🌹 Stanza 53 - Literary Analysis

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis

📖 Original Stanza

Then, like a melancholy malcontent,
He vails his tail, that, like a falling plume,
Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent:
He stamps, and bites the poor flies in his fume.    
His love, perceiving how he is enrag'd,
Grew kinder, and his fury was assuag'd.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Line 1: "Then, like a melancholy malcontent,"

"Then": Following the previous action, indicating a sequence in the horse's behavior after being rejected by the mare.
"like a melancholy malcontent": A double comparison—the horse is compared to someone who is both sad ("melancholy") and rebelliously dissatisfied ("malcontent"). A malcontent is someone who rebels against authority or their circumstances.
Meaning: "Then, like a sad and rebellious person,"

Line 2: "He vails his tail, that, like a falling plume,"

"He vails his tail": "Vails" means to lower or drop down. The horse lowers his tail in a gesture of dejection or submission—opposite of the proud, raised tail of an excited stallion.
"that, like a falling plume": The tail is compared to a decorative feather falling down. "Plume" suggests something that was once proud and upright now drooping in defeat.
Meaning: "He lowers his tail, which hangs down like a drooping feather,"

Line 3: "Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent:"

"Cool shadow": The lowered tail provides shade and coolness. This is a practical benefit that comes from his dejected posture.
"his melting buttock": His hindquarters that are hot and sweating from exertion and sexual frustration. "Melting" suggests both literal heat and metaphorical dissolution from disappointment.
"lent": Provided or gave. The tail inadvertently offers comfort through its lowered position.
Meaning: "Providing cool shade to his sweaty, overheated hindquarters:"

Line 4: "He stamps, and bites the poor flies in his fume."

"He stamps": The horse pounds his hooves on the ground in anger and frustration—a physical expression of his emotional state.
"bites the poor flies": In his rage, he snaps at innocent flies, taking out his frustration on creatures that have nothing to do with his rejection.
"in his fume": "Fume" means both anger/rage and literally the heated vapors rising from his body. He's both figuratively and literally fuming.
Meaning: "He pounds the ground and bites at innocent flies in his rage."

Line 5: "His love, perceiving how he is enrag'd,"

"His love": The mare he has been pursuing, described possessively as "his love" despite her rejection.
"perceiving": Noticing, becoming aware of. This shows the mare's attention to his emotional state.
"how he is enrag'd": The extent and intensity of his anger and frustration. She recognizes the depth of his emotional distress.
Meaning: "His beloved mare, seeing how angry and upset he was,"

Line 6: "Grew kinder, and his fury was assuag'd."

"Grew kinder": The mare softened her attitude, became more gentle and receptive. This suggests her rejection was partly performance or testing.
"his fury was assuag'd": His anger was calmed, soothed, or pacified. "Assuaged" implies gradual relief rather than instant cure.
Meaning: "Became gentler toward him, and his anger was calmed."

🎭 Literary Devices

Device	Example	Effect
Simile	"like a melancholy malcontent," "like a falling plume"	Creates human and decorative comparisons that dignify the horse's emotions
Personification	"melancholy malcontent," "his love...perceiving"	Gives the horses human emotions and awareness, making them mirrors of human romantic behavior
Alliteration	"melancholy malcontent," "melting buttock," "poor flies...fume"	Creates musical rhythm and emphasis on key emotional moments
Physical Comedy	Stamping and biting flies, melting buttocks	Provides humor while maintaining sympathy for the frustrated stallion
Dramatic Resolution	Mare's change from rejection to kindness	Shows the cycle of courtship behavior—testing followed by acceptance
Sensory Imagery	"Cool shadow," "melting," "stamps," "bites"	Appeals to touch, temperature, and movement to make the scene vivid
Metaphor	"falling plume" for the tail	Transforms a natural horse behavior into something elegant and symbolic
Parallel to Human Courtship	Entire scenario	The horses' behavior mirrors human romantic frustration and eventual success

🎯 Overall Meaning & Significance in the Context of the Poem

This stanza concludes the extended episode of the horses' courtship, providing a successful resolution that contrasts sharply with the ongoing failure of Venus's pursuit of Adonis. The horse's experience serves as both a mirror and a counter-example to the main narrative.

Successful Courtship vs. Failed Seduction: While Venus continues to be rejected by Adonis, the stallion's persistence and genuine emotion eventually win over the mare. This shows that authentic feeling, rather than elaborate rhetoric, can succeed in love.

The Power of Genuine Emotion: The mare responds not to the stallion's physical display of power but to his emotional vulnerability. His "melancholy" and "rage" reveal the depth of his feeling, which finally moves her to kindness.

Physical Comedy and Emotional Truth: Shakespeare balances humor (the horse biting flies, his "melting buttock") with genuine pathos. The physical comedy doesn't diminish the emotional reality of the stallion's frustration.

Female Agency and Testing: The mare's eventual kindness suggests her initial rejection may have been a test of the stallion's sincerity rather than absolute refusal. This introduces the idea that resistance in courtship might sometimes be strategic rather than final.

Natural vs. Artificial Love: The horses' courtship follows natural instincts and authentic emotion, while Venus's pursuit relies on artificial rhetoric and manipulation. This contrast suggests why the horses succeed where Venus fails.

Parallel Structure: The horse episode provides a template for how courtship should work: 1. Desire and pursuit 2. Initial rejection 3. Persistence through genuine emotion
4. Recognition of sincerity 5. Acceptance and mutual satisfaction

Foreshadowing and Irony: The success of the horses' courtship highlights the failure of Venus's approach. Where the stallion's genuine distress wins sympathy, Venus's elaborate speeches only increase Adonis's resistance.

Temperature and Cooling: The physical detail of the tail providing "cool shadow" to the horse's heated body mirrors Venus's earlier offers to cool Adonis. However, the horse achieves both physical and emotional cooling through successful courtship.

This stanza demonstrates Shakespeare's skill in using animal behavior to illuminate human psychology. The horses' successful courtship provides hope that love can triumph, while simultaneously emphasizing what's wrong with Venus's approach to Adonis.