THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 225
I
n 1601, in a book by Robert
Chester called Love’s Martyr:
or Rosalind’s Complaint,
appeared a poem by Shakespeare
called “The Phoenix and Turtle.”
The poem falls into three
parts of mounting intensity. First,
it summons a convocation of
benevolent birds, with a swan as
priest, to celebrate the funeral rites
of a phoenix and a dove who have
fled “In a mutual flame from hence.”
(“Turtle” here means a turtledove.)
The birds sing an anthem in which
the death of the lovers is seen as
marking the death of “love and
constancy”: “So they loved as love
in twain / Had the essence but in
one, / Two distincts, division none. /Number there in love was slain.”
Their mutual love was such that
“either was the other’s mine.” In the
third section, Love makes a funeral
song: “To the phoenix and the
dove, / Co-supremes and stars of
love, / As chorus to their tragic scene.”
The funeral song, known as a
threnos, or threnody, is written in
an even more incantatory style
than what has gone before. Its five
stanzas have three rhyming lines,
whose tone is grave simplicity:
“Beauty, truth, and rarity, / Grace
in all simplicity, / Here enclosed
in cinders lie. / Death is now the
phoenix’ nest, / And the turtle’s
loyal breast / To eternity doth rest. /
Leaving no posterity / ’Twas not
their infirmity, / It was married
chastity. / Truth may seem but
cannot be, / Beauty brag, but ’tis
not she. / Truth and beauty buried
be. / To this urn let these repair /
That are either true or fair. / For
these dead birds sigh a prayer.”
This strange, mystically
beautiful poem probably
had meanings for its original
readers that are lost to us. Many
unsuccessful attempts have been
made to interpret it as a religious
allegory or a celebration of the love
of a real married couple. ■TRUTH AND
BEAUTY
BURIED BE
THE PHOENIX AND TURTLE (1601)
IN CONTEXT
THEME
The death of ideal love
LEGACY
Many critics consider
the poem’s ambiguities
unresolvable, but various
attempts have been made to
decode its allegorical nature.
1878 A. B. Grosart suggests
that the poem refers to a
relationship between Queen
Elizabeth I and the Earl of
Essex, who rebelled against
the Crown and was executed
in 1601. The phoenix was
the queen’s personal badge.
1930s American scholar Clara
Longworth proposes that it
reveals Catholic sympathies.
Others have suggested that
the birds are Catholic martyrs.
2006 Peter Ackroyd suggests
that the poem may have been
written for the wedding in
1586 of the sister of Lord
Strange, for whose company
Shakespeare was working.
Truth may seem
but cannot be,
Beauty brag, but ’tis not she.
The Phoenix and Turtle