John Wesley Phd Thesis
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MULCASTER'S BOYS : SPENSER, ANDREWES, KYD John Wesley A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2008 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/602 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Mulcaster’s Boys: Spenser, Andrewes, Kyd By JOHN WESLEY Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy SCHOOL OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS 2008 Abstract Although it is generally acknowledged that an Elizabethan grammar school education was intensely oral and aural, few studies have approached the literature of its pupils principally in light of such an understanding. There may be good reason for this paucity, since the reading of textual remains in the hopes of reconstituting sound and movement—particularly in non-dramatic literature—will always, in the end, be confronted by an inaudible and static text. Yet for the Elizabethan schoolboy, composition and performance were inseparable, whether of an epistle, a theme, or a translation of Latin poetry. The purpose of this project is firstly to describe the conditions which led to and ingrained that inseparability, and then offer some readings of the poetry, oratory, and drama of those whose voices and pens were trained in the grammar school, here Merchant Taylors’ School in 1560s London. Edmund Spenser, Lancelot Andrewes, and Thomas Kyd all attended Merchant Taylors’ in this period, and their poetry, sermons, and drama, respectively, are treated in the following discussion. It is argued that their texts reflect the same preoccupation with pronuntiatio et actio, or rhetorical delivery, held by their boyhood schoolmaster, Richard Mulcaster. I suggest that delivery provides a unique way of assessing literature in the context of an oral/aural education, largely because its classical and Renaissance rules invariably stipulate that vocal and gestural modulations must follow the emotional and intentional sense of words rather than their literal meanings. Delivery is thus shown to exist at the nexus of orality and literacy, performance and text, wholly absorbed with the concerns of speech, but distinct from language as well. In imagining the physicality of this middle ground within their narratives, it is proposed that Mulcaster’s students recalled an education very often spent stirring the emotions with and for their bodily expression. Declarations I, John Wesley, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. date ……………….. signature of candidate …………………………… I was admitted as a research student in September, 2004, and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September, 2005; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2004 and 2008. date ……………….. signature of candidate …………………………… I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. date ……………….. signature of supervisor ………………………….. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Access to all of printed copy but embargo of all electronic publication of thesis for a period of 5 years on the following ground: publication would preclude future publication. date ……………….. signature of candidate …….……………………… signature of supervisor …………………………….. Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission as well as to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous funding of my doctoral research at St Andrews. C. S. Lewis, in a caveat offered prior to his discussion of Mulcaster’s influence on Spenser, said that ‘we of the teaching professions often exaggerate the influence of teachers’. As a student, then, let me acknowledge the influence of my teacher, Neil Rhodes, whose contribution to my overall postgraduate experience cannot be exaggerated. I have never left his company without feeling inspired to read and study more, and along with the knowledge and critical insight that gave form and substance to my inchoate thoughts, Professor Rhodes brought to his supervision of this project a sense of humility, respect, and generosity that I would do well to imitate in my future endeavours. I would not have pursued postgraduate study in the first place had it not been for the mentorship of P. G. Stanwood at the University of British Columbia, and in fact I continue to be indebted to him, especially for his remarks on earlier versions of chapters 2 and 3. The School of English at St Andrews is an extremely stimulating research environment, and my work has been nurtured by the wisdom of a great many of its faculty. Besides my supervisor, I am particularly grateful to Alex Davis, Lorna Hutson, and Chris Jones, each of whom, on several occasions, graciously lent their time and expertise to my cause. Fred Schurink at the University of Newcastle, and Peter McCullough at Oxford University have also supplied their breath to this text. In March 2007, the Folger Shakespeare Library funded my participation in a faculty seminar on rhetoric, discipline, and masculinity in the Elizabethan grammar school. Many of the conversations had there resonate throughout chapter 1, and for them I wish to thank especially Derek Alwes, Gina Bloom, Anston Bosman, Lynn Enterline, Elizabeth Hanson, Lynne Magnusson, Lois Potter, Lawrence Rhu, James Siemon, and Alan Stewart. My greatest debt, however, is owed to my wife, Kate, whose many sacrifices made in support of my studies were never offered at the expense of cheerful and steadfast encouragement. Contents Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 I Richard Mulcaster 13 1. Elements 14 2. Pronuntiatio et Actio 45 3. The Class Theatre 61 4. ‘Munkester’s Boyes’ 70 5. Acting and Oratory 75 6. Summary 82 II Edmund Spenser 85 1. Athletics and Rhetoric 85 2. The Wrestler 88 3. The Gymnasium 94 4. The Rhetor-Wrestler 99 5. Chirosophus 105 6. Mulcaster’s Apprentice 113 III Lancelot Andrewes 117 1. Actio, actio, actio… 117 2. The Art of Preaching 127 3. Moses ‘sub paedagogo’ 133 4. The Great Actor 139 5. ‘Bringeth home this our text…’ 148 IV Thomas Kyd 150 1. Endless Tragedy 150 2. Seneca the Youngest 165 3. Rhetoric and Paternity 178 4. Between the Voice and the Pen 183 Conclusion 186 Bibliography 189 Introduction Mulcaster’s Boys Of what use is an education in eloquence? Such is the question implicit throughout Galatea, a drama ‘playde before the Queenes Maiestie at Greene-wich, on Newyeeres day at Night’, 1592, by the boys of St Paul’s School. Like many other Elizabethan grammar schools, the curriculum at St Paul’s was largely given over to the development of language and communication skills, with eloquence as its chief end. But although this sort of training lent itself well to certain civil and ecclesiastical positions, its pupils might have been aware of the limited number of opportunities afforded them by their education in sectors beyond the already glutted Elizabethan church and civil service. Renaissance grammar schools were, according to Neil Rhodes, ‘producing increasing numbers of the unemployably eloquent’, with Richard Halpern calling these institutions ‘miracles of impracticality when judged as means of vocational training’.1 1 Neil Rhodes, Shakespeare and the Origins of English (Oxford, 2004), 46; Richard Halpern, The Poetics of Primitive Accumulation: English Renaissance Culture and the Genealogy of Capital (Ithaca, 1991), 24. One striking exception to these general observations occurs in William Scott’s seventeenth- century advice to cloth sellers: ‘For as speech makes a man more excellent than a Beast, so eloquence will make him more excellent than other men: but to this must be added a grave naturall action, wherein a man may see the visage, hands, and members of the man to speake with his mouthe; and thus perswading his Customer to the liking of his commodity, hee must put on the same liking himselfe; for putting on the same passion hee would stir up in others, he is most like to prevaile’ (An essay of drapery: or, The compleate citizen Trading iustly. Pleasingly. Profitably (London, 1635), E5r). This Introduction 2 Indeed, Lyly’s Galatea sets out the futility of education in terms suggestive of the very curriculum in which the boy players found themselves. When the Mariner, for example, teaches the language of navigation to his young charges, it is through the imitation of his voice, and it is met with the following response by Rafe: ‘I will never learn this language. It will get but small living, when it will scarce be learned till one be old’.2 Erasmian copiousness is intimated when the Alchemist’s apprentice moans that his is a ‘beggarly science…so strong on multiplication, that the end is to have neither gold, wit, nor honesty’ (II.iii.32-4). Later, after this same apprentice escapes his master’s charge, he asks only that God shield him in the future ‘from blowing gold to nothing, with a strong imagination to make nothing any thing’ (II.iii.144-5). And when the Astronomer promises that his pupils’ ‘thoughts shall be metamorphosed, and made haile fellowes with the Gods’, Rafe complains that his brain feels ‘moralized, and as it were a certaine contempt of earthly actions is crept into my minde, by an etheriall contemplation’ (III.iii.86-90). To their great relief and joy, the boys finally discover a vocation served by their meager skills when Venus invites them to ‘sing Hymen’ (V.iii.207) at the marriage of Galatea.