Alexanderโs Feast Or, The Power of Music Study Guide
Summary of โAlexanderโs Feastโ
โAlexanderโs Feast, or the Power of Musicโ was composed in November 1697 for the London Musical Society on the feast day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Similar to the poem Dryden penned ten years earlier on the same day, โAlexanderโs Feastโ is typically regarded as a Pindaric ode. Pindar was an ancient Greek poet whose odesโceremonial songs of praise or celebrationโwere notable for their varied line lengths and metres. While many Restoration writers took liberties with their versification in the Pindaric ode, Dryden, by most accounts, exercises more control here, despite the fact that his lines and stanzas vary considerably. While some reviewers have criticised it, Dryden and his contemporaries thought that it was most likely โthe best of all my poetry.โ
The poem celebrates musicโs power by narrating how Timotheus, a great Greek musician, is able to manage, or possibly manipulate, Alexander the Greatโs emotions during a banquet commemorating his triumph over Darius and conquest of Persia. Thus, the poem evokes Greek antiquity through its formโthe Pindaric odeโand contentโan occurrence from Alexander the Greatโs history. The first stanza establishes the scenario, a โroyal feastโ commemorating the โconquest of Persiaโ (1) โby Philipโs warlike son [Alexander]โ (2). Alexander sits above everyone in โgodlikeโ (4) fashion (awful in line 3 refers to filling everyone with awe, not to the contemporary meaning of horrible), his lieutenants are โcrownedโ (8) for their victory, and next to him sits โThe lovely Thaisโ (his concubine) (9), โlike a blooming Eastern brideโ (10). Drydenโs version of the Pindaric form closes the stanza with a sequence of lines that summarise the stanzaโs general pointโthat martial bravery is deserving of love and happinessโwords that are then repeated in the chorus.
Timotheus appears in the second stanza, strumming his โlyreโ (23), sending his โtrembling notesโ (13) upward to โinspireโ โheavenly joysโ (14). His first song is dedicated to Jove, another name for Jupiter or Zeus, the king of the gods who impregnated Alexanderโs mother by curling around her slender waist and stamping an image of himself, a sovโreign of the world (โround her slender waist he curled, / And stamped an image of himself, a sovโreign of the worldโ [32-33]). The crowd joyfully responds to Timotheusโs song, cheering on the โpresent deityโ (i.e., Alexander himself), who assumes the role of a god. Timotheus then begins his performance by appealing to Alexanderโs vanity, in which he โAssumes the godโ (39). Timotheus continues to play on Alexanderโs pride at his tremendous victory in the following stanza. To begin, he sings praises to Bacchus, the deity of wine, whose visage is โFlushed with a purple graceโ (50). Bacchus, who is โalways fair and youngโ (54), bestows his blessings on the troops (โDrinking is the soldierโs pleasureโ [57]), a sweet reward following the agony of combat.
Alexander has grown โvainโ (66) as he recalls โall his battles oโer againโ (67), recalling all the adversaries he has defeated. Timotheus (โthe masterโ [69]) senses Alexanderโs developing vanity (โthe madnessโ [69]) through โHis bright cheeks, his impassioned eyesโ (70), and chooses to restrain Alexanderโs โprideโ (72), which has โdefiedโ both โheaven and earth (72). He accomplishes this by altering the tone of his song to one of โmourningโ (73), in an attempt to โinfuseโ Alexander with โpityโ (74) for the vanquished Darius. Timotheus recalls Darius as โgreat and good,โ and characterises him as not deserving of such a โsevere fateโ (76), as a result of being โDesertedโ (80) by โthose his former bounty fedโ (81), or those he had looked after in the past. Timotheusโs strength is demonstrated by the abrupt turn to Alexander, who now sits โjoylessโ (84), contemplating the fickle nature of โchanceโ (86), as he โsigh[s]โ (87) and his โtears began to flowโ (88).
Timotheus, referred to in line 93 as โthe mighty master,โ now recognises his might and laughs at the prospect of moving on to love, a slight step from the melancholy tone he has adopted. He sings of battle as โtoil and troubleโ (99) and honour as โan empty bubbleโ (100), implying that the โgood the gods provideโ is actually loveโin the form of Thais (106). Where Timotheus begins by praising Alexanderโs martial prowess, he demonstrates his own strength by convincing his audience that the glory acquired in battle is never enough, since it is โNever ending, still beginningโ (101), and must be won repeatedly. His crowd excitedly replies, but while they celebrate love, it is actually โmusic [that] won the causeโ (108). With this lineโwhich may encapsulate the poemโs overall themeโDryden declares music the victor, as it supplants Alexanderโs military victory, just as Timotheus has supplanted Alexander as master. Timotheusโs and musicโs strength are once again demonstrated as Alexanderโs mood switches at his command and turns to Thais; now โoppressedโ by love (114), he becomes โThe vanquished victorโ (115) as he buries his head in โher breastโ (115).
Timotheusโs final song, which is the most troublesome, is introduced in the sixth stanza. He blows his lyre again in a โlouder strainโ (124), urging his audience to seek vengeance on behalf of the slain Greeks: โGrecian ghosts, that in battle were slain/ And remain unburied/ Inglorious on the plainโ (138โ140). He depicts the spirits as aiming their torches toward โthe Persian abodesโ and their temples (144โ145), pleading with their living compatriots to โDeserve vengeanceโ (144โ145). (141). Alexander and his princes respond with โfurious joyโ (146), as Thais leads them to demolish the Persian village in the same way that the Greeks destroyed Troy during the Trojan War.
The final stanza brings us up to date, noting that if music had such power โlong agoโ (155) to โswell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desireโ (160), it has much more power now that Cecilia has arrived and invented the organ (โInventress of the vocal frameโ [162]). By doing so, she โenlarges the previously narrow boundsโ (164) of music, compelling Timotheus to โgive up the prizeโ (167) or, at the very least, share โthe crownโ with her (168).
By most accounts, โAlexanderโs Feastโ is a dazzling rendition of Restoration-era lyrical effects, while also telling the storey of musical virtuosity and its force. Some commentators have suggested that the power of the music as depicted in the poem is not always a good thingโthat Timotheus appears to be able to manipulate Alexanderโs emotions to accomplish anything, including moving him from pitying and crying over Darius to leading his troops to burn Dariusโs defeated populaceโs homes and temples within 100 lines. While the poem openly celebrates aesthetic power through music and implicitly through the poem itself, it also implies that aesthetic power is a double-edged sword.
Analysis of Alexanderโs Feast
Alexander’s Feast Or, The Power of Music, an Ode in Honor of St. Cecilia’s Day is Dryden’s second ode to the patron saint of music, Saint Cecilia. The poem’s theme, the ability of music to affect human emotions, is identical to that of a decade earlier’s “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day.” Both odes are incidental, having been penned at the London Musical Society’s invitation. Dryden introduces characters and positions them in a dramatic scene in the second ode. The Greeks are celebrating their triumph against Darius the Persian when Timotheus, the banquet’s musician, is summoned to perform.
Timotheus instils in Alexander the Great a sense of divinity through lofty strains. A change in tone transforms his mood into one of desire for pleasure, followed by a yearning for the love of his mistress Thas, who sits alongside him. Sombre chords induce empathy for the dead Darius but are quickly followed by aggressive tones demanding vengeance on behalf of the fallen Greek soldiers. Alexander and his lady, with torches in hand, hurry out to burn the Persian city Persepolis. The poem finishes with a magnificent chorus emphasising the power of music to affect emotions and drawing a contrast between Saint Cecilia’s legend and Timotheus’s strength. Dryden recalls a storey about how, after inventing the organ, she played so lovely music that an angel appeared as she played, mistaking the sounds for those of heaven: “Let old Timotheus give the prize, Or both divide the crown: He ascended a mortal to the heavens; she brought down an angel.
The elaborate form, with its lengthy and difficult irregular stanzas, resembles the Pindaric ode, yet its linear organisation maintains Horace’s heritage. Dryden creates a complicated, strong, and energising movement, and his use of historical events and individuals contributes to his theme’s vibrant, dramatic presentation.
Alexander and his mistress are introduced in the first stanza as they are sitting in the state. In the second, Alexanderโs musician, Timotheus, encourages Alexander with his lyre, singing the myth recounted by Alexanderโs mother, Olympia, that Alexanderโs true father was Zeus, who impregnated her in the form of a gigantic dragon. Timotheus now turns his attention to the joys of alcohol in stanza 3. In stanza 4, he transforms the atmosphere from pleasant intoxication to drunken belligerence, singing of the fall of monarchs, boldly picking Darius, king of Persia, whose defeat is being celebrated. Timotheus travels from sorrow to thoughts of love in stanza 5, and then to fury and revenge in stanza 6, leading Alexander to burn Persiaโs capital, Persepolis.
Plutarchโs motivations for Alexander, intoxication and a desire to please his mistress, are unrelated to musicโs influence. The sixth stanzaโs opening lines attribute the desire for retribution to Timotheusโs music, while no cause is offered for the musician to desire such a consequence. The fact that this stanza follows the one about love, as well as the lines โThais, led the way,/ To light him to his prey,/ And, like another Helen, firโd another Troy,โ all imply that Thais is to blame. That, however, would appear to contradict the remainder of the stanza and be unrelated to the poemโs theme of musicโs power. The reader can assume Thais takes advantage of the mood Timotheus produces, however one might question the irresponsibility of instilling rage and ideas of revenge in the mind of someone who is already intoxicated. Such problems, however, go mostly overlooked, as readers are swept up in the legendary resonance of a great cityโs burning and the poemโs concluding parallel with Troy.
The last stanza introduces Cecilia, the patron saint of music, by claiming that she โEnlargโd the former narrow bounds/ And added length to solemn sounds,โ and thus either wins the prize or must share it, for โHe raisโd a mortal to the skies She drew an angel down.โ This concluding phrase parallels Drydenโs previous โSong for St. Ceciliaโs Day,โ which expressly indicates that the angel is fooled by the beauty of Ceciliaโs music and believes he is in heaven. Although the angel visitor is a part of the saintโs tradition, Dryden has transformed the reason for the visit from Ceciliaโs virtue to her music for the purposes of his poem. Samuel Johnson objected to the immorality of a shared prize, despite the fact that Alexanderโs exaltation to godhood is only metaphorical and the angelic visitor is real. However, Ceciliaโs comparative advantage is so great that Dryden can afford to leave the readerโs decision to the reader. Additionally, a divided award provides a sense of equilibrium. Each of the preceding stanzas reflects an extreme of feeling, with the conclusion provided by the neat balance and antithesis at the end.