Partisan Poetry Op .»
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:;L PARTISAN POETRY OP .». •.+•»•« * * »»»••••»• •••»!*»•»»«''«+* t.4 *********** *•*••*•**"* DEPOSITED BY THE COMMITTEE ON (Brafcuate gtufcies. »»• » » »••• MHMM^ * \ mwoio * Ho. Ufinn si Kill Merit MONTREAL. Eeceived - PARTISAN POETRY OF ROUNDHEAD AND CAVALIER. » • • • Thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts at McGill University by JOHN T, MCNEILL. *• X Oavaliors up I lips fr©& tho cup, Hands fret: tho paster, nor bito tafco, nor aup ! Till ycu*ro !4arohin£ along, fifty. socre strong. Groat hearted sontlODen, singing this sonsi • • • • » King- Oharloa, and Trhc#ll do hir. right no'/1 ? Kins Char!00, -n-nd tfhofa ripo for fight net ? Give a routso ; horofs in Holl*s dc;:-i.to new, King Charles t (Robert Browning, "Oavalior Tunes?) Thoir hoads all stooping low, thoir reinto all in a row, tilt© a whirlwind on tho trees, lifco a dolus* ©n tho djrlcos. Our cuirassiors havo burst on tho ranks of tho Aesurot, And at a shoe*: havo soattorod tho fcrost of his pilros. • « • * And tho Irings of oarth In foar shall shuddor whon thoy hoar, $hat tho hand of God hath wcught for tho Bousos and tho Word. C2,B,Eaoaulay» *$ho Battlo of ttasoby.*) ~ 2 ~ Throughout the Elizabethan period, literature was the honoured occupation of the worthiest minds. Scaree any man thought of himself so seriously or of life so holily, as to sniff at the writer*s art. Poetry was felt to be true. Great poets spoke out in the Drama with a frank strength, - mirrored forth human nature with reality and ideality. "Look in thine heart and write", the keynote of those sonnets in which Sir Philip Sidney gives expression to his ideal passion, might have been Marlowe's motto, or S&akspere1s, or Ben Jonson's. Despite isolated detractors like Gossen, poetry was never in danger of being discountenanced by the intelligent Elizabethan ; it could claim the attention of all sane and able men, and the devotion of the highest genius. It is not too much to say that with the new interest in Theology connected with the Puritan Movement, poetic literature was contemptuously handed over to less serious and masterly minds. If the age of Charles I had geniuses, they were apt to think themselves under obligation to theology first and to literature only afterwards, if at all. The comparatively feeble thought of recognized "wits" like Carew and Suckling, is no true standard by which to guage the height of intellectual attainment or.of imaginative reach in their age. Truer poets like Sir Thomas Browne penned their inspiration in prose. The work of Milton stands supreme and apart, a ~ 3 ~ magnificent survival of the "spacious times" of Elizabeth. That full treatment of life and richness and exuberance of fancy which are the glory of the Elizabethans^had passed out of poetry, leaving it, as Prof. Dowden says "but the decorative fringe of contemporaneous thought, of which the warp and woof are in serious theological and political writings." The poet, little appreciated by the puritan, was at no pains to laud puritan morals, and frequently made his appeal to an effeminate and depraved moral sense. He failed to see and to treat the whole of life. Thus poetry suffered during the middle half of the 17th. century by the alienation from it of a powerful sect, embracing some of the ablest men. When Davenant succeeded Ben Jonson as Poet Laureate in 1637, the glory had already departed. Ajschool of Theological Wit, represented by men like Quarles or Crashaw, had separated itself from the Court School, of which the most conspicuous members were Carew, Suckling and Habington. #Herrick, greater poet than any of these, is as nearly related to one school as to the other. Davenant, Cleveland and Lovelace were to flourish ^^^*m^~mmm*m*^m*mmm~"*~*mm^"^m**^*****^"~*»mrmi»*m i «••!•[*•« # Courthope places Herrick with the Court School. He is of Ben Jonson's group, but took holy orders. His work combines the polite lyrical with the didactic and speculative types. - 4 «• later as Qayalior Poets. George Wither bad already abandoned tho catholicity of his oarly pastoral work, and announced himoolf the scourge of abuses. She one star cf firzt magnitude in tho firmament -./as scarcely yet discornablo : it was in ifovagbor of tho year conticnod-that t?i3ton, already if* At of both universities, and anther cf *!>'falogro%fIl Ponsoroso* and •Cocms*, composed ll*y«idasl. Donhais had not yot written*Coopers Hill*. Cowley was a rhyming freshman at Cambridge. Joseph ilall, tho satirist, and Phinoao Blotchor the aoralist, -/ore weakly following tho Icmd of Sponsor. John Donne (d.1631) had loft a strong influence in tho direction of obscurity and ingenuity. As theological parties diverged, ardent partisans wrote and published extensively tho apoiogiao of their respective causes. Tho commonest fore of thoso mostly ephemeral productions, boeaitaaftho neat convincing and direct* was tho pamphlet. Xt was tho weapon of tho political controversialist also, when tho civil strife had begun* She T-amp-blot ascended in dignity and inf"uonco. There is a groat advance free tho amorphous and scurrilous pieces of tho Martin Marprolato 3ories (e*X5$0) to tho exhaustive arguments of Bishop Hall against •Smoctymnuus1 (1641)• The panphlotoor ia§ in tho latter case, tho ncuthpiooo of an organised party, and his vcioo is hoard over tho nation. Most of theso - 5 ~ productions were yet, however, quite unliterary, purely and narrowly controversial. It remained for Milton to elevate the pamphlet to literature. The single example of the "Areopagitica" is sufficient to illustrate this. The author gives to it an imaginative setting and makes of it a finished prose composition in the form of a highly wrought speech before Parliament. The poetry which forms our material of discussion is in many reppects the verse-parallel of this varied pamphlet literature. For the most part it depended for its primary interest on its nearness to the struggle, rather than upon any artistic excellence. A few great names, - one among the greatest - have contributed to the genre, and their potent genius may touch to life for us the dry bones of events. Many of the pieces rise out of the commonplace and matter-of- fact to an elevated or passionate strain ; many of them display liveliness of imagination and brilliancy of satirical wit. Others interest the student of literature mainly for the illustrations they contain of the literary fashions of the time, or the light they shed upon the development of English poetry. In order to define the subject, it is expedient here to notice certain materials that are to be excluded. There is of course, much lyric and some descriptive verse of the period - 6 - with which we have no direct concern. Nor have we anything to do with the Drama : its treatment at the hands of the puritans, and its attitude towards them in Restoration times, form a different chapter in the literature of the 17th. century. We have to exclude too not only all purely theological poetry, but a great amount of serious, non-theological work wherein may be traced the influence of puritan and democratic, or of Royalist and aristocratic ideas and principles, but which aims neither to forward a party cause nor to express party sentiment. There is left for our attention a quantity of verse widely varied in form and value, produced during a period that begins with the open opposition of King and Commons, and ends only after the Restoration;when the voices of the old quarrel were lost in the noise of new political issues. The authors, though they include a number who are members of one or other of the schools just mentioned, were for the most part individualistic in their treatment of party subjects. Poets no longer foregathered for literary converse ; they did not recognize, or fall under the influence of, any great contempor ary master. While not strikingly original, their work is individualistic. In view of the nature of the numerous pieces to be dealt with here, the only true division from the standpoint of authorship would be the nossf literary separation of one party from the other; and even this would be illogical m 7 «* fror, tho fafet that scfse wore net fixod in their political allegiances £he division to which-w© are iod icj ono based en tho political or iitfrary relationships of writers, but on the ©ooa m wjiion tno poets sots before #s sorio phafljo or the struggle. the sirs will be not primarily to trace tho events of tho period in versef but rather to illustrate tho expression which pootry gav© to tho wrath and gloom, the loyalty and aspiration, tho irony and tho pathos that wrought in th® hearts of isen in tho throes of that strife. £h# following condensed outline trill servo to indioato the nature and or&or of the treatment. I. pmvmmM fsiiss, HfflUIW •• Apologetic and hortatory pieces* written to vindicate tho attitude of tho writer or to arouso to action. fhis class has a wido rango and includes such lofty exhortation-as Milton*a sonnet to ffairfax, with tho prophooyinga of Wither and tho roistoring lyrics of Alexander Bro&o. **• jjfljBBR ,M£MQM$h with a rotrospeotivo oloiaont, on tho&os of rojoioing or coning ovor proooding ovents, or criticism of th® tisjost divisible into : <P» Q 4M» !• PQ.RgflK A3 EP35R. Wl»l«iill»>il«MTWlWiTwilllW g» i«r l.|i M».iWl WiHf III toolsed at fror. the standpoint of jtaediato popularity, probably nb verso of this hortatory class ranks higher than that of Alexander BroDO (1600-1666). Brow interspersed MB •MMIMMMIMI»W«MI*<MMIM|n«IHMW. tasks as an attorney with tho composition of stirring lyrics of drink and loyalty, that were universally popular with tho caveliors.