Influence+of+Adam+and+Eve

﻿The Influence of Adam and Eve Kathryn Mathers

__Example 1:__
The influence of the story of Adam and Eve is highly present in the Sidney family works. One example can be found in the “Old Arcadia” by Phillip Sidney. This work was a way for Phillip to express himself on many levels including unrequited love, depression, melancholy, and masochism. In the sense of melancholy, this work has a similar feel to the Satanic figure in __Paradise Los__t who is depressed and hopeless figure down on his knees begging for something more that he can not obtain. Phillip encounters the same problem with Elizabeth as he begs for her affection but only sinks deeper into despair.

An example is on page 56, lines 56-61 in __The Major Works__: Geron to Philisides (Phillip): What man is he that hath his freedom sold? Is he a manlike man that doth not know man Hath power that sex with bridle to withhold? A fickle sex, and true in trust to no man; A servant sex, soon proud if they be coyed; And to conclude, thy mistress is a woman.

In a general sense from the eclogues, the men and people of the crown do not want honor to be taken away from the crown by having Elizabeth lose her innocence because more doors would be open for the English and they would be exposed to new and dangerous places. Such is a metaphor for the Adam and Eve story where God does not want his creations to be exposed to the dangers of mankind therefore he makes them innocent. However, they only remain innocent and free from sin until Eve bites the forbidden fruit and gives into temptation. She exposes Adam and all of creation to desire, lust, greed, gluttony, and all other sins. So the connection lies with eating the fruit of the woman, thus losing her purity and innocence.

__Example 2:__
Another example of Adam and Eve present in the Sidney works exists in __The Sidney Psalter__, Psalm 8. This psalm critiques the idea of a female ruler by stressing the importance of how human beings came to be on Earth through men. Psalm 8, Lines 13-20: Then think I: ‘Ah, what is this man  Whom that great God remember can? <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> And what the race of him descended, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> It should be aught of God attended? <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">‘For though in less than angels’ state <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Thou planted hast this earthly mate: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Yet hast thou made ev’n him an owner <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Of glorious crown, and crowning honour.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is a direct reference to Adam as the male ruler and owner of all dominion. He is the gender who should rule over the world and at this time is was new to England to have a female ruler. This psalm also points out that woman is created from man and to be subservient to the male race. Adam is God’s earthly mate, not Elizabeth. This is an interesting work of literature because it stresses the competence and dominance of the male.

__ Example 3: __ <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A third example is from the “New Arcadia” in //The Aunt’s Atheism Refuted by the Niece’s Divinity//. One of the main stories is the struggle the elder mother figure has with the young beautiful woman not wanting to give up her virginity. The young woman named Pamolea represents Eve in a redemptive quality. The “fruit” in this work is representative of motherhood and marriage which for Pamolea is temptation and satanic. Pamolea represents Elizabeth and the woman Eve should have been had she listened to God unlike the Aunt, representing sinful Eve, who gave into the wicked ways and brought upon her own destruction. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The passage on page 273 clearly denotes Pamolea’s feelings for refuting the aunt’s wishes to get married and have children: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“Since, then, there is a God, and an all-knowing God so as he sees into the darkest of all natural secrets, which is the heart of man, and sees therein the deepest dissembled thoughts-nay, sees the thoughts before they be thought; since he is just to exercise his might, and mighty to perform his justice; assure thyself, most wicked woman, that hast so plaguily a corrupted mind as thou canst not keep thy sickness to thyself...that the time will come when thou shalt know that power by feeling it...and shalt only perceive him to have been a creator in thy destruction”.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Several other references to Adam and Eve are as follows:

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Psalm 66, Line 13-16: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Oh, come, behold, oh, note beholding, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> What dreadful wonders from him flow: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">More height, more weight, more force enfolding, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Than Adam’s earthy brood can show.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Psalm 69, Lines 81 - 88 <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Causing sin on sin to grow, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Add still ciphers to their sum. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Righter let them never go, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Never to thy justice come. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> But from out the book be crossed, <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Where the good men live engrosses: <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">While my God, me poor and low <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">High shall mount from need and woe.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In a general sense, Mary Sidney Herbert can be viewed as an Eve character because she was created out of man - her brother.

** References **

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sidney, Philip, and Katherine Duncan-Jones. //The Major Works//. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. Print. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sidney, Philip, Hannibal Hamlin, and Mary Sidney. //The Sidney Psalter: the Psalms of Sir Philip and Mary Sidney//. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ., 2009. Print.