DOCSLIB.ORG

PRINT and the CULTURES of CRITICISM by MICHAEL GAVIN A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
PRINT and the CULTURES of CRITICISM by MICHAEL GAVIN A PRINT AND THE CULTURES OF CRITICISM by MICHAEL GAVIN A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in English written under the direction of Jonathan Kramnick and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2010 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Title By MICHAEL GAVIN Dissertation Director: Jonathan Kramnick Print and the Cultures of Criticism reconsiders Restoration and eighteenth-century literary criticism as a material practice of writing and publication. In prefaces, pamphlets, libels, and mock-epics, poets used print as an instrument of literary rivalry and in the process gave shape to a cultural field of poetry and criticism. Through tracing their controversies, I revise the consensus view that early criticism disciplined readers with a disinterested discourse of polite taste. Rather, criticism was forged in a turbulent print marketplace where authors’ commercial and political interests often collided with their intellectual and professional ambitions. Placing factionalism at the center of criticism’s history suggests that literary ideas proliferated through conflict and became most powerful when subject to the most vocal objection. My project focuses on moments of literary controversy to explore how printed disputes shifted as they moved across the still-fluid genres of critical writing. From 1660 to the first decades of the eighteenth century, sporadic debates between playwrights had evolved into a widely shared practice of literary rivalry. The success of John Dryden’s heroic dramas sparked heated debates over prosody and dramatic form: opinions came ii out in play performances, verse prologues and epilogues, prefatory essays, pamphlets, and eventually manuscript satires. By the turn of the century, poets, critics, playwrights, scholars, booksellers, and even readers were seen to engage in a special kind of combat— the mock-epic battles of “Parnassus”—that divided them into factions while binding them together in a common project of public dispute. I then turn to writers who, in very different ways, attempted to insulate poetry from the turmoil of literary factionalism. Anne Finch and Alexander Pope concluded that modern criticism had become irredeemably dysfunctional. Critics haunt their poems with ambient violence. Through these case studies, I argue against the prevailing notion that early criticism regulated culture while dictating to a passive readership of anonymous book-buyers. Taking a broader view that accounts for the wide range of genres at critics’ disposal suggests that few had the clout to impose their judgments and that literary value emerged most powerfully from below. iii Acknowledgement and Dedication I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my advisors for their tireless advocacy through every step of my graduate career. Inspired direction and careful reading on their parts has been instrumental to the success and completion of my project. This dissertation is dedicated to them. Support for my graduate work was provided by the Rutgers University Department of English, the Mellon Foundation, Rutgers School of the Arts and Sciences, the Rutgers Center for Cultural Analysis, and the Rutgers Writing Program. I am especially indebted to the CCA for funding my participation in the year-long program, “New Media Literacies, Gutenberg to Google,” and to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, for assisting my archival research. An earlier version of the conclusion will be published by SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 in their Summer 2010 issue, and a version of chapter four has been accepted for publication in ELH: English Literary History. iv Table of Contents Abstract of the Dissertation ii Acknowledgement and Dedication iv List of Tables vi List of Illustrations vii Introduction: Literary Factionalism in England, 1660-1730 1 Chapter One: Writing Print Cultures Past: How the history of literary 25 criticism can contribute to the history of the book Chapter Two: Dramatic Criticism and the Print Marketplace, 1664-1675 51 Chapter Three: Politics of Parnassus 118 Chapter Four: Critics and Criticism in the Poetry of Anne Finch 167 Chapter Five: The Dunciad and the Place of Criticism in the History of Print 206 Conclusion: Boswell & Co.: the Afterlife of Literary Factionalism 233 Bibliography 255 Curriculum Vitae 269 v Lists of tables Table 1. New playbooks published by Henry Herringman (1656-1678) 64 Table 2. New plays published by Thomas Dring (1667-1675) 81 Table 3. New Plays Published by William Cademan (1669-1677) 83 Table 4. Pamphlet Criticism, 1668-1675 103 vi List of illustrations Figure 1. 106 Figure 2. 108 Figure 3. 116 Figure 4. 224 vii 1 Michael Gavin Rutgers University Literary Factionalism in England, 1660-1730 Print and the Cultures of Criticism reconsiders Restoration and eighteenth- century literary criticism as a material practice of writing and publication. In prefaces, pamphlets, libels, and mock-epics, poets used print as an instrument of literary rivalry and in the process gave shape to a cultural field of poetry and criticism. Through tracing their controversies, I revise the consensus view that early criticism disciplined readers with a disinterested discourse of polite taste. Rather, criticism was forged in a turbulent print marketplace where authors’ commercial and political interests often collided with their intellectual and professional ambitions. Placing factionalism at the center of criticism’s history suggests that literary ideas proliferated through conflict and became most powerful when subject to the most vocal objection. I focus throughout on moments of literary controversy to explore how printed disputes shifted as they moved across the still-fluid genres of critical writing. From 1660 to the first decades of the eighteenth century, sporadic debates between playwrights had 2 evolved into a widely shared practice of literary rivalry. For example, the success of John Dryden’s heroic dramas, especially The Conquest of Granada (1672), sparked heated debates over prosody and dramatic form: opinions came out in play performances, verse prologues and epilogues, prefatory essays, pamphlets, and eventually manuscript satires. Such debates gave the literary field a sense of itself. By the turn of the century, poets, critics, playwrights, scholars, booksellers, and even readers were seen to engage in a special kind of combat—the mock-epic battles of “Parnassus”—that divided them into factions while binding them together in a common project of public dispute. In England, I argue, the idea that literature and criticism occupied a peculiar cultural space predated by many decades the idea that literature was a peculiar kind of discourse. Carving poetry into social parts gave literature a social whole. Other writers who attempted to insulate poetry from the turmoil of literary factionalism. Anne Finch and Alexander Pope concluded that modern criticism had become irredeemably dysfunctional; in their view, destructive back-biting had perverted the public sphere to the point that disparagement was now the only trustworthy barometer of literary prestige. Critics haunt their poems with ambient violence. I analyze Finch’s poetry as it appears in fair-copy manuscripts, published miscellanies, and a print edition to show how she cultivates a readership free from the contravening disruptions of critics and satirists. For the Scriblerians such disruptions could only be folded into burlesque narratives, a technique most famously and fantastically encapsulated on the pages of The Dunciad Variorum (1729). Through these case studies, I argue against the prevailing notion that early criticism regulated culture while dictating to a passive readership of anonymous book-buyers, a conclusion scholars draw almost exclusively from the 3 periodicals of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Taking a broader view that accounts for the wide range of genres at critics’ disposal suggests that few had the clout to impose their judgments and that literary value emerged most powerfully from below. My research extends a line of inquiry following in the footsteps of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and literary theorist John Guillory, who have argued that tracing the history of transformations in the “field of cultural production” is the best way to unlock a history of artistic or literary value.1 During the Restoration and early eighteenth century, the book trade was the most important cultural institution of criticism.2 Book history offers useful insights to the historian of criticism. In the past decade or so, scholars have shown the book trade to be central to, for example, canon-formation,3 early modern science,4 and the Scottish Enlightenment.5 For criticism in particular, such a view is especially useful because so much critical writing was conducted between authors who shared this cultural space, often publishing through the same booksellers. I find 1 Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, ed. Randal Johnson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993); John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). 2 For the argument that the book trade should be considered in this light, see Thomas Bonnell, “Speaking of Institutions and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From the Rhetoric of Longinus to the Poetics of John Dennis the Role of Terror in the Theories of the Sublime in the 18Th Century
    FROM THE RHETORIC OF LONGINUS TO THE POETICS OF JOHN DENNIS THE ROLE OF TERROR IN THE THEORIES OF THE SUBLIME IN THE 18TH CENTURY ZOLTÁN CORA Within the huge literary and artistic tradition of the sublime in Western culture, map- ping, analysing and interpreting the relations of literary and visual sublime is a highly complex issue.1 The affective qualities within the sublime are usually connected to the aesthetic categories of greatness, infinity and terror as well as to philosophical con- cepts of the transcendental. This paper endeavours to interpret the sublime as a possi- ble aesthetic form of an ontological insight that is not gained through conventional syllogisms.2 Additionally, the paper also investigates the role of terror in the rhetorical 1 I will dwell on art theory and art history only where it seems necessary for the coherence of the ar- gumentation, and due to the limits of this study, this restriction will be applied to the theological impli- cations of the sublime as well. 2 Though this statement has been pre-eminently valid since the Kantian discussion of the sublime, still with regard to classical philosophy, it is plausible to argue for a similar meaning already in Greek philosophy, especially Neoplatonism and the tradition of Hermes Trismegistos, and thereby Alexandrian Hermetism. See Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction Et al. — Critical Theory Online, www.etal.hu 1 Terror(ism) and Aesthetics (2014), eds. György Fogarasi, Zoltán Cora, and Ervin Török Et al. ZOLTÁN CORA 2 and poetical theories of the sublime which are based on aesthetic qualities which are not built upon cognition.
    [Show full text]
  • The Justification of English National Imperialism in John Dryden's Poems
    The Justification of English National Imperialism in John Dryden’s Poems Lee, Chung eun Contents Ⅰ. English Imperialism in Terms of Virgil’s Aeneid and “Songs from King Arthur” Ⅱ. Eulogizing Charles II’s Legitimacy Ⅲ. The Poems in Terms of Imperial Propaganda Ⅳ. Conclusion John Dryden justified imperialism as a means of strengthening the Stuart’s monarchy in his poems. In conjunction with the historical legacy of imperialism, he reawakened the imperial origin from the source of Virgil’s Aeneid and the myth of King Arthur. These initial perceptions of mythical epics substantiated the poetic history of imperialism. Such inclination toward the dominant ideology drove Dryden to contemplate the imperial legitimacy in England from the past time. Since Dryden served as a public poet who celebrated and praised the imperial movement, his poems mostly dealt with political agendas. In a sense, his conservative propagandas for the Stuart Monarchy entailed the national unification in England. Particularly, the heroic King, Charles II, was not only glorified, but also remembered as the most powerful entity in Dryden’s poems because of his imperial policies. Dryden’s political purpose was to preserve the Stuart monarchy as a central point of the powerful imperialism. Without doubt, the rhetoric of unification was symbolically harmonized for the purpose of 210 영미연구 제34집 national stability under the Stuart monarchy. Thus, by writing poems, John Dryden acted as the political prophet for the culmination of English imperialism in which the Stuart monarchy reigns. I. English Imperialism in Terms of Virgil’s Aeneid and “Songs from King Arthur” It is indisputable that Dryden traces the beginnings of the imperialism in the light of Virgil’s Aeneid.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in the Work of Colley Cibber
    BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HUMANISTIC STUDIES Vol. 1 October 1, 1912 No. 1 STUDIES IN THE WORK OF COLLEY CIBBER BY DE WITT C.:'CROISSANT, PH.D. A ssistant Professor of English Language in the University of Kansas LAWRENCE, OCTOBER. 1912 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY CONTENTS I Notes on Cibber's Plays II Cibber and the Development of Sentimental Comedy Bibliography PREFACE The following studies are extracts from a longer paper on the life and work of Cibber. No extended investigation concerning the life or the literary activity of Cibber has recently appeared, and certain misconceptions concerning his personal character, as well as his importance in the development of English literature and the literary merit of his plays, have been becoming more and more firmly fixed in the minds of students. Cibber was neither so much of a fool nor so great a knave as is generally supposed. The estimate and the judgment of two of his contemporaries, Pope and Dennis, have been far too widely accepted. The only one of the above topics that this paper deals with, otherwise than incidentally, is his place in the development of a literary mode. While Cibber was the most prominent and influential of the innovators among the writers of comedy of his time, he was not the only one who indicated the change toward sentimental comedy in his work. This subject, too, needs fuller investigation. I hope, at some future time, to continue my studies in this field. This work was suggested as a subject for a doctor's thesis, by Professor John Matthews Manly, while I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago a number of years ago, and was con• tinued later under the direction of Professor Thomas Marc Par- rott at Princeton.
    [Show full text]
  • Front Matter
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01316-2 - The Cambridge Companion to Women’s Writing in Britain, 1660–1789 Edited by Catherine Ingrassia Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to women’s writing in britain, 1660–1789 Women writers played a central role in the literature and culture of eighteenth- century Britain. Featuring essays on female writers and genres by leading scho- lars in the field, this Companion introduces readers to the range, significance, and complexity of women’s writing across multiple genres in Britain between 1660 and 1789. Divided into two parts, the Companion first discusses women’s participation in print culture, featuring essays on topics such as women and popular culture, women as professional writers, women as readers and writers, and place and publication. Additionally, Part I explores the ways that women writers crossed generic boundaries. The second part contains chapters on many of the key genres in which women wrote, including poetry, drama, fiction (early and later), history, the ballad, periodicals, and travel writing. The Companion also provides an introduction surveying the state of the field, an integrated chronology, and a guide to further reading. catherine ingrassia is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She is the author of Authorship, Commerce, and Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: A Culture of Paper Credit (Cambridge, 1998); editor of a critical edition of Eliza Haywood’s Anti- Pamela and Henry Fielding’s Shamela (2004); and co-editor of A Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel and Culture (2005) and the anthology British Women Poets of the Long Eighteenth Century (2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Amazons in 17Th Century English Drama
    Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts - Volume 1, Issue 2 – Pages 147-156 Women in Arms: Amazons in 17th Century English Drama By Margarete Rubik This paper investigates the portrayal of Amazons in a variety of seventeenth century English plays. Sword women combining male connoted aggression and female beauty functioned as a female dream of empowerment as well as a misogynist nightmare. Hence the image of such 'masculine' women was mutable and could assume a number of different characteristics: Amazons could be portrayed as chivalrous and cruel, glamorous or denaturalized, chaste or lecherous. Humourous pictures of martial women exist side by side with hostile ones attacking the unruliness and insubordination of women and their lust for men. The fate of Amazons in seventeenth century drama is generally either death on the battlefield or marriage and submission to patriarchal rules. There are a few rare examples of dutiful wives still combining marital and martial virtues, but more often these female warriors only lay down their arms at the end of a play, out of love. Despite their prowess, the women always lose the single combat with a worthy male antagonist – usually the very man they love. In the central, sensual moment of revelation, the woman's helmet falls off and her hair falls loose. In plays featuring women in male disguise, the relationship between the lovers is often charged with homoerotic overtones: the hero is passionately attracted to the supposed boy-soldier. Androgynous figures like the Amazons also raise the question whether femininity and masculinity are inborn qualities or the products of education.
    [Show full text]
  • Queen Anne and the Arts
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library TRANSITS Queen Anne and the Arts EDITED BY CEDRIC D. REVERAND II LEWISBURG BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS 14_461_Reverand.indb 5 9/22/14 11:19 AM Published by Bucknell University Press Copublished by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannery Street, London SE11 4AB All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data <insert CIP data> ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 14_461_Reverand.indb 6 9/22/14 11:19 AM CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1 “Praise the Patroness of Arts” 7 James A. Winn 2 “She Will Not Be That Tyrant They Desire”: Daniel Defoe and Queen Anne 35 Nicholas Seager 3 Queen Anne, Patron of Poets? 51 Juan Christian Pellicer 4 The Moral in the Material: Numismatics and Identity in Evelyn, Addison, and Pope 59 Barbara M. Benedict 5 Mild Mockery: Queen Anne’s Era and the Cacophony of Calm 79 Kevin L.
    [Show full text]
  • R.Kirschbaum, Thesis, 2012.Pdf
    Introduction: Female friendship, community and retreat Friendship still has been design‘d, The Support of Human-kind; The safe Delight, the useful Bliss, The next World‘s Happiness, and this. Give then, O indulgent Fate! Give a Friend in that Retreat (Tho‘ withdrawn from all the rest) Still a Clue, to reach my Breast. Let a Friend be still convey‘d Thro‘ those Windings, and that Shade! Where, may I remain secure, Waste, in humble Joys and pure, A Life, that can no Envy yield; Want of Affluence my Shield.1 Anne Finch’s “The Petition for an Absolute Retreat” is one of a number of verses by early modern women which engage with the poetic traditions of friendship and the pastoral.2 Finch employed the imagery and language of the pastoral to shape a convivial but protected space of retreat. The key to achieving the sanctity of such a space is virtuous friendship, which Finch implies is both enabled by and enabling of pastoral retirement. Finch’s retreat is not an absolute retirement; she calls for “a Friend in that Retreat / (Tho’ withdrawn from all the rest)” to share in the “humble Joys and pure” of the pastoral. Friendship is “design’d [as] the Support of Human-kind”, a divine gift to ease the burden of human reason and passion. The cause of “the next World’s Happiness, and this”, 1 Anne Finch, “The Petition for an Absolute Retreat” in Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions, printed for J.B. and sold by Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate, William Taylor in Pater-Noster-Row, and James Round (London, 1713), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • And Voltaire's
    A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF POPE’S “ESSAY ON MAN” AND VOLTAIRE’S “DISCOURS EN VERS SUR L’HONME” A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS BY ANNIE BERNICE WIMBUSH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES ATLANTA, GEORGIA NAY 1966 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE . a a . • • • . iii. Chapter I. THENENANDTHEIRWORKS. a• • • • • . a aa 1 The Life of Alexander Pope The Life of Voltaire II. ABRIEFRESUNEOFTHETWOPOENS . aa • . • •. a a 20 Pope’s “Essay on Man” Voltaire’s “Discours En Vers Sur L’Hoimne” III. A COMPARISON OF THE TWO POEMS . a • • 30 B IBLIOGRAPHY a a a a a a a a a a a • a a a • a a a a a a a 45 ii PREFACE In the annals of posterity few men of letters are lauded with the universal renown and fame as are the two literary giants, Voltaire and Pope. Such creative impetus and “esprit” that was uniquely theirs in sures their place among the truly great. The histories and literatures of France and England show these twQ men as strongly influential on philosophical thinking. Their very characters and temperaments even helped to shape and transform man’s outlook on life in the eighteenth century and onward.. On the one hand, there is Voltaire, the French poet, philosopher, historian and publicist whose ideas became the ideas of hundreds of others and whose art remains with us today as monuments of a great mind. On the other there is Pope, the English satirical poet and philosopher, endowed with a hypersensitive soul, who concerned himself with the ordinary aspects of literary and social life, and these aspects he portrayed in his unique and excellent verse, Both men were deeply involved in the controversial issues of the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Durham E-Theses
    Durham E-Theses Studies in the heroic drama of John Dryden Blyth, Michael Graham How to cite: Blyth, Michael Graham (1978) Studies in the heroic drama of John Dryden, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8000/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Studies in the Heroic Drama of John Dryden Thesis submitted to the University of Durham for the degree of Ph.D. by Michael Graham Blyth The copyright of this thesis rests with the author No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged 2rsity of Durham Tiber 1978 Acknowledgements My sincere thanks go to the following for their invaluable assistance: Dr. Ray Selden, Durham University English Department, who has given a great deal of his time and critical energy to supervising my work in all stages of its development; Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Kit-Cat Related Poetry
    ‘IN AND OUT’: AN ANALYSIS OF KIT-CAT CLUB MEMBERSHIP (Web Appendix to The Kit-Cat Club by Ophelia Field, 2008) There are four main primary sources with regard to the membership of the Kit-Cat Club – Abel Boyer’s 1722 list,1 John Oldmixon’s 1735 list,2 a Club subscription list dated 1702,3 and finally the portraits painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1697 and 1721 (as well as the 1735 Faber engravings of these paintings). None of the sources agree. Indeed, only the membership of four men (Dr Garth, Lord Cornwallis, Spencer Compton and Abraham Stanyan) is confirmed by all four of these sources. John Macky, a Whig journalist and spy, was the first source for the statement that the Club could have no more than thirty-nine members at any one time,4 and Malone and Spence followed suit.5 It is highly unlikely that there were so many members at the Kit-Cat’s inception, however, and membership probably expanded with changes of venue, especially around 1702–3. By 1712–14, all surviving manuscript lists of toasted ladies total thirty-nine, suggesting that there was one lady toasted by each member and therefore that Macky was correct.6 The rough correlation between the dates of expulsions/deaths and the dates of new admissions (such as the expulsion of Prior followed by the admission of Steele in 1705) also supports the hypothesis that at some stage a cap was set on the size of the Club. Allowing that all members were not concurrent, most sources estimate between forty- six and fifty-five members during the Club’s total period of activity.7 There are forty- four Kit-Cat paintings, but Oldmixon, who got his information primarily from his friend Arthur Maynwaring, lists forty-six members.
    [Show full text]
  • How Modern Is the French Revolution?
    Review Essay Paradigms and Paranoia: How Modern Is the French Revolution? REBECCA L. SPANG It is a truth, widely acknowledged, that the study of history has changed dramatically 1 since the end of World War II. Cliometrics has come and gone; the new social history has become old hat; narrative has been revived. Structuralist approaches associated, at least in part, with the Annales school, have been superseded by the notionally poststructuralist turns of the linguistic screw; total history has yielded to micro history; we all recognize Eurocentrism when we see it. How surprising it is, then, to note how remarkably constant textbooks have been in 2 assessing the import of the French Revolution. From classics of Cold War "Western" historiography to recent efforts to write history within a global framework, the fundamental message remains the same: the Revolution of 1789 is the turning point of the modern world. 1 The wording may vary, but the substance does not. Said to mark "the beginning of modern history," the French Revolution is deemed "a decisive event in world history" that initiated a "century of rapid and tremendous change"; after the events of 1789–1815, "the clock could not really be set back." 2 Authors may emphasize different aspects of this modern period—political Liberalism, triumphant individualism, nationalistic militarism—but their accounts coincide in treating the revolution as an identifiable period of rapid, irreversible change. An evocative but, in this non-geological context, far from precise word—watershed—has provided one popular metaphor for conveying some sense of the revolution's relation to modernity.
    [Show full text]
  • ENGLISH RENAISSANCE EPITHALAMIA Approvedi Major Professor
    ENGLISH RENAISSANCE EPITHALAMIA APPROVEDi Major Professor : ~ Director of the ^Department of English si Deaf of the Graduate School \ ENGLISH RENAISSANCE EPJTHALAMIA THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Larry B. Corse, M. M, Denton, Texas August, 1970 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I, THE CLASSICAL BACKGROUND 1 II. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 20 III. EDMUND SPENSER 31 IV. JOHN DONNE 48 V. BEN JONS ON AND ROBERT HERRICK. 78 VI. CONCLUSIONS 90 APPENDIX 97 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 108 ill CHAPTER I THE CLASSICAL BACKGROUND In the late sixteenth century, the classical genre of marriage songs called epithalamia-'- appeared In England. A few fine poems in this tradition were written by some of the major English poets: Sidney, Spenser, Donne, Jonson, and Herrick. The genre was important for only three decades in England before it fell into the hands of minor poets and literary hacks. When the English Renaissance poets took up the epithalamic genre, it had a two-thousand year old tradition behind it, a tradition which began in Greece, flourished for a time in Rome, then disappeared until the Renaissance, when epithalamla were written in Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, and English poetry. After the Renaissance, the classical tradition lost its influence on English epithalamia, and not until the twentieth century have major English poets written marriage songs patterned on the classical models. ^To avoid confusion which might arise from the several forms of this word ending in -urn, -a, -ie, -ies, -on, and -ons, the Latin forms, epithalamium and epithalamla, will be used throughout this thesis except in quotations and titles where the original spelling will be raaintained.
    [Show full text]