Journal of Taibah University the first issue

6
Haitham Abdulaziz Saab
banqueting, adornment of the bride by attending women, and the
preparation of the bridal chamber for the bride’s reception. 7 However,
Spenser extends and modifies the use of the term to include songs in
all parts of the marriage ceremony. Spenser’s modification of the
originally-classical term, and his superb creativity is manifested in
another interesting aspect, worth mentioning in our treatment of the
poem. John Hale and Stefan Lane draw our attention to Spenser’s
innovative and careful use of numbers in this Ode of 365 long lines,
indicating days of the year. In Epithalamion, the author’s wedding
gift to his bride in the celebration of his second marriage, is expressed
exceptionally in his use of number symbolism pointing to his theme of
Time. The poem is impressively designed so that its 24 stanzas
(indicating 24 hours of the day) convey the sense of progression of
time in the whole poem. In Spenser’s arrangement, 16 stanzas
describe the daylight hours of his wedding day and 8 stanzas depict
the hours of the wedding night. The allusion to these numbers
unmistakably suggests Spenser’s careful design of his poem and his
wedding as ‘endless monument’ within his Time theme. 8 Therefore,
not only Spenser’s adaptation of this originally, Greek genre, but also
his manipulation of its design to serve his theme, show the poet’s
broad knowledge of Classicism. Particularly fascinating is that
Epithalamia were not commonly practiced by medieval writers.
Examining Spenser’s poem, one can hardly fail to notice the poet’s
heavy reliance on Classicism.
The poet, for example, begins his Epithalamion with an
essential classical allusion, the invocation to the Muses, or to the
“learned sisters which have oftentimes/ beene to me ayding.” 9 Unlike
the Gawain-poet, Spenser has no ideological or moral purpose for
opening his work with a reference to mythology. The author
composes poetry about his wedding and wishes to present this poem
on this memorable occasion as a monumental gift to his bride. Instead
of opening his poem with invocations to the Virgin Mary, Spenser, as
a Renaissance poet, proves that his aim is rather worldly. Spenser’s
opening reflects a strong adherence to a long-lived literary convention.
Enid Welsford maintains that this convention, derived from Homer, is
widely employed by Sixteenth-Century poets. Homer represents the
Muses, according to the ancient belief of them as a source of
inspiration to human poets and as daughters of memory and
patronesses of learning. 10 Moreover, by referring to the Muses, as
well as by manipulating the classical genre with its complex structure,
Spenser demonstrates his familiarity with Classical literature, as it has
become a new learning for the educated people of his age. As a result,