Although by no means a strong-willed man, Edmund Spenser's Amoretti focuses largely on female beauty and fitness to whom these poems are addressed. In seven of these sonnets he calls this woman's beauty her "size", or, in modern spelling, "hue"; whenever “hew” is used, it is associated with a determining adjective. Examining alternative definitions of "tint" in the Amoretti sheds light on Spenser's meaning in these stanzas and further explores the complex philosophical relationship Spenser has with the act of creation and writing: a central relationship in the narration of his Faerie Queene. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Sonnet III, the line says, “but still looking at her, I stand in wonder, / at the wondrous sight of that heavenly size” (389). Sonnet seven lists him as a "praiseworthy tailor" and sonnet seventy-four as a "glorious tailor", with these three defining words repeated among the remaining four instances. Although in the poem it quickly becomes clear that Spenser is referring to his lady's "hue", because it is spelled as "hew", the reader may be momentarily confused. Our definition of “carve” is “to cut or hack”; indeed, it carried this meaning as early as 993 CE according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which first lists it as "To strike or strike with a cutting weapon" ("Hew", OED). The word "hue", as we are supposed to read "size" in the Amoretti, means "form" or "color", both since 971 CE ("Hue", OED). In six of the seven places where Spenser uses 'hew', it is meant to flatter. Its hue is lovely, heavenly and glorious, and the implication is obvious. But as always with Spenser, his words are carefully chosen; the use of the word “prune” represents an important intention. The first comprehensive definition of hue according to the OED is “Shape, form, figure; appearance, appearance; species." The last definition, "species," is particularly interesting in this case. The species of an animal is an inherent quality. It is not what an animal achieves or works toward; it is a quality they are born with, and they cannot help but be called species Spenser, in his praise of her love, essentially states that she is inherently glorious and charming, and that she could not help it. of being when associated with the word "heavenly", it is elevated and becomes intrinsically celestial and divine. The first definition of "to cut" is, as stated above, "to strike or strike with a weapon." sharp". ("Blow", OED). However, further down in the entry, the seventh definition of carve is listed as "To make, form, or produce by carving (with obj. expressing the product)”. " something amounts to producing it, to giving it a certain form, makes Spenser's use of the word "size" much more complicated. In fact, it’s the opposite of “hue.” Although the part of speech is somewhat twisted as a result, asserting the "size" of an object as its shape, its worked form, implies that this shape is not an inherent quality. The fact that Spenser declared six times that his love had a marvelous "size" and interpreted it to mean "artificial form" raises another question; who cut it? Spenser does not suggest that she had resorted to some kind of 16th-century plastic surgery, nor that she had made this shape for herself; It was Spenser who cut it. And he did it with the profession.