Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 11:27:46 -0400 From: Brian Connery <connery-AT-oakland.edu> Subject: Re: PLC: Imagery >Could anyone please enlighten me as to the meaning of solar imagery in literature? My knowledge of this may be outdated, but it seems to me that the fundamental key here is what used to known as the Great Chain of Being (see Arthur Lovejoy, *The Great Chain of Being*; or E.M. Tillyard, *The Elizabethan World Picture*). The chain is essentially a hierarchical system ordering the components of the created universe; most pertinent here is that within each "class" there are "primaries" (fossils of which idea remain deeply embedded in our culture even now). That is, there is *one* representative of each class that stands at the top of the class, the rose as the primary flower, the oak as the primary tree, the eagle as the primary bird, the head as the primary body member, and the sun as the primary star. The King is, obviously, the primary person--and thus is associated imagistically with all the other primaries. Check out Lovejoy and/or Tillyard on this. And check out Shakespeare's Richard II, esp. 3.2 and onward, in which Richard "sets" as Bolingbroke "rises." Or Hal's soliloquy in 1 Henry IV ("Yet herein will I imitate the sun . . ."). Good luck, -Brian * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Brian Connery connery-AT-oakland.edu <http://www.otus.oakland.edu/english/staff/connery.htm> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --- from list phillitcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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