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. 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.
Headnote
Drawing on the didacticism that is present throughout Pulter’s emblem collection, this poem overtly politicizes the instructive affordances of the emblem genre. In this emblem, Virtue (with Wisdom as her “second”) fights a duel with Fortune (and her “second”, Folly), and the people of the city support Fortune and Folly (lines 2, 4). The poem’s final tercet makes overt the implications of these personifications: Virtue is associated with King Charles I, whom Pulter ardently supported, while Oliver Cromwell, republican and Lord Protector following Charles’s execution, is associated with Fortune, which here means chance or luck (OED 1). Pulter has these two characters oppose each other in an “Olympic” duel and, true to this genre’s form, the emblem takes a moralising turn at line 21, condemning the actions of Fortune and Folly. Notably, Pulter uses the female pronouns “her” and “she” when personifying these qualities, feminizing her bitter depiction of the Civil War in contrast to the male figures she alludes to. The representations of these qualities do often take the form of feminized personification; in Wither’s emblem collection of 1635, multiple representations of Fortune depict her as “fickle … [in] the Favour she bestows”, using “slippery tricks” to tempt men, while Virtue offers “Her [beauty]” and “Her safe direction” (A Collection of Emblemes [1635], 6, 174, 22). See Curation, Fickle Fortunes. Pulter’s characterization of Cromwell and his parliamentarian supporters resonates with her previous representations of republican supporters in the earlier emblems. Pulter’s Nimrod in Mighty Nimrod (Emblem 1) [Poem 67] has the same ambitious, “usurping” qualities which she identifies in the “[giddy]” and “[impious]” nature of Fortune and Folly, creating a continuity in her political message which is pursued throughout the emblem series (line 18; lines 4, 24). This poem grieves the “laws / Of God and nature” which have been “basely trampled on”, and employs a rhyming tercet to conclude the poem (lines 22-23). This contrasts with the rhyming couplets that precede it, drawing attention to the political intentions motivating the personified qualities. The final line looks to consolation via the restoration of the “princely son”, Charles II (line 27). This eventually occurred in May 1660, some years after Pulter is believed to have written the emblem. Line number 1
Critical note
Throughout the medieval period, duelling was a common combative practice used by the aristocracy to settle disputes and assert honour. In the Renaissance, however, new attitudes towards duels resulted in attempts to ban them. James I published a treatise in 1616 outlawing the practice and similar movements to control the sport were seen across Europe, including in France under Louis XIII; see The Works of the Most High and Mighty Prince, James [1616], 207. It is interesting then that Pulter makes the duel the subject of this politically charged emblem, emphasising open conflict (“the fray”, line 5) and perhaps the unruliness of Fortune, who disobeys the rules for power and honour by “madly la[ying] about” (line 10).Line number 2
Gloss note
one who renders aid or support; one who acts as representative of a principal in a duel, carrying the challenge, arranging locality and loading weapons (OED 9 and 9b)Line number 2
Gloss note
surpassing or excelling others of its kind; going beyond the ordinary limits (OED 1a)Line number 4
Gloss note
foolishly, insanely (OED). Pulter is referring to Fortune “foolishly” choosing Folly as her second in the duel.Line number 5
Gloss note
melancholy, sorrowful; also firmly established in purpose or condition, which could refer to the beliefs of the “spectators” (OED 2)Line number 8
Critical note
“cockneys” refer to people born in the city of London (OED 4a). Pulter references these people as “melancholy” over the prospect of Virtue (which the final tercet of the poem discloses as implying the monarchy) remaining in power. London, during the time of the Civil War, was overwhelmingly parliamentarian in its stance, thought of by royalists as the “sink of all the ill humors of the Kingdom” (C. H. Firth. “London During The Civil War”, History, vol. 11, no. 41 [1926], 25).Line number 9
Critical note
The Roman goddess of fortune, Fortuna, was often depicted blindfolded; Pliny in Natural History, a text on which Pulter often drew, describes Fortuna as a “blind, vague, roving, fickle, uncertain patroness of the unworthy” (Pliny 2.22 in Arya’s The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text [2002], 135). See also George Wither’s representation of Fortuna in his own emblem collection of 1635; he warns against her “slippery tricks”, depicting her as “blind” and with a “Fickleness /… like the Moones” (A Collection of Emblemes [1635], 174).Line number 10
Gloss note
dealt violent and repeated blows on all sides (OED 32e)Line number 14
Gloss note
the “city cockneys” of line 8; and see note to that line.Line number 15
Gloss note
surrendered, yieldedLine number 17
Critical note
“welkin” refers to the sky, or the heavens; it is also used in phrases descriptive of loud sounds (OED 2a and 2c). Pulter is saying that the “acclamations” of the republicans make the sky ring with noise, suggesting the sound of thunder; that is, there is a negative connotation which reflects her anti-parliamentary stance.Line number 18
Gloss note
songs of praise; thanks-giving for deliverance, for victory (OED 1)Line number 20
Critical note
sibilant verb used to convey the derision of King Charles I by the parliamentarians, led by Cromwell.Line number 25
Gloss note
Pulter is referring to the execution of King Charles I, who was beheaded on 30 January 1649. This execution took place after a tumultuous period of rule which observed a split between the royalists and parliamentarians.Line number 25
Critical note
MS = “at”. We have followed the editors of the Elemental Edition in treating this as a a scribal error for the abbreviation “yt” (meaning “that”).Line number 25
Critical note
the first line of the rhyming tercet which concludes the poem. Where most of Pulter’s emblem poetry employs rhyming couplets, this emblem diverges at its conclusion, using a rhyming tercet to draw attention to the meaning behind the poem’s personifications: namely, the Civil War and her royalist perspective on it.Line number 27
Gloss note
Pulter is referring to Charles (1630-1685), who was crowned Charles II in Scotland almost immediately after the execution of his father Charles I (see note for line 25). For most of the 1650s, however, he lived in exile in France, until, on 29 May 1660, he was crowned King Charles II of England. Pulter’s appeal in this final line suggests that the emblem was composed during the 1650s, prior to Charles’s restoration. Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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