Edmund Spenser: Prothalamion IMPORTANT POINTS AND MCQS

Edmund Spenser: Prothalamion

UG TRB – COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION UNIT – II BRITISH LITERATURE – I (Poetry)

IMPORTANT POINTS AND MCQS:

1. The Poet and His Works

Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599): Born in London; educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where Gabriel Harvey was his friend and mentor. In 1580 he went to Ireland as secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, Lord Deputy, and later settled at Kilcolman Castle, County Cork. Kilcolman was burnt in the rising of 1598; he died in Westminster in January 1599 and was buried in Westminster Abbey near Chaucer.

Major works: The Shepheardes Calender (1579), dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney; The Faerie Queene (Books I–III, 1590; IV–VI, 1596); Complaints and Daphnaida (1591); Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, Amoretti and Epithalamion (1595); Fowre Hymnes and Prothalamion (1596). Charles Lamb called him "the poet's poet."

2. Occasion, Title and Form

Full title: Prothalamion, or A Spousall Verse, printed for William Ponsonby, London, 1596.

Occasion: The double marriage of Lady Elizabeth and Lady Katherine Somerset, daughters of Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, to Henry Gilford (Guildford) and William Peter (Petre). The celebration is associated with Essex House on the Strand, residence of Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex; the marriage took place in November 1596.

The title: A word coined by Spenser on the analogy of "epithalamion" — a song sung before the bridal chamber, i.e., a betrothal or pre-nuptial song. It is a companion to his Epithalamion (1595), written for his own marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.

Structure: Ten stanzas of eighteen lines (180 lines). Pentameter lines are interwoven with shorter trimeters in a stanza of canzone inspiration, rhyming abbaacdcddeefeffgg. Every stanza closes with the refrain "Sweet Thames run softly, till I end my song," preceded by a varying line on the "bridal day, which is not long."

Literary afterlife: T.S. Eliot borrows the refrain in "The Fire Sermon" (Part III of The Waste Land, 1922), setting Spenser's pure Thames against the polluted modern river.

3. Stanza-by-Stanza Analysis

Stanza 1 – The calm day and the poet's discontent: A calm day; Zephyrus softly tempers "Hot Titan's beams." The poet, afflicted by sullen care and his "long fruitless stay / In prince's court," walks along the Thames, whose banks are painted with flowers fit to crown maidens and their paramours. The refrain is introduced.

Stanza 2 – The nymphs: A flock of nymphs, "lovely daughters of the flood," with greenish locks loose like brides, gather flowers in wicker baskets — the violet, the daisy that closes at evening, the virgin lily, the primrose and vermeil roses — to deck the bridegrooms' posies.

Stanza 3 – The two swans: Two swans come softly swimming down along the Lee. They are whiter than the snow on Pindus, whiter even than Jove when he became a swan for love of Leda. The stream itself seems foul beside them and spares their silken feathers.

Stanza 4 – Heavenly birds: The nymphs gaze amazed and think them heaven-born, perhaps the pair that draws "Venus' silver team," angels or of angels' breed — "Yet were they bred of Somers-heat," a pun on the brides' family name, Somerset.

Stanza 5 – Flowers on the waters: The nymphs strew flowers on the birds and waves until the river resembles old Peneus flowing through Tempe in Thessaly, like "a bride's chamber floor." Two nymphs crown the swans with garlands while one sings a lay.

Stanza 6 – The nymph's lay (marriage blessing): The birds are hailed as "the world's fair ornament." Venus and her "heart-quelling son" (Cupid) are invoked; the song prays for endless Peace, blessed Plenty, chaste pleasures and fruitful issue to confound their foes.

Stanza 7 – The procession: The nymphs echo the undersong and Echo resounds it. The swans pass down the Lee, which murmurs as if it would speak; all the river-fowl attend them, who excel the rest as Cynthia (the moon) shames the lesser stars.

Stanza 8 – London, the Temple and Leicester: They reach "merry London, my most kindly nurse," the poet's birthplace, though he takes his name from "an house of ancient fame" (the Spencers of Althorp). He notes the "bricky towers" of the Temple, once home of the Templar Knights who "decay'd through pride," now of studious lawyers; next stands the stately place where he once gained gifts from "that great lord" (Leicester), whose loss he feels in his "friendless case" — but he checks his old woes.

Stanza 9 – Panegyric of Essex: Now a "noble peer" lodges there — "Great England's glory," whose name thundered through Spain and made Hercules' two pillars quake (the capture of Cadiz, 1596). He is hailed as "fair branch of honour, flower of chivalry," with a pun on happiness in his own name (Devereux/heureux), so that "great Eliza's glorious name" may ring through the world.

Stanza 10 – The bridegrooms: Essex issues from his towers like radiant Hesper, followed by a great train. Two gentle knights, like "the twins of Jove" (Castor and Pollux) that deck the baldric of the heavens (the zodiac), go to the river's side and receive their brides. The refrain closes the poem.

4. Themes

Marriage as cosmic harmony: Chaste love, peace, plenty and fruitful issue are blessed by classical deities in a Christian-Platonic spirit.

Private and public: A domestic celebration widens into national panegyric of Essex and Elizabeth.

Personal disappointment and patronage: The poet's frustration at court and grief for Leicester give an elegiac undertone; the praise of Essex is also a bid for patronage.

Time and transience: The refrain's plea that the river run softly "till I end my song" asks time itself to pause for art.

The Thames as unifying symbol: River, nymphs and swans bind pastoral, mythic and historical London.

5. Style and Devices

Pastoral allegory: The brides appear as swans, the river as a living presence.

Classical mythology: Zephyrus, Titan, Leda and Jove, Venus and Cupid, Peneus and Tempe, Cynthia, Echo, Hesper, Castor and Pollux, Hercules.

Pun and compliment: "Somers-heat" (Somerset); the "happiness" of Essex's name.

Musicality: Refrain, alliteration ("silver-streaming Thames"), deliberate archaism (eftsoons, whilom, feateously, shend).

Personification: The river "bad his billows spare" the swans; the Lee murmurs as if it would speak.

Allusion / Image / Figure	Where	Function
Zephyrus and Titan	Stanza 1	Gentle west wind tempering the sun; ideal festive calm
Nymphs, "daughters of the flood"	Stanza 2	Pastoral chorus preparing bridal flowers
Pindus snow; Jove and Leda	Stanza 3	Hyperbole of the swans' (brides') purity
Venus' silver team; "Somers-heat"	Stanza 4	Love-mythology and pun on Somerset
Peneus and Tempe	Stanza 5	Classical landscape of beauty; river as "bride's chamber floor"
Venus and her "heart-quelling son"	Stanza 6	Divine blessing on chaste, fruitful marriage
Cynthia and the lesser stars; Echo	Stanza 7	The brides' pre-eminence; nature's response to the song
Temple, Templar Knights; Leicester	Stanza 8	London history, pride's decay, poet's lost patron
Cadiz; Hercules' two pillars	Stanza 9	Panegyric of Essex's 1596 victory
Hesper; twins of Jove; baldric of heaven	Stanza 10	Celestial glorification of Essex and the bridegrooms

50 Deeply Analysed Multiple Choice Questions (UG TRB Standard)

1. Prothalamion was published in

A) 1590

B) 1595

C) 1596

D) 1599

2. The word "Prothalamion," coined by Spenser, means

A) a song before the bridal chamber

B) a song after the wedding night

C) a funeral song

D) a river hymn

3. Spenser's companion poem celebrating his own marriage is

A) Amoretti

B) Daphnaida

C) Astrophel

D) Epithalamion

4. The two brides were daughters of the Earl of

A) Leicester

B) Worcester

C) Essex

D) Southampton

5. The brides were

A) Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset

B) Penelope and Dorothy Devereux

C) Mary and Anne Sidney

D) Frances and Anne Walsingham

6. The bridegrooms were

A) Philip Sidney and Fulke Greville

B) Walter Ralegh and Arthur Gorges

C) Henry Gilford and William Peter

D) Essex and Southampton

7. How many stanzas does the poem contain?

A) Eight

B) Ten

C) Twelve

D) Twenty-four

8. Each stanza consists of

A) nine lines

B) fourteen lines

C) sixteen lines

D) eighteen lines

9. The refrain of the poem is

A) "The woods shall to me answer and my echo ring"

B) "Sweet Thames run softly, till I end my song"

C) "Calm was the day"

D) "Great England's glory"

10. Which twentieth-century poem borrows the refrain?

A) The Waste Land

B) Four Quartets

C) "The Second Coming"

D) "The Hollow Men"

11. The poem opens by describing the day as

A) stormy

B) misty

C) frosty

D) calm

12. Which wind lightly delays "Hot Titan's beams"?

A) Boreas

B) Eurus

C) Zephyrus

D) Notus

13. The poet's "sullen care" arises from

A) his long fruitless stay in prince's court

B) the death of his wife

C) the loss of his manuscript

D) a quarrel with Essex

14. The nymphs in stanza 2 are described as

A) daughters of Jove

B) the nine Muses

C) wood-dryads

D) daughters of the flood, with greenish locks

15. Which flower is described as one "that at evening closes"?

A) The violet

B) The daisy

C) The lily

D) The primrose

16. The swans are whiter than the snow on the top of

A) Olympus

B) Parnassus

C) Pindus

D) Ida

17. Jove became a swan for love of

A) Europa

B) Danaë

C) Leda

D) Io

18. The nymphs think the swans may be the pair that draws

A) Juno's chariot

B) Venus' silver team

C) Apollo's car

D) Diana's chariot

19. "Yet were they bred of Somers-heat" puns on

A) the brides' family name, Somerset

B) a hot summer only

C) Somerset House

D) the Earl of Essex

20. The flower-strewn river is compared to

A) the Tiber at Rome

B) the Nile

C) Lethe

D) old Peneus flowing through Tempe

21. The nymph's lay in stanza 6 invokes

A) Juno and Hymen

B) Diana and Apollo

C) Minerva

D) Venus and her heart-quelling son

22. The lay prays that the couples may enjoy

A) endless Peace, blessed Plenty and fruitful issue

B) wealth and titles

C) fame in war

D) long voyages

23. Who resounds the accents of the nymphs' undersong?

A) Philomel

B) Orpheus

C) Echo

D) Zephyrus

24. The two swans excel the other birds as Cynthia shames

A) the sun

B) the lesser stars

C) the clouds

D) the evening star

25. Spenser calls London

A) "fair Troynovant"

B) "my most kindly nurse"

C) "the city of kings"

D) "the world's wide wonder"

26. "Though from another place I take my name" refers to Spenser's claimed kinship with

A) the Sidneys of Penshurst

B) the Dudleys

C) the Devereux family

D) the Spencers of Althorp

27. The "bricky towers" on the Thames are

A) the Temple

B) the Tower of London

C) Whitehall

D) Greenwich Palace

28. According to the poem, the Templar Knights decayed through

A) poverty

B) war

C) pride

D) plague

29. "That great lord, which therein wont to dwell" is

A) the Earl of Leicester

B) Lord Burghley

C) Sir Francis Walsingham

D) Sir Walter Ralegh

30. The "noble peer" now lodging in that house is

A) Ralegh

B) the Earl of Essex

C) the Earl of Southampton

D) Sir Philip Sidney

31. The line about a name that "through all Spain did thunder" alludes to

A) the Armada of 1588

B) the Lisbon expedition of 1589

C) the Azores voyage of 1597

D) the capture of Cadiz in 1596

32. "Hercules' two pillars" are

A) the Alps

B) the Pyrenees

C) the rocks at the Strait of Gibraltar

D) the Bosphorus forts

33. The "endless happiness of thine own name" puns on the name

A) Essex

B) Robert

C) Devereux (French heureux)

D) Leicester

34. Essex issuing from his towers is compared to

A) radiant Hesper

B) Phoebus

C) Mars

D) Hercules

35. The bridegrooms are likened to

A) Theseus and Pirithous

B) the twins of Jove, Castor and Pollux

C) Achilles and Patroclus

D) Romulus and Remus

36. "The baldric of the heavens" signifies

A) the Milky Way

B) the rainbow

C) the equator

D) the zodiac

37. In stanza 9 the Queen is named as

A) Gloriana

B) great Eliza

C) Belphoebe

D) Astraea

38. Spenser's own subtitle classifies the poem as a

A) pastoral elegy

B) pastoral eclogue

C) spousal verse

D) heroic epistle

39. The stanza, mixing long and short lines, is inspired by the

A) Petrarchan sonnet

B) rhyme royal

C) ottava rima

D) Italian canzone

40. The rhyme scheme of each stanza is

A) abbaacdcddeefeffgg

B) ababbcbcc

C) abab cdcd efef gg

D) aabbccddeeffgghhii

41. The short lines interspersed among the pentameters are mainly

A) trimeters

B) tetrameters

C) alexandrines

D) heptameters

42. Spenser was buried in

A) St Paul's Cathedral

B) Kilcolman

C) Cambridge

D) Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer

43. Charles Lamb's famous title for Spenser is

A) the English Homer

B) the morning star

C) the poet's poet

D) the father of English poetry

44. The movement from the poet's grievance to the praise of Essex shows

A) observance of the unity of time

B) a blending of private celebration with public panegyric and patronage

C) a satire on marriage

D) a turn to tragic irony

45. Spenser's Irish home was

A) Dublin Castle

B) Youghal

C) Smerwick

D) Kilcolman Castle

46. Spenser's first major work (1579) was

A) The Faerie Queene

B) The Shepheardes Calender

C) Amoretti

D) Complaints

47. In 1580 Spenser went to Ireland as secretary to

A) Lord Grey de Wilton

B) the Earl of Essex

C) Lord Burghley

D) Sir Philip Sidney

48. In the poem's allegory, the two swans represent

A) the Queen and Essex

B) the poet and his Muse

C) the two brides

D) the two bridegrooms

49. The swans' journey leads them to

A) Greenwich Palace

B) Essex House in London

C) Windsor Castle

D) Oxford

50. The 1596 quarto was printed for the bookseller

A) William Ponsonby

B) Richard Tottel

C) William Caxton

D) Edward Blount

Complete Answer Key with Detailed Explanations

1. C | 1596 — Published in 1596, the year of the Cadiz expedition and of Fowre Hymnes.

2. A | Song before the bridal chamber — Coined on the analogy of "epithalamion" (song at the bridal chamber).

3. D | Epithalamion — Published with Amoretti in 1595, for his marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.

4. B | Worcester — Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester.

5. A | Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset — Named in the full title of the poem.

6. C | Henry Gilford and William Peter — "Two worthie Gentlemen," as the title page calls them.

7. B | Ten — Ten stanzas, 180 lines in all.

8. D | Eighteen — Each stanza has eighteen lines ending in the refrain.

9. B | "Sweet Thames run softly…" — Option A echoes the refrain of Epithalamion.

10. A | The Waste Land — Eliot uses it in "The Fire Sermon" to contrast past and present Thames.

11. D | Calm — "Calm was the day" opens the poem in festive serenity.

12. C | Zephyrus — The gentle west wind of spring and love.

13. A | Fruitless stay at court — An autobiographical note of disappointed hopes of preferment.

14. D | Daughters of the flood — River-nymphs with greenish, loose locks "as each had been a bride."

15. B | The daisy — The "day's eye" closes at evening.

16. C | Pindus — A Greek mountain range linked with the Muses.

17. C | Leda — Jove visited Leda as a swan; the swans are whiter still.

18. B | Venus' silver team — Swans draw Venus's chariot, suiting a marriage poem.

19. A | Somerset — "Somers-heat" is a compliment to the brides' family.

20. D | Peneus and Tempe — The Thessalian vale of classical beauty.

21. D | Venus and Cupid — Love's queen and her "heart-quelling son."

22. A | Peace, Plenty, issue — The traditional blessings of the epithalamic genre.

23. C | Echo — Gentle Echo resounds from the neighbouring ground.

24. B | The lesser stars — Cynthia (the moon) outshines them; "shend" means put to shame.

25. B | "My most kindly nurse" — Spenser was born in London.

26. D | Spencers of Althorp — "An house of ancient fame."

27. A | The Temple — Once the Templars' home, later occupied by lawyers.

28. C | Pride — A moral note on the fall of the Knights Templar.

29. A | Leicester — Robert Dudley (d. 1588), Spenser's early patron; Essex House was formerly Leicester House.

30. B | Essex — Robert Devereux, second Earl, Leicester's stepson.

31. D | Cadiz, 1596 — Essex's celebrated capture of Cadiz in June 1596.

32. C | Strait of Gibraltar — Calpe and Abyla, the twin rocks at the Mediterranean's mouth.

33. C | Devereux — A compliment punning on heureux, "happy."

34. A | Hesper — The evening star (Venus) rising bright from the ocean.

35. B | Castor and Pollux — The Gemini, "twins of Jove."

36. D | Zodiac — The heavenly belt in which Gemini is set.

37. B | Great Eliza — "Great Eliza's glorious name may ring / Through all the world."

38. C | Spousal verse — A Spousall Verse, i.e., a betrothal song.

39. D | Italian canzone — The model for stanzas mixing long and short lines, as in Epithalamion.

40. A | abbaacdcddeefeffgg — Eighteen lines ending in a rhyming couplet that includes the refrain.

41. A | Trimeters — E.g., "Walk'd forth to ease my pain."

42. D | Westminster Abbey — Near Chaucer, in what became Poets' Corner.

43. C | The poet's poet — Lamb's tribute to his influence on later poets.

44. B | Private and public — The marriage song becomes a patriotic panegyric and a plea for patronage.

45. D | Kilcolman Castle — In County Cork; burnt in 1598.

46. B | The Shepheardes Calender — Twelve eclogues, dedicated to Sidney.

47. A | Lord Grey de Wilton — Lord Deputy of Ireland.

48. C | The two brides — Their whiteness signifies purity; the grooms appear only in stanza 10.

49. B | Essex House — On the Strand, where the knights receive the brides.

50. A | William Ponsonby — Spenser's regular publisher.