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The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of The Liberal Arts WRITING CONSCIENCE AND THE NATION IN THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION A Dissertation in English by Giuseppina Iacono Lobo ©2010 Giuseppina Iacono Lobo Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 ii The dissertation of Giuseppina Iacono Lobo was reviewed and approved* by the following: Laura Lunger Knoppers Professor of English Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Patrick Cheney Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature Linda Woodbridge Josephine Berry Weiss Chair in the Humanities Professor of English Clement Hawes Professor of English Anthony Gregg Roeber Professor of Early Modern History and Religious Studies Mark Morrisson Professor of English Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii Abstract In this dissertation, I examine uses of conscience meant to reform and re-envision the nation in English polemics, political philosophy, personal correspondence and literature during the English Revolution. Writings from this turbulent period are rife with the language of conscience. While recent scholars have recognized the significance of this prevalent language in early modern England, important gaps remain. After all, little attention has been paid to exactly how and why writers used the language of conscience so profusely in the midst of war and revolution. This thesis will demonstrate how the civil wars opened up a space in writing for politico-spiritual experimentation in which the language of conscience took on an unprecedented formative role, with conscience itself becoming an instrument for formulating and deploying radically new visions of the English nation. More specifically, I argue that during this period the use of conscience undergoes a dramatic change: it transitions from governing individual faith and behavior to political applications in revolutionary times. This study brings a new dimension to our understanding of the ideological fluidity between the self and the state during the middle of the seventeenth-century. In this way, focusing on conscience reintegrates the religious, political and social aspects of the English Revolution in a way never before considered, while also providing a new lens for evaluating issues of nationhood and national identity. This project examines the distinctive language of conscience used by five writers or groups of writers: Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, the Quakers, Lucy Hutchinson, and John Milton. In chapter one, on Eikon Basilike (1649), I discuss how the text’s authors iv used the King’s conscience as a means to maintain his subjects’ conscientious obedience even after the regicide. In chapter two, on Cromwell’s writings and speeches, I consider how Cromwell struggled to implement his program of liberty of conscience in England through his constitutional experiments of the 1650s. In chapter three, on early Quaker writing, I demonstrate how the Quakers attempted to affect national change by appealing directly to Cromwell’s conscience. In chapter four, on Lucy Hutchinson’s Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, I argue that Hutchinson revised her husband’s conscience so that he might become a republican hero, keeping alive the hope for a republican England. In chapter five, I investigate how John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) employs the idea of conscience during the Restoration to cast the restored nation as ungodly, and thus provoke dissent from his fellow nonconformists. Finally, in a brief epilogue, I discuss how Thomas Hobbes divests the individual conscience of its authority in favor of a “national conscience” in Leviathan (1651). This dissertation builds upon studies of early modern conscience, religion and nonconformity, writing of the English Revolution, and conceptions of the nation in the sixteenth and seventeenth-centuries. v Table of Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 Charles I, Eikon Basilike, and the Pulpit-Work of the King’s 29 Conscience 2 Oliver Cromwell, Liberty of Conscience, and the “door to usher-in 70 the things that God has promised” 3 Early Quaker Writing, Oliver Cromwell, and the Nationalization of 107 Conscience 4 Lucy Hutchinson’s Revisions of Conscience from the “Defense of John 151 Hutchinson” to the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson 5 Conscience and the “Paradise Within” in Paradise Lost 188 Epilogue 221 Works Cited 226 vi List of Figures 1 Frontispiece from Eikon Basilike at the University of Glasgow 49 vii Acknowledgements Without the generous funding of the Rock Ethics Institute and the College of the Liberal Arts, much of the archival research in this dissertation would not have been possible. Their assistance facilitated my visits to the Folger Shakespeare Library, the British Library, the Friends Library in London, the Nottinghamshire Archives, and the library at the University of Nottingham. I owe a special thanks to the Folger Institute for grants to support my travel to seminars in 2008-2009 and 2010, both of which were invaluable to the development and conceptualization of this thesis. For their interest in my research and their brilliant suggestions at various stages of this process, I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee. Linda Woodbridge showered me with kindness and support the moment I arrived at Penn State, and has continued to do so since. In my four seminars with Patrick Cheney, he taught me what graduate school was all about, as well as the merits of hard work and a clear argument. Many talks with Clement Hawes over coffee and email changed the way I thought and think about my project and future career. Gregg Roeber furthered my interest in conscience with his course on Augustine, and during many helpful office hours visits. Laura Knoppers has been an exemplary advisor and a model of scholarship throughout my graduate career. Generous with her time and feedback, Laura sharpened my focus, tamed my prose, and inspired my passion for the civil war period and its writers. Her lively sense of humor often allowed us to laugh over even the most dreadful of chapter drafts and seemingly impossible deadlines. I am eternally grateful for her guidance, her patience, and her confidence in me. viii I am indebted to Gregory Colón Semenza, my undergraduate advisor, for inspiring me to go to graduate school. Over the years, he has reminded me why I love this line of work, its rewards and challenges. He is still the best teacher I have ever had. I owe much to the many friends I have collected during my six years at Penn State. A few deserve special mention: Chad Schrock has inspired me with his charisma, wit, and spirit over the last four years. And, he delivers presentations like no other. Katharine Cleland helped me keep my sanity as we shared dissertation woes, gossip, and laughter. Ryan Hackenbracht is a phenomenal fisherman, and an even better friend. And, I would not have survived graduate school without Niamh O’Leary. She truly is the fourth sister I never had, and I am grateful for her friendship. I would also like to thank my family. My grandfather passed away unexpectedly on February 26, 2007. He wanted very badly to see me graduate; and though he is no longer with us, I can still feel his pride in my accomplishments. My grandmother, despite her severe dementia, still remembers to call me “professore,” a title she used long before I earned it. She was so proud that I, her namesake, fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher. My siblings and niece made visits home a welcome relief from the rigors of graduate school, and I will always cherish our time together. My father’s stories about the Italian professor who, because he was always thinking about his books, would leave his house in the morning still in his pajamas never cease to entertain me. I cannot thank him enough for working so hard with his hands so that his children could work with their minds. My mother is the most remarkable woman I know. Over the years, she has patiently put up with my nightly calls home, celebrated my successes, helped me learn from my failures, and always made me believe in myself. It is to her – the woman who ix taught me everything I know about “this deity in my bosom” – that I dedicate this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Julius. We met at Penn State’s orientation six years ago and have since experienced the ups and downs of academia together. Throughout the writing process, he never tired of engaging in conversations about conscience, even over dinner or long after our work for the day had ended. I credit him with my successes since without his emotional and intellectual support and constant companionship they would not have been possible. 1 Introduction Conscience and the Nation In 1622, Brilliana Conway, later Lady Brilliana Harley and a parliamentarian gentlewoman, recorded in her commonplace book her musings on conscience and obedience: God only by his word dos binde the consciense, by causeing it every action either to excuse or accuse for first God is the Lord of the consciens wich created it and governed it. 2 (Jam:4:12) is the only Lawgiuer that has power to saue to distroy the soul 3 (1 Cor 2:11) Mans consciens is knowe to none besides himself, but to God: no mans commandement or Law can of it self, and by it[s] owne soveraigne power binde the consciens but do it only by the authoritie and vertu of the rwitten word of God or some part thereof. ob: subiection is due to the maiestrat for consens sake: Rom 13:5 We must obaie them but not for consciens sake of the said authoritie or Lawes properly, but for consciences of Gods commandmenmts wich apointed both maiestrate and the autoritie thereof.
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