The Enological Keys to Edgar Allan Poe’s Onomastics: the Study of the Drama “Politian”

Abstract

The keynote of the essay is proving the ironic and satirical nature of Poe’s only drama “Politian”. For the first time, the influence of Thomas Nashe (“The Unfortunate Traveler, or The Life of Jacke Wilton”, 1594) and Robert Burton (“The Anatomy of Melancholy”, 1621) was indicated. The essay also proves the original source of the unusual name Lalage for Edgar Allan Poe. It was not the Horace ode, as was commonly thought, but a specific epigram by Martial. The most competent researchers supposed the names of the characters were taken from an unidentified book on Italian Renaissance. The essay introduces an original issue instead — all the names were taken by Poe from the enological vocabulary, which includes the names of wines, and specific bottles, or were associated with the aesthetics of wine consumption, ascending to the classical literature (onomatopoeia).

Keywords

• edgar allan poe
• politian
• enology
• onomastics
• onomatopoeia
• irony
• martial