prothalamion

[prettygoodword]

prothalamion (proh-thuh-LAY-mee-on) - n., a song or poem in celebration of a wedding.


A complete and exact synonym for epithalamion, which is the original Ancient Greek word for a "song for a wedding" (literal meaning). However, comma, when Edmund Spenser wrote one in 1596 for the double-marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worcester, he had the problem that he had already published a major "Epithalamion" two years before, for his own marriage. So he snipped off the epi- and stuck on another Greek prefix with nearly the same meaning and viola! -- a new name for the genre.

(For several centuries, critical opinion was that his "Prothalamion" was the the better poem, a valuation I find inexplicable, and one test I apply to poetry anthologies is which the editor prefers -- if it isn't "Epithalamion," it is clearly an inferior collection.)

---L.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

ah! I had wondered about that and never looked it up. Thanks.

[prettygoodword]

De nada!

[jesse_the_k]

First encountered in Gaudy Night: I have to look both of them up each time, so thank you for pointing out the needless duality.

[prettygoodword]

Yanno, that may be where I first met it as well. I do know the anthology I first met "Epithalamion," along with a critical essay explaining it, as I still have it -- it's also where I first "The Canonization" and "My Last Duchess".