truth. He rejects the servile position that the game of
love demands, and instead demands that she also live
up to the truth.
See also COURT CULTURE.
FURTHER READING
Estrin, Barbara L. Laura: Uncovering Gender and Genre in
Wyatt, Donne, and Marvell. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univer-
sity Press, 1994.
BLANK VERSE Blank verse is unrhymed IAMBIC
PENTAMETER, a base line of fi ve poetic feet where each
foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. Because of the prevailing movement
from unstressed to stressed, the rhythm is classifi ed as
ascending. Occasionally, iambs with other poetic feet
are substituted, without exceeding the 10 total sylla-
bles per line, to complement the content of the line.
Blank verse was most commonly used for writing Eng-
lish EPICs and dramatic works during the latter half of
the 16th century and the fi rst half of the 17th century,
but it also was important within the SONNET tradition.
HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY, developed English
blank verse in his translation of books 2 and 4 of VIR-
GIL’s Aeneid, fi rst published in TOTTEL’S MISCELLANY
(1557). He adapted blank verse from the Italians’
unrhymed endecasillabo, a poetic line consisting of 11
syllables (versi sciolti, or “verse freed from rhyme”).
Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville are credited
with being the fi rst to adopt Surrey’s blank verse for
the stage in Gorboduc (1561), though it was CHRISTO-
PHER MARLOWE who popularized it. Playwrights favored
blank verse because it closely follows conversational
speaking patterns in English.
Lauri S. DietzBLAZON (BLASON, BLASON ANATO M-
IQUE) A blazon is a poetic technique in which a
woman, often the “beloved” in a SONNET or love lyric, is
described in terms of individual body parts and not as
a collective whole. These descriptions are elaborate,
ornate, and eroticized. In this way, the “real” woman
disappears, and her image is reconstructed according
to the male poet’s point of view, resulting in the
(re)creation of an idealized woman who thus becomes
his “possession.” This is particularly important in SON-
NET SEQUENCEs, as the beloved was generally unattain-
able otherwise. EDMUND SPENSER’s Sonnet 64 from
AMORETTI demonstrates this technique, comparing each
feature of the woman to a fl ower.
The blazon was often parodied, as in SIR PHILIP SID-
NEY’s Sonnet 91 from ASTROPHIL AND STELLA, wherein
portions from a variety of women are employed to
stave off darkness. Another variation was the antibla-
zon, an example of which is WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s
Sonnet 130. In an antiblazon, an individual woman is
fragmented, but this division is done to describe real-
ity, not to create (or sustain) an idealized portrait.
Instances of the blazon being used to describe male
bodies were unusual until the 20th century.
Offi cially, the blason anatomique did not become a
poetic genre until the 16th century, but the technique
was based on the iconic representations found within
medieval heraldry. Heraldic devices represented the
entire family, or, in some cases, knightly qualities (e.g.,
the pentangle in SIR GAWAIN^ AND^ THE GREEN KNIGHT).
Precursors to the more formal blazon tradition can also
be found in medieval poetry. For instance, GEOFFREY
CHAUCER’s portrait of the Prioress in the GENERAL PRO-
LOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES, which corresponds to
the romance tradition, mentions “eyen grey,” “coral
lips,” and so forth.
See also COURTLY LOVE; RAPE OF LUCRECE, THE.
FURTHER READING
Miller, James I. “How to See Through Women: Medieval
Blazons and the Male Gaze.” In The Centre and Its Com-
pass, edited by Robert A. Taylor et al., 367–388. Kalama-
zoo, MI: Western Michigan University Press, 1993.
Sawdy, Jonathan. The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and the
Human Body in Renaissance Culture. London: Routledge,
1995.
Stout, John. “Le Blason Contemporain: On Women Poets’
Objectifying of the Male Body.” Romance Studies 21, no. 1
(2003): 53–69.
Vickers, Nancy. “ ‘The Blazon of Sweet Beauty’s Best’:
Shakespeare’s Lucrece.” In Shakespeare and the Question of
Theory, edited by Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman,
95–115. New York: Methuen, 1985.BLIND HARY (HENRY THE MINSTREL)
(1440–1493) Blind Hary’s regional origin; whetherBLIND HARY 85