"FORTUNE'S WHEEL"の象徴性

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タイトル別名
  • SYMBOLISM OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL
  • Fortune s Wheel ノ ショウチョウセイ

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<p>Concerning the allegory of Fortune's Wheel that has a philosophical and mythological importance in the formation of the European literary mind in general through Mediaeval Ages, present papers are intended, with special interests in English Tudor dramas, to describe the shift and change of its significance, derived ultimately from the historical amalgamation of two main trends of thought, Hellenism and Hebraism. 1. Symbolism of Mutability. We see from the above-mentioned view-point that Fortune's Wheel in Mediaeval and Elizabethan literature of its earliest stage symbolizes mutability in its strict sense of Platonism. Nevertheless, the notion of mutability is not simple even in Boethius, and it signifies not only the multifariousness of the worldly changes, but also various characters of Goddess Fortuna that induce that multifariousness by the aid of fixed stars and planets. So, Chaucer and other writers depict Fortune's Wheel as the symbol of Fortune's whimsicality and haphazardness more often than as that of the worldly changes. For instance, see such expressions as "hyr false whel" (Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, 644.), "when she list to play, whirleth her whele and bringes the hye full lowe," (Gismond of Salerne, I. iii. Ch. 37f.), etc. As regards the context of speech where those allegories present themselves, their special favourite is in speeches of the so-called Consolatio, the consolatory moralization with the arts of Sententia and Exempla. 2. Confusion of Fortune and Fate. Fortune's Wheel in the shape of a waggon or steering wheel is, of course, much different from the Spinning Wheel of the Three Fatal Sisters. Both wheels, however, are often confused later in Elizabethan dramatists, and Dekker adopts the Wheel of Fate in his comic moralization of the vanity of the worldly changes that are originally in the roll of Fortune's control, as in "The Wheele of Fate Turnes kingdomes vp, till they fall desolate." (The Honest Whore, II. 18 f.), and on the contrary, Fortune is at times accompanied with the spinning wheel as in "Fortune (who slaues men) was my slaue : her wheele Hath spun my golden threads," (The Roaring Girl, I. ii. 78 f.). Philosophically speaking, the notion of fate always includes the notion of necessity, just as fortune with that of mutability. Accordingly, the confusion of the two notions results in the endowment of the symbolism of necessity to the allegory of Fortune's Wheel. 3. Confusion of Fortune and Time. As J. E. Matzke remarks in his article in PMLA 8, 'To Take Time by the Forelock', the confusion of Fortune, Time, and Occasion, can be found as early as in Latin sculptures and paintings. In English literature, however, Time's Wheel in the function of Fortune's Wheel appears late in Jocasta, II. i. 459 f., "There nothing is so firme and stayde to man, But whyrles about with wheeles of restlesse time." And as Time's Wheel symbolizes originally the Pythagorean theory of the Orb of Destiny, its confusion with Fortune's Wheel brings the symbolism of necessity in the allegory of the latter to its furthest extent. Time's Wheel in Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, I. i., " There is a deep nick of Time's restlesse wheel For each man's good, when which nick comes, it strikes", symbolizes the causative power of the worldly changes with the flavour of bright English humour. 4. Symbolism of Divine Vengeance. The last stage of the symbolical change of Fortune's Wheel is in the significance of Divine Vengeance that punishes even a man in the highest position when he commits some deadly sin, destroying and ruining him down into the Eternal Hell. Fortune's Wheel in Shakespeare always bears this distinction as in Edmund's following speech in King Lear, "The wheel is come full circle." As the</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>

収録刊行物

  • 英文学研究

    英文学研究 43 (1), 29-44, 1966

    一般財団法人 日本英文学会

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