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The Pulter Project
pulterproject.northwestern.edu
Poem 101

Doves and Pearls
(Emblem 36)

Edited by Millie Godfery and Sarah C. E. Ross

An essential element of Pulter’s emblem series is her shifting mode of address, as she directs her emblematic wisdom sometimes explicitly to her children, and sometimes to a broader audience. “Doves and Pearls”, like Come, My Dear Children (Emblem 2)68, addresses her children directly in an emblematic reworking of the invitation genre.

The emblem opens with Pulter imploring her children to notice the acts of doves, who by nature display loving devotion to one partner. The doves swallow orient pearls, which she uses as an emblem of a sacred “cordial, which our greatest faintings ease”, and she goes on to urge her readers to “treasure sacred truths within [the] heart”, as the doves do (lines 4, 6). The emblem moves to warn readers of “those swine” which, conversely, disregard “God’s word”; here, Pulter is inspired by multiple biblical references which cast swine as irreligious. An analogous emblem to this one is Mark but those Hogs (Emblem 34)99, in which Pulter contrasts the image of “thankless” hogs “grunt[ing] for more” with “innocent doves” (lines 4, 6, 17). In that emblem, she urges the reader to “try which best he loves / To imitate, base hogs or turtledoves”, and concludes with an expression of her “soul’s sole desire” to embody the same qualities as the “spotless dove” (lines 19-20).

Towards the final lines of “Doves and Pearls” Pulter’s religious concerns become explicitly political as she criticizes the poor treatment of “sacred fane[s]” under the Protectorate, specifically referencing the use of St Paul’s Cathedral for irreligious activities (line 20). She further condemns republicans, referencing the treatment of “nobles”—meaning royalist soldiers—after the 1645 Battle of Naseby (line 24). In a typical display of emblematic didacticism, however, Pulter concludes in consolation, reminding her children that God will “[scourge] out” the unfaithful (line 26). By applying Pulter’s conceit of doves and pearls to this final resolution, the message becomes clear: keep faith and fidelity with God, unlike those who “ramp and rave” (line 16).

Compare Editions
i
1
Come1
, my dear
pledges2
of
our3
constant loves,
2Come look upon these pretty, innocent
doves4
,
3See how they swallow
orient pearls5
like peas;
4A
cordial6
, which our greatest
faintings7
ease.
5And with their lives ere with these pearls they’ll part;
6So, treasure sacred truths within your heart.
7Though tyrant
lapidaries8
show their spite,
8Your graces, like these pearls, will shine more bright.
9Despair not, though you at their mercy lie;
10Your virtues live although your bodies die.
11Then if you will in glory live above,
12Like these white doves those
blessed unions9
love,
13But shun those people which are like those
swine10
14Which at God’s word and ministers
repine11
.
15Throw them the choicest orient pearls you have,
16They’ll
trample’m in the dirt12
and
ramp13
and rave,
17And when you think their malice at an end,
18If God restrain not, they’ll your bowels
rend14
.
19Of these,
the boar God’s vineyards that destroy15
,
20And with their filth His
sacred fane annoy16
.
21So mad
Antiochus17
the temple stained,
22Even so
our janissaries18
Paul’s profaned19
,
23Making the church a
stable20
and a
stews21
,
24The while
imprisoning nobles in the mews22
.
25The greatest miracle our saviour wrought
26Was when
He scourged out those which sold and bought23
.
Macron symbol indicating the end of a poem.

Amplified Edition,

edited by Millie Godfery and Sarah C. E. Rossi

Editorial Note

Our priority in editing these poems has been to modernise, and to achieve interpretative and visual clarity, in order to make the poems as accessible as possible to as wide a modern audience as is possible. Spelling is modernised, as is punctuation. Modernising the latter, in particular, often involves a significant act of editorial interpretation, but in our view this is one of the most productive areas of editorial intervention, particularly for a manuscript text such as Pulter’s where the punctuation is erratic compared to modern usage (and, indeed, compared to early modern printed texts).[1] All biblical references are to the King James Version (1612).
  • See Alice Eardley, “‘I haue not time to point yr booke … which I desire you yourselfe to doe’: Editing the Form of Early Modern Manuscript Verse”, in The Work of Form: Poetics and Materiality in Early Modern Culture, ed. Ben Burton and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 162-178.
Macron symbol indicating the end of a poem.
  • Millie Godfery
  • Sarah C. E. Ross, Victoria University of Wellington
  • Come
    For a similar opening address, see Come, My Dear Children (Emblem 2)68; and see our note to line 1 of the Amplified Edition of that poem.
  • pledges
    a name for children considered as a tokens or evidence of mutual love and duty between parents (OED 4b)
  • our
    Hester Pulter and her husband Arthur Pulter
  • doves
    Pulter uses the turtledove throughout her poetry to thematise chastity, spiritual virtue, and equitable love. See, for example, The Manucodiats (Emblem 5)71; This Poor Turtle Dove (Emblem 20)85, where the turtledove is praised for her “kind and constant” love for her deceased partner (line 2); and Why Must I Thus Forever Be Confined57. Pliny writes of the dove: “they be passing chaste, and neither male nor female change their mate, but keep together one true unto the other” (The Historie of the World: Commonly Called, the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Trans. Philemon Holland. Vol. 1 [1635], 290).
  • orient pearls
    pearls from the seas around India, as distinguished from those of less beauty found in European mussels; (hence, more generally) a brilliant or precious pearl (OED 1b). Pulter also connects orient pearls with truth in Aletheia’s Pearl32, in which “Fair Aletheia”, the goddess of truth, offers the speaker an orient pearl to represent their pledge of truthfulness and faith in God (lines 14). It is also worth noting the medicinal properties of pearls, which further codifies the pearl as an emblem of truth which the doves ingest as a healing “cordial” (OED 2a; line 4).
  • cordial
    a medicine, food, or beverage which invigorates the heart and stimulates the circulation; a comforting or exhilarating drink (OED 2a). See Pulter’s similar use of the word in The Weeping Wish61, line 19. In that poem, the bezoar is the “cordial”; in this poem, the orient pearls, emblematic of truth, are the medicine (see note to line 3).
  • faintings
    growing feeble or faint-hearted; depressed (OED 1)
  • lapidaries
    artificers who cut, polish, or engrave gems or precious stones; those who are skilled in the nature and kinds of gems or precious stones (OED 1a, b). Pulter refers to this profession at lines 7 and 8, comparing the work of lapidaries who cut and engrave already precious stones like the pearl, with that of “tyrant[s]” who attempt to alter people’s faith and virtue. This manipulation, Pulter insists, merely expose the faults of tyrants, while making steadfast devotees “shine more bright”.
  • blessed unions
    the consecrated love which is upheld in the marital fidelity of doves, the commitment that makes them a common emblem for purity and faith; see note to line 2.
  • swine
    Pulter uses the image of swine throughout her emblem collection to refer to the unchaste and irreligious. Multiple biblical passages no doubt underpin this. See for instance, Mat. 7.6., “neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet”, and Pet. 2.22, “the sowe that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire”. See also Pulter’s analogous emblem, Mark but those Hogs (Emblem 34)99.
  • repine
    express discontent or dissatisfaction; grumble, complain (OED 1a)
  • trample’m in the dirt
    a biblical reference to Mat. 7.6; see note for line 13.
  • ramp
    Of a person: to rush, storm, or rage with violent gestures; to behave in a furious or threatening manner (OED 3a)
  • rend
    tear, split; rupture (OED)
  • the boar God’s vineyards that destroy
    A reference to Psalm 80.8-13, in which God is questioned for planting a “vine out of Egypt” and then allowing it to be “broken down” and “pluck[ed]”, “the boar out of the wood… wast[ing] it”.
  • sacred fane annoy
    The "fane" is a temple (OED 2). This line refers to Isaiah 66.3, which describes the “abomination” of “offer[ing] swines blood” as a sacrifice, an act which taints the sacred place of the church.
  • Antiochus
    Antiochus IV, King of the Seleucids, 175-164 BC, known for his coercive manner and desire to Hellenize the Jewish race. In the Bible, he is criticised for polluting and profaning “the sanctuary and holy people” by sacrificing “swine’s flesh” (I Mac. 1.46-7).
  • our janissaries
    A body of Turkish infantry, constituting the Sultan's guard and the main part of the standing army. The body was first organized in the 14th century, and was composed mainly of tributary children of Christians (OED). Pulter uses this term in a derogatory sense in reference to the English army led by parliamentarians.
  • Paul’s profaned
    Parliamentarians used St Paul’s Cathedral in London as a stables during the civil war; see William Dugdale’s account in his The History of St Paul’s Cathedral, where he states “that God would be turned out of Churches into Barnes… (robbed of all dignity and respect)… all order, discipline and Church-government left to newness of opinion and men’s fancies” ([1658], The Epistle).
  • stable
    See notes for line 22.
  • stews
    brothels (OED 4). Eardley notes there is no specific reference to St Paul’s being used as a brothel; however, Henry Foulis records that in Westminster Abbey soldiers from the English Army were “breaking down the Organs, pawning the pipes of them for Ale, eating, drinking, smoking Tobacco at the Communion Table, and easing themselves in most parts of the Church; Nor was this all, but keeping their whores in the Church, and lying with them upon the very Altar it self” (Eardley, “An Edition of Lady Hester Pulter’s Book of ‘Emblemes’”, PhD diss., University of Warwick, [2008], 106 n.22-3; Foulis, The history of the wicked plots and conspiracies of our pretended saints representing the beginning, constitution, and designs of the Jesuite [1662], 138).
  • imprisoning nobles in the mews
    “mews” was the term coined for the royal stables formerly at Charing Cross in London, a name given as they were built on the site of the royal hawk mews (OED). Pulter is likely referring to an event in which 4,500 royalist soldiers were kept there “guarded by the trained bands” with the threat of a “gibbet” (gallows) to aid against “disorderly” behavior, after being defeated at the Battle of Naseby by parliamentarian forces (The Manner How the Prisoners Are to Be Brought Into the City of London [London: T.F and J. Coe, 1645], 1-6).
  • He scourged out those which sold and bought
    See Mat. 21.12: “Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changes, and the seats of them that sold Doves”.
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