Introduction

Pulter’s second emblem completes what can be read as a prefatory pair. The image of godly steps established in Mighty Nimrod (Emblem 1)67 is pursued, as Pulter invokes a figurative sequence of steps via a list of twelve virtues, suggesting that, by following them exactly, one will achieve everlasting happiness. These steps are not only described in the poem, they are also outlined in the left-hand margin, and the presentation of this list in the manuscript deserves attention: the notes are written in the scribal hand, suggesting they are part of the original text, and they are carefully numbered. Because this suggests that the marginal notes are integral to the poem, we have retained them as part of the main text in this edition.

The visual effect of this marginal listing is striking, as it sets out in a clear sequence the virtuous steps that the didactic poem details. George Herbert’s pattern poems in The Temple (1633) are salient examples of giving language “visual and sacred significance”, and they would have been well known to Pulter. See “The Altar,” “Easter wings” and “The Church-floore” (Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert [New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007], 89-94, 143-149, 244). The last of these closely parallels this emblem; as we show in our Curation, “Blessed Steps”, Herbert aligns each step up “the gentle [rise]” to the quire with a specific virtue, visualizing these steps in the poem’s layout to aid his didactic preoccupation. Pulter similarly uses what Leah Marcus calls “visual punning”, a technique used by Herbert, which shows the poet “building words into a sacred game for the glory of his heavenly father” (Childhood and Cultural Despair [Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978], 110). Pulter therefore maintains her use of “naked” emblems while employing a visual representation, via the listing, of the steps she will “ascend” (Wilcox 110; Eardley 28).

In this emblem, Pulter explicitly addresses her children, engaging in a modified version of the invitation poem as she solicits them to learn and practice the sequential stages of virtue which must be followed to ascend God’s path to Heaven. (For more on Pulter’s use of the invitation genre, see note for line 1.) Combining Christian religion with classical mythology, Pulter draws on God and Aletheia, the Greek goddess of truth, as her guides along the path of virtue. The invitational aspects of this poem grant her a sense of authority, as she utilizes both her poetic and motherly status to enhance the moral didacticism of the emblem. This feminized rhetoric of instruction also draws on the ‘mother’s legacy’ genre, which was a popular genre women utilised to creative private, often posthumous, communication with their children. See Elizabeth Joscelin’s poetry in Women’s Writing in Stuart England: The Mothers’ Legacies of Dorothy Leigh, Elizabeth Joscelin, and Elizabeth Richardson, ed. by Sylvia Brown [Stroud: Sutton, 1999]. Evidently conscious of her feminized position as a mother and woman writer, Pulter conveys a linear sense of moral education in her second emblem, as she finds guidance in “God’s word” and the hand of Aletheia, and then imparts this to her children. She becomes a mediator to guide them on the difficult path of virtue to avoid any “tumbl[ing] down” into Hell (line 29).

Come, my dear children, come and happy be;

Even as I follow Christ, so follow me.

Eight of your number finished have their story,

And now their souls do shine in endless glory.

Then by these blesséd steps let us ascend

Unto that joy that never shall have end.

^[1]First, let God’s word your sole director be,

^[2]Which sweetly leads you to Humility,

Through whose low rooféd temple all did go

That worshipped honor: ethnics this did know.

^[3]Next, Patience fits you for the fiery trial;

No going further without self-denial.

^[4]Then, Temperance be sure you do not miss,

^[5]That Chastity’s white hand you next may kiss.

^[6]Then, Prudence that all actions doth foresee;

^[7]Without her, Just you cannot possibly be.

^[8]Then, be Content, or you yourself delude,

^[9]And Constantly go on to Fortitude.

^[10]By Faith and Hope we then shall mount above

^[11]Into the bosom of eternal Love.

Thy hand, dear Aletheia, lest I miss one round;

Who skips but one precipitates to ground.

These were got up, but yet you see they fell

Into those sensual ways, which leads to Hell.

Some that these steps too tedious are do say;

Therefore they climber up a nearer way,

Leaving fair Truth and her celestial train,

Being guided by the Spirit as they fain.

But see, my children, how they tumble down

And for their own chimera lose a crown.

Let Grace and Truth then guide us in our story;

By these degrees we shall arise to glory.