SKEPTICISM AND DOCTRINE IN THE WORKS OF CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1619--1655) Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Johnson, Charles Richard, 1927- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 10/10/2021 06:30:47 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288336 INFORMATION TC USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1974 Language and Literature, modern Xerox University Microfilms , Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. SKEPTICISM AND DOCTRINE IN THE WORKS OF CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1619-I655) by Charles Richard Johnson A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF HHLOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN FRENCH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 197^ THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA. GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Charles Richard Johnson entitled Skepticism and Doctrine in the Works of Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Director Date life After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:- /f 7¥~ 7Lr. 2. Axe.3. W' 111 r 1'' i««- s If TV is This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has "been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to bor­ rowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable vithout special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or re­ production of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College •when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the in­ terests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: PREFACE The subject for this study was chosen because I wanted to move from a fascination with a colorful and remarkable man to an understand­ ing of the workings of his mind as he encountered problems in his environ­ ment. I saw it also as a means to a better understanding of the essential issues in a pivotal period of French thought and letters, and to a new ap­ preciation of previously neglected or misunderstood but worthy works of literature. As the study progressed, I gained from it another value, for the problem Cyrano de Bergerac grappled with most, the problem of knowledge (what he could be and do and know, and how he could know this), is a universal problem; each person must face and resolve the skeptical crisis. I found that studying Cyrano helped me better understand the search for knowledge, assurance, and belief, in our time. It is my hope that others who see this dissertation may gain similar benefits from this study of a man and his mind dialoguing with his milieu. X wish to express acknowledgment and thanks to Professors Alphonse V. Roche and Karl Sandberg, from whom I first caught an enthusiasm for seventeenth-century French literature; to Professor Sandberg, the original director of this dissertation, for his help in the choice and development of the subject, for the many conferences we had during the research, for insights and appreciations gained from him during this dialogue, for his first reading of the rough draft and the many suggestions he offered for its improvement, and most of all for his constant encouragement to iii iv continue work on it; to Professor Roche and Professor Loyal Gryting for their reading of the manuscript and their careful correction of many errors due to my haste or ignorance, and especially for their personal concern and for the additional effort my writing in absentia has caused them; to the other members of the faculty of The University of Arizona, to Professor Frank Chambers for valuable suggestions for developing the outline and bibliography, to Professor John Vignery, under whose guidance I first began getting an understanding of the period of French history in which Cyrano lived, and to Professor Boyd Shafer for his pertinent suggestions for revision; to my colleagues in the Department of French at Macalester College for their boundless good will, especially during the last weeks of writing; to Mary McCaskie, Aline Devaud, and Kathryn Brose for their valuable help in preparing the manuscript; and to Macal­ ester College for a Faculty Research Grant which helped defray the cost of research, writing, and travel. Finally I express special gratitude to my wife, Ava Dale, and to our children, for their understanding, patience, encouragement, and love, during periods of difficult work. IABIE OP CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vi I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. CYRANO'S SKEPTICISM AND DOCTRINE AS SEEN BY THE CRITICS .... 19 IH. CERTAINTY AND DOUBT IN CYRANO'S MILIEU: THE SKEPTICAL CRISIS, SKEPTICISM, AND THE SKEPTICAL MIND ... 36 IV. CERTAINTY AND DOUBT IN DIALECTIC IN CYRANO'S MILIEU: DOCTRINAIRE RESPONSES TO THE SKEPTICAL CRISIS 75 V. CYRANO MOVING IN HIS MILIEU: HIS MIND AND TEMPERAMENT .... lllf VI. CYRANO'S ENCOUNTER WITH SKEPTICISM: USING SKEPTICISM IN HIS WORKS lUO VII. CYRANO'S COUNTERATTACK FOR KNOWLEDGE: HIS RESOLUTION OP THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEM 169 VIII. CYRANO'S APPLICATION OP RADICAL RATIONAL EMPIRICISM IN NATURAL SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND THE SOCIAL REAIM 2lk IX. CONCLUSION 271 SEIECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 v ABSTRACT Cyrano de Bergerac has been an intriguing hut enigmatic figure, known as a romantic hero, a bizarre fantasist, a prophet of science, a free thinker, a moral libertine, or an original satirist. A neglected and key aspect of Cyrano is his theory of knowledge; hie search for certainty in a time when skepticism threatened doctrine. Although labeled a "skeptic" or "mitigated skeptic" by previous critics, Cyrano appears rather to be a doctrinaire person dialoguing and finally accommodating with skepticism. Cyrano moved in an environment teeming with contending doctri­ naire positions, e.g., dogmatic theologies (Thcmism, Calvinism, Jansen­ ism), Aristotelian philosophy and science, divine right absolutism, literary academism, Cartesian rationalism and physics, recently revived pagan philosophies of stoicism and Epicureanism, and the new science of helio-centrism and mechanistic materialism. Cyrano also encountered, in contest with these doctrines, various expressions of skepticism: e.g., the loss of the rule of faith in religion, ethical relativism resulting from the discovery of exotic cultures, and the convincing skeptical arguments of Sextus Empiricus. The conflict of these forces resulted in disruption of past stability, loss of criteria of truth and a skeptical crisis which every thinker had to encounter and resolve. Two typical minds or temperaments displayed by thinkers meeting the crisis were the doctrinaire mind, illustrated by traits characteristic of Lucretius, vi vii Father Garaase, Vanini, Hobbes, and Descartes, and the skeptical mind, illustrated by Montaigne, Dryden, and La Mothe le Vayer. Interacting with this milieu, Cyrano shows little of the skepti­ cal mind.