EPITHALAMION AS A WEDDING ODE

            It was Charles Lamb who called Spenser ‘the poet’s poet’ because of his abundantly predominant poetic faculty.  He is also regarded the second father of English poetry as he did yeoman service to English poetry in a variety of ways.  He left behind works of immortal value which served as a mirror to shape their works for a host of poets who came in his wake.

            Spenser introduced into English literature not only new metrical forms but he also introduced many kinds of poetry.  One such genre is ‘marriage hymn’ or ‘wedding ode’.  Spenser derived this form from Latin and introduced it into English. Epithalamion and Prothalamion are the two remarkable wedding odes ever written in English. When Prothalamion was composed in honour of the double marriage of Lady Elizabeth and |Lady Catherine, the two daughters of the Earl of Worcester, Epithalamion praises the poet’s own marriage with Elizabeth Boyle whom  he courted for more than a year.

            Spenser fell in love with a beautiful Irish lady by name Elizabeth, during his stay in Ireland.  He wrote his Amoretti poring forth his love for her in a series of 88 sonnets. Fortunately, for Spenser his love for his lady culminated in his marriage with her in 1595.  Spenser offered this poem as a wedding gift to the bride in the place of ornaments.  If the poet had chosen to present the latter, Elizabeth would have missed an invaluable treasure and the English speaking world would have missed “the most gorgeous jewel in the treasure-house of the Renaissance”

            The Epithalamion consists of 23 stanzas or strophes and a final seven-line tornato. It is easily the first of its kind, not only among Spenser’s own lyrics but among all English odes, for its sustained beauty, for its melody, for its richness of ornament and for its happy blending of the narrative, the descriptive and the lyric elements

            Spenser begins his poem Epithalamion by invoking the learned sisters or the Muses to help him in writing his love’s praise.  He asks the learned sisters to wake themselves up before the sun spreads his golden beams and then go to his bride’s bed room and dress her up, “as the wished day is come”. He further wishes delightful music to be sung while his bride pits on her dress.  The poet also wants the nymphs of the woods, streams and mountains to come with flowers to cover the ground where the bride treads and honour her with garlands.

            And now the bride is awake.  The poet requests the fair Hours and the three maids of  Cyprian Queen to adorn his most beautiful bride.  After this, the bride is ready to come forth.  So, the poet asks all the virgins and boys to get ready and be prepared for the wedding procession.  He requests the sun-god to be favourable and grant him that one day exclusively for himself.

            The procession starts. “The minstrels begin to shrill aloud”. The pipe, the tabor and the timbrels give the merry music without any discordant note and dancing party accompanies. The boys run up and down the street in great jubilation, shouting “Hymen io Hymen”. Crowned with a garland, the bride looks like a maiden Queen.

            The poet then describes her inward beauty, the splendor of her lively spirit. Sweet love and constant chastity dwell in her.  She has unspotted faith and comely womanhood.  The bride is now taken to the church where the marriage is to be performed.  She is brought up to the high altar and the sacred matrimonial function is celebrated in the midst of roaring organs and praises of the Lord.  While the holy priest blesses her, red roses flush up on her cheeks. The poet then asks his bride to give him her hand, as a pledge of love.

            After this, he wishes the day to end and welcomes night.  He wants the bride to be brought to the bridal bower and laid in her bed, in the midst of lilies and violets.  The poet wishes that their joy be protected from peril, foul horror, false treason, dreadful disquiet, tempestuous storms and so on.  He wants the night to be calm and quiet and as happy as when Jove lay with Alcmena.

            The poet then invokes the aid of |Juno, the wife of Jupiter as she is the protector of marriage and of woman.  So the poet prays for her blessings.  Then he invokes the glad Genius, Hebe and Hymen and requests them to protect the bridal bower and genial bed and help bring forth fruitful progeny.

            In his conclusion, Spenser says that his love should have been duly honoured or decorated with many jewels or ornaments.  But it is not done so due to hasty accidents and want of time.  So he offers this poem to his bride as a token on the happy occasion of their wedding.

            As in the marriage hymns Spenser keeps up the conventional elements namely the bringing home of the bride, the bridal song, the dance of young men and maidens, the light of blazing torches and the accompanying music. But his highest achievement is that in this poem convention and personal feeling found their perfect meeting.  Some of the marriage customs, namely, crowning the bride with a garland, lighting her way with torches and strewing her threshold with flowers are also brought into the frame work of this poem when Spenser is giving expression to one of the most supreme moments of his life. We notice the steady progression of the bridal day from morning to night which at once reveals the poet’s wealth of fancy and the range of his music.

            In conclusion, the poem is admired for its theme, for its pictorial and dramatic quality, for its sincere tone and melodious sweetness, for its decorative and homely fancy and finally for its refrain.  E.De Selincourt remarks: “The Epithalamion seems to concentrate into itself the essence of Spenser’s art.  This song is Spenser’s highest poetic achievement.”