
than Plato ever envisaged. For Plotinus the daemons are beings
between gods and men, though he seldom mentions them: like
everything else they ultimately derive from the One by emanation
and seek to return there, but they are closer to the One than we and
can assist us in our endeavours to return. In later Neoplatonism,
however, especially that stemming from Iamblichus, daemons and
other intermediary beings assume considerable importance: in his On
the Mysteries of Egypt, Iamblichus has four ranks of beings mediating
between gods and human souls - archangels, angels, daemons and
heroes. " Iamblichus' mention of the Biblical angels and archangels
reminds us that the trafc between the Platonic tradition and
Christianity was not all one-way.
Christian theologians, following the example of their Jewish
predecessors, found it easy to assimilate the Platonic doctrine of
'" ltinerarium mentis in Delm, 7.4. in Works rSt Bonaventure, ed. P. Boehner (Sl Bonaventure, NY,
r956), It, p. g8.
l 1
Dc mysteriis, 11-4(78), cd. E. des Places SJ (Paris, 1966), pp. 84-5.
60 ANDREW LOUTH
daemons and the Biblical doctrine of angels: as Philo candidly put it,
'it is the custom of Moses [i.e. Scripture 1 to give the name of angels to
those whom other philosophers call daemons' . ' . Most important for
the medieval doctrine of angels was the contribution of Denys the
Areopagite. He classifed the angelic beings into three ranks of three:
Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominions, Powers, Authorities;
Principalities, Archangels, Angels (in descending order) . ' This
eventually became the accepted order of angelic beings in the Middle
Ages (from about the end of the twelfth century: St
'
Bernard, for
example, still follows the order suggested by Gregory the Great) .'
What are these angels for? The short answer is that they are
ministering beings who mediate between God and men: see the oratio
for the feast ofSt Michael the Archangel (29 September) . But it is a
question that echoes in the fourteenth century." It is not clear,
however, that Julian of Norwich, or any of the English mystics, knew
much about such Dionysian speculation. Richard Rolle knows that
the angelic beings are ordered in three ranks of three: but he gives an
ordering that is closer to Gregory the Great's (and Bernard's) than to
the Areopagite's.22 There was elaborate speculation about the angels
on the continent in the thirteen th cen tury. Such speculation projected
the angelic hierarchies inwards, using them as a way of furthering the
exploration of interiority we have already noticed: as Bonaventure
put it, ifcitur spiritus noster hierarchicus ('our spirit is made hierarchic')."
' " Dtgigalllibus, 6, ill Philo, cd. F.H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, 1 2 vals. (London. 1929-62). II
P
44B.
'` For angels in general and Denys in particular, sec Louth, Denys, pp. 33-51 , and, more
generally, J. Dani6lou, us anges leur mission (Chcvetogne, 1951).
2
0
Dante introduced the disagreement between Gregory and Denys into his Paradiso:
E Dionisio con tanto disio
a contemplal' qucsti ordini si unise,
chc Ii noma e distinse com'ie.
Ma Gregorio da lui poi si divise;
oude, 51 tosto come Ii ocehi apersc
in questa del, di sc medesmo risco (XXVJlI. 1 30-S).
' Forcxample,Julian of Norwich, A Revelation ojLove, 80, cd. Marion Glasseoe (Exeter, 1976),
p. 97. E. Colledge and ]. Walsh 8J attribute to Julian some knowledge of Dionysian
angclology: see their A ROlk qShowingsil theAnchoress JulianofNorwich (Toronto, 1 978). p. t8g.
22
Rolle, Ego Dormio, 11 . 1 8-'8, in Eng/ish WriJillgs ofRichard Rolle, cd. Hope Emily Allen
(Oxford, 193' )' pp. 6'-2.
" Bonaventure, Itinerarium. 4.4 (Bochner edition, pp. 74-6). On the important role of Thomas
Gallus in such speculation, sec]. Walsh 5J. 'Thomas Gallus et I'effort eontemplatiP. in Revue
d'Hisloirc de la Spirilualill, 51 ( 1 975), 1 7-42, and my 'The Influence of Denys the Areopagite
on Eastern and Western Spilituality in the Fourteenth Century'. Soborost, 4 (lg82),
185-200, especially pp. 1 91-3.
L
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics 61
But I can fnd no trace of this in the English mystics. What we do find
is development of an older and much more general idea that in
contemplation the soul realises its kinship with the angels 'for both
souls and angels are created spiritual beings': so Rolle closes his
enumeration of the angelic ranks with this: 'this I say to kyndel thi
hert for to covayte the felichip ofaungels'." Their fellowship is to be
cultivated because of their closeness to God. In Walter Hilton we fnd
the idea that in contemplation the purifed soul can come to know the
song of the angels:
Qwen asaule is purifed be lufe of god, iIIumyned be wysdome, stabild be the
myghte of god, than is he eyghe of the saule opynde to behalde gastly
thyngys, as vertu,e & aungels & haly saulys, & heuenly thyngys. Than is the
saule habyl be cause of denness to fele the towchynge, the spekynge of gude
aungels. This towchynge and spekynge is gastIy, and nought bodyly: for
qwen the saule is lyfth & rauisched out of the sensualyte, & out of the mynde
of any erthely thyngis, than in grete feruourc ofIufe and Iyghth of god, if oure
lorde vouchcsafe, the saule may here & fele heuenly sown, made be the
presence of aungels in louyngc of god. Nought that this songe of aungels es
thesouerayne loye of the saule . . . For the souereyn & the essencial loye es in
the lufe of god be hym-selfe & for hym-selfe, and the secundarie es in
commuynge & behaldynge of aungels & gastly creaturis.25
SPI RI TUAL AND PHYSI CAL SENSES
Hearing the angels' song leads us on to the third way i n which the
doctrine of the two worlds can be treated: as a contrast between the
world of physical and the world of spiritual senses. This is a develop
ment of the Christian mystical - or Christian Platonic - tradition,
though it is not without parallels in Platonism and Neoplatonism: for
instance, in the way in which Plotinus tries to describe union with the
One by calling it 'pressing toward touch' (Enneads VJ.9. 1 1 .24) or,
more signifcantly, in the distinction introduced by Pausanias in his
speech in Symposium IBod between popular love and heavenly love
eros pandemos and eros ouranios. This distinction between popular and
heavenly love is pressed into service by Origen in the prologue to his
Commentary on the Song of Songs." It parallels the distinction
Origen develops at length in this part of the prologue between the
` /o DaTtio, I!aV8f (p. 6').
2 From OJAnges' Song, in Yorkshire Writers: Riclard Rolle ofHarpaIe, ed. Christine Horstman
(London, 1895). I, p. 178. Compare Sale 11.46.
26
Origen, Commentarollllie Song(jSOllgS, cd. and trI1S. R. P. Lawson (London, 1957). Prologue V.
62
ANDREW LOUTH
innetmanandtheoutetman.theoutetman,tutnedouttowatdsthe
extetna|wot|d-uotsomuchthephysicalwot|d,asthewotldvaluediu
tetmsottheextetna|,awot|dotteputatioiandambition,awot|dot
possessious andconsumption- and theinnetman, tutuedinwatds
towatdsthespititualwot|d|undetstoodastheiunetwotld,asabove).
Astheoutetmanexpetiencestheoutetwot|dwithhisphysicalsenses,
so the innetman expetiences the spititua| wotld with his spintual
seuses. Iu thisway, Otigen is able to intetptet thehighlysensuous
wotldottheSongot Songsiutetmsotthelovebetweeu

Chtistandthe
Chutch,the|oveot thesou|totGod,tespondiugtoHis|ovetothet.It
can,Ithink,betegatdedasanautheuticdevelopmentot thePlatonic
ttaditioninthattheasceutotthesouldesctibediutheSymposium, otin
Phaedrus, istea|isediuChtistiautetmsinintetptetatiouottheSongot
Songs.Thedocttineotthespititua|seusesisusedtoexptessthewayiu
which thesou| wakesup to thewot|dotinuetspititua| tea|ityand
beginstoexpetiencethatwot|dbyleatuingtouseitsnew-toundseuses.
Asthesou|gtowstomatutityinthisnew|ytevealedwotld,itdeve|opsa
sensitivitytospititua|tea|ity.soOtigensays,'thatsoulon|yispettect
whohashetseuseotsme||sopureandputgedthatshecancatchthe
ltagtauceotthespikenatdaudmytthaudcyptessthatptoceedtrom
the Wotd otGod, aud cau inha|e the gtace otthe diviueodour'.
Thedocttineotthespititualsensesisdeve|opedinallsottsotways
inOtigen'swake.Itsdeve|opmentispatticu|at|ybouudupwththe
ttaditionotiutetptetingtheSongotSongsotthemystical |ite:iuthe
East,thedocttiuewasdeve|opedinthetoutthcentutybyStGtegoty
otNyssa, in theWest, Betnatdinhiswondettu|seties otsetmonsou
theSongotSongsdeve|opedthedocttinewithatatesensuousuess.
AmongtheEnglishmysticsthespititualsensesatemostptominentin
Richatd Rolle who, alone among them, continues the ttaditiou ot
commentatyontheSongotSongs.! InhisIncendium amoris, hemaps
Compare Ephesians 5.25-33.
" Origen. Commelllar, lUI (Lawson edition, p. 168).
There arc two important articles by K. RallncrSJ on the origins and medieval developments
of the doctrine of the spiritual senses: in Relued'.Ibctliqleel de Mystique, rg ({932), 1 13-45. and
'4 ( 1 933), 263-99. For English translations (with references somewhat abridged) sec,
Rahner, Tlltological lrwtstjgatiolls ( 1 979), XVI, pp. 81-J34.
On which see, recently, 1:Ann Matter, The Voice ofMyBeloved. TIle Song DfSongs in Wetem
Medieval C/lristianir (Philadelphia, 1990). Also Ann W. Astcll, The Song oj Songs in the Middle
Ages ( Ithaca and London, 1990).
3
1
See Ego Dormio, ed. Allen, pp. 60-72; 01elll ejlIsllnl 'IOmell bwm, in rorkshire writers, cd.
Horstman, f pp. 186-gl , and the beginnings of a Latin commentary in O. Madon. 'Le
Commcntaircdc Richard Rollcsur Ic Cantiquc des Cantiques', i n Mllallges de science riligieuse,
7 ( 1 95), 3
1 1 -25.
Platonism in the Middle English Mystics
oui the spiritual life i n three phases - calor, dulcor, canor: all states of
feeling. His lyrics are full of deeply felt emotion that flows over into
defnite experiences. I n ontrast there is a certain cautiousness about
the spiritual senses in Hilton and even more in the author of the Cloud,
though such caution can also be found in Rolle, in The Form of Living
for example. Rosamund Allen is certainly right to stress that in his
expressive sensuousness Rolle is drawing on the traditional doctrine of
the spiritual senses:" but his spiritual feelings are real feelings, not a
mere metaphor." Walter Hilton, in OJAngels' Song, recognises both a
genuine experience of hearing the song of the angels, and also a
delusion that nothing but 'a fantasie caused of trubblyng of the
brayne'." A similar caution is found in the Scale ojPerfection (1.46),
while the author of the Cloud dwells at length on the dangers of
confusing the physical and the spiritual (45-62 passim), and is even
reluctant to use the language of interiority, preferring his own
paradox: 'noghwhere bodely is euerywhere goostly' (68. p. 1 2 I )
"
At
the root of all this there perhaps lies an unresolved problem for
Christian Platonism: what is the true estimate of the body? Are
spiritual and bodily senses simply to be opposed? Or are the spiritual
senses a transfguration of the bodily? Is Paradise a purel spiritual
place (and therefore not a place at all), or is Paradise a place where
there is complete harmony between the spiritual and the bodily? It is
curious to note that chapters 63-7 of The Cloud seem to point in a
diferent direction from the chapters that precede and follow: here the
fracture between the physical and the spiritual is clearly ascribed to
the Fall, rather than (more platonico) rcgarded as being intrinsic.
CONCLUSI ON
That the English mystics are to be regarded as heirs of the tradition of
Christian Platonism has, it is hoped, been sufciently demonstrated.
The nature of this debt is also worth underlining. It is a severely
practical interest: even when the English mystics betray awareness of
speculative developments concerning the true centre of the human
personality or the way in which the hierarchies of the angels may be
31 In her introduction to Richard Rollc: tie English Writings (London, Ig8g), p. '7.
3 As Evelyn UndcrliIl rightly notes in her introduction to Te Fre ofLve . . . and tle Mending oj
Lift, translated into Modern English from Richard Misyn's Middle English version by
Frances M.M. Camper (London, 1 914), p. xv.
3 Yorkshire Writers, ed. Horstman, I, p. 1 80.
, It is possible that Hilton and thc Cloud had RoUe in mind in their criticisms. Sec Dom David
Knowles, The llglisf Mystical Tradition (London, 1961), pp. 96, 107-9.
,
! .
ANDREW LOUTH
i nteriorized, they are only interested i n practical conclusions that
may be drawn. The author of the Cloud fnds the imagery of darkness
and unknowing something that helps him to understand a fundamental
aridity in contemplative prayer that must simply be endured, rather
than treated as a worrying symptom of something that needs to be put
right (depression, or half-heartedness, or sinful habits) (Cloud,75) .
This lack of speculative interest has been noticed elsewhere in the
English mystics. So Riehle says of their treatment oflhe term gounde:
Just how far the traditional metaphor of the abyss is changed in English
mysticism is apparent from the meaning of the commonly used metaphor
ground,. At frst sight it would seem to correspond to the Middle High
German grunt, a synonym of abgrunt (abyss). But when the English authors
speak of the divine grounde they leave aside the element of infnite
unfathomable depth and tend rather to concentrate on another meaning
which the word has, namely the meaning 'solid ground' in the sense of the
La tin fundamentum."
That the English mystics were essentially practical is a truth that their
designation as 'mystics' perhaps obscures. The writings of the English
mystics are concerned with prayer as a practical matter. For them the
Platonic tradition was part of the fabric of a traditional wisdom about
God and the soul that they drew on for the insight it gave into the
practical business of living a life devoted to prayer.
10
W. Richie, Tie Middle Ellglish Myslics (London, Ig81), p. 85.
PART I I I
T/t Rtoctssco.t cos//t st:to/tto// to/ar
CHAPTER 7
Introduction to the Renaissance
and seventeenth centur
Sarah Hutton
The image of Plato which dominates the Renaissance is that of Moses
Allicus, the Attic Moses, or Greek sage whose wisdom echoed the
teachings of the Bible. ' A striking visual representation of this is the
portrait of Plato in Raphael's mural, now known as the School of
Athens, located in the heart of Western Christendom, the Vatican
itself (An engraving based on this picture serves as the frontispiece for
this volume.) The spirit of Raphael's portrait of Plato is very much
the spirit of Plato invoked almost a century and a half later by
Milton in 'II Penseroso' where Plato is the seer of the soul, holding the
secrets of 'the immortal mind that hath forsook I Her mansion in this
feshly nook' (II. 88-g). Raphael's unwitting anticipation of Milton is
a reminder that no account of Plato in Renaissance England can
ignore the key importance of the I talian Renaissance in the recovery
of the Platonic corpus and the transmission of Platonic thought.
Raphael's grouping of Plato with other philosophers is a reminder
that throughout the Renaissance and seventeenth century Plato was
always seen in relation to other thinkers. Although considered primus
inter pares by his admirers, he was linked with a constellation of what
they believed to be like minds, Orpheus, Hermes Trismegistus and
Plotinus among them. Nor did Platonism ever dominate the
philosophical scene or succeed in dislodging Aristotelianism as the
core of the university curriculum.2 None the less, in the Renaissance
the philosophy of Plato was read and valued more than at any time
since the closure of the Athenian Academy by the emperor Justinian
in AD 529.
' Sec D.P. Walker, The Ancient Theology (London, 1972).
` Some of Plato's dialogues did, however, fgure on the curricula of Greek courses in European
universities and grammar schools of the Renaissance, see P.O. Kristcller, ReIQissance Thoug/l
(New York, 1961), pp. 601.
68 SARAH HUTTON
In the Middle Ages, Plato had been known through at most a
handful of dialogues (See Baldwin, pp. 2 1-6 above), but in the
ffteenth century Plato's entire extant oeuvre became known in
Western Europe. An important herald of the new interest in Plato
and Neoplatonism was Cardinal Nicholas ofCusa ( 1 401 -1 464).' But
it is to the humanists of the Renaissance that we owe the recovery and
Latin translation of the Platonic corpus! Here the lead was given by
Petrarch ( 1 304-1 374)' whose high valuation ofPlatollic philosophy
(on the authority of Cicero and Augustine) combined with his
manuscript-collecting activities lent impetus to the recovery of the
Platonic corpus, furthered by such fgures as Luigi Marsigli, Francesco
Filelfo ( 1 398-1 481 ) and Leonardo Bruni ( 1 369-1 444) . Petrarch's
knowledge of Plato was limited: even though he possessed a Greek
codex of Plato: his attempts to learn Greek came to nothing. I t was
only later with the promotion of Greek studies by such fgures as the
Florentines Coluccio Salutati ( 1 33 1-1 406) and Niccolo Niccoli that
Plato's writings were read in Greek in I taly for the frst time since
antiquity. In the rebirth of Greek studies, as well as the new interest in
Neoplatonism, a key role was played by Byzantine scholars who
travelled to I taly, notably Manuel Chrysoloras ( 1 350-1 41 4) who
taught Greek in Florence from 1 397, George Gemistus Pletho
(c. 1 360-1 452), a formative infuence on the shaping of Renaissance
Platonism' and Cardinal Bessarion (c. 1 403-1 472) who settled in
Rome where he defended Plato from the attacks on him by George of
Trebizond ( 1 395-1 484).8 Contact with the Greek east was also a
source fm the supply of Plato MSS which were brought to Italy either
by visiting Byzantines like Chrysoloras or by I talians like Filelfo who
visited Constantinople. I t was not until 1 51 3, however, that the works
of Plato were printed in the original Greek, by Aldus Manutius (see
Baker-Smith, p. 87 below).'
The earliest attempts to translate Plato into Latin, the linguaJanca
of Renaissance Europe, concentrated on individual dialogues (for
" Charles Lohr, 'Metaphysic', in The Cambridge Histor of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. C.B.
Schmitt (Cambridge, Ig88) (hereafter CHRP), pp. 548-66.
J. Hankins, Plato in te [laliotl Renallsa'IC

, 2 vols. (Leidcn, 1990). pts Iand 11; B.P. Copenhaver

and C.B. Schmitt, Renaissance Plilosophy (Oxford, 1992), pp. 126-43.
Krisleller, Renaissance Tlought, pp. 57-8; P.O. Kristeller. Eight Pllosophm o lIe Italian
Renaissance (Stanford, 196+). pp. 9-10; N. Rabb, Neapla/onism of the Italian Renaissance
(London, ' 935), PI ' 7-56.
G Kristcller, Eight Philosophers, pp. 9-10. Peu'arch owned sixteen Plato MSS: see Robb,
Neoplalonism, p. 22. 7 Hankins, Plaio, I. p. 197.
Ibid" pp. 429-44- ' L.D. Reynolds and N,C. Wilson, Scribes and Scolars, p. 138.
The Renaissance and the seventeenth centur 69
e
x
ample George of Trebizond's translation of the Parmenides, made
at the behest of Nicholas of Cusa, and Leonardo Bruni's translations
of the Phaedo and the Republic) . It was the achievement of Marsilio
Ficino ( 1 433-1499) to
'
translate all thirty-six dialogues of the
Thrasyllan canon - a translation which was still current three and a
half centuries later. Ficino's translation appeared in ( 1 484) .
1
0 Ficino
also translated the Enneads of Plotinus ( 1 492) and the Hermetic
writings, Pimander and Asclepius (translated in the early 1 460's,
printed in 1 47 1 ) . 1 1 These writings, which contain a mixture of
Neoplatonic, Gnostic and Jewish elements, were attributed to
Hermes Trismegistus, believed then to have been an ancient sage
living in pre-Christian times whose writings display intimations of
Christian doctrine. Subsequently ( 1 614) Isaac Casaubon demonstrated
the spurious antiquity of these writings. `
. Ficino was more than just editor and translator. He was also a
commentator and philosopher who, in his prefaces and his Platonic
Theolog ( Theologia platonica, written between 1 469 and 1 474), 1 3
bequeathed to the Renaissance an interpretative model which
harmonised Plato and Neoplatonism with Western Christianity and
endowed them with philosophical respectability in his own time. `
Ficino's reading of Plato was very much a Neoplatonic reading: he
regarded Plotinus and other Neoplatonists as authoritative propounders
of Plato's philosophy. For this reason, the fortuna of Plato in the
Renaissance cannot be separated from that of Neoplatonism.
Furthermore, for Ficino the Hermetic writings were important
confrmation of his reading of Plato as the divine Plato, divinus ille
Plaia. In Plato he found doctrines compatible with Christianity: that
the world was created, not eternal; that the soul was immortal; even a
version of the Trinity. Much of this wisdom was hidden beneath a veil
of allegory. With the further authority of the early Christian Fathers,
especially Augustine, Ficino cultivated the image of Plato as the sage
whose philosophy accorded most closely with Christian doctrine.
:o
On Ficino as a translator, sec Hankins, PLalo, I, pp. 236-64.
I
I
Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno alld the Hermetic Tradition (London, 1964).
1
2
A. Grafton, 'Protestant versus Prophet: Isaac Casaubon on Hermes Trismetgistus' and 'The
Strange Death of Hermes and the Sybils' in Grafton, Defndersofthc Text (Cambridge, Mass.,
1991).
13
This is not available in English, but there is a French translation: TMoiogie plalollicienne de
l'immortalitl des ames, c. and trans. R. Marcel, 3 vols. (Paris, 1964-70).
:
M.J.B. Allen, The Platonism ojMarsilio Heino (Berkeley, Ig8g)j and Marsi[io FiciTf and the
Phaedrall Charioteer (Berkeley, Ig8r); Copenhaver and Schmitt, Retlaissance Philosophy, pp.
143-62; Kristcllcr, Eight Philosophers) pp. 37-53; Charles Lohr) CHRP, pp. 568-84.
SARAH HUTTON
This image entailed the view, adopted, from Byzantines like Pletho,
that Plato was the heir to a line of philosophers going back to earliest
times. In this scheme of things, Plato was the conveyor of ancient
wisdom deriving ultimately from Adam and shared by others in a line
of ancient sages which also included Zoroaster, Orpheus and Hermes
Trismegistus. Thus in the Renaissance, the Neoplatonici nterpretation
of Plato rendered his philosophy at once more systematic as a
coherent whole, and more eclectic, incorporating strands of thought
not properly belonging to Plato. Renaissance Platonism was thus,
paradoxically, at once a unifi
e
d framework of thought and a flexible
collection of doctrines. "
Ficino was not the only Renaissance translator and editor of
Plato. " The 1 578 edition by the Protestant jean de Serres Ooannes
Serranus) made in collaboration with Henri Estienne (Henricus
Stephanus) has bequeathed to us the system of pagination still in use
today. While it did not supersede Ficino's translation, Serranus'
Latin translation of Plato which accompanied the Greek text was
probably as well-known in England as Ficino's. The only English
translation of Plato to be printed in the sixteenth century was the
pseudo-Platonic dialogue Axiochu (London, 1 592) translated from
the French of Philippe du Plessis Mornay. " The earliest direct
contact between Italian Platonism and England was Humphrey
Duke of Gloucester, patron successively of two translators of the
Republic, Leonardo Bruni and of Pier Candido Decembrio ( 1 392-1477).
An example of direct contact between Ficino and England is Sir
Thomas More's friend, john Colet (c. 1467-1 51 9)
'
who corresponded
with Ficino and whose lectures on Romans 6-1 1 show clearly the
infuence of Ficino's theological thought. l ' Humanist visitors to
England, like Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1 466/9-1 536) and juan Luis
Vives ( 1 492-1540), helped to disseminate Platonism in English
humanist circles. None the less, in England, as on the continent,
Platonic philosophy did not become institutionalised within traditional
15 Kristclicr, Renaissance Tnought, pp. 48-69; Lohr, 'Metaphysics' in CHRP, pp. 537-638.
1 6 For a list of the Renaissance translators of Plato, as well as an account of some of the most
important ones, see Hankins, PlaM, I, passim, and 11, pp. 804-7, 81 9-2.
17 The translation purports to be by aile 'Edw. Spcnser' from Greek. The same dialogue is
translated in Mornay's Six Ecellml Treatises of Li (ud Death (London, 1607). The Frcnch
version was published by the printer Josse Badius in 1530. See A. Tilley, Studies ill llc Frenc"
RCllaissa7lcc (1922; New York, 1968), p. 145. 'l'he only dialogue to be printed in Greek was the
MCllCXClIlS (Cambridgc, 1587).
' ScursJuync, John Colet and Marsiiio Fieino (Oxford, 1963).
The Renaissance and the seventeenth century 7 1
seats of
i
earning, 1 9 but it is the case that colleges founded on humanist
lines were well supplied with texts of Plato: an example is Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, founded by Bishop Fox in 1 51 7.'0 And there
is evidence ofassimilatio
;
of Platonism even by Aristotelians, such as
the Oxford don, John Case." Another source for the difusion of
Platonism in Renaissance and seventeenth-century England were
compendia such as du Plessis Mornay's A Worke concering the trewness
ofthe Christian Religion," Grotius' De Veritate ( 1 627) and Pierre de la
Primaudaye's French Academy (translated by 'J. B.', London, 1 61 8),
which was a source for the platonising poetry of John Davies of
Hereford (c. 1 565-1 61 8) .
The appeal of Plato to the earlier humanists was enhanced by the
authority of Augustine (see Coleman, pp. 27-37 above) and reinforced
by their negative assessment of scholastic philosophy. Plato's concern
with moral philosophy and his discussion of the nature of true
eloquence coincided with the central pre-occupations orthe humanists.
Later humanists, notably Erasmus ( 1 466/9-1 536) continued to draw
on Platonism as a repository of spiritual and moral values (see
Baker-Smith, pp. 86-99 below) . Sir Thomas More ( 1 478-1 535), on
the other hand is distinctive for his interest in the political Plato.
Although the humanist construction of Plato as guardian of moral
wisdom undoubtedly served to recommend Plato to him, his
engagement with Plato in Utopia is with Plato's questioning method of
enquiry rather than with Plato the expounder of spiritual truth.
In secular literature the single most infuential aspect of Ficino's
Neoplatonism was his development of the doctrine of Platonic love in
his commentary on Plato's Symposium ( 1 469). Ficino's transformation
of Plato's philosophy of love is the subject of Jill Kraye's paper
(
PP
. 76
-
85 below) which also deals with the traltati d'amore which
derived from it and which ensured Ficino's ideas a wide difusion in
the courts of Europe. In English circles the most infuential of these
treatises was Baldasar Castiglione's I cortegiano ( The Courtier) . The
Latin translation by the Englishman Bartholomew Clerke, De curiali
' On the continent, it flourished in newly founded academies, described by Kristeller as 'half
learned society halflitcrary club'. To my knowledge there were no such academies in England.
20
The library of Corpus Christi College contained the translations of Plato by Ficino, Serranus,
and the Aldine edition. SceJ.R. Liddell, 'The Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford',
The Librar, 4th series, 13 ('938), 385-416.
2
1 C.B. Schmitt, John Case (Kingston and Montreal, tg82).
" Mornay's De fa verill de fa Religion Chrcslienne was frst published in t
S
St . The translation by
Sir Philip Sidney appeared in 1587.
SARAH HUTTON
sive aulieo libri quatuor ( [ 57 [ ) , was more widely known i n England than
Thomas Hoby's English version, The Courrer ( [ 56[ ) , which is more
famous today." In addition to Sources like Castiglione, Pietro Bembo
and Pico della Mirandola, the Platonism of much English poetry was
probably mediated indirectly to English writers from French sources
such as Du BeHay and the Pleiade, every bit as much as Italian." The
doctrine of Platonic love was assimilated into secular love poetry,
especially into the Petrarchan poetry so fashionable in the ffteenth
and sixteenth centuries where it became an essential element of the
language of courtly love. Spenser's AmoreUi ( [ 595) is a notable
example of the idealising love poetry inspired by the Ficinian
transformation of Plato's philosophy of love, while the Platonism of
Drayton's sonnet sequence Iea is conveyed in its very title. Spenser's
knowledge of Platonism extended well beyond the idea of Platonic
love. As Tom Bulger shows (pp. [ 26-38, below), in his discussion of
The Faerie Queene, he had a detailed acquaintance with a variety of
Neoplatonic sources. In Sidney and Chapman (see John Roe,
pp. [ 00-6, below) the idealising theory of love and beauty is given
comic treatment. Their parody ofNeoplatonism is light-hearted, by
contrast with the dismissive ridicule of Platonic love by the libertine
love poets of the seventeenth century. Neoplatonism continued to
provide writers like Ben Jonson with a rich vein of idealism. In The
New Inn ( [ 629) he celebrates Platonic love, while Neoplatonism
underscores the idealisation of monarchy in his masques for the
Jacobean and Caroline courts.2> Under Henrietta Maria's patronage,
Platonic love was celebrated by writers like Davenant in the masques
and drama of the court of Charles I's."
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
While the infuence of Platonism is everywhere to be felt in the writing
of the English Renaissance, the seventeenth century can justly be
regarded as the golden age of English vernacular Platonic philosophy,
J,W. Binns, Intellectual Culture in Eliabedm England (Leeds, 1990). pp. 2s8f.
"` Sears Jayne, 'Ficino and English Platonism', Contemporary Literature, 4 (1952), 21 4-38.
" See D. Gordon, The Renaissance Imagination (Berkeley, Los Angele and London, 1980); D.
Lindley (ed.), The (UT! Masque (Manchester, 1984); S. Orgel, The Jonsonian Masque
(Princeton, 1965).
S. Orgel and R. Strong, Inigo Jones: the Theatre oJlhe Sluart Court, 2 vols (London, 1973), I, p.
55. See especially, chapter 4, 'Platonic Politics'. Also, K. Sharpe, Criticism and Complimet: the
Politics of lileralure i tie Engla1ld oJCharles I (Cambridge, Ig87), chapter 5, 'The Caroline
Court Masque',
The Renaissance and the seventeenth century 73
on acc
o
unt of the appearance, mid-century, of the group of
Cambridge-based philosopher theologians known now as the
Cambridge Platonists (see Scott, pp. 1 39-50, below). The Cambridge
Platonists were a relatively diverse group whose Platonism was a
dominant element in an eclectic philosophical outlook which was also
receptive to new philosophical currents, notably the philosophy of
Descartes.27 The leading members of this group, and the most prolifc,
were Henry More ( 1 61 4-1 687) and Ralph Cudworth ( 1 61 7-1 688).
The one work of John Smith ( 1 61 8-1 652), his posthumously
published Select Discourse, ( 1 660), surpasses them in its prose style, as
does Discourse if the Freedom i Will ( 1 675) by Peter Sterry (d. 1672).
Also associated with the group is Nathaniel Culverwell (d. c. 1 651 ) ,
author of An Elegant and Leared Discourse if the Light ofNature ( 1 652) ,
and Benjamin Whichcote ( 1 609-1 683). The only aspiring poet
among them was More, whose deep admiration of Spenser accounts
for his adoption of Spenser ian stanzas and allegorical mode in his frst
published adventures into Platonism. More's . Psychodia Platonica
( 1 642) treats a number of Platonic themes, notably the Immortality
and Pre-existence of the Soul, in Spenserian stanzas.
.
With the Cambridge Platonists the Renaissance Neoplatonic
synthesis is put to the service of religious peace in an age of religious
strife. What distinguishes them as a group is their theological
optimism, their latitudinarian spirit and their antipathy to the harsh
predestinarian theology of Calvinism. Like Erasmus, they all (except
Sterry) emphasise the freedom of the will. They all insist on
importance of reason in religion, and accept a version of the Theory of
Recollection. At the same time they adapted Renaissance Platonism
to the demands of a period of intellectual turmoil - the scientifc and
philosophical revolution of the seventeenth century. Firstly, a in the
case of the early humanists, Platonism ofered an alternative to the
increasingly irrelevant Aristotelianism still in place as the ofcial
philosophy of the universities. Secondly, by widening the traditional
Platonic defence of the immortality of the soul to a defence of spirit in
general, they sought to combat what they saw as atheistic tendencies
in contemporary thought. Thus their antipathy to the deterministic
philosophies of Hobbes and Spinoza matches their opposition to
Calvinist predestination. More, with his concept of the 'spirit of
27 For a fuller account of the Cambridge Platonists, together with a bibliography, sec
S. Hutton, 'Lord Herbert ofChcrbury and the Cambridge Platonists', in ROIlt/edge Histor oj
PhjlfsQP, vol. N British Philosophy and Ihe AgeoJEnlightenment, cd. Stuart Brown (forthcoming).
74 SARAH HUTTON
nature' and Cudworth i n his concept of 'plastic nature' adapted the
Platonic conception of the World Soul to explain the operations of the
God in the natural world. In the case ofHerry More's disciple, John
Norris ( 1 657-1 71 2) , Platonism came to be blended with the philosophy
of Nicholas Malebranche ( 1 638-1 7 1 5) , through which it could be
said to have had something of a difuse after-life in spite of the demise
of Platonism in the eighteenth century."
The roots of Cambridge Platonism can be traced back through the
English Arminian theologian Thomas Jackson ( 1 579-1 640) who
received his education at the humanist foundation, Corpus Christi
College, Oxford." Furthermore, Jackson can be identifed as one
channel through which Platonism was mediated to literary circles: he
was linked to George Herbert through their close mutual friend
Nicholas Ferrar, and through his patrons the Danvers and the Earl of
Pembroke. He was also read by Thomas Traherne. Henry Vaughan
was a student at Oxford in Jackson's time. The religious poetry of
such writers as Milton, Vaughan, Traherne and Marvell is in many
ways the poetic counterpart of the Cambridge Platonists philosophical
theology (see Baldwin and Hutton, pp. 1 51-78, below).
In the seventeenth century, Plato and Plotinus were most frequently
read in Latin, but also, by the more learned, in Greek. None the less,
other vernacular sources should be noted, in particular John
Everard's translation of the Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus
in 1650 - testimony to the fact that Isaac Casaubon's dating of the
writings of Hermes as post-Christian took some time to take efect.
The one Latin translation of Plato to be printed in England in the
seventeenth century testifes to the longevity of Ficino's infuence: as
its title suggests, Platonis de rebus divinis, dialogi selecti (Cambridge,
1673) prints a small selection of dialogues (Apolog, Grito, Phaedo, Laws
x, Alcibiades II) that show Plato as an authority in divine matters. The
only English translation of Plato to be printed in England in the same
century also signals an interest in Plato as an authority on the soul,
but t
h
ere is a strong hint here ofa more critical spirit. Plato his Apology
i Socrates and Phaedo or Dialogue concering the Immortali! if Mans Soul,
and Manner of Socrates his Death (London, 1675) is a confection of
Serranus and Ficino, more usually following the former. I t also
?6
On Norris's Maicbranchism, sec C.. McCracken, Malebrallckeand British Philosophy(Oxford,
983). and R. Acworth, Tie Philosophy ojJohn .Norris oj Bemertoll (/657-1712) (Hildeheim, 1979).
* On Jackson, sec S. Hutton, 'Thomas Jackson, Oxford Platonist, and William Twise.
Aristotelian', Joural ojthe Histor ofIeas, 34 ( 1 978), 635-52.
The Renaissance and the seventeenth century ;
supplies background information (,Refexions upon the Athenian
Laws') and historical consideration of belief in the immortality of the
soul ('The Antiquity of the Tradition of the opinion of the Soul's
Immortality' ) , bringing
'
this up to date by considering contributions
of modern philosophers, namely Descartes and Boyle.
Finally, it is perhaps worth noting Plato's detractors in this period.
Given the quasi-prophetic status accorded him by many of his
admirers, the grounds of their attacks were mainly religious and
moral. This kind of critique of Plato dates back to the ffteenth
century rediscovery of his writings, most famously in George of
Trebizond's vitriolic attack on Platonism which prompted Cardinal
Bessarion's equally famous apology for Plato." In England, the
seventeenth-century puritans William Twisse and John Owen may
be cited for their objections to Plato as a pagan obfuscator. Even
Plato's proponents often expressed reservations about the possible
heterodox implications of his philosophy: Serranus, Jackson and
Theophilus Gale" are examples. Onc of the most contentious subjects
was Plato's Arian Trinity. Another was his doctrine of the pre
existence of souls, attacked by Nathaniel Culverwell but favoured by
Henry More. In the wake of Cambridge Platonism, anti-platonism
strikes a new note in Samuel Parker's A Free and Impartial Censure ofthe
Platonick Philosophy ( 1 666) . The focus of Parker's attack is not Plato
the moralist, whom he purports. to admire, but what he sees as the
fimsy and fantastical basis of Plato's theories grounded not on hard
logic but on mere 'whimsies'. Parker's ridicule did nothing to
diminish Plato's standing with More and Cudworth, but they strike
at the very basis of the conception of Plato as 'Attic Moses', so
heralding the end of an era of Plato interpretation that began in
quattrocento I taly.
" Sec Hankins, PIa 1o, I, pp. 236-63-
31 Sec Theophilus Galc, The COITt o lfa Gentiles (Oxford and London, 1669-78).
CHAPTER 8
The transformation ojPlatonic love in the Italian
Renaissance
Jill Kroe
One of the most serious obstacles to the reception and adoption of
Platonism by Italian scholars of the early ffteenth century was the
theory of Platonic love. Yet by the middle of the sixteenth century
this doctrine had become the most popular element of Platonic
philosophy and was playing a signifcant role in the development of
Italian literature. The transformation of Platonic love from an
embarrassing liability into a valuable asset was a key episode in the
history of Plato's reemergence during the Renaissance as a major
. infuence on Western thought.
Through their knowledge of Greek, I talian humanists became
familiar with a wider range of Platonic dialogues than had been
known in the Middle Ages; but they did not always like what they
read. Among the things they found particularly ofensive was the
homosexual and pederastic orientation of Platonic love. Leonardo
Bruni, the most prominent early translator of Plato, felt obliged to
bowdlerise his Latin versions of the Phaedrus ( 1 424) and the Symposium
( 143S). In Bruni's translation, for instance, Alcibiades' attempted
seduction of Socrates (Symposium 2 1 sa-22a) becomes a high-minded
quest for philosophical enlightenment, with Alcibiades describing
himself as 'infamed with the desire for learning'. Fascinated though
he was by the concept of divinely-inspired amatory fury, as expounded
in the Phaedrus, Bruni was simply unable to accept Plato's explicit
treatment of homoexuality. '
Bruni's contemporary in Florence, the Camaldulensian monk
Ambrogio Traversari, had similar scruples. These led him to delete
from his Latin version of Diogenes Laertius' Lives if the Philosophers
( 1 433) the homosexual love poems attributed to Plato (m.2g-32),
' James Hankins, Plato in the Ilalian Ren(lissanc, 2 vols (Lciden, 1990), I pp. 2g-81; II pp.
396-400. For his hatred or pederasty. see Leonardo Bruni, Humanistisck-philosophiceSthrijten,
ed. H. Baron (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 40-1.
.
Platonic love in the Italian Renaissance 77
in
C
luding the lascivious epigram about kissing Agathon. Virtually the
only humanist to express appreciation of these poems was Antonio
Panormita, author ofa sc.abrous verse collection entitled Hermaphroditus
( 1 425). The 'wanton' and 'efeminate' love poetry which Plato
addressed to young men provided Panormita with classical precedent
for his own pornographic eforts! Rather than bolstering Panormita's
case, however, this claim served to undermine further Plato's moral
credibility. And worse was in store.
George of Trebizond published his Comparatio Amtotelis et Platonis
( 1 458) as part of a one-man campaign to save Christendom from the
irreligious and immoral doctrines of Platonism. He therefore went out
of his way to portray Plato as a purveyor of sexual depravity and an
unashamed pederast. Aristotle, whom George regarded as the
bulwark of Western civilisation, may have been over fond of women,
but at least he had not indulged in unnatural vice nor infamed grown
men with a desire for the youthful beauty of adolescent boys. In his
lurid account of the Symposium pointedly referred to as De cupidine
(,On Desire') rather than by its customary title De amore ('On Love')
- George deliberately distorted the speech of Aristophanes (I 89C-
93d) so as to equate Platonic love with continuous sexual fulfilment,
achieved when the two masculine halves of the original male creature
were reunited.'
The aim of Cardinal Bessarion's In calumniatorem Platonis ( 1 469) was
to defend Plato against George's allegations, especially the damaging
accusations of sexual misconduct. Bessarion did not deny that
Platonic love was essentially homosexual in outlook, but he did insist
that Socrates' attachment to young men such as Phaedrus was
entirely honorable and chaste, and that it had nothing to do with lust.
To reinforce this point, Bessarion stressed the similarity between
Plato's concept oflove and that praised in the Song of Solomon and
the letters of St Paul. He also associated it with the cosmic love
described by Dionysius the Areopagite in chapter 4 of De divinis
nominibus, which had God as both its source and its goal. Contrary to
what George had claimed, Plato's spokesman in the Symposium was
not the rafsh Aristophanes but the wise and noble Socrates. As for
the amatory verses to Agathon and other boys, Bessarion maintained
2 See his 1426 letter to Poggio Bracciolini in Antonio Panormita, Hermaplrodiius, ed. D. Coppini
(Rome, 1990), pp. 151-9; also Hankins, Plato, 1 pp. 81 , 1 31 .
3 George of Trebizond, Comparationes phylosophorum Arislolelistl Plalon;s (Venice, 1523), sigs N 6v,
o 3v-Sv, T 5'; sec also John Monfasani, George oj Trebhond (Lcidcn, 1976), pp. 156-8.
J I LL KRAYE
that Diogenes Laertius had wrongly attributed to Plato poems which
were actually written by the voluptuary Aristippus of Cyrene.'
FI CI NO
Marsilio Ficino, equally anxious to discredit George of Trebizond's
attack on Plato's character, had one of the characters in his Symposum
commentary ( 1 469) state, with obvious reference to. George, that
those who dared to slander Plato because 'he indulged too much in
love' should be ashamed of themselves, 'for we can never indulge too
much or even enough in passions which are decorous, virtuous and
divine'.' Like Bessarion, Ficino too attempted to defend Socrates'
reputation for moral probity. After noting that even in his trial
Socrates had not been charged with immoral love afairs, Ficino
asked: 'Do you think that if he had polluted himself with a stain so
flthy, or rather, if he had not been completely above suspicion of this
charge, he would have escaped the venomous tongues of such
detractors?" He also followed Bessarion's lead in reassigning to
Aristippus the homosexual poems traditionally attributed to Plato
'
?
Ficino likewise took over Bessarion's tactic of associating Platonic
discussions oflove with those found in the Bible. He maintained, for
instance, that the burning desire Socrates says he feels upon glimpsing
Charmides' torso ( 1 55d) should be interpreted, like the Song of
Solomon, allegorically.8 Ficino, however, carried the Christianisation
of Platonic love much further than Bessarion, even managing to
impose a Thomist interpretation on the salacious speech of Aris
tpphanes.9 Another way in which Ficino made Platonic love more
palatable was to emphasise its place within an elaborate system of
Neoplatonic metaphysics. Relying heavily on Plotinus, Ennead 1.6
('On Beauty') and 1Il.5 ('On Love'), Ficino turned Diotima's ladder
. Cardinal Bcssarion, In caiumnralorem Ptalonis in L. Mohler, KardilJai Bessarioll als Theoiogc,
Humanist und Slaalsmml1, 3 vals. (Padcrbor, 1927l, lI, pp. 442-93; also, Hankins, Plato, I. pp.
259-61.
Marsilia Ficino, Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love, trans. S.Jayne (Dallas, 1985), p. 41 ;
Latin text: C(mmclltaire sur ie Banquet de Pla/em, cd. R. Marcel (Paris, 1956), p. 143.
Ficina, Commentar, p. 155; Commenlaire, p. 242.
, Marsilio Ficino, Tie Lelfers (London, 1975- )q II. p. 47; Larin text: Opera omnia, 2 vals.
(Basel, 1576), 1, p. 770.
" Ficino. Opera, II. 1304; ror a similar claim in his Phaedrus commentary, see M.J.B. Allen (cd.
and trans.) , Marsilio Fi,i'lo and the Phaedratl Charioteer (Berkeley, Ig81), pp. 78-9; Hankins,
Plato, I p. 313.
Ficino, Commentar, pp. 7 t -80; COImet/taire, pp. 167-77.
Platonic love in the Italian Renaissance 79
(Symposium 2 l Oa-I2a) into an ontological ascent from Soul, the
hypostasis to which man belonged, through the Angelic Mind and
ultimately to the One, the Neoplatonic equivalent of the Christian
God.lO
Bu t Ficino's eforts to accommodate the theory to the values of a
ffteenth-century audience did not include concealing or denying -it
would hardly have been possible in a commentary on the Symposium
that the virtuous love practised by Socrates and promoted by Plato
was homoerotic. Indeed, Ficino completely accepted the idea that
Platonic love involved a
'
chaste relationship between men, as can be
seen from his dedication of the work to his friend Giovanni
Cavalcanti. Giving Cavalcanti credit for having inspired the
commentary, Ficino stated that although he had learned the
defnition and nature oflove from Plato, 'the power and sway of this
god was hidden from me for thirty-four years, until a certain divine
hero, beckoning to me with heavenly eyes, demonstrated . . . how
powerful love is'." Further corroboration of the strictly masculine
context of Ficino's conception of Platonic love comes from a
contemporary biography of him, which states that 'he was enraptured
by love just as Socrates was, and he used to discuss and debate the
subject of love in the Socratic manner with young men'."
Ficino difered from Plato in his outright condemnation of
consummated homosexual love, which he described as 'against the
order of nature'. But this did not stop him from endorsing Plato's
belief that the soul's spiritual ascent to ultimate beauty was fuelled by
love between men. The man who follows the lower sort oflove, which
seeks mere physical 'conception and generation' (Symposium 206e),
desires, according to Ficino, a 'beautiful woman' to procreate
'handsome ofspring'; but the man who pursues the higher and
heavenly love, which pertains to the soul rather than the body, desires
to teach 'men who are handsome', seeing
'
in their external appearance
a refection of internal virtue." On the heavenly journey, Ficino
wrote to Cavalcanti, we should have God as our guide and a male
friend as our' companion. 1 4
One ofFicino's followers, Girolamo Benivieni, was inspired by his
10 licino, Commentar, pp. 136-45; Commenlairc, PI" 230-9'
' ' P. O. Kristcllcr, Supplemmlum Ficinimmm, 2 vots (Florence, 1937), I p. 37.
' Giovanni Corsi's' Vila Marsili Fich'; in Ficino, Let/ers, III, p. 14; Latin text in R. Marcel,
Marcel Ficin (Paris, 1958). p. 686.
'" Fieino, Commentar, PI" S4, ' 31-2; Commenlaire, pp. t55. 225
' Fieino, Letters, t, pp. 96-7; Opera, I
v
pp. 633-4.
80 JI LL KRAYE
Symposium commentary to produce an elegant but obscure Italian
canzone. The poem was itself commented upon, in 1 486, by the young
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who used this form to put forward his
own interpretation of Platonic love, which difered in some respects
from that of Ficino.15 But Pica shared Ficino's conviction that while
'earthly love, that is, the love of corporeal beauty, is more properly
directed towards women than towards men, the reverse is true of
heavenly love', eiting as his authority the speech .f Pausanias
(Symposium 1 80c-5c) . In Pica's opinion, sexual love, which led to
copulation, was less unseemly with the feminine sex than with the
male. Heavenly love, on the other hand, was directed entirely
towards the spiritual beauty of the soul or intellect, a beauty that was
'much more perfect in men than in women, as is true of any other
attribute'. It was with this 'chaste kind of love', wrote Pico, that
Socrates loved not only Alcibiades, but 'almost all of the cleverest and
most attractive young men in Athens' ` Pico was by no means proof
against female beauty - earlier in 1486 he had caused a scandal by
attempting to abduct the wife ofa government ofcial from Arezzo
but, for him as for Fieino, what prompted the soul to start on its .
arduous spiritual asce,nt to God was the masculine beauty 'of
Alcibiades, or Phaedrus, or some other attractive body'. "
Following i n the footsteps of Bessarion and Fieino, Pico linked
Platonic love to the Song of Solomon, adding, however, a new
dimension by drawing on the Cabbalistic doctrine of the mOTS oscuii,
'the death of the kiss'. This death, symbolised by a kiss, occurred
'when the soul, in an intellectual rapture, unites so completely with
incorporeal things that it rises above the body and leaves it
altogether'. Pico stated that the opening verse of the
'
Song of
Solomon: 'Kiss me with the kisses ofthy mouth', alluded to this sort of
kiss. Even more audaciously, he accepted the Platonic authorship of
the poem about kissing Agathon, denied by Bessarion and Ficino, and
asserted that it too referred to mOTS osculi. '
Through their interpretive skills, Bessarion, Ficino and Pico had
removed from Platonic love the immoral connotations which had
threatened to hinder the reception of Plato's philosophy by Renaissance
` Sec, e,g., Giovanni Pico della MirandoJa, Cmmentar on a CanzolicoJ BellivitJi, trans. S.Jaync
(New York, 1984), pp. 80-1 , 97-8, 106, 149; Italian text: De homillis aigm'tate . . . escrilti van,
ed. E. Garin (Florence, '942), pp. 465-6, 488-9, 499, 556.
' Pico, CCmmentar, p. 133; De dig/lilate, pp. 537-8.
l1
Pico, Cammerllor, p. 158; De digllitale, p. 567.
'" Pico, Commentar. pp. ' 31 , '50I; De diglilale, pp. 535. 557-8.
Platonic love in the Italian Renaisance 81
thinkers. But while they expunged any taint of carnal homosexuality
from Platonic love, they did not question its homoerotic nature, nor
its relegation of heterosexual love to an inferior status on the grounds
that love between the sexes resulted in physical procreation, whereas
love between men led to spiritual perfection. This distinction is clearly
enunciated in the writings of Lorenzo de' Medici, the unofcial ruler
of Florence and the patron of both Ficino and Pico. In t;Lorenzo
wrote a series of Platonic love letters to Ficino, demonstrating that he
had thoroughly absorbed the lessons taught in his Symposium
commentary." Lorenzo 'was well aware that the spiritual love which
he felt for Ficino was more exalted than the human love, directed
towards women, which he celebrated in his poetry. In his Comento on
his own poems, Lorenzo stated that they were not concerned with the
love praised by Plato, which is 'the means for all things to find their
perfection and to rest ultimately in supreme beauty, that is, in God'.
His poetry dealt instead with a love, which, although not the supreme
good, was nevertheless good in itself and natural, because it was
necessary for the propagation of the species." Yet despite his
recognition of the diference between the tw
o
sorts of love, Lorenzo
allowed himself to borrow certain Platonic themes from both Ficino
and Pico, using them, alongside motifs taken from Ovid, Petrarch
and the Stil nuovo poets, to elaborate the story of his love afair with his
mistress. 21
BEMBO
Lorenzo's appropriation of the language of Platonic love to describe
some aspects of the romance between a man and a woman prepared
the way for works such as Pietro Bembo's Gli Asolani ( 1 505), in which
both human and divine love were presented as unequivocally
heterosexual. In this dialogue, set in the court of Asolo, a group of
men and women gather together to converse on the subject of love.
The inclusion of women is defended on the grounds that they 'as well
as men have minds' and therefore have the right to seek knowledge of
'what one ought to flee from or pursue'; the love being discussed is
clearly as relevant to them as the men in the group. Lavinello,
` Lorenzo dc' Medici, LUe (Florence, 1977- ), 1, pp. 496-508, 510-18; 11, pp. 35-40.
" Lorenzo dc' Medici, Comenlo de' miei soneui, cd, T. Zanato (Florence, 1991), pp. 137. 140.
' Cr Medici, Comenta, pp. 1 8g-go with Ficino, Comme1l1ar, pp. 40-3. and Comento, p. 155 with
Pico, Commentar, pp. J 48-9.
JI LL KRAYE
attempting to strike a b.alance between the attack on love by
Perottino and the overpraise of it by Gismondo, portrays an elevated,
spiritual love, which obviously derives from the Platonic theory. But
here, unlike previous treatments, women are envisaged as the object
of Platonic love:
Who can fail tosee that in love somegallan gentle lady, and love her rather
for her wit, integrity, good breeding, grace, and other qualities than for her
bodily attractions, and love those attractions not for theIelves but as
adornments of her mind - who can fail to see my love is good because the
object of my love is likewise good?"
Most of the central ideas set out in Fieino's Symposium commentary are
echoed by Bembo, but he transforms the latter's abstract, philosophical
terminology into vivid, poetic metaphors. Ficino's doctrine that the
peauty which provokes love can be perceived by the eyes and the ears
alone of the fve senses is expressed by Bembo through an image. of
love spreading and beating its wings: 'And on its fight two senses
guide it: hearing, which leads it to the mind's attractions, and sight,
which turns it to the body's'. While Ficino - and, for that matter,
Plato (Symposium 20I d) - provided only a perfunctory description of
Diotima, Bembo carefully sets the scene for Lavinello's encounter
with his guide to the mysteries of love: from a little grove on a
charming mountaintop, surrounded by silvan quietude, emerges 'a
solitary figure, a bearded white-haired man clothed in material like
the bark of the young oaks surrounding him'. Although the message
this hermit conveys is taken from Ficino, he speaks straightforwardly,
a voiding any overtly philosophical language. Instead of erudite
discourse on the Neoplatonic hypostases, the hermit explains to
Lavinello that 'beyond this sensible, material world . . . there lies
another world which is neither material nor evident to sense, but
completely separate from this and pure . . . a world divine, intelligent
and full of light'." The aged hermit tells Lavinello that
h
e now
regards the sensual delights which he desired in his youth in the same
light a a man, restored to health, might regard his fevered fancies. I t
is only when we grow older, he says, that 'our better part, namely the
soul' is able to rule our worse part, the body, and that our reason is
able to control our senses." For Bessarion, Ficino and Pieo, there was
" Pietro Bembo, Gli Asoialli, trans. R. B. Gottfried (Bloomington, 1954), pp. 148, 156; Italian
text: Prose e rime, cd. C Dionisotti (Turin, Ig60), pp. 458, 466.
Bembo, Molani, pp. 157. 169, 18g; Prose, pp. 468, 479, 498; cf Ficino. Commentary, pp. 40-{, {0.
" Bcmbo, Gli Asolalli, pp. 1 81 -2; Prose, pp. 190.
Platonic love in the Italian Renaissance
a complete separation between physical love, which had women as its
object, and spiritual love, which was shared between men. By
contrast, Bembo's version of Platonic love is unifed and evolutionary,
with male-female relationships gradually progressing, as one grows
older, from a sexual to a spiritual plane.
CASTI GLI ONE
Although Gli Asolani was,widely read and infuential, the new style of
Platonic love formulated by Bembo reached its largest aud
I
ence when
his friend Baldesar Castiglione chose to cast him as one of the main
characters in his hugely popular I libro del cortegiano ( 1 528).
Castiglione sets out a vision of the perfect courtier and uses Bembo's
speech, which is the culmination of the book, to describe what his
attitude towards love should be. As in Gli Asolani, there is a
progression from the sensual love of youth to the spiritual love of old
age, both directed exclusively towards women. Moreover, Plato's
pederastic ideal of an older and wiser man educating his young lover
in virtue is given a novel heterosexual twist by Castiglione's Bembo,
who states that the courtier should be at pains to keep his lady 'from
going astray and by his wise precepts and admonishments always seek
to make her modest, temperate and truly chaste' . " Much of the
philosophical content of the speech is taken over from Ficino, but
Castiglione gives these doctrines even more literary embellishment
than Bembo had done. The Ficinian doctrine that beauty can be
perceived only through sight and hearing becomes, in Castiglione, an
admonition to the lover to 'enjoy with his eyes the radiance, the grace,
the loving ardour, the smiles, the mannerisms and all the other
agreeable adornments of the woman he loves' and to 'use his hearing
to enjoy the sweetness of her voice, the modulation of her words and, if
she is a musician, the music she plays'." Castiglione carried on the
trend, initiated by Bessarion, of giving Platonic love a strongly
religious colouring. He has Bembo end his speech with a hymn, which
is full of Biblical imagery, and in which love is identifed with the
'searing power of contemplation' that ravished the souls of 'ancient
Fathers', taking them from their bodies and uniting them with God.
And from Pico
?
Castiglione takes the idea that the Song of Solomon
" Baldcsar Castiglione, T Book o111e Courtier, trans. G. Bull (Harmondsworth, I g86), p. 33$
Italian text: li libro del corlegiano, cd. V, Cian (Florence, '947), p. 487.
" Castiglione, Courtier, p. 334; Cortegiano, p. 486.
JI LL KRAYE
refers to 'the death of the kiss'; but while he too alludes to the poem
about kissing Agathon, unlike Pico he does not name the male
dedicatee of these verses.27
Where Castiglione difers from all his predecessors is in the
scepticism about Platonic love which he permits his characters to
voice. Morello complains that he cannot understand the sort oflove
described by Bembo because in his view 'to possess the beauty he
praises so much without the body is a fantasy'. Morello also does not
believe that beauty is always as good as Bembo says, for he remembers
'having seen many beautiful women who were evil, cruel and spiteful
. . . beauty makes them proud, and pride makes them cruel' . Bembo
frmly denies that this is so and, dutifully toeing the Platonic line,
afrms that 'one cannot have beauty without goodness' since
'outward beauty is a true sign of inner goodness'." None the less, by
introducing the down-to-earth objections of Morello, Castiglione
raises doubts about the extreme idealism of the Platonic theory.
The combination ofliterary skill and psychological insight which
Castiglione brought to the topic of Platonic love was the high point of
the tradition. Now that Platonic love was safely in the heterosexual
camp,29 its themes were taken up in a stream of trattati d'amore
(treatises on love) . The inevitable price of such popularity was a
drastic reduction in philosophical content and an increasing staleness,
a once lively motifs became hackneyed through continual repetition."
A notable exception to this dreary picture is the Dialoghi d'amore of
Leone Ebreo, written around 1 501 -2, but not published until 1535.
Leone, a Portuguese-Jewish physician who emigrated to Italy after
1492, put forward his ideas on love in the form of a playful, but
extremely erudite, conversation between the female Sofa (wisdom)
and her male admirer, Filone (love). From the opening lines, Sofia's
firtatious teasing of the besotted Filone leaves the reader in no doubt
as to the heterosexual nature of the love they speak about. Like other
writers on Platonic love, Leone pointed out its compatibility with the
tenets of religion: but, in his case, the religion was Judaism rather
than Christianity. Again and again he noted that Plato's ideas
derived from Moses and the Cabbalists: Aristophanes' myth of the
`' Castiglione, Courtier, pp. 336-7. 342; CrtegianD, pp. 489-90, 498.
` Castiglione, Courtier, pp. 329-30; Corlegiano, pp. 479-80.
29 See, however, Flaminio Nobili, Ii !raUato dell'amlJt humano, ed. P.O. Pasolini (Rome, 1895).
fo1. 16v, who still regarded spiritual love as most appropriate between a man and a youth.
30 Trot/ali d'amore, e. G. Zonta (Bari, 1912); sec alsoJ.C. Nelson, Renaissance Theor ojLove
(New York. J958), pp. 67-162.
Platonic love in the Italian Renaissance 85
androgyne, for instance, turned out to be nothing more than the
Genesis account of the creation of Adam and Eve, amplified and
polished 'after the manner of Greek oratory'."
One of the last Italian Platoniclove treatises was Giordano Bruno's
Eroicifurori ( 1 585), written during his sojourn in England. In some
respects this work - a series of sonnets written and commented on by
Bruno - was quite conventional. There was the by now obligatory
reference to the Song of Solomon, 'which under the guise of lovers
and ordinary passions contains . . . divine and heroic frenzies, as the
mystics and cabalistic doctors interpret it'. And in the dedication to
Sir Philip Sidney, Bruno, like most authors of such treatises, attacked
sensual love, calling it 'witless, stupid and odiferous foulness . . .
worthy of pity and laughter'. But Bruno's polemic took an unexpected
turn towards misogyny: 'and all this for those eyes, those cheeks, for
that breast . . . that scourge, that disgust, that stink, that tomb, that
latrine, that menstruum, that carrion, that quartan ague, that
distortion of nature, which with . . . a shadow, a phantasm, a dream, a
Circian enchantment put to the service of generation, deceives us as a
species of beauty'." This contempt for women was philosophically,
not psychologically, motivated. Throughout the Eroicifurori, Bruno
deliberately subverts the metaphors oflove poetry, bending them to
his own metaphysical purposes. Thus, for him, female beauty is a
symbol of the allure of the perceptible world; by downgrading it, he
was indicating the immeasurable distance between sensible and
intelligible beauty, between physical desire and heroic love - man's
doomed but noble desire to understand the infinity of God. His aim
was to recover the profound philosophical signifcance which Platonic
love had had for Ficino and Pico, not to return to their homoerotic
conception of it. That conception had been superseded by a notion of
Platonic love which was better suited to the social, cultural and
literary concerns of the Renaissance: a non-sexual, spiritually up
lifting love between the sexes.
' Leone Ebreo, The Philosophy ojLove, trans, F. Friedeberg-Sccley andj.H. Barnes (London,
1937). p. 345; Italian text: Dialog"i d'amore, cd. S. Caramclla (Bari, (929), p. 291.
:1 Giordano Bruno, Te Heroic Fe, trans. P.E. Mcmmo (Chapel Hill, 1964), pp. 60, 62;
Italian tet: Dialoghi italiani, cd. G. Genlile and G. Aquilccchia (Florence, 1 958). pp. 929. 932.
CHAPTER 9
Uses sPlato /Erasmus and More
Dominic Baker-Smith
Cultural influence is never a passive process. One striking feature of
the Renaissance is the manner in which great fgures of antiq uity are
brought into focus not so much for purposes of detached analysis, that
would have to wait for the scientific classicism of a later age, but as
potent presences or myths that could match contemporary expectatons
and perplexities. Of no fgure is this more true than Plato, lauded by
Petrarch, who hardly knew his writings, as a preferable alternative to
the Aristotle of the scholars. Raphael's mural of the two philosophers
in the Stanza della Segnatura .efectively summarizes the myth:
Aristotle extends his hand to the plane of terrestrial reali ty, the field of
science, but the white-haired Plato points upwards to the transcendent
order of spiritual truth (see frontispiece) . Petrarch's intuitive preference
reflected his concern with two issues: one was that of eloquence, of a
linguistic medium that might touch subjective response and so
convert thought into action; the other one, closely related, was a
preoccupation with moral philosophy. One can detect in these issues
the seeds of the humanist programme. The art of rhetoric is directed
primarily at the will, the seat of moral responsibility; it moves it,
arouses it and directs it towards desirable goals. The stock complaint
in anti-scholastic polemic is that the modemi, the professional
philosophers of the schools, have been trained in a dialectical system
so formal and abstract that it has lost its purchase on actual life. Plato,
the Plato of Renaissance myth, fits into this polemic because his
philosophy is seen as eloquent and morally inspiring. Above all, it
stresses the immortality of the soul, the ultimate ground ofsubjectivity.
The particular value oflinking Erasmus and More is that they were
closely associated at a critcal juncture in the development of the
Northern Renaissance, and yet in their individual encounters with
Plato they embody quite distinct responses to his stimulus. Leaving
aside the question of personal friendship, it is clear that between 1500
86
Uses rif Plato by Erasmus and More
and 1 520 they shared a common set of values and collaborated in a
literary campaign which was highly critical of established attitudes
and institutional forms. It is also clear that Plato was an important
factor in this campaign.
M
oreover, their careers straddle the point at
which the Greek text of Plato became generally available for the frst
time: the earliest printed Greek edition of Plato's works was issued by
Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1 51 3. Erasmus would have seen some of
the manuscripts collected for this undertaking during his stay in
Aldus' house in 1 507. There is, then, the possibility of some
manuscript encounter with the Greek, but we can be sure that both
More and Erasmus based their initial impression of Plato on the
growing number of Latin translations, such as those of Bruni,
Decembrio and above all Ficino (see above, pp. 16g-70) But it was
Ficino's translation of the entire corpus, completed in 1 469 and
printed in 1 484, which made possible any degree of intimacy with the
range of Plato's works. Published in the exceptionally large run of
1 ,025 copies, it was sold out within six years and further printings
followed, making it widely available.'
Among those works whic
h
Erasmus initiated during his stay in
Paris ( 1 495-1500) it is the Antibarbari which most clearly shows the
impact of Ficino. Here Plato is praised as 'the most eloquent of
philosophers', a signifcant pointer to Erasmus's general attitude:
what he admires is the contagious quality of Plato's writing, and the
moral acuity of Socrates. Pagan wisdom is accepted as an endorsement
of Christian truth, an approach which is justified by those church
fathers, Augustine and Origen in particular, who see in Platonism the
highest reach of natural wisdom. In a passage which may refect later
revision but which is representative of his general attitude Erasmus
writes, 'For my part, I will allow myself to be called after any pagan so
long as he was deeply learned or supremely eloquent; nor shall I go
back on this declaration, if only the pagan teaches me more excellent
things than a Christian'.' The point is not that the pagans are
superior, or even equal, in their insight into truth but that an eloquent
pagan does more to activate self-awareness in the moral subject than
L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson, Scribes a1d SdlOlars (Oxford, 1978). p. 138. See also the
introduction to this section.
1 Colected WQrks {jErasmus (Toronto, 1974, continuing) (hereafer eWE). 2H p. 39. For
Ficino's influence see Maria Cytowska, 'Brasmc de Rotlcrdamc ct Mal'Sile Ficin son maitre',
EOS, 68 ( 1 975), 165-79; P.O. Kristcllcl', 'Erasmus from an Italian Perspective', Re1(issGlIce
Qmrter{. 23 ( 1 970), 1-14.
eWE, 77M. p. 58.
88 DOMI NI C BAKER-SMITH
the impersonal technicalities of the professional theologians. Between
1499 and 1 51 7 Erasmus visited England seven times, and he may
have spent as much as six and a half years there, residing in London or
Cambridge. This period marks the inception of his collaboration with
Thomas More, and his encounter with a group of Englishmen
committed to the advance of Greek learning. A he wrote enthusiasti
cally to Robert Fisher, it scarcely seemed necessary to visit Italy, so
stimulating were his encounters in England:
When I listen to Colet it seems to me that I am listening to Plato himself
Who could fail to be astonished at the universal scope of Grocyn's
accomplishments? Could anything be more clever or more profound than
Linacre's mind? Did nature create anything kinder, sweeter or more
harmonious than the mind of Thomas More?4
Apart from More, in any case a member of the younger generation,
these new friends had all visited I taly and had signifcant intellectual
ties with Florence - Colet actually corresponded with Ficino. But the
identifcation of Colet, a theologian, with Plato indicates the
distinctly religious character of their Platonism. It is not easy to
pinpoint the exact nature of Co let's influence on Erasmus and More,
but that he had an infuence is beyond doubt.'
Something ofit can be detected in the work that contains Erasmus
'
most characteristic use of Platonic themes, the Enchiridion Militis
Christiani which he completed in the autumn of 1 501 soon after his
return from his first English visit. It reveals a loosely Platonic scheme
of values, based on the primacy of the spiritual: a recurrent topic is the
futility of basing judgement on the senses, since only spiritual values
can lead to reality. Distinct from the recovery of Plato's own writings
there was an indirect Platonism, linked to the influence ofDionysius
the Areopagite, which disseminated key metaphors about the life of
the spirit along the Rhineland in the fourteenth century, and surfaced
in a number of writers, among whom Eckhart is the best known.
Erasmus would have met these metaphors before he read Plato, and
when he did read him it appears that he did so in the spirit of this
received tradition. One important feature of this 'northern' Platonism
was a marked degree of hostility to the conventional forms of public
eWE, I. pp. 235-6.
" On Calet's Platonism, see Leland Miles, John Colet and Ie Platonic Tradition (La Salle, Illinois,
196t) and Sears Jayne. John Cle! and Marsilio Ficino (Oxford, 1963).
" R. Klibansky, 'Plato's Parmenides in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance', Medieval and
Rtnaissal ce Sludie$, ! ( 1 943), '81-330.
Uses i Plato by Erasmus and More 89
religion: for Erasmus, the central Platonic tenet is the opposition of
body, or fesh, and soul, of external and internal, ofletter and spirit.
In his writings a series. of dichotomies marks out this opposition
between a world experienced by the senses and the authentic values
based on spiritual perception. The Enchiridion uses Plato's writings to
give authority and precision to a scheme of values set up to counter a
system of religious practice which had lost its sou!. Much later, in
I SIS, when he was defending his Praise if Folly against Maarten van
Dorp, it was entirely fitting that Erasmus should claim that the book
dealt 'sub specie lusus" ('under the guise of play') with the same
matters as the Enchiridion.7 Here we can sense that there was for
Erasmus, as for Thomas More, a continuity between the Platonic
view of reality and satire: as the Platonist distinguishes material
embodiment from animating principle, so the satirist distinguishes
convention from motive, signifier from signifed. I t is in the gap
between these two terms that Erasmus' satire operates, exposing the
gulf that divides merely conventional actions from the original
motives which should animate them - as with the Franciscan in the
Praise if Foll who maintains the spirit of St Francis by avoiding all
contact with money. He wears gloves when counting it.s
Thus, in the Enchiridion, Erasmus gives a surprisingly literal reading
of Christ's judgement on the Pharisees (Matt. 23. 27): they are
whitened sepulchres because they carry a dead soul around with
them, an apt allusion to the Crar/us |ooc). In common with most of
his attacks on 'J udaising', Erasmus treats the pharisees as the
representatives of a church which has lost inspiration and relies on
ceremonies and an exaggerated theology of works. The aim of the
Enchiridion is, simply, to reanimate Christian observance, a strategy
that has obvious Platonic overtones; this entails getting behind the
signs to recapture the original inspiration, just as proper reading of
the Scriptures involves getting behind the letter, the literal sense, to
arrive at spiritual understanding. In a characteristic remark Erasmus
compares the Biblical text to the Silenus figures mentioned in the
Symposium ( Z15b) : little statues with a grotesque outer likeness which
can be opened up to reveal images of the gods. The figurine with its
contrast of ugliness and spiritual beauty is introduced by Alcibiades
to represent the nature of Socrates, an ugly man with a beautiful soul
{2 16d); just so, the Biblical text may seem arid until it is opened by the
1 eWE, III, p. I IS. " eWE, XXVIi, p. [32. 9 ew.e, LXVI, p. 29.
go DOMI NI C BAKERSMITH
spiritual reader to reveal its divine power. The Silenus image
appealed strongly to Erasmus and he returned to it later in the 1 51 5
edition of the Adages. It is typical, too, of the way i n which he drew on
Plato, using the works to support a general scheme of values conveyed
by metaphoric contrasts: inside and outside, spirit and flesh, light and
dark.
Erasmus justifes his sympathy with Platonism in the Enchiridion by
appealing to the favourable views of Augustine who rated the
Platonists as the most perceptive of the pagans, 'not
'
only because
many of their ideas are perfectly consistent with our religion, but also
because their fgurative modes of expression . . . and frequent use of
allegory are very close to the language of Sacred Scripture'.'o Both
the Platonists and Scripture demand interpretation, that is, they
compel the reader to probe beneath the surface to a deeper sense. A
Platonic locus that impressed Erasmus was the cave myth from the
Republic (51 4a-51 7b) : this allegory, like the Silenus-Socrates fgure,
involves a reversal of conventional values, and the 'wisdom' of the
world turns out to be folly while the 'folly' of the wise, Socrates or
Christ, turns out to be wisdom. Moral health requires divergence
from common opinion, from the values ofthe t/s,the mob guided
by custom and convention: 'the crowd are those in Plato's cave, who,
chained by their own passions, marvel at the empty images of things
as |tthey were true reality'. "
It is not difcult to see, then, how the Praise i Folly could evolve
from the moral concerns of the Enchiridion: the satirist makes us laugh
at a world of empty images -rituals, vestments, regalia - which have
lost their proper signifcation. There is even a similarity between the
Praise i Foll and the process of ascent from the Cave; after an initial
exposure of human fatuity (a soul shut in a body) , Folly goes on to
describe the ridiculous behaviour caused by social custom, the
conventionalization of life into acts and gestures which have broken
free of their original purpose and become ends in themselves. But, at
the climax, Erasmus unexpectedly shifts the semantic load of stultita
from folly to the complex sense ofSt Paul's 'folly of the Cross'. What
we encounter is a fusion of platonic/Pauline ideas about ecstasy or
transcendent vision, and just as in the Cave myth Socrates anticipates
that anyone who has ascended up to the light will seem blind and
confused when they return to the shadows so Erasmus describes those
l0
Ibid., referring to The Cit a/God, VIU.5. On Augustine and Plato, see Coleman, pp. '7-37
above.
! I
eWE, LXVI, p. 86.
Uses if Plato by Erasmus and More
91
v:s:onanes who have g|impsed the wor|d to come, 'They speak
incoherent|y and unnatura||y, uttersound withoutsense, and their
tacessudden|ychangeexpression.Onemomenttheyareexcited,the
nexttheyaredepressed,theyweepand|aughandsighbyturns,in
tacttheyarequitebesidethemse|ves`. 'Itsuchecstasyhadbeenthe
experienceotStPau|, ithada|sobeen thatotSocrates.
The para||e| between P|atonists and Christians |ies, then, tor
Erasmus,intheir|ointrecognitionotahigherrea|ity,'Andas|ongas
themindmakesproperuseottheorgansotthebodyitisca||edsane
and hea|thy, butonceit beginstobreakits bonds and triesto win
treedom, asitit were p|anning anescapetrom prison, men ca|| it
insane'.'Bothseethesou|asstihedandweigheddownbythetetters
otthebody, and bothseephi|osophyasapreparationtordeath. In
i eo, e|even years atter composing the Praise of Foll, Erasmus
exp|ained thispassageto]orisvan Ha|ewi+n.
The passage which troubles you in the Moria . . . will be c|earto you if you
remember the Platonic myth about the cave and the men born in it, who
wondered attheshadowsotthings asthough they were the rea|ity.What we
apprehend with our senses does not really exist, for it is not perpetual, nor
does it always take the same form. Those things alone really exist which are
apprehended by the contemplation of the mind."
Erasmus'protoundadmirationtorSocrates,thetru|ywisemanwho
tehtou|otconventiona|attitudes,isvivid|yexpressed in theSi|enus
ngurewhichhece|ebratesinoneottheimportant i i additionsto
the Adagia, the 'Si|eni A|cibiadis'. Here the Si|eni a|so inc|ude
Antisthenes,Diogenes,Epictetus,andevenChrist,'mirincusSi|enus',
whowasborninobscuritytopoorparents,ca||edsimp|ehshermento
behisdiscip|es,andendedhis |iteignominious|yon across, but'in
such poverty, what riches! in suchweakness, what immeasurab|e
strength! in such shame, what g|ory| `' In the e|aboration otthis
paradox it is possib|e to recognise the consistency otErasmus`s
perceptionotP|atonism asasystemotnatura|reasonwhichisnone
the|ess a typeoranticipation otChristian reve|ation. This ntshis
I?
eWE, XXV, p. 153. The key text for the foolishness of the cross is I Corinthians 1 . 18. Its
importance for Erasmus is analysed in M.A. Screech, EcsioV a1ld tie Praise ojFolly (London,
Ig80), pp. 3g-42.and passim.
13 eWE, 77NM. p. 150.
I eWE, VII, pp. 31617. For the psychology ofChrislian Platonism, sec P.O. KristclIcr, The
Philosop!ry ofMarsilio Pi,blO (New York, 1943), eh. 71.
15 M.M. Phillips, The 'Adages' ofErasmus (Cambridge, 1964), p. 272; Opera omnia Desiderii
Erasmi (Amsterdam, 1969) (hereafter. ASD). 11.5. 254.
DOMI NI C BAKER-SMITH
generally positive view of pagan wisdom as a propaedeutic t the
Gospels. In the adage 'Amicorum communia omnia' ('Between
friends all is common') Plato is praised for his teaching on community
of possessions, 'But it is extraordinary how Christians dislike this
common ownership of Plato's, how in fact they cast

stones at it,
although nothing was ever said by a pagan philosopher which came
closer to the mind of Christ' . " This virtual admission of Plato into the
ranks of Christian sages is carried to its extreme in the colloquy 'The
Godly Feast' of [526, where it is obliquely hinted that some divine
power may have prompted pagan wisdom. To make the point one of
the speakers, Nephalius, alludes to the account of the death of
Socrates in the Phaedo; reading such things, he asserts, 'I can hardly
help exclaiming, 'Saint Socrates, pray for us"."
This makes it clear that Erasmus does not engage with Plato as a
philosopher, at least not in any rigorous sense, but rather as a
rhetorician of spiritual experience, the instigator of a metaphorical
system which coheres efectively with Pauline Christianity. In
particular i t is the fgure of Socrates, the midwife of understanding in
others, that holds a powerful attraction for him. Erasmus is often
bracketed together with Thomas More as though they were identical
in outlook, and certainly they had signifcant concerns in common.
But their mental attitudes and their public commitments were
distinct, and their diferent reactions to Plato demonstrate this.
Erasmus, for one thing, must bear some of the responsibility for the
image of More as a contemplative scholar dragged into public afairs.
I t is the case that More was deeply religious and carefully reserved
part of his life for private meditation, but he was also an active and
highly efcient public fgure whose training in the common law was
the prescribed Tudor preparation for an upwardly mobile career.
Erasmus, in common with Ficino and his Florentine associates under
the Medicis, showed little interest in the life of practical politics, even
ifhe did engage in acerbic criticism of contemporary rulers. More's
active spirit, by contrast, has something in common with the civic
humanism that evolved in Florence prior to Medici domination; the
active role he played in the afairs of the city of London, at least up to
[ 5[ 5, fts with his life-long resistance to absolutism. His early
translation of the life of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola ( [ 504) is
suggestive in this regard: More so edits the original that a major
` CWE, 777f p. 30.
17 Erasmus, Tke Coloquies, translaled by C.R. Thompson (Chicago, 1 965), p. 67, ASD, 1.3, 254.
Uses if Plato by Erasmus and More 93
thcmetoemetgeisthetime-honouteddebateovetthecontemplative
and tbe active lives. ' Platonists like Pico himsel!, ot Ctistototo
LandinoinhisDisputationes Camaldulenses, had touchedonthemattet
and giveu ptiotity to the contemplative lite. But Moteleaves the
questionopen.WhenhetutnstoPlatoitisnotinthespititotFicino,
otevenEtasmus, but tathetas a student otpoliticstutningto the
otiginatototpoliticalscience.
NodoubtMotecuthisPlatonicteethonFicino'sLatinttanslation,
thoughtheteisthepossibilitythatheencountetedtheRepublic inthe
vetsionbyDecembtio. ' ButsomepattinhisdiscovetyotPlatomay
havebeenplayedbytheHellenisticthetoticianandsatitistLucianot
Samosata,anumbetot whosedialogueswetettanslatedbyMoteand
Etasmus as patt ottheit|oint Gteekstudiesin 1 504-06. Lucian's
scepticism made him hostile to the Platonists and he en|oyed
tidiculingPlato. One exampletelevanttoMoteoccutsin the True
History, asatiticttavelnattativewhichhasitsimpottancetotUtopia:
whenthenattatotteachestheIslesottheBlestand meetsthegteat
ngutesotGteekhistotyPlatoisabsent.Heis,itemetges,inhisideal
cityandisconsequentlyinvisible.Itisajokcthatpointstothenameot
Mote'sisland- Utopiaotno-place- anditalettsustothenatuteot
Mote'sengagementwithPlato,thatis,atadicalquestioningotthe
ways in which the idealising imagination can engage with social
institutions.Toputi t anothetway,whatatetheobligationsotthose
who have climbed out otthe cave to those lettinside? It is also a
distinctpossibilitythat Lucian had the !ottuitouse`ect o!aletting
MotetowhatcanbestbedesctibedasPlato'sintellectualplaytulness.
ThusoneottheotiginalteatutesotMote'splatonismisthatitshows
little intetest in Plato as the mastet ot atcane, spititual wisdom,
tathet, he is petceived as a cteative, questing intelligence who
challengeshisteadetstoengageinadialoguethatextendsbeyondthe
text.As muchis impliedin thetull titleotMote'smost cclebtated
book,De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia (OJ the best state oj
a commonwealth and ojthe new island if Utopia) ; thismakesadeclatation
otgente,otgentes,includingattavellet'staleaboutanewly-tound
island, but also pointing to a ttadition otdebate de republica |on
govetnment)whichlooksbacktoPlato'sRepublic asitsptimalsoutce.
I8
Sec D. BakerSmilh. More's Utopia (London, 1991), pp. 16-:.
1
9 On Morc's access lo Plato, sec P.O. Kristcllcr. 'Thomas Morc as a Renaissance Humanist',
Moreana. 17 ( l gSO), 5-22; on Dcccmbrio's translation, sec R. Weiss, Humanism in Englalld
during tie Fifteenth Centur (Oxrord, 1957), pp. 51-7.
94
DOMI NI C BAKER-SMITH
An important link in the chain of transmission had been St
Augustine's Cii qGod which owes to Plato its distinction between the
bogus community of the terrestial city and the city of God beyond the
reach of time. I t also, incidentally, contains fragments of Cicero's lost
contribution to the debate, his De Re Publica, a point of some interest
since More lectured on the CiiY qGodin 1 501 at Grocyn's church ofSt
Lawrence Jewry.
The Platonic credentials of Utopia are most aptly recognized by
examining its name. If we slip back for a moment to t
h
at joke of the
invisible Plato in Lucian's True Histor, it appears to allude to a key
moment in the Republic at the end of Book Ix when the political
argument is brought to a close (592a-b), and a rather teasing close at
that. To Socrates' declaration that the wise man will care for 'the
established habit of his soul' Glaucon responds that he will not
willingly participate in politics. Yes he will, afrms Socrates, 'in his
own city . . . yet perhaps not in the city of his birth, except in some
providential conjunction'. The fragile hope of such a conjunction has
earlier been associated with the fusion of wisdom and political power
in the philosopher-king, an improbable ifnot impossible fgure (473d;
499b-c). Unless that ideal is realised the wise man apparently
remains a political exile from the land of his birth, free only to
participate in the life of 'his own city'. Glaucon sees the point: 'You
mean the city whose establishment we have described, the city whose
home is in the ideal, for I think that it can be found nowhere on earth'.
This ideal city, literally one 'laid up in words' (te en logois keimene), is
available as a pattern for contemplation; whether it comes into being
or not, it alone will be the political homeland of the wise man.
No doubt the sceptical Lucian was only interested in the comic
potential. But Thomas More accepted Plato's real point: that the
intellectual refection prompted by his sketch of a commonwealth
goes some way towards bridging the gap between an ideal and our
actual experience. The performance of political duty will, Plato
hopes, be qualifed by the in tellectual (and afective) experience of
reading the Republic. The aim is not exemplary but heuristic. This
More seems to have perceived. The very name Utopia indicates as
much: deriving from ou-topos, 'no-place', it was conceivably Erasmus'
substitution while the book was in preparation for the press for More's
original Nusquama, 'nowhere'. But just in case we miss the point, two
items in the prefatory materials direct the humanistically trained
reader in the right direction: these are the letter addressed toJerome
Uses ofPlato by Erasmus and More 95
Busleyden by Pieter Gillis, and the verses on Utopia supposedly by a
certain Anemolius but actually by Gillis. It is clear in the prefatory
materials that a complicated game is going on, and that Gillis is an
accredited participant.
T
his suggests that the idea of the book arose
during More's stay in Antwerp as Gillis's guest in the summer of [ 5 [5,
and there is a more than random chance that i t was provoked by
discussions of the Aldine Greek Plato. The verses make the point that
Utopia rivals and even surpasses Plato since it manifests (praestiti)
what he merely outlines in words (literisfDeliniavit) . This distinction is
further elaborated in the letter, where Gillis asserts that as he
contemplates the island depicted by More, 'I am afected as ifI were
sometimes actually living in Utopia itself." This playfulness makes
proper sense when it is grasped as an allusion to the ideal city which is
the philosopher's true home.
This practice ofbilocation - being in the world and yet out of it -
can be taken either as a rejection of the political life or as an
admonition to discerning involvement. One option results in a kind of
political quietism as the philosopher avoids contact with a corrupting
society, while the other demands a constant adaptation of the ideal to
the exigencies of the actual. It is when Plato is about to introduce the
idea of the philosopher-king that Socrates raises the critical question,
'Is it possible for anything to be realised in deed as it is spoken in word,
or is it the nature of things that action should partake of exact truth
less than speech . s ?' (Republic, 473a). When we think of the city 'laid
up in words', it is clear that the philosopher who is its true citizen is the
only person who can mediate its conceptual possibilities to the actual
world of deeds. Platonic politics need not involve the blind imitation
of institutions proposed in the Republic but the adoption of a critical
frame of mind, one that can mediate between the idealism of words
and the resistant contingency of actions. This concern with the
implementation of the ideal in the actual theatre of politics seems to
be the most challenging aspect of Plato's thinking for More." If the
dream of the philosopher-king represents an ideal conunction of
political power and philosophical intelligence (Republic 473d-e), then
within the terms of the Renaissance court the alliance of prince and
counsellor might be presented in comparable terms, as indeed it is in
20
Tle Complele Works oSir Tlwmas MOTt, vol. 4, cd. }'. SUriZ andJ.H. Hcxtcr, (New Haven and
London, 1965), pp. '9-23.
` This is fully argued in the important article by Kevin Corrigan. 'The FUllction oCthe Ideal in
Plato's Republic and St Thomas MOI'c's Uopia" i\4oreana, 27 (1 990), 27-48.
96
DOMI NI C BAKER-SMITH
Castiglione. The dificulty is, as Plato acknowledges in Letter VII, that
wisdom and the life-style of princes cannot agree, the creative
conjunction of speculation and action is inhibited by irrational forces;
confronted by the hostility of Dionysius in Syracuse, '1 feared to see
myself at last altogether nothing but words' (Letters 328c). Just such
an anxiety motivates Raphael's angry rejection in Utopia of the
proposal that he enter the service of some prince.
If Plato provides More with the starting point for his discussion 'de
optime rei publicae statu' (about the best kind of state) he can also be
recognised as the inspiration for many features in More's extraordinary
island." The central feature of Utopian life is its austere rationality;
much as in Republic, the can trolling consideration is spiritual worth -
what will proft the soul. But in Utopia there are no distinctions of
class and all citizens are expected to aim at the spiritual poise and
self-control Plato proposes for his guardians. The absence of privacy,
the standardised clothing and the rejection of all personal ownership,
features listed by Socrates as necessary for the formation of an
altruistic governing class (Republic 41 6b--1 7b), are basic to the
Utopian polity. More's departure from Plato is to make a strictly
rational life the goal of the entire community rather than of its
governing elite alone, a point that has some importance for the role of
women. Plato admits women to the elevated status of the guardians.
This is arguably at the expense of their being women," but in the
classless society of Utopia both sexes preserve distinct areas of
responsibility while sharing essential human concerns. Though
political ofce seems to be a male preserve women oversee all matters
relating to nurture. At the same time they may be admitted to the
priesthood and, most important of all, they enjoy equal access to
education and cultural life, the means of realising a common human
potential. The monogamous ideal of Utopian marriage, likewise,
underlines the complimentarity of the sexes, as Plato is modified in
the light of a Christian anthropology.
The common basis of both repu blics is the primacy of soul, of
rationality, over the pull of materialism or sensuality. This is most
evident in the
'
Utopian hierarchy of pleasures: any initial impression
of indulgence is swiftly checked by the recogni tion that the islanders
not only dismiss those pleasures based on custom or association but
"" For Ucomprehensive survey of More's Platonic borrowings see Thomas I. White, 'Pride and
the Public Good: Thomas Morc's Usc of Plato in Utopia', Joural oJlhe HislQrojPhilosoplv, VO
(' 98.) , 3.
9-54
.
2 On this aspect sec JuIia Annas, An Introduction to PlaID's Republic (Oxrord, Ig81), d3t-S.
Uses if Plato by Erasmus and More
97
rigorously distinguish between satisfaction of the body and satisfaction
of the soul, a lower pleasure cannot be allowed to interfere with the
enjoyment of a higher oe. A further, unexpected, consequence is the
presence in this ideal society of slavery; but this is penal slavery, not
hereditary, and can be read in almost metaphorical terms as the just
consequence of irrational behaviour which forfeits the claim to
human status. More's rational citizens, united in their pursuit of
spiritual values, are a fictional embodiment of that ideal community
sketched in the Republic (464d) and most emphatically expressed in
the 'first-best society' of the Laws where all things combine in the
common service and all citizens 'approve and condemn in perfect
unison and derive pleasure and pain from the same sources' (739c-d) .
In the ideal society rationality underpins the solidarity which
ownership would subvert.
Thus while More takes over a range of Platonic schemes and motifs
to construct his alternative world, the most persistent echo of Plato in
Utopia is the note of anxiety about the relation between intellectual
ideals and the theatre of active politics. How keenly More fel t the
dilemma is revealed later in the Responsio ad Lutherum ( 1 523) where
Luther's church ofthe elect is derided as 'somehow imperceptible and
mathematical - like Platonic Ideas - which is both in some place and
in no place, is in the flesh and is out of the flesh'." From his own
Augustinian perspective, More sees Luther's doctrine as an attempt
to anticipate the certainties of the City of God, to merge the ideal in
the actual, when for him (as for Socrates) the human burden is to
linger uncertainly between the two cities. And the reference to
'noplace', 'in nullo loco' has its utopian reverberations.
If we take this Platonic view of the political vocation as central to
More's in ten tions in Utopia, the structure of the work becomes clearer.
The central account of the island and its rational institutions, given to
us in the form ofa report by the traveller Raphael, is framed within an
encounter that takes place in Antwerp after Mass, a parallel to the
opening of the Republic in Piraeus after a religious festival. The
conversation in an Antwerp garden fuses historical reality-a real city
and real people, More and Gillis - with the fictional traveller
Raphael, who has none the less been to the New World with the
historical Amerigo Vespucci. When we add on to this the prefatory
verses and letters prepared by More and Gillis, which touch on such
matters a Raphael's present whereabouts and the precise location of
14 More, Complele Works, vol. v, cd.J.M. Headley (New Havcll and London, 1969), part p. 167.
98
DOMI NI C BAKER-SMITH
Utopia, we can see a deliberate device to alert the reader to the
invisible frontier between fact and fction, a narrative refection of the
equally obscure line between action and ideals. The tenuous thread
by which the vision of a rational society is transported back to Europe
and dispersed through the means of a reported conversation alerts the
reader to the problematic ways in which ideals grate against
established social customs.
The Platonic credentials of Raphael, our guide tp Utopia, are
beyond question. Plato is his favourite philosopher and his travels are
compared to Plato's: new-found lands and the frontiers of thought are
tacitly linked. Even his name, Hythlodaeus ( 'purveyor of nonsense') ,
may owe something to the dismissive term, hythlos (nonsense) that
Thrasymachus, the voice of custom, directs at Socrates' idea of justice
(Republic gg6d). Finally, the disposal of his estate to relatives has
something in it of Pico della Mirandola's otherwordly rigour; both
the historical and the fctional Platonist refuse to compromise, to
sacrifce independence or integrity to political engagement. More
devised Book I as an example of existing societies based on custom in
order to prepare us for the vision of the rational society of the
Utopians, but its central episode is the clash between Raphael and
Morus (More's own persona in the fction) over this basic question of
engagement. Against Raphael's 'academic' philosophy which refuses
to compromise with the irrational, Morus advocates discretion and
fexibility, an 'indirect approach' which may at least minimize evil
even if it doesn't uproot it." The issue returns on the fnal page of
Book II: after the account of Utopia Morus is left still sceptical about
the feasibility of emulating the ideal yet equally ill-at-ease about the
aspects of things as they are. His dilemma becomes a model for our
own reception of the book: as in the Republic, it is the interaction of
'there' and 'here' within the perceptive reader, the essential act of
accommodation, that is the intended aim of the narrative. Otherwise
why use fction? The terms we encounter in the book are not those on
which we are allowed to rest.
In certain respects, then, More and Erasmus develop their Platonic
interests in contrasting modes. What stands out is the fertility of the
tradition and its adaptability in bridging the gap between imagined
worlds and mundane experience in a manner that ofers, if not
transformation, at least the elevation of immediate afairs. Hence its
More, Complete Works, IV, pp. gg-tol.
Uses oj Plato by Erasmus and More 99
potential for destabilising entrenched custom. If the Neoplatonic
rhetoric of the soul adopted by Erasmus seems to diverge from the
institutional focus pursued by More, the fact remains that both find in
Platonism a radical challenge to the complacencies of the day. While
Erasmus in his depiction of inward life remains faithful to a tradition
of interpretation which includes Origen as well as Ficino, More
shows a powerful originality and penetration in his response to the
epistemological challenge of the Republic. It is intriguing to reflect that
this rare perception may owe something to the provocation of a
Lucianic joke.
CHAPTER 1 0
Italian Neoplatonism and the poetr ofSidney,
Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne
John Roe
ITALIAN NEOP LATONI SM
Much of the influence ofNeoplatonism on Elizabethan erotic poetry
can be traced directly to the impact made by Castiglione's II eOTtegiano
(see Hutton, pp. ;e-, above). The pertinent ideas of Ficino
concerning the body's beauty and that of the soul, as well as Ficino's
novel arrangement (following Plotinus Enneads 1.6) of the senses
according to a hierarchy of values, find expression in Bembo's famous
speech in Book IV of It eOTtegiano. These are the ideas which principally
shape those poems of Sidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne
which provide the material for this chapter. I propose to examine in
turn the Neoplatonic features of AstTophil and Stella, Veu and Adonis,
Ovids Banquet if Senee, and The Songs and Sonets of John Donne,
concluding with 'Tpe Ecstasy'.
Immediately striking about the English encounter with Italian
Neoplatonism is how the latter's infuence on the poetry operates, the
philosophical ideas being adapted, not to say redirected, to poetic
ends. This makes the poets I am dealing with quite diferent in tone
and intention from Spenser whose abstract thinking in his most
overtly Neoplatonic work The FowTe Hymnes traces a more orthodox
Platonic design (see Thomas Bulger's chapter in this volume.) For
example, the fgure represented as Astrophil in Sidney's sonnet
sequence directs the Platonic theory of pure love to the ends of
seduction, while Venus the spokeswoman of desire in Shakespeare's
poem artfully modifes the order Ficino gives to the senses to vindicate
those of them upon which Ficino (and Castiglione) would place least
value (see below, pp. r o8-ro).This seems to draw a rejoinder from
Chapman (whose title Banquet if Senee refers most obviously to
Ficino) , for while Chapman also gives the bodily senses a higher status
than Ficino assigns to them the tone and tenor of his poem seems
markedly in contrast to that of Shakespeare's.
roo
The poetry ' Sidne, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 1 01
To begin then by resuming the Italian arguments (for more of
which .ee Kraye, pp. 76-85 above) : Ficino, emphasising harmony as
the principal determinant in the relationship between love and
beauty, makes it clear t
h
at the intellect, which hc considers to be a
sense, and the eyes and ears have priority over the other organs:
Beauty, therefore, is three-fold: of souls, of bodies, and of sounds. That of
souls is known through the intellect; that of bodies is perceived through the
eyes; that of sounds is perceived only through the ears. Since, therefore, it is
the intellect, seeing, and hearing by which alone we are able to enjoy beauty,
and since love is the desire-to enjoy beauty, love is always satisfed through
the intellect, the eyes, or the ears. What need is there for smell? What need is
there for taste, or touch?]
Castiglione takes up the argument concerning the senses in the
celebrated fourth book of The Courtier in which Cardinal Bembo,
speaking on behalf of Platonic love, elaborates the Ficinian distinctions
in a tone and style more in keeping with courtly sprezatura
(nonchalance) :
Let him lay aside therefore the blindejudgement of the sense, and enjoy with
his eyes ye brightnesse, the comelinesse, the loving sparkels, laughters,
gestures, and all the other pleasant furnitures of beau tie: especially with
hearing the sweetnesse of her voice, the tunablenesse of her wordes, the
melody of her singing and playing on instruments (in case the woman
beloved bee a musitian) and so shall he with most daintie foode feede the
soule through the meanes of these two senses, which have little bodily
substance in them.2
Castiglione appears to omit the Ficinian insistence on the intellect as a
third sense oil a par with those of sight and hearing (and superior to
touch, taste, smell), concentrating rather on the visual and auditory
as pure means of perceiving beauty. He also gives, in keeping with the
work as a whole, a more courtly context to his depiction of the senses,
which in Ficino have a methodical abstract status (Ficino's model of
three higher and three inferior senses provides an abstract pattern
which Castiglione does not adopt). But he observes the important
Ficinian distinction of spiritual as opposed to corporeal love and
beauty, and the role assigned to Bembo is that of a spokesman for the
ethical end of love which is to eschew sense gratification and
concentrate on self-perfection through virtue.
Before turning to the application of Italian Platonic ideas in
I Marsilio Fieino, Commentar on Plaio's Symposium on Love, trans. and cd. Scars R.Jayne (Dallas,
1985), p. 4".
2 Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of/he Courtier, (rans. Sir Thomas Hoby (1561) (London,
J928j reprinted with revisions, 1974), p. 31 3.
102 J OHN ROE
Elizabethan poetry, we should note one important addition made by
Castiglione to the Ficinian scheme, and that concerns the activity of
kissing which Castiglione favours as long as its purpose is chaste:
For since a kisse is a knitting together both of bodie and soule, it is to be
feared, less the sensuall iover will be more enclined to the part of the bodie,
than of the soule: but the reasonable lover woteth will, that although the
mouth be a parcell of the bodie, yet it is an issue for the wordes, that be the
interpreters of the soule, and for the inwarde breath, which is also called the
soule. ( The Courtier, p. 3 (5)
The emphasis on 'inwardness' will shortly call to mind Sidney's
sonnet sequence in which Astrophil pay special, Platonic tribute to
the 'inward sun' (of virtue) which shines in Stella (see sonnet 71 ) .
Similarly, in language which will summon up Donne's 'The Ecstasy',
Castiglione's Bembo continues:
And one alone [i.e. soul) so framed of them both ruleth (in a manner) two
bodies. Whereupon, a kisse may be saide to be rather a coupling together of
the soule, than of the body, because it hath such force in her, that it draweth
her unto it, and (as it were) separateth her from the bodie. For this doe all
chaste lovers covet a kisse, as a coupling of soules together. And therefore
Plato the devine lover saith, that in kissing, his soule came as farre as his
lippes to depart out of the bodic. ( The Courtier, p. 3 ( 5)'
Neoplatonism infuences then the literary convention of courtliness
a concern which in varying ways had been the subject of the frst three
books of The Courtier. Ficinian Neoplatonism does not enter in a 'pure'
way into literary works but with alternately modifying and modifed
effect, and it is to some of its modifcations that we now turn.
) A the passage continues, Castiglione refers U the kiss in the Song ofSoiomon, whieh shows
incidentally that his souree at this point is not i''ino but Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. See
the Commelltar 01 a Can;olle oj Beniuielli, trans. Sar R. Jayne (New York, Bere,
FrallkfurtonMain, 1984), p. 1 51 . Pica is a slightly misleading authority as, contrar to his
assertion, Plato says nothing about the kissing of AgaIhon ill the Symposium. According to
Edgar Wind, Pica is rc;tlly alluding to Diogcncs Laertius (or pedlaps thc AI/thologia graeca)
who ascribes an epigram on kissing to Plato, See Wind, Pagan Mysteries ill tile Renaissallce, 2nd
edn (Lndon, 1967), p. 155. Sec Wind's chapter also for the influence of the Cabbalistie 1I0rs
osculi, and Kraye, p. OOO above. For a particularly detailed discussion, see Nicholas Jame
Perella's TIle Kiss Sacred and i'roJallC (Berkeley, Los Angcles and Londoll, 1969), pp. 158-88.
Finally, Marlowe seems to be drawing on the Platonic as influenced by the Inors osculi tradition
in his dcel'iplion ofHclen's kiss in Dr Faustus. Sec Tie Works q Clris!opller Marlowe, cd. C.F.
Tucker Brooke (Oxford, I gIO), p. ,8g.
The poetry ofSidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 103
SI DNEY
Sidney declares his position on Platonic morality in the Dimce i
Poetry where he attempt
s
to answer Plato's objection that poetry is a
false and deluding art. Sidney deals with this criticism, which is made
chiefy in The Republic, by contending that Plato's own practice as a
moralist, whose purpose must surely be to encourage active and not
merely contemplative virtue in others, owes more to the art of poetry
or feigning than it does to the drier, less in tieing skill of dialectic:
Where the philosophers, as they scorn to delight, so must they be little
content to move-save wrangling whether virtus be the chief or the only good,
whether the contemplative or the active life do excell - which Bocthius and
Plato well knew, and therefore made mistress Philosophy very often borrow
the masking raiment of poesy.4
Sidney is not above employing a debater's tactics in reminding his
audience of Plato's authorizing of ' abominable filthiness' (a charge of
homosexual tendencies) , or of the fact that The Republic advocates free
love.' But while seeking to lessen the strength of Platonist opposition
to poetry with such tactics, on the whole he seeks to enlist Plato as an
authentic, if sometimes unacknowledged, ally of the poetic cause:
And a man need go no further than to Plato himself to know his meaning:
who, in his dialogue called Ion, giveth high and rightly divine commendation
unto poetry. So as Plato, banishing the abuse, not the thing, not banishing it,
but giving due honour unto it, shall be our patron) and not our adversary.
(Misc. Prose, p. lOB)
Such distinctions are put with precision in The Dience, where they
enable Sidney to steer a painstaking course through the treacherous
shoals of moral ambiguity. Are the arguments of poetry a force for
virtue or evil? Exposing the contradictions in Plato's own statements,
and playing the more positive side deftly against the lesser, Sidney
manages to dismiss the threat he poses to poetry while retaining him
as a supporter. Sidney uses a similar ploy in his sonnet sequence
Astrophil and Stella, where his speaker Astraphil pleads that his love for
Stella is pure; but on thIS occasion the morality of the argument is
confused and uncertain rather than enlightening. The reason perhaps
is that Astrophil takes the ideal of feminine beauty, which in The
Dience Sidney employs as an image of an eq ually ideal heroic poetry,
Miscellaneous Prose ofSir Philip Sidne, cd. Katherine DuncanJoncs and Jan van Dorsten
(Oxford, 1973) (hereafter Misc. Prose), p. 93.
Ibid" p. 107.
JOHN ROE
and uses i t directly of the woman herself I n speaking of heroic or
virtuous ideals (as in the inspiring deeds of Achilles, Cyrus, Aeneas,
etc.) Sidney cites Plato (and Cicero) to the efect that to recognise the
good is to love it, illustrating the argument with the image of a
beautiful woman:
if the saying of Plato and Tully be true, that who could see virtue would be
wonderfully ravished with the love of her beauty - this man
(
i.e. the heroic
poet) sets her out to make her more lovely in her holiday appare1.6
To love virtue in the image of female beauty and to love its
embodiment as such are two quite separate things; in bringing them
together Sidney (or perhaps Astrophil) eliminates distinctions
alarmingly. Astrophil, who from an early point displays a mischievous
talent for sowing confusion, says to Virtue:
I sweare, my heart such one shall shew to thee,
That shrines in fesh so true a Deitie,
That Vert"e, thou thy selfe shalt be in love.'
In the same sequence, Astrophil applies a blend of Christianised
Platonism only to overturn it defiantly:
True, that true Beautie Vertue is indeed,
Whereof this Beautie can be but a shade,
Which elements with mortall mixture breed:
True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made,
And should in soule up to our country move:
True, and yet true that I must Stela love.
(S, 1
1 9-[
4)
Astrophil and Stella admits of no single interpretation, critical opinion
being sharply divided on the degree of sympathy we should accord its
spokesman for passion, Astrophil. There is no doubt that the love he
proposes is technically adulterous - or would be were Stella to accede
to it - since she is a married lady. The earlier sonnets indicate that a
comedy of seduction is in progress; but for Sidney the spiritual
consequences of behaviour also matter a good deal. Hence one of
6 Ibid., p. g8. His editors note (p. 20 r) that here Sidney receives his Plato from Cicero in the De
Oficiis. Sidney'S direct knowledge of Plato was well served by the edition of Henri Estienne
sent to him in 1579 (Misc. Prose, pp. 63-4).
7 Aslrophil and Stella, sonnet 4, 11.12-14. All reference arc to The Poems if Sir Philip Sidey, cd.
William A. Ringlcr.Jr (Oxford, 1962). P.J. Croft compares Sidney's Platonism with the more
idealistic, self-denying kind which appears in his brother Robrt's poetry. See his edition of
The Poems of Robert Sidne (Oxford, 1984), pp. 54-62.
The poetry of Sidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 1 05
Astrophil's tactics in defending the rightness of his love for Stella is to
protest seriously that her marriage itself is a shameful thing (see
sonnet 78), and

that his own feelings'cannot be put down to mere
lasciviousness:
If that be sinne which in fxt hearts doth breed
A loathing of all loose unchastitie,
Then Love is sinne, and let me sinfull be.
(14, 11. 12-14)
As we have just seen, in the early sonnets Astrophil employs logic to
establish that the body-s
o
ul dualism turns on too fine a distinction to
be able to separate the one from the other: Stella so embodies virtue
that to desire her person is to engage in spiritual worship. While a
Platonic spokesman such as Castiglione willingly admits that a lover
of sufcient maturity and self-awareness can be trusted to tell pure
from improper feelings, he would undoubtedly baulk at Astrophil's
cheerful identification of spiritual refinement with bodily pleasure.
Astrophil himself eventually acknowledges the strain Platonic thinking
imposes on the erotic by representing desire's distress at the thin
nourishment provided by the mind:
So while thy beau tie drawes the heart to love,
As fast thy Vertue bends that love to good:
'But ah,' Desire still cries, 'give me some food'.
( 71 , 11. 1 2-14)
Always adept at drawing on arguments that may redound to his
advantage, Astrophil as the sequence goes on seems to apply the
Platonic kind of kissing which Cardinal Bembo advocates (see p. 1 02,
above and Kraye, pp. 83-4) to broader ends. The kiss famously
celebrated in the eighth and ninth decades of the sonnet sequence
fuses Italian Platonism with the older hasia tradition deriving from
Catullus, sensual enjoyment acquiring a spiritual basis:
o kissc, which doest those ruddie gemmes impart,
Or gemme, or frutes of newfound Paradise,
Breathing all blisse and sweetning to the heart,
Teaching dumbe lips a nobler exercise.
o kisse, which soules, even soules together ties
By liokes of Love, and only Nature's art.
(81 , 1
1
. 1-5)
As Sidney's editor William Ringler points out, these lines distinctly
echo the Castiglionian Bembo's description of kissing; and as we
Ringler, p. 402.
106 J OHN ROE
have seen already, a kiss may be imbued with a seriousness of purpose
that far exceeds the ordinary motives of delight. Yet there is no doubt
from the temper of his remarks in the kissing sequence that such
delight is what Astrophil chiefy aims at. For that matter, it is not
entirely clear whether at this point Astrophil wishes to celebrate a kiss
bestowed or merely one anticipated. Sidney draws an exceptionally
fne line between presenting Stella as a willing, conniving lover of the
troubadour school or as a Petrarchan woman whose concern for
chastity outweighs all other considerations; and it is this latter vision
of her which ultimately prevails. To that degree, despite the freedom
he allows Astrophil to parody Ficinian Neoplatonism in sonnet 7 1 ,
Sidney appears to endorse the aim of Castiglione's Bembo's to restore
the code of honour to its original stilnovistica status.
Shortly following this comes the famous rupture between the
lovers, whereby a bewildered Astrophil fnds himself confronting the
fact of Stella's sudden and hasty withdrawal: having dallied briefy
with the notion that sincerity of heart condones technical adultery,
s
h
e has in the event thought better of accepting Astrophil's suit. To
betray the marriage bed would certainly exceed the Bembian
mandate which supposes a pair of lover
,
for whom physical union,
within marriage or without, is a far lesser aim than a love in which the
body understands its proper subordination to the authority of the
soul. This is indeed what Astrophil is left with as the sequence enters
its fnal phase; feelings of desolation are mitigated by his constant
sense of Stella's worth. Even though deserted, he continues to nourish
hopes that Stella will acknowledge him ifhe fulfls a Petrarchan vow
of chastity similar to the restraint practised by her. Astrophil's
continuing commitment to the living Stella, which the poet seems to
endorse, if we are to judge by the elegiac mood of the concluding
sonnets, would prevent Sidney from responding with any warmth to
Giordano Bruno's later appeal to abjure the fesh and concentrate on
love as a wholly symbolic abstraction (see Kraye, p. 85 above). But
this is not quite all. The drama of the final phase deepens and is
enhanced by the poetry's apparent drawing on one of Plato's most
famous myths, that of the fgures in the cave in The Repulc. Darkness

nd light constitute a carefully maintained paradox throughout

AstTophil and Stella: though her eyes are black an uncommon
brightness shines from them. Deprived of this light by her absence,
Astrophil fnds himselfin a 'darke place' where he has recourse to false
or artifcial lights in the form oflesser and, as he insists to her, merely
The poetr if Sidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 1 07
companionable women. Though no explicit reference is made to
Plato's Cave (Republic, VII) , the poetic idea seems to derive closely
from it. That Stella still feels afection for Astrophil seems proved by
his concluding tercet wh
i
ch, like John Donne in some of his lyrics (see
below, pp. I 1 2-1 3) , offers the Platonic ideal as a means of consolation:
Deere, therefore be not jealous over me,
If you heare that they seem my hart to move,
Not them, 6 no, but you in them I love.
( gl , Il. I 2-I4)
Astrophil and Stella is above all a sonnet sequence afected by the
tradition of Romantic love (similar to that operating in Malory's
Morte d'Arthur) , and so it depicts a confict ofloyalties: Stella's division
offeeling over her love for Astrophil and her regard for her married
status, and Astrophil's sense of being betrayed by Stella and yet
needing to prove his worth both in her and the world's eyes.
Neoplatonism has bearing on the sequence in various ways, as Ihave
tried to show: sometimes it is parodied by a no-nonsense Astrophil
who would rather eat his cake than have it (as in sonnet 7 1 ) ; but i t also
lends itself to a fner and more poised sense of the confict between love
and duty, which is itself further refned by additional notions of
loyalty and restraint. It is unlikely that the delicate mixture of
bitterness and resolution which defnes Astrophil at the close
(desolation mitigated by a strengthened awareness of Stella as an
ideal) would have acquired the form it does without the intervention
of Neoplatonic ideas. Yet the closing sequence of sonnets (roughly
from 87 to the end) transfers attention from Ficinian ideas of
self-refinement (grasped mainly through Castiglione) to the terrain of
Plato himself in a dramatic and original adaption of the analogy of
the watchers in the Cave (Republic VII) . This in turn gives a new
perspective on the conventionally romantic situation of the enchained
lover, whose dark and wretched plight is occasionally alleviated by
perceptions of true light, of which the lady - and not some
transcendental ideal - is the proper source.
SHAKESPEARE
I turn now to the intervention of Neoplatonism i n Shakespeare's
erotic and amusing Ovidian masterpicce Venus and Adonis ( 1 593)
which may have provoked a rejoinder in George Chapman's pointed
108 JOHN ROE
and paradoxically titled Ovids Banquet if Snce ( 1 595) . Venus, the
goddess of love, attempts to woo the young Adonis who embodies
male beauty. The youth meets her suit with 'a somewhat arch disdain,
but he also expresses a shy innocence which attracts the goddess even
as he attempts to repel her. A stalemate occurs which is only broken,
and then unavailingly, when Adonis gets himself killed by the boar
whom he has so rashly hunted. As in the Ovidian source, Adonis is
then transformed into a fower which Venus cradles in her bosom and
over which she pronounces a gentle farewell elegy.
Neoplatonism is intermittent rather than systematic in Shakespeare's
poem for the tone is never quite circumscribed by the kind of
seriousness which we associate with Bembo's speech in The Courtier.'
But it is arguable, as with Sidney, that Sbakespeare's peculiar blend
of tragi-comic pathos required the Neoplatonic as a refning or
contributory principle. As in the growth of sophistication in techniques
of painting, in the poem those few degrees' extra shading in the
employment ofNeoplatonic definition make for a finer balance in the
play of oppositions which determine the efect. This can be seen
where Venus, like Astrophil before her, makes parodic use of the
Neoplatonic scheme of the senses. Referring frst to the enchanting
quality of Adonis' voice, Venus says:
'Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love
That inward beauty and invisible;
Or were I deat: thy outward parts would move
Each part in me that were but sensible:
Though neither ee nor ears, to hear nor sec,
Yet should I be in love by touching thee.
'Say that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
And nothing but the very smell were left me,
Yet would my love to thee be still as much;
For from the stillitory of thy face excelling
Comes breath perfumed, that breedeth love by smelling'. "
Shakespeare, or Venus, artfully varies the Ficinian order of the senses
by introdcing the poignant idea of sensory deprivation, enhancing
the value of whichever organ remains. The phrase 'inward beauty',
quite possibly an echo of Sidney'S 7I St sonnet, expresses the
" For an argument favouring a fuller integration ofNeoplatonism in the poem, see LeonetJ.
Daigle, ' Venus and Adonis: Some Traditional Contexts'. Shakespeare Studies, I3 (1980). 31-46; in
contrast, I am concerned with what Shakespeare makes of Ficino.
t
Venus aJld Adonis, l1.433-44. in Shakespeare: lhe Poems, cd. John Roe (Camhridge, . 1 992).
The poetr ofSidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 109
Neoplatonist insistence on the inwardness of virtue. Venus then
makes clear her allusion to the Symposium and its I talian adaptation in
the stanza which follows:
'But 0 what banquet wert thou to the taste,
Being nurse and feeder of the other four.
Would they not wish the feast might ever last . . ?'
(11.445-47)
As this stanza shows, Venus intends not merely to vary the
Neoplatonic hierarchy but to invert it. Taste is now the culminating
sense (whereas for Ficino'it would either be the mind itself or the mind
in some combination with sight and or hearing), and this allows
Venus to repeat her earlier request for a kiss from Adonis wherein, as
here, the insistence on one sense's being of more value than another is
challenged in the name of equivalence:
Look in mine cye-balls, there thy beauty lies:
Then why not lips on lips, since eyes in eyes?
(11. 1 1 9-20)
Within this same passage Venus seems to propose herselfas the Venus
Pandemos ofItalian Platonism in order to encourage the procreative
impulse of the young man:
'Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse.
Seeds spring from seeds, and beauty breedeth beauty;
Thou wast begot, to get it is thy duty.
'Upon the earth's increase why shouldst thou feed,
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?
By law of nature thou art bound to breed,
That thine may live when thou thyself art dead'.
(11. 1 66-72)
I I
As well as drawing upon her secondary role as the goddess of earthly
fertility, in which, as she is quick to point out, her function is
underwritten by nature's laws, Venus reminds Adonis of his destiny
with the Platonic scheme: the perfect embodiment of an ideal form of
beauty, his self-perpetuation through the fesh ensures the appearance
of that ideal to worldly eyes (the same point is urged repeatedly by
Shakespeare to the young man in the first seventeen of his Sonnets) .
The irresolvable confict between these two embodiments of beauty

The Venus Pandemos ofPlato'sSympasium is not noted for her procreativity, which is rather a
Medieval and Renaissance development. See Earl G. Schreiber, 'Venus in lhe Mythographic
Tradition', Joural of English and German Philology, 74 ( '975), 5' 9-35: and Daigle, 'Venus and
Adonis' .
l I O
J OHN ROE
and love at the more mundane level of attraction and dislike means
that the Platonic ideal manifests itself only fitfully and has no shaping
role in the poem as a whole. This said, it must also be acknowledged
that the concluding pathos of the work, following the death of Adonis,
owes something to Venus' recasting of his memory according to one of
the ideal fgures of Platonic love, Orpheus:
'To see his face the lion walked along
Behind some hedge because he would not fear him;
To recreate himself when he hath sung,
The tiger would be tame, and gently hear him;
If he had spoke, the wolf would leave his prey,
And never fright the silly lamb that day.'
(II. 1093-98)
1 2
Shakespeare makes use of the Platonic in order to bring greater
delicacy to the terms of opposition acted out by Venus and Adonis in
their frustrated love match. Like Sidney previously, Shakespeare
parodies the Neoplatonic ideal, gently and comically rearranging
Ficino's careful hierarchical ordering of the senses; but also like
Sidney, especially where he appears to draw upon the Platonic idea of
the Cave, Shakespeare, in introducing the Neoplatonic, efects a
deepening of pathos which might not have been possible had the
poem avoided it altogether. As a carefully applied refning principle,
the poem's Platonism prevents the tone from descending to the sort of
crude farce in which an improbably wimpish boy seeks to escape the
clutches of a sweaty mature woman. But while ensuring that decorum
never falters in this respect, Shakespeare includes enough of a
hedonistic current to maintain for the poem a conventional Ovidian
poise. It is quite possibly the success of his venture which induced
George Chapman, Shakespeare's more straightforwardly moralistic
contemporary, to manage the 'banquet' in reverse, that is, enlist the
Ovidian erotic on behalf of the Platonic.
CHAPMAN
The situation of Chapman's poem i s one in which Ovid overhears his
mistress Corinna playing the lute and singing while at her bath. She is
bathing outdoors in a pleasant, secluded grove. For the Elizabethan
reader the story has the Biblical overtones of Bathsheba observed
1?
For the Platonist Orpheus, sec D.P. Walker, 'Orpheus the Theologian', JQumal ofike Warburg
and Courlauld institutes, 1 6 ( 1 953), 100-20.
The poetry of Sidne, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne I I I
baihing. by David or Susannah by the Elders, an indication perhaps
that Chapman means to set the Ovidian theme of shameless
scopophilia in a more serious key. Like the Shakespearean Venus
before him, though m
o
re fully and extensively, Ovid enjoys the
presence of Corinna through each of the senses: frst he listens to her
song, then savours the odour of her fragrance, after which he
surreptitiously watches her. But to show he is no sly voyeur he openly
declares his presence assuring her of his good intentions. Indeed he
claims a kiss (i.e. taste) to show no harm has been done. Shortly
afterwards Ovid makes his final request to Corinna which is to grant
him the favour of touching her; she complies by unveiling her breast.
Put thus baldly, the poem may sound like a mischievous seduction
piece along the lines of Ovid's own Art of Love; but the narrative, like
Corinna's robe, unfolds with a visionary solemnity which is the
reverse of licentious in tone:
Close to her navill she her Mantle wrests,
Slacking it upwards, and the foulds unwound,
Showing Latonas Twinns, her plenteous brests
The Sunne and Cynthia in theyr tryumph-robes
Of Lady-skin; more rich than both theyr Globes.
After more description he touches her breast, which,
made her start like sparckles from a fre,
Or like Saluria from thtAmbrosian pride
Of her morns slumber, frighted with admire
When Jove layd young Alcdes to her brest."
As with each depiction of sensual appreciation Chapman amplifies
and dignifies the context in a progressively heroic manner, the
reference toJove's and Saturnia's powerful son being the culmination.
In the process sensuality is transformed into an ideal description of
itself whereby, as in this instance, a particular action of touching
seems to resonate with universal significance, the image of the lover's
contact with the breast merging instantly with that of the infant
Hercules endowed with immense strength of hand."
As the poem approaches what in a classical context would be the
' Ouids Banquet OjSeIlCt, 1I.950-4 and 992-5. in E'i;oheilll Narrative Verse, ed. Nigel Alexander
(London, 1 967).
14 Frank Kcrmocc fnds evidence of Chapman's subtle undermining of Ovid's eroticism in the
lines on Corinna's breasts (Shakespeare, Spmur, Donne (London, 197J, p. 1 1 5). But '!Alo1(s
Twinn:' arc the sun god and moon goddes, i.e, '}u(ueldy,tlobes'. There is nothing here to
suggest iI'ony,
1 1 2
JOHN ROE
moment of concubitus or sexual culmination, Chapman's Ovid utters a
complaint about the metaphysical condition oflove whereby the soul
must resort to an unsatisfactory feshly medium for its expression:
Alas why lent not heaven the soule a tongue?
Nor language, nor peculiar dialect,
To make her high conceits as highly sung,
But that a feshlie engine must unfold
A spiritual notion.
(11.1 ,001-5)
For all its contemplation of erotic delight the poem concludes,
somewhat grudgingly, by giving the body a necessalY but decidedly
inferior place in love's scheme. And while, like Shakespeare, he
inverts the sense order as prescribed by Ficino and Castiglione, unlike
Shakespeare he ends by afirming the Ficinian primacy of the soul.
Although stylistically Ovids Banquet ojSence must be counted as one
of the most awkward of the more distinguished Elizabethan long
poems, fuency and gracefulness occurring only intermittently during
its progress (while many ofits statements are fussily resistant to precise
interpretation) , it succeeds in its aim of converting the Ovid of bawdy
reputation into an eloquent spokesman for the erotic as a potential
expressor of virtue; and to do this Chapman draws notably on
Neoplatonism. To a signifcant degree he difers in intention from
both Sidney and Shakespeare in that he never takes the philosophical
ideas lightly; but if Chapman follows a more consistent and serous
Neoplatonic design than either of them, both Sidney and Shakepeare
make fuller use of such ideas when it comes to including that element
of pathos without which the cleverest comedy may achieve no more
than witless, brutal farce. In that respect the three poets unite in
turning Neoplatonism to account in terms of what it may say about
the dignity of instinct and the heroic aspect offawed human experience.
D ONNE
This brings us to the Neoplatonic example of John Donne who in his
Songs and Soncis gives us a more versatile, more original encounter with
Platonism than perhaps any other Elizabethan poet. Donne sometimes
uses the Platonic argument for consolation, as most famously in his
poem of leave-taking, 'A Valediction: forbidding mourning':
The poetry if Sidney, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne 1 1 3
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we, by a love so much refn'd
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
('A valediction') II. J3
-
4)
5
These stanzas draw clearly on the Platonic idea that the body is only a
vehicle for the soul and that it is dispensable for anybody who has the
art to perceive the soul's essence truly. But we remember, none the
less, that the speaker of these lines is ofering solace to his lover
(possibly his wife) at a moment of tender and painful parting. In a
seriously witty fashion (characteristic of Metaphysical poetry's
paradoxical style) he attempts to make light of the pain which for
both of them is all too material. Similarly, in another poem which
strikes an even more heartfelt note of grief, 'A Nocturnal upon St
Lucy'S day', Donne appears moved to invoke the Platonic condemnation
of fesh-centred ness as a means of overcoming both his despair at
having lost her and his envy of those still in possession of their lovers:
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all:
Since she enjoys her long night's festival,
Let me prepare towards her.
('A Noctural, 11.38-43)
The 'lesser sun' is evidently a symbolic equivalent of the earthly
Venus of Neoplatonism, butin this poem such a sun's light is fel t to be
inferior to the spirituality emanating from the darkness of St Lucy's
night, while the unmistakably scornful tone wi th which the speaker
repudiates the lovers' fascination with 'lust' reinforces the moral
implications of 'lesser'. Donne uses the Neoplatonic framework to
speak personally and enforce oppositions which in the philosophy
would be kept in harmonious relation. A more extreme example of
the same thing
'
Occurs in 'The Undertaking or Platonic Love', which
The Songs ad Sonets ofJohn DOlme, ed. Theodore Redpath, 2nd cdn (London, 1983).
1 1 4 J OHN ROE
repudiates the fesh, especially female fesh, in the following harsh
images:
But he who loveliness w
i
thin
Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who colour loves, and skin,
Loves but her oldest clothes.
('The Undertaking', 1l. 13-16)
Here Platonism combines with the medieval tradition of misogynistic
satire to produce a voice of stern rebuke which again difers in its tone
markedly from the accomodating accents of Ficino and Castiglione;
and such a manoeuvre is in keeping with poetry's modifcations and
often strategic adaptations of Platonism as outlined above.
But it is in 'The Ecstasy', a poem which carefully analyses the
body-soul relationship in a manner which sustains the erotic mood
convincingly, that Donne makes his greatest and undoubtedly most
challenging statement about the impact of the Neoplatonic on love
poetry. " The poem describes a situation in which the two lovers sit
together on a 'pregnant bank' gazing into one another's eyes. They
appear to do nothing except hold hands ('So as to intergraft our
hands, as yet I Was all our means to make us one', 11.9-1 0) . Each
lover's soul seems to leave the body (the title of course refers to the
Greek word 'ekstasi', meaning a standing forth) and interact with the
soul of the other:
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things, they know not what,
Love these mix'd souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, each this and that.
('The Ecstasy', 11.33-36)
The issuing forth and commingling of the souls appears to owe
something to Castiglione'S description of such a process during a
chaste kiss between a man and woman who know how to love each
other with propriety (see above, p. 102). Donne markedly says
nothing about a kiss in developing his point about the soul's
intermingling. This may be the result of an uncustomary feeling of
caution with regard to so delicate a subject, but the more likely reason
is that he is holding back the sensual part of his argument to the fnal
and most dramatic phase of the poem in which an urgent appeal is
launched on the body's behalf:
1 6 For good summaries of {he various critical and scholarly approaches to the poem, sec
Redpath (Songs and SOlctS), pp. 323-7 and Merritt, Y. Hughes, 'Some of Donne's
"Ecstasies" ', PMLA, 75 ( l g60), 509-18.
The poetry if Sidne, Shakespeare, Chapman, and Donne
l i S
But oh alas, so long, so far
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though they are not we, we are
The intelligences, they the sphere.
(1l49-53)
As lovers who have met each other in bodily form, the poet and his
mistress 'owe [their bodies] thanks because they thus / Did us, to us, at
frst convey' (11.53-4) . The pertinent question is how should such an
obligation be discharged?" My reading of this is that the body can
and must be enjoyed but without compromising the serious attitude
which is maintained from the start. Such a reading is endorsed by the
authoritative tone of the decisive stanza:
So must pure lovers' souls descend
To afections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great Prince in prison lies.
(H.65-8)
b
Is this prince the soul, the body, or some compound of the two?Italian
Neoplatonism would conventionally identify it as the soul,l 9 but the
lovers' souls, far from being prisoners, actively assist the process of
liberation; and they descend in order to do so, whereas the normal
Platonic argument would describe a movement upwards out of the
body's cage. If the lovers' souls are already free and eager to assist,
then the 'great Prince' still seeking his liberty must be either the body,
awaiting release into a superior evaluation, or some compound of
body and soul which difers from the usual idea of the transcendance
ofthe one (body) by the other (soul). And this compound must surely
be love itself, which Donne in another Neoplatonic lyric describes as
needing to take or occupy a body rather than merely existing." If this
is the case, the subtlety ofthe poetic argument makes it hard to decide
what weighting, if any, is being given to either the body or the soul in
their reciprocal relationship; furthermore the poet's enigmatic closing
statement C . . . he shall see I Small change when we are to bodies
gone', 11.75-6) indicates his reluctance to spell matters out any more
'' See Legouis, DOlme le Crqflsmall (Paris, 1928), pp. 68-9; and Gardner, 'The Argument about
"The Ecstasy" \ in Elizabethan Studies Presel/ted to F. P. W (Oxford, 1959. p. 283).
t0
It is well put by, among otbers, Earl Miner, although he maintains, as I would not, that the
purpose of bodily interaction is to procreate the rational soul. See The Metaphysical Modefom
Donne to Cowle (Princeton, N.J., 1969), pp. 81-2.
` See, ror example, Bcmbo's own treatise Gl Asolalli: 'egli (the soul) in questa prigione delle
membra rnchiuso' + in Nesca Robb, .NeoplallIism oJlhe /faliaf Rtaissfllce (London, '935), p. J86.
?9
'Love must not be, but take a body too' ('Air and Angels', I. 10; SOllgS alld SOllelS, p. Ig6).
JOHN ROE
clearly. But his very diplomacy would surely mean that he is arguing
for a more than usually prominent role for the body and that his
purpose is to dignify the erotic rather than to eclipse or abjure it. The
poem's erotic statement neither parodies Neoplatonism, as in
Shakespeare's example, nor does it end by submitting to its orthodoxy.
Unlike George Chapman who at the end of Ovid Banquet ofSenee
deplores the fact that the loving soul is compelled to express itself
through a physical medium, Donne celebrates the erotic as a valued
element of the process. Note the diferent force Donne's climactic
'alas' has from Chapman's in the key moment of each poem:
and,
But oh alas, so long so far
Our bodies why do we forbear?
(,The Ecstasy', 11.49-50) ,
Alas why lent not heaven the soule a tongue?
Nor language, nor peculier dialect,
To make her high conceits as highly sung,
But that a feshlie engine must unfold
A spirituall notion.
(Ovids Baquet, 1l. I,OO 1-5)
Because of his success in fnding an authoritative role and position for
the erotic in what is normally, in Neoplatonic philosophy, the
exclusive preserve of the soul, Donne is, in 'The Ecstasy', the most
original and adventurous of Elizabethan poetic thinkers to engage
wi th the Platonic mode.
C HAPTER I I
Shakespeare on beaut) truth and transcendence
Stephen Medcal
Venus, in Shakespeare's Veu and Adonis, is given subtle understanding
of the Neoplatonic doctrine that Beauty is an absolute quality which
is conferred from on high on other qualities like pleasingness of colour
and proportion, from which it is distinc
i
. But she combines this with a
simple misunderstanding by identifying absolute Beauty with her
beloved. When Adonis lived, she says,
his breath and beauty set
Gloss on the rose, smell to the violet. I
While without him
The fowers are sweet, their colors fresh and trim,
But true sweet beauty lived and died with him.
(ll. I 079-80)
In Sonnet 53, Shakespeare picks up Venus' statement and, speaking
a himself the lover of the Beautiful, transforms it into a paradoxical,
but much more serious play with Platonic logic. He addresses the
beloved young man as the reality behind not only Adonis, the
paradigm of male beauty, but Helen, the paradigm offemale beauty;
not only as a pattern for human beauty, but for that of the spring and
autumn; not only as a pattern for 'beauty' but also for 'bounty'. The
third of these pairs recalls the sentence in which Hoby, rendering
Castiglione's Courtier and indirectly Plato's Symposium, speaks of the
Beautiful as 'the beawtye unseperable from the high bountye'.' The
young man is addressed not only as ifhe were the Beautiful itself but
as the Good, which is in fact what Plato implies by to kalon, although it
` Venus and Adonis line 935-6. All quotations from Shakespeare's poems are f'om ThePoems, ed.
Kenneth Palmer (London, 1960).
" Baldassare Castiglione, The Book oj(ke Courtier, translated by Sir Thomas Hoby, with an
introduction by W. Raleigh (London, 1 91 7), p. 360.
1 I 7
1 1 8 STEPHEN MEDCALF
is inadequately translated as 'the Beautiful'.' Furthermore, the
relation between the young man and every instance of good is
underlined by the confation for which there seems to be no parallel,
of all Plato's models for the relation between forms and particular
things. First the vivid, vague and pregnant image of 'strange
shadows', recalls Plato's account of the relatio
n
offorms to things in
the Myth of the Cave in Republic VII. Secondly, Shakespeare evokes
Plato's logically more precise but also more difcult concepts of
imitation ('counterfeit' and painting) and of participation ('In all
external grace you have some part') (Parmenides [ 3[-2, Republic x).
Finally, at the end of the poem, Shakespeare reveals the logical
relation which underlines them all, i.e. likeness: 'But you like none,
none you, for constant heart'. In this last line, correctly stating the
principal way in which the Form of the Beautiful should not be like its
particulars, that of being subject to transience, he also gives the real
difculty in identifying it with a person. This he was presently to explore.
The uncanny alliance of mystery and logic in this sonnet approaches
Plato's higher fights so nearly a to suggest that Shakespeare had
been improving his knowledge of him: a suggestion confrmed by The
Phoenix and the Turtle, which he published in [ 601 . At whatever time
he read Plato, it would have been not in Greek, of which the evidence
is he knew little, but in Latin. For as the most recent writers on his
learning, the Martindales, put it, 'his "small Latin" (as Jonson saw it)
would have allowed him to read Latin books if they were not too
difcult, without translation where necessary'.' And the Latin of the
most widely available translations (Ficino and Serranus) is far from
difcult. It is possible that it was Ben Jonson himself who introduced
Shakespeare to Plato in Latin, for they collaborated in the volume
Loves Marrrin which the Phoenix and the Turtle appeared. The two had
some acquaintance since at least [598, when Shakespeare acted in
Jonson's Ever Man in hi Humour, and by Jonson's own witness their
friendship was in the end close. Now Jonson's knowledge of Plato was
good. He later owned Serranus' edition and translation in Latn of
Plato's works, and may already have owned Ficino's.' One of the
, Shakespeare may have been foUowingsuggestions from Sidney. c.g. AstTophil and Sulla, 91 . Sec
John Roc's chapter, pp. 100-I6t.
C. and M. Martindale, ShaktSpeareand 'he UsesoJAntlqi! (London and New York, J990), p. f l.
Jonson's copy of Serra nus' edition is in the Chetham Library. Manchester. His library was
fuid, suffering at least onc fire, and several disposals to pay his debts (Herford and Simpson,
Be Jonson, f (Oxford, 1925), pp. 250-71 ). The British Museum's copy (c,lo7 K.3) of the
edition of Fieino's Plato printed in Lyons in '590 has a pencilled note, 'Ben Jonson's copy
with 21 9 Annotations in his hand 33 Trefoil marks in his hand'. though it is not clear on what
evidence.
Shakespeare on beau!, truth and transcendence I l g
earliest and one of the latest of his masques - The Masque ofBeau!
( 1 608) and Loves Triumph through Gallipolis ( 1 630) - are expositons of
Plato on love, the latter a dazzling presentation of how Love drives
false followers of his outofPlato's ideal city. In his play The New lnne
( 1 629) a gentleman called Lovel describes love, following the
Symposium closely, and at times Ficino's commentary on it.' Now,
although in this play Jonson is anticipating a new fashion for
spiritual, Platonic love based on Honore d'Urfe's pastoral romance
Astnie, which only took hold at court with William Davenant's
masque The Temple ofLove in 1 635,7 his thought and style look back
thirty years. An anti-Platonic, Lord Beaufort, comments derisively on
Lovel's speeches by conjuring up Chapman's Ovids Banquet ' Sence
(compare Roe, pp. 1 1 0-1 2 above):
I relish not these philosophical feasts;
Give me a banquet o'sense, like that of Ovid.
( The New lnne, m.ii.1 25-6)
Lovel's Ficinian lines could not be bettered as an introduction to The
Phoenix ad the Turtle. Love is, he says
a fame, and ardor of the mind.
Dead, in the proper corps, quick in anothers;
Trans-ferres the Louer into the Loued.
The he, or she, that loues engraues, or stamps
Th'Iea of what they laue, frst in themselves:
Or, like to glasses, so their minds take in
The formes of their belou'd and them refect.
(m.ii.g6-102)
Chapman, as well as Shakespeare and Jonson, took part in Loves
Mar!r. So did John Marston. But Jonson, who had some close
association with Sir John Salusbury, to whom the whole book is
dedicated, is perhaps the most likely person to have put it together.'
The Phoenix and the Turtle is an episode in a sequence begun by
someone otherwise unknown called Robert Chester. Nature, fearing
that the Phoenix of the present will have no successor, causes her
Herford and Simpson, Bm]ollso1 (Oxford, 1938). VI, Tie.New 11l1lC,III,ii. The commentary in
7 (Oxford, 1 950), gives some of the sentences in Ficino, pp. 31 9-20, ahhough oddly with a
mistaken reference. h should be Commentary on the Symposillm lI.viii. Sec Commenlarillm in
Corwivillm Platonis, cd. R. Marcel (Paris, 1956).
7 Kathleen M. Lynch, The Social Mode oj Restoratjofl Comed (New York, (926), chs 2 and 4.
Robert Chester's 'Loves Martyr' ,cd. A.B. Grosart, 1878. Most of the literature on TIle PloCix
and the Turtle i competently summariscd in R.A. Undcrwood, Shakespeare's Ti Poeix and tle
Turtle,' A Survey ofScllo/arship (Salzburg, 1974)' See also P. Dronkc's 'The Phocnix and the
Turtle', Orhis l.itterorum, 23 ( 1 968), '99-222, and editions of Shakespearc's Poems by W.
Empson (1972), John Roe (Cambridge, 1992) and MaUl'ice Evans ( 1989).
120 STEPHEN MEDCALF
union with the Turtle dove. They join i n the mutual fame of love and
death which Shakespeare celebrates. The story continues after him
with the poems by Marston, Chapman and Jonson celebrating the
appearance of a new Phoenix. I t is an allegory, relating to the lives of
people oftbe time, probably to Sir John Salusbury's family. Its detail
has not yet been clearly interpreted, but it gives us entry to the
civilisation for which it was created, to a world of people acting out
elaborate, vivid and extreme moral parts, whose characteristic form
of art is the masque. I t makes it easier to understand how known and
recognisable people could be seen in a dream or vision as the forms of
Beauty and Truth. In this allegory, Shakespeare being given or
choosing for himself the moment of suspense between the death of the
former Phoenix and the epiphany of the new one, was enabled to treat
once again the theme of the unique person with whose death beauty
and truth have passed from the earth. He made of it a kind of divine
nursery rhyme, like Who Killed Cock Robin?, some early version of
which may have been in his mind, and discovered in it the enchanted
purity which belongs to the songs of Ariel, songs that express the
non-human life of an elemental spirit, an eInanation of Renaissance
Neoplatonism. The first five verses of The Phoenix and the Turtle
summon up a child's equivalent of such a world, with emblematic
birds in place of spirits. The anthem which follows, sung by one or all
the birds, is more genuinely N eoplatonic, resembling both Ficino and
The New Inne. It proclaims positively for four verses the mutual
indwelling, in the flame that is at once love and death, of the two
lovers, in whom the distinction between two and one is lost because
either lives with the life and sees with the sight of the other. In the next
four, Property and Reason together stress the converse truth that
what looks like one is still two. Property is appalled 'That the self was
not the same', Reason puns on true, 'actual', and 'faithful';
How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Reason admits to being unable to comprehend love
Love hath reason, Reason noneq
Ifwhat parts can so remain.
As a consequence of this admission, Reason makes a lament, in which
Shakespeare once again picks up the paradoxical identifcation of the
beloved with Beauty. He reverts or progresses fom the paradox of
Sonnet 53, in which the beloved is the Beautiful while still living,
Shakespeare on beaui, truth and transcendence I 2 I
person'l and particular, and makes the identification, as in Venus and
Adoni, only in death. With the death of the Phoenix and the Dove, he
says, 'Truth may seem but cannot be' (1. 62) a gnomic statement of
the place of Truth in the world of appearance which concentrates a
great deal of Plato. He paralles this with something that recalls what
is said in Phaedrus 250d, that in this world Beauty alone of the forms
shines 'most clearly through the clearest of our senses':
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
(11.63-4)
This last line of a very Platonic verse is signalled as a Platonic allegory
by its logical incompatibility on the literal level with what follows:
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair
(Il.65-6)
People with some share of truth and beauty, then, do exist in this
imperfect world of experience. They owe their duty to the mythical
place in this world where ideal Truth and Beauty, who are in heaven,
are closest. There let them, 'For these dead birds sigh a prayer' (1.67).
This prayer is also perhaps a lamentation for the absence of perfect
Truth and Beauty, and request for their continued presence in those
who pray.
The image of a contradiction of this world as representing its
transcendence turns out, when one looks back, to run through the
poem. I t opens with an image that has perplexed interpreters, of 'the
bird of loudest lay I On the sole Arabian tree', which cannot be
anything but the Phoenix: no other bird has the right to be on that tree.
If so, the Phoenix is calling the other birds to its own funeral. The priest
it calls is the swan, who sings only when it dies. Only, and immediately,
when Reason recognises that it is confounded by love, does it make its
lament. It is in the moment that the creatures of this world are
confounded that they sing and love: it is nature's, reason's, identity's
business to transcend itself The poem is about ecstasy, and its style is
ecstatic, which does not prevent its being, as it says, tragic. The
childlike purity of its language is made up of scholastic subtleties, and
the nursery-rhyme simplicity of its thought is governed by paradoxes
which descend from Aquinas on the Trinity, Plotinus, and Plato.'
` J.V. Cunningnam, <IdcaasStructurc: ThPloenixana te Turlle', Col/cclcdEsays (Harmondsvorth,
Chicago, 1976), 16g-209.
STEPHEN MEDCALF
Plato is not only the Plato of the myths. He put his philosophy
forward not as a code of doctrine, but dramatically as a set of
explorations, in dialogues that look like

plays. Shakespeare was

therefore behaving in a thoroughly Platonic way when, within a year
or so of publishing The Phoenix and the Turtle, he tried his hand at a
play in which people try to argue philosophically Troilus and
Cressida. That Shakespeare meant Troilus and Cressida to be a
philosophical play is clear from the sheer quantity of philosophical
statement and debate which happens in it: the Greek debate about
their lack of success, which includes Ulysses' speech on degree, the
Trojan debate about the continuance of the war which becomes a
discussion of value, and Ulysses' argument with Achilles about the
need to demonstrate one's qualities publicly. Shakespeare seems to
have read Greek philosophers for these debates.lo Kenneth Palmer
has persuasively argued that the twelve lines of Hector's last speech in
favour of returning Helen, which begin with an appeal to Aristotle,
are so packed with arguments and ideas from Books 1 v of the
Nicomachean Ethics as to suggest Shakespeare's direct aquaintance
with those books, though not with the rest of the Ethics." The same
habit of reading - hasty, brilliant, impatient, intuitive - is suggested
by the impression that the dialogue of Plato's which is powerfully
present in Troilus and Cressida is the one in which is put fst in
Cornarius', and Serranus' editions and in the 1 602 printing of
Ficino's: the Euthyphro. 1
2
The centre of the philosophical debate in the play is Shakespeare's
taking as an agonising problem the acknowledgement of a single
actual person as the standard and guarantee of value, which
previously he had treated as a positive insight. The problem comes to
a head in Troilus' speech on seeing Cressida in the arms of Diomede,
which is a kind of mirror inverse of The Phoenix and the Turtle. In both
The Phoenix and Troilus reason is confounded by division. In both
love, beauty and truth slip from our grasp. In both unity loses its rule,
because in the poem two people are one though remaining two, in the
play one person is, and is not, herself:
l0
Ulysses and Achilles' discussion ora book saying that a man only knows his own qualitie by
reflection, lII.iii.94-122, may be a reference to Plato's AIChiade I where the argument lrst
occurs: but it became a commonplace.

Troilus and Cressida, cd. K. Palmer (London and New York, 19

2
), Appendix MI, pp. 31 1-20.
12 LA. Richards, Speculative Islrumelll (London, 1955), pp. 1 98-21 3 Tr(ilus and Crs idaand Plato'.
Shakespeare on beauI, truth and transcendence 1 23
This, she? - No, this is Diomed's Cressida.
If beauty have a soul, this is not she;
If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies,
If sanctimony be the gods' delight.
If there be rule in unity itself,
This is not she.
The argument goes in two directions, like an arch with its keystone at
the idea of. vows. The frst side of the arch forms a satisfactory
argument in itself. Tl
'
Oilus knows that it is Cressida whom he has seen:
but Cressida is beautiful, and beauty expresses the soul. Souls express
themselves in vows. Therefore, if Cressida breaks vows, her soul
cannot be her soul: the argument could go straight to the summing
up, 'If there be rule in unity itself / This is not she'. But on the other
side of the arch, Troilus develops a different argument, by which
Cressida cannot have been seen breaking vows, not by reason of unity
of personality, but because vows in themselves have sanctimony.
'Sanctimony' is a word which Shakespeare only uses three times, all
three probably within a year or two of each other -here in Troilus and
Cressida (probably late 1 602); in All's Well that Ends Well (c. 1 602-4)
where Helena's pilgrimage is said to be a 'holy undertaking [which 1
with most austere sanctimony she accomplished' (Iv.iii.52-3); and in
Othello, where
.
Iago describes the guarantee of Othello's and
Desdemona's marriage as 'sanctimony and a frail vow' (I.iii.349). In
each case i t implies fulflling a commitment which has religious
sanctions. Troilus extends the. idea: 'If sanctimony be the gods'
delight . . . ' He may be arguing for the preciousness of sanctimony, in
that even the gods regard it as precious, or for its bindingness, in that
the gods themselves validate it. The line and its ambiguity call to
mind a question of Socrates in the Euthyphro: 'Is what is holy holy
because the gods approve it, or do they approve it because it is holy?'
( l Oa). It is an attractive possibility that 'sanctimony' entered
Shakespeare's vocabulary briefy because he was trying to fnd a word
to express the element of absoluteness in the holy, in Ficino's
translation sanctum, and that he associated it with 'vows' because
Ficino presently translates Socrates' defnition of sanctum, 'a science of
sacrifce and prayer' 'scientiam quandam vovendi atque sacrifcandi', ( 1 4c).
There is implicit in Shakespeare's line the argument of the whole
Euthyphro, concentrated in this question. In the form, whether the
1 24 STEPHEN MEDCALF
good is good by the determination of God, or God is good because He
loves the good, it became later in the century crucial to the
Cambridge Platonists' revol t against Calvinism," and it would
clearly be of no less interest in the same way in 1 602. In a more
abstract form, whether the value of any particular thing is intrinsic, or
at least partly determined by the decision of gods or men, it is what
Troilus and Hector argue about earlier in the play. Hector paraphrase
Socrates' argument for the objectivity of value, namely, that a thing is
loved because of what it is, it is not what it is because it is loved:
But value dwells not in particular will:
It holds his estimate and dignity
f well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer. 'Tis mad idolatry
To make the service greater than the god.
(ii548)
Here the striking use of the term 'service' of the god, another
defnition of sactum (Euthyphro I 2e) may owe its presence to Socrates'
investigation of whether the gods gain anything from our service to them.
The person whose value Hector and Troilus are arguing about is of
course the paradigm of beauty, Helen. Hector says that she is not
worth the number of lives lost on her. Troilus wants to say both that
she is worth all that and more, and that it does not matter whether she
is or not, because value depends on the valuer, and the valuer's
commitment to what is valued. Clearly what he says about her is
mixed up with his own feelings about Cressida, so we are brought
back to the beliefthat the beautiful and beloved is at the heart of value."
What we fnd then, when Troilus speaks after seeing Cressida in
Diomede's arms, is frst a doctrine which has Platonic roots, that
beauty like Cressida's guarantees truth to its lover. This has been put
to an agonising confutation, frst because Cressida, being herself
divided, is the exact opposite of lovers like the Phoenix and the Turtle
and second, because the commitment in love, with which Troilus tries
to support the intuition that beauty means truth, is hard to continue
'" Sec especially Ralph Cudworth's A Smnon Preached beore the House oJCommons (Cambridge,
16.n). reprinted in C.A. Patrides, Tle Cambridge Platonists (London, Ig6g) and C.R. Cragg,
TIle Cambridge Platonists (Oxford and Ne York, {g68), whose use of the the Ellthyphro is on
pp. 102 and 384 repectively.
' Ulysses' speech on degree may also draw on Euthyphro 14b, where Euthyphro argues that
piety saves the family and the state, whereas impiety 'upsets aU and ruins everything', while
ironically his own conviction of knowing what piety is leads him to prosecute his father for
murder, which Socrates probably thinks equivalent to parricide. See Troilus and Cresida.
r.iii.log-r5
Shakespeare on beaur, truth and transcendence 1 25
except when it is accepted by both lovers, by both a Phoenix and a
Turtle. Furthermore, this doctrine is joined by a question that seems
likely t come directly from Plato, whether value is intrinsic, or is
imposed from outside.
S
hakespeare, who began in Venus and Adonis
with doctrines derived from Plato and difused in the poetic circles
which he was then entering, has in Troilus and Cressida come to wrestle
with the kind of problems from which Plato himself began.
CHAPTER 1 2
Platonism in Spenser's Nutabiitic Lantos
Thoma Bulger
Spenser's fascination with Platonism continually manifests itselfin his
poetry. The ideological and allegorical possibilities of Platonism
continually act as a catalyst in Spenser's imagination. Within The
Faerie Qeene, there are numerous occasions where Spenser employs
Platonic doctrines to suit his fctional needs; a salient example of this is
in the Garden of Adonis episode (III.vi), where Spenser refects and
refracts Platonic notions of the soul and of generation.
'
Spenser draws
on Platonic doctrines and assumptions in other poems as well. Most
notably this occurs in the Fowre Hymnes, which trace the inter
relationship and integrati
o
n of Platonic concepts of earthly and ideal
love with their Christian counterparts.2
Precisely where and from whom Spenser derived his Platonism is
difcult to determine.' Much of his understanding of Platonism came
from writers steeped in the Platonic tradition, such as Macrobius,
' The Platonic background for the Garden of Adonis episode is extensively discussed in a series
of articles written by Josephine Waters Bennett and Brents Stirling. See Bennett, 'Spenser's
Garden of Adonis', PMLA, 47 (1932), 46-80, and Slil'iing, 'Spenser's "Platonic" Garden',
]EGP, 4
'
('94'), 48,-6.
" The Variorum edition of Spenser's works attributes the 1592 English translation ofAxiodms
{then thought to be by Plato} to Spenser. Although there is not absolute certainty about this
attribution, in the The SpellStr Encclopedia, cd. A.C. Hamilton (Toronto, 1990), Harold
Weatherby states that the evidence 'weighs in favor' of Spenser's authorship of this
translation, p. 77. All Spenser citations arc taken from Tie WorksoJEmuTld Spelser: A Variomm
Edition, cd. Edwin Greenlaw, Charles Osgood, and Frederick Padelford. 9 vols. (Baltimorc.
1932-47). Mutabililie is conventionally labelled as the seventh book of Tle Faerie Quene.
according to the publisher's headnote.
In his seminal study, Neopfatol/ism ill lle Poetr ofSpenser (Geneva, Ig60l, Robert Ellrodt
demonstrated the difculty of pinpointing exact sources for Spenser's Platonic references.
Unfortunately, Ellrodt also minimises and dismisses the impact of Platonism on Spenser, a
position that has sinee been challenged successfully. For the most comprehensive and most
recent refutation of EUTodt's thesis, see Elizabeth Bieman, Plato Bapti;ed: Towards Ihe
Interpretation ofSpenser's Mimetic Fictions (Toronto, 1988). Jon Quitslulld provides a succinct
summary of Spenser's Platonism in Tle Spellser Encclopedia, pp. 546-8.
Platonism in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos 1 2 7
Boethius (whose Consolation was transmitted to Spenser via Chaucer's
Boece) , Bernard Silvestris, Alain de Lille (whom Spenser refers to by
name in the Mutabilitie Cantos), and Dionysius the Areopagite (whose
angelic hierarchies are mentioned in Hymne of Heavenly Beautie,
11.85-98) . As the notes to the Variorum edition of Spenser's works
confrm, Spenser was also familiar with the poetic and prose
redactions of Platonism of such writers as Castiglione, Tasso, Leone
Ebreo, and Giordano Bruno. Given the subject matter and phrasing
of the Fowre Hymnes, it is virtually certain that Spenser read Ficino's
commentary on Plato's Symposium, the well known De Amore; and i t
may well be that Spenser read Ficino's 1492 translation of the
Ennead, thus making Spenser one of the frst English authors to read
Plotinus directly.
That Spenser is deeplyvcrsed in Platonism as an intellectual system
as well as a psychology oflove is revealed in what is generally agreed
to be his poetic coda, the Mulabilitie Cantos', which engage the tenets
and methods ofNeoplatonic hermeneutics consistently, consciously,
and profoundly. Where the Fowre Hymnes assimilate Platonic theories
of love, Mulabilitie incorporates the fundamental principle of Platonism,
its on tological gradations of the universe, as an architectonic strategy.
The hypostasis of Soul is represented in the confrontation of
Mutabilitie and Jove (the World Soul) in canto VI; the higher
hypostasis of no u is personifed in the numinous fgure of Nature, who
appears in canto seven; and the supreme hypostasis, the One above
all and the source of all, coincides with the divine inefability
remarked on in canto VIII.
'
Mutabilitie examines how the cosmological
and teleological structures of Neoplatonic thought bridge the gap
between 'pagan' metaphysics and Christian doctrine; as such, the
cantos stand as a positive counterpoint to Book VI of The Faerie Queene,
which arrives at a pessimistic answer (the disappearance of Colin
Clout's vision on Mount Acidale, the seeming triumph of the Blatant
An argument that the Mulabililie Gantos is an attempt at closure by Spenser to his unfinished
Facrie QCCIC is made by William Blissett. who calls the cantos 'a detached retrospective
commentary on the poem as a whole'. Blissett, 'Spenser's Mutabilitic', Essays ill Ellgiisll
Literalure from Ile Renaissa1lce 10 the Victoriall Age rrcsel/led to A.S.P. Woodhouse, cd. Millar
MacLurc and F.W. Watt (Toronto, 1964), p. 26.
In so organising his poem, Spenser invokes and inverts what Ficino's disciple Diacetto says is
the appropriate format for a Neoplatonie hymnist: 'He sings, I say, first lo the divine Henad of
the sun, then he sings to the Mind, and lastly he sings to the soul; since Onc, Mind, Soul, are
the thrce prineipiesorall things'. Cited by D.P. Walker, Spiritual alld Demo,tic Magic From Fieino
to Campanella (London, 1958), p. 33.
THOMAS BULGER
Beast i n the last canto) i n addressing the question of the relationship
of created and imperfect nature with a transcendent and ideal world.
Mutabilitie is Spenser's fnal attempt to reconcile the ceaseless tension
between being and becoming that permeates The Faerie Queene; the
solutions he considers are both philosophical (the Platonic notion of
emanating hypostases) and theological (the Christian prayer in the
canto's concluding stanza).
The cantos open with Mutabilitie's challenge to th authority of
Jove, the god who in the 'mythological grammar' of Platonic
commentators is regularly associated with the hypostasis of the World
Soul: 'to cosmogonistsJupiter is the soul of the world.'7 Spenser'sJove
occupies a similar ontological role. Jove is 'wont to wield the world
unto his vow, I And even the highest Powers of heaven to check;
(vn.vi.22) . Concomitantly, when arguing his case before Nature,
Jove defnes his function in terms identical to the Plotinian World Soul:
But who is it (to me tell)
That Time himselfe doth moue and still compell
To keepe his course? Is not that namely wee.
Which poure that vertue from our heauenly cell,
That moves them all, and makes them changed be?
(VII. vii+48)
Since the soul descends into the lower world through the
a
gency of the
planetary spheres, and since Jove 'in his principall Estate' (Vll.Vi . I g)
rules the other heavenly bodies, Spenser follows the Platonic
convention of using Jove to symbolise the anima mundi (World Soul) .
I f Jove in the cantos operates as the rational governing principle of
the World Soul, this raises immediately the question ofMutabilitie's
relation to Jove. An answersuggcsted through Mutabilitie'sgenealogy:
For, Tlan (as ye all acknowledge must)
Was Salures elder brother by birth-right;
Both, sonnes of Vranus: but by unjust
And guilefull meanes, through Corbanles slight,
The younger thrust the elder from his righ t.
(VII.vi.27)
In Platonic thought, the introduction of time into the universe is
signifed by the descent of the Titans from Saturn (Chronos). This
G Michael J.B. Allen's term, in The Plalonism oj Marcilio Fieino: A Stud ojHi Phaedrus
Commentar, Its SOllrees and Genesis (Berkeley, 1984), p. 35.
7 Macrobius, Gammell/aran the Dream ofScipio, trans. William Stahl (New York, 1952), p. 158.
Platonism in SjJenser's Mutabilitie Cantos 1 29
explains why Mutabilitie as 'Titanesse' (vII.vi-4) brings forth the
pageant of the 'times and seasons of the yeare' (vII.vii. 27) as proof of
her sublunary powers. The Titans are also associated with the
division of the One intomany, as an adjective from Pico illustrates:
'we shall at one time be descending, tearing apart, like Osiris, the one
into many by a titanic force; and we shall at another time be
ascending and gathering into one the many, like the members of
Osiris, by an Apollonian force'.8 The confict of Jove and Mutabilitie
is therefore between two ontological equals, two aspects of the World
Soul. Jove is the higher,

connective, static, eternal dimension of the

World Soul; Mutabilitie, its lower, disruptive, dynamic, temporal
dimension. Their antagonism exemplifes the tension at the level of
the World Soul between order and disorder, stability and changc,
reason and irrationality, ascent to the unity of the One. versus descent
into the multiplicity of the sensible cosmos.
Regarding this dispute in terms of the hypostasis orthe World Soul
explains the paradoxical quality ofMutabilitie's audacity. When the
narrator describes her discursively as a discarnate, cosmic principle,
she seems an unmitigated evil:
For, she the face of earthly things so changed,
That all which Nature had establisht frst
In good estate, and in meet order ranged,
She did pervert, and all their statutes burst.
(vII.vi.5)
But in actuality, she is also beautiful; even Jove finds her irresistibly
attractive:
But, when he looked on her loucly face,
In which, faire bcames of beauty did appeare,
That could the greatest wrath soone turne to grace
(Such sway doth beauty euen in Heaven beare)
He staide his hand.
(vn.vi.3 1)
Hers is the multiple beauty of the corporeal universe which arises
from the inevitable mixture of good and evil in the lower world.
Plotinus notes this compound beauty in Enneads 1.8. 1 s:
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 'On the Dignity of Man', i n 01 lie Digl/ilyoJMOll, 01 fleillg
and fhe One, Heptaplus, trans. Charles Wallis, Paul Miller, and Douglas Carmichael
(Indianapolis, [965), p. to.
THOMAS BULGER
Because of the power and nature of good, evil is not only evil; since it must
necessarily appear, it is bound in a sort of beautiful fetters, a some prisoners
are in chains of gold, and hidden by them, so that though it exists it may not
be seen by the gods, and men may be able not always to look at evil, but even
when they do look at it, may be in company with images of beauty to remind
them.
Mutabilitie's physical beauty proceeds from the One; and as
degenerate as this process of dissemination may become, all creation
retains vestiges of the ethereal and divine beauty of the One.
The peculiar digression to the Faunus episode in canto VI also
becomes clear if viewed through 'Neoplatonic spectacles'. This fable
has always posed interpretative difculties.' But the sudden transition
from the cosmic saga of Mutabilitie to the comic tale of Faunus
becomes more coherent if placed within the context of Spenser's
Platonic preoccupations. The Faunus-Molanna tale both concretely
manifests, and further extends, the principle of devolution espoused
by Mutabilitie. The episode is an allegorisation of how far removed
the hypostasis of matter is from the frst and highest hypostasis, the
One, the folly of a descent into the material world. Mutabilitie's
rashness (she is called a 'foolish gerle' by Jove just before the Faunus
episode) is paralleled by the thoughtlessness of Faunus:
There Faunus saw that pleased much his eye,
And made his hart to tickle in his brest,
That for great ioy of some-what he did spy,
He could him not containe in silent rest;
But breaking forth in laughter, loud profest
His foolish thought. A foolish Faune indeed,
That could,t not hold they selfe so hidden blest,
But wouldest needs thine owne conceit areed.
Babblers vnworthy been of so diuine a meed.
(vII.vi.46)
In not being silent at the sight of the perfection embodied by Diana,"
Faunus proves himself incapable of distinguishing between the
Anne Sheppard's phrase in the 'Introduction', p. 12.
I
I
John Guillory's comment is representative of the Llitical confusion: 'We are also uncertain
about the gravity of Faunus' crime, hut we can give it a familiar tag: Faunus is guilty of
"laughing in church". 'rhe nature of this impropriety i obscure, to say the least'. In Poelic
Alllloril.: Spellser, Millon, ald Literar Histor (New York, Ig83), p. 56.
t
!
In the notes to his 1 792 translation oCthe Orphic hymns, Thomas Taylor cite the PlatOllic
Theolog ofProclus to this effect: 'Diana (who is the same with the Moon) i Mcalled, because
she fnishes or perfects the essential perfection of matter'. The Hymllt o Orpheus (Los Angele,
Ig81), p. B6.
Platonism in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos 1 3 1
sensible and the ethereal. Fittingly, the wood-god is chastised by
Diana's nymphs, traditional tutelary daemons of matter:
The Nymphs are divinities' presiding over generations; accordingly, they are
said to dwell in streams or woods, since generation is accomplished through
wetness and descends to the wood, that is, to prime matter. 1 2
As his punishment indicates, Faunus is not primal matter itself.
Faunus is hounded in the manner of Actaeon (vu.vi
'
52), not only
because both commit a sacrilege against Diana, but because Faunus
(like Actaeon) epitomizes the rending of the One into the many. At
the same time, however, Faunus avoids the fate of Actaeon, and
escapes a more serious retribution:
At length, when they had fouted him their fll,
They gan to cast what pen au nee him to giue.
Some would haue gelt him, but that same would spill
The Wood-gods breed, which must for ever liue.
(vn. vi.50)
Fannus is not castrated, cannot be castrated, because he (like Adonis
at III.vi) is the source of the seminal principles that give form to
matter." Thus Faunus lives on in the infnity of matter, which is the
basis for the concept of quality-in-matter referred to by Plotinus in
Enneads II.4 and elevated to a hypostasis by Ficino:
Quality, when it partakes of the limit, forms matter and possesses the one
property appropriate to its nature. But when it degenerates into matter's
infnity, itcan always be relaxed in its degrees to infnity or intensified toinfnity.14
The degeneration caused by the descent of quality into matter is
reflected by the state of afairs in Ireland consequent to Diana's
indignant fight:
Thence-forth she left; and parting from the place,
Thereon an heauy haplcsse curse did lay,
To weet, that Wolves, where she was wont to space,
Should harboured be, and all those Woods deface,
And Thieues should rob and spoile that coast around.
(vn.vi55)
1
1
Marsilio Ficino, Commeuillm cum summis capiluiorll1n, in M.J.B. Allen, Marsi/io Fieino and the
Phaedratl Charioteer (Berkeley, Ig8t), p. 134.
` In SOllree and Meaning i11 Spellser's Allegor: A Stud oJ'TIIt Faerie (tte/le' (Oxford) 197 r), John
Hankins demonstrates the ties between Adonis and the Platonic notions concerning seminal
principles) referring to a number of ricino's texts for support. Hankins docs not remark on
the parallel ofFaunus to Adonis (pp. 2469).
'` For Ficino's elaboration or the hypostases of Plotinus. see Michael J.B. Allen) 'Ficino's
Theory of the Five Substances and the Neoph
i
tonists' Parmettides', Joural o Medieval and
Renaissance Studies, 12 (1982)) 19-44.
THOMAS BULGER
The pervasive water imagery in this canto is a further indication
that this episode represents a regression from the goodness of limit
(the One) to the malignity of indeterminacy (the amorphous many).
Water as an image of prime matter is a Platonic commonplace,
prominently mentioned by Porphyry in The Cave q the Nymphs and
invoked by Pico in the Heptaplus:
This world is symbolized by water, a fowing and unstable substance . . .
Here there is an alternation of life and death; there, -eternal life &nd
unchanging activity; in the heavens, stability of life but change of activity
and position. This world is composed of the corruptible substance of bodies. "
The plight of Molanna, who is punished for abetting Faunus, bears
witness to the corrupt nature of matter in and for itself: 'When, back
returning to Molann' againe, I They, by commaund'ment of Diana,
there I Her whelmed with stones' (VII.vi.53).
Yet the procession from the absolute good of the One to the fowing
inchoation of the many does not entail an absolute split between the
highest and lowest levels of reality. Slender though it may be, there
remains a sinuous thread connecting the greatest to the least.
Molanna's physical deterioration paradoxically leads to a more
substantial unity:
Yet Faunus (for her paine)
Of her beloved FaJchin did obtaine,
That her he would receiue vnto his bed.
So now her waues passe through a pleasant Plaine,
Till with the Fanchin she her selfe doe wed,
And (both combin'd) themselues in one faire riuer spred.
(VII.vi.53)
However imperfectly it may be realised, the longing for unity is found
even in the lowest forms of matter. This impulse springs from a desire
to return to the One, the third stage in the Platonic triad emanatio
raptio-remeatio.16
The outcome ofthe Faunus episode adumbrates both the resolution
of the Mutabilitie-Jove dispute and the concluding stanza of the
cantos, wherein the narrator petitions for his divine reconciliation.
1
5 Pico, Heptaplus, p. 75.
16 This process is described by Edgar Wind in Pagan Mysteries in Ie Rtl aissance. 2nd edn (New
York, 1 968), p. 37: 'the bounty bestowed by the gods upon lower beings was conceived by the
Neoplatonists as a kind of overfowing (emanatio), which produced a vivifying rapture or
conversion (called by Ficino cOllversio, raplio, or vivicatio) whereby the lower beings were
drawn back to heavcn and rcjoined the gods (remealio)
,
.
Platonism in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos
1 33
But at the close of canto VI, the dispute of Mutabilitic and Jove
remains at an impasse. Therefore, Mutabilitie demands arbitration
from 'the highest him,. that is behight I Father of Gods and men by
equal! might; I To weet, the god of Nature' (VII.vi.3S). Too often it is
assumed that Mutabilitie in these lines is appealing directly to
Nature, who does indeed appear shortly thereafter. In subsequent
lines, however, Spenser is careful to preserve the distinction between
the god of Nature and Nature itself Though androgynous, Nature is
consistently referred to in the feminine gender by both Mutabilitie
and by the poet himself
Then forth issewed (great goddesse) great dame Natlre,
With goodly port and gracious Maiesty;
Being far greater and more tall of stature
Then any of the gods or Powers on hie:
Yet certes by her face and physnomy,
Whether she man or woman inly were,
That could not any creature well descry.
(vn.vii5)
So it is not the Christian God the Father (analogous to the Platonic
One above and beyond all being) who answers Mutabilitie's
summons. Nor is this fgure to be equated with medieval personifications
of Nature. The narrator explicitly invites readers to compare his
Nature with the Natura of Chaucer and Alain de Lille:
So hard it is for any living wight,
All her array and vestiments to tell,
That old Dan Gefr (in whose gentle spright
The pure well head of Poesie did dwell)
In his Faules parle durst not with it mel,
But it transferd to Alane, who he thought
Had in his Plaint if kindes describ'd it well:
Which who will read set forth so as it ought,
Go seek he out that Alane where he may be sought.
(vlI.vii.g)
Yet if therse putative sources are indeed sought out, a significant
divergence between the medieval Natura and Spenser's creation is
discovered. Whereas Nature is in most medieval literature either
overtly Christian (the 'vicaire ofthe almyghty Lord' in the Parliament
1 34 THOMAS BULGER
i Fowls) or a thinly disguised version of the Platonic anima mundi,
Spenser's Nature is far more mysterious}
The description of Nature that the poem unfolds is an intricate
composite of Christian and classical concepts. Nature's inefable
radiance has both religious and philosophical import:
For that her face did like a Lion shew,
That eye of wight could not indure to view:
But others tell that is so beautious was,
And round about such beames of splendor threw,
That it the Sunne a thousand times did pass,
Ne could be seene, but like an image in a glass .. .
Her garment was so bright and wondrous sheene,
That my fraile wit cannot devize to what
It to compare, nor fnd like stufe to that,
As those three sacred Saints, though else most wise,
Yet on mount Thabor quite their wits forgat,
When they glorious Lord in strange disguise
Transfgur'd sawe; his garments so did daze their eyes.
(vn.vii.6-;)
This comparison is suggestive rather than prescriptive. Nature's
brilliance is at once akin to, yet distinct from, Christ's transfguration.
For Christian Platonists such as Ficino and Pico, the symbolic
resonances of the sun as a metaphor for the emanaton of divine
illumination holds open the possibility of connecting Platonic concept
to Christian doctrine. In Pico's words:
We can picture Christ by nothing more ftting than the sun. He placed his
tabernacle in the sun, and he sprang from the tribe of Judah, whose emblem
is the lion, the animal of the sun, and when Plato in the Republic calls the sun
the visible son of God, why may we not understand it as the image of the
invisible Son? Ifhe is the true light illuminating all minds, does he not have
his most exact likeness the sun) which is the light of the senses illuminating all
bodies?1 8
The belief in a tripartite cosmos enabled Renaissance Neoplatonists
to view the three primary Plotinian hypostases as vestiges of the Holy
'' In Reaiss(lce Chalcer (New Haven, 1975), p. 42, Alice Miskimin observes that Spensel" s
Nature here is '[.1.1' more ol'nate and complex than its predecessors' ,Josephine Waters Bennett
identifes Spenser's Nature with the World Soul in 'Spenser's Venus and the Goddess of
Nature in the Calios ojMutabllitie', Studies til /'Iulolog, 30 ( 1 933), 163. 'nlis interpretation is
refuted by Ellroell in Neoplatolism in Spelser, p, 64, Guillory, in Poetic Authority, p, 61 , also
argues against those readings which equate Spenser's Nature with the Platonic fllima mundi.
I6
Pico, Heptapils, p. 163,
Platonism in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos
Trinity, wherein nous is the pagan equivalent to Christ as the eternal
Logos." As a threshold fgure mediating between visible and invisible
worlds, Spenser's Nature evokes resonances both of no us as 'the image
of the One . . . as the sun's rays tell of the sun' (Enneads v. i. 7) and of
Christ's incarnation and transfguration.
There are also distinct afnities between the functions of Nature
and those of the Platonic nous.' Spenser's Nature and the Platonic
nous simultaneously embody stasis and change. Ficino emphasises this
coincidence of opposites as being central to the distinction of Soul
from noUS:
The soul, being moved by itself, moves others, there must be something
before the soul which moves others and is motionless. But the intelligence
moves and is motionless; it is steadfast and always operates in the same ways
. . . The intelligence moves, is not moved.:1
As an unmoved mover, nous combines essence and existence, being
and becoming, unity and plurality, presence and transcendence, time
and eternity. Spenser accords these paradoxical attributes to Nature:
Great Nature, euer young yet full of eld,
Still moouing, yet unmoued from her sted;
Vnseene of any, yet of all beheld.
(vll.vii . 1 3)
The clearest indication that Nature is operating as the Spenserian
equivalent to the Platonic nous is in Nature's resolution of the debate
between Mutabilitie and Jove. Nature's answer is articulated in terms
of classical philosophy ('fate'), not Christian providence:
I well consider all that ye haue sayd,
And fnd that all things steadfastnes doe hate
And changed be: yet being rightly wayd
They are not changed from their frst estate;
But by their change their being doe dilate:
And turning to themselues at length againe,
'" A full discussion ofvcstigcs of the Trinity is in Wind, Pagan Mysteries, p. :42. Sec also Milton
Anastos, 'Pletho's Calendar and Liturgy', DumbartoTl Oaks Paper, 4 ( 1 948), 290.
' A number of medieval Neoplatonic commentators (in particular, members of thc school of
Chartres) linked Nature (emissary of the divine) with R1 (the intelligible emanation of the
One). In the Cosmographia or Bernard Silvcstris, a work it is likely Spenser knew, Nays and
Nature arc presented as complementary entities. A Brian Stock remarks about the
Cosmographia, 'Nays never appears on stage alone. She is virtually always accompanied by
Natura'. Stock, Myth and Science in l/u Twelfth CCIlur: 1 Study of Berard Silvester (Princeton,
1972), p. 95. In De planclu Naturae,
Nature 'coins the pure ideas ofNoys'. Alain de Lillc, The
Complaint ofNature, trans. Douglas Moffat (New Haven, Ig08), p. .
' M
J.B. Allen, Marsilio Picina: The Phi/th/ls Commentary (Berkeley, 1979). p. 98.
THOMAS BULGER
Doe worke their owne perfection so by fate:
Then ouer them Change doeth not rule and raigne;
But they raigne ouer change, and doe their states maintaine.
(vIl.vii.S8)
Telescoping perfection and change in this way, Nature's sentence has
sometimes been accused of intellectual inconsistency." But these
logical contradictions are excusable and indeed appropriate if
Nature is regarded as the intuitive, apprehensive wisdom of no us that
Plotinus distinguishes from discursive reason (Enneads v. I . I I ) . As
Rosalie Colie notes, this speech has a precise Neoplatonic import,
recalling the ffth Ennead's 'discussion of the dilation of forms from
Form." Nature's speech also is similar to the following passage from
the sixth Ennead:
The soul's movement will be about its source; to this it will hold, poised
intent towards that unity to which all souls should move and the divine souls
always move, divine in virtue of that movement; for to be a god is to be
integral with the Supreme. (Enneads VI.9.8)
Seeking to return to the pure being of the One, each created being
engages in the process of perfecting itself within the limits of its own
peculiar nature. Nature's answer reconciles the simultaneous existence
of being and becoming. In this presentation of Nature, the poem
suggests a circular equation: Nature=Being; Being = nous;
nous = Beauty; Beauty = Being; Being = Nature.
Canto VII closes with a celebration of the mysterious unity that
reigns over the universe. Mutabilitie is chastened and subdued, 'put
downe and whist' (vlI.vii.59). In turn, Jove is 'confrmed in his
imperiall see' (VII. vii.59), restoring the hierarchical order in the
World Soul. Having reconciled the two warring oppositions in the
World Soul, Nature disappears 'whither no man wist' (vII.vii.59).
Nature's vanishing hints at the mystical ecstasies that Plotinus speaks
of as resulting from a union with the Absolute One. Yet Nature's fnal
words are a reminder that this transcendent harmony cannot be
known, described, or realised with the limits of temporality: 'But time
" For instance, sec Arnold Davidson, 'Dame Nature's Shifting Logic in Spenser's Cntos oj
Mutabititie', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 83 ( l g82), 451-6.
"" Rosalie Colic, Paradoxica Epidemica: TieRenaissance Tradition o Paradox (Princeton, Ig66). pp.
345
-

Platonism in Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos 1 37
shall come that all shall changed bee, / And from thenceforth, none no
more change shall see' (vII.vii.59).
Until canto VIII, Mutabilitie demonstrates the compatibility of
classical metaphysics an
d
Christian theology in addressing ontological
and epistemological matters. Platonism and Christianity are analogous
in that they both articulate the soul's desire to return to a
transcendent One. And for Spenser as well as the Florentine
Platonists, Platonism is an important vehicle in arriving at an
intellectual appreciation of the various dimensions of being. But all
such intellectual constructs, all words, all images, are inadequate -
whether by accident or design, the last canto is entitled, 'The
VIII. Canto, unperfi te'. Perfection in its absolute eschatological sense
will always remain incommunicable and incomprehensible.
So it is that poem closes not with philosophic acceptance but with a
Christian prayer; appropriately for a Christian humanist, Spenser
completes his literary Platonic hymn with a liturgical Christian
hymn." The final stanza is not a request for a perfection of vision
occuring in time but for a sight of divine perfection beyond time. Prior
to canto 8, Mutabilit!
e
has shown the value and validity in Platonism's
ontological categories. The Christian elements Spenser introduces in
his description of Nature are the frst signs that Mutabilitie even as it
incorporates the framework of Platonic thought (the three hypostases)
also goes beyond this framework. But it is only at the very highest level
of being that the hermeneutics of Platonism and Christianity stand
apart. The crucial diference lies in the personal relationship between
God and soul found in Christianity but absent from Neoplatonic
conception of a transcendent, impersonal One. The intellectual
solace provided by the concept of the Platonic Ones does not match
the spiritual comfort of a caring and concerned creator. The poem
ends unambiguously not with a hymn to the Neoplatonic One but to
the God of Christianity: '0 that great Sabbaoth God, graunt me that
Sabaoths sight' (vlI.viii. 2) . The cosmic piety of the Platonic hymn is
not fnally a substitute for or identical to the monotheistic piety of the
24 That Mutabilitie draws on the properties of the hymn is suggested not only by its content but
also by its form. A tripartite structure informs classical hymns: a divine power is invoked,
followed by a discussion of the god's impact on crcation, ending with a prayer for salvation.
The narrative unfolding of Mutabilitie displays a comparable pattern. This patter of moving
from Platonic to Christian hymn may be seen in Syncsius, who completes his cycle of nine
Platonic hymns w
'
ith a tenth Christian hymn. Syncsius, TIle Esays alld Hymns o SY1Usius o
Cyrene, translated by Augustine Fitzgerald, 2 vols (Oxford, 1930).
THOMAS BULGER
Christian hymnist. Thus, though Mulabililie shows the many
correspondences between Neoplatonic and Christian concepts of the
soul's ascent to divine illumination, the poem also confirms the
significant diferences separating these two epistemologies that
preclude any absolute synthesis.
CHAPTER 1 3
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonists
Dominic Scott
The Cambridge Platonists had a distinctly ambivalent attitude
towards one of Plato's most well-known doctrines, the Theory of
Recollection (anamnesis). (See Anne Sheppard, pp. 9-10). On the one
hand they embraced a close relative of the theory, the doctrine of
innate ideas, which was bound up with their laudably Platonic belief
that learning is essentially a matter of drawing upon one's own
resources rather than relying wholesale on extrinsic sources. On the
other hand they rejected, for a variety of reasons, any literal version of
recollection itself This essay will explore what led them into
something of a love-hate relationship with Platonic recollection.' I
shall confine my discussion to those of them whose writings were most
.extensive on this subject, Whichcote, More and Cudworth. First,
however, a note about the theory itself It frst appears in Plato's Meno
(81 a sq.), and Socrates attempts to demonstrate it by taking a slave
boy and asking him questions about a geometrical fgure drawn in the
sand. At frst the slave gives the wrong answers but after repeated
questions solves the problem. At the end, Socrates insists that he never
taught the boy anything, but only asked questions (85b-d) . As the
boy has never been taught geometry before in his life, Socrates
concludes that he must have had the knowledge within him even
before he entered his body: the retrieval of this knowledge is
recollection. The theory reappears in the sligh tly later dialogue, the
Phaedo (72e sq.) where it is bound up with the newly emerging theory
offorms. Again, the soul is said to have knowledge before it enters the
body, but now the objects of this knowledge are 'forms' -such as those
of beauty, goodness, justice and equality -which are not accessible to
sense-perception. Apart from these two passages, and a brief reference
I For a fuller treatment of this SUbJect, sec my 'Platonic Recollection and Cambridge
Platonism', Hermalhena, '49 (1 990), 73-97
1 39
DOMI NI C SCOTT
i n the Phaedrus (249b-c), the theory is not mentioned anywhere else in
Plato. Whether or not this is because Plato ceased to believe in it is a
notoriously difcult question. But whatever the answer, one thing is
certain: the theory itself has become one of Plato's most famous
doctrines.
WHI CHCOTE
The leading fgures of the Cambridge Platonist movement were
Benjamin Whichcote, Henry More and Ralph Cudworth, and the
theory of innate ideas played a central role in their thought. I shall
start with Whichcote, concentrating on his theology, not because the
views expressed are exclusive to him - they were also pervasive in
More and Cudworth - but because it is in his works that they are set
out with the greatest clarity. Whichcote believed that religious truth
comes from two sources: one is the light of reason which is the light of
God's creation, the other the light of scripture or revelation.' God
teaches man frst by instilling principles into his very nature and then
by biblical revelation. The second source is necessary because man,
after his fall, has apostatised from his natural principles and needs to
be recalled. Whichcote describes the light of reason as being,
connatural to Mao, it is the light of God's creation, and it fows from the
principles of which Man doth consist, in his very frst Make: this is the soul's
complexion. (Sermons, Ill, 20)3
Examples of these truths, or 'truths of the frst inscription', are:
good Afection and submission towards God, the instances of justice and
righteousness towards men, and temperance to himself. (Sermons, III, 28)
For Whichcote these concreated principles fow from man's essentially
deiform nature: man was made in God's image and his reason is a
'deiform seed'. In another analogy, Whichcote talks of reason as the
'Candle of the Lord', a light derived from God to direct us towards
Him. (Sermons, Ill, 1 87; c Proverbs 20. 27) These principles are thus
natural to man, 'part of his very make' (Sermons, III, 52, 2 1 0, 346; IV,
58), and their naturalness is a vitally important theme for Whichcote.
(Sermons, III, 53, 1 66) He stresses that nothing could be more
2 Whichcote, Moral and Religious Aphorisms ( 1 703; London, 1 753), Aphorism 109.
Whichcote, Sermons, 4 vols ( 1 6g8: Aberdeen, 1 753).
L
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonists
1 41
umiatural than disobedience to the principles of our reason or
conscience. (Sermons, III, 142, 346) As he puts it elsewhere,
It is not more natural for light things to move upward, and heavy things
downward, than for mind and understanding to move toward God. (Semons,
II 347, Igo)
Nothing is deeper imprinted in Human nature, than righteousness, fairness,
benevolence. (Semons, IV, 43-4; cf Ill, (87)
Whichcote s
e
es reason as,a seed sown by God or a 'seminal principle':
when God made a rational creature) he made a creature more proportional
to the efects of reason and so to religion than when he made any natural
principle in the world: and if a man do not walk up to the principle of reason
he is a monster. (Semons, III, 2 1 1 )
So far we have heard nothing of the term 'innate idea' and it may
seem difcult to see why Whichcote's 'truths of frst inscription'
amount to any sort of doctrine on innate ideas. To make the
connection it h
e
lps to borrow an analogy fmm Descartes. He talked of
ideas being innate to the mind like diseases in certain families, such a
gout. Whereas members of such families will only contract some other
disease, if exposed to certain specifc conditions they are predisposed
to contract gout whatever their external conditions - even if they
never touch a drop of port in their lives. Similarly, there are some
ideas or beliefs which we form only if exposed to a very specifc range
of stimuli (e.g. that pineapples have yellow fesh). But there are
others, such as the idea of God, that we are predisposed to form
whatever our experience. These are the innate ideas. To be precise, it
is not the ideas themselves that are innate but the predispositions to
form them! This Cartesian analogy helps to explain Whichcote's
position. The truths offrst inscription are those that all men by their
very nature are predisposed to form wherever, whenever, and
however they happen to live. The acceptance of these truths is natural
and inevitable, and the truths that derive from reason, as opposed to
those of the scriptures, command universal consent as much from
heathens as from Christians (Sermons, IV, 109, 352-3, 436).
Although truths of frst inscription are connatural to us, we fail to
4 For Decartes' innatism, see Meditation s in Tie Philosophical Works ofDescartes, trans. E.S.
Haldane and G.R.T. Ross, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1984), I p. 160. Descartes draws the analogy
with innate disease in Notes against a Certain Progrmme, Philosophical Works, I p. 42.
DOMINIC SCOTT
live up to them (Serons, III, 52) , and so we need revelation to recall us
to our true selves, i.e. our rational selves. (It is on this issue of
redemption that Whichcote's Platonism is most explicit: in his
account of man's fall and redemption he recalls the myth of the fallen
charioteer in Plato's Phaedrs - II. 1 72; 11. 1 60) Whichcote's espousal of
concreated truths natural to man does not lead him to neglect the
necessity for revealed truth because we need scriptural revelation, the
second source of Cod's illumination (Serons, 1, 370-2; 380; IV, 78), to
awaken and return us to the natural light (Serons, III, 1 90) .
Nevertheless, i n a number of passages he does give natural light
priority over revelation: it has a 'deeper foundation' (III, 1 22) ,
revelation being i n certain respects dependent upon reason. Revelation
is necessary only for the sake of bringing us back to the natural light,
had we never apostatised from the natural principles there would be
no need for it. Further, revelation must presuppose natural truth:
revealed truth would mean nothing to us if we did not already have
within us the light of reason, however dim it may be. We would not be
able to understand what we were being recalled to:
For had there not been a law written in the heart of man, a law without
would have done very little. No man can prove anything to him that grants
nothing: and he that knows nothing grants nothing. (Serons, III, 1 22)
The dependence of revelation upon natural truth brings us to one
of the most distinctive features of Whichcote's thought: again and
again he tells us never to accept anything in religion not agreeable to
reason. There must be an acceptance from within of the truths of
revelation. Ifsomeone espouses scriptual truth without understanding
it in the light of their own reason their religion will be hollow. I t is
only when revelation is referred back to reason that it can make any
sense. It is not enough then for someone to be well educated and
instructed in religion or to accept it because it is the religion of their
culture. They must weigh up and examine that religion for themselves
and only then can it be frmly rooted. Elsewhere he makes this point
by distinguishing between someone who merely accepts dogma like a
vessel and someone who assents to the truth because they have
understood it. Here Whichcote is showing a strongly anti-Calvinist
leaning. What emerges from a number of sermons is a radical
disagreement between Whichcote's rational theology and the Calvinist
view that man's faculties are so feeble as to preclude the use of reason
almost completely from religion. To a Calvinist, it is not reason on
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonists 143
whi
c
h we should rely but the Bible. For Whichcote, man's reason is a
derived light enabling him to see the truth of certain principles.
Hence, man has his own

ontribution to make through his God-given

reason. Whichcote was thus utterly opposed to what he perceived as
the Biblical dogmatism of certain Calvinists (Sermons, IV, (42).'
As I said at the beginning of this section, al though these views are so
closely associated with Whichcote, he is not their only advocate.
More
and Cudworth both agrce with him on the essential point that
the
mind of man is not a passive thing, a vessel that simply has truths
pour
ed into it, but is endowed with its own power of coming to accept
mora
l and religious truth. I n his Sermon preached bifore the House of
Com
mons in 1 647,' Cudworth insists that religion without the inner
light is empty canting; and More's antipathy to the non-rational
surfaced in his opposition to religious 'enthusiasm': the belief that one
is directly inspired by God and so has no need to consult authority,
scripture, or even reason: 'one man, one religion'. Like Whichcote, he
saW enthusiasm as the enemy of rational consideration: it 'disposes a
man to listen to the magisterial dictates of an over-bearing phansy,
more than to the calm and cautious insinuations of free reason'.' For
Biblical dogmatism substitute frenzied and fanciful conviction in
one's own inspiration. But the result is the same: an unthinking and
uncritical acceptance of principles which, even if they are true, can
only
be accepted at the most superfcial level.
MORE AND CUDWORTH
Let me now turn to the philosophical aspect of innatism. More and
Cudworth argued at length for the priority of spirit over matter,'
especially for the priority of the human mind over its body and it was
this that led them to espouse innate ideas. Ifspirit and mind are prior
to
matter, human thought is the product not of material bombardments
on our
senses but of the creative activity of the mind. The theory of
innate ideas was thus central to their view of man and led them to
enga
ge in some fierce anti-empiricist polemic.
More does so at the beginning of his Antidote Against Atheism ( 1 653)
where he attacks the tabula rasa theory on the grounds that many of
Compa
re Whichcote's third letter to Tuckncy, Aphorisms, pp. 108-g.
0 TIlt Cambridge Platonists, edited by C.A. Patridcs (London, (969), p. ro8.

Morc,
A Collection ojSeveral Philosophical Writings, V vols (London, 1662), I Jlhltsiasmus
(riump/loIIIS, p.
" Cambridge Pla/onisls, cd. Patridcs, pp. 25-31 .
'
4

DOMINIC S COTT
our ideas are not implanted by external objects but merely stimulated
by them; the mind has an 'active sagacity' that, when prompted, will
produce ideas from within itself. Perception does not produce the
ideas as if they had never been there before in any form: it acts merely
as a catalyst for bringing out those latent ideas into full consciousness.
He then compares this to a musician who is asleep but is then
awakened by a friend and asked to sing a song, given the opening
words. 'Upon so slight an intimation' the musician is jogged into a
full-blown recital.
.
Cudworth championed the essentially active nature of the mind as
a source of innate truth both in the Treatise concering Eternal a
Immutable Moralir and the True Intellectual System ofthe Universe. 1 O At
one point in the System, as part of a sustained attack against atheism,
he attempts to demolish the claim that the idea of God is an invention
of astute politicians devised as a means of subduing their subjects (p.
693) . After pointing out the difculty this thesis has in explaining why
the concept of God is sO similar in all places, he asks how the
politicians could impose the idea of God on the subjects if these
subjects did not have it already. Ideas cannot simply be poured into
people as if into vessels. The idea has to come from within. Here
Cudworth is insisting that the human mind is not a passive thing that
can be manipulated by politicians, any more than by sense
perception. It comes with its own active sagacity, and no ideas can be
created except by that means, which derives ultimately from God.
There is a common strand that runs throughout the philosophical
anti-empiricism of More and Cudworth and Whichcote's theological
innatism. In both contexts the mind is seen to have its own connatural
and active sagacity. Far from being the creature of external factors, it
comes to those infuences with its own natural resources. In theology
the external factor is revelation acting as a reminder of our interal
state. With no innate resources scripture could not mean anything to
us and could produce no religion. In the philosophical fght against
empiricism the position is analogous. If there were no internal
sagacity all the bombardments of sense would be powerless to
produce our ideas: however many similar objects we saw, we would
" Morc, An AnlidoleagainsJAtlltism,l.v, p. 17 i nA Collection, 1. Asifto recan the Meno, More's frst
examplesofinnatcideas come from gometry, but ultimatdy, he wishes to show that the idea
of God as necessarily existent is innate.
l0
Cudworth's Trealise was published posthumously (London, 1731). HisSyslem was published
in London in 1678.
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonists 1 45
have no idea of similarity; if we had no innate idea of God, no one
could lead us to form the idea. Neither the Bible nor politicians nor
sense impressions will have any efect without an innate source.
RECOLLECTI ON AND PRE-EXI STENCE
Interestingly enough Whichcote, More and Cudworth all compare
their theorie of innate ideas to recollection. As Whichcote puts it, 'No
sooner doth the Truth of God come to our soul's sight, but our soul
knows her, as her frst and old Acquaintance' (Sermons, III, i8). In
More's analogy of the musician reminded of a tune, he talks of the
soul's active sagacity being merely 're-minders' (Antidote, I.V.2). For
Cudworth, the soul's apprehension of its ideas is like someone looking
into a crowd of unknown faces and then suddenly recognising one of
them as that of an old friend ( Treatie, p. 1 28) . " Here they all invoke
recollection as a metaphor for the way in which, in some sense,
knowledge is already in us. But metaphor was as far as they would go:
recollection in its literal form is kept frmly out of bounds. An obvious
reason for this might seem to be that it involves a doctrine, the
pre-existence of the soul, which conficts with the orthodox Christian
view that the soul is created along with the body. We need, however,
to tread carefully here. Pre-existence need not be considered inimical
to the very essence of Christianity. Some Christians have believed in
it, among them the church father Origen, according to whom God
created all souls at the beginning of time, and all but one, by the
exercise of their individual wills, proceeded to fall away from Him.
Eventually, some fell so far away that they were punished with
incarnation. The one soul that remained true became so close to God
that it became divine, i.e. Christ (De principiis, n.g.6).
Now Cudworth had no sympathy at all with this position. For him,
God's majesty must be realised in the perpetual creation of souls. The
notion of a God who creates all souls at the beginning of time and then
sits back as a spectator letting nature look after itself as if it were a
godless world is at variance with His true nature (System, pp. 43-4) '
Thus for Cudworth the case against recollection was simple: it
involved an unacceptable commitment to the pre-existence of the
soul. But More, who also rejected recollection, must have had other
reasons because he, like Origen before him, cheerfully espoused
' * Sec the Preface to 'The Pre-existcncy of the Soul' in More's PMifsophicai Poems (Cambridge,
1647) and The Immortali! oJte Soul (London, 1 659). II, pp. 12-13.
DOMI NI C S COTT
pre-existence. In his Poem ( 1 647) he hazarded the view that
pre-existence was a reasonable opinion; later ( 1 659) he embraced the
doctrine whole-heartedly, citing Origen among others. Yet, although
More believed in pre-existence, he did not accept recollection along
with it. In one of his attacks on Thomas Vaughan he argues against
recollection explicity:12 admitting that Plato was quite right in the
Meno to point out that the slave boy's learning comes from within, he
takes issue with Plato's inference from this to recollection on two
counts: frst, there is no perception or awareness of re
c
ollection; and
second, the slave boy's achievement could equally well be explained
by God's creating a soul, endowing it with knowledge of geometry
and then incarnating it.
In the second criticism of recollection in the Meno More argues that
the inwardness oflearning does not have to imply pre-existent souls
another possibility is that God equipped the boy to learn. This of
course is the line that Whichcote and Cudworth would take.
Remember that the reason of man is the candle of the Lord; it is a
God-given, hence derived light, enabling us to see the eternal truths.
Recollection is thus unnecessary. The point had already been made
by Augustine (De trinitate XII. I 5) : making a parallel between sensible
and intellectual vision he said that in order to see we do not need
memory, only light; similarly for intellectual vision we do not need
memory of the Platonic variety, only the divine light. So More
accepts pre-existence but denies recollection: the soul in its previous
state would originally have had explicit knowledge but, as its fall
approached, failed to keep up its rational and intellectual activity. In
its incarnate state the soul cannot remember anything of its previous
state, not even the intellectual truths it once contemplated. This does
not mean, however, that the soul does not have access to those truths
by a route other than recollection. Both now and before its
incarnation, the soul can know these truths by the divine light which
accounts for its active sagacity. Recollection is unnecessary because
the faculty by which the soul knew before is still intact.
More, like the other Camb
r
idge Platonists, had substituted the
theory of illumination for recollection and if we now set these two
theories side by side we can see the true signifcance of the diferences
between them. In proposing recollection in the Meno and the Phaedo,
Plato attempted to explain human learning by appealing to facts
about the soul's past, but making no appeal to the presence of any
t2
Morc, Tie Second Lash of Ala;ollmastix (Cambridge, t6SI). Sec reprint in Immortality, p. 209.
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonists
1 47
divine agent. Conversely, More explicitly excludes reference to the
soul's previous history in explaining human learning and instead
appeals to the continuing presence of the divine light. In as much as
recollection makes no m
e
ntion of a divine agent working in man, it is
unacceptable to the Cambridge Platonists. For them, to overlook the
presence of light is almost to deny the presence of God in man, and yet
God's continued and continual illumination is at the core of their
thought. Indeed, one of the most important aspects of the appeal to
light as a metaphor is that it directs us to the notion of divine presence.
Recollection as the sole source of our knowledge, on the other hand,
would imply that God has left man to his own devices. This is
something that all the Cambridge Platonists would have strongly
denied. Whichcote, for instance, often talks of God dwelling in man,
or man as the 'mansion' of God (Sermons, IV, 74; III, 2 1 2) , and
Cudworth's sermon to the House of Commons talks of the divine light
as a living spirit."
These grounds for the rejection of recollection are important for
our comparison between Plato and the Platonists because they rest on
an opposition between recollection and an inescapable tenet of
Cambridge Platonism - divine illumination and divine presence.
None of their other objections to recollection rest on a point so crucial
to the Cambridge movement as this. Cudworth's argument against
pre-existence, for instance, was disputed by More, his own colleague.
But while they could tolerate friendly disagreement on this issue, it is
difcult to see how they could have remained in the same movement if
one had denied the perpetual presence of the divine light in man.
Thus it is here that we fnd a fundamental disagreement between
Plato and the Platonists, one which stems from the theological
signifcance of their catch-phrase, 'candle of the Lord' 14.
I NWARDNESS OF LEARNI NG
At this point i t might be tempting to conclude that as far as recollection
is concerned the diferences between Plato and the Cambridge
Platonists are considerably more signifcant than the similarities. Butit
would be a mistake to let Plato's theory drop out of the picture
altogether because from another angle there is a parallel between the
' Cudworth Sermon, in Camhridge Plalonisls, cd. Patrides, p. 108.
1 4 This disagreement is specifcally with the author of the Meno and the Plaedo, When we come
to the Republic and its analogy between the form of the good and the sun, there is greater scope
for agreement between Plato and the Cambridge Platonists.
DOMINIC S COTT
twotheoriesthattouchesbothphilosophiesattheirsource.Cousider
thebackgrouudtoPlato'stheoryasitissetoutiutheMeno. Mosto| the
expositiouo|recollectiouiscouceutratedintotheexamiuatiouo|the
slave-boyiuwhichSocratestriestoshow that whattheboyleans
comes|romwithiu.wekuowthathehasueverhadtheopportuuityto
learuthesethiugsbe|ore,audwewituessthatSocratesisuotteachiug
him,i.e. uotgiviughim the auswersoriustilliugopiuiousiutohim.
Heisplayiugtheparto|thecatalystaudgettiugtheslaveboytomake
useo| hisowuresourcesaudtodrawthekuowledgeout|romwithiu.I u
mauyrespectstheexamiuatiouisademoustratiouo| whatshouldhave
beeuhappeuiugbetweeuMeuoaudSocrateswheutheydiscussedthe
uatureo| virtueiuthehrstparto|thedialogue|;oa-8od).Iudeed,the
dialoguebetweeuSocratesaudslave-boyseemstomirrortheearlier
oue betweeu Socrates aud Meuo. questious are asked, auswers
couhdeutlygiveu, theu astateo|puzzlemeuteusues.
ButSocratesis uot simply euactiuga re-ruu o|hiscouversatiou
with Meuo wheu he examiues the slave-boy. he is oeriug some
advicetoboth.Theslave-boy,heclaims,isdrawiugkuowledgerom
withiu aud providedhe coutiuues todo this|orhimsel|will attaiu
geuuiueuuderstaudiug|8d).Butwhattheslave-boyhasjustdoueis
iu sharp coutrast to what we are told |implicitly) about Meuo's
previous iutellectual history. Meuo, it trauspires, is a pupil o|the
sophistGorgias,audiuhisbrashse!|-couhdeucehasclaimedtohave
learut the uature o|virtue |rom his master. (Meno 7I C, ;c, ;6b,
g8d)'Socratesuses themethodo|cross-examiuatioutoexposethe
shallowuess o|Meuo'slearuiugaud, iu doiugso, alsoexposes the
barreuuesso|themethod by whichhewas taught.The method iu
questiou was thato|memorisiugwhat the masterhassaid:audit
seemsthatMeuo'steacherGorgiaswasakeeuadvocateo| it.'Now
coutrastthiswithSocrates're!uctaucetotakeoutheroleo|teacher
rather thau that o|questiouer. Aware o|this diereuce betweeu
himsel|audGorgias,heimplies- lessaud!esssubtlyasthedialogue
progresses - that Meuo has uot attempted to uuderstaud what
Gorgiassaid,butmerelyaccepteduucriticallytheprououucemeutso|
a|amousuame,audattemptedtorecitethemupoudemaud. What
1 3 It should be noted that what Gorgias was profesing to pas on to Meno was an answer to the
question 'what i virtue?' Meno 95c shows that Gorgias did not claim to teach virtue itself.
I6
For evidence ofGorgias' teaching methods, see Aristotle, Sophistid tnchi la3b.
l7
On this see my 'Innatism and the Stoa') Proceedings ofthe Cambridge Philological Socie9, 3rd
series 34 (J989), 1 31-2, especially note 20.
Reason, recollection and the Cambridge Platonits r o
he|ailed todo wastodrawknowledge|rom within, what Gorgias
|ailedtodowastoactasacatalysttohelphischargelearn|orhimsel|.
Insteadhetookontheroleo|theonewhosimplypourswaterintoa
vessel.

AlthoughtheseideasabouteducationwereoriginallySocraticin
charactertheyremainedhrmlyentrenchedinPlato'sownthought,
and not simply as a convenient stepping-stone to the theory o|
recollection.Heiskeentoinsistuponthehrstthemequiteindependently
o|thesecond.Agoodexamplecomes|romthePhaedruswhich |eatures
aparadoxicalattackon

theuse|ulnesso|thewritten word. writing

can only remind us o|what we already know |e;c-e;;a). This
passageismuchlaterthanthere|erenceinthatdialoguetothetheory
o|recollection,andsoquiteindependento|it.NowPlato'stheoryo|
recollectiondisappears|romhisworks a|ter thePhaedrus. Thesame
cannotbesaido|theinsistenceon theinwardnesso| learning. Ina
laterdialoguewhichmakesnomentiono| recollection,theTheaetetus,
Socratesinvokestheanalogyo|midwi|erytodescribetherolehewill
playinhelpinghisinterlocutortodrawanswers|romwithinhimsel|
asi|theywerebabies| : esq.).A in theMeno, Socratesdisclaims
anyabilitytoteachhisinterlocutor,nevertheless,themostpromising
way o|makingprogress will be |or Socrates to helpTheaetetus to
drawideas out|rom himsel!.
ItshouldnotbedimculttoseetheclearparallelbetweenPlatoand
the Cambridge Platonists. For Whichcote, the true use o|reason
involvesthinking|oryoursel|and theuseo|reasonisessential|oran
understandingo|revealed truth. Withoutthe oue, anything learnt
|romtheotherissupercia!.WhatWhichcotehad tosayaboutthe
dehciencieso|aCalvinisteducationhadalsobeensaidbyPlatoabout
GorgiasinhisdealingswithMeno.Thereisalsoaremarkableparallel
between Plato's attitude in the Phaedrus to the written word and
Whichcote's to revelation: ultimately, writing and revelation can
onlybringusbacktowhatwealreadyknow. Cudworth,eveni|he
does not accept recollection, completely endorses the 'maieutical'
elementsinit. Whenarguingagainsttheatheisticalnotionthatthe
ideao|Godwasputintothemindso|menbydeviouspoliticians,he
drawsupontheanalogyo|themidwi|e.Ideasarenotputintomenby
mere words, and even i|learning is not reminiscence, 'yet is all
teachingbutmaieuticalandobstretitious,andnota thehllingo|the
soul as a vessel, meerly by pouring into it |rom without, but the
kindlingo|it|romwithin'(System, p.6o).IntheTreatise thePlatonic
DOMI NI C S COTT
para||e|isatitsmostexp|icit.Iuthecourseo| auotherauti-empiricist
argumeut, Cudworth c|aims that true kuow|edge is best attaiued
wheuweretireiutoourselvesaudatteud to

ouriuwarduotious. He
coutiuues.
And therefore it is many times observed that over-much reading and hearing
of other men's disourses, though leared and elaborate, doth not only
distract the mind, but also debilitates the intellectual powers, and makes the
mind passive and sluggish, by calling it too much outwards. Fr which cause
that wise philosopher Socrates altogether shunned that dogmatical and
dictating way of teaching used by the Sophisters of that Age and chose rather
an Aporetical and Obstreticious method; because knowledge was not to be
poured into the soul like liquor but rather to be invited and gently drawn
forth from it; nor the mind so much to be flled therewith from without, like a
vessel, as to be kindled and awakened. ( Treatie, p. 1 37)
Cudworthisrea||yspeakiug|orhisco||eaguesaswe||here.itisiu
exact|y the same spirit that More rebukes the euthusiast aud
WhichcotetheBible-cautiugCalviuist.Theymayhaverejectedthe
Theoryo|Reco||ectiouiuits|itera|versiou,buttheydidespousethe
ideasthatgaverisetoitaudthatweremaiutaiuedeveuiudialogues
|romwhichitis abseut, aud, i|it is true that|or P|ato himse||the
iuwarduessollearuiugismorebasicthaurecollectiouitsell,thispoiut
o| agreemeut betweeu P|ato aud the Cambridge P|atouists is
u|timate|ymoresiguincaut thau their diereuces.
CHAPTER : |
Platonic ascents and descents zn Milton
Anna Baldwin
Itisusual|orcriticstonndevidenceo|PlatonicinuenceonMilton
mainlyinhisearlypoetry,notablyinComus | , 63|) , whereItoowill
start. Here Miltonseemstousea'dualist'view olnature, inwhich
spirit, which is good, is contaminated by matter, which is bad.
Although I will argue that he discards this view in Paradise Lst
|written about t 68-6), I willshow thathereplacesit notby an
orthodoxChristianviewo|nature,butbyanotherkindo|Platonism,
the'emanationist'viewassociatedwithPlotinus,andthatthisvivihes
his understanding ol nature and ol man. Though both uses o|
Platonismcanbesetinthecontextoltheactualseventeenth-century
debatesabouttherelationshipbetween themindand thebody,we
should see Milton's use o| them as largely metaphoric, ways o|
approaching the mysteries o|natureand man, rather thanoering
philosophical explanations. For as Madsen reminds us. 'The only
relevantquetioniswhat|unctiondotheseideashaveinthepoemitsel|.

COMUS
P|ato'sdualismiseasyenoughtohnd.ThePhaedo, theRepublic, and
the Timaeus |all o|whichMilton knew),describe thesoul as being
imprisonedinabodydrivenbyitsownimper|ectpassions,andwhich
mustberejectedilthereasonandintellectinherentinthesoulareto
survive.Thebodycannothelpitsimper|ection,becauseitismadeo|
matter,whichisultimatelysubjecttoan'ErrantCause'outsideGod's
1 W.G Madsen e Qt., Three Studies ill the Renaissance (New Haven, 1958), p. 233. Studies of
Milton's Platonism include: M. Agar, Millon 01 Plolo (Princeton. 1 928) Ch. 2; R.B.
Levinson, 'Milton and Plato', Modem Language Noles, 46 (1931), 85-91 ; D. Saurat, Millon,
Man alld T. r (London, 1944). pp. 1 13f; I. Samuel, Platoaud Miltoll (Cornell, 1947); E.C.
Baldwin, 'Milton and Plato's Timaeus', PMLA, 35 ( 1 920), 21 0-1 7; S, Fallon, Millon amongihe
Plilosophe (Columbia, 1991), pp. 79-89, setting the poct in context.
ANNA BALDWIN
control.Fol|owingtheleadgivenbycriticssuchas]ayne,wecan
usethesephilosophicaltenetstoexplainthesymbolismo|Comus. The
Ladywanders'Intheb|indmazeso|thistangledwood'||. : 8o)like
theprisonersPlatodescribesintheRepublic. TheAttendantSpirit,on
theotherhand,hasescaped'thispin|old' |l.;),andis|reetoinhabit
the aether which hlls thespace above the moon. The Lady can
inhabitthispurerrealminhermind,butnotiuherbody,andthough
shemaywintheverbalbattlewithComus,hehaspowertomakeher
immobi|e. Hethere|oreseemstorepresentthe'Errant
r
ause'which
controls matter, though not the incorporeal upper world o|ideas
whichthemindcaninhabitthroughreasonandvirtue.TheLady's
stead|astnessinthesequa!itiespreventsComusfromturningherhead
intoananimal'sandsolosing'theexpressresemblanceo|theGods'
|I.0o),that 'round shapeo|theuniverse'whichthecreativegodsin
the Timaeus hadcopiedintormingthehumanhead|d) .Hermind
remains|ree,then,butherbodyissti|limprisoned,andsheneedsthe
graceo|Sabrinatoreleaseher|romimmobility|andindeed|romthe
play-worlditsel|).
YetSabrinaherse||seemsto suggesta goodness in thematerial
world, as 'Goddess o|the silver lake' |l.80). And even Comus'
animal-likeattendantsseemtohaveretainedtheabilityto'recognise
the harmonies and revolutions o| the world' which Socrates
recommendedasthehttestobjectso|study( Timaeus god).ForComus
claimsthat:
We tha t are of purer fre
Imitate the starry quire,
Who in their nightly watchful spheres,
Lead i n swift round the months nd years.
(1l. 1 1 I-14)
The quickeningrhythm o|thisenchantingpassagecertain|yseems
trueimitation o|that 'swi|i round' o|the planets. I|Comus does
representthedangerousdemandsandpowerso|matter, heisalsoa
beingwhocanrecogniseandbeaectedbytruth|ll.e6t-,;oo-8o),
andcanbeleduptoitbythehigherinuenceo|theLady.I|Comus
hasagoodside,andacapacitytochange,doesthisnotcontradictthe
2 See Republic, 507-21 (similes of sun, line and cave); Phaedo plsim.; Timaeus 48a-e (the Errant
Cause). Quotations from the Timels are taken from the translation by J. Warrington
(London, 1963).
S.Jayne, 'The Subject of Milton's Ludlow Masque', PMLA 74 ( 1 959), 533-43 and reference
given note I above.
` Quotations from Milton's poems are from The Poems ojMil Qn, ed. J. Carey and A. Fowler
(London, 1968), p. 5.
Platonic ascents and descents in Milton
i

:
ttendant Spirit's unequivocal rejection o|theearth in |avour o|
someincorporealmarriage betweenPsycheandtheCelestial Cupid
(II. I 002-I OI O)? The alternatives o| earth and heaven which the
masque |orm wou!d separate, are in eect |used by Milton's own
imagination,whichvalued thecreativityo|Comus'musicaswel!as
therationalityo|theLady'spentameters.Heneededamoreexible
philosophythandualism tosatis|y his idealswithoutsacrincinghis
tastes. And he needed one which was more compatible with
Christianity,inwhichGodcanbeincarnate,andthebodyresurrected
inheaven.
PARADI SE LOST
Thea!ternativeMiltonchoseinabout1 656 |orDe Doclrina Christiana
and |or Paradise Lost was derived |rom Plotinus' identihcation o|
goodness not with spirit |wholly incorporeal), but with being
|including bothcorporealandincorporeal being) . Only God truly
exists,andsoallthingsmustemanate|romandouto|God,andwi!!
eventually return to Him again. This conception o|creatio ex deo
|creationouto|God) impliesthatthematerialworldis goodinits
nature,andnotunderthedegradationo|an'ErrantCause'.Plotinus
explainsthisatseveralplacesintheEnneads, oienhal|-metaphorically.
[Intellect] reports that he has seen a god in labour with a beautiful offspring,
all of which he has brought to birth within him, and keeping the children of
his painless birth-pangs within himself . . . one son alone of all, has appeared
outside . . . But he says that it was not without purpose that he came forth
from his father; for his other universe [the material world] nustexist, which
has come into being beautiful, since it is an image of beauty . . . [and] since it
comes from that higher beauty. (Ennead v.8.I 2)5
This essentiallymonistphilosophycompr
.
hendsevil asthedep-
rivationo|beingorForm|sothatmatterwouldbeevi!onlyi|itwere
|orm!ess.I.8. IO). Iwillbeturningtothequestiono|evilattheendo|
thispaper,butnowIwanttolookat theCreationinParadise Losl asa
kind o|emanationist account. Forinordertodescribean un|al!en
world,awor!dasGodintendedittobe,Mi!tonneededaphilosophy
whichwould notlead inevitablytotheFalland theAtonement. It
waspreciselybecauseNeoplatonismdoesnotaccommodateideaso|
Original Sin and God's Atonement that Augustine, in his later
" Plotinus, cd. and trans. A.H. Armstrong, 7 vols (Locb Classical Library) (Cambridge, Mass.,
1966-88).
'
54 ANNA BALDWIN
writiugs,haddirectedChristiautheologyaway|romit.|seeColemau,
abovepp.e;-;). IutheCir qGod, herejectstheoptimisticPlatonic
accouuto| Creation|oradoctrineo| Creationouto|uothiug(creatio ex
nihilo), which is both closer to Genesisaud moreillustrative o|the
poweraud|reedomo| God.Iualluatureoulymauappearstohavethe
capacity |or good, and he loses this almosteutirely ater the Fall,
becomiugevenmoredependentouGod'sgrace.Inchoosinganolder
andlessorthodoxCreatioutheory|orhispoem,Miltouasevidently
settiugthesceue|orapossiblealteruativedestiuy|ormankiud, not
dependeutupontheRedemption,butuponthenaturalgooduesso|a
worldaudahumauitywhichhadcome|rom Godratherthau|rom
nothiuguess,andwasallmeauttoreturntoHim.Onlythenwouldthe
Fall o|Man comeasatragedywhichcouldhave beenavoided.
Milton ueed not have read Plotiuus |though Ficiuo's Latin
translatiou was widely available) tohave|ound theseideas. They
were Christiauised early ou by Byzautiue thiukers like Gregory o|
Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite aud Maximus, who had been
assimilated iuto the Latin West largely through ]ohn Scotus
Eriugenaintheniuthcentury.Hissystematised accouuto|Nature,
thePeriphyseon, opeuswithan'emanationist'explauatiouo|howall
Creationowsout|romGod,andisdestinedtoasceudbacktoHim.
Adamsouhasdemoustrated,albeitbriey, thatMilton'saccounto|
uature sometimes |ollows Eriugeua so closely as to suggest direct
iuueuce. Miltou also appears to use Hermetic ideas about the
creativityo:matter, which he may well have got through Robert
Fludd,whoseMosaicall Philosophy ( 1 638 in Latin, 1 659 iuEnglish)
wasauotherattempt torecoucileGeuesis withpagau philosphy.*
AthrstMilton's descriptiono|CreatiouinParadise Lost VII seems
tooanthropomorphic tobegenuiuely philosophical.
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by Thee
This I perform, speak thou, and be it done.
6 Sec in particular Augustine GgoJGd, xI.6; Cofessions, VIl (quarrel with Platonism). XL5-6
(creation); rejected by Milton, De Doc/rina 1.7.
7 Milton's Creation is particularly discussed in P.A. Fiore, Milton andAugusline (Pennsylvania,
1921), ch. I; D. Saurat. Milton, pp. I [3f
'
.; A.S.P. Woodhouse, 'Notes on Milton's Views on
the Creation: The Initial Phases', Philological Quarterl. 28 ( 1 949), ZI 1-3S;j.H. Adamson,
Milton and the Creation', JEGP, 61 ( l g62), 756-78; J.M. Evans, Milton and the Genesis
Traditio1l (Oxford, Ig68);J.H. Adamson, 'The Creation' in BrightEssence, cd. W.B. Hunter e
al. (Utah, 1973), pp. 8 1-1 02.
Other studies of Milton's Neoplatonic source include M.H. Nicolson, 'The Spirit World of
Milton and Morc', Studiesin Philology, 22 (1925), 433-52; Woodhouse, 'Milton's Vicws of the
Creation' (citing Fludd and Morc). Milton may also have known Philo, De Opijcie Mundi.
Platonic ascents and descents in Milton
My overshadowing spirit and might with thee
I send along, ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be heaven and earth,
Boundless the deep, because Iam who |l
Iunuitude,nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumscribed myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness.
(VII, 1 63-7 I )
1 55
Thisis ueither the creatiou out o|pre-existeut chaos|ouud iu the
( Timaeus 52d53d) , uorthecreatio ex nihilo |ouudiuStAugustiue.But
Mi|tou is uot beiug vague, he is iu |act deuiug two kiuds ot
emauatiou|romGodiuordertosupporthiscreatio ex deo theory.First
God creates matter |whichsharesHis substauce but has as yet uo
|orm), aud theu He begets His sou |who shares his esseuce) aud
commaudshimtomakematterparticipateiu|orm. Kelley,iu The
Great Argument, distiuguishesbetweeuCreatiouaudGeueratiouvery
caretu|ly,audpoiutsoutthattheSouismadeclearlysecoudaryasa
Cause:
Generation concerns the begetting of the Son; creation, the making of
highest heaven and the material universe . . . Thus the Son [by whom all
things were made) signifed only a delegated power, a secondary efcient
cause. Oulythe Father himself is the primary efcient cause, and only the
Father, embracing all causes is the material cause of the Universe.9
Bydigui|yiugthesubstauce o|Creatiou, aud reduciugthestatuso|
Christ,Miltouhaspreparedtheway|orhisaualysiso|the|reedomo|
uotoulymau,buto|allcreatiou.Nothiugcouldbe|urther|rom the
imperialistrolesometimesassiguedtoMi|tou'sGod.A|lthiugscome
|romHimaudsoallhavevalueaud,iusomeseuse,thecapacitytoact
|or themselves.
Miltou mayhave|ouud thisdoctriue,whichheworked outmore
explicitlyiuDe Doctrina, 1. 7, iuEriugeua'sPeriphyseon, BookI, where
Godisarguedtobetheembodimeuto|a|lthecauses,iucludiugthe
material oue, actiug through Christ.
Do not be surprised that bodies are created from incorporeal causes . . . while
the causes themselves are created by) and proceed from, one and the same
Cause that is creative of allthiugs.Forfrom the Form of all things, namely,
the only-begotten Word of the Father, every form is created. (I, 5D2A)
10
1 M. Kelley, The Great Argument (Gloucester, Mass., 1962), pp. 93-4'
' Tle Periphyseon, Books and .cd. and trans. I.P. ShcldonWilljams (Scriptores Latini Hibcriae,
VII and IX, Dublin, 968 and (972). On Eriugcna, sec]. Marcnbon, Early Medieval Philosophy
(Routledge, 1983), pp.
58-70.
ANNA B ALDWI N
Havingproceededdirectly|romGod,chaoticmatteristhrownoutto
itsgreatestdistance|romGod,lackingeven|orm. Itsdistance|rom
Godlendsit|reedom|asDanielsonhasargued) , ' anditsorigin|rom
Godmeansithasthecapacitytousethat|reedomtoreturntoGod
throughgenerating|orms |onceitisassistedinthisbyChrist) .The
naturalgoodnesso|ChaosisclearlydennedintheDe DoctTina,
It was a substance, and derivable from no other source than from the
fountain of every substance, though at first confused and formless, being
afterwards adorned and digested into order by the hand of God.l:
So also does Eriugena introduce in|antmatteras 'the hulko|the
earthlybody. . . notyetdeckedout(orata) withthediversgeneraand
specieso|buds,|ruitsand animals' (II, 8C).
ThenrstactwhichChristper|ormstoinitiatethereturno| Chaos
toGod,istogivetoparto|thismaterialhisDivineattributeso||orm
and creativity. He does this bysendinghis Spirit to warm and to
incubate the waters:
on the watery calm
His brooding wings the spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fuid mass, but downward purged
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life . . .
.vtt, aao)
From thispointontheelements themselves participateit: creation,
and this serves as a wonder|ulopening proo|that God's creatures
havethe|reedomtocreateandtoascend,aswellastodestroyandto
|al|. I t is as i|Milton were anticipating the Darwinian vision o|
sel|-propelled evolution, and that Christ is like Charles Kingsley's
characterMotherCarey,whocanmakethecreaturesmakethemselve
( The Water Babies, ch.;).Toenrichthemetaphor,Miltonintroduces
some Hermetic ideas, which he could have read either directly in
Ficino's Latin translation or Everard's English translation |see
Hutton.;above)or|oundinFludd.UsingthePlatonicconception
o|creationasaLivingCreature,theHermetica sawcreativepowerin
the Universe |orKosmos) itselt in the sun, andinwater.
Il n
.R. Danielson, Millon's Good God (Cambridge, 1982), p. 48.
' J. Milton, OfChristiaT Doctrine, Book I in Prose Works, cd. and trans. C.R. Sumner, 5 vols
(London, [953), IV, p. 1 79.
Platonic ascents and descents in Milton r ;
The Kosmos i s t o the things within it as a father to his children in that i t i s the
author of their generation and nutrition, but it has received from God the
supply of good . .
"
For God's Word, which is all-accomplishing and fecund
and creative, went forth, and finging himself upon the water, which was a
thing of fecund nature, made the water pregnant.13
F|udddevelopsthisprincip|eandtriestoreconci|eitwiththeBib|e.
Heamrms thata|though thesun contains thespirito|God which
vivihesthewor|dandcarriesthesou|downintoii,themateria|parto|
theuniversein|actderives|romthewaters|whichareoneo|thethree
primarye|ements, theothersbeing|ightanddarkness).
But the world is composed only of heaven and earth, and therefore it
followeth that the whole world is made and existeth of the waters . . . and the
compound-Creatures . . . namely Animal, vegetable or minerall, must in
respect of their materiall part or existence proceed from waters.14
Milton uses both principles, the |ecundity o| water, and the
supportiveandgenerativepowero|thesun|eacho|whichhecou|d
haveacceptedona purelymetaphorica||eve|) , tosuggest that the
Son on|y has to release this creative potentia| |or the p|ants and
anima|sto burst|rom theprimarye|ements. Waterwasmadenrst,
and|rom itsprings|ight |e-) and earth:
The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved . . .
|vu, a;0;)
Havingbeen|ermentedbythe'warmjPro|inchumour' |ll.e;o-8o)
o| the waters, the earth begins 'to conceive' |l. e8r ) not on|y
mountainsandrivers,butp|antstoadornthem|l.r )and,intime,
anima|stoenjoy them.
The earth obeyed, and straight
Opening her fertile womb teemed at birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms . . .
|||.-
Christ makes the |ights o|heaven Himsel, though retaining the
|ecundimagery |'And sowedwithstarstheheaventhickasane|d',
l.8),buttheirwarmthand'sweetinuence' |l.;)|urthervivi|y
l Hermelico, cd. and trans. W. Scott (Oxford, 1924), I pp. r8g, 545. cited pp. 331-2 in W.B.
Hunter, 'Milton and the ThriccGrcat Hermes', JEGP, 45 ( 1 946), 327-36; sec also Timaeus
30-1 , and Carey's note to Paradise Lost, VIl.233.
'` R. Fludd, Mosaicall Philosophy: Grounded upon lhe Essmliail Truth or Eteral Sapimce (London,
1659), p. 48, quoted in A.G. Debus, Robert Fludd and his Philosophical Ke (Science History
Publications, New York, 1979), pp. 12-13. see also pp. 78-9 in that treatise, and W.H.
Huffman, Robert Fludd olld l End of Ike Renaissallce (Routledge, 1988), pp. 1 05-to.
ANNA BALDWI N
thelowerelements. The watersgeneratensh |l.88) and the 'tepid
caves,and|ensandshores[Theirbroodasnumeroushatch'|l.i ;-8)
o| reptilesandbirds.Formseemstobeborno|matter,notimposedon
it,andwhenGodhnallymakesman'alivingsoul' |l.e8),thisisa
phrasewhichhasbeenusedbe|oreo|thehsh|l.88) .Manisspecialin
being breathed on by God, which gives him an internal and an
external resemblance to his maker, butheis not special in being
composedo|bothmaterialandimmaterialparts,norinbeing|ruit|ul
andable toparticipateinthecreationo|others |wi|ea:
,
dc
j
ildren),
norin being|ree todevelop his capacities.
I t isimportanttorealisethatthebirtho||orm|romoriginalmatter
isparto|thereturno|mattertoGod.ForEriugenatheoriginalchaos
shouldbedescribedas'mutable|ormlessness'whichbeginstoascend
whenitbeginstoparticipatein'adornmentand|ormandspecies'(I,
50I B) passing|romakindo|insubstantial matteronlyrecognisable
by themind, intorealand tangiblematter. Attheotherend o|its
journeyitwillpassagainintospirit,and this Eriugenadescribesin
mysticallanguageatthebeginningo|histreatise.
the sound intellect must hold that after the end cf this world every nature,
whether corporeal or incorporeal, will seem to be only God, while preserving
the integrity of its nature, so that even God, Who in Himselfis incomprehensible,
is after a certain mode comprehended in the creature, while the creature
itself by an ineffable miracle ischanged into God. (I, 451B)
Itseemsto

epreciselythishopewhichRaphaeloerstoAdamin
Book v, in a crucial passage describing an alternative ending to
Paradise Lost:
o Adam, onc almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return,
If not depraved from good, created all
Such to perfection, one frst matter all,
Indued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and in things that live, of lifej
Butmore refned, more spiritous, and pure,
Asnearer to him placed or nearer tending
Each in their several active spheres assigned,
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportioned to each kind.
' Man as 'living soul' is discussed D, Saurat, Milton, p. I t8;J.M. Hanford, A Millon Handbook
(New York, 1926), p. 232,
Platonic ascents and descents in Milton 159
Th
e
re are also analogues to this passage in Plato's Symposium, in
Plotinus, and in Ficino's confation of the two, where the ascended
soul is rewarded, as Raphael promised Adam, by heavenly food."
Centred as it is on an act of eating, Paradise Lost makes much of the
metaphor of digestion, and Milton seems to use Eriugena again to
describe how the normal process of digestion is from the material to
the incorporeal:
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed,
To vital spiriq aspire, to animal,
To intellectual, give both life and sense,
Fancy and understanding, whence the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being.
(v, 483-7)
But whereas for Milton this is a natural process with a continuation
at least for unfallen man -into the supernatural world, for Eriugena it
is only the elect who are so transformed. Quoting Gregory of
N azianzen he afrms
the bodies of the saints shall be changed into reason, their reason into
intellect, their intellect into God; and thus the whole of their nature shall be
changed into Very God. (I, 45IA)
Raphael ofers the same transformation, but to all men - so long as
Adam keeps God's one condition:
Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit
Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend . . .
If ye be found obedient . . .
(v, 497-501 )
But of course man is not found obedient, and at the moment of Fall
Milton must abandon this Platonic vision of the ascent of nature, for
Augustine 'reality' of a ruined world, where man seems destined to
choose evil ways until finally rescued by Christ.
I t seems clear then that Milton used a Neoplatonic line of
argument, taken from some such source as Eriugena's Periphyseon to
establish the fundamental goodness and freedom of nature and man
by showing them to be part of the free and good God. But what then
can we say about evil and Satan? Milton is still Platonic, but in a
much more orthodox way, for Augustine had taken over wholesale
t6
Symposium :Wgc-2t2C; Plotinus, lllUeods 111.8. 1 . B; F. Jayne, 'Ficino's Commentary O11 the
Symposium', VIiversi! of Missouri Studies, 19 ( 1 944), 120-80, pp. 161-2 (eh. VI); El'iugcna
discuses the Rcturn at length in Periplyseol N.
i 6o ANNA BALDWIN
|romPlotinustheargument thatevilis adeprivationo|being, the
absence o|existence a wellas the absence o|good. Plotinus had
argued this in Enneads 1.8 (On What are and Whence come Evils)
explaining the non-existence o|evil dynamically as a |allingaway
|rom Authentic Existence |God) , towards |ormlessness, li|elessness,
anddarkness.TheTractate abounds inrhapsodiccontradictions.
So if evil consists in privation, it will exist in the thing deprived of form and
have no independent existence . . . But . . . if the privation ,in the soul is
privation of good . . . soul then has no good in it, so then it has no life in it . . .
So then soul willbe soulless. (1.8. I I)
Augustineworksoutthemoralandhistoricalimplicationso|thisin
theCir rifGod |particularlyBooksXI andXII) , buttheargumentrests
on the same premises. All nature is good, and there|ore evil is a
turningaway|romthegoodwhichisthetrueendo|natures.Headds
|urtherthatitisaturningtowardsitsel|,itsownwill,andsosel|-created.
The evil will therefore cause evil works, but nothing caused the evil will . . .
For the will turning from the superior to the inferior [Le. from the love of God
to the love ofseH], becomes bad, not because the thing whereunto it turns is
bad, but because the turning is bad and perverse. (xII.6)17
Miltonnotonlydevelopsthemoralimplicationso| theseNeoplatonic
premises,butalsoembodiesthempoetically.I|evilisacontradiction
o|being,thenHellshouldbedescribedinoxymoronicterms,perhaps
suggested by Plotinus' dehnition o|absolute evil as 'the place o|
Unlikeness'- aphrasetaken|romPlatoandrepeatedbyAugustine -
wherethesoulsinksintothe'mudo| darkness'(Enneads I.8. I 3) . " I|it
issel|-created, then Satan may beshown as the kind o|opposite
creatortoGod,makingnon-existentsubstances |a!legoricalpersoni-
hcationslikeSinandDeath) outo|hisownsel|-will.Thetwoeects
canbeseenoperatingtogetherin thisdescriptiono|thebirtho|Sin
|ratherimplausiblydescribed byhersel|).
All on a sudden miserable pain
Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
I n darkness, while thy head fames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
T
The City ojGod in John Healey'S Translation, edited by R.V.O. 'l'asker (LondoD, 1945; reprinted
1967), p. 349 (xu.6); see Fiore, Mitlon and Augutine, pp.
I
Be.
1
8
See Armstrong's note to Enneads, 1.8. 1 3 (pp. 308-9) referring to Plato'sStalesman, 273d-e and
Augustine's Confessions, VU.IO.I6. 'The mud of darkness' is also discussed by Moody in this
volume, pp. 31 1 -1 2 below.
Platonic ascents and descents in Milton
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed
Outof thy head I sprung.
(
n
,
752-8)
1 61
Satan'sownthoughtso| conspiracycreate'miserablepain',blindness,
both'darkness'and'ames',andaruptureonthelettsideo|hishead
which anticipates the end o|the war in Heaven, when the
crystal wall of heaven . . . opening wide
Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful deep.
(VI, 860-2)
Thebadangelsthrowthemselvesintoa'placeo|Unlikeness'where
that 'miserable' paiuis embodied within the hamingdarkness.
No light, but rather darkness visible . . .
Regions of sorrow) doleful shades . . .
a how unlike the place from whence they fell!
(I, 63, 65, 75)
Moreover this 'p|ace o|Unlikeness' is verbally sel|-destructive, its
adjectivesdenyingwhathasjustbeenamrmed |howcandarknessbe
visible?) , and its nouns suggesting the |abulous, the unreal, the
creatures o|thecorrupted mind.
Auniverse of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good,
Whereall life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all pernicious things . . .
Gorgons and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
(n, 622-8)
Itisnotsomuch'Godbycurse'|surelyamista
[
en phrase?)butSatan
himsel|, who has created Hell, just a he has created Death by
becomingperverselyenamouredo|Sin,hisownimageandcreature.
Milton is allegorising the developmeut otevil as a series otsel|-
reective images, each looking back to itseltrather than looking
|orward to thetrueascentotbeing towards God.
The natures o| the |allen angels, as Augustine |still |ollowing
Plotinus) insisted, remaingood,though theybecomecorruptedby
theevil willinhabitingthemandso graduallyloseexistence.
Good therefore may exist alone, but so cannot evil; because the natures that
an evil will has corrupted, though in so far as they be polluted they are evil,
yet inso far as they are natures they are good. (Ci oJGod xn.s)
ANNA B ALDWIN
Theirdegenerationisshowninthepoemasareversalo|theascento|
Nature|romthecorporeal totheincorporealwhichisdescribed by
RaphaelinBookv. Thedevilsareshownbecominglessdivine,less
rational,metamorphosedintoanimals,andevenintothesubstanceo|
Hell itself At hrst their nature preserves its innate goodness, and
consequentlysuers|romthepresenceo|itscontrareityinHell,but
gradually they become entirely athomein thelocation they had
invented,so that they are hnally what Satanhad always amrmed
theywere- genuinelysel|-created.Thisprogressionisac
[
uallyhoped
|orbyBelial.
OUf torments also may in length of time
Become oarelements, these piercing fres
As soft as now severe, our temper changed
Into their temper; which must needs remove
The sensible of pain.
.u,.;a
-
,
Ultimatelytheywilllosereason,|reedom,evenvoiceinaprophetic
trans|ormationintosnakes (x, o).And surelyMiltonwantsusto
noticethechoicebetweenBelial'swasteo|'thelengtho|time'|ii,e;)
whichwillleadonlytoloss,andRaphael'shopethatmanwoulduse
'the tracto|time' |v, o8) to ascend toGod.
Sadly, Adam and Eve |ollow Satan's path, and learn to love
reectionso| themselvesmorethanimageso|God,andtobelievethat
byeatingprivileged |ood theywillriseimmediatelytoGod'slevel,
ratherthanthetruth,whichisthatbyslowlyascendingthroughthe
levelso|beingtheywillonedayshareangels'|ood.Theyare|orgiven
partlybecause theyrepent,and partlybecause theywere taughtby
another, but surely also because they had attempted only to
anticipate their natural destiny, which wasto attain the Platonic
visiono|aReturn to theAuthoro|theirbeing.
.
CHAPTER 1 5
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets: Marvell,
Vaughan and Trahere
Sarah Hutton
ThereisaPlatonicelementinmuchMetaphysicalpoetry.Indeed,it
isarguablethatitismostmetaphysical, inthephilosophicalsense,
whenitismostPlatonic. Inwhat|ollowsIshalldiscussthisaspecto|
Metaphysical poetry in relation to three poets, Andrew Marvell
| i 6ei-i 6;8),HenryVaughan | i 6ee-i6o) andThomasTraherne
| i 6;-;).However,be|oredoingso,itmustbeacknowledgedthat
Platonismiso|tenpresentinMetaphysicalpoetryonlytobeattacked.
much Metaphysical love poetry contains a strong anti-Platonic
streak. Notonlyislibertinerepudiationo|Platonicloveamoti|in
Donne'sSongs and Sonds, buttheterm'Platonic'isusedpejoratively,
commonly as a synonym |or 'chaste' i| not '|rigid' |Cleveland,
'Antiplatonick', Cartwright, 'No Platonique Love'). Such ridicule
canbeexplainedinpartasareactiontothevogue|orPlatoniclovein
Elizabethan love poetry and to the courtly cult o|Platonic love
promoted under Queen Henrietta Maria atCharles I's court |see
above,p. ;e) . ' Oneexceptionto theruleo|ridiculeo|P|atonismin
lovepoetryisEdwardLordHerberto|Cherburywho,inhisseveral
poemsentitled'PlatonicLove'andin'Idea'preservestheconstructo|
Platoniclovewithoutsacrincing thelicentiousintento|thepoems.
Bycontrastwiththesecularpoetso|theseventeenthcentury,the
religious poets o|the period o|ten |ound a natural amnity with
Platonism.Theemphasishereisnoton Platoniclove butonthose
aspectso|PlatonicandNeoplatonicthoughtwhichappearedtomen
o|theRenaissancetomakeitcompatiblewith,i|nota|oreshadowing
of Christianity. InparticulartheydrawonPlato'steachingsonthe
immortality o|the soul. The syncretic Christian Platonism o|the
Renaissancendsitsstrongestliteraryexpressioninreligiouspoetry.
1
K. Sharpe, Criticism and Compliment: tie Politics of Literature in the England oj Charies 1
(Cambridge, '984).
SARAH HUTTON
]ustasi nmid-centuryCambridgemenolmoderatepuritantemper
andeirenicdispositionturned toNeoplatonismas thephilosophical
handmaid (ancila) oltheirliberal theologv |see Scott, pp. r o-o
above), so also in the poetry olMarvell, Vaughan and Traherne,
Neoplatonismisanimportantvehiclelorexpressingpersonalspirituality
thattranscendsthedoctrinaldivisionsoltheday.Whilethewritings
olPlatoandPlotinusoered arichsource olimages toconvey the
personalspiritualityoleach,theirPlatonisingaccountsolthesoulare
alltingedwithheterodoxy.Ishallillustratetheconnectionbetween
heterodoxy and Platonism in the reworking ol the doctrine o
RecollectionbyMarvellandVaughan.Ishallthengoontoexamine
therichwebolPlatonicallusionwhichunderliesTraherne'sextreme
theologicaloptimism.
MARVELL
Amongthoseol his poemsconcernedwiththesoul, Marvell's'The
Garden'ishismostenigmatic.Thewitandword-playolthepoem
belieitsseriousmetaphysicalcontent.Theonebiblicalrelerence |to
Eden-stanza8)comessecondtotheinverte

Ovidianmetamorphoses
olstanza4 and the evocation olRqouissance naturalisminstanza5.
Thewithdrawallromtheworldintothevegetableparadisedescribed
hereis alsoa withdrawal olthesoullrombody and olthehighest
lacultyolthesoul,themind|ornous) intoitsowntranscendentworld
olintelligiblelorms. The progress olthesoulawaylrom themany
|'busycompaniesolmen',1.4) totheone |'delicioussolitude',I. r b) ,
the discarding olbody |'casting the body's vest aside', l.e) in
preparation lor the next stage olthis spiritual journey, suggests
Plotinus' account olthe re-ascent olthe soul through the various
hypostases to be re-united with the One (Enneads ::r.8. r ) . This
preparation lor ascent is not explicitly described as a return to a
lormerstate, although, byrelerenceto Plotinus, itcanbereadasa
re-ascent.Ilreadinthiswayitwouldsuggestthepre-existenceolthe
soul.
Plotinus'cycleoldescentandreturnisalsoevokedin'ADropol
Dew'.Buthereitismadeclearthattheanticipated|ourneyolthesoul
isareturntoalormerstate.TheideathatthesoulhascomelromGod
andwillreturntoHim,isnot,byitselfunorthodox.Butthereturnis
" Quotations from Marvell are from Andrew Marvel, ed. Frank Kermode and Keith Walker
(Oford, 1990).
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets
p|acedhrmlywithiua|rameworko|pre-existeuceo|thesoulby the
strikiugdoublere|ereucetotheTheoryo| Recollectiouiutheaccouut
o|thesoul, which,
Remembering sti|litsformer height,
Shuns the swart leaves and blossoms green,
And recollecting its own light.
(II.22-4)
'Rememberiug' aud 'recollectiug' combiue with other allusious to
Platouism|therestlessuesso|thesoul,themetaphoro|lighttobriug
out uot simply the Christiauised Platouism o|the poem, but the
heterodox doctriueo|the pre-existeuceo|souls.
VAUGHAN
The Theory o| Recollectiou aud the coguate doctriue o| the
Pre-existeuce o| the soul is also importaut |or Vaughau's 'The
Retreat'.Thispoemmakesuodirectre|ereucetoPlatouicanamnesis:
ratherthewholepoemiscastasauacto|recollectiou- iu thiscaseo|
childhood iuuoceuce. It does make specihc meutiou o|the soul's
pre-existeuce iu the domiuaut theme o|lougiug to returu to the
|ormerstateo| thesoul,represeutedbychildhood|'augeliu|aucy',l.e),
o how I long to travel back
And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain,
Where frst I left my glorious train.
(II.2 1-4)'
Theseliuesiudicatethatthe'augel-iu|aucy'|orwhichhelougsisuot
actuallychildhoodbutauaugelic|ormerexisteuce,thecelestialcity,
'shady city o|palm trees', meutioued two liues |urther ou |l.e0.
Furthermore,asLouisMartzhasuoted,theimageo| thedruukeuuess
todescribe the embodied soul, thesoul iu its 'secoud race' iu next
liues, alluded to Phaedo ;oc-d.
But (ah!) my soul with too much stay
Is drunk and staggers in the way.
(11.27-28)
Quotations from Vaughan are from George Herbert and Hem) Varlg/wll. ed. Louis Martz
(Oxford, 1986) .
. Louis Martz, The Paradise Wilhin (New Haven and London, '964), pp. 29-30. The analogy is
made clearer inJowctt's translation to which Martz refers, sinceJowett uses the simile 'like a
drunkard' Cf Boethius, Consolalio III. pro ii.
i 66 SARAH HUTTDN
ToMartz'sobservatiouitmightbeaddedthatiuboth'TheRetreat'
audPhaedo thisimageo|thedruukeusoulimmediatelyleadsoutoau
accouuto|immortalcouditiouo|thesoulseparated|romthebody.
Platodescribeshowthesoul,'passesiutotherealmo|thepureaud
everlastiugaudimmortalaudchaugeless. . . audstraysuolouger,but
remaius, iu that realm o|the absolute, coustaut aud iuvariable,
throughcoutactwithbeiugso|asimilaruature' (Phaedo ;od-e) .For
Vaughau, thesoul'srelease|romthebodyisdeath, butdeathisthe
returu toits|ormercouditiou.
And when this dust falls to the urn
In that state I came return.
(11.31-2)
ThePlatouismo|thesepoemscauuotbedescribedasthesiuglekey
totheiriuterpretatiou,becauseitisbleudedwithotherelemeutsiua
patiuao|allusiou to express au esseutially Christiau spirituality-
albeitaspirituality thatisgeueralised,persoualaud uou-dogmatic,
eveu heterodox iu its implicatious. This |usiou o|Platouism with
Christiau pietyis made possible by the |act that the Platouism ou
whichthepoetsdrawhadalreadybeeuChristiauised.I t istheeclectic
Platouismpromoted by Ficiuo |seeHuttou,pp.6o-;oabove) aud
propouuded by the Cambridge Platouists |see Scott, pp. i o-o
above).Selectiveiuthe doctriues it emphasises, it takes|orgrauted
thesyuthesiso|PlatouismwithNeoplatouism.WhetherMarvell'sor
Vaughau's use o| Platouic themes was the result o| a broad
assimilatiou |rom a geueral stock-iu-trade o| P|atouic topoi, or
whether it was the result o| study, is impossible to say. The
well-documeuted Hermeticism o| his brother, Thomas, suggests
Heury Vaughau may have direct coutact with specihc sources.
Besides,eveui|Aristoteliauismheldswayiutheuuiversitycurricula
wheuMarvellaudVaughauwereuudergraduates,Platouismhadits
iuueutial propoueuts iu both uuiversities, as the examples oI
Thomas]acksouaud theCambridgePlatouistsshow. Iusomecases,
iuterestiuPlatouismaccompauiedarevivalo|iuterestiuOrigeu,the
Christiau|atherwhoarguediu|av

ouro|thepre-existeuceo|thesoul
|seeBa|dw
;
uaudLouth,pp. e aud6i-eabove) .Eveui|Origeuist
I am mindful here of Frank Kcrmodc's caveats against distorting the Platonic dimension of
Marvell by focusing OW that at the expense of other clements in the makcup oCthe poetry. Sec
'The Argument of Marvell's "Garden" ', Esaysin Criticism, 2 ( 1 952), reprinted in M. Wilding
(cd.L Marvel. Modem ]udl:emellis (London, 1969).
" A.E. White, The Workr ojThomas Vauhan (London, 1 919).
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets
teachinsnevergainedacceptancewiththere|igiousauthorities,the
interesto|HenryMoreandGeorgeRustcertain|ygavethemwider
currency. Marve||andVaughan'spoemso|meditativewithdrawa|
mirrortheirauthors'po|itica|disengagement|romtheturmoi|o| civi|
war,andtheircoming-to-termswiththeroya|istde|eat.Theirsis an
unwor|d|y, non-denominationa| spirituality. It is no accident that
they gave expression to it by recourse to a doctrine o|spiritua|
nostalgia|ora'happy|ormerstate',adoctrinewhichspe||edthehope
o|return to|ormerinnocence.
TRAHERNE
A simi|ar combinationo|e|ements is to be |ound i nthe poetry o|
anotherroya|istsympathiser,ThomasTraherne.Adominanttheme
o|his poetryis nosta|gia|ora|ormerstateo|innocenceandpurity
expressedthroughimageso|natureandchi|dhood,reco||ectionand
pre-existence.The P|atonism o|Traherne,|ike thato|Marve|| and
Vaughan, is not se||-advertising, but transmuted by the Christian
spiritua|ityitserv
,
stoexpress,andthesur|acequa|ityo|thepoems
doesnotimmediate|ysuggestadeep|ystudiedP|atonism.Butun|ike
thecases o|Vaughan and Marve||, i|we|ookatTraherne's prose
writingwecanseetheextensiveheritageo|RenaissanceP|atonism
thatunder|ieshis poems.
The rapturous|y rhapsodic character o|Traherne'swriting, his
visionaryaccounto|themundaneandhisrepeateduseo|dominant
images,particu|ar|yo||ightandsight,inviteamystica|interpretation.
Images o||ight and sight are certain|y to be|ound in accounts o|
mystica| experience, especia||y those inuenced by Dionysius the
Aereopagite.Nonethe|ess,theyarea|so|eatureso|thesystematised
Neop|atonic theo|ogy o|Marsi|ioFicino. Traherne'spoetryis not
overt|yP|atonicinthesensethathenameshismentors,orexpounds
the|rameworkthatunder|ieshisconcepto|thesou|. Hisaccounto|
reco||ection, |or examp|e, o|ten seems to owe more to his own
experiencethattoNeop|atonicmetaphysics.Thisisparticu|ar|y the
case with his account o| chi|dhood experience which seems to
anticipateWordsworth's.In'ShadowsintheWater'herecountshow
'inunexperienc'dIn|ancy'hesaw'AnotherWor|d' reectedin'som
1 See, for example, Ficino, TQ/ogia platonica, Vl.ii and iii; N1I, xiii (TMologie platonicienne de
['immoTlaLiti de; ames, ed. and trans. Raymond Marcel, 3 vols (Paris, 1964-70), I, pp. 229-37.
297-8, 321-2).
1 68 SARAH HUTTON
Puddle' uext towhere he happeued to beplayiug. Viewiug the
reectiouso|peopleappareutlyliviugaud moviugiuthewater, he
commeuts, ' Twasstrauge. . . '
And yet I could uethear them talk:
That throu a little watry Chink,
Which one dry Ox or Horse might drink,
We other Worlds should see
Yet not admitted be;
And other Confnes there behold
Of Light and Darkness, Heat and Cold.'
The poem is oue o|mauy that celebrate visible creatiou as the
outward maui|estatiou o|spiritual reality, as, |or example, 'The
Recovery',wherehesaysolGod'sworks,
In all his Works, in all his Ways,
We must his Glory see and Prais.
.|. a r-a)
Oriu '1he Improvemeut',
His Wisdom Shines in Spreading forth the Skie,
His Power's Great in Ordering'the Sun,
His Goodess very Marvellous and High
Appears, in evry Work his Hand hath done.
(11. r a-i)
Suchstatemeutsareo|coursethestaple|areo|Christiauprayeraud
praise, with obvious parallel iu the Psalms. I uTraherue's prose
writiugs their Platouic uudertoues are made more explicit. I uthe
Centuries, Traherueobserves,'NothiugcaubebutitexhibitsaDeity'
(Centuries, II. a) or, more Platouically. 'TheWorld isa Mirroro|
IuhuiteBeauty' (ibi. , 1.31 ) .
Althoughhece|ebrates the beauty audharmouy o|the uatural
world,thiugsiuthemselveshaveuovalue.'1 Things asShades esteem'
|'TheReview', ll. r o) -
Things are but dead: they can't dispense
Or Joy or Grief.
(,The Inference', |!.r ;-r)
Physicalob|ectshavevalueoulyiuso|arastheymaui|estthediviue.
'You uever Eujoy the World aright, tiIl you see how a Saud
'Shadows in the Water', 11.7-32. Thomas Trahernc, Poems, Centuries and Three Thanksgivings,
ed. Anne Ridler (Oxford, 1966). Unless otherwise indicated alquotations from Traherne's
poems and Centures arc from this edition.
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets 1 69
ExhibiteththeWisdomaudPowero|God' (Centuries, 1. 27). Itisthe
iuterual, spiritua|world thatTraherueregardsas real.
Thought! Surely Thoughts are tru:
They pleas as much as Things can do:
NayThiugs are dead,
And in themselvs are severed
From Souls; nor can they fll the Head
Without our Thoughts. Thoughts are the RealI thiugs
From whence all Joy, from whence all Sorrow springs.
('Dreams', 11.50-6).
ThisvividlysuggestsaPlatouicturuiugaway|romthematerialtothe
iutelligibleworld.
Eveu iu his most rapturous outbursts, Traherue's writiug is
remarkable |or its cousisteut |ramework o|ideas. Far |rom beiug
whollyiutuitioualaudsub|ective,itbespeaksathoroughkuowledge
o|ReuaissauceNeoplatouism.Hisuotebooksshowjusthowstudiously
thatkuowledgewasacquired.AsCarolMarkshasshowu,Traherue
wassteepediucoutemporaryPlatouism.hisCommouplaceBookisa
collectiou o|exerpts |rom Thomas]acksou, Theophi|us Gale aud
HeuryMore,aswellasFiciuo.Hisso-called'FiciuoNotebook'isa
compilatiou|romtheargumenta accompauyiugFiciuo'strauslatiouso|
Plato,HermesTrismegistusaudPlotiuus. 'Healsomadeexteusive
useo| ]ohu Everard's trauslatiou otHermes,Divine Pymander.' ,
I|welookatTraherue'suotebookswecauseeevideuceo|aclose
liuk betweeu Traherue's exteusive uote-takiug aud his writiug o|
poetry. The most receutly discovered Traherue mauuscript, the
'Commeutaries o| Heaveu', uow iu the British Library,! is au
alphabetically arrauged collectiou o|quotatious, commeuts aud
poems,iuwhichthesub|ectmattero|thepoemsisdirectlyliukedto
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS, Eng. Poet. C.42. Carol Marks, 'Thomas Traherne's
Commonplace Book'. Papers ofthe Bibliographical Societ o America, 58 ( 1964). Sec also Marks,
'Thomas Trahcrnc and Cambridge Platonism', PMLA, 8t (lg66), 52t-34.
London, British Library MS Burney 126, on which see Carol Marks Sicherman, 'Trahere's
Fieino Notebook', Papers t the BihliograpMcal Socie t America, 63 ( Ig6g), 73-81.
.. Carol Marks, 'ThomasTraherneand Herme Trismegistus' , Rmairsance.Nes, 19 ( 1966). 1 18-31 .
?
'Commentaries of Heaven. Wherein the Mysteries ofFelicitic arc opened, and All Things
Discovered to be Objects of Happines', London, British Library MS Additional 63054. I am
grateful to the British Library Board for permision to quote from this manuscript. See Alan
Pritchard, 'Traherne's "Commentarie of Heaven'' ', Universi oj Toronto Qlarler!. 53
( l g83), 1-35;JJ. Smith, 'Thomas Traherne from his Unpublished Manuscripts\ in A.M.
Allchin et al., Proftable Wonders: Aspects oj Thomas Trahere (Oxford, 1989). Commentaries oj
Heaven. The Poems, e. D.D.C. Chambers (Salzburg, 1989) prints the poems from the
manuscript, but, unfortunately, without the prose into which they are embedded in the
manuscript.
SARAH HUTTON
thecouteuto| theprosepassages.A|thoughthereisuoeutryouP|ato
because ou|y the eutries |or |etter A aud some o|B survive, it is
possib|etoextractagooddea|o|iu|ormatiououP|ato|romeutriesou
othersub|ects, especia||y the eutry ouAristot|e,which iuc|udes 'A
Comparisouo| Aristot|eaudP|ato'.Mucho| thisisexerpted|romoue
o|Traherue's|avouritesources,Theophi|usGa|e'sCourt ofthe Gentiles.
O|course, the uotebooks by themse|ves are uot uecessari|y a sure
guidetoTraherue'sacceptauceo|theircouteut,'especia||ysiuceiu
Christian Ethicks heexhibitsameasureo|cautiouabou

theheatheu
phi|osophy. Heuotes that 'The Heatheus who iuveuted the uame
Ethicks,wereveryshortiutheKuow|edgeo|MausEud' ( Christian
Ethicks, p. 14) audamrms that, 'Thebestactiouso|theprophauer
Heatheu|e||uudertheuotiouo| Dead Works'(Christian Ethicks, p.6i ) .
Eveu the writiugs attributed to HermesTrismegistus, |rom which
Traheruedrewiuboth Christian Ethicks aud Centuries, areuotabove
criticism.Traheruecoujectures,iuthe|ormer,thatouthemattero|
theimmorta|ityo|thesou|,Trismegistus'diduotuuderstaudtheeud
|orat|eastuotc|ear|y)|orwhichitwasimp|auted`. (Christian Ethicks,
p. ee6) .Thiskiudo|reserveabouttheva|ueo|pagauphi|osophyiu
geuera|audo|P|atouismiuparticu|ar,isto be|ouudamougother
Eng|ishP|atouists, uotab|y]acksou aud Ga|e. I t hasitsrootsiuthe
ear|yChristiaudebatesaboutthecompatibi|ityo|P|ato'steachiugs
with those o| the church |see Co|emau aud Ba|dwiu, pp.e r-;
above) , adebatewhichwasreopeuediutheh|teeuthceuturywiththe
humauistiuterestiu P|ato |seeabove, pp. 68aud ;;) .
These reservatious about pagau phi|osophy uotwithstaudiug,
Traherueappearstoho|dP|atohimse||iuhighesteem.A|thoughhe
does uot uame P|ato amoug 'the more Kuowiug aud Learued'
heatheuswhomhecommeuds|ortheir'Couscieuceo|Siu' ( Christian
Ethicks, p. i e6) , ueitherdoes he uameP|ato iu his stricturesabout
heatheuphi|osophy.Traherue'shighva|uatiouo| P|atocaubeseeuiu
his'Commeutarieso|Heaveu',iuspiteo|theirbeiuguoextauteutry
ouP|ato.BoththeeutryouAristot|eaudtheaccompauyiugpoemare
remarkab|e |or their ackuow|edgemeut o|Aristot|e a a uatura|
phi|osopher,'yGreatestPhi|osopheriuuature'||o|.I ej`).Traherue
praises Aristot|e as the |ouuder o|mauy brauches o|phi|osophy.
I Notetaking can, after all, indicate a negative intenL There i the added problem that a good
number of the notes are made in the hand of an amanuensis, which means one must be
cautious about inferring Traherne's acceptance of the passages recorded.
Platonism in some Metaphsical Poets : ; i
'lather ol Ethicks, Oecouomicks, Po|iticks, Rhetorick, Logick,
Arithmetick, Astrouomy,Astrologie, Geographiec.',the'Beueht'
olwhich'isuuspeakab|eaudeud|ess'.AlthoughAristotleistherelore
|ikethesuu toa||uatiou

, 'diusedasaB|essiug',Traherueuotes his
greatest lailiug as beiug his ueg|ect ol diviuity. 'Learuiug is',
Traherueiusists
A Sacred Heavenly Flame
That shining for us upon Earth by Night
Restores the World unto its Ancient Light
The native characters of Bliss) t
h
at were
Engraven in the Soul.
(ll.6-IO) 1 4
Although uselul, the compass olAristote|iau phi|osophy lails to
iuc|ude'Diviuitie'.
Transcendent Metaphysicks soar, abov
The reach of Physicks, to Eternal Lov,
Discovers GOD, and brings the Angels down
Makes known the Soul, and what it shews doth crown.
It walks among Invisibles.
(1l45-9)
This'Poetica|I Reectiou'ouAristot|e'sphi|osophywhichaccompauies
theprose eutrydoes uot meutiou P|ato. Eveu so his prelereucelor
P|atoisimp|icitiu hisrelereuceto thedoctriueolIuuateIdeaswheu
hedescribesthekeytohappiuessasiuuate,'eugraveuiutheSou|'.His
admiratiouolP|atoismadeexp|icitiuthe'ComparisouolAristot|e
audPlato`whichprecedesthepoem.Thismakesc|earthat'compariug
y"iuMetaphysicksDiviueCoutemp|atious,' tisevideuty
'
Aristotle
was lar iulerior to P|ato'. From his acquaiutauce with 1ewish
traditious |here Traherueis lo||owiug Ga|e), P|ato 'obtaiued great
NoticesolDiviueMysteries,especia|ysuchasRe|atedtoyOrigeue
olyU uivers,ySpiritua|NaturePerlectiouolGOD, y' Immorta|ity
ol y Sou| c.' |lo|. r eo`) Iudeed TraheruecoudemusAristotlelor
haviug repudiated or adu|terated 'y more sublime Diviue ol
P|ato's Trad\tious' |lo|. i e8`). Furthermore, iu au ear|ier eutry,
'Ameudmeut', Traherue siug|es out lor

praise P|ato's teacher,

Socrates, becausehe'did upoudesiguomit uatura|philosophiewch
touchethvisib|emateria|Beiugs,y
'
hemightmakemeuacquaiuted
1
4 'Aristotle's Philosophic'. in Thomas Trahcrnc, Commelfaries, cd. Chambers, p. 76.
SARAH HUTTON
WI. Spiritual IuvisibleThiugs'. ||ol.o i ') .Althoughitiscomposed
almost eutirely o|extracts |romothers, Traherue's 'Commouplace
Book'couhrmsthepictureo|Platotobegleaued|rom'Commeutaries`
o|Heaveu.Platoismetaphysiciauaudmoralistparexcelleuce,with
pro|ouudiusightiuto themysterieso|diviuity.
t
5
]ust as Ficiuo's Platouic theology eutails au eclectic bleud oI
selectiveelemeutso|PlatouicaudNeoplatouicphilosophysoTraherue
displays thesame ability toreadhissources selectively. I t isiu this
veiu that hede|euds thePimander o|HermesTrismegistus.
This is the Philosophy of the ancient Heathen: wherein though there be some
Errors, yet he was guided to it by a mighty sence of the interiour Excellency
of the Soul of Man, and the boldness he assumes is not profane, but that it is
countenanced here and there in the HOly Scriptures. (Chrtian Ethick, p. 226)
Thus a Christiau readiug justihes recoguisiug prehguratious o|
ChristiautruthiuthePimander. Suchareadiugiuturujustihestheuse
o|Hermesasapagauwituesso|thattruth,eveuthoughhemaybe
guilty o| 'some Errors'. Traherue's writiugs abouud iu selective
readiugso|thiskiud.Occasiouallyheackuowledgesthesourceo|his
borrowiugs butmoreo|teuthesecau berecoguiseda adopted aud
adapted|romageueralstockiutradeo|PlatouicaudNeoplatouic
doctriuesaudmetaphors.PerhapstheimportautexampleisPlato's
aualogybetweeuthesoul aud the|acultyo|sight.I uRepublic VI, he
writesthat wheu theeyes
are directed upon objects illumined by the sun, they see clearly, and vision
appears to reside in these same eyes . . . Apply this comparison to the soul also
in this way. When it is frmly fxed on the domain where truth and reality
shine resplendent it apprehends and knows them and appears to posses
reason. (Republic 509d)
ThesameaualogyoccursrepeatedlyiuTraherue'spoetryaudprose
writiugs. OuoueoccasiouheuamesPlatoasthesource,althoughhe
doesuot givea specihc re|ereuce toRepublic VI:
Plato makes him [God] the very Light of the understanding, and afrms, that
as three Things are necessary to Vision, the Eye rightly prepared, the object
conveniently seated, and Light to convey the Idea to the Eye; so there are
three things required to compleat and perfect Intelligence, an understanding
Eye, an Intelligible Object, and a Light intelligible in which to conceive it.
Which last i GOD. (Chrtian Ethick, P.4 I
) t6
1 Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Eng. Poet c. 42, fol. 77\ and passim. See Marks, 'Thomas
Traherne's Commonplace Book'.
16
A longer version of the same passage i recorded in 'Select Meditations'. m.16: see Trahernc,
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets i ;
Theana|ogybetweentheeyeandthesou|is,o|course,deve|opedby
P|otinus (Enneads I. 0.9; v. . 8-9; v. 0.) andusedextensive|yby
HermesTrismegistus,throughbotho| whomitbecameanimportant
metaphorinFicino.'T
,
ahernewasacquaintedwiththewritingso|
these|atterthree,inwhomtherecurrenceo|theimageundoubted|y
rein|orced this selective readingo|P|ato. Theimage recurs many
times in Traherne's poetry |e.g. 'The Preparative', 'The Vision',
'Sight','AnIn|ant-Ey') .In'Commentarieso|Heaven',hesayso|'A
Sou|inAct'ihatinit'Ob|ectsshinetomanyEysI InaDivinerLight'
|'Act',ll.0-;,Commentaries). Connectedwiththisistheimageo|the
sou|asthemirroro|thedivine.'InyG|asso| His[man's|Abi|itiesHe
may see the Nature o| GOD, as y Sun in a Mirror' |'Abi|itie',
'Commentaries', |o|. ;'). 'A Sou| in Act' is 'Image and Mirror o|
Himse|| |God|
,
|'Act',III, l., Commentaries) . In'Apprehension, he
describesthat|acultyas'ThouMapandMirroro|Eternitie' (I. o,
Commentaries, p. ;i ) . ' In 'App|ication', where in accordance with
P|ato,God'smindisboththedivinearchtype,'Prototype. . . Origina|
andPattern' o|thepoet'smind,themirrcr imageis reversed: the
divinemindisa|soitsmirror|ll.-0,Commentaries, p.;o). Linkedwith
theseare metaphorso||ight.
The Soul of Man N made an Endle, Sphere
Of IureandComprehensive Light . . .
(,Afnity', 11.7-8)
Thisimageo|thesou| as an a||-containing, shiningsphere reca||s
Plotinus Enneads v.8.g |'Let there be, then, in the sou| a shining
imaginationo|asphere,havingeverythingwithiniteithermovingor
standingsti||').In'A||inA||',thesou|re|eased|romthebodyismade
'a|| Pure power I Being made a|l Li|e itse|, an EndlessBower o|
Immateria| Light' |lIe0-;, Commentaries, p. 0). This image too
echoesP|otinus'descriptiono|thesoul|romwhichthebodyhasbeen
stripped away which 'apprehends the eterna| by its eternity . . .
havingbecomeaninte||igib|euniverse|u||o||ight,i||uminatedbythe
truth|romtheGood'(EnneadS Iv. 7. I O; ctPhaedrus, eoc).Thesun'is
an Emb|em o|God' (Christian Ethicks, p. io). In nature it is a
Christian Ethidcs ( 1675), c. C.L. Marks and C.R. Guffrey (Ithaca, 1968), note for P.41, 1I.25-6.
See, for example, Th/ologieplatonicienne, I. p. 68-g. Compare Plotinus, Ennl!ds, IV.3.t8.
18
Compare, 'Thoughts 1': 'A in a Mirror Clear, / Old Objects I I Far distant do even now
dcscrie' (11. 15-17); 'Ye hidden nectars'; 'Ye Image arJoy that in me Dwell' (I, ii, 5). 'The
powers oft Soul . . . in these as in a Mirror the face OrCOD is seen' (Abilitic) -God/Soul arc
'many mirrors refecting sun ('Assimilation') -Thought is the mirror of God: 'The Soul thus
Thinking is a Compleat Act In we
h
U in a Glass you may sec l Deitie'.
i ; SARAH HUTTON
remindero|God.'ToseeySuni saprospecto|Exaltationy' makes
Beho|derAcquaintedwithGOD
!
Itn||shimwithIdeaso|HisLi|e&
Goodness'|'Accident','Commentaries',|o| .

eo`).Butthesunisa|soa
metaphysica| metaphor o| the sou|, 'Its Beams are Accidents o|
anotherKind.even|ivingRays&FeelingAppearanceswthothey
ShinenotWlh Materia|Lustre|ikeSp|endortoEy,areMoreNob|e&
Invisib|e, Carrying y Beneht o|other, h||ing y Spiritua| Wor|d,
seatingitsG|ories,yG|orieso|ySuninySou|'|' Commentaries',
|o|. eo`).

Inthepoem 'Sight' (Poes, p. r ee) theimageso|sight, |ightand

rehection are brought together to contrast the externa|, outward
wor|do|sense,viewedwith the 'Two LuminariesinmyFlesh . . .
Those Eys o|Sense' and the inward |andscape o|invisib|es made
visib|eby the invisib|eeyeo|the mind.
I own it was
A Looking-Glass
Of signal Worth; wherin
More than mine Eys
Could see or prize,
Such Things as Virtues win,
Life, Joy, Lov, Peace, appear'd: a Light
Which to my Sight
Did Objects represent
So excellen tj
That I no more without the same can see
Than Beasts that have no tru Felicity.
(11. 49-60)
Theimage-clustero||ight, vision and rehection, echoingasit does
bib|ica| images |e.g. Psa|ms xxxvi, 9; 1ohn i, -; & viii i e, i
Corinthiansxiii,i e)areappropriate|orChristianmeditationsonthe
humansou|anditsre|ationshiptoGodandHiscreation.Understood
Neop|atonica||ytheybringepistemo|ogica|andonto|ogica|signihcance
to a spiritua| metaphor. In P|ato, P|otinus and Ficino they are
important|orexp|ainingbothhow the sou|derives|romGod and
howitmayparticipateinthedivine.InNeop|atonicperspectivethe
epistemo|ogica| connotations o|the eye image are unmistakab|e,
pointingtoTraherne'scentra|concernwiththenatureand|unction
o|thesou|. This is madec|earattheopeningo|'An In|antEy'in
which|ightnguresasthe|ighto| know|edge,andtheinnocenteyehad
god-|ikepowerso|insight.
Platonism in some Metaphysical Poets
A simple Light from all Contagion free,
A Beam that's purely Spiritual, an Ey
That's altogether Virgin, Things doth sec
Ev'n like unto the Deity:
That is, it shineth i n an hevcnly Sencc,
And round about (unmov'd) it's Light disponee.
(II. 1-6)
1 75
What the inward eye sees is, of course, an immaterial world, and it is
striking that no less than five poems from the Dobell Folio are on the
subject of'Thoughts'. Many others celebrate the power of thought. "
In his poetry as in his Meditations, Traherne celebrates spiritual
reality, the inward temple of the mind. This is another image which
recurs in the Centuries, Christian Ethicks, 'Commentarics of Heaven'
and the poems.' The temple of the mind is as much an intellectual as
a spiritual reality for the mind in its contemplations is the crowning
part of the soul: 'By Thoughts alone the Soul is made Divine'
('Thoughts m')" Reason is thus, as in Ficino, spiritualised. After all,
it is the rational power of thought that gives the soul its unique insight
into the world and its special relationship with God. 'To think well,'
Traherne writes, 'is to serv God in the Interior Court: To hav a mind
composd ofDivinc Thoughts' (Centuries, !. 10) . Thoughts are the link
between soul and God,
Thoughts are the Wings on which the Soul doth Aie,
The Messengers which soar abov the Skie,
Elijah's frey Charet, that conveys
The Soul, even here, to those Eternal Joys.
(Thoughts IV
'
, II 1-4)
Thoughts are the Angels which we send abroad
To visit all the Parts or Cods Abode
(Thoughts III
'
, II. )
Like Augustine (De T rinitate) Traherne sees reason as evidence that
man is made in the image of God. Traherne uses the Neoplatonic
image of the soul as mirror to express this: 'The Soul thus Thinking is
" Sec, for example, 'Walking', 'Drcam., 'The Inference', 'The Review',
2
0
Sec 'Thoughts II" 'The Inference, II' and Christial Eflicks, p. 252, for the temples of David and
Solomon, 'Thoughts fN

11.80-8: 'His Omnipresence . . . Il enters in, and doth a Temple find

I Ormakca Lving O1Cwilhin the Mind'. 'Thoughts [' describes 'a Spilitual world within' (1,44).
21
Campare Commeltaries, 'The Mind afMlln far ever shall endure J And is a Region of diviner
Light ( 'Accident' ll. '3-14, edn cit. p. 7) and Poems, 'For'tis b), Thoughts thaI even she [thc
soul] is Bright. I Thoughts .tre the Things wh(rwith even God is Crownd', 'Thoughts IV
'
(11.14-15).
SARAH HUTTON
aComp|eatActInwasi naG|assyoumayseeyDeitie'.Theideas
in themind come direct|ytrom God
Thoughts are the highest Things,
The very Ofspring of the King of Kings.
('Thoughts III
'
, 1l.27-8)
AsinthePhaedo |66a,8ec)andEnneads vitisbyexercisinghisreason
thatmancan becomegod|ike:
o give me Grace to see thy face, and be
A constant Mirror of Etcrnitie.
Let my pure soul, transformed to a Thought,
Attend upon thy Throne.
('Thoughts IV', 11.95-9)"
In this way Traherne assimilates to the Christian concept otthe
re|ationship ol God and the soul P|otinus' conception ot the
relationshipot nous topsyche. And|iketheinte||ectinP|otinus(Enneads
v.g.g-:o), and thesou|in P|ato ( Timaeus 6d-e),the mind is, tor
Traherne, a wor|d in itse|| an interior wor|d, a microcosm that
epitomises theextena|macrocosm.
A Delicate and Tender Thought
The Quintessence is found of all hc Wrought
('Thoughts n
'
, 1l. 1-2)
Manisthe'Comprehensor'othisce|estia|environment( Centuries, :.
roo). To comprehend, in Traherne's usage means not on|y to
understand,buttocontain.'GodhathmadeyourSpiritaCentrein
Eternity comprehendinga||andn||edal|about you inanEnd|ess
maner with inhnit Riches' (Centuries, II. 8o). In 'Thoughts ::'
TraherneemphasisesthatGodde|ightsnotin Hiscreationassuch,
but in Man's en|oymentotHisWorks. Forby seeing theworks ot
creationandrecognisingthemasareectionotthedivine,weare|ed
toGod.Thevisib|ewor|dwi||decay,butitispreservedinthementa|
imagesitconjuresupin the mind.
This|eadsusbacktoTraherne'sce|ebrationotchi|dhood.On|ya
purined mind, unsu||ied by sin|ulness can apprehend the wor|d
right|y,recognise theeterna|and innnite behind the tempora| and
hnite.HenceTraherne'semphasison theinnocent eyeotthechi|d,
ab|eto'giv toThingstheirtru Esteem'.
77 Cf. 'Commentaries" 'Appetite': 'The Rational Appetite like an Eagle sar up aloft to
Celestial Things'. BL Additionl MS, 63054. rol. 1 1 2",
3 '1 being the Living lYMIIX and Comprchcnsor or them [Angels ctc.l. emIlTies, 1.100.
L
Platonism in some Metafi/lsical Poets
How wise was I
In Infancy!
I then saw in the clearest Light.
('Right Apprehension', 11.5-7)
177
The human soul's unique observer status underlies Traherne's
astonishingly anthropocentric (even egocentric) theology. Instead of
bemoaning human frailty, Traherne rejoices in his humanity, 'That
you are a Man should fll you with Joys, and make you overflow with
praises' (Centuries, II. e). This optimism about human nature sets
Traherne apart from even the most liberal theologians of the
seventeenth century. But it is not unique to him. In more modified
form, it is a feature of the theology of his Platonising contemporaries,
all of whom repudiated extreme Calvinist stress on original sin and
human incapacity for salvation. Among themJeremy Taylor perhaps
comes closest to Traherne in his insistence on the innocence from sin
of unbaptised infants. The principle difference in Traherne's optimism
about human nature is the degree to which he takes it. His optimism is
fed by the humanist character of his Platonic sources. Indeed, in his
fullest celebration of man as the miracle of creation in the Centuries, II,
he quotes extensively from Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the
Dignir oj Man.
The personal and mystical character of Traherne's poetry,
combined with the fact that it remained unpublished for three
centuries, have resulted in Traherne', being regarded as an isolated
fgure. His interest in Neoplatonism during the age of the new science
appears to confirm this. However, recent work on his biography is
beginning to show that he did not live a life apart. As an exponent in
verse (but also in prose) of the eclectic Platonism forged by Ficino and
propounded by More, Cudworth and Smith, he must be set alongside
the Cambridge Platonists. Like theirs, Traherne's is a spiritualised
and Christianised Platonism, deeply imbued with Neoplatonism.
Like them he takes for granted the religious character of Platonic
philosophy and its compatibility with Christian doctrine. Although
Traherne's Neoplatonism is in many ways a late fowering, eooyears
behind Ficino's time, when it is properly placed in its scventeenth
century English context it is possible to recognise both how closely
interconnected it was with currents of thought of its own day and the
originality of Traherne's development of Platonism.
` Julia Smith, " I'hqmas 'J'raliC'nlc and the Resttwution', TlcSClJel/lceJllh Celllur, 3 ( 1 988), 203-n.
PART I V
1h t_h/n/h cn/u
CHAPTER 1 6
Introduction
Pat Rogers
Iu speakiug o| the 'three proviucial ceuturies' marked by British
ueglecto|P|ato,W.BYeatsIUrl Rlhf. the
9_
i

9
d

9!
o
1 utt5estartis tooearlyaud<to_lat Fr!lato' sojouru
iu thesIaows cam:

t plausib|y bedated priorto the death o|the

Cambridge P|atouists, uor coustrued as surviviug uudimiuished
throughtheVictoriauage.Yeatsrea|lyhadiumiudthehighuoouo|
empiricism, Newtouiauism aud Eulighteumeut. He meaut, to be
bIuut, theeighteeuth ceutury.
AbuudautevideuceexiststoshowthatIlato,directormediated,
couuted|orlessiu thisagethauiupreviousorsucceediugphaseso|
Britishculture.Three|eve|so|ueg|ectcaubediscerued. Iu thehrst
place, there is the comparatively low level o| couceru iu the
eighteeuth ceutury with matters Greek. Ouestrikiug iudex o|the
geuera|situatiouliesiuthe|actthatthegreathistoriauo|theaucieut
world,EdwardGibbou,learutuoGreekatWestmiusterorOx|ord.
hehadtoteachhimsel|thelauguageasamatureprivatestudeut.Iu
thema|orpublicschoo|swhichsetouttheuatioual curriculum |or
educatedmales,hardlyauyatteutiouwaspaidto Greekproseo|auy
descriptiou, the philosophers aud historiaus were still 'uutroddeu
grouud' atWestmiusteras |ateas the 1820S. Uutila ma|orshilo|
iuterest|romLatiutoGreekiuthesecoudquartero|theuiueteeuth
ceutury,whichwasiuitiated byButlero|ShrewsburyaudThomas
Aruold o|Rugby |who dariugly iutroduced P|ato iuto sixth-|orm
studies),thebulko|school-workwasdevotedioLatiu.|Be|ore t8oo
Greekwaslearut|romtextbookswritteuiuLatiu,uotEuglish.)The
Greektragediausstartedtomakeheadwayiu thecurriculumo|the
|eadiug schools arouud the middle o| the ceutury, though the
scabrousAristophauesse|domjoiuedthem,audlyricpoetryremaiued
a staple elemeut iu classica| studies, largely oue imagiues |or
philologica|aud pedagogicreasous.Attheuuiversities,thiugswere
i 8i
[82 PAT ROGERS
notverydierent. Latinpredominated,andtherangeo|Greekprose
texts studied was piti|u||y narrow. As M.L. C|arke states, 'The
pro|essorshipso|Greekhadbecomemeresinecures,andtheirho|ders
apart|romaninaugura|orationgaveno!ectures'.Recentattemptsto
sa|vage the reputation o|the ancient universities |rom the hosti|e
commentso|observers|ikeGibbonhavenotsucceededinburnishing
thereputationo|theseinstitutionsasregardstheteachingo|Greek.'
Thesecond|eve|o|neg|ectisi||ustratedbythepaucityo|editions,
trans|ations and commentaries. In [ 70 [ there was a two-vo|ume
abridgmento|P|ato'sWorks, butthiswastrans|ated|romtheFrench
o| Andr Dacier. Occasiona||y, versions o|individua| dia|ogues
appeared. Harry Spens trans|ated the Republic ( [ 763), and Lewis
Theoba|d,thehrstheroo|theDunciad, attemptedthePhaedo ( [ 7 ( 3) .
Buttheon|yconcertedprojecto| anyimportancewasconductedbya
|arge|y|orgotten Ox|ord scho|ar named F|oyer Sydenham ( [ 71 0-
87), whoundertookacomprehensivetrans|ationbetween [ 759 and
[ 780: itisreadab!ei|notoutstanding|y|e|icitous.O| course,P|atowas
nota|oneinsuetingsuchneg|ect.Aristot|e,thoughmoreadmired
andinuentia|,hadno|u||trans|ationunti|ThomasTay|or'sin[ 8[ 2:
HenryFie|dingremarkedintheCovent-Garden Joural, no. 10 ( [ 752)
thathisworks,|ikethoseo|P|ato,were'notcomp|ete|ymadeEng|ish,
andconseq uent|yare|esswithintheReacho| mosto| myCountrymen'.
Thisinanerawhichcou|dboasttheGreekscho!arshipo|Bent|eyat
thestartandPorson attheendo|thecentury,aswe||assignihcant
|esser |ights such as ]oshua Barnes, ]eremiah Mark|and and
]onathan Toup. The |act remains that unti| Thomas Tay|or
([ 758-[ 835) undertookhiswide!yreadversionso|thedia!oguesinthe
[ 790S, and augmented these with the Orphic Hymns, P|otinus,
Proc|usandPorphyry,|itt|eo|P|atowasavai|ab|e|orthegenera|reader.
Howcanweexp|ainthiscircumstance?P|atodidnothavethegood
|ortune,asdidHomer,tobecaughtupinthecu|tura|batt|eso|the
age, and so to stand at the heart o|any current critica| debate.
I Information in this paragraph is drawn chiefly from M.L. Clarke, Classical Eucation inBritain
150D-l!O(Cambridge, 1959): quotations fi'om pp. 50-2, 68, 76-80. Sec also Clarke's Greek
Studies i,1 England 1700-1830 (Cambridge, 1945), pp. 1 12-20, for a good account of attitudes to
Greek philosophy in the period. Clarke finds 'as we should expect, a general indiference to
the Greeks' (p. 1 15). The most detailed review of scholarship in the period, unsupplantcd by
Pfeifer, rcmainsJ.E. Sandys, A History oClossicai Scholarship, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1903-08) , 11,
401-39, though the treatment is sketchy and occasionally inaccurate.
2 TIle Works ojPlato abridg'd with an Accou1It ojHisLif, Philosophy, Morals and Politics, together with a
Trallslatioll {Jfis Choicest Dialogues (London, rIo I).
3 Tlu Covell-Gardell JouTal, cd. B.A. Goldgar (Oxford, 1988), p. 75.
Introduction: the eighteenth centwy
Equally, none of his translators had the clout or centrality of Pope.
When issues related to Greek antiquity did surface in the popular
consciousness, as with the great querelle of Ancients and Moderns,
Plato was neverdirectlyimplicated. The discoveries of the sites of the
classical world, publicised by the new breed of archaeologists and
promoted by the Dilettanti Society, did littlc to humanise the rarified
ideas of Plato. It is doubtful whether the rise of Romantic Hellenism
can be put back into the eighteenth century; Timothy Webb's
interesting collcction, by focusing on such matters as the debate about
Homeric epic, conceals the severe limits to Greek infuence in the frst
part of the eighteenth century.' We are still left with the fact that
Plato was no great beneficiary of the trend. And here we touch on the
third level of neglect. Plato's name was further besmirched, in the eyes
of many, because ofa curious guilt by association. Neoplatonism had
come to seem a kind of secret-society activity, equivalent to
Rosicrucianism or freemasonry: and these things were suspect until
mysticism re-entered the European mind towards the end of the
century. At a time when many people wished to show that not just
Christianity but all serious thought was 'not mysterious', as John
Toland's deistic slogan had it, the hermetic side of Neoplatonic
doctrine (part of its appeal to later generations) limited both its own
attraction and that of its ultimate progenitor.
To attribute these forms of resistance to the hugc currency of John
Locke may only be to shift the argument one stage back without
further illumination of the issues. None the less, it must be signifcant
that James 'Hermes' Harris, the most obstinate Platonist in the
literary world of mid-eighteenth-century England, nurtured a 'seething
dislike' of Locke.5 Harris followed in a line of Salisbury metaphysicians
including John Norris of Bemerton, Arthur Collier and Thomas
Chubb, but the principal infuence on him was his uncle, the third
Earl of Shaftesbury. Like Shaftesbury, Harris favours the dialogue
form in his characteristic works such as Three Treatises ( 1 7
44
) ; neither
master nor pupil ever achieves the dramatic cut and thrust of Plato's
own dialogues, substituting for their sharp interplay of question and
answer, self-revelation and exposure, something more like a mere
exchange of dialectical positions. It is true that some parts of
Shaftesbury's Characteristicks ( 1 7 1
4
) do achieve a fervour and sense of
Sec Timothy Webb, l"lIglisl Romantic Hellenism 1700-1824 (Manchester. Ig82).
Sec Clive T. Probyn, Tle Sociable Humanist; Tie Ie and Work ojJames Harris '70[178
(Oxford, 191), [ora good and sympathcticaccounto[ Harris as Platonist: quotation from p. 243.
PAT ROGERS
ecstasy otherwise a|most who||y absent i nAugustan writing. his
'phi|osophica| rhapsody' entit|ed The Moralists re|ates the quest |or
thegoodtothesearch|orhappinessinimpassionedprose.Butthere
are |ew such moments in eighteenth-century |iterature. Mark
AkensideinhisPleasures ojthe Imagination |6rstversion 1 744) makes
|reeuseo|abstractions|iketruth, beaur, knowledge andwisdom, butthe
importo|thesetermsisChristianisedtothepointwhereanyP|atonic
sensehasdrained away. venThomas Cray,whohad spent more
timereadingP|atothanmostpeop|eo|theage,shows|itt|eimpressin
hispoetry.Bythistimethe'sub|ime',asecu|arisedwayo|approaching
the transcendenta|, wasin|u||sway.
!tisc|ear|ypossib|etoarguethatSwi|twasinpartrespondingto
theRepublic whenhewroteGulliver's Travels, eventhoughitisSocrates
ratherthan P|atowho6guresas oneo|the'sextumvirate'o|mighty
deadtowhich'a||Ageso|theWor|dcannotaddaSeventh'.(Gulliver's
Travels, III, chap. ;). SirThomas More is another, and he is more
c|ear|y Swi|:'s mode|, but there are aspects o| the Is|and o| the
Houyhnhmswhich mayderivedirect|y|romP|ato- |orexamplethe
horsesarecommittedtotruthandhavenoword|or|ying.However,
to show a tru|y rationa| society attainab|e on|y by p|acid and
passion|esshorsesisu|timate|ytoquestionitsre|evance|orhumans.
Swi|t's heroes tend to grow twoearso|cornwhere on|y onegrew
be|ore, and thus todo more service to theircountrythanthewho|e
race o|phi|osophers put together |seeGulliver's Travels, II,7) .
Soweare|e|twiththe|actthat|iteraturebe|orethetimeo| B|ake
|discussed by dward Larrissy in the |o||owing chapter) scarce|y
makesa nod at P|atonism.Thison|ychanges in theerao|Thomas
Tay|or, with the designs o|1ohn |axman and o|the vogue |or
neoc|assicart.andtheseinvo|vethebreak-upo|thehighAugustan
dispensation. Tay|or and F|axman were contemporaries o|B|ake,
andinB|akeo|denthusiasmjoinshandswithnewRomanticism.O|d
enthusiasmrevea|sitse||tobepo|itica||yasradica|asever.Menand
womenstarttotakeP|ato'spo|itica|ideasserious|y,somethingthat
Akensidc doc refer to Sophocles in his note to the poem, but it is perhaps indicative that he
cites Xenophon's Memorabilia rather than Plato. Sec The Works o the EngLish Poets, cd.
Alexander Chalmels, 21 vols (London, 1 81 0) , 7fV76. One occasionally finds the vetiges ora
Platonic vocabulal,, in other poets of the agc, e.g. William Mason in The English Garden ( 1 772)
speaks of giving 'local (arm to each Idea'; but the words have forgotten their lost originals.
' See M.M. Kelsall, 'Iterum Houyhnhm: 'Swift's Sextumvirate and the Horses" Essis in
Criticism, t9 (1 969), 34-45
. AlsoT.O. Wcdel, 'On the Philosophical Background of Gulli vcr's
Travels', in Swift, Gulliver's Travels, a Casebook, cd. R. Gravil (London, 1 974).
Introduction: the eighteenth centmy
had never real|y happened in the easy-going Whig consensus o|
earlieryears. An age o|revolution made itpossible, i|not indeed
necessary, toreconsider absolutes.Theeighteenthcentury, broadly
speaking, had revered not pure intel|ectual categories but the
workingdivisionsthrownupinordinaryli|e,justasithadpre|erredto
uselanguage muddied byeveryday contact with the wor|d rather
than the philosophically exact terms o|the Academy. With a |ew
notableexceptions, Augustanthinkershadseenthecosmos notasa
mysteriousreection o|ahigherreality, butasan intelligiblesystem
o||orcesgoveedbyphysicallaws.Theyhaddistrustedphilosopher
kings advocated by visionaries |ike Bo|ingbroke, and settled |or
practicalstatesmenlikeRobertWalpole. LikeSamuel1ohnsonand
1oshua Reynolds, they had viewed art as a techne with its own
disciplines and identi6able rules, to be practised with conscious
purposeandrarelyattendedwithsuddenilluminationorspontaneous
burstso| sel|-validatingenthusiasm.Thenlightenmenthadcanonised
theworldly,andmadethepursuito|happinessacivicrightinsteado|
a metaphysical quest. We can place the breakdown o|this way o|
viewing the world as occurring around i ;;,or i ;8g,or i ;g8, or
whenwewill,butuntilaradicalshi|:inpervasivevaluestookplace,
therecouldbelittleroom|oraPlatonicdialectinthelanguageofthe
arts.
CHAPTER 1 7
Blake and Platonism
Edward Larris:
'There xist in that terna| Wor|d,' says B|ake, 'the Permanent
Rea|ities o|very Thingwhich we see reHected inthis\egetab|e
C|ass o!Nature' |jjKGoj). ' These words |rom his Notebook,
whichwerepennedint 8ogort 8t o,agreewithmuchthathewroteat
|easta|ter about t 8o. Anditmightbearguedthattheycontinue,
with a dierent emphasis, certain themes |rom his ear|ier work
respectingvisionandimagination.B|akeis amongthosepoetswho
seemmoreobvious|yindebtedtoP|atonism.Theproblemhasa|ways
been togaugethecharacterand extento|thatindebtedness. Some
things, however, are c|ear. B|ake must have read P|ato in the
trans|ationso!ThomasTay|or,whowas|amiliarwithmemberso|his
circ|e. He must also have read Taylor's commentaries and his
trans|ationso|theNeoplatonists.FromthesehederivesaNeop|atonic
vocabu|ary- 'Ceneration' , 'Nonntity', 'Hyle', 'Forms terna|',
' !nte||ect',and|withsometwisting) 'manation'- whichheusesnot
in!requent|y in his later work. These |acts have |edsomescho|ars,
notab|yCeorge Mi||s Harper and Kath|eenRaine, toseeB|akeas
capab|eo|beingdescribed,with on|yadegreeo!qua|ihcation,asa
Neop|atonist.Theirworksdemonstratetheincontestab|e|acto|his
detai|ed!ami|iaritywiththetradition. Itmightthere|oreseemwiser
' The Complete Poetr and Prose i William Blake, cd. David V. Erdman with commentary by
Harold Bloom; newly revised (New York, 198B) (referred to hereafter as E, with page
number). TheComplele WrilillgsoWilliaTl Blake, cd. Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford, 1972) (refrred
to hereafter as K, with page number).
" Kathleen Raine, 'Thomas Taylor in England', introduction to Thomas Taylor the Platonist:
Selected Writings, ed. Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper (London, 1969), pp. 13-IS.
George Mills Harper, TIl NeopLatonism ofWilliam BLake (Chapel Hill and Oxford, 1961);
Kathleen Raine, Blake and Tradition (The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Art, 1962), '
vols. (Princeton and London, 1969). The infuence of Neoplatonism on Blake was frt
suggested by S. Foster Damon in William Blake: His philosophy atld Symbols (Boston and New
York, 1924)' It i also an assumption of Milton O. Percival, William BLake's Circle ofDestiny
(New York, 1 938).
t 8G
Blake and Platonism
to ake.'B|ake and Neoplatonism' as oursubject. However, B|ake
makesa number o|commentsonP|ato, and acoupleon8ocrates,
whichmakeitclearthathethoughthecou|d|ormajudgementabout
the originators o| P|atonism to some extent independent|y o|
whateverhemayhave thoughtabouttheirsuccessors. Butonlyto
some extent, surely, |or it seems reasonable toassume that these
commentsarcneverthe|essre|evanttoanunderstandingo|thepart
playedbyNeoplatonictermsinhiswork.Theword'Platonism',then,
covers a|| the phenomena. And now a brie|initia|remindero|the
comp|exitieso|thissubject.most, thoughnota||,o|B|ake'sre|erences
to Plato himsel|are hosti|e.
!n thepasttheimportanceo|P|atonismtoB|ake'sworkhasbeen
widely,andsometimessummari|y,denied.Onecanunderstandwhy
Kath|een Raine once c|aimed, o|B|ake, Coleridgeand Yeats, 'the
'darlingstudies'o| thepoetsarejustthosetheiracademiccommentators
would|iketodisregard'.*And stil|manyreaders and some criticso|
B|ake are inc|ined to dismiss such studies in advance. They are
embo|denedbyhishosti|ere|erences toP|ato,and bythe perceived
b|untnessand politica|immediacyo|someo|hisbest-knownworks.
Why bring in a|| that unwie|dy arcane |ore 8uch readers regard
Blake'sNeop|atonictermsandareinclinedtodismissthemas|orming
asmal|strando|creativeborrowingsintheworko|anotab|ycreative
borrower. The genera| |orm o|a rebuttal o|such objections must
inc|udeaglanceatsomeo|thoseotherborrowings.Raine'swork,but
not on|yRaine's,hasmade itc|ear that B|ake isindebtedalso to
phi|osophica|alchemy,andthatheshowssomeknow|edgeo|Cnostic
doctrine. Blake himsel|thought he owed much to the alchemical
tradition, avowing the importance o| Parace|sus and Boehme
|'Behmen')insomeremarksinThe Marriage ,! Heaven and Hell, andi n
alettertolaxmano| :2 8eptember:8oo|;o;|K ;gg).Heseemsto
haveinherited|romthe antinomianProtestanttraditionatendency
tosyncretisminthesemattersandhispropheticpo|itica|radicalism.
AninterestinParacelsusandBoehmewasverycommonamongthe
sectso|the ng|ishRevo|ution period. And onetayinstancethe
conuenceo|suchcurrentsinastrikingindividua|o|thattime:1ohn
verard| r ;g-t Go),translatoro|theHermeticPimander |see8arah
Kathleen Raine in Tllomas Taylor, p. 4.
5 Christopher Hill, The World Tured UpsidcDown (Harmondsworth, 1976), Chapter 14.
passim, Keith Thomas, Religion and fie Decline ojMagic: Siudies il Popular Beliis in Sixteenth and
SevCleellll em/uT England (London, 1971), pp. 270-1.
t 88 EDWARD LARRISSY
Huttonp. ;above) who believedinCod'simmanence,andinthe
ideathatheavenandhellwereinthehumanheart.Althoughthere
aredierenceso|emphasis, most scholars have come to accept the
idea that Blake's political radicalism and his 'occult' interests are
|acetso|asingletradition.!tisbecause this traditionproducedonly
onegreatartistthatBlakeused toseemsoabsolutelysui generis. An
interestingquestion|ollows:howdoesthisinheritanceinteractinhis
work with contemporary Romantic ideas and |orms?' But that is
anothertale.
THEL AND LYCA
The6rstplacechronologicallywhereoneencountersanindisputably
PlatonicechoinBlake'sworkisattheendo|The Book ojThel | t ;8g
| i ;8g-gi | , E-G[Kt e ;o). At thc beginning o| the poem the
maidenThel has wandered in 'the valeso|Har'. Unlikehersisters,
whoarehappytolead'theirsunnyHocks'around,sheispreoccupied
with the melancholy o|transienceand mortality, and 'in paleness'
seeks 'the secret air', lamenting. 8he proceeds to ask the Lily, the
Cloud, theWormandtheClodo|Claywhytheydonotalsolament
their transience. All but theWormreply, and theburdeno|their
responsesisthattheyenjoyexistencewhileitlastsandatitsendare
re-bornto|ullerli|e.I t isnotentirelyclearthatBlakeisre|erringtoa
li|ea|:erdeath,andthereareanumbero|hintsthatheismakinguse
o|thelanguageo|thea|ter-li|etosymbolisetheredemptiono|timeby
entryintoan 'eternal'stateo|mindinthisli|e.Perhapsthebluntest
hint o|this occurs when Thel complains that she will have |ived
'without a use' and will be 'at death the |ood o|worms' |plate ,
ll.cc-).The Cloud replies:
Then if thou art the food of worms. 0 virgin of the skies,
How great thyusc. how great thyblessing; every thing that lives,
Lives not alone, nor for itself.
(plate 3, ll.e-
:
)
The'matron Clay',asi|tosettlethequestionwhethermortalityisto
be|eared,invitesThelintoher house, tellingher to '|ear nothing'.
There|ollow,onplateG,theconcludinglines,whichare|like'Thel's
Motto') alateadditiontothepoem.Thestyleo|scriptisonewhich
Sec Michael Ferber, Tle Social Vision ojWilliam Blake (Princeton, I g85), p. 93.
' Sec Edward Lanissy, William Blake (Oxford, (g8S), pp. 20-1, 29-37.
Blake and Platonism t 8g
B|ake began to adopt in t ;gI , whi|ethat o|theresto|the poem is
congruentwiththedateo|t;8gonthetit|epage.Nodoubtthese|ines
rep|ace an ear|ier ending. They are in B|ake's Ossianic-Bib|ica|
sub|imemode.TheP|atonicreIcrenceistobe|oundintheiropening.
'The eterna| gates terri6c porter |i|ted the northern bar: j The|
enteredin sawthesecretsolthe|andunknown'.Hereissure|ya
re|erence to Porphyry's De antro nympharum, o|which B|ake wou|d
havebeenaware|romTay|or'sHistor ofthe Restoration ,!the Platonic
Theology | i ;8g). Porphyry takes as his text the description o| the
Caveo|theNymphsonIthaca|rom Oqss' xttr, and B|akehimse||
|ater in his |i|e makes this passage the subject o|a great tempera
painting, theAr|ington Court Picture o|t 8e t . In The Oqss, the
nymphs weave purp|e webs inside the cave, which is |u|| o|
perpetua||y owing waters and has two gates. a northern one |or
morta|sto descendthrough,and southern|orascendingimmorta|s.
Porphyryi nterprets thecaveasthis materia|wor|din itsaspect o|
inertness, and thewaters as its aspect o|uxand generation. The
nymphsaresou|sdescendedintothiswor|d.Thenortherngateisthe
onethroughwhichsuchsou|sdescend,andthesouthernthatthrough
whichnotgods,butimmortalsou|s,returntobethecompanionso| gods.
8oB|akeat6rstasksustoseeThe|asencounteringdeath insome
aspect,andthensuggestseitherthatsheisasou|descendingintothe
materia|wor|d accordingto aP|atonicconception, orthat thereis
some ana|ogy in her actions with such a descent. There is no
contradiction|ortheP|atonistinthe6rsta|ternative.'Ourbirthisbut
as|eepanda|orgetting'.Butitseemsun|ike|ythatB|akeisusingthe
moti||romPorphyryinanorthodox|ashion.Foronething,thep|ace
|rom which The| descends, and to which she swi|t|y returns, is
describedas'theva|eso|Har' |p|atese,| . t : G,l . ee) . Weknow|rom
B|ake's'Tirie|' (c. t ;8g) thatHarisassociated withwhat1ohnBeer
ca||s 'innocentReason' and '|aded vision' . 8econdly, theperiodin
whichB|akewas writingtheendo|Thel issomewhere around the
timewhenhewascomposingthose|amous|ines|rom The Marriage of
Heauen and Hell, p|ate,abouthow'nergyistheon|y|i|eandis|rom
theBody' E|[Kt|g),|orplatewascomposed in i )go. Thereis
room |or interpretation o| this remark, especia||y in view o| the
neighbouringone'thatca||dBodyisaportiono|8ou|discerndbythe
6ve 8enses'.Butreading bothremarksagainstB|ake'sindisputab|e
Thomas Taylor) p. 296. ` John Beer, Bake's Visiolar U1iverse (Mancheter, 1969), p. 70.
190
EDWARD LARRI SSY
andwe||-knownce|ebrationo! desirei nthisperiod,onemust!ee|that
he is attempting toexpound a non-dua|istconception o!sou| and
body, orsou|-body.
The P|atonic a||usion, then, is being emp|oyed 6gurativeIy. It
seemstoThelasi! shehas!a||enintoawor|do!!ear!u| |imitations,o!
whichdeathison|ythelastanddirestexpression.Comingto'herown
gravep|ot',shehears the!o||owingvoice,whichitisreasonab|eto
assumeis thato!herown !ear.
Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?
Or the glistning Eye to the poison of a smile!
Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,
Where a thousand fghting men in ambush lie?
Or an Eye of gifts & graces, show'ring fruits & coined gold!
Why a Tongue impress'd with honey i'om every wind?
Why an Ear, a whirlpool ferce to draw creations in?
Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & afright.
Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy!
Why a little curtain of fesh on the bed of our desire?
(EB/KI30)
Therearesevera| re|ated pointswhichneedtobemadeaboutthis.
irst,therearegoodgrounds!orbe|ievingthat|akeisthinkinghere
o!theinuenceo!empiricism,thedominantschoo|o!phi|osophyat
thetime, which he|d thata|| know|edgeis u|timate|yderived !rom
simp|esenseexperience.|akeca||sitthe'Phi|osophyo!ive8enses'
in The Song ojLos |p|ate , |. i G) . We havejust seen that in The
Marriage heremarksthat'thatca||dodyisaportiono!8ou|discernd
bythehve8enscs'.these,hecontinuesinthesamep|ace,are' thechie!
in|etso!8ou|inthisage'.'In|ets'isaword!ami|iar!romtheempiricist
tradition,asisthenotiono!the6vesensesbeing,sotospeak,separate
windows on the wor|d. |ake does not, o! course, ho|d with
empiricism. Thosewhoaresubjecttoitsconceptionsp|aceboundson
theirimaginations.Yetwithin thesebounds theyaresti||expressing
imagination, in howeverstunted a !orm. It is a !airin!erence that
TheI's vision is to some extent vitiated by a narrow view o!
experience,!or|akemakesc|earthatitisboundedbythe6vesenses.
utwemaya|soassumethat:hereisadegreeo!truthinwhatshesees.
What, then,doesshesee8hesees both|imitationandsub|imity.
weareintherea|mo!'TheTyger'anda|soo!'The8ickRose',!rom
Songs ojExperience, awor|d inwhich wrathanddeceitco-existwith
sub|ime beauty |'a whir|poo| 6erce to draw creations in'). Here
sexua|ity,thoughacknow|edged|un|ikeinthestateo!Innocence)is
Blake and Platonism
t gt
seentobesubjecttoirksomeconstraints.!nsum,sheseesthestateo|
Experience.Thesubjecto|hervisionisana|ogouswiththeeyethat
perceivesit.Iorjustasthe6vesensesarevehic|eswhichbothobstruct
andpermitvision,sothewor|dtheyhererevea|isbothexpressiveand
destructive o| beauty. On the whole, though, the emphasis is
negative,and itis notsurprisingto hnd thatTheleesback'witha
shriek'to'theva|eso|Har'.Shecanseemain|ytheterroro|thestate
o|Experience,andseesitssublimityon|yasterrib|e. Shewou|d not
perceive any wisdom in B|ake's contemporary 'Proverbs o|He||',
|rom The Marriage, inwhichheassertsthat'Thetygerso|wrathare
wiser than the horses o|instruction' |p|ate g), and also that 'The
roaringo||ions,thehow|ingo|wo|ves, theragingo|thestormysea,
and thedestructivesword, areportions o|eternitytoogreat |orthe
eyeo|man' |p|ateg). Thesewou|d certain|ybetoogreat|orTheI's
'eye'.B|akewou|dhaveusopenourowneyestothein6niteinsucha
way that wecou|dreachsome accommodation with the terri|ying
'!nergy' revea|ed in the state o| Experience. B|ake had just
comp|etedSongs i Innocence | i ;8g)andwaswritingSongs if Experience
|hnished t ;g) . There is |itt|e reason to disagree with the wide|y,
thoughnotuniversa||y,acceptedtheorythatThe|isover-timorous|y
eeing|romExperiencebackintoa|aded!nnocencewhose|imitations
shehasa|sodiscovered.
Thetruepathismoreakintothat takenbyLyca, theheroineo|
'The Litt|e Cir|Lost' and 'The Litt|e Cir| Iound', a|inkedpairo|
poemswhichB|akecomposed|orSongs if Innocence andthenmovedto
Experience |Eeo-eejKt t e-t j) . Asagir||ostinthewor|do|generation
Lyca has one obvious point o|similarity with Thel, and it isjust
possib|ethatB|akemayherehavebeenthinkingo|whatKath|een
Raine ca|ls 'The Myth o|the Kore', |rom KOPI, the Creek |or
'maiden'+` The myth is that o|Persephone, who was o|ten ca||ed
Kore.TheNeop|atonicinterpretationo|the|aterO|ympiodorussees
Persephone's descent into the underwor|d as asymbo|o|thesou|'s
descent intogeneration.I I Yetread in the |ighto|the |actsalready
out|inedaboutB|akeandhisdeve|opment,thesepoemscaneasi|ybe
seen as recommending some accommodation o| the energies o|
Experience,inc|udingwrathandsexuality:|eopardsandtigersplay
aroundLyeaasshes|eepsinthewi|d,the|ion|icksherbosom,whi|e
the|ionessundressesher,andsheisthencarried,nakedandas|eep,to
acave.Whenthegrievingparentsapproach,seekingtheirchi|d,they
10
Kathleen Raine, Blake and Traditioll, I pp. 126-65. On 'The Little Girl Lost' and 'The Little
Girl Found', sec pp. 130-49.
1 1
Ibid" p. 133.
EDW ARD LARRI SSY
encountera |ionwho turns into ' Aspiritarm'd ingo|d' and |eads
them to theirdaughter.
To this day they dwell
In a|one|yde||
Nor fear the wolvish howl,
Nor the lions growl.
!tmaybe,asKath|eenRainesays,thatthe'pa|acedeep'inwhichthis
spirit |ives is the underwor|d, and that heis P|uto. 6gurative|y the
patron o|thecaveso|generation, thcn.YettheusetowhichB|ake
putsthesea||usions,i!suchtheybe,suggeststhattheunderwor|dis
not such a bad p|ace when proper|y understood. Miss Raine
recognises this |act, and re|ers it to B|ake's indebtedness to the
a|chemica|princip|ethat'thatwhichisbeneathis|ikethatwhichis
above'.Codisatwork,then,evenin the'|owesteects'o|thewor|do|
generation.I ' As we have seen, there is reason to believe that
phi|osophica|a|chemyisveryimportanttoB|ake.Butat|eastatthis
re|ative|y ear|y stage o|his career there are, as wehave a|so seen,
grounds |or be|ieving that he interpreted the |amous Hermetic
princip|einaradica| anti-dua|ist manner.
ButtoreturntoThe|.shehasapointaboutthisworld,andhereis
where the a||usion to Porphyry begins to make sense. For ours is
indecd awor|d where|imitation can occur,and can a|| too readi|y
encourage|earand|ai|ureo|vision.scapeintoB|ake's'in6nite'isin
this period to be attained by c|eansing 'the doors o|perception'
(Marriage, p|ate 1 4) , notbyenteringawor|do|spirits.Butgranted
thesequa|i6cationsone cansee how entry into Exeriencecan be
hgured as descent into a rea|m o|imper|ection, mutabi|ity and
|imitation,whenitisencountered withoutcourageandvision.or
this reason the way |orward is to trust the positive aspects o|
!nnocencewhi|eintegratingthemwiththeenergieso|xperience.!n
thissense,at|east,B|ake'sconceptiono|theimportanceo|chi|dhood
is comparab|e to thato|Wordsworth, who be|ieved, a A. W.Price
points out, that 'in|ant sensibi|ity' shou|d be 'augmented and
sustained' |seep. 223
, be|ow) .
URI ZEN AND THE DEMI URGE
B|ake, as is we|| known, creatcs his own mytho|ogy, with his own
invented namesand termino|ogy. One o|the most important and
12
Ibid., p. '4S. 13 Ibid., p. I ,6.
Blake and Platonism
i g
strik
iug6gures in this system acts as a cu|prit !or the |imitatious
eucounterediuthestateo!Experience.B|akeca||shim'Urizen',the
white-hairedtyrantdeity.Hewi||be!ami|iartomany!romthegreat
!rontis
piece to Europe 't ;g|) which is sometimes knowu as 'The
Ancieuto! Days', where heis seeu ho|ding a pair o!dividers. His
uameowessomethingtotheCreekiu6uitiveOpi'SIV |'tosetbouuds,
|imits') . rom The Book ojUrizen | t ;g|,E;o-8jKeee-;) itmight
seemthathecreates the!a||en wor|d o!|imitatiou. Heisassociated
with Reasou hisuamca|sopuusou'YourRcason');hedividesaud
measures theuuiverse |p|ate ): and heaud his wor|d go through
sevenageso!growth|p|atet o,|.p|atei ,| . i g)which,thoughthey
undoubted|y re!er to the Bib|ica| seven days o!creation, maya|so
reHectkuow|edgeo!thesevennumberswhichexpresstheproportions
iu
whichtheArti6cerdividestheWor|dSou|iutheTimaeus |jb-c).
Thisseries,asiswe||kuown,cou|dbeexpressedonapairo! dividers.
Fora|| thesereasonsUrizeniso!teu compared to the Demiurge or
Artihcer in Timaeus e8c sq. But on|y on a super6cia| reading can
Urizenbeseeuasacreator.Iu!actheisspuruedbytheotherEterna|s
becauseo!his|ack o!euergy |p|ates e, ), and has to be separated
!romthemiuauactiouwhichmayrepreseutB|ake'sadaptatiouo!the
doctrineo!Tsimtsum intheLurianic Cabba|a. thatis, separation o!
the deity !romhiscreation. 'ItisuotUrizeu butauothero!B|ake's
mytho|ogica|creatious,Los,whorea||ydoesthecreating.Losis'The
Eterna|Prophet' |p|ate 1 0: t ), thespirito!poetryorimagination.
Heis thetrueequiva|euto! theDemiurge,anditishewhohasthe
task
o!giving,eventoUrizenandhiswor|d,such!ormastheypossess.
Eventheseven-!o|dchangesre!erredtoabovearegiveu!ormbyLos.
SuchisB|ake'swayo!assertingthatReasoucanbui|dnothing,and
that even those concepts and wor|d-views that it !aucies it has
producedaresimp|ythecodi6catiouormeasuremeuto!ideaswhich
rea||yderive!romimaginatiou.
More thau toP|atouism,B|akeis iudebted to Cuosticism!or his
coucept o!Urizen. ' An important diereuce betweeu Cuosticism
aud P|atonismis theCuosticconceptiono!theDemiurgeasevi|,as
thecreatoro!awor|do!evi|.Theappearanceo!a|imited uuiverse,
bouud by the 6veseuses, is the work o!an evi| creator, and this,
'` For a discussion ofT$imlsuTn, sec GCThom C. Scholcm, Iifajor Trends in Jewisll AfyslicisI, 2ml
rev. cdll (New York, 1946), p. 260. Blake could have encountered this idea in Robert Fludd's
Mosaicall Philosophy, trans. from Latin (London, 1659), p. 44: here Elohim efects 'Separation'.
1 Cr. Stuart Curran, 'Blake and the Gnostic Hylc', Eselltinl Arliclesjor fie S{udy a/William Blake,
197Grf4. cd. Nelson Hilton (Hamden, Conn., (986), pp. 23-4.
rg EDWARD LARRI SSY
combinedwiththe!actthatBlakemakesUrizen|ookverymuch|ike
the O|d Testament Cod, gives immediate p|ausibi|ity to the
identihcationo|UrizenasaCnosticdemiurge.Hans1onasdescribes
the Cnostic doctrine thus.
The world is the work of lowly powers whieh though they may mediately be
descended from Him do not know the true God andobstruct the knowledge
of Him in the cosmos over which they rule."
Sometimes,inthecasemostre|evanttoB|ake,
this role is reserved for their leader, who then has the name of demiurge (the
world-artifcer in Plato's Timaeus) and is often painted with the distorted
features of the Old Testament GodY
!t was thediaristHenry CrabbRobinson who6rstdetected the
Cnosticism in B|ake's thought duringdiscussions with him." And
B|akecou|deasi|yhavecomeacrossdcscriptionso|Cnosticdoctrine
intheworksol1osephPriest|ey,whowasamembero| hisearlycirc|e,
orin1.L.Mosheim'sEcclesiastical Hitor. YetPlatonismhas,Ithink,
somethingspeci6c to add to ourunderstandingo|Urizen.Thomas
Taylor,inhiscommentaryontheTimaeus, notesthat'bythedemiurgus
andfathe o|thewor|dwemustunderstand1upiter'.B|ake'sopinion
ol'the1upitero|theCreeks'canbegauged|romhis|ettertoWi||iam
Hay|eyo|e October t 8o.
I have entirely reduced that spectrous Fiend to his station, whose annoyance
has been the ruin of my labours for the last passed twenty years of my life. He
is the enemy of conjugal love and is the] upiter of the Greeks,an iron-hearted
tyrant, the ruiner of ancient Greece. (E756/K85 1-2)
ThismeansthatB|ake|ee|shehasbeenundertheemotiona|swayo|
abstraction.Itshou|dnotbeassumed,assomecommentatorsdo,that
hehadgivenintel|ectualassenttosucha1upiter|ortwentyyears,nor
thathehademerged fromaNeop|atonic'Crecianperiod'. orin
[ 79
5, inthemidd|eolthattime,heexplicitlynotesin The Song ofLos
that 'To Trismegistus, Palamabron gave an abstract Law. j To

HansJonas, Tlu Gnostic Religion: The Message ojtie Aliell God and rl,t begillllings rCh:tistianity
(Boston, 1958), p. 42.
' Ibid" pp. 43-4'
10 Blake} COleridge, Wordswort/l, Lamb, Etc: BeillgSelectiolsJro1l lie Remai/soJHmrCrabbeRobinso/l,
cd. Edith J. Morley (Manchester, 1922), p. 23.
19 Joseph Priestley, All History ofEarly Opilliolls COllcering Jesus Clrist, 4 vols (Birmingham,
1 786), I, 166-7;J.L. Mosheim, Al Eclesiastical Histor. Am:ienl and Moder, trans. Archibald
Maclail1c, 2 vols (London, 1765), I 1 1 3-16.
2( Thomas Taylor, TIle Crarylus, Parmellides Alld Timaels OJPlaia. With Noles O,r tle Crarylus, Alld
All Explallatory Itltroduction 10 Eacl Dialogue (London, 1 793). p. 402.
2:
Harper, Neoplatollism, p. 35.
Blake and Platonim 1 95
!y:hagoras Socrates Plato' (E67 jK246). Palamabron is in |act
transmittingthislaw|romUrizen.Wemayin|erthatUrizenis'the
jupitero|theGreeks,aniron-hearted tyrant', andthatPlatonismis
atleastimplicated in the ruino|Greecebecauseo|'abstract Law'.
ArtandimaginationareBlake'schie|subjects.Theruino|Greece
wasitsartisticruin.! t isthere|oreimportanttorealisethatonemay
associatethisPlatonicabstraction withBlake'slaterthoughtsabout
'Grecian'Form.Thus,inOn Virgil (c. 1 820) henotes.'Mathematic
FormisternalintheReasoningMemory. LivingFormisternal
xistence. j GrecianisMathematicForm j GothicisLivingForm'
(E270jK778); andin |The Laocon| (c. 1 820) heasserts that'The
Godso|Greece gyptwereMathematicalDiagramsSeePlato's
Works'(E274jK 776). !tmustberealised,however,thatthedistinction
between Grecian and Gothic Form, so dined, is a |eature only o|
Blake'slaterwork. His hrst known re|erence toGreek artis more
equ.vocal. WritingtoDrTrusler, on 1 6 August 1 799, Blake avows
that'thepurpose|orwhichalone!live'is'torenewthelostArto|the
Greeks' (E70I jK792). Whatdoeshemean by'lost?Itisquitelikely
thatheimaginesthatthebestGreekartisnolongerextant,ossibly
becauseithasbeen ruined byworshipo|']upiter'.Onecanseehow
this might be|rom Blake's Descriptive Catalogue ( , 809) in which he
claims that'stupendousoriginals now lost', butonce tobe|oundin
Asia, were copied by Greek artists (E5
3
0jK565). Butin any case,
Blake'sideasaboutthediFerencebetweengoodandbadart,however
expressed,haveacertainconsistency,earlyandlate.Thereare,aswe
haveseen,twohguresinBlake'smythologywhoowesomethingtothe
hgureo| theDemiurge:Urizen,thereasoner,andLos,theimaginative
prophet.Oneo|themostimportantthingstheydoistodiherentiate
goodandbadartandthetwoopposednotionso|artistic|ormwhich
encourage them: the Mathematic and the Living. Blake's more
discursive treatmentso|these two notions, as ! shall now go onto
show, also owe somethingtoPlatonism.
ART AND TRUTH
Urizen'sname,whichcomprisestheideao|'settingbounds',provides
ause|ul wayintoBlake'stheoryo|art. The'bounded'|orhimisan
ambiguousconceptwhichmaybeassociatedeitherwithnegativeor
withpositivenotions. 'The boundedisloathed by its possessor' isa
charcteristic assaultonlimitation, |rom There is No Natural Religion
EDWARD LARRISSY
|e/Kg;). But equa||y characteristic is the epigram 'Truth has
bounds. rror none' |rom The Book of Los |p|ate 4:30; gejKe8).
Theboundso|Truthare not|imiting,andneitherarethosewhich
thegoodartistimposes- orperhapsoneshouldsay,sees.Becauseo|
histrainingasanengraverB|akewasa|waysconsciouso|theva|ueo|
outline,whatheca||s 'the bounding|ine'inhisDescriptive Catalogue:
The great and golden rule of art, as well as o||i|e, is this: That the more
distinct, sharp, and wirey the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art;
and the less keen and sharp, tbe greater is the evidence of weak imitation,
plagiarism, and bungling . . . The want of this determinate and bounding
form evidences the want of idea in the artist's mind, and the pretence of the
plagiary in all its branches. How do we distinguish the oak from the beech,
the horse from the ox,but by the bounding outline? How do we distinguish
one face or countenance from another, but by the bounding line and its
infnite infexions and movements? (E550/K585)
Thebounding-|inehastwo|unctionshere.itisadistinguishing|ine
imposedbyastrongartistwithclearconceptions,anditisthemeans
bywhichanindividua|identityexpressesitse||.Butinboththesecases
the |ine is devoid o|the negative connotations o|a |imit. B|ake's
pre|erence accords with the |ashionab|e Iomantic Neoc|assicism.
withtheworko|his|riends|axmananduse|i,andtbetheorieso|
Wincke|mann, whom use|i trans|ated. Wincke|mann asserts that
Nature,
never could bestow the precision of Contour, that characteristic distinction
of the ancients.
The noblest Contour unites or circumscribes every part of the most perfect
Nature, and the ideal beauties of the Greeks; or rather, contains them both.22
Itseems|ike|ythatB|akewou|dhaveassociatedsuchdescriptionso|
out|inein Creekartwithwhathehad read about theInte||igib|e
Wor|dinTay|or'seditionso|P|otinus.ThusTay|orre|ers to 'those
regionso|mind,wherea||thingsarebounded ininte||ectua|measure,
where every thingis permanentand beauti|u|,eterna| and divine'
|emphasis added). This paradoxica| co-existence o|boundedness
and in6nity in the Inte||igib|e Wor|d is pro|ound|y inuentia| on
B|ake.R.T.Wa||isascribesP|otinus'conceptionstotheprob|em'o|
reconci|ingthemystica|desiretotranscend|ormand|imitwiththe
C|assica| Creekviewo|themastheessenceo|per|ection'. Itwasa
U.J.] Winekclmann, Reections 01 tIle Painting arid Sculpture of tle Grees, trIl. Henry Fuscli
(London, t 765), p. '2.
" Plolinus, An Essay ol/ lle Beautiful, [trails. Thomas Taylor] (London, 1 792), p. i.
"` R.T. Wallis, NeoJ)/alonism (Londoll, 1972), p. 6.
Blake and Platonism i g
:
prob|en),andaso|ution,whichB|akecou|dunderstand.Yet,to|ook
nowabove theInte||igibleWor|d,hehad no time!oraconception
ana|ogoustotheOne. B|akenevcra||owedthes|ightestva|uetothe
ineFab|eorinconceivab|e. Ontheotherhand,descendingbeneath
theInte||igib|eWor|d,heregardedtheideathatinthiswor|dorms
supervened upon matter as based on an i||usion: the i||usion that
matter existed. B|ake may use the word 'Non-ntity', but un|ike
P|otinus he means this abso|ute|y, as respects anything outside a
mind.theideao!matterissimp|yade|usion!orB|ake.Sohisterna|,
orLiving,ormsare bothbounded,andatthesametimeexistina
modeo!inhnity,|ikethoseintheP|otinian!nte||igib|eWor|d.Andas
insomanyartists'versionso!P|atonism|i!thiscanindeedbeca||ed
such) B|ake'sterna|ormsarcperceivedinvision,sothatwhenhe
speaksinhis|aterworko! perceivingthembymeanso!'!nte||ect',we
must qua|i!y that unexpected word with another usage o! his.
'inte||ectua|vision'||ettertoHay|ey,eOctoberi 8o:;;[K8e) .
Theaestheticimp|icationso!suchapositionarewe||putbyPaterin
hisessayonWincke|mannin The Renaissance: 'Themindbeginsand
endswiththe 6niteimage,yet|osesnoparto!thespiritua|motive.
Thatmotiveisnot|oose|yor|ight|yattachedtothesensuous!orm. . .
butsaturatesandisidentica|withit'|seeVarty,pp.e;-6;be|ow).
Whatever one's opinion o! the phi|osophica| coherence o!B|ake's
position, itwou|dbeunderstandab|etothinko!himasamonistin
respecto! whathetakestobethetruecharactero!experience.Yethe
spendssomuchtimedescribingandana|ysingthepowerandthreat
o!those who perceive wrong|y, that i||usion comes to take on the
so|idityo!!act. Urizenmaybese|!-de|uded,butheo|\enseemstohave
most o!the batta|ions. Pondering this, one may !ee| that B|ake is
betterdescribedasakindo!dua|istdespitehimse||.Oneisspeaking
herenotmere|yo!thespeci6cquestiono!thcmindbodydistinction,
buto!B|ake'sapparent|ydepictingama|ignprincip|ewhichcreates
thisdistinction.Somucho!hisworkdepictsthecon||icto!visionary
experiencewithitsimmemoria|andpersistent antagonist.A Leopo|d
Damrosch says, 'B|ake'smonismwars with his dua|ism because he
strivesunceasing|ytoreconci|ethedesireso!theheartwiththe!actso!
experience'.
In view o!Blake's ce|ebrated trenchancy, combativeness, and
insistenceonorigina|ity, itmayseem strange thatheshou|dadopt
t Walter Pater, Tle Rellaissance (New YOI'k, 1959), pp. ' 39-40.
26
Leopold Damrosch, Jr, Symbol alld Trulh ill Blake's Myth (Princeton, 'gno), p. 243.
EDWARD LARRISSY
anyo|thetermsandideaso| PlatoandPlotinuswhenitisclearthat
hesawPlatonismashaving|ostered error.Yetthe|actthathedoes
borrowsuchtermsmayserve,6nally,toillustrateageneralcondition
o|hiswork. that,believingerrortobeaconcealmentormisappre-
hension o|the truth, rather thanits negation, he wrenches notions
|rom their original contexts in the works o|his antagonists, and
attemptstorestoretothemthevisionarymeaningwhichhebelieves
theyoncepossessed.Thishedoes,|orinstance,withNewton's'Ratio'
and with Descartes' '\ortexes'. He had a phrase |or this tactic.
'Striving with Systems to deliver individuals |rom those Systems'
(Jerualem, plate ii , |.,i [KGo)Thereisacharacteristically
brilliantshrewdness ahouttheendeavour.
Itmaytieupa|ewlooseendstosuggesthowthetacticisdeployed
in the present case. What Blake dislikes about Platonism can be
broadlysummedupintheword'abstraction'.Inhisearlyworkshe
usesPlatonicmoti|storepresenthisownconceptiono| howtheworld
o|illusorylimitationneverthelessseemsreal toun|ortunatessuchas
TheI. Inhis|aterworkshecontinuestodramatisethepower|ulworld
o|illusionandemploysaPlatonicvocabularytodescribeit,withthe
understandingthatonlydeceivedstateso|inindarebeingdescribed.
As|orhisownsenseo|whatistrue: he|eelsabletotaketheworkso|
theNeoplatonists,inparticularPlotinus,andsi|t outboththeOne
andMatter,andmuchelsethatgoeswiththem,asrepresentingthe
malignprincipleo|'abstraction'andthedividedconsciousnesswhich
Blake |eels thisencourages. What isle|: is avisionaryversion o|the
IntelIigible WorId capable o|being perceived here and now by
ImaginationandnotbyMemory.I|itbeNeoplatonictobelievesuch
things, thenBlakeisaNeoplatonist.
77 Cr Sleven Shavil'o, "Striving with Systems" ; Blake and the Politics ofDiJcrcncc'. Eselltial
Ar/icles, cd. Hillon, pp. 271-99.
PART V
h ntn/n/h cn/u

I
CHAPTER 1 8
Introduction
Richard Jenkyns
'Aristot|eisdead,butPlatoisa|ive'- socnjamin1owett| : 8i ;-g)
usedtosay. 'Amanisnotonoathinanepigram,butitmaysti||be
worth asking why ]owett shou|d have said it and his pupils
rememberedit.HecannothavcmeantthatOx|ord undergraduates
ignoredAristot|e |mostofthem,throughoutthenineteenthcentury,
studiedtheEthics) , orthatscholarswereneg|ectinghim |onemight
thinko|CroteandAlexanderCrant) , anditisunlike|ythat1owett
thoughthimo!smal| intrinsicvalue.Ratherhe!e|t|asonecansee
|romhisprivatenotebooks)thatP|atocou|dstillaidthemoral|i!eo|a
Christian inthenineteenthcenturyand,moregeuera|ly,thatP|ato
wasacreativeinuenceonthecultura|andintellcctua| |i|eo!theage.
Thatbe|ie!seemsjusti6ed. Orote'sPlato and the Other Companions if
Socrates | t 8G) wasasigno|thetimes, notablein thataradica|and
uti|itarian,hostileto much o!Plato's thought, be|ieved itworthhis
whiletoengagewith the phi|osopher,si!tingthose partso!hiswork
whichheconsideredo!permanentva|ue|romthosewhichweretobe
rejected.1owett|orhisparttrans|atedallPlato'sdia|ogues,providing
themwith extended introductionswhichsoughttobringouttheir
use|ulness |or the modern wor|d, his own work not on|y re6ected
P|ato'scontinuinginuencebuthe|ped to sustainit.
Ithad not been ever thus. As PatRogers indicates |see above,
pp.r 8i-), |or much o|the eighteenth century P|ato was rather
neg|ected|Aristot|etoo,!orthatmatter) .Butbetween t ;gand t ;8o
F|oyer Sydenham tried togive him wider currency by trans|ating
nine P|atonic |or pseudo-Platonic) dialogues, and in i ;ge the
industriousThomasTaylorbegantrans|atingtherest,withmorezeal
thanski|l;hepublished the hrstcomp|ete ng|ish version o!P|ato's
I E. Abbott and L. Campbell, TIle lieand LeffeTs ojBelyamill Jowell (London, 1897), I, p. 261 .
` William Whcwdl's nit Plaiolic Di(/o,tllcs Jor t'"glisl Readers ( 1859-61 ) , of no scholarly
importance, is perhaps llnothcr sign of the times in its concern to reach a wider audience.
eoi
coc
R[ CHARD JENKYNS
works,incorporating8ydenham'strans|ations,i ni 8o.Thesesigns
o|a quickenInginterest were not immediate|y rebected In nglIsh
universities.Thebelie|o|F.D.Maurice | t 8o-;c)thatCambridge
in theear|iernineteenth century had a P|atonistavour |and was
there|ore superior to Ox|ord,with its undi|uted Aristotelianism)
seemsaha||-truthatbest.AtOx|ordAristot|ewasInvariablystudied
byundergraduatcsreadingLiteraeHumaniores at|east|rom t 8o;,
Wi||iam8ewel|beganlecturingonP|atointhe thirties,itissaidto
|argeaudiences,butintheear|yyearso|thecenturyhcdoesseemto
havebeenncg|ected.'Must!careaboutAristot|e?'theundergraduate
8he||eyaskedhistutor.'WhatI|!donotmindArIstot|e?' His|rIend
T.1. Hoggobservedin[ 821 , 'P|atoisun|ortunate|y|itt|ereadevenby
scho|ars'.Peacock,threeyearsbe|ore,hadsaidthatP|ato'certain|y
wantspatronageinthesedays,whenphI|osophys|eepsandc|assica|
|iteratureseemsdestinedtoparticIpateInitsrepose.'Ortoturn|rom
|i|eto6ction,DrFo||iott,inPeacock'sCrotchet Castle | t 8t ) , dec|ares,
'Youmustrememberthat,inourUniversIties,P|atoIshe|dtobe|itt|e
betterthanamis|eadero| youth,andtheyhaveshowntheircontempt
|orhim,notonlybyneverreadinghim|amodeo|contemptinwhich
theydea|very|arge|y) butevenbyneverprintingacompleteedition
o|him'.Butthrougha||theseremarkswecatchthecondescending
toneo|se||-con6dentyouth,assuredthatithasthe|utureonitsside.
8he||ey's revo|t against Aristotle was part and parcel o| his
Platonism. Buti|weshare theview o|P|ato and Aristotleas polar
opposites,wemaybe|a||ingiutoanIneteenth-centurytrap.Co|eridge
| t ;;c-r8),the |eadingInuenceindisseminatingtranscendental
andidea|istphi|osophyinng|and,maintaIned,'verymanisborn
anAristotelianora P|atonist. ! don'tthInkItpossIb|ethatany one
bornanAristote|iancan becomeaPlatonist,and! amsurenoborn
P|atonist can ever change into an Aristote|ian. They are the two
c|asses o|men beside which it is next to impossib|e toconceive a
third' |ThoughhisimmediateinspirationwasKant,therecou|dbe
M.L Clarke, Greek Studies in England 177Q1830 (Cambridge, 1945), p. 244-
4 D. Newsome, Two Classes ojMen (London, 1974), p. 8 etc.
F. Turner, Tie Greek Heritage in Viclorion Britaill (New H
a
ven and London, I g81), p. 373.
T.J. Hogg etc, TIle Li ofShelle, cd. H. 'Wolfe (London, 1933). I. 70, .
Dane Lady Shelley]. Shelley aJd Mar, 4 vals ([London], 1882), 1 642.
" Peacock to Shelley, go Aug. 1818, in Tu: WorksojTllOflas Love Peacoc, cd. H.F.B. Brett-Smith
and C.E. Jones, 10 vols (London, 1924-34), Vllt, p. 203.
9 T.L. Peacock, Cro/clet Ca.tle, eh. 7.
I( Coleridge, Table Talk, 2July 1830, cd. C. Wooding, 2 vols (Princeton, 1990), p. 1 18. (Tie
Collected Worh ofSamlel Taylor Colerid.e, 14.)
Introduction: the nineteellth centur
nodoub
iu
whi
ch
classhep|acedhimse|!)Thisout|ookmaynothave
been otigiua
|
to C
o|etidge, but it d
'
es appeat to have a specia||y
nineteenth-
ceut
utychatactet|ouem
i
ghtconttast
Raphae|'s
|tescoo|
theSchoo|so|
Athe
us|s

.
e|toutispiece), whetePlatoandtheyounget
Atistot|estaud
toge
thet
i
uthecentteo|thepictute,a||iesattheapex
o|c|assica|thou
gh
t ) . Co|etidgewaswtong.P|atoandAtistot|eateno
doubtthegtea
test
Gteekphi|osophets,aswe||astheon|ytwo|tom
thec|assical
pe
tio
dtohavesutvivedinbu|k,buttheonewasthepupi|
o|theothet

aud
|ot a|| thcitdi
Ierences, theyweteagteed on the
scopeandm

eth
odo|philosophy,onwhatquestionsshouldbeasked,
aud sometim
es
ou the answets too |both, |ot examp|e, give an
inte||ectua|ist
exp
|auatiouo|mota| weakness) . In radica| conttast
wasthematet
ia|ismo|Epicutus,whote+ectedmetaphysicsa|togethet
andatgucd
that
P
hilos

ph

ca|theory,ethicsinc|uded,shou|ddetive
|rom ascieuti
cmvc
st

gatono|the natuteo|thephysica| wot|d.

Theniuete
eut
h-ceututypo|atisationbetweenP|atoandAtistot|e
encoutaged a
sttessuponthe ttanscendent, even mystice|ementin
P|ato'sphilo
soph
y. And|ortomantic poets,withtheirtasteboth|ot
gtandabstta
ctio
usand|o

thc patticu|atitieso|the natuta|wotld,

thetewasasp
ecia|
chatm
i
uwhatwemayca||thePlatonicpatadox.
P|ato ho|ds that ta p
a
lla kala, the many individua| beauties o|the
petceptib|e
wor
d, a
'
e on|y pale shadows o|the evet|asting and
immutab|e |otm
s wh

ch they embody. Ftomone pointo|viewthis

mayseem to
deva
|ue the petceptible wot|d, whi|e |tom anothet it
exa|tsit |otitis
noton|y|u||o|itsownbeautiesbuta|sooutmeanso|
7
accesstothe
ttau
scendeut,theetetna|,thedivine. InAdonais
( J
82
J )
She||eyexptessedthispatadoxinanimageinspiredbyP|ato'sMyth
o|Et,whete
the
physica|univetseisconceivedasaserieso|concenttic
anddivetse|y
~
o|o
uted whot|s, |ike vesse|s httingintooneanothet.
The
One renains, the nanychangcatd pass,
Hea
vcn'
s light for ever shines, Earth's shadows fy;
Li|e,
|ikea dome of many-coloured glass,
Staius the white radiance or Eternity,
Unti|
DcatbtrMmples it to f'agments
Adonais, stanza 52
He cou|d a|so
en|ist P|ato as an a||y in his mota| tebel|ion. in
Epip
s
ychidion
( ,82 J ) the docttine o|the SymjJosium is adapted to
become a de|e
nce o||tee |ove, while his un|aith|u|ness to his wi|e
receives the
|oi
est|ustincatiou. in his misttess's bodyheseeks the
RI CHARD JENKYNS
divine,eterna|beautywhichi t incarnates. |seeWa||ace,pp.229-41
be|ow) . '
Wordsworth's '!mmorta|ity Ode' ( 1 802-6), the most |amous
poeticexpressiono|romanticPlatonism,isanembarrassmenttothe
historian,since it is unc|ear thatWordsworthknew P|atowhen he
wroteit |see Price, pp. 2 1 7-81 below). Perhaps the issue may be
approached through a |ater poet o|P|atonist tendency. Hopkins
( 1 844-.89) thoughtthat'Wordsworth'sparticu|argrace,hischarisma,
as theo|ogianssay,hasbeengrantedin equa|measuretosovery|ew
men since timewas - to Plato and who e|se ! mean his spiritua|
insightintonature'.AndhecomparedP|atoandWordsworthastwo
o|thevery|ewmeni nhistory'whomcommonrepute. . . hastreated
as havinghad something happen to them that does not happen to
othermen,ashavingseen something, whateverthatrea||ywas' . 'That
isaPlatonistaccounto|Wordsworth'sP|atonism.thereissomething
'out there'whichboth men have 'scen'. More prosaical|y, wemay
supposeaninteractionbetweenthepoet'spersona|visionanda|oose
P|atonism that wasin theairat the time. \Vordsworth's'Ode'was
'|a|se|yca||ed Platonic' in]ohn StuartMi|l'sview, but ironica||yit
may have inuenced a more phi|osophica| P|atonism. itishard to
thinkthatMauricewou|dhavehe|d'A|||itt|echildrenareP|atonists,
anditistheireducationwhichmakesmenAristoteIians',withoutthe
Wordsworthian |usion o|the P|atouic idea o|anamnesis with the
romantic sense o| the chi|d's pecu|iar purity o| vision.' As |or
Hopkins, in him we meet an idea o| the re|ation between the
transcendentCodandthediversebeautieso|thenaturalwor|dboth
morerigorousand morerhapsodicthaninanyotherpoet. Hopkins
himsel|wouldhaveattributedagreatdea|o|thistoDunsScotus,but
itis|ike|ythatitowes asmuchtohisdirectencounterwithP|ato.
Plato'spolitica|thoughtdidnotattractmuchc|osescrutinyinthe
nineteenthcentury. Peop|eas diverse asMacau|ay, C|adstoneand
Mi|| praised his po|itica| wisdom.' 1his may remind us o| the
authoritarianorpaterna|iststreakthatrunsthroughmuch\ictorian
po|itica|thought, butweshou|da|so remember that thenineteenth
centuryhadnoexperienceo|LeninismorNationa|Socia|ism,which
weretoinspire theassau|tsuponP|atobyCrossmanandPopper.To
1 1 bpipsycidion, c.g. lincs
1 49ft, Sf, 770:
12 Hopkins to R.W. Dixon of7 August and 23 October 1886 in (;erard Mal//O' lJopkills: Selected
Letters, cd. C. Phillips (Oxford, 1990). pp. 235, 240.
13 Maurice quoted by Newsome, Two ('lasses, p. 8.
t4 Forchaptcralld vcrsc,SC(' R.Jcnkyns, Tlte Vie/oriallsalld A/ltm! Urace (Oxford, 1980), pp. 244-.
Introduction: the nineteenth centur eo
besute,uoouecou|dagteewithevetythiugthatP|atosaid,butthisiu
a way ptotected him. he seems tohave beeu tegatded mote asa
mota|ist than as an exact po|itica| thiuket. The te|igious P|ato,
howevet,|ascinatedtheNictotiau.Fotaguosticstheatttactionwas
thathecou|dbetteatedasasotto|a|tetnativesctiptute.Mi|||whose
theotyo|mathematicswasiu|acttadica||yanti-P|atonist)ptonouuced
himthegteatestmota|isto|autiquityaudcompatedhimtoChtistiu
his capacity |ot iuspiting the |ove o|vittue. ' This attitude was
enhancedbythecu|to|Soctates.Mi||agaiucompatedhismattytdom
to thepassiou o| ]esus, and Matthew Atuo|d dec|ared thatthough
Soctatesisdead,evetymaucattiesapossib|eSoctatesinhisbteast -
asitwete, asecu|atised Ho|y Spirit |it is thissenseo|Soctates as
pattetu aud meutot that is pethaps P|ato's |atgest iuhuence on
Atno|d) |see Rowe, pp. ee-6 be|ow) . ' Such aua|ogies wete
atttactiveto Chtistiaus too. Sometheo|ogiausatgued|ot P|atouist
e|ements in St 1ohu's docttiue o| the incatuatiou. B.F. Westcott
| r 8e-r oor ) , the saiut|y Bishop o|Dutham, wtote, 'P|ato is au
uncousciouspropheto|theGospe|.TheLi|eo|Chtistis,iu|otm uo
|essthauiusubstauce,theDivinetea|ityo|whichtheMythsweteau
iusttuctive|oteshadowiug'.'ThisputsP|atooua patwith Isaiah.
]owett +oiuediucompatiugSoctatestoChtist,andConuopThit|wa||
| i ;o;-i 8;),abishopo|Libeta|Aug|icaustamp,te|used tomeeta
Getmauscho|atwhohad|ustinedSoctates'death. Iuthissphete,
P|atoseems|ess the ptopetty o|oue c|asso|meu than a commou
gtouud upou whichdieteutc|asses o|meu mightmeet.
Notevetyonecated|otaP|atonisingChtistianity.]owett'sdettactors
suspectedthathisP|atouismwasadodgingo|theissuesotac|oak|ot
acovettaguosticism.I. Thiswasthebasis|otW.H.Ma||ock'ssavage
satite upou himiu The New Republic ( 1 877), whete 'Dt]enkinson',
pteachingasetmou, takes histext |tom thePsa|ms,p|ungesiuto a
discoutse ou P|ato, sttessing his 'Chtistian' e|emeuts, disso|ves
Chtistianityintoavaguebeuehcence,audeudsbyinvitingevetyoue
ptesent,whatevethisbe|ie|s,totecitetheApost|es'Cteed.Thiswas
un|aiton]owett, butitcou|dmotep|ausib|ybec|aimedthatWa|tet
Patet | r 8o-o) |see Vatty, pp. e;-0; be|ow), apptoachiug the
issue |tom au aguostic staudpoint, did ptesent a spititua|ised
'
Mill's Elf'cal 'Writings, cd.']. Schnccwind (New York, 1 965), pp. 77.
' J,S. Mill, On Liher!; M. Arnold, Culture and AfQI/ry, 'Conclusion',
' Essays in lhe Histor of Religiolls Tlouglt in lie West (London, 18gl), p. 48.
'
6
The George Eliot Lie, 7 vols, cd. G. Haight (London, 1954-6), VI, 407.
19 Jenkyns, Victorians, p. 250.
20
W.H. Mallock, Tilt New RlPllhlic, bk 2, eh. .
206 RI CHARD JENKYNS
P|atonismwhichhe a|mostassimi|atedtoawatered-downChristianity,
tree otdogma. We meet this in his phi|osophica| nove|, Marius the
Epicurean | r 88) , set in the second century AD. His Plato and
Pleteoism | i 8o) is predominant|y concerned to b|end the P|atonic
paradox with another idea. that P|ato's phi|osophy, tor a|| its
abstraction,isvisib|ytheproductotahigh|ydistinctivepersona|ity,
onethathashadtostrugg|ebetweenspiritua|andsensuousimpu|ses.
There may be an insight here, but the book is vitiated by a
se|t-indu|gence that |icenseswi|tu| misinterpretation. I nanearly
essayonCo|eridgePaterhadaskedwhowouldgiveupthecolourand
curveotarose-|eattor theco|our|ess, tormlessandintangib|ebeing
which P|ato putso high, nowheseesPlatoas apoetand aesthete,
cu|tivatingasensuous austerity. thespiritottheidea|stateis tobe
comparedtoGregorianmusicorthearchitectureotanear|yGothic
monastery.
Onedoesnotimmediate|ythinkotRuskininthiscontext,buthis
judgementotP|atomaybringoutwhatthephi|osophermeanttohis
age:
He is profoundly spiritual and capacious in all his views, and embraces the
small systems of Aristotle and Cicero, as the solar system does the Earth. He
seems to me especially remarkable for the sense of the great Christian virtue
of Holiness, or sanctifcation; and for the sense of the presence ofthe Leityin
all things, great or small, which always runs in a solemn undercurrent
beneath his exquisite playfulness and irony; while all the merely moral
virtues may be found in his writings defined in the most noble manner, a
great painter defnes his fgures, without outlines.
This accountgives P|ato the exuberanceanddiversityota Gothic
cathedra|oraVictoriannove|.Atthesametimeitsuggeststhatthere
wassometinginP|atotoreverybody.heisprophet,artist, humorist,
mora|ist, aesthcte. P|ato had his denigrators in the nineteenth
century,suchas BenthamandHerbertSpencer, whi|eMacau|ay's
tee|ingsweremixed.inhisessayonLordBaconhepraisedthenobi!ity
otP|ato'sthought,whi|ecensuringitsuse|essnesstor practica||ite-
indeed, theuse|essnessotGreek

phi|osophy altogether. Butonthe

who|ethe|astcenturywasa timeottriumphtoraphi|osopherwho
seemed able toappea| to aestheteand man otaction, conservative
and radica|, agnosticand Christian a|ike.
1 W. Pater, Ilarius Ihe Epicureal, especially eh. 3.
22 For detailed analysis, sec Jcnkyns, Victorialfs, pp. 253-1 .
2J J. Ruskin, Tfe Sloues of Vtict,
I
f, ch. 8, 49.
CHAPTER i q
Recollection and recovery: Coleridge's Platonism
Keith Cunlie

Thein6uenceo|P|atonicthoughtonCo|eridgeis|e|tina|mostevery
areao|hiswork.InthischapterIsha||consideron|ythewayinwhich
Co|eridgeusedP|ato'stheoryo|ideas,andhistheoryolknow|edgeas
reco!|ection. He re-dehned these in the |ight o|his readingo|the
German transcendenta| idea|ist phi|osophers, notab|y Immanue|
Kant.TheintensivestudyolKantwhichheundertookintheyears
lo||owing i8ooconhrmed Co|eridgeinhis opposition to the British
empiricisttradition.Itsupp|emented,butdidnotsupp|ant,thestudy
olP|atoand theNeop|atonists. P|atoandKantbothprovided him
with ammunition which he cou|d use against the 'mechanica|
phi|osophy'ashegenera||yca||edthecomp|exol ideascentringupon
theassociationistpsycho|ogyo|DavidHart|eyandtheepistemo|ogy
o|impressionsandideasdeve|oped by LockeandHume.Co|eridge
had two main ob|ections to this system. It treats the mind as
essentia||ypassive;anditreducesthemindtoaco||ectionol disparate
ideas |oose|y tied together by association and memory. P|ato was
centra| to the shaping

o|Co|eridge's response to these perceived

|imitationso|theempiricistposition.Co|eridgesawinhim,asShe||ey
did a|so, the supremc examp|e o|the phi|osopher aspoet. P|ato's
writingsareinthemse|ves'poetryo|thehighestkind'.` Assuch,Isha||
argue, their va|ue lor Co|eridge |ay not in any specinc P|atonic
doctrine, important though thesewere. It consisted ratherin their
abi|itytoe|icitanimaginativeandcreativeresponselromthereader.
The active nature o| this response diers radica||y |rom the
eighteenth-centuryempiricistmode|whichconceived the mindasa
tabula rasa, ab|eon|ytoreceivetheimpressionsmadeonitbyob|ects
intheexterna|wor|d.P|atonismbycontrastimp|icatesitsstudentsin
aprocess,the're-productionol stateso| Being',asCo|eridgecal|sitin
` Biograplia Lileraria, It, eh. '4. in The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, general editor,
Kathleen Cobur (London <.nd Princeton, Ig83), VII, p. 1'1.
207
eo8 KEITH CUNLI FFE
anotebookenttyo|r 8i o. Likepoetty,which Co|etidgedehnesi n
Biographia Literaria as btingingthe'wholesoulo| manintoactivity',
thisprocessengagesa||themind's|acu|ties,notmere|ythediscutsive
understanding.!shaI|arguethattheP|atonicidea,reinterpretedin
the|ighto|Co|etidge'steadingo|Kant,iscentra|tothisconception
o| mind. Mote specihca|Iy I sha|| try to show that the P|atonic
concept o| anamnesis ot teco||ection supp|ied Co|etidge with a
metaphot, tecuttent|y invoked, |ottheptocessbywhichtheideais
'awakened'into active |i|e.

The ditect inhuence o|P|ato duting Co|etidge's ear|y yeats is

|tusttatingIyhatdtogauge.Itisnotuntilr 8oI , ina|ettettoThomas
Poo|e, that P|ato is proc|aimed unambiguous|y as a 'gteat and
astonishing'genius.Thisawatenesso|P|ato's|u|Isignihcancethus
appeats to emetge |tom the same period o|intense metaphysica|
study, undettaken duting r 8oo-r 8or , which a|so estabIished the
impottanceo|Kant|otCo|eridge.I t matksareso|utiono|thetension
betweenCo|etidge'seatIierinte||ectua|adhetencetovariousempiricist
phi|osophies and hisinstinctive, expetientia| exp|otationo|amore
active and otganica||y unined conception o|mind. He had been
|ee|inghiswaytowatdsthisinthepoettyo|he I ;oos.Manyo|the
themesandimageswhichatehtstdeve|opedthereare|atertakenup
in a more exp|icitIy phiIosophica| context. P|ato and Kant thus
enab|ed himto |otmaIise, and to gtound phi|osophica||y, insights
whichhad beens|owIy|orming|otseveta| yeats.
ThisdoesnotmeanthatCo|etidgesimpIytemode|IedPIatointhe
imageo|Kant.Co|etidgeadopted theKantiandistinctionbetween
teason and undetstanding, but he did notaccept the |imitations
which Kant imposed on teason in the Critique if Pure Reason. !n
particu|athete|ected thecircumsctibed to|eo|the ideasinKant's
phi|osophy. It is |ot this teason that Co|etidge in The Statesman's
Manual a|igns Kant with Atistot|e tathet than with P|ato and
Plotinus. Co|etidgesided motewith the |ast two. I nhisview the
The Notebooks a/Samuel Taylor Coleridge, cd. K. Cobur (London and Princeton. ' 957- ),l,
3
9
3
5)

Biographia Literaria, 11, ch. 14. in Works, VII, pp. 15-16. The poet is defned as bringing the
'whole soul of man into activity. with the subordination of its faculities to each other,
according to their relative worth and dignity It is revealing that this definition ha close
verbal parallels with Coleridge's summary of Plato's Republic as ja description of an
individual, all of whose faculities are in their proper subordination and interdependence'. The
Statesman's Monul. edited by R.L. While, in Collected Works, VI. p. 62 and notc.
4 Collected Letters ojSamuel Taylor Coleridge. cd. E.L. Griggs, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1956-71 ). II. 675,
380.
Lay $rmMs, Tle Stalesmans Manual, in Works, VI, p. 1 14.
Coleridge's Platonism
understandingitse||presupposes thepresenceandtherea|ityo|the
ideas. The idea isdistinct |rom our common perceptions o|reality
thoughitisimp|icit|ypresentworkinginandthroughthem.Itcannot
however itse|| become

an ob+ect o| perception. Nor can it be

expressed in words. Theinadequacy o||ogic tograsp theideasis
demonstrated, Co|eridge suggests, by the lrequency with which
P|ato'sdia|oguesendinconclusively,asintheTheaetetus, orbyPlato's
use o|arguments leading to contradictory conc|usions, as in the
Parmenides. Thiswasamethod adopteda|sobyKantintheCritique oj
Pure Reason. Kant uses it to show that pure reason, and its ideas,
transgresstheboundso| whatwecanknowthroughtheunderstanding.
Plato,Coleridgesuggests, usedthismethod|or aradical|ydierent
purpose. He presented arguments leading to opposite conclusions
precise|y in order to demonstrate the inadequacy o|the discursive
understandingandtoshow the need |orsomething beyond it.
the understanding is indirectly and by negation the organ of the reason) and
the exercise of logic for this purpose by the understanding to prove the
inadequacy of the understanding constitutes the Platonic dialectic which the
divine philosopher calls the wings bywhich philosophy frst raises herself
|rothe ground.6
Whether P|ato wou|d have agreed that this was his purpose is
arguab|e. But |or Co|eridge the important point was that thevery
absenceo|sharp|ydennedconclusionsinsomanyo|thedia|oguesin
itsel|suggested orshowed more than cou|d besaid. Itacted asa
stimu|us to the mindo|thereaderand imp|ied thepresenceo|the
ideasworking in and behind thediscursive |ogico|the text.
Coleridge thus draws on e|ements o|both Kant and P|ato. He
agreeswithKantthatideascannotbeknowndirectly.The'idea'in
Coleridge'ssenseisnotatranscendentob+ecto|knowledge. On the
otherhanditisnotaconceptliketheKantian'categories'.Co|eridge
explicitlysoughtto'establishtherea|ityo|ideasascontradistinguished
|rom notions and perceptions'. Moreover the idea is 'not mere|y
|ormalbutdynamic',itisa|atent'power'orpresenceinthehuman
mind whichcan beawakened.This isquitedierent|rom Kant's
concepto|the'categories'o|theunderstanding.Coleridgeenvisages
aprocesso|menta|deve|opmentwhich re|ers asmuch to empirica|
psycho|ogy as to the|ogica||ormso|cognition.
For this reason the Socratic emphasis on se||know|edge was
6 Logic, in Works, 7M. p. 1 39.
' A.D. Snyder, Coleridge on Logic al/d Leominc, p. 70.
Cleridge's annotation on his own copy or TIlt Statesmall's Ma1lual, Works, VI, p. 61 .
21 0
KEI TH CUNLI FFE
impottauttoCo|etidge.!uthephi|osophica||ectuteswhichhegave
iu r 8r ohesttesses the |act thatboth Soctates aud P|ato begau by
'meditatiug'outhe'goiugs-ou'o|theitowutniuds.Theyte|etustoa
se||whichisuotmete|ya|ogica|pte-couditiouo|expetieuce,|ikethe
Kautiau ' ttausceudeuta| uuity o|appetceptiou'. Equa!|y howevet
this se||is uot |imited, as it was by Hume |ot examp|e, to the
iutetua|ised tepteseutatiou o|imptessious ot ideas. As |ate as the
Phaedrus P|ato makes Soctates assett the ptimacy o| the De|phic
iujuctiouto'kuowyoutse||'.Itis'|aughab|e',hesays,toputsue'othet
kiudso|kuow|edge'so|ougasheis 'uotyetab|e tokuowhimse||'.
Suchkuow|edgecauou|ybeacquitedthtoughthestudyo|, audiu
couvetsatiouwith,othetpeop|e.TheSoctaticputsuito| se|| kuow|edge
thushadaptactica|,audmota|,otieutatiou.Co|etidgewasdeep|yiu
sympathywiththis,thoughaswesha||seehetooka|atmotepositive
viewo|uatutethauSoctatesa||owsiuthispassage. Itisatecuttiug
theme iu Co|etidge's tteatmeut o|P|atouism aud oue o|the gteat
advautageswhichithadiute|atiou toothet phi|osophies.
One excellence of the Doctrine of Plato, or of the Plotino-platonic Philo-
sophy, is that it never sufers . . . its Disciples to forget themselves, lost and
scattered in sensible objects . . . I tis impossible to understand the Elements of
this Philosophy without an appeal, at every step & round orthe Ladder, to
the fact within, to the mind's Consciousness. (Notebooks, III,
s
o)
This phi|osophy does uot |ust ttausmit iso|ated couc|usious ot
ptoducts o|thought. Itsva|ue, Co|etidge goes ou tosay, is that it
imp|icates usiutheptocesso|'cteative Thought'. Siguihcaut|y, he
associatesthiswithwhatheca|ls'Recoguitiou' . Hecouceivesthisas
uotsimp|ythe'iudo|euceo|meteatteutiou'butasthe'te-ptoductiou
o|stateso| Beiug'.P|atouismheteispteseutedashe|piugtoteca||the
miud|tomthe'|ostaudscatteted'existeucewhichtheempiticistshad
|otced upou itby tteatiug'ideas'asiutetua|pictutes.
The euetgy aud 'acts' o|miud which P|atouism 'touses' wete
euotmous|y impottaut to Co!etidge, aud va|uab|e iu themse!ves,
tathetthan|ottheittesu|ts. Itisauemphasisiutimate|ycouuected
withhisowupetsisteutseuseo|iuadequacyiu|ustthistespect.The
idiom is tecoguisab|y akiu to that o|'De|ectiou: Au Ode'. Hete
Co|etidgeaua|ysesthepoet'siuabi|itytomakeacteativetespouseto
uature, aud the meaus by which that imagiuative patalysis is
ovetcome, iuawaywhichcau|tuit|u||ybedesctibediu tetmso|this
9 Tlu Philo$ophical leclures ofSamuel Taylor Coleridge, cd. K. Coburn (London and New York,
1949). Sec Leclure III, p. 137. and v, p. 186.
Coleridge's Platonism
21 [
dichotonybetweeu'meteatteutiou'audte-cteativeteptoductiouo|
'stateso|Beiug'.Thepoetatteudstouatute,butcauuottecoguiseot
tespoud to uaiute; the detai|s o| the wot|d atouud him ate
meticu|ous|yuoted,but withhowb|aukaueye' (1.30). The'stateo|
Beiug'iuwhichthepoettespouds touatuteaswe||asatteudiugtoit
hudsexptessiou iuoueo|Co|etidge'smostpowet|u| images:
And would we aught behold, of higher worth,
Than that inanimate cold world allowed
.
To the poor loveless everanxious crowd,
Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth
A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud
Enveloping the Earth.
(11.50-5)
0
The poet's pteseut state o| spititua| deso|atiou |otces him to
extetua|ise this state o| beiug, to pteseut it as au ob|ect i u itse||
desitab|e aud whose |oss is to be |ameuted. Yet the vety act o|
moutuiugthis|ostcteativepowetcompe||sthepoettoteco||ectit,au
acto|teca||whichisa|soa teproductiou, howevet eetiug, o|his
|otmer'stateo|Beiug'.
Co|etidgehada|teadyexp|otedthisecouomyo||ossaudtecovety
iu au eat|iet poem, 'This LimeTteeBowet My Ptisou'. Thete the
poet'sspititua|ma|aiseisactua||yimagedouthephysica||eve|bythe
iu|uty which has kept him at home aud sepatated him |rom his
|tieuds, deptiviug him o|the p|easutes which he kuows they ate
eu|oyiug.The toueisiuhuite|y|ightetthau thato| 'De|ectiou', but
thepattetuissimi|at, thete|easeaudtecovetyo|themiud|tomits
'ptisou'iseectedbyauacto| imagiuativeempathywhichcouscious|y
seekstoteptoducethe'stateso|Beiug'expetieucedbythepoet's|tieuds.
and sometimes
Tis wei| to be bereft of promis'd good
That we may lift the soul, and contemplate
With lively joy the joys wecannot share.
(11.64-7)
Imagiuativepto|ectiouuecessati|ybasesitse||heteupouteco||ectiou,
|otthep|easuteswhichCo|etidgeimagiues|othis|tieudsateo| coutse
thosewhichhehashimse||eu|oyed oupteviousexcutsious.Butthe
poemacquitesauadditioua|dimeusiouiuthattheacto|imagiuative
\
All verse quotations are from Coleridge's Poetial Works, ed. E.H. Coleridge (Oxford, t92 I ) .
This image i s strikingly and signifcantly anticipated i n a notebook entry of November ' 799,
ill which Coleridge refers to 'the sUllny mist, the luminous gloom of Plato' . Notebooks, I, 528.
2 1 2 KEITH CUNLIFFE
reco||ectiou[teproductiouwhicheuab|esthepoettopatticipateiuthe
experieuceof his|rieudsiuevitab|ye|icitsapara||e|acto| imagiuative
teproductiou|romthereadero| thepoem.Itisptecise|ythisabi|ityto
e|icitauimagiuativeaswe||asauiute||ectua|tespouse,tostimu|ate
'Creative thought', which Co|etidge siug|es out as a distiuctive
|eatureo|P|atouismaudwhichhehuds|ackiugiuhisphi|osophica|
coutemporaries.
The imagiuative impoverishmeut o| what he ca||s 'modetu
Phi|osophy'isshatp|yctiticisedbyCo|eridgeiuthesarneuotebook
eutrywhichdenuesP|atouismiutermso|itscapacitytoeugagethe
mind o| the readet iu 'Creative thought'. The high|y charged
|auguage iu which he de6ues the|imitatiouso|moderuphi|osophy
te||sus,byimp|icatiou,agreatdea|abouttheeectwhichhethought
phi|osophyaudpoettyshou|dhaveouthereader.Moderuphi|osophy
appea|s to the 'mete uudetstaudiug`
without exciting or awakening any interest, any tremulous feeling of the
heart, asifit heard or began to glimpse something which had once belonged
to it . . . even as a man recovering gradually from an alienation of the Senses
or the Judgement on beginning to recollect the countenances of his Wife,
Mother, Children, or Betrothed. (Notehooks, Ill, 393S)
Words|ike'awakeuiug','recoveriug'aud'reco||ect'suggestthatthe
P|atouicDocttiueo|Reco||ectiousupp|iedascheme|otthiswayo|
represeutiug iute||ectua| aud imagiuative gtowth. P|ato otigiua||y
deve|oped this theory, iu the Meno, a a wayo|accouutiug|ot the
sou|'s abi|ity to acquire kuow|edge. The sou| does uottea||y |eatu
somethiuguew,accordiugtothismode|.Ratheritreco||ectskuow|edge
whichithadacquirediuauauteuata|existeuceaudhadsubsequeut|y
|orgotteu, cou|used by its iucaruatiou iu mattet (Meno 8eb-8b,
Phaedru eoa-c). Co|etidgediduoto|coursetakethis|iteta||y.'Nor
didhethiukthatP!atomeautustotakeit |iteta||y.Butitdidsupp|y
himwithametaphot|orthewayiuwhichthemiud's|ateut|acu|ties
are awakeued ore|icited by aud throughexpetieuce. Aud, as this
passageiudicates,hecou|diuterpretitwide|y,toiuc|udethe'tremu-
|ous|ee|iugo|theheart'.HeretheP|atouiccoucepto|Reco||ectiou,
otigiua||yapp|iedtokuow|edge,becomesemotioua||yaudimagiuative|y
chatged.Co|etidgeisuotta|kiugaboutthetecoveryo|someob|ective
couteuto|kuow|edgebutabouttherecovetyo|theseusesthemse|ves
trom'a|ieuatiou'.Reco||ectiouot'recovery'becomesaprocesswhich
restoresthemiud to itsorigiua|aud trueuature. Co|etidgeseesthe
'' Biographia lileraria, f eh. 22, p. '47.
Coleridge's Platonism
e i
'awakening' or 'exciting' o| this process as one o| the principa|
|unctionso|bothpoetryandphilosophy.
Co|eridge'sconcernwiththesou|'s'a|ienation'|romitstruenature
emergessti||morestriking|yinanothernotebookentryo|thisperiod,
inwhich themetaphoro|shipwreckisinvoked tosuggest both the
sou|'sexistentia||yiso|atedpredicamentandthepossib|emeanso|its
recovery:
I would compare the human Soul to a Ship's Crew cast on an unknown
Island . . . the-moment, when the Soul begins to be sufciently self-conscious,
to ask concerning itself . . . 'is the frst moment orits intellectual arrival into
the World - Its Being . . . is posterior to its Existence - Suppose the
shipwrecked man stunned, & for many weeks in a state ofldeotcyor utter
loss of Thought& Meory& then gradually awakened + . . (Notebooks, III,
s
o
`
This passage is resonant with themes and images explored e|se-
whereinCo|eridge'swork.ThePlatonicassociationsareheightened
hereby paral|e|s with Wordsworth's 'Immorta|ity Ode' |seePrice,
pp. e r ;-r 8 below) . But Co|eridge uses the Platonic structure o|
pre-existenceandreco||ectiontoaverydinerentend.Likethein|ant
inWordsworth'spoemtheshipwreckedmarinershavecomeoverthe
sea,'|roma|ar'.Coleridge's'shipwreckedman'resemblesthechi|din
the Immorta|ity Ode, who is sub|ect to a 's|eep and a|orgetting'.
Simi|ar|ytheshipwreckedsou|suers an 'utter|osso|thoughtand
memory'.Butthis|ossis|o|lowedbyarecovery.Thesoulis'gradually
awakened'. |C|. Timaeus b) This reca|ls rather Coleridge's own
ancient mariner whose isolation and a|ienation |rom nature is
|o||owedbyagradua|recovery.Theprocess,|ikehis|ourneyhome,is
a|ongone.Themomento|returnisaclimacticpointin thepoem,
markedbytheshocko|recognition.
Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed
The light-house top I sec?
Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
Is this mine own cauntree?
(11.464-8)
\ 7
Signihcant|ythis'dream'|eavesthe marinersuspended uncertainly
on the threshold o|s|eepandwaking.
o let me be awake, my God!
Or let me sleep alway.
(11.470-[
)
l?
The mariner's odysey can also be rend in a Ncoplatonic context. SccJohn Beer, Coleridge the
Visionary (London, 1970), pp. '50-I.
e r KEITH CUNLI FFE
Eveumoredirect|y, the termsi uwhichCo|eridgedehues thesou|'s
a|ieuatedcouditiouiuhisuotebookreca||theveryeudo|thepoem.
The weddiugguest, overwhe|med by theimpact o|the mariuer's
uarrative, goes '|ike oue that hath beeu stuuued [ Aud is o|seuse
|or|oru'|l.0ee).Hecauuo|ougerparticipateiuthesocia|ce|ebratiou
o|themarriage|east,hisverydiereutparticipatiouiuthetraumatic
uarrativeo|themariuerhassethimapart.Butthissuggestsa|sothat
thecouditiouo|imagiuativeorspiritua|deso|atioumayiuitsel|bea
uecessarystageiutheprocess throughwhichthesou|isawakeued.
A|thougha|ieuated |rom the muudaue ce|ebratiou o|theweddiug
|easttheweddiugguestisdirectedbythemariuertothece|ebratiouo|
a higher rea|ity, couceived here iu terms o| a commuua| act o|
Christiauworship.Itis|ar'sweeter',we|earu,towa|k'togethertothe
'kirk'aud 'a||togetherpray'.A|thoughtrausposed iutoaChristiau
coutext,thisreca||sP|ato'sa||egoryo|theCave(Republic VII) . Viewed
iu this perspective the seuse o|a|ieuatiou or estraugemeut |rom
muudauerea|itiesisauecessarycouditiou|ortheovercomiugo|that
moreradica|a|ieuatiouwhichisthep|ighto|thesou|iucaruatediu
matter. Thus the weddiug guest is certaiu|y awakeued as we|| as
'stuuued'bythemariuer'suarrative.Herises the'morrowmoru' a
'sadderaud wisermau' |l.0e).
Butthis emphasisou theawakeuiugo|thesou| ueverimp|ied|or
Co|eridge, as attimes it did |or P|ato, there|ectiou o|uature. The
mariuer,trappeda|oueou abeca|medship,iscutoboth |rom the
spriugso|hisowu humauity aud |rom theuaturewhichsurrouuds
him.Ou|ywheuherecoguisesthebeautyo|thewatersuakeswhich
p|ay arouud the ship cau he begiu the process o|recovery aud
spiritua|couva|esceuce. A|though theva|ue o|P|ato |or Co|eridge
was iu part that hedirects the miud iuwards to its owu sourceso|
power, Co|eridgeueverabaudouedhisear|ybe|ie|thatthatpower
shou|d be awakeued by, though uot couhued to, uature. The
educative|uuctiouwhich Co|eridgeascribestouaturemarksc|ear|y
thepoiuto|hisdivergeuce|romP|ato,orratherthepoiutatwhichhe
|ee|s the ueed to supp|emeut aud correct P|ato. This becomes
appareut as ear|y as The Destiny if Nations, au uucomp|eted ueo-
Mi|touicepico|r ;o0. HereCo|eridge|iuksthegrowtho|themiud
c|ose|ytoaP|atouicschemao|thesou|'sgradua|eu|ighteumeutaud
siguihcaut|ymodihesthatschemawhi|edoiugso.Godismaui|ested
through 'secoudary thiugs' as 'through c|ouds that vei| his b|aze'.
Naturebecomes 'symbo|ica|'
Coleridge's Platonism
one mighty a|phabet
Foriu!autniuds, audweiu this|owwor|d
I|aced with our backs to bright Rea|ity,
That we may learn with young unwounded ken
The substance from its shadow.
(II. 1 9-23)
2 1 5
Thisdeve|opmeutolthecaveaua|ogylrom bookVII olThe Republic
subt|ya|terstheva|uesattachedtothetermsoltheP|atouica||egory.
ForP|ato the priso

uersiuthe caveare larmoreiu the dark. Their

backsareturueduotto'brightrea|ity'buttothenrewhichcaststheir
shadowsouthewa||.Theyarethevictimsolaui||usorypheuomeua|
wor|diuwhichtheyaresecuasimprisouedaudwhichisiuterpreted
iu a seuse a|most eutire|y uegative (Republic 5 14 sq. ). Co|eridge
eudorsestheirgradua||iberatioulromthetyrauuyoltheseusesbuthe
suggests that that |iberatiou cau be achieved part|y through the
ageucyolthcuatura|wor|ditse|l,whichisrepreseutedasa|auguage,
these|lexpressiouolthecreatorlor 'iulautmiuds'.
Co|eridgewassti||syucretisiugP|atowiththisBerke|eyaucouceptiou
oluature as the |auguage olGod wheu he gave his phi|osophica|
|ectures more thau tweuty years |ater. P|ato, Co|eridge suggests,
couceived the pheuomeuou as ou|y 'a |auguage by which . . . the
iuvisib|c commuuicates its existeucc to our huite beiug'.J 3 This
ascribesahigherva|uetotheuatura|wor|d thau P|atoevera||owed.
ForP|atouatureisatbest,asiuthe Timaeus (
3
0-1 ) , acopyolthe
trausceudeutrea|moltheideas. Buttheva|ueolboth uatureaud
|auguagelorCo|eridgewasthattheycou|dstimu|atetherecoveryor
'reco||ectiou'oltheideaa|ready|ateutwithiuthemiud.Thedoctriue
olReco||ectiou supp|ies Co|e:!dge with a patteru which is va|id
imagiuative|y, il uot |ogica||y, lor this recovery, aud which he
approaches lromthestaudpoiutolhisowuexperieuce.
In looking at objects of Nature while I am thinking . . . I seem rather to be
seeking . a .asymbolical language for something wi thin me that already and
forever exists) than observing auythiug new. Even when the latter is the case,
yet still I have always an obscure feeling as if that new phaenomenon were
the dim Awaking of a forgotten or hidden Truth of my inner Nature.
(Notebooks, II, 2546)
The'lorgotteu' truthtobereca||edorawokcuhasbeeu trausposed
lromtheeterua|rea|moltheP|atouicideasto'myiuuerNature'.The
idea is thus uatura|ised aud iuterua|ised. 'Is a word iute||igib|e ol
` Philosophical Leclllres, N. p. 187.
KEI TH CUNLI FFE
itse||',Co|eridgeaskedi nanotebookentry,oron|y'byvirtueo|an
idea in the sou| o|him that hears it, which theword awakens?'
(Notebooks, IV, [e8o).
Nature, as Co|eridge had |ound in 'De|ection', cannotin itse||
reca||us|rom thata|ienation, thatsenseo|'utter|oss'whichis the
conditiono|theexistentia||yshipwreckedsou|.Butitcanactuponus
asacata|yst|orthatprocesso|recoveryandgrowthwhichwehave
beenexamining.The|ocuso|theidea|rea|itywhichitadumbratesis
not the transcendent eterna| rea|m o|the P|atonic ideas, but the
humanmind.Co|eridge's'modernised',ormodihed,P|atonismthus
exp|oits whatwe may perhaps ca||a transcendenta|version o|the
Doctrine o|Reco||ection and the P|atonic concept o|awakening.
These become a means to |iberate the se|| |rom that vision o|
a|ienation,|ragmentedand|orgetting,whichhauntssomucho|his
writing.
CHAPTER 2 0
Wordsworth's. Oceonthe Intimationso
Immortalitv
A. W. Prce
P|atonism has |e|i no mote maui|estimptint upon Euglish poetty
thau withiu Wotdswotth's Ode hua|ly subtitled 'Iutimatious o|
Immotta|ityltomReco||ectionso|Eat|y Chi|dhood'.it takesupthe
idea that each human sou| exists be|ote couception aud bitth |ot
whichP|atoatgues,most|amiliat|y,inthePhaedo |;ee;8b).Andyet
theteisuoproolthatatthetimeso|wtitiugtheOde|Matchaud]uue
r 8oe,andeat|yr 8o)Wotdswotthhadanyditectacquaintaucewith
auywotkbyPlato.AtCambtidgeiuhisdayP|atowas neglected. '
The sa|e cata|ogue o|his |ibtaty at Ryda| Mouut iuc|uded both
Fotstet's r ;6 edition o| the Phaedo aud Thomas Tay|ot's r ;o
ttans|ation, but we do uot know when these came iuto his
possessiou.I t maybethathehada|teadybecomeacquainted with
cettainwtitiugsaltetP|ato.the'sacklu||olbooks'whichCo|etidge
btought ovetou IO ]uue r 8oe, exact|y aweek beloteWotdswotth
tesumed his Ode, may have coutained acompeudiumo|excetpts
edited by Ficino in r ;8|tom Ptoc|usand othetswhich Co|etidge
acquited iu r ;o0, possib|y it a|so coutained a wotk by Thomas
` Cr. Ben Ros Schneider, Wordsworl/l's Cambridge Edllcatioll (Cambridge, 1957), pp. 230-10.
E.K. Chambers quotes Charles Lc Clice recalling evenings in Coleridge's Cambridge rooms,
'when Aeschylus, and Plato, and Thucydidcs were pushed aside, with a pile of lexicons, &c,',
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Biographical Study (Oxford, 1938), p. 20. But that rather suggests an
elementary and philological than a reflective and philosophical interest.
2
Cr. Chester L. Shaver and Alice C. Shaver, Wordsworth's Librar: A Catalogue (New York,
1979), p. Q02.
He very likely possessed one or the other by 1817, or whenever precisely he composed the
Sonnet 'I heard (alas! 'twas only in a dream)', published ill t8l g, This alludes to the P/ do, as
a note announcc, with a precision and condensation - bringing together Socrates'
dcscriptions of swans Usinging bcfore they dic as befits crealul'C of Apollo, 84c-85b, and of
our world Ua dim 'hollow', lo9c-d - that prove a familiarity wholly uncvidenced within the
more profoundly but also vaguely derivative Ode,
JOllmals ofDorothy Wordswor{/I, edited by E. de Selincolrt, 2 vols (Oxford, 1941), I, p, 156.
Cf.John D, Rca, 'Coleridge's Intimations ofImmortality from Proclus', Modem Philology, QG
( 1 928). 206-7.
e r ;
e i 8 A. W. PRI CE
Buruet, The Sacred Theor of the Earth | i 68 i-o), which Coleridge
admited.Howevet,a lettet thatDotothywtotetoDeQuinceyon
;]uly i 8oowatususagainstassumingmucbo|William'sGtasmete
libtaty.'ThisLibtatyisin|actlittlemotethauachancecollectiouo|
oldbooks|settingasidethepoetsanda|ewothetBooksthataretobe
|oundevetywhete)
,
,shecoutinuesbyrequestiugauycheapeditions
o|Burnet and o|'translations |tom the Classics, mostly histotical'
iucludingThucydides but not Hetodotus, whom he had alteady.'
Furthet,itmaybesymptomaticthat,inauotetoExcursion III I. I i e,
Wotdswotthinttoducesalongpassageo|Butnet's|presumably|tom
thecopyo|theoriginalLatinvetsionthatwaslistedinhislibtatyin
t 8eo,buthadbeenbortowed|tomColetidgesinceaboutt 8to)with
thetemark,'Sincethispatagtaphwascomposed,Ihaveteadwithso
much pleasute, iu Buruet's "Theory o| the Eatth, a passage
exptessiugcortespoudingsentiments. : theOdemayratherhave
ptompted televaut teading than have been iuspited byit." I|we
wanttoidenti|ytheOde's'ouliebegettet'|asPlatoputit,'the|athet
o|thelogos', Symposium i ;;d),wedonothavetolookbeyoudpoems
by, andconversationswith,Coleridgehimsel|.
The |eelings o| a |athet inclined Coletidge towatds Platouic
thoughts o|ptenatal experience. The birth o|his son Hattley in
Septemberi ;o0gaveli|etothe|ancyo|'someunknownPast',audto
thesupposal'Welivedeteyetthiseshlytobewewote'|Sounet'O|t
o'ermybtaindoesthatsttange|ancytoll'). ' I t wasiuthecontexto|
|amily li|e that he wtote a month later, iu putsuit o| Ficino's
compendiumo| excetpts|tomPtoclus,'Now,thatthethiukingpatto|
man,i.e. thesoul,existedpreviouslytoitsappeatanceinitspteseut
body,maybeverywildphilosophy,butitisvetyintelligiblepoetty. ''
cr. C,W. Meyer, ' A Note on the Sources and Symbolism of the Intimations Odc\ Tulane
Studits ill Euglish, 3 ( [ 952), 33-45,
, Alexander H. japp, De Q/lil1Ct Memoria/s, 2 vols (Lolldon, ,891), 1. p. 203.
8
Shaver and Shaver, Wordsworth's Librar, p. 320.
, Tie Poetical Works ofWilliam Wordsworth. cds E. de Selincourt and H. Darbishire, 5 vols
(Oxford, I94D-9), v, p. 420.
l0
'I:hus Burnet may have been the source (cr. Meyer, 'A Note on the Sources', p. 39) oran
allusion to Archimedes in the notes that Wordsworth dictated to Isabella Fenwick
(reproduced in Poetical Works, lv, pp. 463-4) only many yearslaterj i t is also worth remarking
that the 1697 edition of Burnet's The Sacred Theor of the &rth listed in the Rydal Mount
catalogue (Shaver and Shaver, Wortswort/l's Librar, p. 42) was presumably acquired after
Wordsworth had quoted from the Latin edition in his note to the Excursion. For doubts about
any debt to Thomas Vaughan, cr. Helen N. McMaster, 'Vaughan and Wordsworth', Review
o Elglish Studies, II (1935), 313-25.
\\
Manuscript version of the poem. Colcl'idge, Poelical Work, cd. E.H. Coleridge (Oxford,
191'; reprinted 1969), p. 153.
I?
Collected Letters ofSamuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 vols, cd. E.L. Griggs (Oxford, 1956-7 J), I, p. 278.
Wordsworth's Odeon the Intimationso| Immotta|ity e r o
He was to entet in his Notebooks in Decembet r 8o, 'To deduce
instincts|tom obscute tecol|ectionso|apre-existingstate I have
o|ienthoughtofi t -Ey|haveIsaid,whenIhaveseencettaintempers
and actions inTattley, that is I in my |utute State [ so I think
oentimes that my chi|dten are my sou|. ' ' Striking here, and
anticipatotyo|Wordsworth's Ode, is theuseo|pre-existenceo|the
sou|asapointettowardsits|i|etocome.Thedeatho|hissecondson,
Betke|ey,inFebruary r ;ooptovokedanambiguousquestion,'What
amu|titudeo|admitab|eactions. . . it|eatntevenbe|oreitsawthe
|ight?',whichmaybeaskingaboutcognitionsinthewomb,orbe|ote
conception. 'He at |east put enough|aithin such |ancies to resist
Chtistian doctrine. asked to write an epitaph 'On an In|ant, who
Diedbe|oreitsChristening',heca||edit'O|thekingdomo|theB|estj
Possessor, not Inheritor' |||.-0) . 'The P|atonic idea o|prenata|
existencebecame|orhimapoetica|exptessiono|adotingconception
o|theinte||igenceandintegrityo|neonata| |i|e.
OneoMatch i8oe,exact|yaweekbe|oreWordsworthstartedhis
Ode,Co|etidgeand he'ta|kedaboutvariousthings- chtisteningthe
chi|dren, etc. etc.' ' This is one o|a series o|entries in Dorothy's
Jourals |inkingWi||iam'scompositiono|'TheRainbow'andparto|
the Ode to conversations with Coletidge, teadings a|oud o|poems
|'The Ped|at', 'To the Cuckoo') , and re|evantrematks. These |ast
indicatethatWi||iam'smindwasa|teadyturningtothecontento|the
centta|stanzas-8.Thethought'thatitwou|dbesosweetthusto|ie
inthegrave,toheatthepeace|u|soundso|theeatth,and+usttoknow
thatoutdeat|tiendswereneat'|eoApri|)a|ready+ustines|out|ines
thathewaslatettotemoveinde|etencetoCo|eridge'sobjections|in
Biographia Literaria, ch. ee) .
To whom the grave
Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight
Of day or the warm light,
A place of thought where we in waiting lie.
(II. 1 2 1-4)
Etanzais|essptecise|ysuggested by anobservation, 'thatthe|u||
moon, above a datk htgtove, isa hneimage o|thedescent o|a
supetiorbeing' | r 1une).Theseconnectionshavesuggestedtosome
1
3 The Notebooks rljSamuef Taylor Coleridge, cd. Kathleen Cobur, vol, 2. 1804-1808, 2 parts (New
York, 1962), 2332.
1 Collected Letters, I, p. 482.
15 Cr. Rca, 'Coleridge's Intimations\ p. 20SIl.
' JOlrllals ofDorotl! Wordsworth, 1. p. t27.
eeo A. W. PRI CE
that Wotdswotth must have been wtong when hec|aimed much
|atet,inhisnotesdictatedtoIsabe||aFenwick, thatabouttwoyeats
passedbetweenthecompositiono| stanzas1-4 ando|thetemaindet.'
A|| thatiscettainis thatstanzas i -existedinsomething|iketheit
ptesent|otmbe|oteApti| |ptobab|yon e;Match, when Dotothy
tecotded, 'At bteak|ast Wi||iam wtote patt o| an ode' ), ' |ot
Co|etidge's'ALettetto. . . '|wtittenonApti|,and|atettevisedand
pub|ishedas 'De+ection. AnOde') is in patt a tep|y to them.' It
|o||owsthatitis|ike|ythatwhen'Wi||iamaddeda|itt|etotheOdehc
iswtiting'oni ; 1unehewasa|teadyembatkingonthetest.Yetgiven
hisptetetence|otteco||ectioninttanqui|ity,itwou|dbetashtoinsist
thatthecompositiono|stanzas-8musthavesttetchedon|yovettwo
intetva|s o|seven days within r8oe ||tom eo unti| e;Match, and
again|tom r ounti| r ; 1une),andnotovetthetwoyeatsotsowhich
hehimse|||atetteca||ed- thoughhismismemotyo|wotkingonthe
Ode|tomi 8ounti| i 8o6teduceshisauthotity.Wecanbothasctibe
theOde to thepetsona|impact o|Co|etidge,andenvisagethat the
eectwasgetminatingunti|shott|ybe|oteCo|etidge|e|t|otMa|ta,
withacopyo|thecomp|etcOde,inthesptingo|r 8o.Anextended
chtono|ogydoesnotitse||excIude]ohnRea'smoststtikingconc|usion.
'Thehandis thehando|Wotdswotth, but thevoiceis thevoiceo|
Co|etidge.'IwishtoagteethattheOdemustindeedbeundetstood
inte|ation toColetidge, butasatesponse, notan echo.
Thus,|ot|tee|yputtingP|atotopoeticuse,Wotdswotthmayhave
had theadvantageo|knowingnoP|atonic texts to tighten the|tee
tein|e|thimbyhisin|otmant. Scio|ismhasitsptivi|eges. asWa|tet
Patetcommented, 'Skittingthebotdetso|thiswot|do|bewi|deting
heightsanddepths, hegot but thehtstexcitinginhuenceo|it,that
|oy|u|enthusiasmwhichgteatimaginativetheotiesptompt,whenthe
mind htst comes to have an undetstanding o|them.'' Co|etidge
testihed to the |teedom at once o|his teading o| P|ato, and o|
Wotdswotth's teception o|it, when he ptedicted that sympathetic
teadets, 'wi|| beas |itt|e disposed to chatge Mt.Wotdswotthwith
l7
Cf. Rca, 'Coleridge's Intimations', pp. 209-1 1 ; he is followed by Herbert Hartman: 'The
"Intimations" of Wordsworth's Ode', Review o English Studies, 6 ( 1 930), 143-5.
1
Joumals,l, p. 12g.Jonathan Wordsworth makes nice uscofthcsclltcncc that follows: 'Hewas
interrupted not by a man from POI'lock, but by Mr Ollin'with the dung, and went out to work
in the garden'; William Wordsworll!: Tle Bordcrs qf Vision (Oxford, 1982). p. 423 n. 1.
l V
Most obviously, Coleridge's lines 232-42 reply to Wordsworth's lines l-; but further, if
Coleridge's 'A Light, U Glory, and a luminous Cloud' (I. 303) echoes Wordsworth's 'the
visionary gleam' and 'glory' (11. 56-7), Wordsworth must have completed his stanza 4.
20
'Wordsworth's intimations of Palingcnesis', Review ofEnglish SLutes, 8 (1932), 83.
Walter Pater, Appreciations, With an &say 0I Style (London, 1889), p. 56.
Wordsworth's Ode onthe Intimationso| Immotta|ity eer
b

e|ievingi ntheP|atonicpre-existencei ntheordinaryinterpretation

o|thewotds,as I am tobe|ieve, that P|atohimse||evetmeant ot
taught it' (Biograjhia, ch. ee) . A|er some ambiva|ent remarks
ha||-de|ending the idea o| 'a prior state o| existence' as neithet
advancedinnorcontrarytoteve|ation,Wordswotthsaidmuchthe
same, yeats |atet, to Miss Fenwick. 'I took ho|d o|the notion o|
pre-existcnceashavingsu|+cient|oundationinhumanity|otauthotising
metomake|otmypurposethe bestuseI cou|dasapoet.'Itisnot
mete|y that P|ato the phi|osopher be|ieved, jace Co|eridge, what
Wotdswotth the poet exp|oits: theydescribe the human situation
quite dietent|y. R.D. Atchet-Hind put it nice|y. 'According to
Wordsworthwearebornwiththeantenata|tadiancec|ingingabout
usandspendour|ivesingradua||y|osingit, accotdingtoP|atowe
|ose thevision at birth andspendour|ivcsingradua||yrecovering
it.'FotP|ato, incarnationis asuddencatastrophc |imagined|ust
|ikethe|a||o|Icatus,Phaedrus e8c) ,productiveo|amassiveamnesia
whose s|ow cure begins with those petceptions that stimu|ate
metaphysica|reco||ectionandre|ection(Phaedo ;a;0a,Rejublic v.
eb-ed) , |or Wordsworth, it btings the gradua| dissipation
|imaged in thetisingsun) o|teco||ectionso|g|orybycommon-day
petceptions (Ode, stanza ) . P|ato in|ets the need o| theoretica|
traininginatithmetic,geometryandastronomy(Rejublic ea-oc),
Wordsworththeharmo|practica|pro|ects|asi|withinaprogtessive
education)o| inventionandimitation|stanzas6-;).Thesttuctureo|
P|atonic teco||ection is, in |act, |ess tespected in Wordsworth's
raptutousevocationo|chi|dhoodinstinctsthaninhissobetrecognition
o|adu|tconso|ations: Soctatessttessesin theMeno that'thepatho|
reco||ection'statts|tomanexpetienceo|perp|exityandthediscovery
o|one'signorance|8a-c) , andarea|isationo|whatis|ost through
theyears must precede 'soothing thoughts' in a'phi|osophicmind'
(Ode, stanzar o) . O|thatc|osetpata||e|Wotdswotthwasunawate,he
owes toP|atoanideaand notadocttine.
WhatemetgeswithintheOdeisamythwithinamyth. P|atonic
Reco||ectiongoeshandinhandwithanidea|isationo|in|ancy. Itis
nocoincidencethatstanzasr-are|reeo|both.thetimetherewasis
notyetspeci|iedasin|ancy,and theg|orythathaspassed awayis
cr. a remark to Aubrey de Verc (cited by Rca, 'Coleridge's Intimations', p. 21 2) tlmt he held
the doctrine 'with a poctical, not a religious, faith'.
"" R.D, ArchcrHind, Tle Pu do ofPlalo (London, 1883), p. 85-
74 This is noticed by Paul Magnuson, 'The Genesis of Wordsworth's Ode'. Tle Wordsworth
Circle, 1 2 (lg81), 24.
eee A . W. PRI CE
assigued uoorigiu. Theu stauza suddeu|y trausports us back to
birth,audbeyoud.AsIhaveuoted,Wordsworththussimu|taueous|y
echoes Plato, aud humours Co|eridge. He admitted this doub|e
departure|romrea|itytohisuephewChristopherWordsworth,who
reca||shimasstatiug,' IumyOdeouthe"Iutimatiouso|Immorta|ity
iuChi|dhood,Idouotpro|esstogivea|itera|represeutatiouo|the
stateo|aectiousaudo|themora|beiugiuchi|dhood.Irecordmy
owu|eeliugsatthetime- myabso|utespiritua|ity,my'al|-sou|uess',i|
Imaysospeak.'Audyetitwou|dbeauerrortoheariuthisamere
echoo|a|ieu voices,|orwecau tracee|sewhere howitis arecurreut
aud cou|usiug teudeucy o| Wordsworth's to speak o| iuspired
boyhoodasi|itwereiu|aucy.Eveuiuhisremarkstohisuephew,the
phrase'atthetime'iste||iuglyambiguous.grammarwou|dre|eritto
hischi|dhood,which|ogic|orbids,auimpossib|eappareutre|ereuce
|eavestheactua|re|ereuceiudetermiuab|e.A|readyiustauzao|the
Ode,the'happyShepherd-boy'isaddressedas'ThouChi|do| ]oy'
|ll. -) . Simi|ar|y,the i ;ooPrelude dates|ructi|yiug'spotso|time'
especia||yto'ournrstchi|dhood','thetwi|ighto|remember ab|e|i|e',
butreca||saridiugexpeditiouwheuthepoetwashveorsixyearso|d
|i. ll. e88-o),audthei 8oPrelude exto|s'themighto|sou|s. . . whi|e
yetjTheyokeo|earthisuewtothem' (III. ll. i ;8-8o) ,a|thoughthe
coutextis uotiu|aucy, but ' theg|oryo|my youth' (1. i ; i ) .Thus
therecaubeuocertaiuty abouttheageo|thedear'chi|d'aud'gir|'
apostrophisediuthei8oeSouuet' Itisabeauteouseveuiug,ca|maud
|ree',auddescribedas|yiug'iuAbraham'sbosom'audworshippiug
'attheTemp|e'siuuershriue'.TheOdeisvirtua||ysummarisediua
passageo|the r 8oPrelude |v.n. r -0),whichbegiusas|o||ows.
Our childhoodsits,
Our simple childhood, sits upon athrone
That hath more power than all the elements.
I guess not what this tells of being past,
Nor what itaugurs of the life to come,
But so itis.
(11. 531-6)
" Christopher Wordsworth, Memoirs ojWilliam Wordsworth, 2 vols. (London, 1851), 11, p. 476.
?0
It is an irony, but not a coincidence, that WQI'dsworth may himsclfhavc preserved few or no
truly infnnlilc memories (i.e., psychoanalYlically, mcmol'i!.-s predating the onset oflatcncy at
five 0\' six); cr Mark L. Reed, Wordsworth: The Chrollolo,py oj the Early rears, '77(1799
(Cambridge, Mass., 1967), pp. 43-4.
Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimationso|Immottality ee
Thetempota|te|etenceo|'childhood'isvague,butisextendedback
unti|bitthinotdettoad|oin'beingpast'.Anassociationo|thetimes
be|ote bitth and a|tet death then admits the suggestion that the
'a||-soulness' o|boyhood is a natuta| state which man can hope to
tecovet. And yet it seems that Wotdswotth actual|y be|ieved that
chi|dhood deve|ops tathet than diminishes. 'in|ant sensibility' is a
'gteat bitthtight o| out being', and yet to be 'augmented and
sustained' | r ;ooPrelude, 11. 11. r -r ;) , outhumansoulistobebuilt
up,thee|ementso||ee|ingandthoughtputi!edandsanctihed| r 8c
Prelude, I. II. o;-r e) . O|coutseP|ato'stenetthatweadvancethtough
|eatning as teco||ecting is no conttadiction o| this belie| but
Wotdswotth's Ode ttanslates phi|osophy into poetty, and possib|e
|actintoevidentnction.tecollectionis tecastnotasanachievement
butasaninstinct,sothatdeve|opmentbecomesdiminuendo,asthe
boywho |eatnsisimagedinthein|antwho |otgets.
Wotdswotthinsettstheconttastbetweentea|andidea|childhood
into theOde itselt andwithauabtuptness thatcompe|sattention.
Insteado| sittingcom|ottab|y,theteadetis|o|tedintoanawatenesso|
thegapbetween metaphotand meaning. At theoneextteme, the
in|antisthe'bestPhilosopher',an'Eyeamongtheb|ind'(I|.I I r -r e) ,
a'mightyptophet'and'seetblest'(I. t r ) , at theothet,in|ancyhasa
'simp|ecteed'o|'de|ightand|ibetty'(II. r ;-8) . WithinWotdsotth's
thinking, death can be denied at eithet extteme, but the Ode's
intimations o| immotta|ity ate positive, and distinctive o|idea|
in|ancy.Thiskindo|simp|icityconttastswiththe'simplechildhood'
o| r 8oPrelude |v.I. e) , whichischatactetisednotbyinsightbutby
innocence, thato|'WeareSeven' (II. r-) .
A simple Child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
The+ubi|ee thatis common to anima|cteation and childten (Ode,
stanza),andthe|ibettythatthein|antcanshateimaginative|ywith
'sunbeams,shadows,buttetiesand bitds' (Home at GTasmere, I. I ) ,
yie|dil|usionsthatatenotintimations.asWotdswotthwastowtitein
r 8t o in his 'Essay upon Epitaphs, I', 'Fot|otn, and cut o |tom
communicationwith thebestpatto|hisnatute,must thatmanbe,
whoshou|ddetivethesenseo|immotta|ity,asitexistsinthemindo|a
chi|d,|tomthesameunthinkinggaietyotlive|inesso|anima|spitits
ee A. W. PRI CE
withwhichthe|ambinthemeadow,oranyotherirrationa|Creature
isendowed.''Onethinksaonceotthe |ambsboundingandthebabe
|eapingupinstanzas-ottheOde,andthesecontainnomentionot
immorta|ity. That to||ows on|y as the Babegivesway to theBest
Phi|osopher.Whatishisphi|osophy?It hastobedistinguishedboth
tromtheunthinkinggaietyotthe'happyShepherd-boy' (Od, I. ),
andtrom'thephi|osophicmind'thaton|ytheyearscanbring(I. r 8;).
Co|eridge'sob|ectionis magnihcent|yobtuse.
In what sense can the magnifcent attributes above quoted be appropriated
to a child, which would not make them equally suitable to a bee, ora dog, or
a feld of corn; or even to a ship, or to the wind and waves that propel it? The
omnipresent Spirit works equally in them as in the child, and the child is
equally unconscious otitas they. (Biographia, ch.aa)
He is mistaking metaphorica| tor |itera| chi|dhood |and that in
torgettu|ness othis own paterna| tancies), and hence reducing its
phi|osophy to a mere de|ight and |iberty. His hna| assertion is
dubiously|ust anyway. perhaps the phi|osophy otinexperienceis
conscious,withouttheoryorre0ection,ottheomnipresentSpiritthat
|inks|amb and babe. Hec|ear|yhas in mind hisear|ypantheism,
a|ternative|y,onecou|dthinkotcommunionwiththeChristiangod
|e| Excursion, IV. ||. 8-0). 'The eterna| mind' |0e, | . r t ) cou|d
denoteeither, and maybemeant to.
The Ode turther contains, and the Fenwick note conhrms, a
di0erentphi|osophyagain.Whatare'thoseobstinatequestionings[
Ot sense and outwatd things, [ FaI|ings trom us, vanishings'
|ll. i e-)?SpeakingtoMissFenwick,Wordsworthassociatedwith
'theindomitab|enessotthespiritwithinme'whichmadeitdimcuItto
app|y the notion otdeath to himse|ta spontaneous tendency to a
so|ipsisticidea|ism.
wit|afeeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of external things
as having external existence, and I communed with all that I saw as
something not apart f'Of, but inherent in, my own immaterial nature.
Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree to recall
myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality.
'Theshadowyreco||ections' thatarc'amaster-|ightota||ourseeing'
|0:,11. ro-)disc|osetohimawor|dthatis'adream,[Aprospectin
2
7 The Prose Works ofWilliam Wordsworth, cds W.J.B. Owen andJ. W. Smyser, 3 vols (Oxford,
1974), II, pr. SOl.
2B
C
r
'Letter from Professor BOllamy Price on the Ode of Immortality\ Trallsacliolls oftle
Wordsworth Socitf, 2 ( 1 883), 26; also C. Wordsworth, Memoirs, II, p. 480.
Wordsworth's Ode on theIntimationsotImmorta|ity eej
mymind' | r ;ooPrelude, u. |l.oo-r ) , 'anunsubstantia|,taeryplace'
| r 8oe'TotheCuckoo', |.r ) . Thismightimp|ynotthatthewot|d
and onese||are eterna|, but that bothareequa||y transient. Yet it
wou|dseemthatthehumaneecto| suchanegocentricexperienceot
thewor|disrathertosuggest theomnipotenceotthoughtthan the
transience o|matter.
ThustheOde'sphi|osophyisawebot proteansuggestion.Onenice
variationisinthesourcesot|ight.Nearthebeginningandtheendwe
reado| castingthelightthatonesees.itiswithherownpro|ected|ight
thatthemoon|ooksroundtheheavens(II. r e-r ) ; sunsetc|oudstake
on'asoberco|ouring'|romtheadu|tobservingeye|||.ro;-o) . Foran
expansion, we can turn to the r ;ooPrelude |u. ||. r ;-e).
An auxiliar light
Came from my mind, which on the setting sun
Bestowed new splendour; the melodious birds,
The gentle breezes, fountains that ran on
Murmuring so sweetly in themselves, obeyed
A like dominion, and the midnight storm
Grew darker in the presence of my eye.
Inthecontextotstanzas r -, 'thevisionaryg|eam' ||. j6) must be
supposed to be cast by the chi|d, and |ost by the adu|t. Co|eridge
o6ered thenatural commentinhis rep|y. 'Wereceivebutwhatwe
give' |'A Letter to . + .`,| . eo6). Then P|atonic realism irrupts in
stanza j: 'ThegrowingBoy j . . . beholds the|ight, and whenceit
hows,jHeseesitinhis+oy' ||l. 68-; r ) . Thusastatementotrea|ism
withinthePlatonic mythis ba|ancedoneithersidcbyindicationsot
projectivismwithin therea| wor|d.
Even the Ode's centra| theme is e|usive. It took on its present
subtit|e, 'Intimations or Immorta|ity trom Reco||ections o|Ear|y
Chi|dhood', on|y in r 8r j. Writing to Mrs. C|arkson in December
r 8r , Wordsworth conjoined its ideas as to||ows: 'The poem rests
entire|yontworeco||ectionso|chi|dhood,onethatotasp|endourin
the ob|ects o| sense which is passed away, and the other an
indispostiontobend tothe|awo|deathasapp|yingtooneparticu|ar
case.'"Themytho|stanza5 permitsamarriagebetweenthesetwo
ideas.Theimmorta|ityimp|icitinitssymbo|ismiswe||exp|icatedby
Char|esSherry:'Whatremainsunspokenisthatwhen'|i|e'sStar'sets
" Wordsworth echoes that in the 1805 Prelude: 'From thysclfil is lhat thou must give. ! Else
never can receive' (XI, n. 332-3); .r. XII, 11. 376-9. Xl, II. -5.
Cited in Poelical Work, IV, p. 464-
A. W. PRI CE
ouearthi t wi|| ouceagaiu risei uthe immorta| skieso|its eterua|
home.Thesou|is|ikea|itt|eimmorta|suucirc|iugaboutitsearth.Its
risiugaud settiugare the bouudaries o|its |i|e ou earth, but ou|y
momeutsiuthecourseo|itseterua||i|e,whererisiugissettiug,aud
settiug, risiug. '' Thus, asiuP|ato himse|t pre-existeuce poiuts to
post-existeuce.the|ightthatrecedespromisesa|ightthatreturus.But
agaiu,ac|eariudicatiouisc|oudedbyamythica|settiug,sothatthe
true uature o|the immorta|ity that 'broods like the Day' over the
chi|d(II. 1 1 9-20) remaiusiuobscurity.Thereissomeeasyiuvocatiou
o| Christiau com|ort, as iu 'the |aith that |ooks through death' ||.
( 86), audyetitseemsthatitwasou|ya|terthedeatho|hisbrother
1ohuiu February 1 805 thatWordsworthre|apsedsecure|yiuto the
orthodoxyexpressed suddeu|yiutwo|iueso|the 1 805 Prelude:
The feeling of life endless, the one thought
By which we |ive+ infinity and God.
.XIII. II. r 8-) ."
TheOderatherpermitsthauiuvitessuchadehuiteunderstaudiug.
Theou|ypromiseo|immorta|itythatitredeemsiso| a|i|ethatwecau
giveratherthaureceive.wecame'trai|iugc|oudso|g|ory. . .I From
God,whoisourhome'(II. 64-5), butourowugloryistoi||umiuewith
theco|ouriugo|ourowuexperieuce'theC|ouds thatgatherrouud
thesettiugsuu' .l. r o;) .
TheOdeisastoryo||ossaudgaiu|orasou|whokuowsuore|igious
couversiou. The loss is mitigated by 'those shadowy reco||ectious'
which'areyetthe|ouutaiu-|ighto|a||ourday'(II. 1
5
0-2) . Theytake
usbackto'spotsiutime'whichretaiu'a|ructi|yiugvirtue'touourish
audrepairourimagiuativepowers | r ;ooPrelude, l. II. 288-94). The
|erti|ityo|such memories|ies uot iu auyProustiauimmediacyo|a
recaptured past, butiuavaguesuggestiou o||uturepossibi|ities:
The soul
Remembering how she fclt, but what she rel t
Remembering not - retains an obscure sense
Of possible sublimity, to which
With growing faculties she doth aspire,
With faculties still growing, feeling still
That whatsoever point they gain they still
Have something to pursue.
( 1 799 Prelude, II. II. 0-;r )
' C. Sherry, Wordsworth's Poetr ojlite /magillatioll (Oxford, 1980), p. 31 .
31 Cr. J. Wordsworth, William Wordslortll, pp. 33-4.
Wordsworth's Odeon the IntimationsolImmortality 227
IntheOde,thepoetteceivesthewindslrom'thehe|dsol sleep'(I. e8),
audheats'the mightywatetsto||ingevetmote' (I. r 08)- powetlu|
images olthe 'how' without the 'what' |that petlectly imptecise
expressionolimptecision),oldepth withoutdehnition. Amongthe
obscureob|ectsolmemoty is
the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be.
(II. 182-3)
Ha|l-tecol|ections olan oceanic leeling olbeing at one with the
cteatedwot|d nourishtheconscious- onemaylee|,sell-conscious-
atonement olle|t sympathy with both thoughtless happiness and
unhappy thought (Ode, stanza t o) . Loving communion with the
lotms olnatute develops into a 'kindted |ove' ol'le|low-natutes'
(Excursion, IV. II. r ec;-r ;) . Adeepdisttesshumanisesthesoulsothat
itbidslarewe|lto'theheartthatlivesa|one,I Housedinadream,at
distancelromtheKind' |'E|egiacStanzassuggestedbyaPictuteol
Peele Castle', II. 5
3
-4) . Altet the'dizzy taptutes' olsight without
thoughtcomesan eatlot 'thestill,sadmusicolhumanity' |'Lines
composedaboveTinternAbbey',II. 8,ct ) . 'Theinnocentbtightness
olanew-botn Day'

|Ode, I. r o)makeswaylot 'asobetcolouting`

thatcomesolahatmonybetween'thesettingsun'and'aneye[That
hathkeptwatcho'erman'smortality' (II. t c8-o) . Byapata||elwith
the motning|ightolthe mytholstanza5, eveninglight becomesa
promise olthe lutute. as dawn reects pte-existence, so twi|ight
ptehgutes the |ile to come. But this new |ile will not re-enact the
mythica|pte-histoty.itisrathetChtistianthanPlatonic,chatactetised
bypetlect|ove and notby abstractknow|edge. Whether it wi|| be
lived|usthereora|soherealter,andwhatlotmitwilltakeotherthan
thatolanode,remainunansweredquestions.Restotedtoalilethatis
alive, the poet need notyet wottyaboutdeath.
When William B|ake remarked in r 8e, 'Wordsworth is no
Chtistian,butaPlatonist`,hewasmissingthepoint:Wotdswotth's
goa|wasnottodiscardonedocttineloranother,buttoescapelrom
docttine into myth, where there is nonc abiding. His poetry ol
a|lusion putsuesasttategyole|usivenessthatrespectsthe natute ol
emotion co|outed but uncaptuted by thought, heweighsa vague
deptession against a vague hope, both |to bottow lrom Byron)
'hushedintodepthsbeyondthewatchet'sdiving'.FotWotdswotth,
: I quote fromJ. Wordsworth, Wiliam Wordswortl, p. 435. D. 18.
ee8 A. W. PRI CE
listeuiug to Coleridge, the philosophy otPlato had a power that
Christiauity|acked.thepowertoi|lumiuetherecessesolthepsyche,
behiud the vei| otcouscious be|ief that cau come to ideas, |ike a
resurrectiou|rom the dead, wheu theyareuolouger be|ievab|e.
CHAP TE R e r
Shelley, Plato and the political imagination
Jennier Walace
She|ley | r ;oe-r8ee) has traditional|y been considered the most
'P|atonist' o| all the Romantic poets. Indeed,1ames Notopou|os
devotedawholebookto P|atonisminShe||ey,arguing|oranatura|
amnitybetweentheancientphi|osopherandtheRomanticpoetand
c|aiming that 'Shelley is the most outstanding P|atonist in the
P|atonicrenascenceo|theRomanticperiod' . ' AndEdwardDowden,
the poet's hrst authorised biographer, spoke |ormany |ater critics
whenhewrotethatShelley'|e|ttheradianceandbreathedtheairo|
P|ato'sgenius as though hewerehimse||ascholarinthegardenat
Co|onus'.
She||eyhasbeenhai|edastheRomanticpoetmostinuencedby
P|ato part|y because, un|ike the others, he not only read P|ato
extensivelybutactuallytrans|atedhim.Someo|histrans|ationsare
on|y|ragmentary.Scattered|ines|romRepublic II andIII appearinhis
notebooks, as we|| as short passages |rom the Menexenus and the
Fhaedo. Theseconstituteworkingtraus|ationsconveyingideaswhich
particu|ar|yarrested himin his reading andwhichchimedwithhis
own thoughts. Other trans|ations, however, are complete and
obvious|y intended |or publication. He trans|ated the Ion in r 8eI .
And three years earlier he produced a comp|ete version o| the
Symposium, togetherwith a lengthy pte|ace to explain the strange
Greekcustomo|homosexuality totheGreeklessreader.
I J.A. Notopoulos, Tle Plalonism ojSllellcy; A Study ofPlatonism (l1d llu Poeti, Mind (Durham,
North Carolina, 1949). p. '45.
2 E. Dowden, TIlt Lit ojPm), B),ssle Sfullc, 2 vol:. (London, 1886), I, 74-5. Dowden's
biography was commissioned by Lady Jane Shelley, the daughlerinlaw of lhe poet.
Shelley read Plato alschool and at Oxford, but his most concentrated reading of Plato began
afer ,817, as the entries in Mary Shelley'S joural testify: sec ,\lm)' Shelley's Joural, cd.
P.R. Feldman and 'D. ScottKilvert (Oxford, 1987). MClltioned specifcally in thcjourual are
the Phaedo, the P//Oedrus, the Republic and the Symposium, but in his letters Shelley also referred
to the Apology ofSocrates, the Gorgias and the Ion.
eeo
JENNI FER WALLACE
There is no book which shows the Greeks precisely as they were; they seem a1l
written for children . . . But there are many to whom the Greek language is
inaccessible] who ought not to be excluded by
.
this prudery to possess an
exact and comprehensive conception of the histo:oman."
Neithet olthese texts, the Ion ot theSymposium, was pub|ished in
She||ey's|i|etime, aswithso mucholhisoeuvre, butthepioneeting,
disseminatingpurposebehind the ttans|ationis cleat.
She||eyhasalsobeenpatticu|at|yassociatedwithP|atobecauseol
theida|isingtendenciesolhismodetnctitics,behindwhosectitica|
comments |ies the notion that the Romantic movement was an
apo|itica|,semi-te|igiousupheava|andP|atonismamystica|,te|igious
ptogtessiontoanunwot|d|ydivinity.Thuswhattheyintetptetasthe
ethetea|, dteam|ike wtitingolShel|ey can beassociatedwith theit
Neoplatonic undetstanding o|P|ato,whichisconcetned on|y with
the notion o|mystic ttanscendence to a wot|d olgteatet tea|ity,
gteatetbeauty, gteatet unity. Nevil|eRogets, lot examp|e, atgues
that Shel|ey adoptssymbo|ssimilat to those used by P|ato- vei|s,
boats,caves- inotdettoteptesentmetaphotica|lythemind'sascent
beyondthewot|dolpatticu|atstothetealmo|theetetna|and the
univetsa|. Moteovet, he ptesents his own attempt to undetstand
She||ey'sthinkingasitse||aquest|otu|timatettuth,a|outneya|ong
whathe tetms the 'Platonic path'. In thisway he tisksaccepting
unctitica||y the tetms o|his teading and tevea|ing the idealising
putposebehindhisownintetptetation.Othetctiticsalsotevea|theit
idea|ism by |inking theit depiction o|Platonism with what they
considet'poetica|'otbeautilul.C.E.Pulosannouncesinhisothetwise
exce||entchaptetonShe|ley's Platonism that 'itisgeneta|ly agteed
thatthemainleatuteolShelley'sPlatonismishisputsuito|Beauty'.
FinallyctiticsassociatedP|atonismwithavaguenotiono|synthesis,
olthegathetingtogethetoldispatatepatts.SoCat|Gtabocanwtite
o|She||ey's eat|y poem Queen Mab, without ttoub|ing to dehnehis
tetms.'ThisissheetP|atonism. . . whichwasdestinedtobecomethe
solventwhich,inShe|ley'smatutcdphi|osophy,benttheseseemingly
teca|cittantmatetia|s to a unity'.' The 'tecalcittant matetia|s' ate
Shelley, 'A Discollrse 011 the Manners of the Anticlll Greeks Relative to the Subject oCLave'.
iIl J.A. NOlOpoulos, Tile Pla/ollism ojSllclley. p. 407. All Shelley'S translations from Plato arc
contained in Notopou!os's work.
N. Rogers, SfleUcAl Work: A Critical illqujry (Oxford, 1956). For 1l similar interpretation of
Shelley's imagery, see P. Butter, Shelle'S Idols oj the Gaut (Edinburgh, 1 954).
6 C.E. Pulos, Tlte Deep Truth: A Study oj Shelley's Scepticism (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1954,, p. 77.
' C. Grabo, Tle Magic Planl. Tile Growth ojShelley'S Thought (Chapel Hill, 1936), p. 1 1 8. For
other idcalising interpretalions of Shelley's Pla!Oui!', secJ. Bandl, Shellf Dlld Ile Thouglt oj
lis Time: I Sfudy ill fhe History ojIdeas (New Haven, 1 947); S. Rogel's, Classical Greece alld Ihe
Shell, Plato and the political imagination
idcas lrom such phi|osophers as Baron d'Holbach and William
Godwin,radicalthinkerswhoseearlyinuenceuponShelley.Grabo
andothersc|aimwasthaklullytamedbytheapoliticalreveriesolPlato.
WhathasbeenlorgottenbythesecriticsisthatShelleywashrstand
loremostapoliticalpoet.Throughouthisshortlile,lromhisrebellious
adolescence right up to his last years in Italy, he stressed the
importance olpolitical relorm, olthe responsibility olthe poet to
changesocietyradicallyinordertoalleviatethepovertyandinjustice
sueredby thepeople. 'I considerPoetryverysubordinatetomoral
andpoliticalscience,iwerewell,certainlyIshouldaspiretothe
latter',hewrotetohislriendThomasLovePeacockonlythreeyears
belorehedied.Poetrywasused as ameansto anultimatepolitical
end.Everysource, everyideawas to be put to political use.
It is thereloreimperative toset Shelley's Platonisminapolitical
context as well. There were obvious, speci6c political ideas to be
drawn lrom Plato. Shelley showed interest in the question olthe
corrupting process ol civilisation addressed in the Republic. He
reectedtohislriendThomas1eersonHogga!terreadingRepublic VI
thatP|ato's'speculationsoncivilsocietyaresurelytheloundationsol
true politics, ilever the world is to be arranged upon another
system than that ol the several members ol it destroying
tormentingoneanotherlorthesakeolthepleasuresolsense,orlrom
the lorce olhabit imitation, itmuststartlrom such principles'.
Shelleyalsoderivedmoralandsocialinstructionlromthedepictionol
ancientGreeksocietyintheSymlJosium announcingintheprelacethat
'whatevertends toaord alurtherillustration olthe manners and
opinions olthose to whom we owe so much . . . were inhnitely
valuable`.

More generally, the two main strands olphilosophic

thoughtin Plato, thesceptical and idealising, could alsobedrawn
uponandappliedpolitically.BothPlato'squestioningolestablished
opinion and the argument that political changecould comeabout
Poetr oCfcllicr, Shelley mId Leopardi (Indianapolis, 1974). Sil' Kenneth Dover has added a
further dimension to the qucstion oCthe idcalising of Shelley's-Platonism since his death. In
'Expurgation of Greek Literature'. E"trcliclIs sur I'AlIliquill Classique, 26 'Les I-tudcs
Classiques aux XIXct XX sicclcs' ( lg80), 55-82, he writes of the posthumous bowdlcrisation
of Shelley's ll'anslation oCthe Symposium and considers the extent to which this reveals the
editors' interpretations of Classical Greece.
Shelley to Thomas Love Peacock, Tlu [.lfers ojPercy Bysshe Shelle, cd. :.L. Jones, 2 vols.
(Oxford, 1964), 23-4Junuary 1819.
Shelley to Thomas Jefrerson Hogg, 22 October 1 821 , ibid.
10 Shelley, 'A Discourse on the Manners" p. 407. A sensitive account of the historical interest of
the Symposium for Shelley can be found in R. Holmes. Shelle: Tie Pllrsuit (London, '974;
Harmondsworth, 1987). pp. 430-4.
J ENNIFER WALLACE
peace|u||ythtougheducationand awakened petceptioncaptivated
She||ey's imagination. Thtough an examination in patticu|at o|
She||ey's essay A Deence i Poetr ( 1 82 1 ) and his poetic dtama
Prometheus Unbound ( 1 820), wesha|| cousidet how the huctuations
betweenscepticismandidea|ismiuShe||ey'sowupo|itica|thiuking
andwtitingwetesuppotted by thepatadoxica| iuuenceo|Plato.
SCEPTI CISM
Thtoughouthis |i|e itseemed impottaut toShe||ey tomaintaiu a
sceptica| position. Cettainty ou|yseemed to augmeut the binding
dogmatismwhichhebelievedopptessedsociety.!uA Deence ofPoetry,
he exp|ained this concetn in tetms o||anguage. The |auguage o|
poets, heatgued, was
vitally metaphorical; that is, it marks the before unapprehended relations of
things and perpetuates their apprehension until the words which represent
them become, through time, signs for portions or classes of thoughts instead
of pictutesof integral thoughts; aud then if no new poets should arise to
create afresh the associations which have been thus disorganised, language
will be dead to all the nobler purposes of human intercourse, l I
Ouce the association betweeu thought aud wotd was takeu |ot
gtauted, the |ibetatiug poweto|wotdswas|ost aud tep|aced by a
teptessive tigidity. In the same way, accotdiug to She||ey, ouce
phi|osophyhadbeencodihediutoasystem,itbecamenattowiug|ot
themind.Butphi|osophica|thiukiug- what]amesNotopou|osca|ls
the'mindinptocess'- wasaseu|ighteningand|ibetatiugaspo|itica|
activete|otm. She||ey musediu the'EssayonLi|e'.
[Philosophy ] leaves, what it is too often the duty of the reformer in political
and ethical questions to leave, a vacancy. It reduces the mind to that
freedom in which it would have acted but for the misuse of words and signs'."
'Vacaucy' heteis a boou, a |teedom |tom ctabbingpte|udiceaud
deep-rooted system.1ustasphi|osophica|iuquitycauptoducethis
libetatingtesu|tso canpoetty,which'awakensanden|atgesthemind
itsel|by teudeting the teceptac|e o| a thousaud uuapptehended
combinatiouso|thought'. (Deence, p.8;).
\ \
Shelley, A Defence ofPoetr, in Shele's Poetr ad Prose, edited by D.H. Reiman and S.B.
Powers (New York, [977). p. 48. Hereafter page numbers from this edition will be given in
the text.
I2
Shelley, 'Essay on Life', Shele's Poetr and Prose, p. 477.
Shelle, Plato and the political imagination
When She||ey was seeking soutces which cou|d 'awaken and
en|atge the mind', he was attracted both by the recent sceptical
traditionotDavidHumeandbythesceptica|questioningotP|ato's
ear|ySoctaticdia|ogues. Ear|ydia|oguessuchastheLaches andthe
Protagoras, which She||ey read at Oxtotd in theDacier trans|ation,
to||owedapattetninwhichacommonassumptionordehnitionwas
btoken down under hetce questioning by Soctates, and a|| the
patticipants in the dialogue wete |e!i in a state ot 'aporia', or
uncertainty about the otigina| dehnition.' No positive answer ot
a|tetnative phi|osophica| theoty was suggested, but the ertot ot
existingdehnitionswastevea|ed.Thetewasanestab|ishedttadition
ot dtawing upon this dia|ogue totm tot radica| writing. Most
inhuentia| tot Shel|ey was the wotk otWi||iam Drummond. His
Academical Qestions ( 1 805) signincant|y a|luded in its title to the
Academy set up by the tol|owets otP|ato, and used the sceptical
questioning torm to tetute phi|osophical dogmatism ot the past.
Fo||owingthisttadition,Shel|eycomposed'ARetutationot Deism',a
dialogue between Eusebes and Theosophus which discussed the
re|ative metits ottaith and atheism. Christian taithwas associated
withtheEstablishment,becauseottheclose|inkbetweentheChutch
otEnglandand thegovernment,and thus the paganismotPlato's
eatlySoctaticdialogues,aswe||astheittteedia|ectictotm,addedto
thesubvetsive ecct otShe||ey's pamph|et. The Soctaticdia|ogue
mustalso|iebehindhis|aterpoem,Julian and Maddalo ( 1 81 8) , which
nattatestheencountetbetweenaShel|eyanandaBytonichgureand
theit debate over the best apptoach to |ite. 1u|ian, the She||eyan
hgure,disp|aysanoptimisticattitudeto|ite.peop|eandsocietycanbe
changed tot the bettet. By conttast, Madda|o, theBytonic hgure,
adoptsapessimisticstance,despondent|yatguingthatlitewi||a|ways
temain the same. Through theencountet, bothdogmaticpositions
atequestioned,distupted.
13 The frt text of Plato which Shelley read was the Symposillm, which he studied while hcwas at
Etan. At Oxford he "cad l number of dialogues, mostly in the English version of a French
translation or Plato hy Daciel': M. Dacicl+ Tl Works ofPlato ahridged, with CH Account oflis
lif, Philosopfry, Morais(lId Politics, together with a Trallslatioll afMschoieest Dialogues. Translate
from the French (London, I70J). The 'choicest dialogues' included the Apology, P/lacdo,
Laches and Pro/agoras. Plato was little sludied in the original at schools or university at this
time, so Shelley 0S not unusual in reading the dialogues in translation. For details of the
study of Plato during Shelley's time, see M.L. Clarke, Greek Studies In England 17o(I830
(Cambridge, 1945), pp. 1 1 2-22.
234 JENNI FER WALLACE
VI SI ONARY I MAGI NATI ON
Howevet, thesceptica|, questiouiugmodewasuottheou!yway to
wtitepolitica||y,toeucoutagepo|itica|chauge.Aua|tetuativetothe
useo| scepticismasameauso|tiddiugthemiudo|dogmatismwasthe
useo|idea|ism.Avisiouatyimagiuatiou cou|dseebeyoud thedaily
sta|emateo|society,couldtealisethattheexistiugsystemwasuota
'giveu' but a deadeuiug couveutiou which cou|d be tep|aced.
She||ey'sA Dience ofPoetry e|evatesthepoetwhodisp|aysavisiouaty
imagiuatioua|mostto ptopheticstatus. ThisispattIyexp|aiuedby
thepatticu|atbackgtouudo|theessay. Itwascomposedatspeediu
tep|y to au attackou poetty by Peacock, The Four Ages ofPoetr.'4
Thus au assettiou o|theexa|ted status o|thepoet was ueeded to
couutetPeacock's deptessiugatgumeutsabout the auachtouism o|
poettyiu thec|imateo|scieutihcptogtess,atgumeutswhichShe|ley
possiblyha||be|ievedhimsel|atatimeo|iudusttia|tevo|utiouaud
utbaudevelopmeut.
Howevet,theteismotebehiudtheexcessiveidea|ismo|theDience
thauatep|ytoPeacock,auditseemslikelythathewasalsoteplyiug
toPlatohimseltP|ato'sviewsoupoettywetehighlycouttadictoty,as
AuueSheppatdhasdesctibed|seepp. 1 2-1 8 above).IutheRepublic,
hehadtejectedpoetty,iuitia|lybecauseitimmota||ymistepteseuted
'the uatuteo|godsaud hetoes'. Thiste|ectiouo|poetty musthave
seemed couttovetsia| at the time, because Plato appateut|y |e| t it
uecessatytoaddahua|booktotheRepublic, amp|ihyiughisviews.Att
byitsvetyuatutecoulduevetgiveauaccutatepicture,heexp|aiued,
becauseitimitatedthevisiblewot|daudthusptoduced'imagesatthe
thitd temove |tom tea|ity'. Iu couttast, the Ion citcumveuted the
prob|emo|thedistauceo|att|romtea|itybyatguiugthat thepoet
was diviue|y iuspited aud that his att proceeded ditect|y |tom the
diviue.Esseutia|lyitwasaquestiouo|whethetasauattistoueshould
ptoceed by meauso|teasou aud kuowledge, otbyiuspitatiou aud
visiou, iu otdet to ptoduce a ttue depictiou. Reasou iuvo|ved the
active patticipatiou o| the attist, iuspitatiou used the attist as a
passivemouthpiece.
Some ideas iu the Dience cleat|y stem |tom the Ion. 'Poetty is
iudeedsomethiugdiviue'(Difence, p.o),She|leywtites,aud'itacts
\4 'i'hamas Love Peacock, The FOlr Ages ojPoelry, in The Works ofTlomas Love Peacock, cd. H.F.B.
BrctlSmilh and C,E. Jones. 10 vol: (London, 1 924-34), V 3-25. Peacock's essay frt
appeared in the frst and only numbel' of Charles Oilier's Litera
r Miscellm! in 18:w .
Shelle, Plato and the political imagination e
ina divineandunapprehendedmanner'|p.86),reca|lingthedivine
originsc|aimed|orpoetryinthe101: 'beauti|u|poemsarenothuman
nor|rommanbutdivine andomtheGods'|e,Defence, p.;) .
She||ey chooses to ignore the irony which may be discerned in
Socrates'tone,andechoestheirrationa|qua|ityo| divineinspiration.
'Poetryisnot|ikereasoning,apowertobeexertedaccordingtothe
determinationo|thewi||',heargues,'|orthemindincreationisasa
|adingcoa|whichsomeinvisib|ein|uence,likean inconstantwind,
awakenstotransitorybrightness'.(Defence, pp.o-)Thisargument
is|orceduponShe||eyinordertoexplaintheemergenceo| poetswhen
thesocietyaroundthemseemsnotconducivetopoetry.Itisimpelled
byhisneedtoseparateandidea|isethepoetinthe|aceo|Peacock's
criticisms,andbyhis wishto encourage|reshpoeticvoicesthrough
this proselytising essay. However, thesedepictionso|theirrationa|,
irresponsib|epoetintheDefence havebeenemphasisedattheexpense
o| the other more po|itieised strand o| thinking, the inhuence o|
Platonicreason.
She|leyinvertedP|atoandtheRefmblic bysubstitutingimagination
|or reason. In the sixteenth century, Sidney, inuenced by the
Neoplatonic rep|acement o| reasoned dia|ectic with emotiona!,
semi-re|igiousintuition,hadargued|orthecreativepowero|thepoet
inhisDefence ofPoetr: 'On|ythepoet,disdainingtobetiedtoanysuch
sub|ection,!i|iedupwiththevigouro|hisowninvention,dothgrow
in eectanothernature,in makingthingseitherbetterthannature
bringeth|orth,Of, quiteanew,|ormsa' neverwereinnature'.

But
She||ey mirrored P|ato's arguments more close|ythanSidney,and
madeadirect|inkbetweenthepoet'simaginationandP|ato'sreason.
Heattemptedtocitetheob|ecto|imaginationnoti nthepoet'sown
createdwor|d,asSidneyhaddone, butinanexterna|rea|itywhich
thepoetenteredthroughaP|atonicascento|thesoul.WhereasPlato
hadarguedintheRepublic thatthemindwasen|ightenedbymoving
|romareasonedcontemplationo|particularthingstoabstractideas,
in the Symposium hehad depicted this progression in terms o|love.
'Loveisindeeduniversa||ya||thatearnestdesire|orthepossessiono|
happiness and that which is good' |eod,Defence, p. ) . She|ley
' All quotations from lhe /01 and the SymjJosilim arc from Shelley'S transl.ttions in Notopoulos,
Tie Plafo/,;sm oJS/telle. Original Platonic pagination and page numbers from Notopoulos arc
given in the texl.
l6
Sir Philip Sidney, A DifclIce ojPoetr, cd.J.A. Van Dorstcll (Oxford, (966), p, 23. Sec Roc,
pp. 103-7 above. Shelley wmi reading Sidney at the time ofwriling his own Difelice ojPoetr.
See Mar Shelle's JOllral, . and 12 March 1821; alld endp"pcr, p. 426.
JENNI FER WALLACE
pickedupthe|anguageo| |ovewhenhetrans|erredthe|orcebehind
thisen|ightenmenttoimagination.'Poetryenlargesthecircum|erence
o|the imagination by rep|enishing it with thoughts o|ever new
de|ight,whichhavethepowero|attractingandassimi|atingtotheir
own nature a|| other thoughts, and which |orm new interva|s and
intersticeswhosevoid |or ever craves |resh |ood' (Dience, p. 88).
Oncethepoet,throughhisimagination,hasrisenbeyondthenarrow
circum|erence o|quotidian existence, hc also participates in 'the
eterna|,theinhnite,andtheone' (Dience, p.8) . ThisistheworId
inhabited bythe true philosopherintheRepublic: 'the phi|osophers
are those who can apprehend the eterna| and unchanging, while
thosewhocannotdoso,butare|ostinthemasseso|multip|icityand
change, are notphi|osophers' |8b) .
ShelleydoesnotonlycoincidewithP|atoontheascento| thesou|
and the existence o| two worlds, but a|so, most important|y, on
turning such ideas to politica| use. P|ato's phi|osopher had a
responsibility to society.
It is for us, then, as founders ora commonwealth, to bring compulsion to bear
on the noblest natures. They must be made to climb the asLent tothe vision
of Goodness, which we called the highest object of knowledge; and when
they have looked upon it long enough . . . [they 1 must go down, then, each in
his tur, to live with the rese. (5I 9C, 520C)
For She|ley too, once the phi|osopher-poet had experienced 'the
Good', which inc|udes the true and thc beauti|u|, it was his
responsibi|ity to communicate this to the benighted peop|e o|his
society.Oncethe poet had stripped 'theveil o||ami|iarity|rom the
wor|d' (Dience, p.o),hecouldrecognisetheu|timategood in the
universeandrevea|ittohisreaders.Thus|ora||o|society'thegreat
instrumento|mora|goodis theimagination' (Dience, p. 88).
Sowhi|ethemethodso|P|atoandShelleydiered,oneproceeding
byreasonandtheotherbyimagination,theiraimsweresimi|ar.Both
sawpolitica|changeoccuringasaresu|to|achangco|perception.As
aresult,She||ey'sclaimsabouttheimportanceotthepoetresonate
withtheclaimso|Platoaboutthephi|osopher. Since|orShel|eythe
poet possesses the heightened sensitivity to the unchanging wor|d
beyondthiswor|d,sinceheisgi|iedwiththeimaginationwhichcan
apprehendtheGoodwhichmustbebroughtbacktosociety,heisthe
mostimportantpersoninsociety. 'Butpoets,orthosewhoimagine
and express this indestructib|e order, are not on|y the authors o|
Shelley, Plato and the political imagination
e;
|a
nguage ando|music . . . they ate theinstitutotso||awsand the
|oundetso|civilsocietyand the inventotso|theattso||i|eandthe
teachets'(Dfence, p.8e).P|ato'sphilosophetmustbeking,Shelley's
poetsate the 'unacknowledgedlegis|atotso|thewotld' (Dience, p.
o8). Indeed She||ey's atgument about the poet's abi|ity to see
beyondthecottuptiono|thiswot|dtoaputetundetstandingo|how
thewot|dcou|dbeotdeted|eadshimeventoc|aimthesupetiotmota|
hbteo|thepoet.'thegteatestpoetshavebeenmeno|themostspot|ess
vittue' (Dience, p. o6).

Sotheapoca|ypticvisionwhichShelleybestowsuponthepoet,the
abilitytowitness'veila!ietvei|'o|thiswotld 'withdtawn',becomes,
thtough the tesonances |rom P|ato, tevolutionaty. P|ato is not
intetestedintheptisonet'sascent|tomthecave|otitsownsake,but
|otwhatitcanmean|ottheotdetingo|thetepub|ic, theeducation
andgovetnmento|itscitizens.AndShe||ey'sana|ysiso|thepoweto|
poettyhasoneaim.theawakeningo|thepeop|e|tomopptessionand
misety.Anewpo|itica|voiceis|ound,notinthescepticalte|ectiono|
theoties,butinthevisiono|abtightet|ututeandintheundetstanding
o|the contingencyo|thedai|ywor|d o|divisionand conhict.
PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
Buthowwas the newpo|itica|voice used?Howcould the theoties
abouttheptopheticot|egislativepowetso|the poeticvoicebe put
intoptactice?Themosttevolutionatyo|Shelley'spoemsisPrometheus
Unbound | r 8r o) , whichdtamatisesthe |ibetationo|Ptometheusand
withittheescape|toma||manneto|opptession.Inthecoutseo|this
change, the poem chatts avittua| P|atonicAscent to the wotld o|
Rea|ityand univetsality.Thegtadualteplacemento|Aeschy|us by
Platoasthemainsoutceo|thepoemistecognisedwide|ybyctitics.
Even acontempotaty teviewet, wtitingin Gold's London Magazine,
described the poem in P|atonic tetms.
The subject is sotreated, that we lose sight of persons in principles, and soon
feel that all the splendid machinery around us is but the shadow of things
unseen+ theoutward panop|y of btight expectations and theories, which
appear to the author's mind instinct with eternal and eternally progressive
biessings, I 7
Theteviewetheteisadmitingtheineab|e,unwot|d|yassociationso|
l7
Gold's London Magazine, II (October 1 820), in T. Redpath, Tle Young Romantics alld Critical
Opinion 1807-1824 (London, 1973), p. 355.
JENNI FER WALLACE
P|ato. I wou|dcontend thati t is|orhis po|itica|vision thatP|atois
appropriated|orthisrevo|utionarypoem.Therevo|utioncanbeseen
takingp|acepart|yinthehgureo|Prometheushimse||andpart|yin
theconstitutiono|thewor|daroundhimandinthe|anguageo|the
poem. At hrst Prometheus is a |one|y rebe|, |ocked into his
unremitting conict with 1upiter and his own state ol P|atonic
i||usion,inwhichheworriesaboutindividua|divisionandisunable
totakeawiderperspective,|ikethemanwhoisobsessed withon|yone
beautilu|womaniutheSymposium. Butthehrstchangeinhisattitude
comesabouta|ierhehasheardthecursehehadshoutedat]upiter
repeated back to him, hethen rea|iseshis error. Onceherep|aces
hatredwiththebond-breakingpowero|pity,'Iwishno|ivingthing
to suer pain', the imprisoning due| with ]upiter is ended.

Prometheus turns to|ove, and at this point theascent o|thesou|

through the power o| |ove described in the Symposium becomes
important. Heextendshis|ovetoIoneand Panthea, twomessenger
nymphs who thus become intermediaries |i|ting his thoughts sti||
higher. Fina||y he unites with hisgreatest|ove, Asia, and|oseshis
divisive individua|ity a|together. TheEarthsingsat theend:
Man, oh, not men! a chain of linked thought,
Of love and might to be divided not . . .
Man, one harmoious soul of many a soul.
(IV. II. 394-5, 400)
]ustasP|ato'sphi|osopher-kingcanrea|isethecorrectpo|itica|path
throughhis education, soPrometheuscanengineerhisre|ease not
through actionbutthroughthechangeinhisattitudeandhisnew
understanding.
Asimi|arrevo|utiontakesp|aceinthewor|daroundPrometheus,
apparent|y prompted by his change o|attitude. The opening act
adopts the harsh, vio|ent vocabu|ary oltragedy, with tormenting
|uriesandmono|oguesolpainandiso|ation. But themoodandthe
settingo|thepoemchange.AsShe||eysaidintheDience, whenthe
initia| re|erential |anguage becomes increasing|y inadequate, the
poetmakesnewconnectionsbetweenwordsandwhatwasprevious|y
beyondexpression.Demogorgaurep|iestothequestionsol Asia.'The
deeptruthisimage|ess'|ri.iv. 1 1 6) , andthechorussing'Inthewor|d
unknown[S|eepsavoiceunspoken' (II. i. r oo-r ) . 'Vei|a|tervei|'is
|i|ted as the known wor|d o| relerentia| |anguage, which has
l6
Shelley, Prometheus VIbound, in Shelle'S Potlry and Prose, Act I, 11.35_ Hereafter line references
front this edition will be given in the text.
Shelle, Plato and the political imagination
eo
degenerated into 'signs', gives way tothe evocationo|avital new
wot|dbeyondthetangeo|otdinatyhumanpetceptionotexptession.
AsP|atocannotdesctibetheGooditse||intheRepublic butte|iesupon
analogiesandmyths,so She||eycanon|ysuggest thepatadisic new
wot|dwiththesuggestivevocabu|atyo|shadows,dteams,negatives.
InthenewwotldtheimptisoningduelbetweenPtometheusandhis
antagonist is teplaced by a paean o| many singets, exptessing
synthesis by theitp|uta|ityand unity thtough theonevoicewhich
patadoxica|Iy|ies behind all theituttetances.
YetthewotdsinAct:v,whichshou|d|otmahymno|ttiumphand
celebtation,ateblandandempty.Theylackthetensionandvitality
o| Act I. They ate neg|igib|e, tep|aceab|e. Chotus a|tet chotus
answetseachothetinasongwhichaddsnothingtooutundetstanding
otintetest.Moteovetthetevo|utionthatPtometheusissupposedto
have btought about thtough his tenunciation o| hatted seems
insubstantial.TheEatth'soptative,'Man,oh,notmen',suggeststhat
thewotldo|unityandegalitatianismisdesitedtathetthanachieved,
and Demogotgon's nna| speech |eaves thequestion o|the possib|e
tetutno|theoldwtanglingwotldo|violenceandhattedwideopen.
Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance,
These are the seals of that most frm assurance
Which. bars the pit over Destruction's strength;
And if, with infrm hand, Eternity,
Mother of many acts and hours, should free
The serpent that would clasp her with his length;
These are the spells by which to reassume
An empire o'er the disentangled Doom.
.rv.:-o)
The 'i|' hete, emphasised by the pause cteated by the patenthesis
succeedingit, is tel|ing, high|ighting the|tagi|ityo|thetevolution.
Thisisa||patto|thelimitso|idealism,thedistancebetweentheidea|
andtheptacticable.P|atonotedthedimcultyo|tealisinghisRepublic
inactuality:'Cantheotyevetbe|u||ytea|isedinpractice?Isitnotin
thenatuteo|things that action shou|d comeless close to the ttuth
thanthought?'|;a).ShelleyadmittedintheDience that'themost
g|otious poetty that has evet been communicated to the wot|d is
ptobablya|eebleshadowo|the otigina| conceptiono|the poet' |p.
o).Theattempttoexptesstheidea|wotld,toactasthe|egislative
poet and communicate to the teadets asense o|the beauti|ul and
etetnal, ptoduces onlya '|eeb|eshadow'.
The limitations o| Prometheus Unbound ate not conhned to the
JENNI FER WALLACE
dimcu|ty otexpressing the idea| wor|d otRea|ity on|y, but a|so
extend,perhapsmoreserious|y,tothecomp|eteworkingthroughot
theP|atonicrevo|ution.WhereasP|ato'srevo|utioninvo|vesnoton|y
therecognitionandparticipationin thewor|dottheGood,buta|so
itscommunicationtothewor|dbe|ow,inPrometheus Unbound thereis
no such communication. Once Prometheus has g|impsed Asia, he
doesnotreturnwiththegoodnewshehas|earnt.Insteadheretreats
withAsiaintoacave |nottheP|atonicone) anddisappearstromthe
hna| actotthe poem. 1hus the idea| wor|d, the wor|d otRea|ity,
whichinP|atoisvita|tothewor|dotp|ura|ityandi||usion,becomes
impossib|y distant in She||ey.
I t isinthisrespectthatShe||eydepartstromPlato.Thesubstitution
otimagination tor reason, which aspires to invest the poetwithas
muchpo|itica|visionandpoweras thephi|osopher-king,u|timate|y
|eavesthepoetwithnoconnectionbetweenthiswor|dandthenext.
Theascentotthesou|tromthewor|doti||usiontothewor|dottruth
andorderisbasedu|timate|ynotondia|ectic,whichmaybetaught
and repeated, but on taith, which is drawn upon on|y when
know|edgetai|s.DespiteShe||ey'sattempttogroundhisimagination
in P|ato'sreason, the assumptionsothis age about theeectotthe
surroundingwor|d upon know|edge mean that assertions about an
a|ternative wor|d can come on|y as hashes ot divine, irrationa|
inspiration. According to the empirica| phi|osophica| tradition, in
whichShe||eyissteeped,thepoetisinhuencedbyhisexperience,by
the c|imate in which he |ives. He cannot gain know|edge otan
a|ternativewor|dthroughhisexperience,throughrationa|methods.
Theretoreg|impsesotthea|ternativewor|dcannotrestonprocessesot
reason,buton|yonmysteriousand unrepeatab|eactsotinspiration.
Itisc|ear,then,thatinShe||ey'swritingthesceptica|voiceandthe
visionaryvoicearedirect|y|inked.' Scepticismquestionsestab|ished
notionsotsociety,idea|ismthenassertstheanswer.But thereareno
so|idgroundstor thisassertion, on|y theeetingimageotasparkot
inspiration,atadingcoa|.AvisionottheGoodissuggestedtoh||the
gap|e|tby thesceptica|questioning. But astherecan beno return
trom the vision without rationa| uuderstanding, the vision otthe
Goodincreasing|yseemsdistantandirre|evant.ThisiswhyPrometheus
doesnotreturntotheunen|ightenedwor|d. Since histormerbeing,
boundbythewor|dotexperience,cou|dneverparticipateintheidea|
19 For Wdiscussion of the connection of Platonic ideUlism with scepticism, sec C.E. Pulos, Tie
Deep Trulll, pp. 67-88.
Shelle, Plato and the political imagination
worldo|Reality,hehadtodissolvehisideutityor,iuotherwords,die
iu order to reach it. It is uoticeable that, a|ter writiug Prometheus
Unbound, Shelleyiucreasiugly|ouudhimsel|liukiugtheidealworldo|
Reality, which should haveproved vita| to this world, withdeath,
auuihilatiou aud escape.
ThusPlatouismisauambiguousresource|orShelley.Outheoue
hauditprovidesauexpressiouo|revolutiouarychauge,whetherthat
meausdrawiugupouthedemocraticpoliticalassociatiouso|Socratic
dialogue orremodelliug Plato'saccouuto|the soul's asceut to the
Beauti|ulaudGoodiuordertosuggestarevolutiouary,moralvisiou.
OutheotherhauditdisappoiutsthepoliticalimagiuatiouasShelley
was|orcedtorecoguisethe|imitso| idealism.]ustasheperceivedthe
ear|y hopes o|the Freuch Revolutiou |ade with the ouset o|the
violeucewhichmustalwaysaccompauysocialupheaval,hediscovered
thedimcultyo|puttiugiutopracticethepo|iticalidealismexpressed
iu such works as A Dince ' Poetr, He also eucouutered the
distauciugeect o|idealism, because o|theuecessary gul|betweeu
theworldo| scepticismaudtheworldo| visiouiuhisiuterpretatiouo|
Plato. Therewas there|ore adaugerthatthepolitical motivatious
behiudhisidealismwould bemisiuterpreted,audo|coursethishas
subsequeutlyhappeuedwiththede-politicisiugo|Shelley'sPlatouism
bycritics.Butthisis|ustoueo|thedaugerso|idealism, parto|the
teusiouauddimcultyo|alldyuamicaudvisiouarypoliticalwritiug.
7
The most extreme examp!cofShdley's incl'casingassociation of idealism with the death wish
occurs at the end of Adonais ( 1 81 ) . the poem commemorating the death of Keats:
The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven's light forever shines, earth's shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glas,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity.
Until Death tramples it to f'agmcllts. - Djc.
If thou woulds! be with that which thou dost seek! (II. 4605)
CHAPTER 2 2
Arold, Plato, Socrates
M. W. Rowe
EARLY WRI TI NGS
Ttacing the evolution otP|ato's inhuence on Matthew Atno|d
| r 8ee-r 880) al|ows us to see the whole ot Atnold's inte|lectua|
developmentmotec|eatly.PlatoisacenttalguteinAtno|d'sptose
wotk,' but up until the age otthitty-hve Atno|d saw himseltas
ptimatilyapoet,andhetetheP|atonicinhuenceisminimaI'Quiet
Wotk'containshintsot P|ot inus,and'InUttumquePatatus'explotes
theP|otinianideaotthewot|dasanemanationttomtheonea||-pute,
'To Ctitias', the dedication ot'The Wotld and the Quietist', is
ptobablydetivedttom theErxias*, andthestotyot'TheScho|at-
Gipsy'istakenttomtheOxtotdscho|atG|anvi|l,whowasassociated
withtheCambtidgePlatonists.On|y'Selt-Deception',basedupon
theMythotEt,showsditectandma|otPlatonicinuence,butot that
poemAtno|dsaid,' |Itis|notapiecethat|at|allsatishesme'(Poem,
p. eoe).
Atno|datthispetiodwasnotignotantotPlato.Hisdiatiesttom
theyeatsr 8-;havesutvivedandshowhimtohavetead- inGteek
I would like to thank Margaret Howatson, Peter Smith, Philip Highley, Marie McGinn, A. W.
Price, Alan Heaven and the editors for comments on carlier versions of this paper.
t I therefore disagree with Warrell Anderson when he writes, 'Plato is a useful source of
quotation and illustration. No deeper dimension appears nor was any intended'. (Matthew
AmoLd and tIle Classical Tradition (Ann Arbor, 1965), p. 125). Despite our differences, I have
learned a great deal (i'om Anderson's detailed and authoritalive study.
" An asterisk indicates a work whose authenticity is now thought to be doubtful.
Although I do not have a chance to explore the matter here, the Cambridge Platonists
continued to infuence Arnold, particularly his religious thought, long after he ceased to think
of himsclf as primarily a pact. Sce Arnold's essay, 'A Psychological Parallel' (Prose, VIII
pp. t t t-47), and Ruth apRoberts, Arwld and God (California, 1983), pp. 1 1 and 220.
` All verse quotations are from Tle Poems q Maulew Art/oid, cd. Kcnneth Allott, 2nd edn revised
by Miriam Allott (London, (979)' All prose quotations arc from Tlte Camplele Prose Works of
Matthew Arold, ed. R.H. Super, I I vols (Anll Arbour, 1960-77).
Arold, Plato, Socrates

- the Republic aud Phaedrus, together with hve ear|y works, the
Menexenus, Lysis, Greater Hippias*, Lesser Hippias, audIon.' AsAruo|d's
hrst vo|ume o|poetry appeared iu r 8o, there shou|d have beeu
p|eutyo|time|ortheP|atouiciuueucetohlterthroughtohisverse.
The |act that it did uot, suggests that Aruold's imagiuative
preoccupatiousat the time cou|d uot makeuseo|P|ato, audi|we
cousiderthephi|osophica|out|ooko| hispoetryitisuotdimcu|ttosee
why.
Aruo|dishesupremepoeto|iso|atiou,|ossauda|ieuatiou.uature
isco|daudiudiereut|it'hathrea||yueither|oy,uor|ove,uor|ight
. . . uorhe|p |or paiu' (Poems, p. 0),persoua| re|atiouships ou|y
iucreaseoue'sseuseo| iso|atiou|'wemortalmi||ious|ivealone' (Poems,
p. r o)) , aud society, with 'its sick hurry, its divided aims' (Poems,
p.00)isasource mere|yo|auxietyaudeuervatiou.Ou|y'hejwho
nuds himse|t |oses his misery', aud the desire to 'be thyse||' is
associated with ase||-poisediudiereuce to theexterua|wor|d.|ike
the stars we shou|d uot 'piue with uotiug j a|| the

|ever o|some
dieriugsou|' butbe'bouuded by 'our|se|ves, auduuregard|u| jiu
what state God's otherworks may be' (Poems, p. ro). The drive
towards se||-kuow|edge is g|oomi|y iutrospective |'there rises au
uuspeakab|edesireja|terthekuow|edgeo|ourburiedli|e')auda|so,
u|timate|y, doomed to|ai|ure. 'aud mauyamau iu his owubreast
theude|ves,[butdeepeuough,a|as!uoueevermiues. . . hard|yhave
we,|oroue|itt|ehour,. . . beeuourse|ves') (Poems, pp.e8o-oo). Itis
impossib|e uot to|ee|that, atthisstageo|hisdevelopmeut,Aruo|d
cou|d uot assimi|ate P|ato's iuueuce because P|ato's phi|osophy,
eveuiuits|iterary|orm,ispre-emiueut|ysocial,pub|icaudpo|itica|.
itiscoucerued,especia||yiutheear|ydia|ogues,withpareuts,|rieuds,
educatiou,|ove, thegoodcitizeu, thepolis. Aruo|dou|yapproaches
eveu the most persoua| o|these omces aud re|atiouships through
death, |ai|ureorestraugemeut.
Thepre|ace tothecollectiouo|poemsAruo|dpub|ishediu r 8
reectstheseuseo|aridityaudsel|-disgusthisiutrospectivesearch|or
se||-kuow|edgecaused,byexp|icit|ycoudemuiugexact|ythekiudo|
poetryatwhichheexce||ed.Nopoetica|eu|oymeut,hete||sus,caube
derived|rompoems'iuwhichthesueriugnudsuoveutiuactiou,iu
whichacoutiuuousstateo|meuta|distressispro|ouged,uure|ieved
) Kenneth Allott, 'Malthew Arnold's Reading Lists in Three Eary Diatcs" Viclorian Studies, II
(1 959), 254-66.
M. W. ROWE
by iucideut, hopeorresistauce,iuwhich thereis everythiugtobe
euduredauduothiugtobedoue.I usuchsituatiousthereisiuevitab|y
somethiugmorbid. . . ' (Prose, I, pp.z-).1heso|utiouproposedwas
towriteob|ectivec|assica|poemso|actiouaudiucideut,audiuthree
o|hisuextma|orpoeticproductiousheattemptedto|o||owhisowu
precepts.1heresu|tswereuoteucouragiug.Sohrab and Rustum issaved
by the sub|ective coucerus o|its magihceut coda, butBalder Dead
makesdu||readiug, aud the 'c|assica|' drama Merope wasreceived
|romthe hrst as a |rigid |ai|ure. 1hatsuccess did uotatteud these
pro|ectswasdue, as1ri||iug puts it, to 'Aruo|d's|ai|uretosee that
subjectivism iuromauticpoetryhaditsrootsiuhistorica|rea|ity,that
itcou|duotbedismissed by turuiugawaytoitsseemiugopposite,
c|assica|ob|ectivity. . . Aruo|ddoeslitt|emorethaudirectourtaste
|romtheromautictothec|assic,theprob|emgoesbeyoudmeretaste'.
It is strikiug that at|east three o|the major geuera|isiug essays
which |ol|owed the r 8j pre|ace have, as oueo|their themes, the
iutimatere|atioushipawriterhas,audmusthave,withhissociety.Iu
'TheFuuctiouo|CriticismatthePreseutTime',|orexample,Aruo|d
arguesthat,'theexerciseo|thecreativepower. . . isuotata||epochs
aud uudera|| couditious possib|e' (Prose, III, p. z0o). The Eug|ish
Romauticsproduced uomorethaumomeutso|sporadicbri||iauce,
hecoutiuues,becausesocietyatthattimewasuotsumcieutlysuused
byideasaud|acked'auatioua|g|owo|li|e,'whereas'iutheEug|aud
o|Shakespearethepoet|ivediuacurreuto|ideas. . . societywasiu
the|u||estmeasure,permeatedby|reshthought,iutel|igeutauda|ive'
(Prose, III, p.z0z). BythetimeCulture and Anarcl waswritteu,about
|our years |ater, the right kiud o|socia| couditious are uot ou|y
uecessary |orgreatcreativeepochs but |or thevery existeuce o|a
cu|tivatediudividua|.
Perfection as culture conceives it, is not possible while the individual remains
isolated. The individual is required) under pain of being stunted and
enfeebled " " " to carry others along with him in his march towards
perfection. (Prose, v, p. 294)
I|itis impossible toiguore coutemporary 'historica| rea|ities' aud
writeobjectivec|assica|poetry,audi|thesubjectivepoetryo|e|egiac
withdrawa| ou|y |eads to iuertia aud se||-disgust, theu these ear|y
prosewritiugs urge the ou|y other course. They uo|ouger try aud
iguore society, iudeed thesocia| uatureo|iudividua| cu|ture aud
Lionel Trilling, Matthew ATfld (Oxford. 1982), p. 156.
Arold, Plato, Socrates
e
cteativitycou|dnotbemotesttonglyacknow|edged,andtheymatk
thebeginningo|an eotttochangethenatute o|societyitse||that
wou|doccupy thetemaindeto|Atno|d's|ife.
SOCRATES
Iti sonlywhenAtno|d begins to thinkserious|yaboutsociety that
Soctatesmakeshishtstimpottantappeatance,andthisisintheessay
'Democtacy' pub|ished in r 80r . Hete, Soctates is as much a
symptom,aneect,o|thekindo| societyAtnoldwished|otasheisa
causeandcteatoto|it.
I twas the maT [in Athens 1 who relished those arts, who were not satisfed
with less than those monuments. In the conversations recorded by Plato, or
even by the matter-of-fact Xenophon, which for the free yet refned
discussion of ideas have set the tone for the whole cultivated world,
shopkeepers and tradesmen of Athens mingle as speakers . . . this is why a
handful of Athenians of two thousand years ago are more interesting than
the millions of most nations of our contemporaries. (Prose, 1) p. a)
Intetestingly, the te|etence to P|ato tutns out to be a mistake.
A|thoughtheconvetsationstecotdedbyPlatoo|tentakep|aceinthe
matketotoutsidethe|awcoutts,hedoesnotshowSoctatesta|kingto
'shopkeepetsandttadesmen`,this,asWattenAndetsonointsout,is
on|y to be |ound in Xenophon. The Soctates o| Xenophon's
Memorabilia isas|ight|yptosaicpopu|atist.heshowscta|ismenhow
theycanimptovetheitwotkbyundetstandingthepteciseputposeo|
theittask,heemphasisestheimpottanceo|se||-conttolandacquited
ski||s,heoetshome|ybutshtewdmota|advice.TheSoctates|ound
inP|ato'seat|ydia|oguesistecognisab|ythesamehgute|asAtno|d's
s|ightcon|usion wou|dsuggest) butis a|togethetshatpetandmote
e|usive.Heisamuchgteatetdia|ectician, hepte|etsto advanceby
te|utingothetstathetthanoetingtheotieshimse||andheismote
ptonetocon|essionso|ignotanceandtheuseo|itony.P|ato,un|ike
Xenophon, does not geneta||y c|aim to be tecotding what the
histotica| Soctates actua||y sa.d, but the natute ofXenophon's
inte||igencewasptactica|tathetthanphi|osophica|anditthete|ote
seems quite|ike|ythatP|ato'simaginativeteconsttuctionsbtingus
c|oset to the histotica| Soctates than Xenophon's not a|ways
comptehending attempts at |iteta|ness. Atno|d had been |ami|iat
' Warren Anderson, 'Matthew Arnold and the Classics', in K. Allott (ed.), Matthew Amold,
'Writers and their Background' (London, 1975), p. 281.
M. W. ROWE
withXenophon'sworkssincehisschooldays,andi t isnotablethathis
earlydiariesshow him concentrating- apart |rom theRepublic and
Phaedrus whichwereo|constantinterestthroughouthisli|e-onnve
early Platonicdialogues.
The character called 'Socrates` who speaks in the dialogues o|
Plato`s late and middle periods continues to exhibit many o|the
amenities o| the earlier character, but hediers |rom the earlier
hgureinatleastthe|ollowingrespects.heisnotexclusivelyamoral
philosopher, he holds elaborate theories o|the |orms, recollection,
and the soul, he has mastered mathematics, he seeks deductive
knowledgeand, whenhe |eelshehas|ound it,is quiteprepared to
expound it to others. Most importantly |or our purposes, he is
emphaticallyelitist ratherthanpopularistinhisviewo|philosophy,
and he has a complex theory o|government in which democracy
ranksverylow. Becauseo|thesemarkeddierences,generationso|
scholars have identined this 'Socrates` with Plato himsel|. I shall
|ollowthemin thispractice.
Arnold`s interest in Socrates and Plato reects his own central
concern. what relationship should a man devoted to disinterested
thought and contemplation have with his society which must, o|
necessity,belargelypracticalandcommercial?Althoughhechanged
hismindseveral times about the exactrelationshipbetween Plato,
Socrates and Xenophon, thegeneral progression o|hisinterestis
clearenough.Inwhat|ollows,IshallshowArnoldmovingaway|rom
an identihcation with the popularist Socrates towards the more
embittered,aristocratic,andreactionaryPlato.Upto,andculminating
in, Culture and Anarci in r 80o, Arnold is largely |ascinated by
Socrates' personality. In Culture and Anarchy, however, he is also
inhuencedbythepoliticaltheorieso|theRepublic, anda|terthisdate
onecanseehimgrowincreasinglydisillusioned,elitistandPlatonicin
his attitude towards thesocietyaround him.
I|welookatArnold'sreadinglistswhichexist,withoddgaps,|rom
r 8jeuntiltheendo|hisli|e,wecanseethatalthoughhereadagood
dealo|philosophy, no Plato is recorded between i8e and r 80;.
However, hedidnotedown Xenophon's Memorabilia as oneo|his
'books|orthesummer`in r80o.Aswemightexpect|romthis,Plato
Here I rely on Gregot) Vlastos, Socrates: lronisl a11d Moral PMlosopher (Cambrdge, 1991), pp.
45-131
9 Tie No'eBooks o Matthew Arrw/d, edited by Howard Foster Lowry, Karl Young, and Waldo
Hilary Dunn (London, 1952).
Arnold, Plato, Socrates
e;
exctted littlein6uenceonthewtitingseventuallypublishedasEssays
in Criticism in r80j;inlact,heisdiscussedonlyonce,and thatisinthe
r 801oubettessay.AlthoughAtnoldoetsqualihedptase,whathe
hastosayaboutPlato`s

actualdocttines|ptesumablythoseloundin
theRepublic andPhaedrus) is nothatteting:
Joubert was all his life a passionate lover of Plato; I hope other lovers of Plato
will forgive me for saying that their adored object has never been more truly
described than he is here:-
'Plato shows us nothing, bU,t he brings brightness with him; he puts light into
our eyes and fUs us with a clearness by which all objects afterwards become
illuminated. He teaches us nothing; but he prepares us, fashions us, and
makes us ready to know all. Somehow or other, the habit of reading him
augments in us the capacity|otdiscerning and entertaining whatever fne
truths may afterwards present themselves. Like mountain air, it sharpens
our organs, and gives us an appetite for wholesome food.' (Prose, III, p. 203)
CULTURE AND ANARCHY
InCulture and Anarchy, AtnoldisstilldtawntoXenophon'sSoctates.
'The best man is he who most tries to perfect himself, and the happiest man is
he who feels that he is perfecting himself', - this account of the matter by
Socrates, the true Socrates of the Memorabilia, has something so simple,
spontaneous and unsophisticated about it, that it seems to fll us with
clearness and hope when we hear it. (Prose, v, p. 1 67-8) .
Butbythisstagetheinuenceol Platoiscomingtobele|t.Weknow
ltomhisteadingliststhatAtnoldreadthePhacdo, Symposium, Theages*
andErastae' inr 808,andsevetaloltheseatequotedanddiscussedin
the book. Atnold nevet had any time lot metaphysics, and the
atgumentsin thePhaedo lot thesoul'simmottalityatedismissed as
'stetile'(Prose, v,p. r ; I ) , butmanyolthemostimpottantphtasesin
Culture and Anarchy andtheatgumentativeweightplacedonphtases
is aleatuteolAtnold'sthought- havetheitotigininPlato. 'Seeing
thingsastheyteal|yatc'and 'thehtmintelligiblelawo|things'ate
explicitlyacknowledgedasP|atonic (Prose, v, p. r ;8) but'bestsell'
alsoseemstocomeltomtheRepublic joi . 'Doingasonelikes'alludes
toRoebuck's,'IsnotevetymaninEnglandabletosaywhathelikes?'
butitisusedin theRepublic'S ctiticismoldemoctacy |'And has not
evetymanlicensetodoashelikes?'jj; b)andAtnoldwouldcettainly
have heatd Roebuck's tematks thtown into itonic teliel by the
Platonic backgtound.
M. W. ROWE
P|ato'sdoctrina|inuence, however,is|arge|ysubterraneanand
notovert|ysigna||ed.W.DavidShawhaspointedoutthatArno|d,
|ikeP|ato,isattractedbyana|ogiesbetweense|landstate,andthat
the three c|asses olthe idea| repub|ic,each with its characteristic
virtue,aresimi|artoArno|d'sBarbarians,Phi|istinesandPopu|ace.
1 0
Thisistrue,butP|ato'sdamningdescriptionoldemocraticsocietyin
dec|ineis even c|oserin spirit to Arno|d's ana|ysis. ForP|ato, the
democratic man is utter|y |acking in depth, direction and hxed
principles.
.
And frequently he goes in for politics and bounces up and says and does
whatever enters his head . . . and there is no order Of compulsion in his
existence, but he calls this life of his the life of pleasure and freedom and
happiness and cleaves to it to the end. (Republic 56rd)
Themainspringolactioninademocracyisacravinglorunrestricted
|iberty |j0ecandd) and thepursuitolwealth |j0e) .Theresu|tis
'anarchy' |j0e). no aweis lc|t lorestab|ished authority, no chi|d
respectshislather, teachers lawn on theirpupi|s and pupi|s ignore
their teachers |j0).
P|atoa|sodividesadegeneratingdemocracyintothreeclasses.hrst-
|y,'thedominatingclass. . . thehercestparto|itmakesspeechesand
transactsbusiness. . . theremainderkeepupa buzzing. . . ' |j0d).
Second|y, the'capita|istic c|ass' who are 'order|y and thrilty' and
therelorebecomethewea|thiest|j0e) .Last|y,'thepeop|e',whoown
no property but are 'the |argest and most potent group in the
democracywhenitmeetsinassemb|y'|j0j).A|thoughthisisnotthe
samec|assihcationasArno|d's- onecou|dhard|y expectthatintwo
suchdistantsocieties- itispossib|etorecogniseinthesedescriptions
near|ya||olthecharacteristicsolVictorianEng|andwhichArno|d
sing|edoutlorcriticism.thedesireloruntramme||ed|ibertyandthe
pursuitol happiness,acravinglormateria|wea|ththatob|iteratesa||
othervalues,anoisy,hurrying,thri!iy,speechilyingmidd|eclass,and
athreatolanarchylromanunder|yingpopu|acewhich,atthetime
Arno|dwrote,wasbeginningtomakeitspowerle|tinminorriotsand
huge pub|icmeetings.
ForArno|daslorP|atotheremedyisthesame.Thestatemustbe
strong and centra|ised, it must dea| hrm|y with disobedience and
|aw|essness,itmustanswertothebestse|lineacholitscitizens,andit
1
0
W. David Shaw, The Ltltid Veil; Poetic Truth in tlte Victorial! Age (London, 1987), p. 219.
Anderson, in Matthew Arold, draws altention to the similarity between Arnold and Plato's
criticisms of democracy. Sec p. VV.
Arold, Plato, Socrates
mustmode|each otitstututecitizensbymeansotastate-contto||ed
education. This education was to be achieved by teeding the sou|
upon thenneattsbecause,'noonecou|d evetbecomeagoodman
un|esstromchiIdhoodhisp|ayand a|| his pursuitsweteconcetned
withthingstaitandgood'|8b),andama|otptopottionot BooksII
andIII ot theRepublic isgivenovettodiscussingexact|ywhichkindsot
|itetatuteandmusicatesuitab|etotthisputpose.Whenthepolitica|
vision is achieved then P|ato`s 'divinegovetningptincip|e' |ood)
andAtno|ds'teasonandthewi||otGod'(Prose, v,p.oI ) wi||ptevai|.
ThusP|atounites|itetatyctiticism,education,po|itics,audeventoa
cettainextentte|igion, inexact|y thesamewayasAtno|d.
Butitison|yatthevetyendotCulture and Anarchy thatthetea||y
impottant|inkwithP|ato`swotkisestab|ished,andthishasnothing
todowith P|atonicdocttineand evetything todowithidentitying
withthechatactetandsocia|to|eotSoctates.SidgwickandHattison
hadbothnotedAtno|d'sSoctaticptetensionsinthemid- I 80os,` ` now
Atno|d makes theidentincation exp|icit.
Socrates has drunk his hemlock and is dead; but in his own breast does not
every man carry about with him a possible Socrates, in that power o
disinterested play of consciousness upon his stock notions and habits, of
which this wise and admirable man gave all through his lifetime the great
example, and which isthe secretothis incomparable infuence? And he who
leads men to call forth and exercise in themselves this power, and who busily
calls it forth and exercises it in himself is at the present moment, perhaps, as
Socrates was in his time, more in concert with the vital workings of men's
minds, and more efectuaIly signifcant, than any House of Commons'
orator, or practical operator in politics. (Prose, v, pp. 228-9)
Culture and Anarchy isnotcentta||yconcetnedwithptoposinga|istol
po|itica|imptovements, ot withsuggestinga methodwhich wou|d
a||owsucha|isttobeattivedat,tathet,itswho|etoneandmannet
giveseachteadetanexamp|eotanidea||ysupp|eamenityonwhich
hecanmode|himse|t.1ustasAtno|dtotmedhis|itetatypetsonaby
meditatingon the chatactet otSoctates, so each teadet can now
mode|himse|tonAtno|d,anditisintheintetactionotsuchidea||y
teasonab|epetsons thatthepettectsocietyconsists. Asa pte|udeto
tea|isingthisvision,eachmanmustask,'Howshou|daman|ive?'and
to||owthein|unction,'Knowthyse||,hemustbring adisintetested
I I
Henry Sidgwiek" 'The Prophet of Culture', MacMil/'s MagfiT:, 16 (August 1867),
271-80j Frederic Harrison, 'Culture: A Dialogue', Fortllig/ltl Review, I I (November 1 867),
603-14. Both reprinted in Matthew Amold: Prose Writings, edited by Carl Dawson and John
Pfordrcshcr (London, 1979), P
l
' 209-37.
M. W. ROWE
playo| consciousnesstobeatonhisstocknotiousandhabits,hemust
btiughispowetso|mind- theloveo|iudustty,o|thiugso|themind,
and o|beauti|ul ob+ects - into hatmouious co-opetatiou, he must
cultivatesweetuess,light,audexibility, and avoid noise,dogmas,
disputatiousnessandthetotic,hually,hemustaimatahatmonious
expansiou o| his powets, avoid all ouesideduess, be willing to
tecoguisehisowuignotauce,andtealisethatcultuteisnota'haviug
andagettingbutagtowiugandbecoming'. (Prose, v, 9.4)' Atnold's
impottautlegacy,likeSoctates',isnotabodyo|docttiuebutastyle
andmauneto|thought.
X
LATER WRI TINGS
Culture and Anarchy matks the high-point o|Atuold's identihcation
withSoctates.Inthewtitiugsa|tet[870, wecaudiscetuadiminishiug
intetestinthenguteo|Soctatesandauincteasinginvolvementwith
themotaloutlooko|Plato.InLiterature and Dogma, publishediu [ 873
audhismostimpottantwotkouteligiou,wecauseethebeginningo|
thisptocess.'PlatosophisticatessomewhatthegenuineSoctates,but
itisvetydoubt|ulwhethetthecultuteaudmeutalenetgyo|Platodid
uot give him a mote adequate vision o|the ttue Soctates than
Xenophonhad.'(Prose, VI, pp. 372-3) BythetimeweteachGod and
the Bible in[ 875, Platohasbecomean'idealisiugiuventot'(Prose, VII,
p.307) withtegatdtoSoctates.PlatoaudSoctatesateas|atapattas
theyweteinCulture and Anarchy butthistimeitistoPlato'sadvantage.
This shi|i in attitude is pattly to be explained by a genetal
datkeuingo|Atnold'spetsonality as hegtew oldet. Twoo|hissous
diediu[ 868 |ollowedbyathitd,his|avoutite,iu[ 871 . Thissetieso|
petsonalttagediesiuitiatedamotepto|ouudintetestinteligiouthan
hehadshowuhithettoandanotablehebtaisiugo|hischatactet.Iu
Culture and Anarchy, theHelleuicidealo|' spontaneityo|cousciousuess'
audtheHebtaicidealo|'sttictnesso|conscience'arebothheldupas
thetwiupoleso| humauethicalaspitatious,butthencanbenodoubt
that Atnold, iu Collini's wotds, would tathet have 'Ioll| ed| ou
Patuassusthanctawl| ed| upCalvaty', althoughAtnoldwouldno
doubtde|endhistteatmentbyatguingthattheBtitishpublicstoodin
gtcatetneedo|theHellenicideal.Butbythe1870S theemphasisisless
12
This paragraph is only the barest sketch. I shortly hope to complete a paper examining the
influence of Socrates' character on Arnold's literary persona and style.
13 Stephan Collini, Amold (Oxford, 1987), p. 84.
Arold, Plato, Socrates
25
1
ou

disirrterested thoughtaud the|reep|ayo|cousciousuessthauou

righteousuess aud conduct, the |atter o| which, he remiuds us
eud|ess|y,is 'three|ourthso||i|e' |e.g.,Prose, VI, p. 1 7
3
) .
However, two other|actors must be takeu iuto accouut wheu
cousideriug the shi|t |rom Socratic populariser to Platouicelitist.
First|y,upuuti|themid-ceutury,Platowaslitt|ereadiuEuglaud,but
a|ter the pub|icatiou o|Grote's Plato, and the Other Companions of
Socrates, iu 1865, discussiou o| his philosophy uot ou|y became
widespread but a|so iuteuse|y po|iticised. Grote was a radica|,
democratic,uomiualistuti|itariauwhodividedPlato'sdia|oguesiuto
'dia|ogues o|search' aud 'dia|ogues o|expositiou'. P|ato's workis
va|uab|eaudcorrect,Groteargues,wheuitexemp|iesthepowero|
ratioua|aua|ysisiuthedia|ogueso|search,|a|seaudretardiugwheu,
iuthedia|ogueso|expositiou,itre|iesouiutuitiou- themetaphysics
aud politics o|the Republic beiug the most egregious examp|es. Iu
coutrast to this,1owett's commeutaries ouhis complete editiou o|
Plato,whichhrstappearediu 1 871 , |avouredwhatmightbetermed
thehigh-Auglicau iuterpretatiou that|ouudits deepest sympathies
most|u||yeugagedwiththe

moremystica|,authoritariaue|emeutso|
the Republic. Aruo|d kuew both these approaches. he |requeut|y
meutious1owett'scommeutariesaudtraus|atiousiu|ateryears,aud
hecertaiu|yreadCaird's|ougarticleouGrote'sP|atoiutheNorth
British Review the year a|terit was published. ' Faced with achoice
betweeu Grote's uti|itariau radica|ism aud his |rieud 1owett's
traditioua|ismwhichde|eudedwhatCo|eridgetermed the'P|atouic
o|dEug|aud'agaiustthe'uewcommercia|Britaiu','therecaubeuo
doubtwhereAruo|d's|oya|ties|ay.
However, thepowero|Grote'sscho|arshipwasuottobedeuied.
FraukTuruerhasdescribedGrote'sbookas'|ouger,morethorough,
aud moredeep|y iuueuced bygeuera| Europeau scho|arshipthau
auyotherstudyo|P|atoiuEug|ish,audremaiuedso|oroverha|!a
ceutury'. Whateverhis opiuiouo|Grote'spo|itics,Aruoldcauuot
|ai|tohavebeeuimpressedbyaportraito|thehistorica|Socrateshe
E. Caird, 'A Review of G. Grote: Plato, and llie Ollur CompalliDls ojSocrates" }ortl British
Review,43 ( 1865). 351-84. A star by the 18G6 Notebook entry indicates that Arold fulfilled
his intention to read this review. He indicates his familiarity with Grote's earlier History o
Greece (where Socrates is also discussed) in the first instalment of his review of Curti us's Tie
Histor oJGrette (Prose, N, p. 59).
1 s:r. Coleridge, Anima Poetac, edited by E.H. Coleridge (Boston, (895), p. t28. Quoted in
Frank M. Turner, The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (Yale, Ig81). p. 2I .
Turner, TIle Greek Heritage, p. 384.
eje M. W. ROWE
wou|dhave|oundintense|yunsympathetic.Socrates,lorGrote,was
an ardent rationa|ist who was driven to question a|| estab|ished
custom,re|igionandauthority,andyethewasmotivatedinthistask
byare|igious|anaticismwhichu|timate|y |ed him toseek his own
death. Given Arno|d's opinion o| both rationa|ism and re|igious
|anaticism,itisnowonderthatthehgureolSocratesp|aysamuch|ess
commandingro|ein his |ater writings.
Thesecond|actorrequiredtoexp|aintheSocrates-P|atoshi|twas
Arno|d's reading olCurtius' The Histor q Greece. Arno|d wrote a
substantia| hve-part review o|this work which appeared between
r 808andr 8;0inthePall Mall Gazelle, thelastparto| whichdiscusses
Curtius' portraya| olthe character and inhuence olP|ato. Arno|d
quoteswithapprova| Curtius' remark.
In proportion as Plato in his ideal demands rose above the data of the
circumstances and principles around him, it became impossibleto expect
that |ewould exercise a transforming infuence upon the body of the people.
He was by his whole nature far more aristocratic than Socrates, the simple
man of the people; and his teachings and aims could only become the
possession of a circle of elect. (Prose, v, pp. 292-3)
Curtius'portraya|olP|ato'soppositiontoanoutward|ythriving
butactua||ycorruptand p|easure|ovingAthensexercisedadecisive
inhuenceonArnold, aswecansee|romhisexplicitdiscussionolthe
Getmanhistorianin 'Numbers', writtensevenyears|ater (Prose, x,
p. r0). 1he reasonisnothard to see. Inthe r 80o'sArnold hada
touching |aith that, eventua||y, clear disinterested thought wou|d
prevail overcommercia|ism and c|ap-trap. I|thought wou|d on|y
disavowimmediatepractica|purposes,hewrotein'TheFunctionol
Criticism'then' |criticism|mayperhapsonedaymakeitsbenehtle|t
|eveninthesphereol practice]. . . inanaturalandthenceirresistib|e
manner'.(Prose, rrr,p.e;j). Simi|ary,distinction,inc|udingdistinction
olthought, is a qua|ity o|which 'the wor|d is impatient, itchales
againstit,rai|s atit,mocksit,hatesit,- |but|itendsbyreceivingits
inhuence, by undergoingits|aw' (Prose, 111, p. r o0) . Atthe end o|
Culture and Anarchy, Arno|d had de|iberate|y set himse|l up in
competitionwithmorepragmatic,rhetorical,po|itica|contemporaries,
andc|aimedthathe,theSocratesolhistime,wou|d u|timate|yexert
the greater inhuence
But in Arno|d's |ater work there is c|ear
evidencethathewas disappointedin his expectations. Hisprotests
against Lowe's Revised Code in education, and his criticisms ol
governmentpo|icyinIre|andhadnotbeeneective,anditishardto
Arold, Plato, Socrates ej
heatanoteo| itonywhen,inDiscourses in America, hetematks,' Ihave
ptoducedso|itt|eeecton |mycounttymen|
,
(Prose, x,pp. r-) .
The pte|ace to Irish Essays containsoneo|his |ewgenuine|y bittet
passagesashecontemp|ates,with|ive|ysatis|action,howhe|p|essthe
ptagmatic,ptactica|man|ee|swhen|acedbyu|timatephi|osophica|
issues.TakingupP|ato's accounto|themattetinthe Theaetetus, he
quotes,withsomete|ish, the|o||owing.
'Then, indeed', says Plato, 'when that narrow, vain, little practical mind is
called to account, above all this, he gives the philosopher his revenge. For
dizzied by the height at whi
c
h he is hanging, when he looks into space, which
is a strange experience to him, he being dismayed and lost and stammering
out broken words is laughed at, not by Thracian handmaidens such as
laughed at Thales, or by any other uneducated persons, for they have no eye
for the situation, but by every man who has been brought up a true free
man', (Prose, IX, p. :
Atno|d'sidentication withP|ato at this pointissignicant. In
'Democtacy',Atno|dhadhe|duptheAthensinwhichXenophon's
Soctates outished as the idea| society. In r 80o, in an attempt to
|utthet thecauseo|disintetestedthought,hemadeabidtobecome
theSoctates o|his own time despite the appatent|y unptopitious
citcumstances.Hebegan tobeawateo|thispto+ect's|ai|uteatthe
sametimeasCuttiuswasshowinghim that P|ato'spositionin his
societywasana|ogoustohisownsituationinVictotianEng|and,and
bothGtoteand Cuttiuswetedemonsttatingthathisidea|Soctates
wasahistotica||yinva|idi||usion. Consequent|y,bythetimehecame
topub|ishIrish Essays in i88e,hehadcometoidenti|ywiththe|atet
P|ato's|one|yendutanceo|society'ssupethcia|ity,wot|d|iness, and
cottuption.
It is in the i 8;os and 8os that P|ato's wtitings become most
impottant to Atno|d. The Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno, Ion, Phaedrus,
Parmenides, Republic, Philebus andStatesman, ate a||mentionedon his
teading|ists,anditiswotthtematkingthatmosto|these,inconttast
totheP|ato hetecotded teadingin the i8os, ate|ateand midd|e
petiod wotks.The in

uence o|this teading shows up c|eat|y in

Discourses in America, the|astwotktobepub|ishedinhis|i|etimeand,
Atno|d thought, the hnest. The book consists o|thtee extended
|ectutes- 'Numbets.ottheMa|otityandtheRemnant','Litetatute
andScience',and'Emetson'- andP|atop|aysamajotto|eina||o|
them. He no |onget suggests phtases ot supp|ies a backgtound
inuence,otexemp|iesanattitudetowatdsenquity,heisnowthe
e M. W. ROWE
ma|otinte|lectua|inuenceandhiswotksatediscussedexp|icit|yand
at |ength. In 'Emetson' he is ultimately the standatd by which
Emetsonisweighedand|oundwanting.
The Platonic dialogues afford an example of exquisite literary form and
treatment given to philosophical ideas. Plato is at once a great literary man
and a great philosopher . . . Emerson cannot) I think be called with justice a
great philosophical writer. He cannot build; his arrangement ofphilosophical
ideas has no progress in it, no evolution. (Prose, X, p. 1 74)
In'LitetatuteandScience'P|atoinspitesboththe|onginttoduction
andactucia|tutningpointintheatgument.The|ectuteisade|enceo|
|itetaty education against some o|its mote |otce|u| scientihc and
techno|ogica| opponents. Atno|d's basic sttategy is to atgue that
science, howevet comptehensive and intetesting, cannevetsupply
motethanmeteknow|edge,andthatthecognitive|acu|tyisneithet
theonlynotthemostimpottantpoweto|mind.Atno|dsuggeststhat
theteatein|act|out|undamentalpowetstowhicheducationmust
addtessitse||- thepowetso| inte||ect,beauty,mannetsandconduct -
and atgues, with te|etence to the views o|Diotima (Symposum
eoid-e r eb), that itisnatuta||othumanbeings tottyandcombine
themhatmonious|ytogethet.I t ishete,Atno|dthinks,thata|itetaty
educationismosteective.Poetty,un|ikemeteknowledge,appea|sto
outsenseo|beauty,andbecauseo| thisittouchesoutemotions.These
intheittutn,aectoutmannetsandconduct.Bywayo|oppositiont
the|imitedscientihcconceptiono|whateducationis,Atno|dquotes
P|ato's tematk, 'An inte||igent man wi|| ptize those studies which
tesultinhissou|gettingsobetness,tighteousness,andwisdomandwi||
|essvalue:heothets', and comments, 'I cannotconsidetthat abad
desctiptiono|theaimo|education' (Prose, x, pp. ).
Howevet, it is in the tst o|the Discourses, 'Numbets. ot the
MajotityandtheRemnant'thatP|atop|ayshismostsignincantto|e.
Thisisthe|atetAtnoldathisdatkestandmostmota|istic,andP|ato's
condemnation o| Athens is invoked as the mode| |ot Atnold's
condemnation o| the immota|ity and supethcia|ity o| his own
civi|isation - patticu|at|y the '|ubticity' o|the Ftench. The basic
theme o| the |ectute is that ancient societies wete vety sma||,
consequent|y theitwisemen and c|eat thinketswete too |ew and
scatteted tocombineintoaneective|otceandthete|oteexetcised
|itt|einuence on theit societies. The same is ttue o|the states o|
modetn Eutope,butinavastmodetnsociety such astheUSAthis
Arold, Plato, Socrates
e
ninorityorremnantwcu|d,it sumcient|yinspiredandmotivated,be
numerousenoughtoinuencethetoneotthenationverymuchtor
thebetter.
ItisnottheamenityotSocratesorthepo|itica|argumentsotthe
Republic that inuence 'Numbers', but P|ato's execration otsexua|
|icence and his condemnation ot the mu|titude. The remnant's
unhappypositioninmostsocietiesisi||ustratedwitha|ongquotation
|romtheRepublic. It endsasto||ows.
They may be compared to a man who has fallen among wild beasts: he will
not be one of them, ' " and before he can do any good to society or his f'iends,
he will be overwhelmed and perish uselessly. When he considers this, he will
resolve to keep still, and to mind his own business; as it were standing aside
under a wall in a storm of dust and hurricane of driving wind; and he will
endure to behold the rest flled with iniquity, if only he may live his life clear
of injustice and of impiety, and depart, when his time comes, in mild and
gracious mood, with fair hope. (Prose, ? pp. 145-6)
In Culture and Anarcir, P|ato and St Pau| are the embodiments ot
He|lenism and Hebraism respective|y, and represent the opposite
po|esothumanpertection.In'Numbers',spurredonnodoubtbythe
bib|ica|echoesot 1owett'strans|ation,P|ato`saccountottheremnant
is|inkedwithIsaiah's,andPlatohimse|tissetalongsideStPaulasa
|over ot'Righteousness and making one's study otthe |aw otthe
eterna|' (Prose, x, p. r e) . Plato and the saints are a|so at one in
imploringustothinkon|yotwhatsoevertIingsarepure,andArnold
repeatsP|ato'swarning thatitweindu|geindisso|uteness,'weteed
andstrengthen thebeastinusandstarvetheman' (Prose, x, p. r 0o) .
Final|y,the'a|iens'otCulture and Anarcir, theindividualthinkerswho
transcend their p|ace in the socia| order, now have theirseparate
identitiesobliterated by beingplaced underasing|emassterm 'the
remnant',and tartrom g|oryingintheirremotenesstrom practice,
Arnoldappearstothinkotthemasacrusadingtorceinthecauseot
mora|rearmament,'A remnantothowgreatnumbers,how mighty
strength,howirresistib|ee0Icacy!` (Prose, x, p. r 0)TheSocratesot
Xenophonand P|ato'sear|ydia|oguescou|dstand inopposition to
thesaintsandprophetsasanemissaryotsweetnessand|ight,butthe
|aterArno|d'sP|atoissodark-|:uedthatnostrainiste|tasheisquiet|y
assimi|atedinto theHebraicconception otper|ection.
Itisun|ike|ytobeArno|d's|atesocia|criticismwhichmostappea|s
tothemodernreader- itistoomora|istic,toohorrihed bysex, too
re|iantonracialequations.Thevoicewhichspeakstousmostclearly
M. W. ROWE
is the Atno|d othe r 80os atthe height ohis identihcation with
Soctates.ThisistheAtno|dwhoputs|ightintoouteyesandhl|sus
withac|eatnessbywhicha||objectsatetwatdsbecomei||uminated,
whoteachesusnothing,butptepatesus,ashionsus,andmakesus
teadytoknowa||. Itisnocoincidencethatthequa|itywhich,atthis
petiod,Atno|d mostva|ued in P|ato'swtitings, shou|d bethevety
qua|itywhichwemostva|ueinAtno|d himse|t
C HAPTER 2 3
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plato
Anne Vatr
'Theimageryinwhich'P|ato's ]phi|osophyisconveyedo|tentouches
on subjects which are revo|ting to Christian and manly |eelings',
wroteBenjamin1owettinhisnotes|ora|ectureseriesonP|atoand
Pre-Socraticphi|osophy.' Thesebegan by out|ining thedimcu|ties
thatanOx|ordstudento|the r 80osmighthaveencountered.Wa|ter
Pater,anundergraduatereading|orGreatsatQueen'sCo|lege|rom
i8j8-0e,wasamongst]owett'spotentia|audienceashisstudentand
a|terwards, |rom i 80 until his death thirty years |ater, as his
col|eague. But those |eatures o|Plato's work whlch]owettsaw as
obstac|estocontemporaryappreciationin|actsecret|yconhrmedthe
charactero|Pater'sdissent,whichwasatheistandhomosexua|.And
theybecamecentra|tohisinuentia|positionasaestheticcritic.The
young Pater |ound himsel| unwitting|y constructed by]owett as
P|ato's idea| reader, the inverse o| the bewi|dered student who,
]owettthought,
supposed himself to be studying philosophy & fnds that he has been reading
a poem. He cannot understand why t 8ub16 Plato should be at once so
ideal & yet so sensual . . . he objects to arguing from the arts to the virtues . . .
neither does harmony in music appear to be the same as harmony in life.2
Gripped rather than a|ienated by these obscurities, Pater|ound in
P|ato authority |or the sty|e and substance o| his most |amous
exhortationsabouthowto|ive,|romthedisp|ayo|'mora|expressiveness'
inwhosoever'hastreated|i|einthespirito|art'tothedictum'al|art
I Oxford, Ballia! College,Jowett Papers, Box B[IJ, Bk. 5, p. 27. AU quotations from Benjamin
Jowett arc from his unpublished papers held in ThcJowctt Papers in Balliol College, Oxford.
Copyright remains with thcJowctt Copyright Trustecs, and I am grateful for their permission
to quote from this source. Examination ofthcse papers suggests that Jowett's influence as a
teacher was rather diferent from that of his published writings which has been investigated by
Ian Small in 'Plato and Pater: }in de Sieele Aesthetics', British Joural q Aesthetics, 12 ( 1 972),
369-83.
The Jowett Papers, Box Bfl), Bk. 5, pp. 23-6.
ej;
ANNE VARTY
constant|yaspitestowatdstheconditiono|music'|whichincludesthe
atto||i|e).Thisbecomesc|eatin'P|ato'sAesthetics', thetenthand
closingchapteto|Patet's|astmonogtaph,Plato and Platonism ( 1 893),
which mittotsBookx o|The Republic:
I t is life itself, action and character, he proposes to colour; to get something of
that irrepressible conscience of art, that spirit of control, into the general
course of life, above all into its energetic and impassioned acts. (p. 282)
Given Patet's li|elong engagement with the phi|osophet, it is no
sutptise that this P|ato sounds mote |ike an auto-epitaph |ot the
authothimse||, thananaccounto|theancientGteek.
Patet'smanipu|ationo|P|atoismani|estthtoughouthispub|ished
wtiting, |tom the eat|iest ptose piece 'Diaphaneit' | r 80) to the
|ectutesetiesPlato and Platonism. Athtstsightthe|attetseemstobea
conventiona|potttaya|o|P|ato'swotk,settingi t inthecontexto|the
vatious schoo|s o|Ptesoctatic thought, as]owett did in his own
|ectutesonthissub|ect,andasothetnineteenth-centutyauthotities
onP|atosuchastheGetmanscho|atEduatd 7elletand theBtitish
authotity Geotge Gtote had a|so done. Howevet, Patet's concetn
withthesoutceso|P|ato'svisionisnotptimatilyexegetica|.itisan
eat|yinstanceo|themodetnistquest|ototiginsandnewbeginnings.
Fitst Patet ptesents the teachings o| Hetac|itus, Patmenides and
Pythagotasbe|oteaddtessinghowP|atottans|otmedtheitdocttines.
Theseinttoductotychaptetsateanythingbut conventional. Eachis
toundedowithate|igiouspoem|Shadwe||'sttans|ationo|CantoVI
o|Dante'sPurgatory, ananonymousptayetto7eustheOneGod|tom
Mul|ach'sFragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum, andHentyVaughan's
'TheRetteat') , toi||usttatethepetennia|tendencieso|humanneed
tothinkintetmso|thedocttineso|motion,testandnumbet,andin
this way, Patet imp|ied that contempotaty 'aestheticism' was
similat|y nothing new. Patet's ptesentation o| these thtee distinct
schoo|sandtheitassimi|ationbyPlatodependsequa||yontempetament.
theatttactionshe|d|othimbytheHetac|iteandocttineo| motionate
asundisguisedashisemotiona|dis|ikeo|thePatmenideandocttineo|
test, whi|e Pythagotean thinkingoets, in Pater'sview, thetichest
Sec 'Diaphancitt', MisceLlalleolls SIt/dies (first published 1 895; London, ( 91 0), p. 249;
'Conclusion', 'Winckclman', 'The School ofGiorgionc' in The Renaissance. Studies in Art and
Poetr, cd. Donald Hill (Londolt, Berkeley and Los Angeles, Ig80), pp. t8g. 183, 106. All
quotations from Pater's work except The Renaissance are taken, unless otherwise stated, from
the tenvolume Library Edition edited by Charles L. Shadwell (London, 19to). The
Renaissance was frst published 1873 as Studies ill lie Histor oftlu RlIIaissallcc.
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plato 2
59
inte||ectua| anticipations olboth nineteenth-century science, and
aestheticism.
Un|ike1owett, and un|ike Grote, Patet nevet emphasised the
distancewhichthemetahysica|imaginationhadtotrave|inorderto
meetP|ato, he a|ways wrote olthe phi|osophet'sproximity and in
i 8oevenc|aimedhimasacontemporary, a|igninghimwiththe
aesthetic movement by putting unattributed statements by its
proponents into his mouth. A||uding amongst othets to Gautier,
Swinburne and even himse|!, Paterstates, '|P|ato) anticipates the
modernnotionthatattassuchhasnoendbutitsownpetlection,-
"art lor art's sake' . He c|inches this by quoting in Greek out ol
contextltomRepublic r d,'andtheinterestoleacholtheartsisthe
perlectionoleacholthem, nothing but that', a||uding to Gautier
again, '|t|heauthor olthis phi|osophyolthe unseen was one, lot
whom. . . 'thevisib|ewor|drea||yexisted'.Thetearemanya||usions
to Wi|de's P|atonic dia|ogue The Critic as Artist | i 8co), which had
shatpened much ol what Patet had a|ready wtitten. One such
a||usion is a |ink between Arno|d and Yeats, and+ustines Pater's
habitua||ypo|yvoca|presentationolthephi|osophet.
From the frst to last our faculty of thinking is limited by our command of
speech . . . [TJhe essential, or dynamic, dialogue, isever that dialogue of the
mind with itself, which any converse with Socrates or Plato does but
promote. (Platonism, p. r:)
Thisinturnenab|esPater's|aunchintothepresenttenselorthehna|
ra||y ol the book, a de!i|y P|atonic apo|ogia lor the Aesthetic
Movement. '|w]e, then, thelounders, the citizens, olthe Repub|ic
haveapecu|iarpurpose.Wearehereto escape ltom . . . acertain
vicious centriluga| tendency in |ile' |p. e;). This is made more
tesonantbyhisportraya|o|OxlordUniversityasa|atterdayversion
o|Plato'sAcademythroughoutthevo|ume.Yetwhi|esomeolPater's
4 See for example, the review by Edmund Gosse in NewReview (April 1893) quoted in Walter
Paler. The Critical Heritage, ed. R.M. Seiler (London, 1980), p. 254.
Plato and Platonism, p. 268. 'J
'
hcwording is that of Jowett's 1876 translation, and Paler plays on
the failure or the Greek to distinguish between fine arts and crafs.
Plato and Platonism, p. 126. J'or Gautier as 'un homme pour qui Ie monde visible existe', sec
Edmond and Jules de Goneourt, 'I mai 1857', Joural: MtnlQjres de la vie lilttraire, 1851-183,
ed. Ricatte (Paris, 1956), I, 343. Pater cites or alludes to this statement several times
throughout his corpus, c.g. Maritls tke Epicurean ( l88S), I p. 32. Compare Plato11ism, p. I l g,
where Pater may also be referring to Rossetti. Sec R. Hall, Recollectiols ofDaule Gabrielli Rossetti
(London, 1882), p. 249.
ANNE VARTY
ceutralteuetsareuuthiukab|ewithoutP|ato,hisappropriatiouo|the
phi|osopher|ortheaestheticavaut-gardewasuotuuprob|ematic.
The prob|ems are two|o|d. First, whi!e the erotic dia|ogues
Symposium audPhaedrus provided a ratioua|e |orPater's|oveo|the
seusuouswor|d aud o|youth|u| ma|ebeauty,hisveryamuitywith
thesetextssethim atseriousoddswithprevai|iugpub|icmora|ity.
Pater, uu|ike1owett, ueverwished to argue thatP|ato wou|d have
trausposedhisloveo|meutowomeuhadhe|ived'iuourowutimes'.
Aud whi|e, |ike his |e|low historiau o| the Reuaissauce, 1ohu
Addiugtou Symouds, Pater saw aua|ogies betweeu the P|atouic
asceut to the 'diviue' aud the Dautesque, he had uo iuterest iu
exploriugtheseiuthe|ashiouo|'TheDautesqueaudPlatouicIdea|s
o| Love' which Symouds pub|ished iu The Contemporar Review iu
i 8oo. This wou|d have eutai|ed some coucessiou to attempts to
harmouiseP|atouicwithChristiauthought,audPatermadehisview
o|such attempts c|ear iu his i 8;r essay 'Pico de||a Miraudo|a'.
Furthermore, Symoud'seortstop|aceseriousdiscussiouo|homo-
eroticismoutheiute||ectua|ageudawereatoucemorecovertaud
moreb|atautthauPater'sme|ioratiugapproach.Coucurreut|ywith
hischristiauisiugeorts,Symoudswasprepariug|orprivatecircu|atiou
iupamph|et|ormauapo|ogia|orma|ehomosexua|ity,rstpub|ished
asA Problem in Modem Ethics. Being an Inquiry Into The Phenomenon OJ
Sexual Inversion iu i 8o0, theyear|ollowiug Wi|de's couvictiou, aud
revisediui ooi asA Problem in Greek Ethics, botho| whichdrawheavi|y
ouaucieut Greekaud P|atouicmode|s.
SecoudamougstPater'sprob|emsiutheappropriatiouo|P|atois
the |act that there are |eatures o|his thought which he |ouud
uucougeuia|audwhichappeartouudermiuethesauctiouotherwise
grautedtotheaesthete'sdep|oymeuto|thehgureaudsiguihcauceo|
Eros. The |ather o|theBritish Art |or Art's Sake movemeut, aud
expoueuto|the're|ativespirit'iucriticism,hadtocouteudwiththe
|actthatPlatobauished theartists|romtheidea|city,aud thathe
retaiuedaParmeuideaudimeusioutohistheoryo|Ideas.Aua|ogue
aud al|usiou there|ore provide the habitual structures |or Pater's
statemeuts o| homoerotic iuteut, whi|e expressious o| dismissive
coutempt orwi||u| reiuterpretatiou characterise his address to the
E|eaticrea|ismo|P|ato'sthought.
Pater'sabidiugadmiratiou|orPlatocaubeseeuiuacomparisou
` Jowett, quoted by Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde (London, 1987). p. 58.
o See, fol' instance Renaissance, p. 35.
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plato
j
etweeuoueolhishrstaud|astcompositious,'Diaphaueit'iuwhich
heout|iued auidea| typeolmauwhois ueitherthe'artist` uorthe
'saiut', butthe'scho|ar`, aud chapterVI olPlato and Platonism, 'The
Geuius olP|ato'.

Plato was . . . one of the great scholars of the world . . . possessed of the inborn
genius ... a certain defance of rule, of the intellectual habits of others, he
acquires, by way of habit and rule, all that can be taught and learned; what
is thus derived from others by docility and discipline, what is range, comes to
have in him,and in his work, an equivalent weight with what is unique,
impulsive, underivable. (pp. '46-7)
Thisc|assihcatiouol P|atoas'scho|ar'isPater'shighestacco|ade,aud
isremiuisceutol thetermsiuwhichCar|y|e's'HeroasMauolLetters'
aud Fichte's re|ated |ectures ou Der Gele"rte |The Scho|ar) iulorm
'Diaphaueit'withtheirversiousolP|ato'sphi|osopher-kiugwhosees
beyoud theshadowp|ayolephemera| appearauces aud is the type
mostht togoveru.Pater'sportraya|olthescho|ar|ytype, capab|eol
e`ectiug 'the regeueratiou olthe wor|d' iu 'Diaphaueit' maya|so
have beeu iuspired, apt|y, by 1owett's view olP|ato |poteutia||y
amougst the hrst thiugs Pater heard ou his arriva| iu Oxlord) .
1owett'stermiuo|ogyrecursi u'TheGeuiusolP|ato' .
All writers are under the infuence of their age; no one is exempt from this
natural law of the human mind. But great genius has the privilege offreeing
itself from the more superfcial tendencies of an age to embrace the deeper
ones; of creating anew & casting in a mould the elements which serve its use
= . + Itis this sort of transmutation which the previous philosophies have
undergone at the hands of Plato.'
P|ato'sideas,audcoutemporaryOxlord teachiugabouthimprovide
thesubstauceol'Diaphaueit',whi|ethemauhimse|lexemp|ihedthe
idea| type. Yet both were to remaiu uuideutined lor thirtyyears.
Pater's htst pub|ished essay, 'Co|eridge's Writiugs' ( Westminster
Review, 1 866) disp|ays,however,amorecoutradictoryviewolP|ato.
HerePatermakeshishrststatemeutoltheva|ueolthere|ativespirit,
which we have a|ready seeu to be imp|icit iu1owett's teachiug.'
Herac|itusaudDarwiucombiuetomakePaterdismissauyattemptto
'appreheud the abso|ute' as au 'e`ort olsick|y thought'.'
Q Jowett Papers, Box B (iii], Bk. 5, p. 85. When, as in most cases,Jowelt has not dated his notes,
the papers are nearly impossible to date accurately. In my view, however, this statement was
written for delivery dUl'ing the autumn of 1858.

'Coleridge', in Appreciations will an Essay on Style (1 889), p. 66.

t
'
Colcridge'. p. 68.
ANNE VARTY
Who would change the colout ot cutve ol a roseleaf lot that obu(a
axprJlaror,au"wi!luror, &var. ATranscendentalism that makes what
is abstract more excellent than what is concrete has nothing akin with the
leading philosophies of the world.
I
'
A|thoughPateton|yg|ancedatP|atohere,hewasdirect|yopposedto
what hesaw as Co|eridge's excess olseriousnessbywhich theories
werehiscaptors rather than hisservants |see Cun|i'e, pp. eo;-r 6
above), and|ea|ous|ycorrective, dec|ared. 'P|ato, whom Co|eridge
c|aimsas thehrstolhis spiritua| ancestots, P|ato, as we remember
him, atruehumanist . . . ho|ds his theoties|ight|y, g|anceswith a
b|itheandnaiveinconsequencelromoneviewtoanother' . ' InPlato
and Platonism he atguedthatP|atodidnotva|uethe abstractatthe
expenseoltheconctete.inP|ato'sconceptionol|ove,'itwasasilthe
lacu|tyolphysica|vision. . . weresti||atworkattheverycentreol
inte||ectua|abstraction' |p. r ;o) . ThisviewolP|atowasindebted to
ideaswhichPatethadlotmu|atedtwenty-hveyeatsear|ierinre|ation
to the atchaeo|ogist and art histotianWincke|mann |see Latissey,
pp.1 o6;above) .P|atobecomes'aseetwhohasasortol sen so us|ove
oltheunseen',andassuchwie|dsthepowerwhichMariusinMarius
the Epicurean ( 1 885) had |ongedlorin his p|ea lor' know|edgewhich
. . . was|ikesensation'.` Patet's P|atobecomestheconduitbetween
Keats'desirelora|ileol'Sensations'rathetthan'Thoughts'andT.S.
E|iot'sadmitationlottheundissociatedsensibi|ityol themetaphysica|
poets. Paterresistedanydua|istinterpretation olP|ato'sTheoryol
Ideas,andtesetvedhisopprobriumlortheE|eaticswhosework,alter
a|I,P|atohadttanslotmed.ReviewersolPlato and Platonism olcourse
took issue with Pater's eorts to rescue P|ato lrom the Immutab|e
BeingolParmenides.' But the who|e olPater's enterprise as an
aesthetic critic turns on persona| and authentic response, the
ttanslorming power oltempetament. This vision olreciprocating
signihcationbetweenpatticu|aranduniversa|islundamenta|tohis
thought. The atgument is p|ayed out in natrative lorm in the
Imaginaty Potttait, 'A Prince ol Coutt Painters' ( 1 885) . 1 6 The

Ionian-E|eatic|Herac|itean-Parmenidean)divisioninPater'seva|u-
ationolP|atoisdramatisedagaininthecompanionpottraittotIis,
'Sebastian van Storck' | r 886) . ' 'Wincke|mann' | i 86;), his next
pub|ishedessayalter'Co|eridge'sWtitings',betraysthelactthathis
' 'Coleridge's Writings', Te Westmit/ster Review, n.s. 29 ( 1 86G), lOS.
13 'Coleridge's Writings' p. I I I . Revised and replaced ill Appreciatiolls, p. 69.
14 Plaionism, p. 143; Morius, I
I
, p. 22.
l Sec for example, Richard H. Hutton's review Spectator (April, 1 893). in Criticl Heritage, p. 265.
' imaginar Portraits ( 1 887), pp. 32-4. 11 Imaginar Portrails, 1 1 0; Appreciatiolls, p. 104.
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plto
hostlitytowardstheimmutablerealmo|Ideasisgeneratedinpartby
att
ractiontowardsit. Itis in searcho|somethinghxed where all is
m
ovin
g that Pater turns

with Winckelmann's help, to salvation

th
roughart.

WI NCKELMANN
]oh
an]oachim Winckelmann | r ; r ;r ;08) provided Pater with a
his
toricalexamplebywhichhomoeroticdesirewasre|ractedthrough
an
enthusiasm |or thewritingso|Plato to aestheticappreciation o|
ancientGreeksculpture. As hewrote in The Renaissance,
Ent
husiasm - that, in the broad Platonic sense of the Phaedrus, was the secret
of
his
divinatory power over the Hellenic world. This enthusiasm,
dependent as it is to a great degree on bodily temperament, has the power of
reinforcing the purer motions of the intellect with an almost physical
excitement. (Renaissance, p. 152)
Win
ckelmannispresentedasakindo|casestudyi|lustrationo|the
Platonicascent|rom loveo|beauti|ulmaleyouthtoloveo|Beauty
and the Good which does not neglect the means once the end is
reach
ed, and which ascent is possible in virtue o| the soul's
remi
niscenceo|itsorigin.Hebeginshisascentbyaserieso||ervent
|riendshipswithmen,settingthepattern|oranumbero||riendships
inPater'shction,suchasMariusandCorneliusinMarius the Epicurean
orPrior]ohnandApollyonin'ApolloinPicardy'| r 8o),allo|which
lead tohigherenlightenment. HerePlato's |Pythagorean) Doctrine
o|Reminiscenceisincorporatedasa|eelingo|temperamentalamnity
with theculture o|ancient Greece, and explains Pater'sinsistence
thattheRenaissanceisnottobeunderstoodasadehnablehistorical
period but as a habit o| mind. Winckelmann's amnity with the
ancientartwhichhestudiesissostrongthat,'heisen rapport withit,it
penetrates him, and becomes part o| his temperament'. ' The
provocativesexualimageryhereassertstheenablingparticipationo|
ErosinWinckelmann'sendeavour,whilePaterisquick topointout
thatWinckelmann'sunionwithhisob|ecto|studyrestoreshimtoa
stateo|primal,i|pagan,innocence. 'hehngersthosepaganmarbles
withunsingedhands,withnosenseo| shameorloss'(Renaissance, p.r;;).
TheDoctrineo| Reminiscenceshades,inPater'shands,intothato|
imitation. It borders on theriskygroundo|Plato'sbanishmento|
representationalormimeticartistsintheRepublic. ButWinckelmann's

'Winckclmann', The Westminster Review, D.S. 3f ( 1 867), 88. Revised in Renaissance. p. '54.
ANNE VARTY
recovery o|a state o| un|a||en innocence i n re|ation to ancient
statuaryindicatesas|east theinuentia|importanceo|theworko|
art,andsuggeststhatPaterwou|drevisetheartists'expu|sion,Pater's
account o|P|ato's theoryo|imitation, as heexp|ains it in the |ast
chapter o|Plato and Platonism, was taken by some contemporary
reviewersasaconcessiontoRuskin'smora|aesthetic.'Artcannever
bea mora||y indierent thing i!, as Ruskin says a|ter P|ato, every
worko|arttendstoreproduceinthebeholderthestateo|mindand
temper that brought it |orth', wrote one reviewer.' But Pater's
interpretation otPlato's theory was more radica| than anything
oered byRuskin.
PaterneverquotesWincke|mann's|amousparadox,'theon|yway
|orus tobecomegreat and, i|possib|e, eveninimitab|e, is through
imitationo|theancients',buthistechniqueasacritico|theartswas
|earned |rom what Wincke|mann meant by this. The German
neoc|assicist was an exponent o|an emotive |orm o|art criticism,
which did not seek to describe, but to evoke |ee|ing akin to the
projected 'inte||ectual and spiritua| ideas sunk by |the artist| in
sensuous |orm', thereby creating a |resh work o|art (Renaissance,
p. i ;0) . Winckelmann there|ore imparted not knowledge but
technique. Pater cites with approva| Goethe's statement about
Wincke|mann,'|o|nelearnsnothing|romhim. . . butonebecomes
something' which had anticipated]owett's summary o|what one
|earns|romP|ato,'|h|issystemis. . . amovementtowardstruebeing
- not a book but a conversation, not a resu|t but aprocess . . . he
disputes with us . . . creating rather than imparting'. The
regenerative technique o| Wincke|mann's criticism, imitated by
Pater'sownsty|e,anticipatesthethemeo|'TheChi|dintheHouse'
| i 8;8),Pater'sautobiographica|a||egoryo|thedeve|opmento|the
sou|inthebodyinwhich,' thesenseo|harmonybetweenhissouland
itsphysicalenvironmentbecame. . . |ikeper|ect|yplayedmusic'.In
Plato and Platonism Pater attributes human susceptibi|ity to the
physica|environmentnottosomea|ientheoryo| ancientmetaphysics,
buttoup-to-the-minutedeterminism,' |||ikethoseinsects. . . o| which
natura|istste||us,takingco|our|romthep|antsthey|odgeon,they
wi||cometomatchwithmuchservi|itytheaspectso|thewor|dabout
them' |. e;e) . And because o|this habitua| servi|ity, Pater, |ike
19 Paul Shorey, Tie Dial (189S) in Critical Heritage, p. 261.
" Renaissance, p. 147. Jowett Papers, Box B[ml, Bk. I, p. S8.
" Miscellalleous Studies ( 1 895), p . ao.
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plato
P|ato,wishes todisctiminateamongst the atts. 'Letus bewatehow
menattainthevetyttutho|whattheyimitate'|p.z;z) . Themusica|
imagety ptovides the analogy by which Patet unines his uneasy
dua|ismo|bodyandsoul,|otmandcontent.LikePlatowhosoughtto
|otgepet|ecrindividua|sbyeducationingymnasticsandmusicinhis
idea|isedSpattanstateo|Lacedaemon, Patetdeclates,'attcomesto
youptoposing|tanklytogivenothingbutthehighestqua|itytoyout
momentsas theypass'.
HethusincotpotatesaPatmenideanqua|ityin hisaestheticism.
7eno'spatadox,abouttbeyingattowthatmystetious|ymoves|tom
A toB whileatevetyinstantthatwettytomeasuteitsptogtessis
stationaty, and which thete|ote ptoves that 'petpetual motion is
petpetual test', was one o|the populat tenets o|Eleatic thinking
(Platonism, p. o) . Patetatguessimi|atlythatthevanishingpointo|
theptesentmoment,theimpetceptib|ewatetshedbetweenpastand
|utute, can be hxed, byaestheticcontemp|ation. Hete the inhnite
touches the nite, and contemplativesensibility is tegenetated ot
penettatedbythewotko|att.PatetleatnedtotutnHetacliteanux
intoPatmenideanstasis,asevetymomentwasexpansive|ysttuctuted
by theimitativetesponseto att.
Inr8;Patetplaced 'Winckelmann' asthe closingessayo|The
Renaissance. Thebookasawhole,withthishnale,calls|otthetebitth
otpalingenesis o|the Gteek spitit in modetn cultute, and oets
simultaneouslyevidenceo|its tebitth. Inthe lighto|disintegtating
Chtistian|aith,andadvancingempitica|sciences,Patetbegantosee
thistenaissanceasatea|possibility|otthe|utute.'Hetmionemelts
|tom het stony postute, and the lost ptopottions o| li|e tight
themselves',hedec|ates,intheptesenttense,extendingthedesctiption
o|Wincke|mann's sentiments to an assettion about the potentia|
awakeningo|contempotaty cultute |p. r ;) . The wintet's tale o|
medieva| putitanism was ovet, Hetmione, sensuous petception
incatnatedbytheattistinthewotko|att,li|ettansgutedtoattand
tevivihed by the spectatot's mimetic tesponsiveness into a new,
chastened otdet, teptesentsthe

metempsychosiso|the Gteekspitit
itse|| into the modetn wotld. He tecast this notion o| cu|tutal
pa|ingenesis as ction in the Imaginaty Potttait, 'Duke Catl o|
Rosenmold' | r 88;) . Appendedto'Wincke|mann'asa'Conc|usion'
to thebook, came thesecondpatto|thenototious r 808 teview o|
2?
'Conclusion', Renaissance, p. 190.
ANNE VARTY
'PoemsbyWi||iamMorris',inwhichnotHermionebut'a||'me|ts
'underourleet' (Renaissance, p. i 8c) . Herethep|angentbutstrict|y
materia|istevocationolHeracliteanuxmakesthearrestingpower
oltheaestheticsensibi|ityan urgentnecessity.
In thechapteronwhat P|ato tooklromPythagorasin Plato and
Platonism, 'TheDoctrineolNumber',Paterexp|ainshowthetheories
olmetempsychosisandreminiscenceretaintheirexp|anatoryva|uein
an age olunbe|iel, when Christianity was overshadowed by the
teaching ol Hege| and Darwin. He rehearses arguments lrom
'Co|eridge'sWritings',butsetsthemnowinpropercontext. Citing
Wordsworth's 'Odeon the Intimations olImmorta|ity', he argues
thatwe do indeed come 'notin nakedness', nor, however, trai|ing
c|oudsolg|ory,but|inagrimparody)'lata||yshrouded'bythelorces
olnatura|istdeterminism.geneticinheritance,|anguageandcu|ture
a|| shape the |ives we |ead |p. ;e) . These lorces constitute the
transmigratingsou|olthespecies,whichuses,anddoesnotrespect,
the individua|. Again, Pater |ooks to artistic creativityas the on|y
possib|eformolpersona|sa|vationwithin thisb|eakscheme.
To create, to live, perhaps, a little while beyond the allotted hours) if it were
but in a fragment of perfect expression:- it was thus his (Marius'] longing
defned itself for something to hold by amid the 'perpetual fux'. (Marus, I,
p. 1 55)
Forindoingthistheartistaddstothe|anguagethatispassedlrom
generationtogeneration,andbyinvestingsomepersona|connotation
intheheritageol words,turnsdeterminismintocontro|.Language,as
Wi|dehad argued, is theparent not thechi|d olthought. Pater, a
'|overolwordslortheirownsake'treats|anguageasthoughitwerea
|ivingthing,asindeeditis,inhismetempsychoticview.Hischoice
olvocabu|ary reects his interest in semantic transmigration and
contro|.Hislavouritewords parade theiretymo|ogica|origins, but
a|sodisp|ayaknowingmischievousnessabouthowtheirmeaninghas
changed. The use olwords |ike 'virtua|', 'insane', 'ob|iterate', or
'method'tocarrysimu|taneous|ytheirrootandcurrentmeaningsis
awayolthrowing|inguisticuxintosharpre|ie|itistheartolthe
pa|impsestat the miniature|eve| oltheword,asghostsolmeaning
c|usteraroundthenewcoinagewhichisrea||yo|d.ThemostP|atonic
" 'Style'. Appreciations, p. 20.
24 For an interesting account of Pater's etymological understanding and use of the word
'method' in Plato and Platonism, sec William F. Shutter, 'Pater's Reshufed Text', ,ineteenth
Centur Literature, 43 ( t988-), 518.
Flux, rest, and number: Pater's Plato
ot thesecoinages is Pater's tavoured use ot the words 'charm' or
'charming',whichareresonantwiththeLatincarmen and theMidd|e
Englishnotionot'occu|tspe||', bothotwhichpointbackto P|ato's
Lacedaemoniansignihcance otmusic.
The means by which Pater idea|ised the hgure otP|ato, as a
scho|ar,ormaster,otasignihcantbodyotthoughtwhichpreceded
him,whoyethadatranstormingcontributiontomake,tashionP|ato
asa precursortor theModernist movementwhoseexponentswere
burdened by their sense ot be|atedness in the tradition. Behind
Pound's batt|e cry ot 'make it new' stands Pater's P|ato whose
achievementwasinthedebonairhand|ingottradition.Andduring
thehrsttenyearsotPater'spub|ishingcareerhehadtormu|atedthe
extensiveresponsestoP|ato'sthoughtandsty|ewhichwou|d co|our
hisownwork, trom the po|yphonic qua|ityottheessaysty|e, to the
contemporary signihcation ot the great myths, the way was a|so
preparedtorthedebtsot ]oyce,Woo|!, T.S. E|iotandYeatsto this
transmigratingngure.
PART VI
1h /un/t/h cn/ur
C HAPTER 2 4
Introduction
Angela Eliott
P|atonisminthe twentiethcenturyhasundergonemanycha||enges
and trans|ormations whi|e continuing as a major reservoir o|the
imaginationin Eng|ish|etters. Though attitudeshaverun acourse
|romLateRomanticenthusiasmtoPostmodernistdetachment,many
|eadingwritersandthinkershavesteadi|yacknow|edgedtheP|atonic
tradition as an important heritage - one not easi|y denned, yet
perhaps the more compe||ing on that account.' The attraction o|
P|atonism|orsuchwriterssprings|romtheva|uetheyattachto the
ro|eolreason and spiritinaperiod whenevents o|Westernhistory
haveposedaserious threat tothesurviva|olhumanism.Thequest
|orthejustsocietyhas|oundered,andphi|osophyhasrebe||edagainst
rationa|ism. Yetin the|ace o|socia| |ragmentation, many modern
P|atonists be|ieve thateterna| rea|itiessuch as the Good, |ove and
truthsti||givemeaningandva|uetohuman|i|e- eveni|'Things|a||
apart', asW.B.Yeats perceived in 'The Second Coming', or'The
scientistsareinterror',asEzraPounddec|aredinThe Cantos ( tr/;o).
Since tooo,c|assica|studieshaveadvancedgreat|y,resu|tinginthe
estab|ishment o| the canon o| P|ato's writings and new Eng|ish
trans|ationso|theP|atoniccorpus.ThestandardGreektexto|P|ato
dates |rom the turn o|the century, being the edition o|Ioannes
|1ohn) Burnet, Platonis Opea, vo|s. | i ooo-;, reprinted i o;).
Benjamin1owett's Eng|ish trans|ationo|the majorworks |vo|s.,
i 8;i ) is sti||, in its |atest revisions, high|y esteemed. A|| o|P|ato's
writings,constitutingthecanoninGreekandEng|ish,areavaiab|e
in the Loeb C|assica| Library. The many modern trans|ations o|
P|ato's works inc|ude the se|ection o|dia|ogues pub|ished in the
Penguin C|assics and the comp|ete co||ection edited by Edith
Hami|tonandHuntington Cairnsin theBo||ingenSeries.
I For extended defnitions of 'Moderism' and 'Postmodcrnism' based on English and
American literary history, sec David Perkins, ; History if Modem Poelry, 2 vols, vol. II,
Modemism alld After (Cambridge, Mass. and London, !987), especially pp. 331-4.
e;r
z;z ANGELA E LLI OTT
A |ew wotksbyNeop|atonists have been ttans|ated intoEng|ish
dutingthiscentuty.StephenMacKenna'sttans|ationo|The Enneads
ojPlotinus | i or ;-i o) inhuencedBtitishandAmeticaninte||ectua|s,
inc|uding the phi|osophets A||ted Notth Whitehead and Geotge
Santayana, as we|| as the poets W.B. Yeats and Ezta Pound.
MacKenua'stextwastevisedbyB.S.Page| r oi ;-o,i o0;ro0e)and
thensupetsededbyA.H. Atmsttong'snew ttans|ation|ottheLoeb
Libtaty|;o|s.,i o00-88) . WotksbyPtoc|us,]u|ianusandIamb|ichus
have a|so appeated. Cuttentscho|atshipshows that theteviva| o|
Neop|atonisminthe|asttwocentutieshasowedagteatdea|tothe
ttans|ationsandpagancommentatieso|thepto|ihcThomasTay|ot,
ca||ed'theP|atonist'| i ;8-I 8),whoptesentedtheRomanticsand
themodetnswithhisvetsionsotP|ato,Atistot|e,P|otinus,Potphyty,
Iamb|ichus and othets. Like Co|etidge and She||ey, W.B. Yeats
owned copies o| Tay|ot's wotks, which wete ptomoted by the
Theosophica|Society.He|enaP.B|avatsky| r 8r-oI ), theotacu|at
toundet o|the society, and Geotge R.S. Mead | r 80-r o), its
scho|at sectetaty, a|so conttibuted to the |ive|y |itetatute o|
Neop|atonismthatwasasoutceotHetmeticimagesandsymbo|s|ot
the ModetnistpoetsW.B.Yeats, Ezta Pound andT.S. E|iot.
P|ato'swotkswete taughtand ptomoted eat|y in the twentieth
centuty bydistinguishedBtitishscho|ats such as G.R. Levy, A.E.
Tay|otandF.M. Cotn|otd. P|atonicthemeso| |itetatysignihcance
since then have been the govetnment otthe se||and o|the state,
ana|ogica||yconceivedinte|ationtoeachothet(Republic) ; thetheoty
ottheFotms,withknow|edgeasvittueandteco||ection(Phaedo) and
with the sou| composed o|teason, appetite and wi|| |ot spitit) as
distinctpatts(Republic); theascento|thesou|toavisiono|theGood,
thtoughhuman|oveandthedesite|otbeauty(Phaedrus, Symposium);
theuseotmyths,imagesandsymbo|so|theptocesseso| cteationand
thecyc|eso|thesou|,detivedttomthepte-Soctaticsoteat|yteligion
(Symposium, Timaeus, Parmenides, Republic), especia||ythemetaphoto|
thesunastheGood, a|ongwiththemytho|theCave(Republic) ; and
the notion o|att and poetty as mimesis- as imitation o|natute`s
imitatiouo|aFotm (Republic) .
Distinguishing P|ato |tom Soctates has been anothet |ocus o|
intetest. Gtegoty V|astos has tentative|y iso|ated an histotica|
Soctates,an'itonistandmota|phi|osophet'|otwhomtea|ity'isinthe
2 Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper {ed$} , Thomas Taylor lhe Platonist; Stletled Writings
(Princeton, Ig6g), pp. 10-1 1 , 296, 322-42.
The twentieth centur e;
wotldinwhichhelives'.Ontheothethand,Plato,knowntoVlastos
thtough the 'Soctates` olthe middle aud |atet dialogues plus the
witness olAtistotle and Xeuophou, appeats a 'ptoloundly othet-
wotldly'philosophetol'Fotm-mysticism'aud'ecstaticcontemplation'.
Tothisday,accotdiugtoVlastos, the hallmatkolthePlatonisthas
temained'thepostulationol auetetnalsell-existeutwot|d,ttanscending
evetythingin outs, exempt ltom the vagaties aud vicissitudes that
amictallcteat
,
:tesin thewotldoltime'.
ThescepticalsideolPlato,howevet,temainsinview.Scholatsstill
speculateaboutthesignicanceoltheParmenides, whetethetheotyol
Fotms is questioned by taising the ptoblem ol the telationship
betweenapatticulatthingandaFotm.how,exactly,dotheMauy
'shate'in the One Anothetpetenuialdebatecoucetns the Seventh
Leiter. Ilthe lettet is genuine as most scholats believe, then Plato
deniesphilosophical validity to wtitten wotks, endotsingonlylive
couvetsation as the ptopet vehicle lot philosophy.' Wete thete
uuwtitten teachingsolan otal ttadition lot a ptivileged elite? Did
PlatodiscoutseontheMystetytitestowhichheoccasionallyalludes?
AmbiguitiesintheGorgias atealsoteceivingattention.Althoughthis
wotkhas ttaditionallybeeutakenasablatautattackonthetotic,it
has tecently been tead as a sophisticated dialogue thtough which
Platoemphasisesthetotic's impottance, patticulatlylot 'its tole iu
telutation' tathet than 'its utility in ptagmatic discoutse`. Many
suchpatadoxicalleatutesolPlato'swotkatebeiugviewedbylitetaty
theotistsassubtletiesol anagileintellectcapableol variouspetspectives.
Inthe twentieth ceututy, Platonic thought has laced challenges
ttaceabletoFteud,Matx,andthedemotalisingimpactoltwowotld
wats.Fteud,inspitedbyclassicalstudies,explotedthecomplextole
oleros asanineluctablelotceintheunconsciousandincultute.His
viewsateimplicatedinnewiutetptetationsolPlatouiceros audlove
bymodetuwtitets.Matx'sctitiqueolimpetialismhasbeenextended,
in modetn litetatute, to a genetal ctitique oltepublicauism that
includestheteassessmentolPlato'sidealstateiulightoltwentieth-
centuty totalitatianismand militatistic technoctacy.
3 Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: lronisl and Moral Philosopher (Ithaca, NY, 1991), pp. 78-80.
4 G,R. Levy and A.E. Taylor, among others, inferred the authenticity of the Seventh Letter . .
According to I.M. Crombie, it has come to be 'almost universally thought genuine' An
Eamination of Plato-'s Doctrines (London, 1962), p. 14.
Sec James L. Kaste1y, 'In Defense of Plato's Gargias', PMLA, 106 (1 99l ), 96-19.
, For some newly posed problems ill rcading Plato, sec Charles L. Griswold,Jr. (cd.), Platonic
Writings, Platolie Readings (New York, 1988).
e; ANGELA ELLI OTT
European existentia|ists and phi|osophers o|language, notab|y
SartreandWittgenstein,haveinstigatedrenewedcritica|scrutinyo|
dua|isticrationa|ism,basingobjectionstoitontheirconvictiono|the
inseparabi|ityo|thought|rom|ee|ing,mind|rombody,ordiscourse
|rom its presumed re|erent, the wor|d. The French phi|osopher o|
Deconstruction,]acquesDerrida,pointedoutthatWestern thought
tendstorelyonbinaryoppositions||ightjdark,mascu|ine[|eminine)
tointerprettextssuchasP|ato'sPhaedrus, whichheconsideredtode|y
|ogic's|awo|non-contradiction.Recent|y,|eministand|ibera|critics
have been deconstructing P|atonic texts to revea| androcentric,
authoritarianva|uespasseddown throughthegenerations.'
On the who|e, however, the appea| and re|evanceo|P|atonism
havebeenenhancedinprospectsgained|romanthropo|ogy,psycho|ogy,
and mytho|ogy.].G. Frazer's study o|pagan culture, The Golden
Bough ( [ 890-[ 9[
5
) , was instructive toT.S. E|iot and EzraPound.
Frazer's ana|ysis o|theprima|mind |ormed a bridgeback to the
ambienceo|pre-ChristianEuropewithits|erti|ityrites,dyinggods
and E|eusinian Mysteries. Car| 1ung and other students o|depth
psycho|ogyandsymbo|ogydescribedthero|eo|mythandarchetype
intheunconsciousandincu|ture.Inaddition,scho|arshipinre|igion,
inc|udingthediscoveryo|theDead SeaScro||s,hasheightened the
pertinence o|P|atonism by inviting a broader view o|the rise o|
Christianity|rom amorecomp|excu|tura|matrix thanwasvisib|e
ear|ier. In thatview, Christianityandpaganismdrawc|osertoone
another,tendingtomergeinsomeareas,sothatNeoplatonicstudies
become crucia| |or reconstructing the history o| re|igious and
phi|osophica|thoughtinEuropean cu|ture.
In this mi|ieu, 'ku|chur' - as Ezra Pound ca||ed it - becomes
increasing|y internationa| and interdiscip|inary. Many writers |ive
cross-cu|tura||yinatimeo|unprecedentedtrave|andcommunications.
The Eng|ish |anguage is more wide|y used than ever be|ore.
Consequent|y,British,IrishandAmericanwritersshareacommuna|ity
o|cu|ture thatis rehectedin the heightenedintertextua|ity o|their
Eng|ishworks. Suchinternationa|nguresas America'sEzraPound
and T.S. E|iot, and Ire|and's W.B. Yeats and Iris Murdoch have
' Dcrrida, Writing and Diference, trans. Alan Bass (London, Ig8!). Luce Irigaray views
Platonism as 'malc theory' in Speculum oJfluOther Woman, trans. Gillian C. Gill (Ithaca, NY,
1985). Natalie Harris Blucstoneoffers aCrllique of feminist readings of Plato in WomWalld the
Ideal Societ: Plalo's <Republic' and Modem Myths rifGender (Amherst, Mass., 1987).
Sec Angela Elliott, 'The Word Comprehensive: Gnostic Light in The Canlos', Paideuma, 18.3
(
l g8g), 7-5
7
L
The twentieth centur
e;
participated in a |iterary 'tradition' that, as T.S. E|iot averred,
'cannotbeinherited' ,since'youmustobtainitbygreat|abour'.An
essentia|partotthat|abourhaso!ten been thestudy o!P|atonism.
A centre o! inte||ectua| tradition and change was London's
B|oomsburyGroup,whichwasinhuencedbytheyoungphi|osophers
BertrandRusse||andG.E.Moore.MooreinhuencedRusse||inthe
direction o!a P|atonic rea|ism, which ho|ds thatin addition to the
physica|wor|d there are abstract domains o!numbers and va|ues,
which constitute the sub|ect-matter o!mathematics and ethics.
These views were !amous|y propounded in a pair o!works, both
pub|ished

in r oo, Russe||'s Principles if Mathematics, and Moore's

Principia Ethica. In the|atter,Moorenoton|ypropoundsaP|atonist
conceptiono! theGoodas thesupremeabstractva|ue, buthea|so
!o||ows P|ato ince|ebrating theva|ueo!Love itse|!.
I I
Thenove|istand|ibera|humanistE.M.Forstera|somovedinthe
B|oomsburycirc|e.InA Room with a View . r oo8),Howards End . i ot c)
and other nove|s, he treated |ove and passionate !riendship as
essentia|topersona|!u|n||mentandtothesocia|so|idaritythat!orms
the basis o!civi|isation. His views are |inked to the inuence o!
Moore'sethics and theidea|so!P|ato'sSymposium, which he|ped to
inspireB|oomsbury'squest!oracomprehensivevisiono!erosina||its
dimensions.Forhimthisinc|udedhomosexua|ity,inhishctionaswe||
asinhispersona|experience. Hecircu|atedprivate|yhisnove|ona
homosexua|theme,Maurice, whichdidnotseepub|icationti|| r o;r .
Virginia Woo|!, at the centre o!B|oomsbury, re|ated her work
strong|ytoP|ato.Shehadreadthedia|oguesinGreekinheryouth,
tutoredbyC|ara Pater, sistertoWa|ter, and]ane E||en Harrison,
!e||owand|ectureratNewnhamCo||ege,Cambridge.Woo|!adapted
e|ements !rom the Phaedrus, the Symposium, the Republic and other
works o!P|ato in her mature !eminist writings o!nction, |iterary
criticism and socia| commentary. She made !requent use o! such
moti!sas the Cave, |ightandmimesis. Hernove|s To the Lighthouse
. r oe;) andThe Waves . r or ) rehectthepermutationso!consciousness
in|ivesthatparticipateP|atonica||yinthemysteryo!onecontinuity
o!Being .SeeLyons, pp. eoo-; be|ow) .
P|atonicmoti!sappearinworksbyotherma+orBritishnove|ists.
'Tradition and the Individual Talent'. Selected Prose ofT. S. Eliot, ed. Frank Kcrmode (New
York, 1975), p. 38.
l0
Sec A.J. Aycr, Russell and Moore: TheAlIartica[ Heritage (Cambridge, Mas., 1971), pp. 3-{. t88.
H G.E. Moore, Principia Ethica (Cambridge, 1903), p. 204.
ANGELA E LLIOTT
1oseph Conrad in Heart i Darkness ( 1 902) ironica||y inverted a
P|atonicmythtoexp|oretheEuropeanconscienceandits|ustication
oco|onia|isminwhatwasca||ed 'darkestArica'.TheCongo,|ike
P|ato'sCave,appearedtomanytorepresentaprima|ignorancethat
civi|isation and its know|edge shou|d idea||y i||umine. Conrad,
however,exposedtheEuropeantradingstationasnot'abeacon'or
'instructing'thenativepeop|esbutadespotismorexp|oitingthem.
Thenarrator'snear|yunspeakab|e ta|eothatdiscovery, based on
Conrad'sArican trave|s, constitutes a tragic i||umination carried
back to therea| cave, themora|darknessenve|opingtheco|onia|ist
consciousness.
Ater the Great War and the Communist Revo|ution, nove|ists
attackedtheidea|isationoP|atonicrepub|icanismand themodern
bureaucraticstate,byimaginingtota|itariandystopiasotheuture.
Intheironicturnabouto A|dousHux|ey'sBrave New World ( 1 932), a
caste system based on science erodes the possibi|ity o P|atonic
spiritua| reedom and mora| choice. In George Orwe|I's Nineteen
Eighty-Four ( 1949), truthis nu||ied by Big Brother'scorruptiono
|anguageandconstantrevision ohistory, rea|speechanddia|ectic
vanish.TheCanadiannove|istMargaretAtwood,inThe Handmaid's
Tale ( 1 986), putsaeministtwistonP|atonicnotionsorestructuring
thesocia|reproductiveorder.Shepro+ectsthereproductiveens|avement
owomenonagrandsca|e. A||thesenightmareab|esineecthave
exorcisedsublimina|earsothehazards|urkinginwou|d-beutopian
governmentsothetwentieth century. Inamorerea|isticvein,and
withcomedy,IrisMurdochengagesP|atonicthemesinhernove|so
contemporarysociety.Aproessiona|phi|osopher,Irish-born,educated
atOxord, Iris Murdochhas|ectured onphi|osophyinOxord and
London |SeeConradi,pp.
33
0-4 be|ow).In Metaphysics a a Guide to
Morals ( 1 992) herinterpretationoP|ato'sideaotheGoodiscentra|
to herdiscussionomodernphi|osophy,re|igionand politics.
Poets,toohaveadaptedtheP|atonicheritage.W.B.Yeats,steeped
in Ce|tic |ore and Irish nationa|ism, began as one o 'the |ast
Romantics' and served in the Senate otheIrishFree State. Yet,
so|ournsinLondonandSussexbroughthimintointernationalcirc|es
thatinc|udedtheRussianB|avatskyandtheAmericanEzraPound.
Neop|atonism he encountered in his ear|y study oB|ake and o
Hermetic |iterature. HereadP|otinusin MacKenna's trans|ation,
andbythemediumshipohiswieGeorgieHyde-Leesmadecontact
with spiritua| 'communicators' who gave him the materia| or A
The twentieth centur
277
Vision ( 1.9
3
7) , hisessayonhistoryandhumanpossibi|ity.1hegyreso|
hispolardynamicarederived,hetellsus,|rom Plato's Timaeus, and
throughoutA Vision hediscussesP|otinusandotherNeop|atonists.
W. B. Yeats'sAnima Mundi istheWor|dSoulo|P|otinus,mediating-
|ikea]ungianco||ectiveunconscious- between theindividua|sou|
and theOne' |seeArkins, pp. 279-S9 be|ow) .
A ayoungadmirero|W.B.Yeats,EzraPound|e|hisnative|and
|orIondonin 1905, progressing toa three-yearresidencywith'the
greatman'atStoneCottageinSussex|rom 1 91 3 to 1 91 6. Thepoets
read Neop|atonism and co||aborated as cu|tura| activists. ' Ezra
Pound had attended Theosophica| meetings in Iondon at which
G.R.S. Mead encouraged his Neop|atonic studies o| Provena|
|iterature.In1 91 I heheardT.E.Hu|me's|ecturesonHenriBergson's
intuition-based, P|atonistic phi|osophy o|'duration' and the 'elan
vita|' |li|e|orce) . IikeW.B.Yeats,hesoughtabroadsymbo|ogyto
encompassagrandvisiono|historyando|humanindividua|ity.The
emanationistphi|osophy o|Neop|atonism suggested his concept o|
thenous, theuniversa| mind,as 'theseacrysta||ineandenduring. . .
thatenve|ops us, |u|| o||ight' . ' In 1927 Ezra Pound wrote to his
|atherthatheintendedThe Cantos toevokeatranscendenta|'moment
o|metamorphosis, but thru |rom quotidien 'sic| into divine or
permanentwor|d.Gods,etc. ' ' |seeMoody, pp.
3
0S-IS, be|ow) .
In America as it. Eng|and, P|atonism hourished in the ear|y
twentieth century, and ithowed in cross-currents between the two
nations. At Harvard T.S. E|iot |see Brown, pp. 29S-
3
07 be|ow)
studied modern phi|osophy under Santayana, then a Platonic
aesthetician and a writer on Dante. The Sense ofBeaur: Being the
Outline if Aesthetic Theor ( I S96) was Santayana's |ustihcation o|
P|ato'steachingonthero|eo|beautyinthereligious|i|e.T.S.E|iot
beganadissertationatHarvardwhichhecontinuedatOx|ord,on
I
' See W.B. Yeats, A Visioll, 1937 cdn (New York, 1 966). pp. 66-80, and 'The Gyres' in The
Collected Poems of W. B. reats (New York, 1956), P 29
See W.B. Yeats, 'Anima Mundi' in Mytlllogies (New York, 1969), pp. 343-66.
14 See James Langenbach, Swne Collage: Pound, Yeats and Moderism (New York, 'g88), esp.
pp. 228-30.
l Ezra Pound, Guide 10 KllwY (New York, 1970), p. 44.
1& i'zra Pound, The Selected Ietters ofEra Pound, 1907-1941 (New York, 1 971 ), p. 210. Sec
Angela Elliott, 'The Eidolon Self: Emerson, Whitman and Pound' in Era Pound and America,
cd. Jacqueline Kaye (London, 1992), pp. 43-54. On Ezra Pound's usc ofNeoplatonic 'Light
philosophers' see Sharon Mayer Libera, 'Ezra Pound's Paradise: A Study ofNeoplatonism in
the Cantos' (Diss., Harvard, (972); Angela Elliott, 'Light as Image in Ezra Pound's Canlos',
(Dis., Drew, 1978).
ANGELA ELLI OTT
theP|atonistF. H. Brad|ey, authorolAppearance and Reali! | i 8o) .
PersuadedbyEzra Poundtosett|einEng|andin : oi,by :oe;he
hadbecomeaBritishsub|ectand|oinedtheAng|icanchurch.With
Four Quartets | i o0-) T.S. E|iot succeeded in transmuting his
experienceolChristianlaithintoare|igiouspoemlorasceptica|age.
Dame He|en Gardnerrecognised that this work ponders, through
]u|ianolNorwich,theP|atonicquestionoltheGoodinre|ationtothe
preva|ence olsin in the wor|d. ' The poem turns on the eterna|
momentolhuman mora|choice, and the u|timatetriumphol|ove
andbeauty.
Whi|e EzraPound and T.S. E|iot enacted thehieratic lunction
theyascribed topoets,theyounger,Eng|ish-bornW.H.Auden |see
Turner,pp. i o-eo,be|ow)shunnedanysuggestionol apriest|yro|e.
Evenashe re|ected Modernistand Romantic modes,however,he
sustainedaNeop|atonicidea|ismandanincantationa||yricpower.
WithT.S.E|iot'sassistanceingettingpub|ished,W.H.Audenproved
high|ysuccesslu|withthepub|ic,not|ustinEng|andbutinAmerica,
where he became a citizen in r o0, at times |iving in Ber|in and
Austria.Congenia||ydidactic,hede|ightedreaderswithhiswitand
movedthemwithhisacutesocia|consciousness,whichwasbasedon
hiscosmopo|itanexperience. W.H.Audenwasnotlormidab|e. He
did notpresent theauthoritativeposeorpuritanica|austeritythat
c|oaked Ezra Pound or T.S. E|iot. With his rea|ism, irony and
urbanity,W. H. Audenwas anintermediatepresencebetween th

e
ModernistandPostmodernistpoets.SincetheI oos,theBritishpoet
Phi|ipLarkin, Georey Hi|| and Char|esTom|inson, and theIrish
poetSeamusHeaney,havesoughttoavoidentire|ythegrandiosity
associatedwithHighModernism, restrictingthemse|vesbyuncom-
promisingrea|ismandsevereintrospection.Neverthe|ess,themora|ist
traditionintrinsic to theirworkengagesidea|s and themesthatare
re|atedtoP|ato.W. H. Auden,contrasting|y,invo|vedP|atodirect|y.
Bysuchpreoccupationsdoourauthorsrevea|thatP|atonisminthe
twentiethcenturycontinuestobealorceintheEng|ishimaginaton- -
a steady current, translormative, interacting with the rea|ities ol
historica|change.
I' Tie Art ofT, S. Elot (New York, 1 950), pp. 1 67J.
C HAPTER 2 5
Yeats and Platonism
Brian Arkins
WhileYeatsrefusestobecategorised,itisclearthatP|atonismis the
phi|osophica| tradition with which he is most c|osely a|igned,' as
RobertsonDavieshassaid,reviewingabookonYeats and1ung, ' If
wedonotagreethatYeatsand]ungarewhol|yP|atonists,wemust
agree that they ht better into that honorab|e assemb|y than any
other'. For P|atonism provided Yeats with three key doctrines in
whichhehimselfbelieved.atranscendentrea|ity, theimmortalityof
thesou|,and reincarnation. And whi|eYeatsis thesortofP|atonist
whostrong|yendorsesthemateria|world,histheismissimultaneously
ameansof counteringreductiveempiricism,ofwhichheseesLockeas
thearchetypalexponent.Soinhisphilosophicalcorrespondencewith
T. Sturge Moore, Yeats asserts in May i oe0 that, 'the three
provincia|centuries'ofreductive,mechanica|thoughtengineeredby
Lockeandothershavecome toanendand thatour task nowisto
'deducea|| fromthepremises known to Plato'.
YeatswasattractedtoP|atonismfromthebeginning
.
forwhi|esti||
atschoo|he'stoodwithP|atoandwithSocrates'.ButYeatscameto
P|atonism, as itwere, backwards, beginningwith |ate-nineteenth-
centuryversions,proceedingtotheCambridgePlatonists|seeScott,
pp. r o-joabove)aboutt or ,andreachingPlatoandP|otinus,pure
andunadu|terated,on|yinthe|asttwodecadesofhislife, the r oeos
and os. So in Yeats's early |ife P|atonism presented itse|fto him
` For Platonism in Yeats sec the seminal article by K. R<dne, 'Yeats and Platonism', Dublin
Magazine, 7 (1968), 38-63; F.A.C. Wilson, W.B. rcatsand Tradition (London, 1968);J. Olney,
The R/lizome alld tluFlower: TIltPewmial Plilosoplr- reals and JUllg (Berkeley, 1980); B. Arkins,
Buildcrs of My Soul; Greek and Romall Theme ill reals (Gcrrards Cross, 1990), 24-69.
2 R. Davies, reviewing Olney, Rlh,ome, 'lung, Yeats and the Inner Journey', Quen's Omrler!,
8g ( lg8,
) , 4
)6.
W.B. reals Qlld T. Sturge Moorc- Tllei, Corspondence 191-1937, cd. U. Bridge (Westport, Can,
1 9
)
8), pp. 9
'-3.
W.B, Yeats, Memoirs, edited by D. Donoghue (London, 1972), p. 65.
e;o
e8o B RI AN ARKINS
through curious channe|s such as the theosophy o| Madame
B|avatsky,whichwassothorough|ysyncretisticthat,bydehnition,it
hadtocontainagooddea|o|popu|arP|atonisn:,andtheOrdero|the
Go|denDawn,whichcanbeviewedasanextreme|y|atereviva|o|
RenaissanceP|atonism.
A|erYeatscomp|etedthehrstversiono| A Vision inr oej,hebegan
toread ane|aborate |isto|bookson phi|osophy, twoo|thecentra|
hguresinwhichwereP|atoandP|otinus.SoYeatsto|dSturgeMoore
ina|ettero|March r oe0. 'I read |cr monthseveryday P|ato and
P|otinus',and,intheintroductiontothesecondversiono|A Vision,
e|aborated upon this in connection with his wi|e's reading in
phi|osophy. 'I read a|| MacKenna's incomparab|e trans|ation o|
P|otinus, some o|it severa| times, and went |rom P|otinus to his
predecessorsandsuccessorswhetheronher|istornot.And|or|our
yearsnowIhavereadnothinge|seexceptnowandthensomestoryo|
the|tandmurdertoc|earmyheadatnight'.C|ear|y,Yeatshadnow
reached backto the|oundationso|P|atonismand therichharvest
|romthiscanbe|oundinthesecondr o;versiono|A Vision andinthe
vo|umeso|poetry|rom The Tower o|r oe8onwards.
PLQTI NUS
The centra| P|atonic pb|osopheri nYeats is P|otinus.' ForYeats,
P|otinusprovidedthesorto|metaphysicalexpositionhelonged|or,as
Kath|eenRainehaswritten,'YeatscametoP|otinusbecauseinhim
more than in anyotherphi|osopherhediscovered a cosmo|ogy, a
metaphysics,consistentwith the natureo|man a hehadcome to
understandit'.*Whichisnotsurprising,givenYeats'be|ie|sthatthe
con|usion o|modern phi|osophy derives|romthe|actthatwehave
renounced 'the ancienthierarchyo|beings|romman up toOne',
thatthereis'Nothinginmind thathasnotcome|romsenseexcept
mind', andthat'We,whoarebe|ievers,cannotseerea|ityanywhere
butin thesou| itse||'.'
reals and Slurge Moore, p. 8s. 6 A Vision (London, 1 962), p. 20.
7 Three doctoral theses deal with Yents and Plotinus: J.D. Easterly, 'Yeats, Plotinus, and
Symbolic Perception' (Cambridge, 1972); M.R. Motes' "Plotinus fora Friend"; MacKcnna's
Translation of Plot in us and W.B. Yeats' ('A VisionH and Later Poetry' (Miami, 1973); R.P.
Ritvo, IPlotinistic Elements in Yeats' Prose Works' (Fordham, 1973).
K. Raine, DeatJlin-Li alld Lif-it-Death: tCuclulail1 Comforted' and (NewsJor the Delphic Oracle
(Dublin, 1974), p. 20.
9 The Lellers ojW.B. Yea/s, ed. A. Wade (London, 1954), p. 74.
t0
W.B. Yeats, Essays and Illtroductions (London, 1 991 ), pp. 414-15.
I\
W.B. Yeats, Exploratio1ls (London) 196'), p. 170.
Yeats and Platonism
So in the i o; version o| A Vision, Yeats emp|oys P|otinus'
hierarchica|system to enunciatehis own metaphysica| be|ie|s and
app|ieshisownspecia| termino|ogytoit. Sointhemetaphysica|or
Inte||igib|e Wor|d, P|otinus' Hypostases are trans|ated into Yeats'
Princip|es as |o||ows. P|otinus' One becomes Yeats' U|timate
Rea|ity,whichis 'symbo|ised asthe Sphere' (A Vision, p. r 8;) , an
imageo|per|ection.Hisnous orInte||igencebecomes,whenconsidered
asBeing,Yeats' Ce|estia|Body,and,when considered asAct,Yeats'
Spirit,andhispsyche, Sou|oranima mundi, becomesYeats'sPassionate
Body. Fo||owing P|otinus (Enneads v. 1 . 10) , Yeats predicatesRea|
Being - which he ca||s |a|ter Stephen MacKenna) Authentic
Existence- o|Ce|estia|body,Spirit,andPassionatebody,whichare
hisequiva|entso|thesecondandthirdhypostases, Inte||igenceand
Sou|.Rea|Being,|ikeeverythinge|se,cannotbepredicatedo|thehrst
hypostasis. Yeats' |ourth Princip|e Husk cannot be |u||yidentined
withP|otinus'hypostasis,butmustrepresentthe|owerparto|Sou|
which P|otinus ca||s physi or Nature and which operates as an
immanentprincip|eo||i|e.
Yeats' view o| Matteris a|so indebted to P|otinus. Ina crucia|
|ettero|e;May ioe0,toSturgeMoore,Yeatsemphatica||yrejects
themechanistic mode|o|thewor|dand endorsesP|otinus' doctrine
that matter is a non-entity, 'a phantom' (Enneads II. .

, that it
possesses 'neither co|our, scent, nor magnitude' and that it is
'indeterminate',requiringtobeshapedbythepowero|Sou|(Enneads
rr. .0) . ItissignihcantthatYeatsconc|udeshisattackon'thethree
provincia| centuries', which have succeeded to such a remarkab|e
extentinpersuadingEuropeanmanthatMatterandtheob|ectso| sense-
perception are a|one rea|, by advising Sturge Moore to go to the
P|atonists|ortheoppositeview,toP|ato, P|otinus,andthatmodern
P|atonist,A||redWhitehead.'ReadWhitehead,and|rom thatgoto
StephenMacKenna'sPlotinus andtothe Timaeus. WhatWhitehead
ca||s 'the three provincia| centuries' are over. Wisdom and poetry
return'.
I
' Mind, notMatter, ru|esthewor|d.
THE PLATONIC WORLDHVIEW
Yeats'proseusua||yendorsestheP|atonicwor|d-viewasput|orward
byP|otinusandotherP|atonists,hispoetryismuchmoreambivalent,
t7
R.P, RilVO, 'A Vision B: the Plotinian Mctap_hysical Basis', ReIiew o Elislt Slrldies, 26 (

,-,,38.
13 reat ald Surge Moore, pp. ,

--

Ibid., p. 93.
B RI AN ARKI NS

accepting,re|ecting,modi|ying,vaci||ating.Webeginwithacceptance.
What|iesbehindthepoem'AMeditationinTimeo|War','written
|usta|tertheFirstWor|dWarbrokeoutini or ,isP|otinus`doctrine
that at the pinnac|e o|the two-wor|d system is the One, u|timate
source o| a|| Being. As Yeats sits in one o| the deso|ate p|aces
conducivetomystica|inspiration,|oronemoment,B|ake's'pu|sation
o|theartery', heis granted theknow|edgethattheso|eanimating
|orceinthekosmos istheOne,that,incomparison,humanbeings|ack
sou|oranima andso be|ongto awor|do|unrea|ity,ph
a
ntasia:
For one throb of the artery,
While on that old grey stone I sat,
Under the old wind-broken tree,
I knew that One is animate,
Mankind inanimate fantasy.
Itis,however,thepoem'UnderBenBu|ben' |NCP,pp.e

e8),
writtentowardstheendo| Yeats'|i|einio8andnowtheinitialpoem
in thevolumeLast Poems, whichencapsu|atesYeats'P|atonism.As
Kath|eenRainehasright|ysaid,itis'hismostP|atonico| a||poems' . "
And this, I be|ieve, aords us a proper entry to the poem Yeats
entitled origina||y 'His Convictions',|or,i|readasP|atonic,'Under
BenBu|ben'becomesmuchmoresatis|actoryanditsapparentrant,
meaninglu|. The spiritua| authority invoked in the 6rst stanza is
P|atonicbecauseear|yChristianityinEgyptwasconscious|y!|atonising,
because She||ey, whose Witch o|At|as is re|erred to, was deep|y
inbued with P|atonism, and because the spirits who ride on the
mountainBenBu|benandsomediatebetweenheavenandearthare
thedaimones |ong knownto the P|atonictradition, and especia||yto
|aterNeop|atonists|ikeIamb|ichusandto theCambridgeP|atonist,
Henry More. To this authorityis |ater added another P|atonising
Romantic, B|ake, and Miche|ange|o, deep|y inuenced by the
F|orentineP|atonistso|the Renaissance.
Intheremainingnvesectionso|thepoemYeatsgivesus'thegisto|
whattheymean':reincarnation,constantstri|einthismateria|wor|d,
thenecessity|orartists ingenera|and Irishartists in particularto
mirror thebeautyo|theInte||igible wor|d, and, inconsequenceo|
that, the triumphant acceptance o||i|e and death by Yeats, the
P|atonist who has provided this wor|d with so much beauty. In
' " Collecled Poems ofW,B. Yeats (London, 1950) (hereafter CPl. p. 214. W.E Tats, The Poems-A
}ew Edition, edited by RJ. Finneran (London, 1984) (hereafter NCP), p. 190.
:8
Raine, 'Yeats and Platonism', p. 14.
Yeats and Platonism
tollowingthePlatonictradition,IrishpoetsmustsingottheMarriage
otHeavenandEarthasexemplinedbyho|ymonkswhoseekGodin

heavenandce|ebrateHimonearth,bypeasantsdevotedbothtothe
landand to the unwritten traditionotthespirit, byaristocratswho
ridehorses to thetull, bymengiven tosexand drink. Forwhatall
these disparate groups have in common is a devotion to beauty,
whethersacredorprotane,andastheycultivatevarioustormsotEros
inseexing that beauty, they, un|ike'theunrememberingheartsand
heads' ot the modern wor|d, preserve the P|atonic memory or
anamnesis ottheIntel|igibIeworld.InkeepingtotheseP|atonicthemes
whichwerehonouredinthepast,Irishpoetswillensurethattheytake
theirproperplace in the great European tradition. And the Irish,
treedtromtheravagesotBritishempiricism,wi|lbe,liketheGreeks,
'indomitable'. So in the na| analysis Yeats cannot accept the
orthodoxChristianviewottheresurrectionotthebodyandsou|,and
consequently re|ects those eighteenth-century epitaphs that en|oin
thetravellertostopand contemp|atehis morta|ity. Instead,Yeats
optstorP|atonic reincarnation, nototspiritonly, nototbodyon|y,
butotthe two eternally intertwined. theprocess otlite, deathand
rebirthwindingcontinuallyandcontinuouslyonits|ourney.Thus,
thehumanaristocratichorsemanot sectionVI, whomirrors,otcourse,
thedivinedaimones, mustpassYeats'tombregardless,asheseekstor-
ever theBeautyotthe IntelligiLleworld through Eros.
Castacold eye
On li|e, on death,
Horseman, pass by!
PLATONI SM MODIFIED
Yeats' P|atonism is not always so c|ear-cut and can be severe|y
modined. What o|ten happens is that Yeats exploits the tensions
within P|atonism - how tar does the materia| world resemble the
Inte|ligibleworld, how tar hasit tallentrom it?- toset uphisown
tensions,between body and sou|, heaven and earth, eitherwithina
groupotpoemssuchasWords for Music PerhajJs orwithinindividual
poems such as 'The Tower'. In thus exploring P|atonic dualism,
Yeatsisconductingadebateaboutwhatinanear|yessayheca||s'the
onlycontroversyinwhichitisgreat|yworthtakingsides,and. . . the
on|ycontroversywhich mayneverbedecided' . ' '
\ !
Yeats,
Essays alld IlIlradueliolls, p. 152.
BRI AN ARKI NS
Themostlamousexamp|eol Yeats'vaci||ationaboutandre|ection
olP|atonismcomesinthegreatpoem'TheTower',writtenin r oej.
Nowsixtyandragingagainsto|dage,Yeatsconsidershowtocope.In
SectionI, oneapparentpossibi|ityistodevotehimse|ltothestudyol
P|atoandPlotinus,conceivedolashosti|eto theimaginationolthe
Romanticpoetbecausetheyareconstructorsolabstractsystems.But
inSectionIll, Yeatsdecidestooptinsteadlortheimaginationandthe
concrete, andsoassertsin hisswan-song.
I mock Plotinus' thought
And cry in Plato's teeth
(II. r-;)
WhatYeatsisattacking,withP|atoandP|otinusasscapegoats,isa
view ol the Inte|ligib|e wor|d that ascribes to it an extreme
transcendence,tota||yandutterlyindependentolthisirredeemab|e,
materialwor|d.Fromonepointolviewthisis,olcourse,astrandol
thoughtinPlatonism,butitcanbeconsiderab|ymodi6ed,depending
onhow much emphas isputonthedoctrinethatthiswor|dderiveslrom
theIntelligib|ewor|d.Thenuancesherearedelicate,asindicatedby
Yeatshimse|linhiswe||-knownnotetothispoem,writtenthreeyeats
|aterandquotingP|otinus,Enneadsv. I .2, toshowthatthephilosopher
doesinlactendorsecreatedmatter|CP,p.jjNCP,p.o0).'When
Iwrotethe|inesaboutP|atoandP|otinusIlorgotthatitissomething
nourowneyes thatmakesusseethemasa|| transcendence'.
Alessacutelorm olthis tensionisloundin anothergreatpoem
lrom The Tower, 'Among Schoo| Children' .CP, pp. zz-jjNCP,
pp.z r j-r ;) . Writtenayear |aterthan'TheTower'in r oz0,'Among
SchoolChi|dren`continuesthethemeol o|dage,butnowmovesonto
dwcl|onthe|actthatgreatphilosophersa|sogtowo|dandbecome -
likeYeats- scarecrows: 'Oldclothesupono|dstickstoscareabird'.
And yet these men have constructed marve||ous systems which
remain indispensab|e to the human condition. The resu|t is that
a|thoughP|atonism|togetherwithothersystems)isexpounded,only
to be denigrated, in stanza VI, it isa|souti|ised invariouswaysin
stanzasII, v and VII.

ThenatureolP|atonicdualismolthewor|dolFormsandtheworld
olBecomingisbri|liant|ysummedupinthersttwo|inesolstanzaVI:
Plato thought naturebutaspume that plays
Upon a ghostly paradigm of things
(II. 3 1-2)
` Compare Olney, RhiZQme, p. 285.
reats and Platonism
Thekosmosison|yamode|orcopyo|whatisrea|,'things'thatexist
inthe Inte||igib|eWor|d,andconsequent|yhason|y an attenuated
|ormolexistence|ikeaghost,whi|e themateria|worldo|everyday
sense-perception, 'nature', is cven more attenuated, mere|y an
ad|uncttothekosmosas|oamis to thesea. Theomcia| doctrineo|
stanzaVI isthatP|ato- togetherwithAristot|eandPythagoras- are
tobedismissedasscarecrows. Butboth previous|yandsubsequent|y
inthepoemP|atonicdoctrineisinvoked.Tobeginwith,instanzaII
Yeatswantstoindicatetheunitythatattimesexistedbetweenhimse|l
and MaudGonne,conceivedo|asLeda'sdaughter,He|eno|Troy.
Todosoheusesnoton|ytheP|atonicsymbo|o|thesphere,buta|so-
inexp|icit|ynamingP|ato- adaptsAristophanes'|ab|einSymposium
i8ce-i ooc|orhisownpurposes.WhereasinP|atoeachhumanbeing
wasorigina||yaroundedwho|eand7eusthencuttheminha|||ike
eggswhicharecutwithahair,Yeatsputsactosshisideao||overs'
unitybyaddingthevivid,concretedetai|o|'theyo|kandwhiteo|the
one she||'. This neat|y encapsu|ates the view in P|ato that '|ove is
simp|ythename|or thedesireand pursuito|the who|e' (Symposium
ioee)andgainsadded |orce|romthe|actthat He|enjMaudGonne
herse||cameouto|an egg.
Instanza v, Yeats again manipu|ates P|atonic materia| - here
Porphyry'sOn the Cave of the Nmphs, Ii. 1 6-1 7, aNeop|atonicexegesis
o|Oqsse XlII - todea| withthepainlu|natureo|human|i|e.Forthe
new born baby boy must |eave behind pre-nata| b|iss and what
betrays him into this is sexua| intercourse, in particu|ar semen,
termed'honeyo|generation'becauseintercourseissweetandhoney
'indicative o| the p|easure which draws sou|s downwards into
generation'. I| the baby possesses anamnesis |reco||ection) o| his
previousstate,hewi||ob|ectstrenuous|ytobeingborn,buti|hedoes
not, he wi|| acquiesce- and itis in the assertion that 'thedrug' or
'honey o|generation' causes such acquiescence that Yeats deviates
|tomPorphyry, as hehimse||admitted.
I have taken the <honey of generation' from Porphyry's essay 'On the Cave of
the Nymphs', but fnd no warrant in Porphyry for considering it the 'drug'
that destroys the 'recollection' of pre-natal freedom. He blamed a cup of
oblivion given in the zodiacal sign of Cancer. (CP, p. 535/NCP, p. 597)
Thesetwoexamp|esshowYeatsusingP|atonicdoctrineasa|rameo|
re|erenceinarathercava|ierway.ButtheP|atonismo|stanzaVII is
bothc|ear-cutandorthodox. the'Presences' worshippedby|overs,
BRIAN ARKI NS
nuns and mothers are c|ear|y akin to P|atonic Forms, Forms that,
un|ike human beings, arese||-begotten, thatsymbo|ise theFormo|
theGoodinthetranscendentwor|d,andthatconsequent|yderidethe
entirehumanenterprise.P|atomaygrowo|d,butP|atonismremains
immutab|e.
P|atonism is a dynamic |orce in the twenty-hve poems that
constitutethesequenceWordsJor Music Perhaps, writtenbetweenrozo
and r oz,anddescribedbyYeats as sometimescoming'outo|the
greatest menta| excitement I amcapab|eo|'. ` The opening o|the
sequence is dominated by the marve||ous, extravagant hgure o|
Crazy 1ane,who|eaturesinthehrstsevenpoems,andwhoiso| course
not'crazy'ata||.Hervisiono||i|eiscomp|ex,grantingap|acetosou|
andGod,andsoavoidingareductivemateria|ism, butitis|airtosay
that Crazy 1ane is essentia||y a champion o| the se|| or body,
especia||y as exemp|ihed in sexua|ity and comp|ete|y opposed to
'that sweet extremity opride [ That's ca||ed p|atonic |ove' |CP,
p. z;;[NCP, p. zz8) . At the end o| the sequence we have the
counter-hgureo|O|dTomwho|eaturesdirect|yinpoemsXXII-XXIV,
these beingbracketedbytwootherpoemswithasimi|arvision,XXI
ca||ed 'The Dancerat Cruachan and CroPatrick' and xxvca||ed
'TheDe|phicOrac|eUponPlotinus'.Thoughca||eda|unatic, O|d
Tomisnomorea'|unatic'thanCrazy1aneis'crazy'.Heisequa||y
extravagant,andhisvisiono||i|eisa|socomp|exandnotreductive.
ButwhereasCrazy]anestressesthebody,O|dTomstressesthesou|
CP, pp. o-c;[NCP,pp. z08-;o).
Neverthe|ess,O|dTomisthesorto|P|atonistwhohasnoprob|em
inendorsingthiscreatedwor|dandinthepoem'TomtheLunatic'is
c|ear|ywe||versedinthepassageso|P|otinusthat do thesame, |ike
Enneads v. r . z, |or in the |ace o| apparent change and death he
sp|cndid|yamrmsthepermanencebotho|Godandhiscreation.O|d
Tom'sre|ationship to the Moon o|mutabi|ity is ther|ore comp|ex.
Labe||eda|unatic ||rom LatinLuna), inhis|ast|ineheechoesVi||on
andsobecomesoneo|these|ectband|ikeVi||onandVer|ainewho,
Yeatste||sus,'withimpedimentsp|aintoa||. . . singso||i|ewiththe
ancientsimp|icity'.Andhedoessobyreconci|ingthecentra|paradox
o|P|atonismwhichcanbe,ashere,turnedintoitscentra|g|ory.The
materia|wor|d,whatYeatsca||s'thecirc|eo|themoon[Thatpitches
common things about' |CP, p. z[NCP, p. zc;) is sanctihed
Yeats and Platonism
precise|y because it 'Stands in God's unchanging eye'. O|d Tom
yie|dsto noonein his abi|ity tosavethephenomena.
Inthepoem'O|dTomAgain'Tom|ooksatthings|romtheother
ang|e, thato|the Inte||igib|eWotId.
Things out of perfection sail,
And all their swelling canvas wear,
Nor shall the self-begotten fail
Though fantastic men suppose
Buildingyard and stormy shore,
Winding_sheet and swaddling-clothes.
(II. 1 -6)
From thewor|d o|P|atonicFormsand P|otinianhypostaseswhich
constitute per|ection, created, materia| things sai| down a|ong the
seao|generation in the |u|| g|ory that natura||y be|ongs to their
exa|tedorigin.But thatInte||igib|eWor|disnotitse||createdandis
there!oresomethingabsoIute|ypermanentandunchanging.Asina
sensehuman beings must be, because they possess immorta| sou|s
whichderive|rom the third hypostasis, Sou|, and wi|| return to it.
Sincethatisso,humanbirthanddeathhavenorea|existence.The
de|uded empiricistswho thinktheydohaverea|existenceen+oy,in
P|ato's terms (Sophist e0d), neither know|edge |Greek dianoia) nor
evenopinion|Greekdoxa) , butarereducedtowhatison|ythepurest
i||usion |Greek phantasia) and can there|ore be proper|y ca||ed
'|antastic'.
Thepoem 'The De|phicOrac|e Upon P|otinus', whichends the
series, bri||iant|yencapsu|ates the body/sou| tensionexemp|ihed by
Crazy]ane and O|dTom. This is aparaphraseo|the verse orac|e
giventoP|otinus'discip|eAme|iuswhoconsu|tedDe|phitohndout
whereP|otinus'sou|hadgonea|terhisdeath,presetvedinPorphyry's
Life ofPlotinus ee,itisdescribedbyYeatsas 'thelastgreatorac|eat
De|phi commemorating the dead P|otinus' and as one o| his
'|avouritequotations'.Inthehrststanzao|Yeats'poemP|otinusis
c|ear|y on the way across the sea o|generation to the Inte||igib|e
Wor|d,buthisjourneyisverydimcu|tashestrugg|eswiththewaves
that symbo|ise the ux and conhicts o||i|e. He is summoned to
Heaven by the |udge o|the dead, Rhadamanthus - described as
'b|and',whichseemstohoverbetweenmeaning'coaxing' |c|Latin
70
Essays and Introductiolls, pp. 278 and 409.
' This stress maydcrivc rrom Henry Morc's poem about the oracle on Plotinus, 'ThcOraclc' in
Philosophical Poems ojHem)' Mor, edited by C. Bullough (Manchester. 1931), 159-62.
e88 BRIAN ARKI NS
blandus) and 'unsu||ied'. But P|otinus i s ab|e to perceive the
inhabitantsthere,'theGo|denRace',on|yinaveryimper|ectway,
sincehiseyesareb|ockedbythesa|twatero|thesea,termed'b|ood'
toindicatethatit|unctionsasasymbo|o|human|i|e. Furthermore
and crucia||y, the poem |ai|s to estab|ish that P|otinus actua||y
reachedheavenandis thus|ar|romPorphyry'sassertionthat'you
enteratonce theheaven|y consort`. So thestress isa|mostentire|y
on P|otinus' strugg|ewith 'the bitterwaveso|thisb|ood-drenched
|i|e' ( Life if Plolinus, ee).
Inthesecondstanza,ontheotherhand, theentirestressisonthe
idy||ic, pastora|landscapeo|theInte||igib|eWor|d.Thisispeop|ed
bythethreecategorieso|menP|otinuste||sus(Enneads r.. r-)are
most capab|e o|cu|tivating the Inte||ectua| Li|e and arriving at
visionaryexperience.themetaphysician'takestothepathbyinstinct'
and is represented here by P|ato. The musician and |over 'need
guidance'andarerepresentedherebyPythagorasand'theChoiro|
Love' respective|y. Theyare|oinedinHeaven bythe|udgeso|the
dead, RhadamanthusandMinos,describedby theorac|eas'great
brethreno|thegoldenraceo|mighty7eus'.Theywere,in|act,the
sonso|7eusand themorta|womanEurope,and theirexa|tedro|e
herecontrastswith thescornpoured on EuropabyCrazy]ane in
Poemuo|thesequence.Forthewhee|hascome|u||circ|eandweend
withLovethatdoes,precise|y,'takethewho|ejBodyandSou|',when
Timeisgone.
Butwewi||not|eaveYeats'P|atonismthere.Ahna|,crucia|poem
remains,'WhatThen?'|CP,pp.;-8jNCP,p.oe),writtentowards
theendo|his|i|eini o0andnowparto|theNew Poems | r o8).Here
Yeatsrecountsin simp|e |anguage the achievements o|his|i|e and
work.hisunceasingeorts|ortheIrishLiteraryRenaissanceandthe
Abbey Theatre, his happy marriage, his unequa||ed co||ection o|
|riends - 'myg|orywasIhadsuch|riends`|CP,p.;o[NCP,p.er ) -
hisparadigmaticp|ays,hisbri||iant|ye|oquentprose,and,abovea||,
thegreatestbodyo| poetrywritteninEng|ishinthiscentury.Tru|y,he
had,a muchasanyman,'somethingtoper|ectionbrought`.Andyet,
ashe|iststheseachievements,Yeatsiscon|ronted,inevitab|y,withthe
spirito|P|ato.anexemp|aro|unre|entingdevotiontohiswork,the
manwhohasdoneso muchtoinspire,invariousguises,subsequent
European phi|osophy andart, theman who, aswehaveseen, |ies
71 For the meaning of 'bland' sec W.C. Barnwell) 'The Blandnes of Yeats's Rhadamanthus',
Eglish Language Noles, 14 (I977). :W6lO.
Yeats and Platonism
beniudYeats'li|elougattachmeuttoP|atouism.It isesseutialto the
humaucouditiouthattheteisa|wayssomethiugmotetosttive|or,and
soYeats is hauuted by the te|taiuwhich couc|udes theitst thtee
stauzaso|thepoem. 'Wh
a
t Then?' Sang Plato's Ghost. ' What Then?'. Aud
this eveumote,wheu pet|ectiou isobtaiuediuo|d age.
'The work is done" grown old he thought,
(According to my boyish plan'
Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught,
Something to perfection brought';
But louder sang that ghost, ' What then?'
(II. 1 6-20)
Itis,theu,thespitit,thedaimon o|P|atothatptesidesovettheetetua|
hauketiug|otmote,becauseYeats,iuthehualaua|ysis,doeschoose
P|ato |ota |tieud aud so eudotses the seutimeutso|his |e||ow Ce|t
EdwiuMuitiuthepoem'Ihavebeeutaught',the|asto|hisCollected
Poems audoueo|the|astpoemshewtotetowatdstheeudo|his|i|eiu
1959:
And now that time grows shorter, I perceive
That Plato's is the truest poetry,
And that these shadows
Are cast by the true.23
Edwin Muir, Colected Poell s (London, 1963), p. 302.
CHAPTER 2 6
Virginia Wool and Plato: The Platonic background
of 1aceb'sReem
Brenda Lyons
VirginiaWool|wasaseriousPlatonicscholarandherwritingsallude
t Plato and the dialogues, but to callhera Platonistwould be a
mistake.Woolsworkdoesnotcon|ormtoany'-ism',andPlatonism
isnoexception,herphilosophyiso|the'rag-bag'sort,notadoptingor
promotinganysystem,buttrans|erringphilosophicalmetaphorsand
ideasintothecontextso| realandnctiveexperiences. ' Herwritingsdo
not engage with P|atonic arvuments, but rather draw |rom the
dialoguestoinspire,complicate,andsupportherownaestheticends.
Wools poetic expresses a neoclassical delight in |ormal unities o|
design,rhythm,andimaginativehumanpurpose,alludingparodically
to Plato and subsequent academic pursuits o| philosophy, while
metaphors o| the cave, darknessjillumination, and mimesis, |or
example, reimagine Platonic moti|s in twentieth-century contexts.
Shewasawareo|thecomplexreligioustraditionssuggestedbythese
allusions, but her own anti-religious sentiment was closer to the
Heretic Society than to doctrinal, especially Christian, Platonism.
ThisessaywillexplorewhatexactlyPlatomeanttoWool|andhow
her Platonic allusions operate, particularly in the context o|non-
realisticparodichction.
ItisclearthatWool||elttheimportanceo|Platoverystrongly.In
theessay'IsThis Poetry?` shedeclared thattheworkso|Hogarth
Presswere'addressedtonopublicsavethatwhichhasinittheghosts
o|Plato.` Seveno|herninenovels,alongwithshortstoriesandtwo
volumeso|essays,wereincludedinthemorethan400 titlesHogarth
I T.S. Eliot, 'IntroducliOll', G. Wilson Knight, Tie Wllee! ojFire: InterpretatiQns of Shakespearian
Traged (London, t956), p. xiii.
2 Virginia Woolf, Tie EssaysofVirginia Woolf ed. Andrew McNcillic, 3 vols. (London, Ig86-8),
M, J91!124 p. 54
Virginia Woolf and Plato
p
,
ib|ished during her |i|etime, and her haunting remark invites
readers to ponderwhatsherea||ymeant. ForWoo|t thedia|ogues
inspirea|oveo|know|edge,ontheconstructiono|P|ato'sarguments,
she wrote, it is 'notso much the end we reach as our manner o|
reachingit.Thata||can|ee| - theindomitab|ehonesty,thecourage,
the |ove o|truth which draw Socrates and us in his wake to the
summitwhere,i|we toomay stand |oramoment, itis toen|oythe
greatest|e|icityo|whichwe arecapab|e.'
Buttruth, shearguedinA Room '0ne's Own, wasama|edomain
unti| the birtho|nction.Her imaginative pto|ection o|a |eminine
aestheticwasexpressedinP|atonictropes. 'Fori|Ch|oe|ikesO|ivia
andMaryCarmichae|knowshowtoexpressitshewi|||ightatorchin
thatvastchamberwherenobodyhasyetbeen.Itisa||ha|||ightsand
pro|oundshadows|ikethoseserpentinecaveswhereonegoeswitha
cand|epeeringupand down, notknowingwhereoneisstepping.`
Ftom her border|ine position as an upper-midd|e-c|ass Victorian
womanideo|ogica||ywithinandoutsidetheOxbridgeandApostolic
'inte||ectua| aristocracy', Woo||sought to inspire and empower
women,andsheemp|oyedP|atonica||usionasasupportiveresource.
ShecreditedP|ato'shighregard|orSapphoasevidenceo|women's
superiotity in '1he Inte||ectua| Status o|Women', an argument
de|iberate|y countering Arno|d Bennett's denigrating attack on
|ema|einte||ectua|capacityin theNew Statesman.'
InWoo||'sdayP|atowastheparagono|e|evatedheights,marking
adivisiveboundaryo||owerandupperinte||ectua|spheres.Her|ate
workcontinuedtoaccordhimthisstatus,used to|eministpurposes.
The imaginaryspeech by Nicho|as in her nove| The Years and its
precursive speech to the London Nationa| Society |or Women's
Service | ei ]anuary r o r ) imp|icit|y ca|| |or a humanist utopia
reminiscento|P|ato'sRepublic.' She is, however, under no i||usion
abouttheimpractica|ityo|ega|itarianisminherday,andimagines
the master's horrined reaction to nnding his kitchen maid in the
|ibraryreadingP|ato.9 Wool|'sargument|inkspattiarcha|essentialism,
J. Howard Woolmer, A Clucklist oftie Hogartl Press (London, 1976).
Virginia Woolf, 'On Not Knowing Greek', The Commoll Reader ( 1 925; London, 1933), p. 51 .
, Virginia Woolf, A Room ofOm's OWI (1 929; New York, 1957), p. 88.
Jane Marcus, 'Liberty, Sorority, Misogyny', Virgi1lia Wool alld the Lmguages ofPatriarchy
(Bloomington, Indiana, 1987), p. 92.
' Virginia Woolf, 'The Intellectual Status of Women" The Diar o Virginia Wool ed. Anne
Olivier Bell (London, 1988), II 192024, pp. 339-42.
John Batchelor, Virginia Woolf: The Major Nouels (Cambridge, 1991 ), p. 144.
, Virginia Woolf, The Pargilers: The NouelEsay Portio" ojTle rears (London, 1 978), p. xlii.
BRENDA LYONS
orthe argument that manis natura||y superior to woman, to the
modern prob|ems o|economics and education. She counse|s that
a|thoughthisparticu|armanconsiderstheeducationo| servantsand
womenworsethanunnatura| - indeedsin|u| - generousandhumane
men exist with whom women can |ive in 'per|ect |reedom', her
conc|udingadvice|ora|ust andgoodsocietyis thatpatience and
humour over anger are pre|erred strategies in the campaign to
|iberatewomenthrougheducationandeconomicaccomp|ishment.
Woo||proered thenotionthataroomwhereP|atocou|dbe|ree|y
read had been paid |or, the door was open to a |uture o|exciting
dia|ogues.Herconcernsarea|ignedwithSocraticgoa|s|oranidea|
state,butherp|anemphasizestheeducationa|andeconomicsuccess
o| women, ignoring such contradictions as that between sexua|
equa|ity and po|itica|jphi|osophica|hegemonyin theRepublic.
Theknow|edgeo|Greekthatherc|assicistcousin1.K.Stephenhad
identihedasakeyto|raterna|powerwasdeniedtomostwomen,` ` so
choosing P|ato signa|ed the acquisition o|cu|tura| power, an act
rep|ete with associated bio|ogica|, economic and pedagogica|
controversies. Virginia Woo||herse||was|ami|iarwith mosto|the
dia|oguesandherstudynoteson theEuthyphro, Phaedrus, Symposium,
andRepublic, 'thoughcursoryout|ines,indicatespecia|attentionto
questionso|creativity,|ove,andtruth.Shepre|acedhersummaryo|
Symposium with a |isto|various Greekterms|or|oving:
'
epeOr
be|oved.epcrr a|over.epaw to|ove.epw!Bvr thebe|oved
woman.epaor be|oved. ''However,whereasSocrateswasa|ways
searching |or truth in discourse, and P|ato wrote myths which
postu|ateitsrea|existence,toWoo||truthwasa|wayssub|ective.This
be|ie|invadestheverystructureo|herwork,part|yexp|icatedinthe
argument o|A Room i One's Own, which states the controversia|,
impossib|e purpose o|a |ecture as the contribution o|an eterna|
'nuggeto|puretruth',inthiscaseonthe'truenatureo|woman. . .
andnction.'Thes|ipperyprob|emo|truthisparodica||yextendedas
thesub|ectiveob|ecto|herdiscourse,sherecountsthedisappearance
o|assumptions|oundedon|ostknow|edgeand|ai|edattemptstohnd
authentic|actsaboutwomeninhistory,conc|udingthat'aspotthe
1
0
Woolf, TIle Pargiters, p. xliv.
I
Jane Marcus, 'Liberty, Sorority, Misogyny', Virginia Wool and the Language ofPatriarcl!
(Bloomington, Indiana, 1987), p- 92-
l1
Brenda R. Silver, Virginia Wool's Reading Notebooks (Princeton, Ig83).
I
Virginia Woolf, 'Plato. Symposium!', Monks House Papers (Oxford, Bodleian Library Films
1425, reel I, A21, p. 53). Quoted by kind permission of the Bodleian Library.
Virginia Woolf and Plato eo
.
sizeota shi||ing at the back otthe head' must bedescribed by a
woman betore a 'true picture otman as a whole can 'ever' be
painted. ' ' Re|ations ot truth to torms ot |oving are centra|,
interre|atedprob|emsexp|oredinmostot Woo|t'snctionthroughthe
imaginaryexperiencesotcharacters. Anear|y|ourna| entry, which
statesherbe|ietinanintegrateduniversa|unconscious,thatis,'how
any |ive mind today is . . otthe very same stuas P|ato's' , ' is
metaphorica||yrepeatedinthehction,servingtoconstructag|oba|,
eterna|idea|

'mind'that|inksantiquitytomodernity.Thepotentia|
otreco||ectionexists,theninanintimated,immorta|unconsciousness,
buthistorica|amnesiainhibitstruth,equa|ity,andhumandeve|opment.
NowhereisWoo|s|ongingtor,yetmistrustottheP|atonicverities
morevisib|e than in the third nove|,Jacob's Room, whosestructure
questionstraditiona|,torma| assumptions. HereWoo|taimstorthe
nrsttimetopresent'characterwithoutrea|ism',
1
6
recognisedbymost
critics as an important moment in teminist/modernist avant-garde
nction, it shou|d a|so be seen, however, as a watershed in Woo||s
attitude to the P|atonic past. Written between Apri|, r oeo, and
November,roe r , I ' itsshadowtextsarePhaedrus and,indirect|y,other
dia|oguesthataddressprob|emso||ove,idea|ism,body/spiritdua|ity,
andthesou|.]acob'sghost|ypresencewaspart|yareincarnationot
Thoby Stephen, her brother and rst c|assics mentor who died
unexpected|year|ytrom typhoidtevercontractedinGreece.Jacob's
Room is aradica| departure in torm and contenttrom her rst two
nove|s, The Voyage Out ( r or ) andNight and D' ( r or o) , which treat
phi|osophica|inquiriesingenera|andP|atonicsub+ectsinparticu|ar
withamuchsimp|erridicu|e,torexamp|e,toexpressdisenchantment
withG.E.Moore'squasi-P|atonicphi|osophy.Thequeststortruth,
goodness,beauty,andtriendshipthatcharactersngurative|yundertake
intheseear|ynove|sindicatetheirdieringpositionsonthe|adderot
P|atonicscho|arship,ama|edomaintowhichwomenaspire.InThe
VJage Out, an emotive, Mrs. C|arissa Da||owaydebuts as angure
desiring 'P|ato', dreaming ot an anthropomorphic androgynous
a|phabetwhoseGreek|etterssta|kaboutandpass'tromonebrainto
' Virginia Woolf, A Room a/One's Own ( [ 929; New YOI'k, 1957). p. 94-
Virginia Woolf, 'The Country in London', Brenda R. Silver, Virginia Wool's Reading
Notebooks (Princeton, I983), p. 5.
16 Virginia Woolf to 'David Garett, 20 October 1922, The Qestion oJTfings Happening: The
LeUers of Virginia Wool, cds. Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, 6 vals. (London,
1975-82), vol. 2, '912-22 ( 1 976), p. 57
1
.
11
Virginia Woolf, Diary, II, 192024, 30, 141.
eo BRENDA LYONS
another'.Here,asi nJacob's Room, theuseo|P|atothroughdirectand
indirecta||usiondoesnotproduceaP|atonicscheme, there|erences
are, rather, a way o|comp|icating the hctive texture to question
contemporaryissuesata timewhen,ontheonehand,c|assica|and
phi|osophica| studiesweresti|| denied to mostwomen and, on the
otherhand, P|atowasasigno|u|timateinte||ectua| achievement,
whi|e c|assica| studies were under hreas representingan e|iteand
socia||yirre|evantpedagogica|discip|ine.
Jacob's Room is adeeper,poetica|exp|orationo|P|atonicnssures,
into the gaps within |anguage, nation, and cu|tura| po|itics Woo||
insertsthePhaedrus asametaphorica|touchstonebywhichtomeasure
twentieth-centurydennitionso| |ove, thesou|, know|edge,identity,
andidea|ism.InJacob's Room theparodyisnotoperatingsimp|yin
thesenseo|ridicu|e, butrather thato|intimate re|ations, orwhat
Linda Hutcheon has ca||ed 'a bitextua| synthesis', 'a |orma| or
structura| re|ation between two texts' app|icab|e to any codihed
discourse. Aswithirony,Hutcheonexp|ains,parodyoperatesonat
|east two |eve|s, the primaty sur|ace, or |oreground, and the
secondary, imp|ied background. The patodic edges o|P|atonic
experienceinJacob's Room resideambiguous|yinaspacia|distance
betweenP|ato's Greece and the|ightso|London and Cambridge,
whichWoo||re|erredtoasacavewhenshewaswritingJacob's Room:
'I|ayinthesha||ow|ight,whichshou|dbewrittendark. . . Perhaps
Cambridgcis too mucho|a cave. ' '
Her commemoration o| Thoby is neither autobiographica||y
rea|isticnoreu|ogising,and P|atois no moresanctined than (acob
portrayedasascho|ar.Initia||y, (acobre|ects'c|oistersandc|assics',
|rustratedbythetrapo|abodyharnessedtoabrain,acontemporary
restatemento|theancientP|atonicdua|ismbetweenbodyandmind.
Since1acobhimse||,|ora||hismistrusto| ideas,isdead,aknow|edge
o|whathisexistencemeansisironica||yon|ypossib|ethroughideas -
in thememorieso|others. In |act, thereisa kind o|parodyo|the
P|atonicascent|rombodytomind,as1acobistrans|ormedduringthe
course o| the nove| |rom experience to idea. A sha||ow bedo|
know|edge,GreekorP|atonic,wastheun|ike|ygroundprecedinghis
pi|grimage to the Acropo|is, at its peak he embraced a so|itary
I0
Linda HUlcheon, A Tlcfry ofParod: Tie TeacMlIgs ofTweJliel/jCcntllry Art Forms (New York,
Ig8S), pp. 22-33.
1 Vit'gini:., 'oolf, Diary, n, 49. Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room (1922; London, [991), p. 93.
Virginia Wool and Plaia
eo
.
momentot greathappiness,anemotiona|andspiritua|breakthrough
associaied with theabi|ity to experiencemorta||ove.
The transitiouin]acob'sconsciousnessoccursa|eradayat the
British Museum, where P|ato, readers are intormed, has been
presetved as partotthe 'enormous mind . . . hoarded beyond the
powerotanysing|emind topossess it.' ThatnighthereadP|ato,
whocontinued'imperturbab|y';theP|atonicdia|ogueistoregrounded
asanundisturbedtorceagainstwhichmoretransientrea|itiesottain,
cabwhist|es, and the criesota drunken woman |ocked out other
housetadeinto thebackground. Meanwhi|e,]acobcontemp|ates.
The Phaedru is very difcult. And so, when at length one reads straight
ahead, falling into step, marching on, becoming (so it seems) momentarily
part of this rolling, imperturbable energy, which has driven darkness before
it since Plato walked the Acropolis, it is i mpossible to see the fre.
The dialogue draws to its close. Plato's argument is done. Plato's
argument is stowed away in Jacob's mind, and for fve rinutesJacob's mind
continues alone, onwards, into the darkness. Then, getting up, he parted the
curtains, and saw, with astonishing clearness.21
Woo|sironyderivespart|yttomtheknow|edgethat]acob'snew,
extraordinaryvisionotordinaryrea|ityisproducedttomconditions
otexi|eandso|itude.His'presence'isthatotaghost|yprotagonistin
ane|egiacanti-warnove|,rea|isedon|ythroughamu|tivoca|weave
otmemoriesinwhichexistenceasincorporea|rea|itymergeswiththe
vestigia|P|atonicsubjecthebecomesintantasy,intimatingcomp|ex
questions about the nature otthe human and divine sou|. In the
Phaedru the exp|ication otimmorta| sou| a ever-changingtorm is
part otthe Socratic detence otpassion as |ove's b|essed madness,
divine|yinspiredcreativity,and thepowerothea|ing 'ea-e0d) .
]acobenactsinction theprob|emot|non) existenceasa Platonic
trope,thatis,hisidenticationwithP|atoa||udestoaninterna|ized
Socraticunconscious,imp|yingtheinterrogationot'immorta|ity'as
tancy.ThusengenderedasaSocraticjP|atonicsubject,]acobjThoby
a|soenactsthetourthandbesttormotdivinepossession,themadness
ota|overotwor|d|ybeauty,reca||ingwhatSocratesdescribedasthe
'b|essed vision' otwho|eness and pure |ight, 'without taint otthat
prisonhousewhichnowweareencompassedwith,andca||abody'
(Phaedru eoc).
A||tLatremainsotthebodyarememoriesreco||ectedin'Tacob's
20
Woolf, Jacobls Room, p. 93.
2I
Woolf, Jacob's Room, p. 95.
eo6 BRENDA LYONS
room',aneoc|assica|chamberthatservesasanal|usivedoub|etorthe
cave,containinginitsdarknessquestionsot morta|ityandimmorta|ity.
Therethesourceottrue|ight,a|beitironised,comestromtheGreek,
science,andphi|osophy,where'the|ampot|earning'is'notsimp|e,or
pure, orwho||ysp|endid'.
Woo|fs reterences toP|atoinJacob's Room toreground acentra|
'character'astheghostotanaverageOxbridgec|assicsstudent,the
episodic movements ot]acob's transtormation inc|ude an imp|ied
rangeotcontemporary controversies, the status otc|assicalstudies
andwomen'sinte||ectaswe|lasmorecomplexaesthetica|andethica|
questions in the texture otWestern philosophica|j|iterary hstory.
']acob'expressesanaccordwithCliveBe|l'shypothesisot' signihcant
torm', which S.P. Rosenbaum has exp|icated as a synthesis ot
Moore'sidea|ismandPlatoniclove.Be||assertsanaestheticessence,
a common qua|iher in the visua| arts, or signihcant torm, whch
means an emotive combination ot |ines and co|ours that are
apprehendedthroughamystica|,spiritua|,orre|igiousexperience.
Theso|utiontothedilemmathatWoo|tconsideredin|iterarycritica|
termstobeoneotconveying'characterwithoutrea|ism'waseected
as an allusive P|atonic ridd|e otidea|ity and love. Jacob's Room
sketchesidea|itya an|in)(di)visib|espiritjbody,h||edwithproblems
ota priori know|edgeversus dehntionsot |ove and truth.
ButJacob's Room alsoundercutsthePlatoniccertaintiesbyitsvery
structure, its destruction otthetami|iarnotionsotcharacter |sou|)
and rea|ism. Woo|s hctive representation otacob' as relations
between tempora|ity and non-identity are in line with Price's
dehnition ot the P|atonic 'mind' as 'a bund|e otepisodes and
dispositions', episodes being synonymous with 'mental stages'.
Whi|e Woo|l's 6ction does not engage with argument, it sets a
phi|osophica| stage resonant with P|atonic texts as its parodic
unconscious. Theghostot]acob Flanders as a P|atonic scholaris
deep|yironic.heisrea| andnotrea|,heis not rea||y ascho|ar,heis
andisnotP|ato.]acob'segotisticalc|aimstoknow|edgeottheGreeks
counteredWoo|l`s own that:
2' Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room (London, 1991), p. 3( .
" S.P. Rosenbaum, ViciITian Bloomsbur. The Er{ Literary History o the Bloomsbury Group
(London, 1987), I, 235.
2. Clive Bell, Art, ed. J.B. Bullen (Oxford, 1987), pp. 3-37. '
2 A.W. PrCe, Love and Friedship Ul Plato and Aristotle (Oxford. 1990), pp. 21-3.
Virginia Woolf and Plato
297
,
it isvain and foolish to talk of knowing Greek . . . since we do not know how
the words sounded, or where precisely we ought to laugh . . . and between
this foreign people and ourselves there is not only diference of race and
tongue but a tre
m
endous breach of tradition.2
6
His rudimentaryabi|ityto read Greekwould havesumced on|yto
'stumb|e'throughthePhaedrus andheb|amedgovernesses|orstarting
'theGreekmyth',consideringthee|evationot'Greekthis,that,and
theother'overShakespearean i||usion. 1heendotthenove|isits
beginning,however.adramaticemptynna|e,whichhasoccasioned
the critica| pursuit o| an answer to the incorporea| ridd|e o| a
'characterwithoutrea|ism',|eavesreaderswiththememoryo| 1acob,
perceivedthroughtheauthor'sandreaders'creativevision.On|ythe
Room remains, ]acob himse|| disappears, |eaving on|y a Form,
reca||ingP|atoin thePhaedrus,
There let i t rest then, our tribute to amemory that has stirred us to linger
awhile on those former joys for which we yearn. Now beauty, as we said,
shone bright amidst these visions, and in this world below we apprehend it
through the clearest of our senses, clear and resplendent. (Phaedrus 250d)
Virginia Woolf, 'On Not Knowing Greek', The Common Reader (London, 1933), p. 39.
CHAPTER 2 7
Plato and Eliot's earlier verse
Denni Brown
Critics o| T.S. Eliot's poetry have |requently cited a Platonic
inuence.' This is scarcely surprising since Eliot not only studied
Plato,inthe Greek, atHarvard, but a|sowroteessays on Platonic
thought while commencing his doctoral work on F.H. Bradley at
Ox|ord. Overall, Eliot's poetic career strangely replicates Plato's
own progression |romdramatised dialogue to a more monological
commitmenttotheReal. theearliervei dialogicalandsceptical,
Four Qartets i rmatoranu
-
drc|arative. Ineecthe earlier
, hicillethemain|ocushere,callsintoquestion
the nature o| P|atonism itsel| I t queries whether Plato's own
philosophicalcontributionshould beregardedasanelaborationo|
idea|truths|asNeoplatonismo|tenrepresentsit)ora aquasi-sceptica|*
|ourney into ultimate mystery. E|iot's earlier poetry suggest.i1
.
1 Sec, for instance, Kristian Smidt, Poetr and Belief in the Work ofT.S. Eliot (London, 1967. p.
158: Eric Thompson. 7.S. Eliot: The Mall and his Works (Toronto, 1969), p. 8[ ; A.D. Moody,
Thomas Steams Eliot: Poet (Cambridge, 1979), p. 1 31 .
Eliot toJ.H. Woods, 28 January 1915; Eliot to Professor L.B. R. Briggs, 28January 1915;
Eliot to Professor L.B.R. Briggs, IOJuly 1915; Eliot toJ.H. Woods, 28 December 1915. in The
LueoT.S. Eliot, cd. Valerie Eliot, vol. 1 -, conlinuing {London, 1988), 1, JJ922, pp. 84.
85, 109. 1 24.
3 I am drawing partly on distinctions between monology and dialogy elaborated by Mikhail
Bakhtin in Problems ojDostoevsky's Paetics, ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson (Mancheter, 1984)
and The Dialogic Imagination, cd. Michael Holquist and trans. Caryl Emeron and Michael
Holquist (Austin, Texas, (981). For PlatonicinOuence in Four (artets, sec Maud Ellman, The
Poetics q lmpersonali!: T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound (Brighton, 1987), pp. 1 1 9-20.
'If Platonism from age to age has meant, for some, a doctrine of "being", or the nearest
attainable approach to or substitution for that: for others, Platonism has been in fact only
another name for scepticism, in a recognisable philosophical tradition': Walter Pater, PlaiD
and Platonism (New York, 1969), p. 194 On Pater and Plato, see Anne Varty, pp. 257-67,
above. In his essay of 1930, 'Arnold and Pater', Eliot shows himself familiar with Pater's text
sec T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays (London, 1958), p. 440. I am gratcful to my colleague Beverley
Southgate, for information that both Montaigne and Hegel entertained the notion of Plato's
possible scepticism.
Plato and Eliot's earlier verse
29
9
lattet.Theexetciseo|questioningwil|beasttongthemeinthisessay.
Socrates,P|atoandE|iotarealikeindeemingthe'unexamined |i|e'

'wlile: tfis -eiia 'onwentiethcetry

cItura|
histoty, Eliot's areer can easi|y be consttued as an end-ditected
pilgrimagetowards Christian|aith |whete bothPlatoandAtistotle
make a conttibution), his inquity was always tooted in Soctatic
humility|'"IcanconnectjNothingwithnot')andSoctates'
unceasingintertoganssi|nedge'Atetheseideas
tightorwrong?'
It is well known that the loundation o|Eliot's poetic style was
|ormedthtoughanabsorptionintheverseo|]ulesLa|otguebetween
theyeats [908 and [ 9 [ 2. Eliotwou|d laterdiscussLa|orgue |a|ong
withTristan Cotbite) asa 'metaphysica|' poet, because his verse
'acquitesemotionalcoloutingbyentettainingmetaphysicalbelie|s'.'
Stylistica|ly, howevet, it is the itonic tteatment o| intellectual
absttactions tathet than any entettainment o|belie|which E|iot
appropriated |rom the Ftench symbo|ist. By adapting the mock-
sceptica|stanceand !i|tingly itonic tone, Eliot wasable to trans|et
La|orgue's suburban cabaret |with its Piertotsand Shakespeatian
poseurs) intoanurban,intetiotisedsymposiumwherewhatis atissue,
hnally,isalwaysaquasi-Socraticinterrogationo|teality.In'Poems
Written in Ear|y Youth' a Socratic sel|-consciousness emerges
abruptly |rom the La|orguean pastiche - 'Logica mationette's a||
wrong j O| premises' |'Humoutesque'), 'Yout shadow leaping
behindthenteagainstthetedtock'|'TheDeatho|SaintNarcissus'),
'Onthedootstepo|theAbsolute' |'Spleen') .*
Intheeatliest-wtitteno|thepoemspublishedinPrufrock and Other
Observations ( [ 9[ 7) theimage-tea|mo|urbana|ienationissubjected
to thotough-going metaphysicalquestioning. 'Pteludes' is initially
consttuctedouto| aplethotao|metonymicutbandetailschatactetised
as 'masquetades'. Eliot's questioning concetns what the day's
'consciousness'consistsin,whethetthe'sou|' hereisanythingmote

ih_ordidimages'andwhaT'otion` onhneget:utie
_
-
an
suerin:muhman.Thepoemendswithadismissive|aughandan
, The Waste Land, 11. 301-2, The Complele Pocmsalld Plays ofT.S. Eliot (London, 1969), p. 70. All
reference will be to this volume. 'Portrait of a Lady', ibid., p. 20.
, Quoted from Eliot's eighth Clark Leclure in Ronald Bush, T.S. Eliot: A Study ill Charaeler alld
SVlc (Oxford, Ig8S), pp.
'
73
-
4. " Complete Poems and Plays, pp. 587-606.
Ibid., pp. 22-3.
oo DENNI S BROWN
evocationo| endcs:cosmicT:x.yetalreadyherethemethodo|P|ato
as the seach |or higher :vti:t a rea|m of
.
mman:izI
phenomena-isgiven haungrea|isationasaninitiation .opocti
n T rguean irony has enab|ed liot to estab|h a sel|-
questioning phi|osophica| verse akin to P|atonic dia|ogue. As
R.Peacockhassuggested.' [|iot's 1 theoryo| voicescou|da|sobesaid
to be inuenced by P|ato's basic poetic |orms. P|ato distinguished
|orms accordingto the'direct' or'indirect'addresso|thepoet . . .
|iot'saddressistohimse|fneitherdirectnorindirectbutneutra|.'

nd,justa

mp rtot|y, P|ato'swritingsprovd tg

vision
oe`demotic,sensuaIwa \
g
o|r
sh_
C
|
|igt

\ou|tat=|it'oethe
withanideal,intheormo|theAbso|ute,towardswhichtheear|ier
r
o

rspin aaie

contentim ` ``
PRUFROCK
Themostaccomp|ishedo||iot'sear|iestpoemsis'TheLoveSongo|
]. A||red Pru|rock'.1
2 !t is in the |orm o| a modi6ed dramatic
mono|ogue,setagainstanepigraph|romtheIr(sme,andisreminiscent
o|aShakespearianso|i|oquy,aswe||asBrowning'sstudieso|'action
incharacter' .However,itisamorephilosophica|Iydialogicalpoem
thanprecedentswouldsuggest. ora||itsear|y-modernsettingand
thepsycho|ogicalcuriosityo|itsspokesman,theinte||ectualspeci6city
o|the poem_ prcdued by |iot's 'address to himse|I which is
e|a

ratd

asaixoticcollatio:

o|hyptheses,rhetorica|questions
and artia|declaions,a|waysunderthesbadowo|someSocratw

er|ulrea|isation.'JoJeadyou toa

rmtnz
question'||. io). AsinP|ato's ear|ier dia|ogues,wehaveadrnised
debatewhere,int!e mannerofbcdranatic u a csons_es
areimagirroththa'ca,voiced- ' ''Thatis not whatI

-
...,., ,.+

I9
R. Peacock, <Eliot's Contribution to Cricism of Drama, in The Literar Crilicim rT.S. Eliot:
New Essas (London, 1977), p. J01.
I
I See 'Falls the Shadow', in Dennis Brown, The Moderist Sel in Twentieth-Centu English
Literature: A Stud.J in SelFragmentalion (London, 1989). pp. '49-58. For 'shaft' ,sccRepublic61 6e.
l2
C(mpletc Poems and Plays, pp. 13-17.
'" ' ''Elenchus'' in the wide sensc means examining a person with regard to a statement hc has
made, by putting to him questions calling for further statements, in the hope that they will
determine the meaning and the truth-value of his frt statement'; 'he elenchus changes
ignorant man from the state orfalscly supposing that they know to the state ofreeognising
that they do not know.' Richard Robinson, Plato's Earlier Dialectic, 2nd cdn (Oxford, 1953),
pp. 7 and I I .
Plato and Eliot's earlier verse
or
meaut at a||' ' ' . ||. o;) Tcpo

:e:escuts u appropriatiou |iu

moderudress)o|P|atonicdiaIogi:c:d Socratcn

exres ai
iute||ectua|'sraica!aienatiouiutheagora o|coutempo

yclty|\|e.
Aud(wo ams i-, she cicdpa6mtit|(l,
aud the 'magic |auteru' throwiug patterued uerves 'ou a screeu'
|p. ro)- remiud us power|u||yo|the couditiou

| Plato'schaiued
prisouersiutheParab|eof the Ca-+||::5f{sq: ' "
Ai thecoreo|thepoemisathirst|oru|timateRea|ity- |orsome
hgh: iooageswhich

30 )1Ieoiccs o|othe-s`
-
characterised typical|y as womeu's voices - utter the words o|
Sophistry as opposed to iuquiry. 'hx you iu a |ormu|ated phrase'
(I. 0).Atthesametime, asiuP|ato'sdia|ogues, theissuecoucerus
virtue as we|| as truth. Se||-uuderstaudiugis a matter o|how oue
shou|dbeaudwhatoueshou|ddo. 'Audwou|dithavebeeuworthit,
a|tera|| . . .?' |!. oo).Thch:

{'| insidiousiuteut' ) , |eadiugat

1ea oa know|edge

ue'serror udio ie t|i

Thisisperhapsouto|a|earo|iute||ectua|demo|itiou-itisiu'huma
voices' that 'we drowu' ||. ie) . Yet a|though uo reso|utiou to
pro b|emsisoered-aud:uthis toothereis

tcuchof|\eSocraiic '
i|cp::a:-6s-| it:vestigatiou,therehearsa|o| tauulisingquestious
au

m,

e
.
" is, esse'iHaU ' r'"
P|atou.31e young i|osophy studeutwho thc oeu)a:
ti|i

dthedia|ogica|methodo|the|ouudiug|athero|the'miudo|
Europe''toexpressaudassessahua||y-persoua||audmoderu)quest
|ortheRea|.
ThesomewhatuucharacteristicquatraiupoemswhichE|iotwrote
betweeuPrufrock audThe Waste Land | r oee) 'areuotverydirect|yiu
pursuito|'v' |beiug) despiteirouicevocatiouo|theNeop|atouic
'Word'.Throughthe|ikeso|BurbaukaudB|eiusteiu,Pipitaudthe
|ow-|i|eSweeuey,theyaremaiu|ycouceruedtosatirisetheiucreasiug|y
democratised wor|do|'themauy'- whereappetite,proh tauds|oth
arethemaiumotives.TheP|atouic impu|sehere,asiusomeo|E|iot's
po|itica|

commeutary 1ater,ce
.
|om th

'risoti i

i:
theui|i :n uwhichi::ormssuchkeytextsase

_


1" 'Whatever he says in any place has an element of the provisional already built into it';
C.J. Rowe, Plalo (Brighton) 1 984). p. 53.
1 Eliot's phrase in 'Tradition and the Individual Talen
t
', Stice/cd Esays, p. 16.
6
See Dennis Brown, /nleriexlu(/ Dynamics Within the Literary Group-Joyce, uwis, POlmd and Eliot:
The Men t 1914 (London, 1990), pp. 73-7.
' 'Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service', 1.6, Complete Poems and Plq), p. 54.
oe DENNI S BROWN

Re+Uadihr

1e Heighteued bythebittetnesso| Wot|dWat,

thesesatites'Kodak'theseusua||egateeso|theEutopeauco||apse.
The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golder's Green;
..
Where are the eagles and the trumpets?
",;'
'A Cooking Egg' (II. 27-9)
('i'"
Itisavisionwhichwi||tecutiu'Getoutiou'aud The Waste Land: but
iuthe|attetitwi||beba|aucedbyasti||-Soctati:ursuita|i(.
Iuthequattaius,themodeicome3icexposuteo|uuexamiued|ives,
P|atouica||y-sanctiouedsiuce'theacquisitiouo|vittuetequitesusto
tecognisebuoouety,iuotdetthatwecauavoiditoutse|ves'. 1 9 These
poemsboasttheitphi|osophica|supetiotitythtoughco|d|y-assumed
dep|oymeut o| tatihed tetmiuo|ogy aud atcaue a||usiou. They
imp|icit|yassetttheiute||ectua|iutegtityo|amodetusou|- as The
Waste Land wi||maui|estthe

samesou|inneat-tetmiua|bteakdowu.
<:- .. . *^`
THE WASTE LAND
Thechie|c|uetoaP|atouiciuteutiuThe Waste Land sut|aces|tomthe
mauusctipt dtas ptiot to Ezta Pouud's editing o|the poem. Iu
sectiouIII, 'TheFiteSetmou',betweeutheappatitiouo|the'demotic'
Mt. Eugeuidesinthe'Uutea|City' audTitesias'sotdidvisiono|a
subutban seductiou, thete is a c|eat te|eteuce to the eective
couc|usiono|P|ato'satgumentiutheReel/i:.'Nothete,0 G|aucou,
butiuauothetwot|d'."Thiscauce||ed |iueisimp|icit|ycouuected
withtheteitetated'butuing'metaphot|tomAugustiue'sConfessions,
siuce the passage iu the Rllic he|ped iuspite The Cir oj God. 21
Howevet,i utheeat|ytwentiesE|iotwas|at|tomcommittedtothe
Chtistiau|aithaudthesatiticvisiono|contempotatyIoudouinThe
Waste Land, as a who|e, is geuuiue|y P|atouic iu its depictiou o|
'democtatic'manho' teemswith . . . p|easutesaudappetites,aud
hisgovetuedby his uuuecessaty desites'(8:llico) ua. wor|d.
o(5ere appenrance and ux. Anothet passage |tomI/e RepUblic
concerns

he 'snia' wetecit, hose home is in the

. "
,"
'
, "
'
" ,

.
'
,
.
,
.,
'
"
'
'-
"
'--
"
.

dea|,|otIthiuk

at
!

|!9
e
99.!"
'|R:llicoe)
\4
Wyndham Lewis's term, sec my Illterlexillal Dynamics, p. 76. 19 Rowe, Plato, p. 47.
Sec T. S. Eliot, The Waste Llnd: a Facsimile alld Trallscript ojthe Original Drafs Includi"g Ike
AlIllOlatioTs ojE{ra POUId, cd. Valere Eliot (London, '971 ) , p. 128.
`` See the discussions in Grover Smith, The Waste Land (London, 1983), pp. 52-3 and Erik
Svary, The Men of1914: T.S. Eliot and Ear! Moderism (Milton Keynes. 1988), pp. 198f.
Plo/e ooEe/'searlifT verse
The remotenesso|theidea|citv!rom t coiteuporarymetropolisis

prccslv
-
wlmt

1s -Looanients. Stephc:: Seder a,v

ie\mcu his chapteron|cpoem. 'The Jemporal City otTotal
Conditioning.'Hence.
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Ut:eal
( The Waste Land II. 373-5)
The uostLooischaracteristica||y5ocraticinitsbasicstanceot
se|tawareignorance.Anothercance||ed|inereads. 'AnditAnother
knows,I knownot'.Thisisquitedirect|yanechootSocrates'key
avowa|inA]eley 2 r d 'he thinksthatheknowssomethingwhichhe
doesnotknow,whereasIamquiteconsciousotmyignorance ..

Ido
not think that I know what I do not know'. The authorised and
pub|ishedtexto| E|iot'spoemretainsthcstanceotthecancel|ed|ine,it
is |ul|o|dec|arations o|ignorance. ''and I knewnothing'' (1. 40);
''DoI Youknownothing?'' ',(II, r 2r -2) ; ''IcanconnectI Nothing
withnothing'' (II, 300-r ) ; 'These|ragmentsIhaveshoredagainstmy
ruin' (1. 430), IncommentingonhisownessaysonP|ato,E|iothad
contessed his'|ataldisposition towardscepticism'. v
e
+,_usin
'Pru|rock`,scep

ticisnJkehost!ooisbased onaSoctaticoues:v
O enquirandi|t:llyP|atonicin so1arasis petsistent|
yin

pursuito|
ythanis evidentin theimagewor|d otthemundane
-retm w1.Eistheoem`sHi

!
-
:bectmaitev.h

e persne

itiihc
poemare ah'chainedpriso)tts' i\iaucedbyshdows- butthetext
showsthis to be thecaseandsoit presupposessome 'heart ot|ight'
(1. r4) wheretrueawarenessmightoccur. The Waste Looisinpursuit
otthis a|though it tails to hnd it. It constitutes radical|y dialogic
heterog|ossia and concludes, like somc otP|ato's earlierdialogues,
|eavingthekeyissuesverymuchopen.Initsquesttormeaning,two
P|atonic precedent texts seem especia||y re|evant. the Republic, as
suggested,withitspro|ongeddebateaboutthepossibi|ityotestab|ishing
a|ustcitywithintheactua|wor|d,anda|sotheP/oe,thedramatised
interrogationo|thena.ureo|thesou|intheimmediateshadowot death.
TheR]ellicopenswithabrietdisquisitionbytheageingCepha|us,
who quotes Sophocles to the eIJect thatsexua| desire is a torm ot
savagetyranny.ThisisamajorthemeotThe Waste Lootoo,withits
publichouseinnuendoandsordidseduction sceneandwithTiresias
" Stephen Spender, Eliot (London, 1975), pp. 901 19.

Facsimile alld Trallscript, p. 69.

"` Eliot toJ.H. Woods, 28J:
I1l11ar 1915, l.flc, p. 84-
DENNI S BROWN
|htting|y,sinceheis akeyngure inSophoc|eandrama) asitsaged
|and age|ess) spokesperson. What the who|e poem expresses is an
imper|ectsocietypresided overnot byaphi|osopherking but bya
sick|yFisher King. In place o|the rationalvoiceso|phi|osophica|
debate, The Waste Land exposesitsreaderstotheneuroticbabb|eo|
distractedcitizens("'0 keeptheDog|arhence'' (I. ;),''Doyou
seenothing?'' (I. 1 22); ' ''myheart j Undermy|eet'` |||. eo0-;),
'Hieronymo'smadagaine'|I.r ) ).Andinsteado| somemani|estation
o|'thatessencewhichis eterna|' (Republic 8b) thepoemexpresses
on|y' aheapo|brokenimages'.Neverthe|ess,The Waste Land, |ikethe
Republic, inscribesadeve|opmenttowardsomepointo| en|ightenment.
The thunder's commandssuggest an ordered awarenesssuch asis
hoped |romP|ato's'guardians'- even i|thevoiced responsesimp|y
theinabi|ityo|thewaste-|anderstoattainthis.Simi|ar|y,theFisher
King wonders whether he shou|d set his |ands 'in order' - a
con|ormityto Platonic|usticeasdennedinRepublic Bookd, and
trans|atedinthePenguinversionas.'inthetruestsensesethishouse
inorder,andbehisown|ordandmasterandatpeacewithhimse||'
And, nna|ly, the poem conc|udes, i|ironical|y, with a reiterated
'Shantih',|ustastheRepublic endsindivineconsummation|'atpeace
withGodandwithourse|ves',asthePenguinversionagainrendersit,
and 'a|| wi|| be we|| with us' |0e: c-d). It wil| not be unti| the
conclusion o|Four Quartets that E|iot wil| amrm, with 1ulian o|
Norwich too, that 'a|| sha|| be we||'. Neverthe|ess, a|ongwith Sir
1amesFrazer'sThe Golden Bough and(essieL.Weston'sFrom Ritual to
" Romance, P|ato'sRepublic issure|yoneo|the|uundingtextsindia|ogue
withwhich The Waste Land e|!ects itsmannero|meaning.
The in6uence o| the Phaedo is |ess obvious - but perhaps as
signincant.The Waste Land, |ikethcPke:e,isadramatisedmeditation
setagainst thehorizon o|death. 'He who was |ivingis nowdead`
(I. e8).Eliot'snrstchoice|orthepoem'sepigraphwastheutterance
o|Conrad'sdyingKurtz.' ''Thehorror!thehorror! ',hissecond,was
thepublished.anduntrans|ated)quotation6omPetronius,inwhich
thesa|ientwordsarethecagedandwizenedSybi|'scry:' ''Iwantto
die' . The themeso|death-in-|i|eandli|e-in-death have|ongbeen
\ Plato, Tie ReplIblic, translated by H.D.P. Lee (Harmondsworth, 1965), p. 96. This
translation, ofcoursc, may have been influenced by Eliot's own phraseology. Paul Shorey
translates the Greek: 'he should dispose well of what in the true sense of the word is properly
his own, and having !'st attained to selr-mastcry .md beautiful order within himsclf . . .'
Collceted Dialogues, cd. Hmnilton and Cairns, p. 686.
2 Lee's translation, Tie Repllhiic, p. 401 . Shorey gives: 'that we may be dear to ourselves and to
the Gods . . . we shall f. 'lre well', Collected Dia/o.tutS, p. 841.
Plato and Eliot's earlier verse
criticallyacknow|edgedinaccountso|The Waste Land. TheP|atonic
precedent |or such dia|ogue between Being and Nothingness is
embedded centra||yin thePhaedo:
the living have come from the dead no less than the dead from the living. at
I think we decided that if this was so, it was a sufcient proof that the souls ot
the dead must exist i n some place from which they are reborn. (70a)
Such|ructivereciprocitybetweendeathand|iIehasbecomebroken
downin The Waste Land: thisliesattheheartotitscrisis|'Thatcorpse
you planted|ast year in your garden, j Has it begun to sprout?'
(I. ; r-c).Yet thepoem exhibitsonewatchtulsou| |rom thatother
'p|ace'- Tiresias,theGreekprophet,inwhombothma|eand!cma|e,
deathand|ite, co-mingle. The Waste Land dramatisesawor|dwhich
deniestheP|atonicdoctrineoltheimmorta|ityo|thesoul -andhence
has no meaning. So the centra| hgure ot Ph|ebas enters 'the
whir|poo|'.Yetthepoem'sovera||implicationisthatitspersonaeare
radicallysel|-deceived and henceht on|y |or |imbo. That this was
E|iot'sownconvictionisattestedinacodedre!erencebyPoundtothe
holidayin Francehesharedwith E|iotin 1 91 9:
And the tower with cut stone above that, saying:
'I am afraid of the life after death'.
and after a pauhe.
'Now, at .last, I have shocked him.'27
'TheHo||owMen'( 1 92
5
) a|soexpressesthat|ear.Theinhabitants
ot 'death's other kingdom' think o|the contemporary 'many' as
'stued men'- nouentities. Thepoemis bui|tupout ota rangeof
inuences,yettheprecedentottheParab|eotthe Cave seems, again,
particu|ar|y pertinent to section I, which was origina||y written
separate|y.The 'many'herearechorica||yexpressedas'O|dGuys',
yettheirsituationisverymuchthesameasP|ato'sprisonersin'a sort
ot subterraneancavern'|'ourdryce||ar'),shackledtogether|'para|ysed
torce' ) , awareon|yotshadows |'Shapewithouttorm,shadewithout
co|our' dtucussing ons |'We whisper . . . meaning|ess' ) .
Throughout the poem, and part|y with reterence to Dante's Vita
,Nuova, there is a strong contrast between antithetica| rea|ms o|
awareness

- as in the Parable. Sun|ight |in the poem 'on abroken

co|umn`)istheabso|uteoppositetotheshadow-p|ay,andeyes,asthe
vehic|eotsightandhenceunderstanding,arekeymetonymichgures.
'7 Ezra Pound, The Clllllos (l.ondoi1, 1986). p. 1 45. For the idCntificntioll of'Arnall!' with Eliot
hefe, sec Hugh Kennel', The Pound Er (Califoria, 1 973). pp. 336-8.
o0 DENNI S BROWN
IntheRepublic, also,modesotseeing|henceawareness)arecentral.
But a sensible man, I said, would remember that there are two distinct
disturbances of the eyes arising from two causes, according as the shift is from
light to darkness or from darkness to light, and, believing that the same thing
happens to the soul too, whenever he saw a soul perturbed and unable to
discern something, he would . . . observe whether coring from a brighter life
its vision was obscured by the unfamiliar darkness, or whether the passage
from the deeper dark of ignorance into a more luminous world aad the
greater brightness had dazzled his vision. ( 51 8 a)
/acquesDerridahasassertedthat'themetaphoroldarknessandlight
|otselt-revelationandselt-concealment)' whichhecentresonPlato,
constitutes 'the tounding metaphor ot Western philosophy as
'i, metaphysics'.ItiscertainlycentraltoEliot'sverse,and tothispoem
in particular. Thus in scction v 'the shadow' mediates between a

varied |and semi-ironic?) list otquasi-Socraticentities.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow."
It can be said, then, that the earlier poetry otT.S. Eliot was
writteninagonisticrelationtoPlatonicprecursortexts.Eliotpursued
hiscontention with theNeo-Hegelian F. H.Bradleyinhisdoctoral
dissertationandarticlein theMonit." Inthepoems,hisstruggleis
with thetoundingtatherotphilosophy.' Yetalthoughheturnsthe
dialecticalmethodintoamodeotselt-questioning|andcanevokethe
threatotelenchus) itistypicalotthepoetthatheseemctoowemoreto
Plato'srhetoricalnguresthantohislogic.Thenotionotanidealcity
transcendingthesensualagora otmetropolitanlite,theimageotdirect
sunlightincontrasttotheshadow-realmottheworld's'cave',andthe
heroichgurationottheintellectualwhoownsto hishnalignorance
yetstill pursues truth- theseare keyinuences in thepoetryEliot
wrote trom ioo8 to i oe. Thereatter occurs the 'turn' ol'Ash-
20
'Morc than any other philosophy, phenomenology, in the wake of Plato, was to be struck
with light. Unable to resist the last na'(vcte, the nu
'
ivclc of the glance, it pl'cdctcrmincd Being
as object' .Jacques DCJTida, Writingand Ditrtllct, trans. Aan Bas (London, Ig81), pp. 85 and 27.
'The Hollow Men', Complete Poems flld Plays, p. 85.
$
0
'Lcibniz' Monads and Bradley's Finite Centre'. The Monist (1 91 6), reprinted in T.S. Eliot,
Knowledge fllld experience ill lhe Philosophy of F.H. Bradle (London, 1964), pp. 198-Q07.
Sec Harold Bloom, The Anxiery ofIl/fuCl ec: a Theory o Poetry (New York, 1973), passim,
Plato and Eliot's earlier verse
i Wednesday'andthedeve|opmento|akindotChristianNeoplatonism
.!which wi|| seekthe'sti||point' through the 'ngure' o|music.

In ear|ierE|iot the Idea|, the Beautitul and theGoodcannot be

invokedwithoutirony.inthisrespectheisbothinhuencedbyP|ato
andincontentionwithhim.Orputanotherway,heacceptsPlatothe
scepticbutretusesP|atotheidealistAtthesametime,heusespoetry
not |ogic in pursuit o|the truth, thus turning Plato's own ngural
powers against his teased-out dennitions and distinctions, and
denyingPlato'slowopiniono|thepoetic.AsEricThompson writes
aboutthe|ater'BurntNorton'.'asadetenseo|poetry. . . itiswritten
byapoetwhograntsinadvance. . . thevalidityo|P|ato'sindictment
. . . Eliot'sde|ensivetacticsaretoshowthatthesou|which|al|sbythe
imaginationrisesbytheimagination'.E|iottheone-timephilosopher
thususespoetrytochallengethediscursiveterrainonwhichb|indness
andinsightare tobe contested. So reading Eliotmakesusrethink
P|ato,asreadingPlatoopensupkeyimp|icationso|Eliot'searlierverse.
32 Sec Maud Ellmann, Tie Poetics ojImpasonalir, pp. 1 1 9-o.
Thompson, TS. Elot, p. 81 ,
C HAP TER 2 8
The CantosofEzra Pound: ' To build light'
A.D. Moor
InPound'sCantos, asinP|atouismgenera||y,thegenerativeenergyol
theuniverseisconceivedasgermina|inte||igence,asnous. The|ightol
inte||igencemanilestsitse|linevery|ivingthing,thus, 'oaklealnever
p|ane|eal'|8;[j;),and,'thereissomethinginte||igentinthecherry
stone'| i r [;88),thus'bu||bythelorcethatisinhim-[ not|ordolit ,
[mastered' | r r [;8o) . ' Buttheworkingsolnous aremosteective|y
graspedwhenthemindpenetratessuchparticu|armanilestationsand
conceives its governing conceptions, the universa| Ideas and a||-
shapingForms.Then, moreover,itbecomespossib|elor thedivine
conceptionstoenterintoandtogovernhumanexistenceandsociety.
Thisishumauity`spartin the makingoltheCosmos, torea|ise the
|ightolthe diviue inte||igence in the lorm oltheRepub|ic, or the
'paradisoterrestre' as Pound prelerred to ca|| it.
The Cantos areoneman'seorttoconceivethegoverningideasol
theprocessolwhichwe arepart,so thatwemightparticipateinit
moreeectua||y.Thatistosay, The Cantos arenotabouttheP|atonic
ideaol no us, butareanattempttopractiseit- tobe,asSpinozaputit,
ahumanmodeolthedivineinte||igence.Thepoemisanattempt'To
makeCosmos-Toachievethepossib|e'| r r0[;oj),andtodo'our|ob'
which is, as Oce||us said, 'to bui|d |ight` |o8[08) . The reader, it
shou|dbesaid,isnecessari|yinvo|ved inthework.
P|atonism,initsNeop|atoniclorm,isrelerredtoinThe Cantos byway
ola||usionstoandcitationsoladozenorsophi|osophers.Theear|iest,
|to set them in chrono|ogica| order, which is not their order ol
appearance), is Pythagoras |B. c. jo c), who was belore P|ato
(c. e;-; c),butwhoseteachingsbecameanimportantcomponent
olNeop|atonism.Nextcometwolo||owersolPythagoras,Oce||uswho
I References to The Callios arc to The Gal/los ojEztPOITd (New York and London, 1975). The
first number indicates the canto, and the second the page in (hat edition.
o8
The Cantos :Ezra Pound
hourished in the h|th centuty Be, and Apo||onius o| Tyana, a
neat-contempotatyo|1esusChtistandintheeyeso|somehispagan
counterpart. Then cor::e the Neop|atonists ptoper, P|otinus
(AD ecj-e;c),who,intheopiniono|Longinushiscontemporatyin
Rome,'settheprincip|eso|Pythagorasando|P|atoinac|eater|ight
thananyonebe|orehim',Porphyry(AD e-c. cj),hisdiscip|eand
editor o|his Enneads; and Iamb|ichus |d. AD c.o), a student o|
PotphyryandknownasbothaP|atonistandaPythagotean.Those
phi|osophersa||wrotein Gteek.A|iet themcomecertain Chtistian
Neop|atonistswhoseworking|anguagewasLatinbutwhoknewGteek
wel|enoughtotrans|ateandtodrawontheitGreekptedecessors.1 ohn
ScotusEriugena(AD c.8r o-c. 8;;), thehrsttouniteGteekphi|osophy
and Christian thought in a sing|e system, Anse|m o|Canterbury
| i c-rrco), thenextsystematicthinketa|tetEtigena,butmoreo|a
theo|ogianand|esso|aspecu|ativephi|osophet,andRichatdo| |the
abbeyoSaint-VictorinPatis|d. rr ;) , whocombinedNeop|atonic
and Chtistian ideas in his writings on the theoty and ptactice o|
contemp|ativemysticism. |RobettGtosseteste ( I i ;j-r ej),Ox|otd
scho|arandBishopo|Linco|n,isnotnamedin The Canlos, but|romhis
tteatise on |ight is drawn the |ormu|ation o| a key concept o|
Neop|atonic cosmo|ogy) . Two Neop|atonists associated with the
RenaissanceinI ta|yarementioned- GemistusP|etho| i jj?-rjc?)
andMarsi|ioFicino| i-oo)-|ess|otanyorigina|conttibutionthan
|ottheirpassingonthetradition.The|asto| the|ineis1ohnHeydon|b.
r 0ec?), an Eng|ish astto|oger, a|chemist and visionaty, thought a
chat|atan in his own time, andexposedasap|agiatistinours.
Itshou|dnotbethoughtthatNeop|atonismassuch|ooms|atgeor
hgutesasama|orsub|ectinThe Cantos. Mosto|thosephi|osophersare
teptesentedby|itt|emotethantheitnamesandatagorananecdote.
Theteis no substantia| treatment o|their particu|at ideas, nor o|
Neop|atonic thought in geneta|. What we are exp|icit|y given
amountstonomorethananumbero|pointsandte|erences.Itisttue
thatthesecan beseen tomake up, when sorted intochrono|ogica|
otder, an out|ine history o|the Neop|atonic way o|thinking the
Cosmos.Anditwou|d appeatthatthiscosmo|ogyisbeingamtmed.
Yetitis|eiquiteundehned,indeedvirtua||yunstated.This|ruga|ity
o|re|etence can tempt commentatots to ptovide what has been
withhe|d,andtoinsett,|otexamp|e,Grosseteste'sDe Luee intotheir
teadingo|The Cantos, on thestrength o|thecitation|romito|the
sing|e phrase 'per p|uta dia|ana' |through the many diaphonous
r o A. D. MOODY
|degreeso! being] ) . Iratherthinkthatthisisadistraction!rom the
processo!intelligenceandnotacontributiontoit.TheNeoplatonism
is beingpractised, notexpounded.
Considerthecaseo!Iamblichus,whogetsabrie! mentionearlyin
The Cantos, as one o!the'outstandingrepresentatives o!the early
phase o! the school o! Plotinus', as a Pythagorean, and !or his
in6uenceonlaterNeoplatonism.Muchmightbemadeo!Iamblichus.
But we are given only the terse phrase, 'Iamblichus light'. The
Companion to the Cantos ofEzra Pound pertinently tellsus that in his
thoughtLightdenoted theOne, 'thesingleprinciple!romwhichthe
pluralityo!thingsderive` .Buttomakeanythingo!theallusionwe
need toreaditincontext.
Measureless seas and stars,
lamblichus' light,
the souls ascending,
Sparks like a partridge covey,
Like tbe'ciocco', brand struck in tbegane,
'Et omniformis'; (5
/
1
7
)
I! Iamblichus'lightisindeed thesourceo!allthingsthenmeasureless

seasandstarswouldnotbeinappositiontoit,butwouldbeopposed.
ForinPythagoreantermsitisthemeasured whichmani!eststheprimal
light, whiletheunmeasurediswhatisnotin!ormedbyit. But then
again'measureless'mightimplyonlythattheperceiverisunableto
measurethe'seasand stars'. Whatis in question isnotsimply the
ob|ective situation but also the capacity o! the observer. and the
apparentlymeasurelessmight,i!itcould onlybeseeninthelighto!
Iamblichus, be numbered within the cosmos. The images which
!olloware a variation upon this miniature drama o!the mind. In
Dante's Paradiso (XVlII, roo), the individual souls in their ascent
assumeasingle!ormastheybecomesub|ecttotheall-comprehending
andall-generatingdivinelight.Thatatleastistheidea,butwhatwe
actuallyseeintheselinesaretheseparatelights,nottheonelight-
|ustaswesee 'Measurelessseasandstars' ratherthan ' Iamblichus'
light'.TheLatinphrase,aglosso!FicinouponPorphyry,makesthe
point. ourintelligenceis omni!orm, itisinevitablydrawn into the
pluralityo!things.Andthusitmaybe'wreckedinthemultiplicityo!
2 J.O. Urmson and Jonathan Rcc (eels), Concise EJlCyclopaedia of Wester Philosophy alld
Pilosopfm (London, Ig8g), p. 220. Sec also Sheppard p. 5 above.
Carroll F. Terrell (cd.), A Cmpanioll to the Cal/tos q E;ra Pound (Berkeley, Ig80), I, p. 1 7.
L
The Cantosoj Ezra Pound I I
the

Universe'(Enneads lJ, .8). Thereader'smind,strugg|ingtomake

coherentsenseo|thediscrete|ragments,iscaughtupinthisdramao|
themindwhichwou|dprceivetheinte||igib|euniverseandbeatone
with thenous butwhich actua||y perceivesand |ee|s itse|||ostin a
mu|tip|icityo|detai|.Thusthepassageneithergivesnorasks|oran
expositiono|Neop|atonicdoctrine
.
butisadirectexperienceo|mind
strugg|ing |or en|ightenment.
P|otinusnguresre|ative|yextensive|yin The Can/os, 6rstinitshe||
and|aterin:heapproaches toitsparadise.'He||'and'paradise', it
shou|d be noted,arestateso|mind, notp|aces. He|| is thestateo|
mindsdeprivedo|the|ighto|inte||igence,andparadiseisthestatein
which the apparent|y incomprehensib|e becomes inte||igib|e. The
|atterstateisnoteasi|yattained.Be|oreHerak|es
.
inPound'sversion
o|Sophoces'Women ofTrachis, attainsitandexc|aims
'
SPLENDOUR
!
IT
ALL COHERES
'
, hehassuered extremeanguish and agony. Neither
thepoet, northereaderinhiswake,canexpecttoreach itwithout
mind-crackingeort.
InCanto ij P|otinusshows thepoetthewayouto|he||.Hedoes
thi:inthe6gureo|Perseus,armedwiththemirror-shie|do|Minerva
andtheseveredheado|theMedusa,andnotbyanyexp|icitre|erence
tohisphi|osophy.1ustthesame,histreatise'TheNatureandSource
o| Evi|'(Enneads I. 8) wou|dprovidethemosthe|p|u|commentaryon
Pound'she||. E|iot, inthewe||-known passageinAfter Strange Gods;
ob|ectedtoPound'spresentingon|ytypeso|evi|-doingwhi|eomitting
thedramao|individua|damnation. Hisobjectionassumes thatthe
individua| sou| is o| primary signincance. But |or P|otinus the
individua| is rea|on|y to thedegree inwhichitparticipatesin the
Universa|.Evi|isthatwhichis|orm|essandshape|ess,withoutorder
ormeasure,unstab|e,de|iquescent,|a|lingaway'ing|oomandmud'
(Enneads l. 8. r ) into end|essdisso|ution and darkness. Individua|
identity, there|ore, is precise|y what is |ost with the |oss o|the
universa| princip|e. This is the essence o| Pound's he||, a p|ace
deprivedo|a|||ight ' ''d'ogni|ucemuto'
.
i j i 0) , '|astcess-poo|o|
theuniverse', hesoi|adecrepitude, theooze|u||o|morse|s,j|ost
contours,erosions','Thes|ougho| unamiab|e|iars,jbogo|stupidities',
'me|ted ossincations, j s|ow rot, |oetid combustion' | r j0e-) . The
poet|ee|shimse||beingsuckedintothebog,andP|otinusjPerseuste||s
him'Keepyoureyesonthemirror',whi|ehepetrihesthesoi|bythe
T.S. Eliol, tlfter Strange Gods (London, '931), pp. 4>--3.
t c A. D. MOODY
shie|donwhichtheMedusa'sheadhasbeenmounted,'Theserpents'
tongues . . . Hammering the souse into hardness' | r jjoo).Thisis
myth, not phi|osophy, but it dramatises the phi|osophy. In the
mirror-shie|dotMinervathemindseesthingsastheyarerehectedin
thedivineMind, thatis,itbeho|dstheirtormsandisprotectedtrom
thedisso|vingaccidents.
ButhowarePound'sreaderstogetoutothishe||?Ourexperience
is ot
'
DECOMPOSITION
'
, and perhaps over-whe|ming|yso. Yet what
Poundwasaerwas'theideaotmenta|ROT
'
.
'
Hiswritingseemsnot
to bemirroringthat idea, but to be givinguson|y its particu|ars.
Those particu|ars, however, are inte||igib|e, and when they are
comprehended the mind discovers in them a certain vision ot
unen|ightenment. Their governing idea is not spe|t out in an
abstraction or a genera|isation, but then, itthe universa| is to be
graspedata||,itcanbegraspedon|yinandbythemindcontronting
thedata.That,intheend,hastobethereader'sownmind. Itisour
gettingtheidea, 'theideaotmenta|ROT
'
, which|iberatesustromthe
'
DECOMPOSITION
'
. Inpracticetheon|ymirrorotMinervaisthemind
itse|t.
In Pound's approaches to paradise in the hna| sections ot The
Cantos, Thrones | t ojo)andDrets& Fragments | r o0o),P|otinushgures
inanumberotsnippetsand brietextracts.Thesemake|itt|esenseon
their own and canseem tobeatbestmeretragments ina mosaic.
Uponcaretu|consideration,however,theycanbetoundtotunction
asorganiccomponentsinverycomp|exandhigh-poweredpassagesot
meditation.Attheendot cantor oo| r ooj;e r-c)wecomeuponthese
impenetrab|e|ines.
lisses
amoureuses
a tenir
EX OUSIAS . . . HYPOSTASIN
III, 5, 3 PERI EROTAS
come in subjecto
Thenthereisahierog|yph,threeco|umnsonabase,representingthe
taadeotatemp|e,andbesideittheword'hieron',theGreekwordtor
atemp|easap|acededicatedtoandundertheprotectionotadivine
power.Thepassagegoeson tospeakdirect|yotthenous -
Brita Lindbcrg-Scycrstcd (ed.), Pound/Ford: TheStor ofaLiterarFriendslip (New York, 1982),
p.
'
34

L
The Cantosif Ezra Pound
nous to ariston autou
as light into water compenetrans
that is pathema
auk aphistatai'
thus Plotinus
per plura diafana
neither weighed out nor hindered;
aloof.
The|ragmentarinessisrein|orcedbytheshi|ts|romIta|iantoFrench
to Greek |trans|iterated), to Eng|ish and to Latin, with the
hierog|yph adding another kind o||anguage a|together. The mind
thatwou|d comprehend thiswithoutbeingshattered mustbe|usta
bit'omni|ormis',ab|etomove|ree|ythroughthevarious|anguages,
inorderto pick uptheideao|ita||.
TheGreekis|romP|otinus.'Exousias. . . hypostasin'isthegisto|
the hrst proposition o|section o|the h|th tractate o|the third
nnead 'Ill, 5, 'givesthere|erence. 'PeriErotas' |'about|ove')is
the tit|e o| this tractate. P|otinus argues that Love rea||y and
substantia||yexists,thatitisa'hypostasis'orrea|beingborno|area|
being.His exp|anation is partmythica| theo|ogyandpartmystica|
psycho|ogy.
Aphrodite, [daughter of Heaven, that is, of the Intellectual Principle],
concentrated her being upon her father and felt afnity with him, and flled
with passionate love for him brought forth Eros, and through this child of
hers she gazes upon him . . . [Eros or Love has] its being in this, that it is an
intermediary between desiring and the desired; it is the eye of desire, the
power by which the lover sees the object of desire. (Eeads lll. 5. 3)'
A simi|ar view o|Love is to be |ound in Danteand his Tuscan
contemporaries.Poundstudieditmostc|ose|yinthepoetryo|Guido
Cava|canti,|romwhosephi|osophica|canzone onthe natureo||ove,
'Donna mi prega` - given in trans|ation in canto 0 - comes the
phrase'come in subjecto'. In hisessayon Cava|canti hediscussed the
phrase in a way to connect itwith P|otinus' view that the sou| as
knower|orsub|ect)hastwophases,thereceptiveandtheresp|endenI.'
Thatistosay,whoeverknowsand|ovesthe|ighto|theinte||ect,and
thoseinwhomthe|ightismani|estasbeautyandinte||igence,areas
'diafana', in|used with |ight and spreading |ight about them. The
Cava|cantiphraseseemsto|unctionhereasa tagtoreca||P|otinus'
6 Based on Armstrong, 111, 1 77 and MacKcnna, p. 193.
1 Make It New (London, [934), pp. 388-g.
A. D. MOODY
accounto|how no"s is mediated by |ove.
But nrst Villon's 'la belle heaulmire' is briehy reca||ed, the
once-beautilu| woman remembering, in crabbed age, that in her
youthshewas'|issom and|oving to ho|d'. Howisherrea|ism and
pathostobere|atedtotheidea|ismolCava|cantiandPlotinus?Her
|iletoohashaditstwophases,andherbeauti|u|andbittersongisas
rea| a manilestation olsoul as was her diaphanous|ove|iness. The
interactions ol the |ragment o| her song with the phi|osophica|
lragments go beyond irony, and revea| her as a ea|-|ile and
cha||enginginstanceolthemysticalideas.Sheservestobringthem
downtoearth,and tobringthem toproof
Thatthought prompts anotheraboutthe temp|e hierog|yph. Its
three pi||ars, based uponthe p|intho|earth, are open tothe |ight
raining |rom heaven. That light is no"s, the intel|ectua| princip|e
whichissupremeinthecosmos,aswecanreadatthestart o|the
|ourthEnnead,'noustoaristonautou'|' Inte||ectisthebestparto|it',
IV. 2[1 ] . I ) . 'As|ightintowatercompenetrans' putsintoanimage
P|otinus' account (Enneads IV. 2) o|how the nO"S enters into the
mu|iplicity ol beings whi|e itsel| remaining undivided. 'That is
pathema'imp|iestheeectolitasle|tbytheindividualsou|or|over -
La belle heauLmiere, lor examp|e, whi|e 'ouk aphistatai' indicates that
Loveitsel|, thehypostasisoltheprimalsourceol|ight,|ikeitstands
'distinctanda|oof(III. 5. 3: McKenna,p. 1 94) . Thedictionaryyie|ds
'neither weighed out nor hindered' as |urther g|osses upon 'ouk
aphistatai`. 'Compenetrans' - penetrating the who|e, in every
direction- cou|dhavecomelromany oneol anumberolphi|osophers
in the Neop|atonic tradition, Grosseteste olthe mu|tiple 'diaJana'
amongthem.
Thearcanepassagethusturnsouttobeanintense|yconcentrated
gisto|P|otinusontheactionolno us inthe|ormo|Eros.Themindis
movedveryswi|tlylromonepointolrelerencetoanother,witheach
lragmentary detai| interacting with the rest to create, not an
argument, butan inte|lectua|ne|dollorce,oneinwhich,|usthere,
P|otinusandhishypostasesandthetemp|eandLaBe||eHeau|mire
co-existasileachapp|iedequa||ytotheother.The|ightpenetratesin
a||directions.Buttocomprehend it thereadermustnoton|yhave
gathered the materia|s, as I have been doinghere, but must then
swi|t|yperceivetheirre|ations.Thatheightened|eve|o|inte||ectua|
activity, the swilt perceiving olre|ations, is, in Pound's view, the
essenceolthemind'sgeniusornous. Inthispassagehehasbeendoing
The CantosojEzra Pound
theworkotnous, andinvo|vingthereaderinit.Thepoetryis,asever,
practisingthephi|osophy,notsimp|yreterringtowhatP|otinusthought.
Wehavebeen|ookingthereat|ustha|totonepageotonecanto.No
tota|reve|ationisto behadtrom it. The reading, theperceivingot
re|ations, needs to go on to take in the who|e canto, and the tu||
sequence otThrones de los Cantares: XGVI-GIX;' and u|timate|y the
tota|ity otThe Cantos i Ezra Pound. But the ha|t-page yie|dssome
insightintohowthewho|epoemworks,andspecihca||yintohowit
worksinitsNeop|atonicreaches.Onestrikingteatureishowrarehed
the inte||ectua| atmosphere has become, compared with the Pisan
Cantos wherememotywasdominant,orwiththehrstha|tottheepic
where histoty

was dominant. In Thrones, history and persona|

experience have been rehned into reterences and a||usions which
tunction as symbo|s, as in mathematics or |ogic, symbo|s which
presupposeabodyo|know|edgeandwhichservetorveryadvanced
thinkingaboutit.Thepurposeotthatthought,asitwasthepurpose
otP|ot in us'sandotP|ato's,istoattaincertainconcepts,theconcepts
which'make Cosmos' | r i 0j;oj) . And theon|ywayto attain them,
Poundwasconvinced,is'viainte||ect'.Itmakestorashockingkndot
poetry.
Nowin order to make Cosmos theideas must go into action, as
Poundtrequent|yamrmed.Whethertheconceptstormedinthemind
otitsreadersby The Cantos themse|veswi||makeadierenceto the
waythewor|disgoing,isaquestiontortuturehistorianstoreso|ve.
ButitiscertainthatthemeasurebywhichPoundwou|dhavehisown
anda||P|atonicconcepts|udged,istheireectiveness.Theirvirtueis
notin their|ogicortheir rhetoric butintheiraction.Bytheirtruits
you sha|| know them. This shows very c|ear|y in his rc|ative
va|uationsotP|atoand Apo||oniusotTyana.
Onewou|dhaveexpectedP|atotobeaccordedap|aceothonourin
The Cantos. In Guide to Kulchur | t o8) Pound wrote. 'even the most
rabidanti-p|atonistmustconcedethatP|atohas repeated|ystirred
mentoasortot enthusiasmproductiveotaction,andthatonecannot
comp|ete|ydiscount thisva|ueas|itetorce'.*Yetin The Cantos heis
mere|y mentioned in passing, on |ust tour occasions, and by
phi|osophersand statesmen whoputhimin theshade.Thereis an
anecdote otGemistus P|ethon speaking in F|orence about P|ato's
eortstohitchhisphi|osophytothepowerottheTyrantotSyracuse,
o Guide 10 Klllcllllr (London: Peter Owel, '952), p. 347.
W
A. D. MOODY
'Buthewasuuab|etopersuadeDiouysius[Toauyame|iotatiou'|8[I ) .
Thisshows P|atouotas theidea|iute||ectoltheSoctaticdia|ogues,
butiuthe|essatteriug|ightoltheEpistles, uusuccesslu||yttyiugto
gethisideasputiutoptactice.Thepoiutistubbediubythecoutrast
with GemistusP|ethouhimse||,whohad a remarkab|ee!ectupou
Cosimo de' Medici. Uudet his iuueuce, Cosimo louuded the
P|atouicAcademyolF|oteuce, setFiciuo to ttaus|atiug the Gteek
Neop|atouists, aud thus'seto0a reuaissauce
.
.
Iuothercautos PouudhasP|atoputdowuby]ohu+damsaud
Thomas]eetsou, louudets aud ear|y presideuts olthe Ameticau
tepublic.]eersouhadwtitteu thathecould uottake The Republic
serious|y.Adamsagrees, devastatiug|y.Thetewas|ustouethiughe
had|eatutlromhim.'thatsueeziugisacutelotthehickups'|jI 0e) .
I u a|atercautoPouudcitesAdams'steectiou that'somepattsol
P|atoaudSitThosMoteareaswi|dasthetaviugsolBed|am'|08[o) .
Agaiuwehavetheptactica|statesmauweighiugthephi|osophetaud
hudiughimwautiug.Teucautosaredevotedtothe|ileaudwotksol
]ohuAdams. P|atogetsaboutteu|iues.
Theteasoulothisbeiugvittua|ly bauishedlrom thepoemishis
lai|ure to givehis thought the precisedehuitiouuecessatylot it to
commuuicateitseuetgieseective|y. His 'purp|e patches', high ou
godaudiuhuity, appea|ed toemotiou rather that tonous.
Socrates tried to make people think, or at any rate the Socrates 'of Plato'
tried to make 'em use their language with greater precision and to
distinguish knowledge from not-knowledge.
And the Platonic inebriety Comes to readers andI|atouisnwheaPlato's
Socrates forgets all about logic, when he launches into 'sublimity' about the
heaven above the heavens, the pure light of the mind, the splendour of
crystalline lastingness.
10
Agaiust such rhapsodisiug mystihcatiou Pouud ca||s lor 'lactua|
study', the'discip|iueoltea|theo|ogy'solatasitdemaudsthec|eat
dehuitiou oltetms, aud the discip|iue olvetse techuique lot the
siucere exptessiou oldyuamic emotiou. ]udged by the demauds
Pouudmadeupouhimse|liu The Cantos, P|atowasuoteuoughola
poet to secure ap|aceiuits patadise.
Apo||ouiusolTyauaishard|ytemembetedasaphi|osophet |sec
9 Ibid.) p. 45. Sec also pp. 224-5.
\0 Ibid" p. 33. For the rct of the paragraph sec pp. 31-3, 40, 44-5, 1 28, 222-3; and 'On
Criticism in General', Cd/eriol/, I, 2 (1923), 156.
The Cautosoj Ezra Pound
Sheppard, p. [ 6 above),yetheisgiveua|argerp|aceiu The Cantos
thau auyotherPythagoreauorP|atouist. He be|ieved,as P|atodid,
thatkiugs,toru|ewe||,shou|dbe|oversotwisdom,audhedevotedhis
|oug|ite,asP|atodid uot,topersuadiugru|erstoru|ewise|y,aud to
theame|ioratiouotcivicorder.Hewasapractisiugsagewhocarried
throughiuto thecouductotdai|y |ite thecouvictiou that a|| ot|ite
shou|dbeiuaccordwiththediviueorderiug.Hebroughtphi|osophy
dowu to earth, heuce his throue iu The Cantos.
Morethauha|totcauto oisdevoted toadigestotPhi|ostratus'
Life oj Apollonius oj Tyana. ' ' Heispreseuted uotasathiuker,butas
someouewhotrave||edthewor|daudbecamewisethroughkuowiug
theways aud thewisdom ota|| its uatious, aud who theu put his
kuow|edgeattheserviceotothers.Hegavetorththe|ightwhichhe
hadreceived,iupractica|ways.Hehe|pedmauycitiesbriug|awaud
orderiuto theircivicaairs, aud, mostimportaut|y, headvisedthe
EmperorVespasiau.Forexamp|e,hepersuadedhimthatratherthau
exp|oithispeop|e toiucreasethe empire'srichesheshou|d use the
wea|th to improve their |ives. But wheu Vespasiau deprived the
Oreek cities ottheir iudepeudeuce Apo||ouius withdrew trom his
service.Hisiuhueuce,however, |suchis theimp|icatiou) , coutiuued
through Vespasiau'sre|ative|yeu|ighteued successors dowu to the
Empress]u|iaDomua,whocomissiouedPhi|ostratustosetdowuhis
Li[.MauyotthetragmeutsmakiugupthemosaicotPouud'sdigest
otthe|itearegiveuiutheorigiua|Oreek,asittoremiudusthatitwas
the cu|ture ot Oreek phi|osophy that was exertiug a civi|isiug
iu6ueuceupoutheRomauEmpire.Butcertaiuot Apollouius'sayiugs
are trausposed iuto Chiuese ideograms, which turu out to be
equiva|eutsayiugsotMeuciusaudCoutucius,audheretheimp|icatiou
isthat|ustasthegoveruiugideasotthosesageshe|dtogetherChiuese
civi|isatioutorsomethousaudsotyearssoApo||ouiuswasbehiudthe
Romauordertoraceutury aud more.
Cautooeudswith''Tobui|d|ight'` |oj0c) , akeystatemeutot
The Cantos, attributed totheearlierPythagoreau Oce||us, audwith
two Chiuese ideograms, associated with the great Shaug emperor
Ch'eugT'aug,whichcaube
traus|atedasrenew the day. Thesigutor
'day'isarepreseutatiouotthesuu,sothatauideaot|ightispreseut,
audotthesuuasthesourceo!thedayaudotwhateachdaybriugs.Iu
thesigutor 'reuew' therootideaisotpruuiugaway dead wood to
` ` Pound's source was the Locb edition, Philostratus, Tle Lif oj Apololius oj Tymw, cd. and
trans. F.e, Conybcarc, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass. <Uld London, 1 91 2).
A. D. MOODY
allowthe|reshgrowthtocomethrough.TheChinesephrasenoton|y
paral|e|s the Pythagorean moti|, but adds a particu|ar emphasis,
presentingthe constructive processo|en|ightenedgovernmentas a
whol|ynaturalone.The'mandateo|heaven',theChineseequiva|ent
o|thenous, isconceived,notasprlmari|yinte||ectua|energy,butas
thesameenergywhichoperatesinphy||otaxisanda||natura|process.
1usticeis there|orea natura| product|ikeanyother, requiring on|y
thatthoseresponsible|oritobserveduenatura|process.Itspatternis
in the nature o|things, not 'laid upin heaven' .
Thereisthenanecessaryconnectionbetweenobservingthelaw|or
logos) and observing the nature o| things. 1ustness o| perception
becomesthebasiso|1ustice. 'TomakeCosmos'imp|ies, nothaving
contro|overtheworld,butperceivinghowitshapesitse||,andacting
inaccordwithit.Inthesameway,'Tobuild|ight'imp|iesaneye,and
amind`seye,thathashrstbeenenlightened. |Oce||us'veryname,a
|ormo|oculus, or'eye',seemstounder|inethis:itiswiththeeyethat
onebui|ds.)Incantoo,to||owinganothermentiono|Ocel|us- 'and
thesou|'s|ob?|Oce||us)j' ''Renew''',asinrenew the day Poundadds
'P|us the |uminous eye' |oj0eo) . He accompanies this with the
Chineseideogram|or'tosee,toobserve,toperceive`,asignwhichcan
bereadasaneye in motion,anactiveeye. The '|uminouseye' acts
justlybygivingoutthe|ightwhichitreceives.Hencetheexhortation,
'God'seyeart 'ou, do not surrender perception' | i i j;oo).Thisis
Plotinus, and P|atonism, made new.
CHAPTER 2 9
Platonism in Auden
Daphne Turer
'IwouHrather,'wroteAuden,'i|Imustbeaheretic,becondemned
asa pantheist than as a Neop|atonist'.' This istypica| otAuden's
attitudetoP|ato.writingabouthimcasual|yinpoemsandatsome
lengthinessays,heisusua||ycritical.Onesuchessayishispre|aceto
The Portable Greek Reader, which contains his own selections |rom
Plato.HismaincriticismsarethatPlato'sRe/luhlic wasatyrannyand
his phi|osophydua|ist. But one argues earnest|y only against ideas
thatone takesveryserious|y. In|act,Audenseemstodenehimsel|
againstP|ato,Christiansacramenta|istagainstclassica|transcenden-
ta|ist.
But thereare otherwaysotreading P|ato, whichconnectrather
thanopposeChristianandc|assica|.IrisMurdochreadshisworkasa
re|igiousvisionbasedon|oveotgood,ontheenergyo|Erosandon
puri|ying Eros |rom the blurring pro|ections o|ego by constantly
attendingtoreality. Audenissecret|ymuchc|oserto thisversiono|
Platothantohisown,enough|orG.T.Wrighttowritethat,'hisway
otthinking is at timesremarkably P|atonic'.2 When one compares
himtoBeckett, anothergreat modern writerwhois deep|y readin
theo|ogy, one can see how true this is. Auden uses a Platonic
vocabu|arytotal|ya|ientoBeckett. theGood,beauty,|usticeandthe
1ustCity,desiretortruth,inte||igence,|ovewhichAudeno|tenca|ls
Eros),evenanamnesis, polis andtheSocraticsign.Audenwasc|oseto
Plato in the |our issues I sha|| be covering in this essay. the
transcendentandthemateria|, thevisionotEros,the1ustCityand
thero|eo|theartistinit. InthisessayIshal||ookathiscontinuing
quarrelwithP|atoonthesetopicsandhowit|ue|sthecomplex|eeling
and techniqueo|someo|hisbestpoems.
I W.H. Audcn, 'The Shield of Perseus' (' Postscript' ), TI/C D;'rr's HaNdand OI/IfT Essays (London,
1963; II'l published I948) (hcrcarlCl', Dlf), p. 160.
2
G.T. Wright, W.H. Audcll (New YOI'k, 1969).
eo DAPHNE TURNER
TRANSCENDENT AND MATERI AL
Auden's centta| ob|ection is to P|ato's duaIism: his pictute o|an
impetsona|,unchangingGoodtota||ysepatate|tomthewot|d.Hete
hewou|dhaveinmindsuchpassagesasPhaedru eoandPhaedo ooe,
wheteSoctatesc|aims,'nottueknow|edgeispossib|einthecompany
o|the body'. Auden ob|ects to thissplittingo|body and soul, asit
devaluesthewot|dand|ai|stomakelovecentta|,un|ikethepetsona|
god o| Chtistianity. He wtites as a Chtistian incatnationa|ist,
be|ievingthatthebodyandthematetia|wot|dmani|estGodandwi||
be,asatota|ity,tedeemed.Inhislongpoem,'FottheTimeBeing',a
Chtistmas meditation on the Incatnation, Hetod assents to the
massacte o|the innocents out o||eato|theshi!i|tom P|atonic to
Chtistianva|ues.'Reasonwi||betep|acedbyReve|ation',know|edge
and'RationalLaw,ob+ectivettuthspetceptib|e toanyonewhowi||
undetgothenecessatyinte||ectualdiscip|ine',bya'tioto|sub|ective
visions'and' thestatesman and phi|osopherwi|| becomethebuttol
evety|arceandsatite'.ButSimeonwelcomes theincatnation.'We
may no |onget . . . with the phi|osophets, denythe Mu|tip|icity,
assettingthatGodisOnewhohasnoneedoI|tiendsandisindietent
toa Wot|d o|Timeand Quantity and Hottot which hedid not
cteate'(eLP, p.r 8) . Auden'sownsympathies|iewithMu|tip|icity.
Histe|isho|thevatietyo|thematetia|wot|dshowspoetical|yinthe
witty|ists|oundinsuchpoemsas'Spain r o;','Vespets',and'The
Caveo|Nakedness',histelisho|thematetia|o||anguageshowsinhis
constant technica| display. So |at, it wou|d appeat he tejects the
ttanscendent|otthemu|tip|icityo|thebodyando|thecteatedwot|d.
YetAudcncanhimse||wtiteasadua|ist.Thereatemomentswhen
heopposes attanscendenta|visiontohumanexpetience.Theteisin
himatensionbetweenthettanscendenceheattacksinP|atoandthe
Incatnation, a tension which is o| coutse histotical|y patt o|
Chtistianity,withitsownabsotptiono|P|atonism.Thegapbetween
eshandspititisconstantlyptesent.incomictetmsattheendo|he
SeaandtheMittot',wheteag|impseo|ttanscendenceisdistancedas
'Who||y Othet' (eLP, p. eo),sobet|y in 'Lu||aby' (eSp, p. :o;).
3 E. Mcndc1soll, editor, The J'lIglisll Allden: Poems, &says and Dramatic Writings 1927-/93
(London, 1977) (herearter, El). Auden, p. 315; 'Augustus to Augustine', Forewords and
Afterwords (London, 197$ first published 1943) (herearter FA). pp. 35-6.
'For the Time Being" W.H. Audcll, Collected Lollger Poems (London, 1968) (hereafter eLP),
pp. 188"" .
Platonism in Auden zr
Audeuwritesabouttheimp|icatiousotbeiugheshi usuchtermsas
'wearecorpora|coutraptious',madeotthesamephysica|materia|as
auima|s aud bouud by the same physica| |aws. 'iu auamuesis / Ot
whatisexce||eutjYetavisib|ecreature'.HeusestheP|atouicword
aud the |auguage otdua|ism. Aud how cau oue verba|ise these
perceptiouswithoutusiugsucha|auguage?Wheuheqrms 'Sou|aud
bodyhaveuobouuds',heiswriting asittheyaredua|,itheuuihesthe
dua|ism,i tis by makiugverba| paradoxes.
'TheQuest',asequeuceottweutypoems(CSP, pp. r ;8-r88),with
itspro|ogue, 'The Dark Years' |CSP, pp. t ;0-8), hopes thatsuch
dua|ismcaubehea|ed.Iudeed,Audeuhopestormore.'embraceaud
eucourage'ishowhewishesthepositivewayottheiucaruatiouaud
theuegativewayotthemysticstore|atetoeachother. Iutact, the
sequeuce sways betweeu the two. The iucaruatioua|ist asserts
everywhere cou|d be the p|ace thequester seeks, there aresouuets
waruiugabouttryiugtobeaspiritua|heroaudassertiugtheueedto
beordiuary.Particu|ar|y,;aud9 arecritica|otidea|ism.Ouebegius
withatower|ikeYeats's, theotherseuds thequesterupawiudiug
stairto|osehimse|tiuuucreated beiug uuti| the esh, iu adark|y
comicway|ougted-upwithhim,takesthisaspermissioutodestroy
itse|taud him.
Yetthepro|ogue,'TheDarkYears',speaksotGodiutheP|atouic
|auguageotSt]ohu'sGospe|,dua|istica||ysettiugHimaparttromthe
6eshaud its coutrastiug'shabbystructures'. Theopeuiug poem ot
'TheQuest'isavisiouotthequester'strausceudeuta|goa|,g|impsed
ouce,marve||ousaud tota||yiuaccessib|e. A|ice'swouder|audisthe
symbo|icuotatioutorit,audthewho|esequeucedrawsouchi|dreu's
archetypa|stories,atoucecoucreteaudmagica||yremote,tosuggest
whatise|usive beyoud denuitiou.Thedesiretorthisvisiou issuesiu
the griet otthe poems ''cry', 'griet', '|oug', 'wish', 'thirst' are
domiuautwords iu them). Fiua||y, iu sharp oppositiou to poems ;
aud9 otthesequeuce, r ; aud r 8arepositiveabouttheuegativeway.
Thequesterssetoiutothe'b|aukauddumb'totheirName|essaud
AbscoudedGod.theirouyisturuedouthecommouseusewor|dotthe
saue.
Thepoemsarecharacteristica||yAudeu'siutheirb|eudot|ougiug
tor thevisiouary Good, theircompassiouateacceptauceothumau
'The Cave of Nakedness', About the House (London, 1966; frst published 1 959), p. 44.
'Bucolics' 'I, Winds', Audcn, Collected Shorler Poems, 1927-57 (London, 1966) (hcrc"rter, CSP) ,
P 256.
322 DAPHNE TURNER
medioctityandthewitwithwhichthetaity-talematetia|isadapted
tothese.
Enormous Alice (saw) a wonderland
That waited |ot her in the sunshine and,
Simply by being tiny, made her cry.
('The Quest', I, II. 12-14)
THE VISION OF EROS
AudenandPlatobothttytobtidgethegapbetweenthematetia|and
ttanscendentby whatAudencal|s 'theVisionoEtos'.Bythishe
meansanexperienceosacrednessandg|otythtoughtheexpetience
ohuman|ove.Thisisabso|ute|ycentta|inhisvetse,andis,Ithink,
close totheexperienceDiotimadesctibesin the amous passage in
Symposium 2 1 0-2 1 I . Again, Auden ctiticises P|ato's vetsion otthe
vision ot having to |eave the patticu|ar petson behind and tot
cteatingadistanceot'manytungs`betweentheetoticvisionandthe
Good,insteadotDante's'onestep'.*YethealsosaysthatP|atoand
Dantegivethe'c|assic'and'thetwomostsetious'accountsoit,and
atetheonlytwowho'giveate|igiousexplanationotheVision'.So
doesAudenhimse||.Theyshateanundetstandingottomantic|ove,
and nowitmay beameansotaccess todivine|ovebyptovidinga
glimpse oGod or Good. They both undetstand its |onging and
incompleteness |Diotima ca||s Etos 'son opovetty': such a voice
speaksasAtieltoCa|iban),theneedtoputityEtosandttansmuteit
intoAgape,andEtosastheenetgythat|eadstobui|dingthe]ustCity
(New Year Letter passim) .
Again, Auden i sdivided. The Chtistian incatnationalistinhim
wantstokeephumanlovec|osetodivine|ove,butpoematetpoem
admitshowatitta||sshott.ThoughPlatowtitespetceptive|yonthe
tetrib|eobsessivenessotEtosinthemythotthechatioteetinPhaedrus,
Auden,wel|-teadin psychoana|ysis,gives even moteattentiontoits
dangets anddeceits |'Aphtodite'sgatden[ Isahauntedtegion').

Even the pte-ChtistianAudenassumes 'The desires i the heart are as

crooked as corkscrews' .
1
1 Peop|e'sabi|ityto|oveisshapedbytamilyhistoty
' 'The Protestitnt Mystics', 1\, 'The Vision of Eros', FA. p. 63-
" 'Shaktipcarc's SOlltlets', FA. p. 102, " rhe Vision of Eros', FA, p. 68.
'Shakespeare's Soulleis' and 'Protestant Mystics', FA, pp. 1 01 , 65. 102.
'Twelve songs', V esp, p. ,62.
Il
'Poems [936-1 939'. V EA, p. 206.
Platonism in Auden
Before this loved one
wasthat one and that one
A family
t\nd history.
I7
Abi|ityto|oveisa|soshapedbythedehcienciesoltheircu|turewhich
breedlearanddenia|.Human|oveisse|hsh |a'two-laced dreamI
want''')anddeludedbylantasiesandpro|ections|'noonebutmyse|l
is |oved in this') . ' This is a |ong way lrom the |ove which is a
know|edgeolGod.
Somelaterpoemspush

thedistancebetweenthetwolovestomore
comic |engths. 'Jhe Love Feast' (eSp, p. r o) , a tit|e ironica||y
evoking Ficino's Symposium as we|| as P|ato's, sets up an extreme
contrastbetweendivine|oveand sexua|ity ata drunken NewYork
party.
In an upper room at midnight,
See us gathered on behalf
Of love according to the gospel
Of the radio-phonograph.
(II. t-)
The tit|e suggests the Christian eucharist ' In an upper room at
midnight' reminds us olthe Last Supper, when the eucharist was
instituted, according to thegospe|' isthe|anguageol|iturgy. Then
the stanza p|unges into bathos. The extreme |inguistic contrasts
continue.'TheLovethatru|esthesunandstars'andthe'enthusiastic
eyes'which'F|ickera|tertitsandbaskets'(II. t o-t t ) . Thecontrastis
both comic and indicative olthe extreme distance between them.
However, he manages to keep the two |oves so c|ose in 'The
Prophets(eSp, pp.t ;-8), thatitcanbereadbothasare|igiousand
asa|ovepoem. Itis apoem about theg|impsesoltheGoodP|ace
whichachi|dhadthroughhispassionlormachinesand|ead-mines,
andends,
And now I have an answer re the face
T|at never will go back in any book
But asks for all ylife
Hewrote it at the timewhen he returned to the church and met
ChesterKa||man. God'slaceor Chester's?Fina||y, themuchmore
1 <Poems t927-1931', 7\. EA, p. 31 .
1 3 Ibid., I t p. 21 , and 'Poems 1931-1936', XVII, EA, p. '45.
DAPHNE TURNER
comp|ex'Iu||aby' |6SP, pp. ro0-;),oneo|thegreatpoemsonthe
Vision o| Eros, combines both the antithesis between and the
c|osenesso|thehumananddivine.TheP|atonicwords'vision'and
'beauty'arerepeatedasthe|overcontemp|ates his'grave'visiono|
'theentire|y beauti|u|'. Yet the hermit and the |overs, vision and
sexua|ityarerhetorica||ysetinopposition and heaccepts thatthe
visionistransient,subjectiveon|y,andthatVenus's|opeis'enchanted`
an ambiguous va|ue. The poem is Neop|atonic in that the erotic
experience|eadstothere|igiousvision |theknowingpost-Freudian
Audenaddsthatthereversehappenstothehermit,whoexperiences
sensua|ecstacy),butqua|ihedin thatthereisnosuggestionthatthe
|oversmustriseabovebeing'human'and'morta|`.Theprayeratthe
endto'hndthemorta|wor|denough'wishestopreservethehumanas
we|l as the divineEros.
Thesepoemsseeromantic|oveasamani|estationo|our|onging|or
a |ost and absolute Good, a |act that |eads Auden to write that
'somethinglikewhatwemeanbyromantic|ove'is|oundinP|ato.'
YetAudenisa|soscepticalaboutwhethersuch|ongingisananamnesis
o|theGood.Heknowsthatitisusua||yregressive,achi|d`swish|or
the |ost Eden o|the mother. the 'promiscuous pastures where the
minotauro|authorityis|ustaro|y-po|yruminantandnothingisat
stake'. 'Oneo|hisbestpoems,'InPraiseo| Limestone'|CSP,p.e8),
owesitscomp|exmixtureo|tonestoacombinationo|thisscepticism
and |onging. With amusement and wit, the voice describes a
back-to-the-womb|andscapewhoseinhabitantsneverhavetogrow
up,thensober|yadmitsthatneither thegreat|ybadnorthegreat|y
goodareathomethere.Fina||y,itaddressesalover,admittingthatits
|oveisinadequateand thata'|au|t|ess|ove'isunimaginab|e,except
bymeanso|thehumanlandscapethatisbothcomica||yawedand
muchdesired.Hissenseo|theabsurdityo|awedhumandesirewith
itsparodyo|anamnesis andhiscompassiontowardsit|ue|thecomp|ex
verseand are typicalo|Auden's |ove poetry.
THE J UST CI TY
Auden`ssad awarenesso|theaws and se|hshnesso|persona||ove
|eadshimtoacknowledgethatitcannotbui|dthe]ustCity.Itistoo
concernedwithitse||anditsob|ect,toolitt|econcernedwiththerest
I 'The Greeks and Us', FA, p. 22.
1
'Cali ban to the Audience', in 'The Sea and the Mirror', eLP, p. 243.
Platonism in Auden
of the world: (' . . . business shivered in a banker's winter I While we
were kissing') - But theJust City is one of his central concerns. Again,
he attacks Plato. His Republic is a tyranny: 'We have seen with our
own eyes the theory . . . pu t in to practice, and the spectacle is
anything but Utopian' . ! ' Throughout his career, he attacks the
closed and authoritarian society in both comic and horrific terms in
such poems as 'The Unknown Citizen' ( 1 939) and 'City without
Walls' ( 1 967) .
Here again Auden defines himself against Plato and is farthest from
him. Auden was as interested in the historical formation of society as
of the individual: 'we arc conscripts to our age' Although he agrees
that Plato's proposed population of 5040 is 'about right', I ' conditions
in the twentieth century are such that we know about other cultures
and are faced with a whole world that must be transformed. The war
in China is a 'local variant'.' The scale of his historical and cultural
survey is necessarily much greater than Plato's. Further, Auden all
through his career insisted on the unique value of every individual
and on the necessity of free will. (He comments that choice is the
weakest part of Greek ethics) . '1 These are Christian values, and
opposed to
Plato's lie of intellect
That all are weak but the Elect.
22
Now, everyone has to be a hero, even the Chinese soldier who died
ignorant of the Good." Finally, he is aware that demands for law and
order may spring from dubious motives,24 and he would certainly
disagree with Laws 797 that 'change - except when it is change from
what is bad - is always highly perilous'.
Yet there is common ground: they both see the necessity for law:
Auden recognises that man is a social being. The question is how to
reconcile private and public, law and freedom. Auden's solution is to
propose the law oflove, a paradox commonplace in Christianity but
quite diferent from Plato's literal idea oflaw. A early as 1 932, long
before he returned to the Christian church, he was writing of
'disciplined love'" as a solution to social injustice, though the phrase
\6
'Poems 1931-1936', 7Vf+ EA, p. tj2.
!J
'The Greeks and Us', FA, p. 29.
I
'New Year Letter', elP, p. 1 '5.
IQ 'Reading', DH, p. 7.
20
'In Time ofWar': " Commcntary\ EA, p. 264.
2I
'The Greeks and Us', FA, p. 28.
22
'New Year Letter', eLP, p. 1 21 .
2
Ibid., p. 126; ' I n Time of War', 7V EA, p. 258.
24 Also 'Letter to Lord Byron" part 2, EA, p. 1 81 .
2
'Poems 1931-1936', 7V+ EA, p. '4.
DAPHNE TURNER
is a vague one. 'September I, 1 939' diagnoses the cause of war as
warped, selfish love. The Christian Auden proposes a 'Law like Love'
( 1 939) . At the end of 'Vespers' ( 1 954) freedom and order are
reconciled by Christ: 'For without a cement of blood (it must be
human, it must be innocent) no secular wall will safely stand' (eSp, p.
333). Auden's Just City is by now both an image of the perfection
which man should strive towards and use to judge actuality, and a
perfection not to be gained through human activity, a state of grace,
Augustine's City of God.
By 1 933, Auden, like Plato, was struggling to reconcile his vision of
love with practical realities. Auden included part of Letter Seven in his
selection from Plato. Plato was brave -and rash -enough to suggest a
system. At least, Auden, after real experience of fascism, took it
seriously as a system, though he admitted that The Republic can be
read as 'playful'." He himsclfinvented systems only in play ('Under
which Lyre'; 'Vespers'; 'Reading': DH, p.6). His Edens - perhaps he
is cocking a snook at Plato? - are emphatically not places oflaw and
order. He has serious objections to the law that is not love, but he
knows that his Eden is regressive and comic. However, the difculty is
seriously treated in 'A Summer Night' ( 1 933). The opening stanzas of
the poem describe an experience of love shared by a group. Auden
calls it 'the Vision of Agape' in his prose account of it (FA, p. 69), and
it was one of the formative moments of his life. Yet most of the poem is
about private joy ignoring what is going on in the world, where the
food is preparing to break over Europe and destroy it, and it is
vulnerable to criticisms of its liberal guilt and wish to retain selfsh
cosiness. Auden's dilemma is that the vision may need 'excuse', and
the poem ends with a prayer, a wish, not an assertion, that the vision
of Agape may be part of a new 'strength' after the world has fallen in
pieces and begun to grow again.
New rear Letter also tackles the problem of building the Just City
'now' at the point of time to which our history and cultural
development has brought us. Again, his solution is Eros - he uses
Plato's word. - whose 'legislative will' is to build it. Since the poem
sketches the development of Western culture from the Renaissance to
the present and outlines various philosophical and theological
positions, it is necessarily analytic and discursive, the short couplets
often epigrammatic. Yet repeatedly the sentences slip on and on for
2v '
The Greeks and Us', FA, p. 29-
Platonism in Auden
long paagraphs, accumulating association and suggestion, until at
the end less has been defined than a vision suggested, and the poem
ends with an invocation of God. Again, the complexity of the poem
comes from the tension between Agape and the material world.
THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST
I would like to end with Auden specifically exploring how the tension
between material and transcendent afects poetry. Auden did not
share Plato's conviction that poetry is necessarily dangerous: 'Poetry
makes nothing happen'" was his conclusion by 1 939. Like Plato,
however, he thought that the demands of truth and good were
paramount. Plato sacrifced poets to the Republic; Auden wrote: 'To
a Christian, unfortunately, both art and science are secular activities,
that is to say, small beer'. ,. They share concern about the truthfulness
of art. 'The Sea and the Mirror' is the poem in which Auden examines
the dilemma of the Christian artist. It is subtitled 'A Commentary on
Shakespeare's The Tempest' . In it, one character from the play after
another speaks: Prospero is the poet, Ariel his imagination, and
Caliban his carnal being. Auden's concerns here are also Plato's:
poetry as magic (Republic 601 ) , without serious claims to truth
(Republic 608); language as inadequate to express the nature of reality
(Letter Seven 342-343).
Auden questions the truth of poetry on these same three grounds.
First, it is a kind of magic. Poets, in this poem, are conjurers (Preface):
that is, they entertain with deceptions and illusions and so are morally
suspect. The source of this desire for illusion, sharcd by writer and
reader, is the wish to deny reality and create a world suited to the self.
Auden draws on metaphors from dream and fairy story to suggest a
childish world rather than an adult grip on reality. Children fantasise
to 'ride away from a father's imperfect justice' (Prospero) , adults to
hold their fear of mortality at bay. Desirable as the magic is, it is a
source of sin: childish dreams ('where each believed all wishes wear a
crown' (Sebastian) ) survive in the murderous adult Sebastian and
make his brother seem so unreal that he is prepared to murder him.
Further, the 'autonomous, completed state(s)
,
" that a poem is
makes it totally diferent from human experience. Ariel is 'unanxious';
he and Auden's poem sing 'lightly'. To Auden the human condition is
17 'Ill Memory ofW.B. Yeats', II, esp, p. Ip.
29
'The Shield of Perseus' ( ' Postscript'), DH, p, 456.
2
9 'New Year Letter', GLP, p. 81 .
DAPHNE TURNER
characterised by necessary freedom and necessary anxiety. Music
(and poetry) can 'only play'30 and consequently 'Art is not life and
cannot be I A midwife to society'." In the Epilogue, Ariel, 'Elegance,
art, fascination', longs to be completed by Cali ban, the fesh, 'drab
mortality'. By playing with the syntax, which makes the word
ambiguous, Auden unites them in the 'I' of the refrain. But this
reconciliation happens only in the poem, not in the real world."
Finally, poetry falsifes. It cannot express the unassimilable.
( Caliban represents this, but is paradoxically assimila
t
ed into the
pattern of the poem.) Language itself falsifies: 'In whose booming
eloquence I Honesty became untrue' (Gonzalo) (CLP, p. 21 5
)
. ' I
never suspected the way of truth I Was a way of silence' , says Prospero
(CLP, p. 209). It is at the moment when 'there is nothing to say' that
we glimpse the 'real Word' ( Caliban) (CLP, p. 249) . That ultimate
truth cannot be spoken is familiar from the mystics, and is the central
dilemma of the Christian poet.
However, faced with these Platonic doubts, Auden does not banish
the poets. He preserves them both as a mirror in which we see the
distance between what we are and what we should be, and as an
inadequate refection of the real, an extension of the Platonic Eros.
The honesty of art is to acknowledge that it is 'tall tales' only and that
truth is found in silence:
What but tall tales, the luck of verbal playing,
Can trick his lying nature into saying
That love, or truth in any serious sense,
Like orthodoxy, is a reticence33
This provides ajustifcation for Auden's playfulness and inventiveness,
and is where for him the moral and aesthetic combine. 'The Sea and
the Mirror' exemplifes what it says. It is teasingly about another
work of art ( The Tempest) about art; it playfully modernises Prospero;
Cali ban's monologue is absurdly inappropriate: an extraordinarily
elaborate parody of late Henry James; it handles one difcult lyric
form after another; it puns and plays with the material of language.
And it asks
Can I learn to suffer
Without saying something ironic or funny
On sufering?
(Prospera, eLP, p. 209)
( 'Anthem for St. Cecilia's Day', II, esp, p. I74. " 'New Year Letter', eLF, p. Sf.
n 'The Virgin and the Dynamo', Df, p. 71 .
33 'The Truest Poetry is the Most Feigning" esp, p. 31 7.
Platonism in Auden
I w

ouldlikc to suggest that in this fine poem about poetry the struggle
between Platonist and poet in Auden leads to some of his most
characteristic poctry: a playful, witty display of technical mastery,
which actually produces haunting sadness, because it emphasises the
gap between its own surface and the painful longing for an elusive and
perfect truth.
CHAPTER 3 0
Platonism in Iris Murdoch
Peter Conradi
Iris Murdoch poses two questions that link her intimately to Plato:
what is goodness or what is a good man like? And what is the place of
love and desire within the quest for goodness? These questions recur
throughout her twenty-four (to date) novels and her few, sometimes
slender and yet very infuential works of moral philosophy. The
nature of goodness and its relationship with love: these are
preoccupations in her philosophy and her fction alike.
The West owes to Plato the invention of the soul, and thus also the
idea of morality as aspiration. Just as Plato's picture of man as
possessing a soul was a revolutionary one,' so to argue for the soul
today has once again become a radical move. Unlike Plato, Murdoch
certainly does not wish to argue for the soul's immortality: rather she
wishes to insist that human life concerns a mysterious battle between
good and evil, and that we are essentially spiritual beings.
This distinguishes her from other twentieth-century writers who
are Plato-haunted. The Modernists- Eliot, Pound, Yeats -often turn
to Plato for an aesthetic rationale. They variously find in Plato ways of
under-writing the authority of the separate and other-worldly realm
of art. Art is to occupy a zone beyond either history, contingency or
messy individuality, and beyond, indeed, democracy too. The
Modernists and Symbolists 'refuse to conceive of perfection in human
terms';' which is to say that they seek to redeem the horrors of
contingency - of chance and necessity, or, as a Neoplatonist might
put it, of multiplicity - through a resort to myth and symbol. They
attempt a literature of the 'metaphysical task',' to whose stylistic
self-consciousness and narcissism, and whose tendencies towards
abstraction and integration, Murdoch's early essays are hostile.
1 Sec F.M. Cornford. Beore and After Socrates (Cambridge, 1932).
2 Iris Murdoch, 'The Sublime and the Beautiful Revisited', Yale Review, 49
(
1959), 247-71 .
3 Murdoch, SaTlrt, Romol/lie Ratiol/olist (London, 1953), p. 30.
330
Platonism in Iris Murdoch
331
Modernism is marked by an apocalyptic hatred of the present and a
disdain for ordinary consciousness; and by a conception of the artist
borrowed from Romanticism as an aristocrat doomed to exile in an
inhospitable age. Eliot's
'
work, for example, is marked alike by a fear
of sexuality and an elegiac mistrust of the contemporary. joyce
simultaneously exalts and demeans the characters of Ulysses through
his mock-epic, mock-heroic and essentially comedic Homeric corre
spondences. Woolf holds out a distant promise that the fux in which
we are immersed might be redeemed by symbol, by art, and by love.
Murdoch, by contrast - and perhaps in this echoing Auden - argues
for a greater patience with this flux, with the difculties of knowing
other people, which can happen only through the agencies oflove and
attention. Art is for her an imperfect realm, even at best. Yet it is
precisely because art is necessarily wounded, in her view, that it can
help to heal the imperfect human world it must refect and serve.
Perhaps this is to say that there have always been two Platos, not
one. The authoritarian Plato feared by Popper never constituted the
whole story.' In 1 866 Walter Pater attacked Coleridge's 'lust for the
Absolute' and chose a more relaxed and sceptical position (see Anne
Varty, pp. 261-2 above). Against Coleridge's remorseless idealism
with its coercion of human diference, Pater argued for a liberal
Platonism, and for the habit of 'tentative thinking and suspended
judgement'.' For this Platonism the novel has always been an apt
vehicle, as D.H. Lawrence pointed out, mercifully incapable of the
Absolute.julia Kristeva has noted the resemblance between Socratic
dialogue and the ambivalent word of the novel;' and Bakhtin too saw
how the Dialogues subvert any claims to ready-made truth, a
subversion he admires in fction too.' As Iris Murdoch has put this
herself, the novel is 'the most imperfect of art-forms'.'
In her own fction, the idea of provisionality itself has always had
some special power. In her frst novel Under the Net ( 1 954) with its
rapidly changing and collapsing scenery, the artist-narrator jake,
who 'hates contingency" is taught by the plot and by his foil Hugo
Belfounder, to move towards some healing surrender to the picaresque
K. Popper, Tie Opell Society and its Enemies, Vvols (London, 1 962) , vol. 1 'The Spell of Plato' .
Patcr'sarticlcin Westminster Reuiew, 8S (1866), 49-5()WlS published anonymously. Sec also his
Plato and Platonism (Londoll, 1893), and Anne VarlY's essay in this volume.
Julia Kl'istcva, Desire in /anglge, lrans. L. Roudicz et af. (Oxford, Ig80), pp. 80n:
Mikhail Bakhtin, ProhlemsoJDostotvsky's Poetics, trAns. and c. C. i':mcrson (Manchester, 1984).
Murdoch, 'I'oree Fields', New S/(tesmal, 3 Nov.
1
978, p. 586.
Murdoch, UI/der tlu .Net (Harmondsworth) 1954), p. 24
332 PETER CONRADI
sea of contingency i n which he, like everyone, is immersed. Hugo has
the instructive gift of being able to love and honour particulars, as
well as to renounce a selfsh love. The diferent modes of being and
seeing embodied by Jake and Hugo mark the frst of Murdoch's
recurrent oppositions between artist and saint. 10 Her rapid supercession
of one novel by another, her throw-away imagery and migrating
themes and motifs, pick up this aspect of Platonism. In the Theatetus
Plato dismisses one of his own arguments. In the Parmenides and Sophist
he dismantles earlier imagery to replace it with new imagery in the
Timaeus where, however, he warns his readers against looking for
more than a likely story. Since the Good itself is indefnable and
cannot be inscribed, her work, like Plato's, is in pursuit of imperfection,
I1
'an investigation that never ends, rather than a means of resolving
anything', " as she has put it.
THE MORAL ENQUI RY
As for the nature of this enquiry, itis ofcourse a moral one. Two ofIris
Murdoch's early lovers were, one directly in ' 944, the other indirectly
in 1952, victims of Hitler and died young." Moreover Murdoch spent
the period ' 944-6 working as Administrative Ofcer with the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in England,
Belgium and Austria, working with victims of concentration camps
and deportations. Yet philosophy, in the very period of Hitler and
Stalin, had emasculated itself and become the whore ofa Rationalism
at once 'scientistic' and romantic, incapable ofinterestingly addressing
the moral. Existentialism had then at least the apparent attraction of
continuing to speak of consciousness and of value at a time when
Anglo-Saxon philosophy was bankrupt of ability to speak interestingly
of either. Murdoch explored Existentialism and wrote a notable early
book on Sartre.14 Yet both Existentialism and Anglo-Saxon philosophy
came, in the end, to seem equally facile. Both evacuated inwardness
through dignifying a romantic voluntarism or cult of the will. Both
falsely divided man between an image of total freedom and
determinism. Indeed Murdoch came to see the Anglo-Saxon tradition
as crypto-Existentialist.
!9
Sec Peter J. Conradi, Iris Murdoch: Te Saint and the Artist, 2nd cdn (London, tg8g), passim,
{i'om which the present essay borrows f'cely.
I I
Sec Lorna Sage, 'The Pursuit ofimpcr[cction'. Critical Qparler{, 19 ( 1 977). 67-87.
11
J. Barrows, 'Living Writers, 7'. John o'London\ 4 May 1961, p. 495.
13 S. Summers and F. Hauplfuhrcr, 'The Lost Loves ofirish Murdoch', Mail or: Sulay: You
Maga:nc, s june J988, pp. '7-21. 14 Sec note 3.
Platonim in Iis Murdoch
333
Murdoch's philosophy and fiction alike are thereafter in strong
revolt against this world-view and of the popular 'hero-of-the-will' to
whom Existentialism hac! given birth in mid-century fiction." In the
1 950S she found a valuable ally in this battle in the work of Simone
Wei!, whose thought helped deepen her moral address, and also
enabled her the better to understand Plato, whom she had been
routinely taught at Oxford, and was herself teaching. At Oxford
'there was no wide consideration of [Plato], he was simply
misunderstood. I learnt nothing of value about him as an undergraduate
(he was regarded as 'literature') . . . Simone Wei! helped me very
much'. Having read 'Greats' herself as a student, Murdoch was able
to return to him in the original Greek - 'his voice sounds in Greek'.

Weil, drawing on Plato, on the Christian mystics and on Buddhism,
saw morality as a form of un-selfng through the discipline of
attention. What this comes to mean, in Murdoch's reinterpretation,
is that human beings inhabit a cloud of egoistic fantasy, designed to
protect the psyche from pain. Such fantasy is not neutral but highly
consequcntial - the 'grayity' in Weil's famous phrase, that prevents
'grace' . " The power ofimaginativc attention alone can - albeit with
difculty - cut through this fantastic reverie and start to reveal the
world and its inhabitants more accurately. Real freedom is not in this
view ajumping-about of the will but the total absence of concern for
Self, the energy of which is burnt up in its strenuous effort to proceed
towards the Good, which is to say the Real. Murdoch uses two myths
as explanatory devices to describe this pilgrimage away from fantasy
and towards the Real. Crucial to this enquiry is the Platonic myth of
the Fire and the Sun. (To her use of myth of Apollo and Marsyas, I
return later).
The Sovereignt oJGood ( 1 970) leads up slowly to an exposition of the
frst of these myths. Its austere project is to rescue a religious picture of
man from the necessary and in some ways welcome collapse of all
dogma, to attack all forms of false consolation, romanticism, and
self-consciousness, and to address the degeneration of Good within
morals. The disappearance of God is not for her an excuse for the
intense metaphysical sel/:pity of so many twentieth-century writers.
On the contrary, it poses an essential challenge. Without the childish
bribes of 'God-the-Father' and the after-life, religion - if it neither
disappears nor becomes demonic - could at last come into its own.
' Sec Murdoch's 'Existentialists and My:lics' in W. Rohson (cd.), Esaysalld Poems Presented /0
Lord David Cecil (London, 1970).
I6
Lettel' to the author, January 1992.
I7
S. Weil, Groviry llId Grace, trauslated by E. Craufurd (London, 1952).
PETER CONRAD!
Man could at last, i n a famous phrase, be good]or nothing. ` The idea
of a reward for virtue appears to her, as to other mystics, blasphemous,
and to call into question the idea of goodness itself in the frst place.
She is sustained in this quest to reinvent the spirit of morality and
truth by Plato's discovery of the Form of the Good, and the
'ontological proof' which supports it."
In The Sovereignty rifGood Murdoch memorably reinterprets Plato's
great myth of the Fire and the Sun, to make room for Freud and
Existentialism within it. This myth shows the moral pilgrim progressing
through a series of states of consciousness, each of which turns out to
seem provisional, obsolescent, illusory, as it is seen through and
discarded. The prisoners who manage to turn round at look at the fre
are seen as having achieved the feat, of which so much fuss has been
made in contemporary thinking, of selawareness. The Fire, in other
words, is seen as something like the Freudian Ego: a source of real heat
and light which we may falsely mistake for that of the Sun. The
victory of psychoanalysis (and perhaps Existentialism) is to teach us
to turn round sufficiently to confront this energetic heat-and-light
source. But this is a dangerous discovery by which we may be further
distracted, fascinated, and delayed. Freud in other words gives us
among the best and most 'up-to-date' pictures we have of life in the
Cave, and of the Fallen man who lives there, enslaved to fantasy and
therefore doomed to relive the patterns of mechanical desire. He says
nothing, on the other hand, about life in the Sun. Freud wanted to
make men workable: Plato wanted to make men good.
Although I shall address Murdoch's fiction later on, its treatment
of psychoanalysts and psychiatrists could be mentioned here, a
treatment often satirical, if not hostile. Palmer Anderson in A Severed
Head ( 1 96! ) is typical in his pronouncements about the psyche being
largely mechanical, 'and mechanical models are tl,e best to understand
it by'." Palmer thus gives the best available description of the
mechanics of the novel's plot, which was widely misunderstood by
critics, and which turns upon a series of compensatory promiscuous
love-afairs, each energised by individual life-myths. But Palmer is
also a demon, and expresses this dangerous half-truth about the
\6
The phrase is oddly given to the demonic priest Carel Fisher in The Time oj fhe Angels (Sl
Albans, 1978), p. 1 65.
' Murdoch fully discusses this dificuil idea in Metaphysics as a Guide fo Morals (London, 1992),
eh. 13, 'The Ontological Proor.
?9
Murdoch, A Severed Head (Hal'mondsworth, 1963), p. 31 .
Platonism in Iris Murdoch
335
psyche-in-the-Cave in order to further his own interests in terms of
lovc and power. Psychoanalysis 'generates self-concern, it degrades
Eros, it lacks and so cannot account for spiritual purpose, it is too
abstract and crude to c
a
pture the complex thereness ofpersons' .'l In
The Black Prince ( 1 97
3
) the author campaigns against and equates
Freudians and rcductionists, and in the Dostoevskian failure and
buffoon Francis Marloe, fnds cxactly such a fatuous misinterpreter of
the novel's events. In the next novel The Sacred and Profance Love
Machine ( 1974), Blaise Gavender is a psychiatrist who is also a
temporiser, a sexual cheat and a poor listener who reduces all
experience to formula. Only in The Good AIJlmntice ( 1 985) is there a
'good' psychiatrist in Thomas McCaskcrville, and his virtue is in
exact proportion to his disillusion with psychiatry and his adoption of
a quasi-Buddhist philosophy of dying-into-life in its place.
'Freud more than once labels himself as a Platonist'," Murdoch
tells us; and wherc shc admircs Freud, it is oftcn when Freud's
indebtedness to Plato can be elicited. The discovery of the unconscious
can be related back both to the Cave and to doctrine of anamnesis, for
example. But, above all, Freud vouchsafed that 'the enlarged
sexuality of psycho-analysis coincides with the Eros of the divine
Plato'." Eros, to the Greeks, is a divine power driving us towards the
world and linking us with others. Socrates speaks of love as the on!
thing he understands (Symposium 1 77d). And Weil, asking rhetorically
for the name of the force that enslaves the prisoners within the Cave,
and for the name of the force that liberates, gives the same answer to
each question: Eros, or the doctrine of the continuity of apparently
disparate and unlike desires." Low Eros (blind, obsessive, mechanical
desire) enslaves; High Eros (desire educated or purified) liberates.
Like Plato and Freud, Murdoch gives to sexual love and to
transformed sexual energy the central place in her thinking. The
Erotic dialogues (Symposium; Phaedrus) complete the myth of the Fire
and the Sun, by evoking the processes by which we learn to purify and
educate this desire-stream. 'A purified sexual desirc, the good Eros,
could lead us to Enlightenment':" that is, could help start to move us
away from fantasy toward a more accurate apprehension of the
2\
D
avid GOI'don, 'Iris Murdoch's Comedies of Unsdfing', Twmtietl Centur Literatute, 36
(1990), 123.
` Mm'doch, ,He/asics as a G/lide 0 Momls, eh. I.
" Freud, Three Esays 0R l/e Theor ofStxllaliry (London, 1977), p. 1.3-
Simone Weil, Notebooks, vol. V trails. A. Wills (London, 1956), PI'. 383-4'
" MUI'doch, 'Art is the Imitlltion orNatlrc', CaMers dll Cenlre de Reclurclltssur les Pays dlt Nord ct
du .NordOllest ( 1 978). 60.
PETER CONRADI
contingency and variety of the world and of the uniqueness of the
individuals it contains.
Love and goodness, in other words, are at the centre of Murdoch's
thought and relate her moral philosophy to her fction, if not always
simply. Both her ethics and her fction concern the understanding of
individuals; and individuals have a way of cutting through theory,
particularly in a good novel.
THE AESTHETIC ENQUI R Y
As I have suggested, Murdoch refuses to separate the ideal, the
transcendent, from the flux of actual life. Philosophy and art must
have experiential dimensions for her, rather than act as an access to
any other realm than the one we already share but fail, in her view, to
see. Transcendence, in other words, means transcendence of the ego,
not of the sublunary world itself. Like another recent Platonist,
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Murdoch takes the Platonic myths not as an
ecstacy that transports us to another world, but as ironic counter
images ofthe.process by which we attain a more accurate perception
of this one. Love and its purification provide one means to this end;
the other -as for all Neoplatonists -is of course art. Love and art are
paths towards the Good, which is to say that they may provide a
means towards un-selfing.
In The Fire and the Sun ( 1977) she lucidly explicates Plato's distrust of
art, contesting that distrust as if to a commentator on the contemporary
scene, connecting Plato's objections to those other humblers of art,
Kant and Freud. Plato wrote poetry which he later destroyed, and is
himself a great artist so far as his invention and supercession of his own
imagery is concerned. The fgure of an anti-art artist who fears or
suspects his own talent recurs in her early novels, in Hugo from Under
the Net and B1edyard in The Sandcastle. Yet Plato 'never did justice to the
unique truth-conveying capacities of art'." She rejects the classic
Neoplatonicsleight-of-hand by which art C(-opts the Forms themselves,
a view untruthful about the degree to which even great art is on terms
not just with contingency but with muddle. Art is, on the other hand,
'at least more valuable to the moralist as an auxiliary than it is
dangerous as an enemy'." It is indeed the greatest of what Weil terms
our metaxu or intermediaries, those messengers that either lead us
towards the spiritual or point in its direction.
" Murdoch, The Fire and lhe Sun (Oxford, (977). p. 85. " Ibid., p. 77.
Platonism in Ir Murdoch
337
In Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals ( [ 992), loosely based on her [ 982
Giford lectures, Plato i s described as aware of current twentieth
century problems. This is partly because, for her, we still live in a
Greek light, partly because she fnds in Plato an acute commentator
on such contemporary issues as doubts about the empirical self, as
well as doubts about the ontological and moral ambiguity of art,
which makes of Plato a forerunner of the structuralists. Plato's interest
in iconoclasm, demythologisation and morality takes on a special
force since Plato, like us, inhabits an age in which our entire
world-view, religion included, is undergoing systematic 'demythologisa
tion' (a key word in this study) , and the 'Noble Lies' by which we live
become problematic. Plato is her hero because he champions
transcendence and sees demythologisation as a route towards it (as in
the Allegory of Fire and Sun). Structuralism is the enemy because it
demythologises transcendence itself This touches both religion and
art. Christianity is to survive through being demythologised: Christ
becomes the Buddha-of-the-West, a human not a divine figure whose
life is in itselfa kind of showing. And what is shown by a good life is the
pilgrimage towards the sun, itself a process of demythologisation or
discarding of specious and illusory goods. So far as art goes, a
triumphalist view of grea t art is again rehearsed, through which the
mysteries of good and evil can be re-explained in each generation.
Though much of this book is detailed and technical and directed
towar
d
s the professional philosopher, there is none the less some
interesting literary criticism, notably of Shakespearian tragedy.
The most accessible account of Murdoch's conversation with Plato
is to be found in Acastos, the two Platonic dialogues she published in
[986. In that each contains a group of characters, they recall the
Symposium. But they are also imaginative treatises, within which Plato
is depicted as an unbalanced twenty-year-old whose moral absolutism
needs to be tempered by Socrates' wisdom. Both Plato and Socrates
here are aspects ofa single truth, and form two halves of the dualism I
earlier noted. They may also be said to represent two aspects of Iris
Murdoch herself
These dialogues are to be performed in either 'period' or modern
dress, with only one episode (concerning slavery) requiring adaptation
in the former case. I t is striking that an author should use the dialogue
form successfully today, and the 'platform' performances (so-called)
of Art and Eros at the National Theatre in [ 982 were memorable and
well-received. Both work not just as pastiche but are also flled with a
ferce and contemporary moral urgency. Murdoch's Platonism has
33
8 PETER CONRADI
always been open to currents of contemporary thought. Rather than
using him to levitate out of our condition, she has sought with his help
the more zealously to engage with her time. Her Plato is our
contemporary since he pioneers a way of thinking about the fate of
spirituality, and the fate of art, in a post-religious age. The first
dialogue Art and Eros - centres on art; the second, Above the Gods, on
religion. But the fate of spirituality figures in both. Both see the
present age as a dangerous interim, with the survival of religion
beyond mere superstition and magic in question. Both debate the
need for a re-invention of religion, for its continual remaking into
something we can believe. Both concern the place of Eros, in life and
in art:
Art comes from the deep soul where a great force lives, and this force is sex
and love and desire -desire f01 power, desire for knowledge, desire for God -
what makes us good or bad - and without this force there is no art, and no
science either and no, no man-without Eros man is a ghost. But with Eros he
can be - either a demon or - Socrates.28
EROS IN THE NOVE' LS
Murdoch's philosophy, on the one hand, points towards a 'higher'
and more sublimated consciousness, associated with virtue. Her
tragi-comic plots, on the other hand, are frequently chronicles of
desublimation and of the punishment and even annihilation of
puritans. The idea-play enjoins a slow unselfng ('We cannot
suddenly change ourselves');" the action warns us, as does Weil in her
study The Need for Roots, against a fast unselfing.
The depiction of Eros is necessarily complicated by the fact that art
has its own roots in the unconscious, which is to say in the Cave, the
realm of substitution and repetition; and, despite some priggish
interpretations, Murdoch's fictional treatments of Eros are not
narrowly moralistic but, at their best, generous, humane and above
all comic. "ith these provisos, certain Platonic themes recur: the view
of human life as a pilgrimage away from fantasy and towards
imagination; the concern, from Hugo in Under the Net to Stuart in The
Good Apprentice to depict a good person who is always -like Socrates in
the Symposium a particular good person, one whose idiosyncrasies and
virtues necessarily interpenetrate; the confict of saint and artist
which I have discussed elsewhere.
28 Murdoch, Acaslos: Two Platollic Dialogues (London, 1987), p. 53.
29 Murdoch, The SOlJereigllg ofGood (London, 1970), p. 39.
Platonism in Iris Murdoch
339
Murdoch's fction may be crudely divided into three phases: the
early novels of the 1 950s, in which she rehearses with great assurance
diferent sub-genres of romance; a middle period d
;
'ring the 1 960s
during which she struggl
e
s with, and against, her own Platonism; and
a mature phase starting in 1 970 with A Fairl Honourable Dieat, where
her desire to explore character, as well as tell an ingenious story,
comes into its own. I shall look briefly at each phase.
In The Bell, her most achieved early novel, a background
Platonism is already visible. I t is the frst in what is to become a series
of novels that take a leading character with a spoiled religious
vocation - a spoiled priest (Henr and Cato; The Philosopher's Pupil),
monk ( The Nice and the Good) , or nun (Nuns and Soldiers). The novels
witness her interest in the purifying of Eros. Michael Meade, failed
priest and failed schoolmaster, gives up his family home, Imber
Court, to become a place of religious retreat. There is a motto on the
old house AMOR VITA MEA which echoes the inscription on the
other-worldly bell of the title EGO vox AMORIS SUM: Amor, or Eros,
rules everywhere. Michael is typical of many of Murdoch's fctional
ascetics and would-be seekers who wish to levitate prematurely out of
their condition and leave it behind: to be better than they should be.
The way up, however, as for Heraclitus, turns out to be the way
down. The actual plot forces Michael, like other aspirants, into a
deeper and humbler apprehension of the energies that have shaped
his life as it alread is, an education that characteristically resembles a
kalabasis or descent into chaos or contingency. The chastening he
movingly sufers is an encounter with the sublime, a purging descent
into particulars.
The middle phase that followed The Bell could be termed her most
'mythological' . It coincided with the I 960s, that decade ofa general
rediscovery of Eros by so many in the West, for which her work can be
read both as prophecy and as map. It now seems that she was, during
the I 960s, struggling to transmute her Platonism into an intelligible
public rhetoric. Reviewers were sometimes left unconvinced and she
may temporarily have lost readers also. Her chief ambition as a
novelist - to allow the expansion of character to occur against the
'myth' of the novel -was in this decade sometimes left half-realised. If
there is a key to understanding a Murdoch plot of this vintage, it is
given variously by Palmer Anderson when he pronounces on the
essentially mechanical nature of the psyche;" by the yet more
30 Murdoch, Severed Head. p. St .
PETER CONRADI
demonic Julius King when he sneers that, 'Human beings are
essentially fnders of substitutes . . . Anyone will do to play the roles;'"
and by Bradley Pearson's insight that, 'the
'
unconscious delights in
identifying people with each other. It has only a few characters to
play with.'''
.
We could translate this into Platonic-Freudian language by saying
that human beings inhabit the Cave where, in being victims of blind
and unconscious need, they repeat certain relationships, whose victims
they then become. Many novels at this period employ
'
a repeating
plot, and show their characters as slaves or casualties of repetition or
substitution. This 'insight' sometimes reads stylishly, sometimes
schematically. As for 'goodness', and the chances of seeing and
celebrating human 'otherness', many Murdoch characters undergo a
crash-course in maturity and are inducted into the mysteries of our
communal enslavement in ways which may - although the endings
are ofen equivocal - augur slightly better for their future chances of
transcending slavery.
One important enemy to goodness often lies in the power of the
past. Among the most successful novels of the 1 960s are The Nice and
the Good ( 1 968) and Bruno's Dream ( 1 969). Plato is recalled in each
title. The Nice and the Good pain ts to what separates ordinary hedonism
from virtue, taking a whole cast of character variously and comically
haunted by past misfortune, and exploring the ways very diferent
temperaments move variously towards love, forgiveness, and recon
ciliation. As for Bruno's 'dream', it is also his eikasia, the lowest stage of
Platonic illusion. The very elderly Bruno also wishes to make his
peace with the past, and his dying is lovingly set against a symbolic
city-scape of Fulham, Baron's Court and Battersea, between the Lots
Road power-station, fguring the naked energies of Eros - and the
Brompton Road cemetery (death), while the river Thames runs
redemptively (or not) nearby. These Neoplatonic themes oflove and
death are worked out with a characteristic nerve and inventiveness
and 'worked' also through the dance of the lovers that, as often,
occupies the foreground. 'One isn't anything, and yet one loves
people', is Diana's very moving anagnorisis, nursing the dying Bruno
at the end, awoken to a vision of love purifed or purged that echoes
Bruno's own dying wisdom.
Such playful schematism, however, begins to look crude when set
' Murdoch, A Fairly HDIDurable Defeat (Harmondsworth, (972), p. 233.
32 The Back Prince (Harmondsworth, 1 975). p. 195.
Platonism in Iris Murdoch
34[
by the side of the best work of her latest phase, from [ 970 onwards.
Although A FairlY Honourable Difeat ( [ 970), which inaugurates this
mature phase, makes use of allegory, it is an enabling, not a
determining use; and the

escape from allegory is the rule from now on.
The shape of her career has been towards a use of myth that is
consciously disposable and provisional, subordinated to character. As
she becomes surer of her own moral psychology and philosophy, she
becomes less absolute, more dialectical and playful, patient and
relaxed. Her explorations during the [ 960s look like a necessary
prelude to her mature phase, where she is able to combine
atmospheric intensity and poetry, with a newly powerful grasp of
character. And her best work from this date also often recalls
Shakespeare, who ofers a model to her desire to marry the pleasures
of an unusual tale and a naturalistic use of character.
This mature phase begins, with triumphant confidence, with the
superbly assured A FairlY Honourable Difeat, a Mozartian novel set in
South Kensington, involving a psycllOmachia between a Christ-fgure
and a Satan-fgure, and the destruction of the blandly optimistic
Platonist Rupert Foster. He is destroyed not becau
s
e his ethic is false
'cosy Platonic uplift'" as the devilish Julius puts i t - but because he is
unable fully to inhabit it.
In The Black Prince ( ( 973) the question of whether this philosophy is
fully habitable by anyone gets addressed. If one had to single out one
novel that, more than any other, bears the marks of Murdoch's
absorption in Platonic thought, it would have to be The Black Prince
( ( 973). A gripping thriller, a black book about marriage and about
authorial rivalry, it is also a reflective book about the Platonic Eros, in
all its darkness and ambiguous power. It is sub-titled 'A celebration of
love', since, 'man's creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth,
is a love story' (p. 9) . The novel is narrated by Bradley Pearson, but
framed by Bradley's prison-friend 'Loxias' - one name of Apollo -
and there are allusions, some jokey, throughout, to that greatest of
Neoplatonic myths of ascesis, the flaying of Marsyas by Apollo."
Bradley is frst fayed by undergoing much that frightens him. He is
a spinsterish, puritanical, selfsh, blocked writer who fears women,
betrayal, emotion, loss of control. He is waiting for the right
conditions to write his masterpiece (the novel itself) : but it is precisely
Dial, p, 222.
` Sec Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries il tie Renaissance (London, 1968). eh. xi, 'The Flaying of
Marsyas', pp. 173f
342 PETER CONRADI
the 'wrong' ones which are to catalyse his wntmg. Despite his
attempts to keep contingency at bay, the horror of the world keeps
breaking in. His friend (who is also his rival) ; ArnolfBafn, embroils
him in his marriage difculties; his predatory ex-wife reappears after
years in America; his sister sufers the painful collapse of a disastrously
unhappy marriage. Above all, Bradley sufers first the partial ascesis
involved in falling desperately in love with Bafn's daughter, who is
much younger than him. He then is further 'unselfed' by losing her,
and by being falsely punished for a murder he may ha
'
e willed but
did not commit. He is obliged to make some healing surrender before
his own end. Eros is necessary to his quest: without it there would
have been no journey, and nothing learnt.
The myth of Apollo and Marsyas is partly a cautionary tale about
an artist who competes with the divine, partly a tale of divinely
inspired ascesis. Bradley is taught 'the pain and fnal joy gained from
loss of self and loving attention to the world'.35 He is flayed, ifnot into
the truth, at least into starting to see the direction in which truth
might lie, both as moral agent, and also as an artist. There are echoes
of Dostoevsky, like whose novels this is both acutely distressing and
wildly funny. There are allusions to Hamlet: a fast-paced story
alternates with Hamlet-like soliloquies on the relations between art,
consciousness, sufering and truth, meditations that often recall or
directly name Plato. Through such meditations Murdoch voices
more nakedly and movingly than elsewhere in her fiction (and by an
implicit analogy, the novel suggests, with Shakespeare's oratio recta in
Hamiel) her own concerns. Although the novel contains destruction, i t
also embodies a wise and moving and essentially comic vindication of
Murdoch's triumphalist view of good art which, in its final words, and
contra Plato, 'tells the only truth that ultimately matters. I t is the light
by which human things can be mended. And after art there is, let me
tell you, nothing'.
No other contemporary thinker has better tended the flame of
truth that Plato lit; and nor is the work of any other writer in our time
better illuminated by the light that flame continues to give out.
3 E. Dipple, Iris Murdoch: Workfr I/IC Spirit (London, Ig8o), p. 43. For an alternative view of
Murdoch's Platonism. sec W. Bronzwacr 'Images of Plato in Tie Fire QlId tleSlIlI and Acaslos',
in Encoll1lters with Iris Murdoch, c. R. Todd (Amsterdam, 1988) pp. 55-67'
Bibliography
The following abbreviations are used:
PMLA Publications of the Modem Languages Association ofAmerica
JEGP Joural of English and Gennanic Theolog
TRANSLATIONS OF GREEK AND LA TIN SOURCES
Unless otherwise indicated, the following translations of Plato and Plotinus
have been used by alt contributors:
Plato. The Collected Dialogues o Plato. Ed. E. Hamilton and H. CaiJl s.
Princeton, 1 961 ; second printing with corrections, 1 963. (Bollingcn
Series, 7 I ) .
Plotinus. Plotinus with an English TrallSlation. Ed. and trans. A.H. Armstrong.
6 vols. London and Cambridge, Mass., 1 966-88 (Loeb Classical Library).
The following is a list of translations of seminal works in the Platonic corpus.
They are not necessarily those used by contributors, but represent those
which are most easily available.
Augustine of Hippo, St. The Cit of God. Trans. H. Bettenson. Harmondsworth,
1 972
Augustine of Hippo, St. Cotssions. Trans. R.S. Pine-Cofn. Harmondsworth,
I g61 .
Augustine of Hippo, St. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford, I ggl .
Bocthius. The Consolation of Philosop'!. Trans. V.E. Watts. Harmondsworth
Ig6g.
Boethius. Ed. H.F. Stewart and E.K. Rand ( l gI 8), revised and trans. S.].
Tester. London, I g73, reprinted Ig78.
Dionysius the Areopagite. The Com/llete Works. Trans. Colm Lubheid and
Paul Rorem. Mahwah, N.Y., Ig87.
Ficino, Marsilio . Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love. Trans. Sears Jayne.
Dallas, I 985.
Fieino, Marsilio. Marsilio Fieino and the Phaedran Charioteer. Trans. M.J .B.
Allen. Berkeley, I g81 .
343
344
BI BLI OGRAPHY
Ficino, Marsilio. Masilio Ficino: the Philebus Commentary. Trans. M.J .B. Allen.
Berkeley, 1979.
Hermes Trismegistus. Hennetica: the Greek Corpu.s Hermeticum and the Latin
Asciepius. Trans. B.P. Copenhaver, Cambridge 1992.
Macrobius. Macrobius' Commentary on the Dream qf Scipio. Trans. W.H. Stahl.
New York, 1952.
Martianus CapeHa. Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, translated by
W.H. Stahl, R. Johnson and E. L. Burge. New York and London, 1 977.
Philo. Philo with an English Translation. Ed. and trans. F.H. Colson and G.H.
Whitaker. 1 2 vols. Harvard 1929-1953. (Loeb Classical Library).
Plato. Plato with an English Translation. Ed. and trans. N. Fowleret al. 13 vols.
London and Cambridge, Mass., 1 91 2-g5 (Loeb Classical Library).
Plotinus. Plotinus: the Enneads. Trans. Stephen McKenna. Edited and
abridged by John Dillon, London, 1 991 .
Produs. Commentar qf the Republic. French translation by A.J. Festugiere.
Proelus slr la Republiqle. 3 vols. Paris, 1970.
Prod us. Elements qf Theology. ed. E.R. Dodds. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1963.
Produs. Platonic Theology. Ed. H.D. Safrey and L.G. Westerink. 5 vols.
continuing. Iaris, 1968-.
FURTHER READ INC
This list of books is not a defnitive bibliography of Platonism and English
Literature, but is intended as a guide to further reading. Details of primary
sources are given in the notes of the studies in which they are discussed.
GENERAL
Bolgar, R. R. The Classical Heritage and its Beniciaries. Cambridge, 1 954.
Bolgar, R. R. , (ed.). Clssical Injuences on European Cultre,jOo- ljOO. Cambridge,
1 971 .
Bolgar, R.R. , (ed.). Classical !if uences on Wester Thought, IjOo-1700.
Cambridge, 1976.
Bolgar, R.R., (ed.). Classical lnjuences on European Culture 16jo- I870. Cambridge,
1979
Casey, J. Pagan Virtue. Oxford, 1 991 .
Clarke, M. L. Classical Education in Britain 1500-1900. Cambridge, 1959.
Inge, William R. The Platonic Tradition in English Religious Thought. London,
1926.
O'Meara, D.. (ed.). Neoplatonism and Christian Thought. Albany, N.Y., Ig82.
Panofsky, E. lea. A Concept in Art Theory. trans.J.J.S. Peake, Columbia, 1968.
L. D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson. Scribes and Scholars. A Cuide to the
Transmission ojCreek and Latin Literature. grd edn Oxford, 1 99 I.
Sandys, J .E. A Hitor ojClassical Scholarship. 3 vol,. Cambridge, 1 9o9-8.
Shorey, Paul. Platonism Ancient and Moder. Berkeley, 1 938.
BI BLI OGRAPHY
3
4
5
Tigerstedt, E.N. The Dedi,,, and Fail o the Neoillatonic Interpretation of Plato.
Helsinki, 1 974.
Tigerstedt, E.N . . 'Interpreting Plato'. Stockholm Studies in the History oj
Literature, 1 7 (Stockholm 1974)
ANTI QUITY
Annas, Julia. An Introduction to Plato's Republic. Oxford, I 98! .
Bundy, M. W. The Theory of Imagination i Classical and Medieval Thought.
Urbana, 1 927.
Dillon, J. The Middle Platonists. London, 1977.
G.M.A. Gruber. Plato's Thought. London, 1935.
Guthrie, W.K.C. Histor of Greek Philosophy. vols 4 and 5 Cambridge, 1975,
1978.
Hare, R.M. Plato. Oxford, 1 982.
Irwin, T. Classical Thought. Oxford, 1 989.
Melling, DJ. Understanding Plato. Oxford, 1987.
Price, A.W. Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle. Oxford, 1 989.
Rist, ].M. Plotinus; the Road to Reality. Cambridge, 1967.
Rowe, C.]. Plato. Brighton, 1 984.
Russell, D.A. Criticism in Antiquity. Lo.ndon, I 98! .
Tigerstedt, E. N. Plato's /dea of Poetic Inspiration. Helsinki, 1 969.
Watson, G. Phantasia in Classical Thought. Galway, 1988.
LATER PLATONI SM AND THE EARLY CHRI STIAN PERI OD
Armstrong, A.H. (ed.). Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval
Philosophy. Cambridge, 1987.
Bundy, M.W. The Theory ofImagination in Classical and Medieval Thought.
Urbana, 1 927.
Chadwick, Henry. Boethins. The Consolations ofMusic, Logic, Theolog and
Philosopf!. Oxford, 1 98 I , reprinted 1 990.
Chadwick, Henry. Augustine (Past Masters). Oxford, 1 986.
Coleman, Janet. Ancient and Medieval Memories: Studies in the Reconstruction of
the Past. Cambridge, 1 992.
Dodds, E.R. Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxie!. Cambridge, 1965.
Fowden, G. The Egyptian Hermes. Cambridge, 1 986.
Ivanka, E. von. Plato Christianus. Einsiedeln, 1 964.
Lamberton, R. Homer the Theologian. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986.
Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: fiom Plato to
Denys. Oxford, 198 I .
Markus, R.A. The End ofAncient Christini!. (Cambridge 1 990).
Markus, R.A. Augustine. A Collection of Critical Essays. New York, 1972.
Pepin, ]. Mythe et allegorie. 2nd edn. Paris, 1976.
Rist,]. M. Eros and Psyche; Studies in Plato, Plotinus and Origen. Toronto, 1 964.
Wallis, R.T. Neoplatonism. London, 1 972.
Watson, G. Pantasia in Classical Thought. Galway, 1988.
BI BLI OGRAPHY
MI DDLE AGES
Burley,J .D. Chaucer's Language and the Philosophers' Tradition. Cambridge, 1979.
Butler, C. WesteTl Mysticism. 2nd edn. London, Ig27.
Dronke, Peter. Fabula; Explorations into the uses if Myth in Medieval Platonim.
Leiden, Ig74.
Dronke, Peter. (ed.). A Hitor ifT weifh-centur Wester Philosophy. Cambridge,
Ig88.
Dronke, Peter and Jill Mann. 'Chaucer and the Medieval Latin Poets', in
Geo.rey Chaucer, ed. Derek Brewer. (Writers and their Background).
London, 1 974-
Economou, George D. The Goddess Natura in Medieval Lterature. Cambridge,
Mass., 1972.
Gibson, Margaret, editor. Boethius. His Li Thought and Iruence. Oxford, I g8r .
Jefferson, B.J. Chaucer and the Consolations i Philosophy ojBoethiu. Princeton, I g I g.
Klibansky, Raymond. The Continuity oJthe Platonic Tradition during the Middle
Ages. London, 1939; reprinted Munich, Ig81 .
Klibansky, Raymond. 'Plato's Parmenides in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance', Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1 ( 1 943), 281 -330.
Reprinted in Klibansky, Continuity ( l g81 ) .
. Knowles, D. TI" English Mystical Tradition. London, 1 96r .
Lewis, C.S. The Discarded Image. Cambridge, I g64.
Louth, Andrew. De1s the Areopagite. London, Ig8g.
Marenbon, Earl Medieval Philosophy 48-1 150; and Introduction. London, Ig83.
Minnis, A.J. Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity. Cambridge, Ig82.
Minnis, A.. The Medieval Boethius. Studies in Veracular Translations i De
Consolatione Philosophiae. Cambridge, Ig87.
Otten, K. Konig Alfreds Boethius. Tu bingen, 1 964.
Riehle, W. The Middle English Mystics. London, Ig81 .
Steadman,john M. Disembodied Laughter: 'Troilus' and the Apotheosis Tradition.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, Ig72.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. Platonism and Poetry in the Twelfth Centur. Princeton,
Ig72.
RENAISSANCE AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Agar, M. Millon and Plato. Princeton, I g28.
Allen, M.J.B. The Platonism if Marsilio Fieino: A Stud oj his Phaedrus
Commentar, its Sources and Genesis. Berkeley, 1984.
Baker-Smith, Dominic. More's Utopia. London, 1 99r .
Baldwin, E.G. 'Milton and Plato's Timaeus'. PMLA, 35 ( l g20), 21 0-2 1 7.
Bennett, Josephine Waters. 'Spenser's "Garden of Adonis'' ', PMLA, 47
( 1 932), 46-80.
Bennett, Josephine Waters. 'Spenser's Venus and the Goddess of Nature in
the Cantos if Mutabiltie', Studes in Philolog, 30 ( 1 933), 159--2.
L
BI BLI OGRAPHY
347
Bieman,. Elizabeth. PlaIa Baplized; Towards lhe Inlerprelalion o Spenser's
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Cassirer, Ernst. The Platonic Renaissance in England. trans. J.P. Pettigrove.
London, 1953.
Cody, Richard. The Landscape oj lhe Mind: Pasloralism and Plalonic Theory in
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Copenhaver, Brian and Charles Schmitt. Renaissance Philosophy. Oxford, 1992.
Cragg, G. R. The Cambridge Plalonisls. New York, 1968.
Corrigan, Kevin. 'The Function of the Ideal in Plato's Republic and St.
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More's Utopia', Mareana, 27 ( I 990), 27-48.
Ellrodt, Robert. Neoplalonism in lhe Poelry o Spenser. Geneva, 1960.
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Fallon, S. Millan among lhe Philosophers. Columbia, 1 991 .
Fiore, P.A. Millon and Augustine. Pennsylvania, [ 92 I .
Gordon, Walter M. 'The Platonic Dramaturgy of Thomas More's Dialogues',
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Jayne, Sears. John Colel and Marsilio Fieino. Oxford, 1963.
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Beer, John. Blake's Visionary U1iverse. Manchester, 1 969.
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Anderson, Warren D. Matthew Arold and the Classical Tradition. Ann Arbor,
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3
49
Dover,.KennethJ. 'Expurgation of Greek Literature', Entretiens sur l'antiquitf
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Arkins, Brian. Builders ofMySoul: Greek and Roman Themes in Yeats. Garrards
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Raine, Kathleen. Death-in-Lif and Li Je-in-Death: Cuchulain Comforted' and
'News Jor the Delphic Oracle'. Dublin, 1974-
Ritvo, R.P. Plotillistic Elements in Yeats's Prose Works. Unpublished dissertation.
Fordham, 1 973.
Ritvo, R.P. '1 Vision B: the Plotinian Metaphysical Basis'. Reuiew of English
Studies, 26 ( 1 975),
34-46.
Santas, G.X. Plato and Freud; Two Theories of Love. Oxford, Ig88.
Smidt, Kristian. Poetry and Belii in the Work of T.S. Eliot. London, 1 961 .
Thompson, Eric. T.S. Eiot, the Man and his Works. Toronto, Ig6g.
Wilhelm, James]. Dante and Pound: the Epic o Judgement. Orono, Maine, 1 974.
Wilson, F.I.C. W.B. Yeats and Tradition. London, 1 958.
Index
The following index lists names or historical figllrc) tranliators and scholars of Plato, literary
and philosophical movements, Plato's Dialogues, Platonic and Neoplatonic concepts and
themes.
Adams, John, 31 6
Aeschylus, 237
Aestheticism, 258-60, 265
Akcnsidc, l84
Alain of Lille, 24, 26, 45. 50r., 127. 133
Alcuin, 38
Alfred, King, 23. 38-44
Ambosc of Milan, 29
Amclius, 287
Anselm ofCantcl'bury, 309
Antiochus of Ascalon, 53
Antisthcncs, 91
Apollonius ofTyana. 15-16, gog. 315-17
Aquinas, 'l1lOmns. 1 21
Aristippus HC1lI'iclIS, 24, 39
Aristippus of Cyrcnc, 78
Aristophancs, 181
Aristotlc/Aristotclianism, 1, 5. 12, '5, 16,
23-5. 25. 32, 67. 73. 86, 122, 166,
qO-I, ,82, 201 , 202, 208, 273, 285,
299
Armstrong, A.B.. 272
Arnold, Matthew, 205, 242-56, 259
Arold. Thomas, t8t
Art. 15. 24, '95, 234. 262-5, 330-1 , 336-8,
342
Athenian Academy, 4, 53, 67, 233. 259
AtlicllS. 8
Atwood, Margaret. 276
Auden, Wystan Hugh, 278, 31 9-29, 331
Augustine of Hippo, St, 5, 24, 25, 27-37, 38,
39
,
40, 52, 55-8
,
68, 69
. 7 '
, 87, 9
0
, 94.
153. 158-61 , 1 76, 302
Bakhtin. Mikhail, 33'
Basil of Cacsarea, 29
Becket, Samuel, 31 9
Bell, Clive, 296
Bemho, Pietro, 72, 81-3
Castiglione'S Bcmbo, 100-2, 105, 106
Benivieni, Girolamo, 79
Bentham, Jeremy, 206
BCllllctt, Arold, 291
Bergson, Henri, 277
BentlC)l, Richnrd. ,82
Bc,kclcy, Gcorge, 21 5
Bernard ofClairvaux, 32, 45, 48, 58, 60,
62
Bcrardus Silvcstris, 24. 45, 127, 1 3SIl
Bcssadon, Cardinal Giovanni, 6, 75, 77, 78,
80, 82-3
Bible
,
33, '42, 157
Gemsis, 21, 154
Song of Songs/Solomon, 62, 77-8, 80, 83
St john, 22, 32 1
SI Luke, 51
Sl Mauhew, 89
Acts, 25
Romans, 34
Corinthians, 22, 91 0
Colossians, 22
Hebrews, 54
Blake, vVilliam, 184, 186-g8, 227, 276,
282
Blavatsky, Helena, 272, 276, 280
Boehme,jacob (Behmen), 187
Bocthius, Sevcrinus, 5, 23, 25, 26, 38-44. 45,
46, 17. 50, 1()3, 127
Bolingbroke, Hemy St john, First Viscount
Bolinghroke, 185
Bonaventure, 59. 60
Boylc, Sir Roben. 75
Bradley, {,.H., 278, 298, 306
B-!! ,..Ro.hc.oo
Bruni, Leonardo, 68, 69, 76
Bruno, Giordano, 8.1, 106, 127
35
1
352 I NDEX
Buruc John, 27 t
Buret, Thomas, 21 8
Butler {of Shrewsbury}, 1 81
Byron, George Gordoll, ''7
Cabbala, C:bbatism, 80, 84. 193 see also Kiss
(mars osculi)
Cairs, Huntington, 27
Calcidius, 24, 28, 38
Calvinism, 73. 143
Cambridge Platonist!, 9. 73-4. 1 21. 139-50,
166, 177, 1 81 , 24', 279. 282
Carlylc, Thomas, 261
Cartwr
i
ght, William, 162
Casaubon. Isaac, 69. 74
Case, John, 7 1
Castiglione, Baldasar, 71 , 83-4, 96, 1 00- 2,
105. 107, [ 1 2, 1 1 4, 1 1 7. 127
CatulJus, 105
Cavaicanti, Giovanni, 79. 31 3. 31 4
Chaldcan Oracles, 4, I I
Chapman, George, 72, 100, 107. 1 1 0-12,
1 1 6, 1 1 9-20
Charles I, King, 72
Chartrcs, School or, etc., 24. 38, 45. 48, 50-I,
13511
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 23. 2H 26, 43, 45-51 ,
127. 133
. Ch'cng Tang, 31 7
CheSler, Robert, I 1 9
Childhood, 167, 1 76-7. 221-5
Christ, 22, 31 , 32, 33, 34, 50, 5
1
, g
l
, 1 34,
'15. 150-7. 205. 309, 336 337
Chrysoloras, Manuel, 68
Chubb, Thomas, 183
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 4. 28, 2g, 30, 33, 68,
93, 101, 159
Clarkson, Mrs, 225
Clement of Alexandria, 4, 22, 29
Clerke, Bartholomew, 71
Cleveland, John, 163
Cloud ojUnknowing, 25. 56-8, 62-4
Coleridge, Berkeley, 21 9
Coleridge, Hartley, 21 8, 21 9
Coleridge, S,lnlUel Taylor, 187. 202, 203.
206, 207-16, 21 7-22, 228, 251 , 262-3,
272, 331
Clel, John, 70, 88
Collier, Arthur, 183
Confucius, 31 7
Conrad, Joscph, 276, 304
Corbierc, Tristan, 299
Cornarius. Janus, 122
Cornford. F,M., 272
Corsi, Giovanni, 79n
Cudworth. Ralph, 73-5. '39, 140. 143-7.
149-50, '77
Culverwell, Nathaniel, 73. 75, '77
Dacicl', Andre, 182. 233
Dante Alighjeri, 49, 258, 260, 277. Sao, 305,
310, 31 3, 322
Darwin, Charlcs, 156, 261, 266
Davcnant, Sir William, 72, 1 1 9
Davics of Hcrcford, john, 7'
Deecmbrio, Pit-r Candido, 70, 87, 93
Denys se Dionysius
Dc Quincey, Thomas, 21 8
Dcn'ida, jacques, 274, 306
Descartes, Rene, 73, 75, '4 I, 98
d'Holbaeh, Baroll, 231
Diogcnes of Siuopc, 91
Diogcne -Lacrtius, 76, 78
Dionysius (Denys) thc Arcopagitc, 5. 22, 25,
52, 56-8, 60, 77, 88, 127. 154. 167
Dionysius of Syracuse, 96
D
,
onnc, Johu
L
100, 107, 1 1 2-16, 163
D
orp, Maartcll vall, 89
Dl'ayloll, Michael. 72
Drummond, William, 233
Du Bcllay, Joachim, 72
Duns SCOlUS, 204
d'Ul'fc, Honore, 1 19
Ebreo, Leone, 84. 1'17
Eckhart, Meister, 88
Education, 27, 31 , 3S. 34. 36, 149, 249, 252,
254, 292, 294, 296
paideia, 3 I, 35
Gl'cek Studies, 28, 68, 1 81 -2, 292, 298
Eliot, T,S" 262, 267, 272, 274-7, 298-308,
31 1 . 330-1
Elizabeth I, Queen, 39
Empiricism, 144, 1 90, 207. 210, 279
Epictehls, 91
Epicurus/Epicurcanism, 4, 203
El':Ismus, Dcsiderius, 7, 71 , 73, 86-gS, g8-g
Eriugena.John Scotus, 22, 25, 38, 47, 57,
154-9, 309
Esticnue, Henri (Slephanus), 70, 130n
Existcntialism, 274, 332-3
Everard, John, 74, 1 56, 169, 187
Fenwick, Isabella, 2'0, 221 , 224
Fcrrar, Nicholas, 74
Fichte, joG" 261
Ficino, Mal'Silio, 69-70, 74, 78-83, 85. 87,
88, 92. 93, 99-102, 1 06-10, t 12. 1 14.
1 1 8, 122-3. 127, 1 31 , 132, 134. 135.
154, 156, 158, 163, 166, t69. 1 72-5,
' 77, 21 7, 218-20, 309. 31 0. 315, 323
I NDEX
353
Fielding, Hcnry, 182
Filclfo, Fr
a
ncesco, 68
Fisher, Robert, 88
Flaxman,Jolm. 184, ,196
Fludd, Robert, 154, 156, 157
Forstcr (editor of PIlaedo), 2/ 7
Forster, E.M., 275
Fox, Richard, 7 1
Francis, St, 89
Freud, Sigmund, 273. 334-6
Frazer,J.G., 274, 304
Fuseli, Henry, Ig6
Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 336
Gallus, Thomas, 58
Gale, Theophilus, 75, 169-7 f
Gautier, Theophile, 259
George of Trcbizond, 68, 69, 75. 77
Gibbon, Edward, 1 8,
Gillis, Pictcr, 95, 97
Gladstone, William Ewart, 204
Glanvill. Joseph, 242
Gnosticism, 193-4
God, 22, 27, 29, 31 , 34, 35, 37, 39, 40, 44,
53, 54
. 56, 62, 79, '33. 137, 141

144,
154, I
SS. 156, 157, 159. 1 61 , '73, ' 76,
321 , 323, 333
Trinity, 24, 75, 135 see also Christ
Godwin, William, 231
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 264
Goncourt, Edmond and Jules dc, 259
Gonne, Maud, 285
Crant, Alexander, 201
Gray, Thomas, 184
Gregory the Great, 60
Gregory of Nazianzcn, 29, 159
Grcgory of Nyssa, 2g, 57, 62, 154
Grocyn, William, 94
Grosscteste, Robert, 309. 31 4
Grotc. George, 201, 251 , 258-9
Grotius, Hugo, 71
Halewijn, joris van, 9'
Hamilton, Edith, 27 l
Harris,james, 183
Harrison, Frederic, 249
Harrison, jane Ellen, 275
Hartley, David, 207
Hayley, William, ' 94
Heaney...camu,s, 278
Hegel, G.W.F., 266, 298n
Hellenism, 183, 250; 255
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 72, 163
Heraclitus, 258, 261, 265, 339
Herbert, Geol'ge, 74
Herbert ofCherbul'Y, Edward, Lord, 163
Hermes Trismegistus. 4. 67, 69, 70, 74. 1 69,
172, 173. 1 94
HermeticajHermelicism, 5, 69, 154, 156, 166,
187, '92, 276
Hermias, iOn
Herodotus, 21 8
Heydon, joho, 309
Hilduin of St-Denis, 57
Hill, Geoffrey, 278
Hilton, Walter, 25, 56) 61 , 63
Hobbes, Thomas, 73
Hoby, Thom?s, 72, 1 1 7
Hogg, Thomas jeOerson, 202
Homer, 12, '3, 16, ' 7, 45, 182-3, 189
Homosexuality, 76--81, 229, 257, 260) 275
homo-eroticism, 85, 260, 263
Hopkins, Gerard, Manley, 204
Hulme, T.E., 277
Humanism, 68, 70-1 , 77, 86-99, 138
Hume, David, 207, 21 0
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 70
Huxley, Aldous, 276
Hyde-Lees, Georgie, 276
Iamblichus, 5, S, 59, 272, 309, 31 0
Imagination, 12-17. 195, 236, 241, 309
see also Platonic and Ncoplatonic
concepts and themes
Irigaray, Luee, 27411
Jackson, Thomas, 74, 75, 166, 169, 170
James Hcm-y, 328
jean de Meun, 39
Jefferson, Thomas. 31 6
john of Salisbury, 57
john Scotus Eriugcna see El'iugcna
john the Saracen, 57
Johnson, Samuel. 185
Jonson, Bell, 72. 1 18-20
Jowett. Benjamin, 201 , 205, 25t, 257-61 ,
264. 267
Joyce,James, 267, 331
Judaism. 27. 29, 33 sec also Philo of
Alexandria, Cabbala
Julia Domna, Empress, 31 7
Julian the Apostatt, 5. 272
julian of Norwich, 25, 60, 278, 304
Justinian, Emperor, 67
Jung. Karl, 274, 277. 279
Kabbalah see Cabbala
Kallman, Chester, 323
Kant. Immanuel, 202, 207-9. 336
Keats. John, 262
354
I NDEX
Kingsley. Charles, 156
Kiss (mors osclIli), 80, 83-'b 102, 105
Kristcva, Julia, 33'
Lafargue, Julcs, 299-300
Landino, Cristofaro, 93
Langland, William, 25
Language, 33, 34, 35.
21 5, 266
-
7
Larkin, Philip., 278
fi
vrcncc:rH., 33 I
Levy, C.R + 272
Lewis, Wyndham. 3020
Locke, John. 183. 207. 279
Longinu!, 309
Lucan, 45
Lucian of Samosata, 93. 94
Luther, Martio. 97
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Fil'st Baron
Macaulay. 201. 206
MacKcnna, Stephen, 272, 276, 280-1
acrobius, 24. 26, S8, 45. 126
Manichcism, 28
Malcbranchc, Nicholas, 74
Mallock, W.H., 205
Malory, Sir Thomas, 107
Manutius, Aldus, 68, 87
Markland, Jeremiah, 182
Marsigli, Luigi, 68
Marston, John, 120
Martianus Capella, 24, 38, 45-7
Marvell, Andrew, 74. 163-7
Marx, Karl, 273
Maurice, F.D., 202
Maximus, 154
Mead, Georgc R,S., 272, 276
Medicis, lhe, 92
Medici, Csima dc', 31 6
Medici, Lorenzo dc', 81
Mcncius, 3' 7
Michelangelo, 282
:iddlc Platonists. 4. 21 . 53 see also
Neoplatonism
Mill. John Stuart, 204-5
Milton. John. 67, 74. 1 51-62
Momaignc, Michel de, 298n
Moore, G.E., 275, 293, 296
More, Henry, 73, 75, '
39, 140, '43
-
7. 1
49,
167, 169, 177. 282
More, Sir Thomas, 70, 71 , 86-8, 92-9, 184,
316
Momay, Philippe du Plessis. 70-1
Moshcim,J.L., 194
Muir, Edwin, 289
Murdoch, Iris, 274, 276, 330-42
Mysticism, 1 1 , 22, 25, 52-64, 321, 333
apophatic theOlogy, 57-8
Ncoplatonism, 3-18, 2 1-4. 27-9, 35-7. 39,
40, 41 , 45-51 , 53. 61, 67-71, 98, JOO,
1 06-g, 1 1 2-16, 120, 127. '34, 137-8,
153. 16S-4, 166, 167, 169. 177, 187,
Ig8, 282, S08-IO, 314, 3 [5, 31 9. 342 se
e
also Platonic and Ncoplatonic concepts
and thcme
Newton, Issac, Ig8
Niccoli, Niccolo. 68
Nicholas of Cusa, 68, 6g
Nobili, Flaminio, 8411
Norris, John, 74, 183
Numenius, 4
Ocellus, 308, 318
OlympiodorUl>, 19
Origen, 4, 22, 29, 30, 61 , 62, 87, 99, 145-6,
166
Orpheus, 67, 68, 70, Ison, 182
Orwell George, 276
Ovid, 45, 81 , 108, 1 10-12
Owen, John. 75
Panormita, Antonio, 77
Paraceisus, 187
Parmenides, 258, 260, 262, 265
Paracclsus, [87
Parker, Samuel, 75
Pater, Clara, 275
Pater, Walter, 'OS, 206, 220, 257-67, 331
Paul, St, 28, S3-5. go
Peacock. Thomas Love, 231, 234
Pearl, 25
Petrareh, Francis, 32, 68, 81 , 86, 106
Pctrcnius, 304
Phcidias, 14, 1 6
Philo of Alexandra, 4, 2[ , 22. 29. 57, 60, 154n
Philostratus, IS. 16, 31 7
Pica della Mirandola, Giovanni, 72, 80-2,
85. 92-3, 129. 132, 134. 176
Plato passim
'Attic Moses', 67
eosmologel" 24'
poet and aesthete, 206
moral philosopher, 71 , 86-7, 246
political philosophy, 96-, 204. 236-8) 241,
246-249
putative sexual depravity of, 77
and Scepticism, 232-3, 273, 2g8-307
style, 6, 87, 92, 306
supposed Trinitarianism, 24, 56, 69, 75,
134-5
see also Socrates
.
I NDEX
jj
Plato's dialogues (*indicates thoe of doubtful
attri
b
ution)
Alcihiadcs,
7
4
Apology, 3-4, 74, 233n, 303
AxioclUS", 7' , 126n
Charmides, 3
Crarylus, 89
Crito, 74
Eras/ae* q 247
Eryxias*, 243
Euthyphro, 122-4. 292
Gorgius, 253. 273
Hippias Major* q 243
Hippias Minor, 243
Ion, 3. 13. 16, 229. 230, 234. 235, 243. 253
Laches, 3
. 233
Laws, 8, 74. 97. 302, 325
Letter VII, 96, 273. 326, 327
Lysis, 243
Meno, 9. 24. 39. 139. 146, 148-9. 212, 219.
221, 253
Mentenus, 7on, 229, 243
Parmlllides, 3. 5. 39. 69, 1 1 8, 20g, 253. 272,
273, 332
Phatdo, 3, 8, 9, 24. 39, 54. 69. 74, 92, '39,
'46, 1 51 , 1 6S-6, 176, 1 82, 21 7. 2Ig,
221, 229. 233n, 247. 272, 303-5, 320
PhaedTs, !I J, '3. '4, 16, 62, 76, '40, '42,
149. t73. 210, 212, 21 g. 221 , 243.
246-7. 253, 260, 263, 272, 274. 275.
292 293-5. 297. 320, 322, 33.
Phi/cbus, 3, 253
Pro/agoras, 233n, 253
Republic, 3-6, 8, 9, 1 1-14, 16, 43, 1 7,
69-70, 90, 93-9, 1 03, 106, 107, I 18,
1 51-2, 1 72. 1 82, 212-16, 219, 221 , 229,
23'
, 233-6, 239. 243. 246-9, 251, -253,
255, 258, 259, 263. 272, 275. 291, 292,
301, 302-5, 31 6, 319. 325-7
Sophist, 3. 6, 7, 15. 59. 287, 332
StateSntall, 253
Symposium. 3. 10, I I , 13, '4, 54, 59. 62, 71 ,
73, 76-82, 8g, 109, 1 1 7, 1 19, 127, 2J8,
22g. 230, 231, 235, 238, 247, 254, 260,
272, 275, 2g2, 322, 335, 337
Tlltaelelus, 3, 6, 2og, 253, 332
Tleages. 247
Tmaells. 5, 7. 8, 15, 21 , 23-6, 28. 38, ,p
n,
45, 46, 1 51 . ISS, 176, 193-4. 213, 21 5,
272, 277, 281. 332
Platonic and Ncop!atonic concepts and
themes
anamnesis see Recollection
Art, 13-15, 24. 336
Beauty, 6, Ls '3. '4. 80. 1 01 . J09,
1 1 72, 1 36, 2,P . 2G3, 272, 282-g, 2g0.
307. 319
Cave, 1 1 , 43. 90. 93, lOG, 1 1 0, 1 1 7.
212-13, 21 5. 237. 272, 275, 26, 301.
305-6, 333, 3%
337-40
Charioteer (Pllaedrlls). 9, 322
City 5O Stale
cosmos, 23, 31 5. 157, 282, 31 5
daimoll, 59-60. 283
Demiurgc, 7. 8. 15. 21 . 194
Dualism. 8, 36. 89. ' 5' , '53, 262, 283.
284. 320, 321
Emanation. 53. 59, 132, '51. 155
Er, Myth of
,
203
Forms (Ideas), 4, 6, 8, 9. 10, 1 1 , '4, 54,
59. 97. 207. 246, 260. 262, 271, 172,
273. 281, 286-7, 308, 336
The Good. 6, I I . 23, 26, 17, 173, 236,
239-41 , 263, 271 . 272. 275, 307. 3' 9.
321. 322, 321, 332, 333, 336
fellads, 9
hypostases, 7, 8) 22, 24, 79, 127-8. 1 34, 164,
28', 287, 39, 313-14
Imitatioll (mimesis), {59-62, 2g0
Innate ideas, g, 141-2, '436, '49-So, ' 71
Intellect, 80 sec also 10US
Intelligible world, 171 30. 32, 33. 35.
196-8, 237, 240, 281-4, 287-8
Light, 21 , 90, 167, 1 72-4, 2751 29S. 30S-6.
31 0, 3'3-14
logos, 21-2, S
I., 135, 31 8
Love, 1 0, 13, 24, 45-50, 100-1, 109, 1 1 3,
I 1g, 126, 271 , 275. 313, 320. 322-5,
336, 338, 340: eros. 10. 18, 23. 59, 61 ,
260, 273, 283, 3'3-14. 319. 322-4, 326,
238, 335, 338-g; eros/ Venlts palldemos. 61 ,
1 09, 1 1 3i Platonic love, 72, 76-85. 109
Mind (mells), 7, 9 I I, 24, 32, 79
10llS, 7, 24, 50. 54. 127. 135. 1 36. 164. 1 76,
277.281, 308, 31 1-15, 31 8
The One. 5, 7-9. I I , 24, 30, 49, 5
0
, 53.
55. 59, 79, 127, 129-133, 136-7, 1 64.
197. 273, 282
plum/asia, 15-16, 287
Poets/poetry, 12-18: poetic inspiration, 13.
, 8
Recollection (anamnesis), 9. 10, 23. 39. 40,
42, 56, 73, 126. 1 39-50, 16+-5, 167.
204, 207, 208, 21 2-16, 221 , 223. 226,
246, 263. 272. 283, 285, 319, 321 , 335
Sdr-knowlcdgc. 20g-lO, 249
Soul, 6-10. 24, 30, 32, 33, 40. 42, 53-4,
62, 73. 75, 79-80, 96, g8, 127, 1 35, 137.
139, '45, 146, 157. 163-5, 167, ' 70,
1 72-6, 212-14. 219, 246-7, 277. 28,.
I NDEX
Platonic and Neoplatonic concepts and
themes (cont.)
287, 295. 306, 31 4, 322, 330: Ascent of
the soul, 10, I J, 18, 26. 30, 33, 39. 40,
42, 45. 48-g, 62, 78, 138, 164, 236, 241,
272, 294; Immortality of the Soul 10,
53, 69, 73. 86, 163, 170, 247, 330;
Innate ideas. 9, 141 -1, 1 71 ;
Pre-existence of the Soul, 40-1, 53, 73.
75, 145. 146, 164-5. 167, 212-13,
21 7-19, 221, 226; World sout, 7. 8, 74.
1 27-9, Ig6, 277. 281
State, 93-8. 246-9, 272, 2g1-2, 302, 319,
322, 324-6
Two Worlds, 53-6, 236
Womell in the Republic. 96: andocentricity,
.)
4
PIeiade, 72
Pletho (Plcthon), George Gemistus, 68, 70,
309, 31 5. 31 6
Plotinus, 4, 5, 7, 8, I 1 , 12, 14. 22, 23. 24,
28
-
0, 39, 54
.
55, 57. 59, 61 , 67, 69, 74,
77, 100, 1 21 126, 129. 1 31 , 135, 136,
1 51 , 153, 154, '
59-61 , 164, 16g,
1
73,
174, 176, IS2, 196, Ig8, 208, 272,
276-7, 279-81 , 284. 287-8, 30g-15. 318
Plutarch of Chaeronea, 4, 8
Poets, poetry, 12-18. 234-7. 254. 327-9 se
also Platonic and Neoplatonic concepts
and themes
Poole, Thomas, 208
Pope, Alexander, 183
Popper, Karl, 331
Porphyry, S, I I , 1 2, 22-4, 28, 29. 36, 57,
[32, IS2, 189, 192, 272, 285, 287-8,
309, 31 0
Porson, Richard, 182
Pound, Ezra, 267, 271-2, 274, 276-8, 302,
308-IS, 330
I)raxitcles. 1 6
l)riestiy, Joseph, 194
Primaudaye. Pierre de la, 7 I
Produs, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16-17. 22. 23, 4I n
, 57,
1 30n, 182, 2 1 7, 218. 272
Pythagoras, 195, 258-9, 266, 285. 288, 308,
31 0
Raphael, 67, 86, 203
Remigius of Auxerre, 47
Renaissance. 10, 33, 65-1 38, 260, 263, 282,
309. 31 6
Reynolds Sir Joshua, 185
Richard of 51 Victor, 309
Robinson, Henry Crabb. 19
Rolle, Richard, 60-3
Romantic movement, 207-41
Ruskin, John, 206. 264
Russell, Bertrand, 275
Rust, George. 167
Salusbury, Sir John, 1 1 9-20
Salutati, Coluccio, 68
Santayana, George, 272, 277
Sappho, 291
Sartre, JeanPaul. 274
Scepticism, 4. 93. 232, 240
, 273, 298, 303
Seneca, 25
Serres. Jean de (Serranus), 70, 74, 75, 1 1 8,
122
Sewell, William, 202
Shadwell, Thomas, 258
Shaflcsbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, third
Earl of, 183
Shakespeare, William, 100, 107-10, 1 1 7-[ 24,
343
Shelley, Percy Bysse, 202, 203, 229-41 ,

7

Sidgwiek,
'
Henry, 249
Sidney, Sir Philip, 72, 85, 100, 103-to, 1 12,

3

Sidney, Sir Robert, 104
Smith, John, 73, 177
Socrates, 3, la, I I , 13, 35, 54, 76, 77-80, 89.
91 . 92, 94
-6
, 98, 139, 1
4
8
-
5
0, ' 71 , 195,
205. 208, 210, 221, 233,
245-7, 249-53,
256, 259, 272, 292, 295. 298-9, 300-1,
303, 316, 335, 338
Xenophons's Socrates, 215-6, 250, 253.
55
Socrates as Silenus, 8g-91
Sophocles, 303, 3 1 1
Spens, Harry, 182
Spencer, Herbert, 206
Spender, Stephen, 303
Spenser, Edmund, 72, 100, 126-38
Speusippus, 4
Spinoza, Benedict dc, 73. 308
Statius, 45
Stephen, ].K., 292
Stephen, Thoby, 293-5
Slephanus see Est!cnne
Sterry, Peter, 73
SliRV0V0 81 , 106
Stoicism, 4. 15, 21 , 27, 53
Sturge Moore, T., 279-81
Swift, Jonathan, 184
Swinbure, Algernon Charles, 259
Sydenham, Floyer, 182, 201-2
Symonds, John Addington, 260
Syncsius, 1370
I NDEX
357
Tasso, Torquato, 1 27
Taylor, A.E., 272
Taylor, Jeremy, 1 77
Taylor, Thomas, 130n, 1 82, 1 !4, 1 86, 1 89.
196, 201 , 2 1 7, 272
Theobald, Lewis, ,82
Thirlwall, Connop, 205
Thueydides, :B
Toland, John, 183
Tomlinson, Charles, 278
Toup, Jonathan, 182
Trahcrne, Thoras, 74, r63-{, 167-78
Tl"aversari, Ambrogio, 76
Trevet, Nicholas, 39
Trusler, John, 195
Twisc, William, 75
Utopia, ideal city, 73, 93-8, 292, 299, 301,
306, 393 see also Platonic and
Neoplatonie concepts and themes
Vaughan, Henry, 74, 163-4, 166-7, 258
Vaughan, Thomas, 1 46, ,66
Verlaine, 286
Vespasian, 31 7
Vespueci, Amerigo, 97
ViIlon, FrallIois, 286, 3 ' {
Virgil, 45
Vives, Juan Luis. 70
Vlastos, Gregory, 272-3
Walpole, Robert, 185
Walton, John, 39
Weil, Simone, 333, 335, 336
Westcott, B.F., 205
Welton, Jessie L., 304
Whichc01C, Benjamin, 73, 139, 140-3,
1 45
-)
Whitehead, Alfred North, 272, 281
Wilde, Oscar, 259, 266
William of Conches, 24, 39, 45, 48
Winckclmann, Johnn Joachim, 196-7, 262-4
Wittgensteill, Ludwig, 274
Women, 96, 29'-2
Woolf, Virginia, 267. 275, 290-7, 331
Wordsworth, Christopher, 222
'Wordsworth Doroth). l8, 220
Wordsworth, William, 167. 192, 24, 2 1 3.
2 1 7-28, 266
XonocralCS, 4
Xenophon, 245-6, 250, 253, 255. 273
ats, William Butler, 1 81 , 187, 259, 267,
271-2, 274-,6, 279
8
9, 33

Zellct) Eduard, 258
Zello, 265
Zoroaster, 70