Editorial note
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.
Headnote
This poem was certainly not written for an era with heightened awareness of sexual harassment. With its moral based, as in so many of Pulter’s emblems, on a combination of zoological, mythological, and historical (or pseudo-historical) precedents, the speaker advises women seeking love to demonstrate “a virgin modesty”—which, in this case, involves playing hard to get, even in response to “desired embraces.” The female turtle at the heart of the poem is a surprisingly complex character: “as wise, as fair, as chaste, as coy,” she imagines (through the speaker’s focalization) accepting a mate as a matter of “sell[ing] her freedom,” and at once desires and fears the male’s embraces. The comparison of her to the mythological Daphne, who was not coyly seeking to increase Apollo’s desire but running from a would-be rapist, adds tension to the story of the turtle’s happy desire to get her man. While such complex motivations, especially in a turtle, are necessarily intriguing, there is also something more than slightly disconcerting in Pulter’s impassive likening of this successful courtship to a sword being stabbed through a vassal’s foot, and in her knowing invocation of a worn and wearing paradox: “love repulsed doth more increase desire.”Line number 1
Gloss note
Seeing as; whenLine number 1
Gloss note
of or relating to marriage or procreation; naturalLine number 3
Gloss note
object of loveLine number 6
Gloss note
amorous sport, dallying; amusement; trifling speech; idle fancy; thing of little valueLine number 9
Gloss note
light and quick in movement; versatile; cleverLine number 10
Gloss note
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Daphne is a nymph committed to virginity who runs from the lustful god Apollo, who seeks to rape her; she is turned into a laurel tree by the gods in order to help her escape.Line number 11
Gloss note
Apollo’s breath moves Daphne’s hair when he is near enough almost to overtake her.Line number 12
Gloss note
overtakeLine number 15
Gloss note
the Ottoman SultanLine number 15
Gloss note
subordinates; servants; subjectsLine number 16
Gloss note
“feild” was an early modern spelling for “feel.” The source for the claim that the Sultan threw spears at his subject’s feet is not known.Line number 21
Gloss note
immodesty, indelicacy Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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