The Rose of Rouen would northern lords over-run the south, but more, that "they would then live in it and take what they needed including wives and daughters." This is the fate, says the poem, that Edward of York saved England from. Like other political poetry of the period, it is careful to identify its protagonists by their cognizances rather than naming them: Edward, of course, is a white rose, his father Richard of York, Duke of York, is a falcon and fetterlock, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick a ragged staff, his uncle William Neville, Lord Fauconberg a fish hook, and John Mowbray, Duke
The Dithyramb of the Rose of the chorus and other persons outside the chorus) that evolves into a tragedy, more than a tragedy (with distinct principles and structure) itself. Sikelianos, influenced by the Orphic theology and its founder and leader, Orpheus, places him as Hierophant – officiant in the myth, with clear references to Dionysus. As scholars have said, the individual symbols (besides Orpheus-Dionysus) of ear of grain (symbolizing the earth), the vine (symbolizing the intoxication of love) and, especially the rose (symbol of life embedded in love) that are eminent in the play are allegorically bound with the tragedy itself (these symbols do not