Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Spenser on a suicide

   But sith this wretched woman ouercome
   Of anguish, rather then of crime hath beene,
   Reserue her cause to her eternall doome,
And in the meane vouchsafe her honorable toombe.

     Sir Guyon of Lady Mortdant (Amavia).  Edmund Spenser, The fairie queene II.i.58.

eternall doome:  the Last Judgment?
honorable toombe:  decent burial, albeit only a pagan one (Spenser encyclopedia, s.v. "Amavia, Mordant, Ruddymane" (at p. 25) and "hair", by Carol V. Kaske).

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