Incendium Amoris



"But I haven't lost the demons' craft and cunning: I've inherited
from them some useful things, but they won't be used for their benefit!"


--Robert de Boron, Merlin

Name:
Location: Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

The Original Wedding Crasher(s)

So, I started to read Titus Andronicus, when lo! I came across a passage (as I am wont) in the first scene that holds a peculiar fascination for me. It's really a theory I'm about to put forth, quickly, so I can get back to reading. The part reads as follows:

[MARCUS]
But safer triumph is this funeral pomp
That hath aspired to Solon's happiness
And triumphs over chance in honour's bed.

What caught my attention chiefly is the allegorizing language, set forth by Marcus, Titus' brother. There's a curious, extended metaphor at work here, rendering the funeral 'pomp' a safe, fortunate celebration of violent, brutal death. It is, moreover, built on (false) glorious imagery of ceremony triumphantly cuckholding 'honour' (a masculine virtue personified as a husband), and getting the best of 'chance' or Fortune (personified as a whorish woman) in bed.

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