Duke of Alençon and Pindaric Ode

Meaning

II.3.18 introduces an ode addressed to the Duke of Alençon, and the following verse gives the author's explanation of spirit as active life and earth as nurse. The named patron and Pindaric designation place the philosophical claim within an earlier poetic and courtly setting. They are evidence of the author's self-citation and rhetorical presentation, not proof that the addressee witnessed the natural processes described.

The prose decodes Phoebus and Python before the poem: there the efficacious spirituous substance is itself properly named earth. The ensuing ode distinguishes that active spirit from the heavier, colder body it forms from gathered moisture and makes a fruitful nurse of Heaven and burning fires by pouring soul and seeds within it. These uses of earth must not be collapsed into one simply passive substance. The duke is the honoured lord and master to whom Nuysement dedicated the ode, not its author.