Proquest Dissertations

THE OCCULT TRADITION IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA by F. Bion Bliven Dissertation presented to the Department of English and the School of Graduate Studies, University of Ottawa, as partial fulfillment of the requirements £g&. the degree of Doctor^f^Pn&^gsophy. ^tfbtta o LIBRARIE— S * Ottawa, Ontario July, 1971 UMI Number: DC53276 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI® UMI Microform DC53276 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 CURRICULUM STUDIORUM F. Bion Bliven was born on July 23, 1944, in Watertown, New York. He received the Associate of Arts degree from Auburn Community College in 1964, the Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University in 1968, and the Master of Arts from Occidental College in 1969. PREFACE The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate an occult tradition in the drama of the English Renaissance. This occult tradition functions to develop character, pro vide mood and atmosphere, foreshadow dramatic events, and supply a deus ex machina in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Other critics have explored certain aspects of the occult in English literature: e.g., Don Cameron Allen in his Star- Crossed Renaissance; Johnstone Parr in Tamburlaine's Malady and Other Essays on Astrology in Elizabethan Drama; Robert R. Reed, Jr., in The Occult on the Tudor and Stuart Stage; Walter Clyde Curry in Chaucer and the Mediaeval Sciences and The Demonic Metaphysics of Macbeth; and Katherine Briggs in Pale Hecate's Team. These critics have examined certain separate occult aspects in English literature; however, there has been little attempt to reveal an occult tradition in English Renaissance drama. The present work is an attempt to synthesize some of these scattered occult influences into a tradition that the Renaissance dramatist consciously employed in his plays. There is no attempt here to explain every star image or wrinkled brow as part of the occult traditions of astrology or physiognomy. Such an attempt would be foolish and unwarranted. Some references which clearly lend them selves to occult interpretation are examined in this study, iii and this examination reveals that these occult allusions are not mere ornament, but that they fulfill definite dramatic functions. This dissertation is concerned with two specific occult arts: astrology and physiognomy; and with two specific Renaissance occult characters: the sorcerer and the witch. Selected plays in which these occult subjects appear are examined to determine their function in Renais sance drama. I wish to thank Prof. Hazel M. Batzer and Prof. Richard N. Pollard, whose academic advice has aided me in the research and composition of this dissertation. I also want to thank the following people for their help: Mrs. Mary Pasqua, Miss Mary Whelan, Mrs. Sylvia Carri§re, and my wife, Lynda, whose patience and perseverance we.t a guiding light in this "dark hour of the soul." I am indebted to the He.nr-y Huntington Library, San Marino, California; the Clark Library, University of California at Los Angeles; the Arents Rare Book Room at Syracuse University; the Cornell Univer sity Library, which contains a vast amount of witchcraft material in the White Collection; the University of Ottawa Library for its STC microfilm collection; and the Sedes Sapientiae Library, Ottawa, Ontario. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. ASTROLOGICAL IMAGERY IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA 1 II. PHYSIOGNOMY IN RENAISSANCE CHARACTER 84 III. THE SORCERER AS RENAISSANCE MAGUS 145 IV. THE RENAISSANCE STAGE WITCH 22 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 02 ABSTRACT 326 CHAPTER I ASTROLOGICAL IMAGERY IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA A curious paradox emerges in the English Renaissance. The growing knowledge of emerging science mingles mysteri ously with occult belief. Science, still an infant to the world of knowledge, could not shake off the black cloak of its penumbral origin—magic. The strong lines existing today between science and the occult were not strongly delineated in the "new dawn" of the English Renaissance. Astronomy struggled to moult its occult nature, and astrol ogy began to decline slowly, but ever so reluctantly, since it is difficult to overthrow an old order for a new one. The Copernican universe finds no more expression in Edmund Spenser's Cantos of Mutability (16 09) than it finds in Robert Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid (1532) despite the publication of Niklas Copernicus' monumental work, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543). Astrology provided an intimate paradigm for the Renaissance stock correspondence—the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of man. The desire for order in the cosmos and order in man based upon some rational principle impelled Renaissance man to seek a pattern for universal order in the celestial spheres. Greece searched the heavens; Rome queried the stars; and Renaissance England either scorned astrology or venerated it, but few Englishmen 2 denied its presence. While the new science and the old pseudo-sciences were fighting it out in Renaissance England, the Renaissance dramatist found in astrological lore and practice, dramat ically viable material for character delineation and motivation. Astrology provided personality archetypes for character portrayal on the stage. Whether astrology is or is not a valid science is not the concern of this study. It is the purpose here to examine astrology as a dramatic con vention in Renaissance drama. Astrology is present in many Renaissance plays. These astrological allusions are not mere ornaments or sheer embellishments like so many yuletide bulbs hanging on a poetic Christmas tree. When major Renaissance dramatists deliberately describe characters as under the auspices of certain stars or when lovers are depicted as star-crossed lovers, the present-day reader must attempt to go beyond mere imagistic ornament and determine the meaning of such celestial allusion in relation to its literary context and contemporary meaning. Astrology, with its subtle and specialized meanings, provided the Renais sance dramatists with a workable contemporary psychology. There is little artistic difference between explaining the motivations of a literary character in a modern novel, in terms of Freudian, Jungian, or even Maslovian psychology, and coming to the conclusion that Edmund is what he is because he was born under Ursa Major. The fault of inter preting Renaissance literary astrology lies not in the work 3 but in ourselves. It is necessary, before examining some of the astro logical allusions in various Renaissance plays, to under stand some of the basic principles behind astrology itself. If astrology is understood as it is, without prejudice and biased academia, it can be seen to provide Renaissance dramatists with a contemporary psychology of action. One such basic principle found in astrology is the relationship noted between the celestial movements above the earth and the terrestrial events on earth itself. This influential relationship between celestial events above and terrestrial affairs below is strongly illustrated by a series of Medieval and Renaissance books dealing with the movement of the moon and the effect of that movement on daily events in men's lives. Such books were called "Lunationes." First published in Latin and then in English, these books reveal the favorable and unfavorable days for various undertakings such as days on which to let blood; critical days to judge illnesses by; davs to judqe the nativity, of children by phases of the moon; and some included dream lore in relation to lunar phases. Professor M. Forster treats the manuscript history of the "Lunationes" from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries down through the Middle Ages. The first concise, orderly appearance in British literature of an English adaptation of the Latin "Lunationes" is John Metham's "Days of the Moon" written in 4 the middle of the fifteenth century. Metham clearly points out the "frame of mind" which is behind astrological thought in Medieval and Renaissance times: As Haly wyttnessyth, the gret astrolegere, off days namyd cretyk, the qwyche he calkyllyd, and drof owte be gret conclusyonnys off astronomye, qwyche schuld be moste fortunate to the vse off man, as the days off yche mone; for he concludyth be sundry resunnys, that the mone schuld, for her propynqwyte, sundry in-dysposycion off nature werkyngys, cause; schuld also in ther regyon haue more strengh, qwere sche hath domyny, than in an odyr, off werkyng. And this tretys ys compylyd to y_eff knowlech to the lysterys, qwyche days be moste expedyent to begynne ony werk vp-on, to take vyage ouer the see, to blede for ony sekenes, to knowe qwat schuld be-falle off hym that sekenyth in ony day off the mone, and off odyr thingys yt tretyth, as the rederry_s_ schal fynde:—fyrste asay this tretys and so appreue yt, quod Jon Metham.^ Metham goes on to enumerate specific days which are considered fortunate for particular activities: The fyrste day off the mone ys fortunat to begynne euery god werk vpon; in qwyche wordys y_e schal conseyue alle wor£lldely occupacionnys excepte the excepcionys here foluyng, the qwyche ben expressyd in the chapetrys here foluyng: That persone that ys born the fyrste day off the mone schuld be dysposyd to be wyse and dys- crete and longe lyffyd, dysposyd to haue gret vexacion and gret labour; but he schuld be gret labour owercome yt at the laste; that persone the qwyche takyth ony actual sekenes that day schuld long be vexyd ther-with, but at the laste he schuld with gret hardedes skape yt; qwat that a man dreme that nyght, but yff yt were off dede bodyis John Metham in The Works of John Metham, ed.

Load more