Love in Molière's play, Tartuffe, John Donne’s Canonization, and Crashaw's On the Wounds of Our Cru

Love in Molière's play, Tartuffe, John Donne’s Canonization, and Crashaw's On the Wounds of Our Crucified Lord

Other than being examples of some of the best literature of the seventeenth century, the three works listed in the title of this essay don't seem to fit very well together. Or do they maybe after all. Creativity consists of connecting things that don't always seem to be related. All three of these works of literature deal with the various aspects of love--both human and divine.

Earlier this semester I read about the Italian poet, Petrarch, whose sonnets followed certain romantic conventions as he recounted his unrequited love for Laura. In his poem, "Canonization," John Donne seems, at first glance, to be making fun of himself according to the conventions of courtly love. The poet is upset with an imaginary opponent. In the first stanza he tells him, "For God's sake, let me love in peace! Go about your own business." Then in the second stanza he admits that his love can't compare with the love of a poet whose tears are sufficient to sink a ship, whose heated passion brings a fever as fatal as the black death. So the tone appears to be wry amusement, self mockery. Thus we are surprised when the poem takes a more serious turn.

This light-hearted tone tricks us as readers; we seem to be identified with Donne's imaginary foe--we who go about the business of life concerned with such mundane matters as crop failures, plagues, wars and lawsuits, work study, pizza parties, Reason and Romanticism tests. The poet challenges us: "Go ahead! Call us flies" if that's what you think we are. The fly during the Renaissance symbolized shortness of life, human mortality, or lust itself--uncontrolled sexuality. Taper is another word for candle; a candle also reminds us of the brevity of life--of lust like fire that represents sexual desire and destruction. Finally, the word "die" had sexual overtones in the Renaissance; it was used to refer to orgasm sometimes called the "little death." People thought that sexual activity drained away one's vital forces, shortened one's life.

The eagle and the dove image provide a natural transition to the phoenix, that mythical bird that is reborn from ashes. They also represent traditional symbols of masculine strength and activity and of feminine sweetness and passivity. We see how opposites are brought together in love. While the fly and the candle suggest physical love the reference to the three birds brings together opposites into a complimentary whole--"we find in us" two very different kinds of birds and the Phoenix of us one: "by us, we two being one, are it.