Reform Tkithin
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REFORM TKITHIN: A STUDY OF SATTRE AS INQUIRY IN THE PLAYS OF SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE by Paul Toner A thesis silbmiüed to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirernents for the degree of Master of Arts Depamnent of English Mernorial University of Newfoundand September 1998 St. John's National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bbliographic Services services bibiiographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 esnada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract The strength of the satire of Sir George Etherege lies in the introduction of a complex dramatic realism. In The Man of Mode one encounters the Restoration world, not heroic ideals: taverns and places known by name to the audience, and especially characters with a recognizable smell and sound. In adhering to this Ievel of realism, the play resists cooclusion. instead resolving to reflect the complexities of Me in an uncertain future. It is a realism that serves the ends of a particular kind of satire: the sa& as inquiry. Etherege's earlier works gave birth to his dramatic realism but thwarted it in artificial plot resolutions that denied the full exploration of the characters. In the first chapter of this thesis the traditional definitions of satire are explorai, for in exclusively valuing certain ngid and narrow elements, these definitons have failed to include the dramatic works of Etherege. The basis for understanding the satire of Etherege, which is seen here as abto the satire of Horace. is fomed from the criticism of Dustin Griffi. The paucity of commentary on Etherege's plays as satincal pieces necessitates the Frequent use of indirect sources. Standing on the shoulden of theorists from the 1960s who broke away fiom the majority, GrEin describes a satire he labels "sahas inqujr." In satire as inqujr, the absence of a fixed nom or standard against which the satinc thesis plays allows an exploration of a value or vice to go ahead without a predetermined end. This thesis proposes an expanded understanding of such satire, dependent on inversion, identification and moral attachent. In chapter two The Man of Mode, Etherege's best hown play. is studied withia the context of satire as inque. Etherege is seen to engage the reader through the .* lx borrowing of familiar forms and the in~uctioaof a powerful dramatic realism. The reader's false understandings are blasted, his expectations disupted, and his position in the text displaced. Left without a satiric antithesis. the reader is encouraged to look inside himself, and this self-examination leads to what this thesis WUterm "reform within." The greatest inversion is seen in the couphg of Dorimant and Mrs. Loveit as positive and negative characters respectively. The readcr's values are targeted. The sariric intent is blurred by the absence of a narrative voice, by the multiple characten, and by Etherege's masterful use of "play and display." The aims of the satire as inquiry are completely realized when The Man of Mode reaches play's end without a conventional conclusion. An examination of Etherege's own Me lends support to the claims of identifcaàon and mord attachent made in this chapter. While the emphasis is placed on the reader's response ro the text, evidence is also brought forward to establish the Restoration theatregoer's response to the play. In the third chapter. the beginnings of Etherege's dramatic realism and penchant for inconclusiveness are traced back to his poems and his Fint two plays. In these earlier works we confront some problems: we find that the real nature of certain characters is sacrificeci for contrived endings, the threat of femaie dominance is ~2ificial.l~thwarted to pmrve male power, and Etherege's Literary grace is show to be underdeveloped because of the substitution of physical and farcicd comedy for polished dialogue. iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people who have heiped make this thesis possible. 1 thank my supervisor. Dr. Ronald Rompkey. for his clear and consistent direction and for his patience as I sought to complete my mithg while working fuiI tirne. 1 also thank my employers at St Teresa's Parish for ailowing me to work part-tirne hours for a period of four months. To Dr. MaWilpuüe of Sr Francis Xavier University. who fkt encourageci my interest in the Restoration writen, especially Sir George Etherege. 1 also owe a ckbt. Frnally. to my wife Kathy. for her patience. support, encouragement and love, 1 shall be forever grateful. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from Etherege's three plays are taken hmThe Plavs of Sir George Etherene, edited by Michaei Cordner; Line numbers refer to this edition. AU quoutions from Etherege's poems are taken from The Poems of Sir Geor~eEthereee, edited by James Thorpe. AU quotations from Etherege's Ieüen are taken hmLetters of Sir George- Ethere~e~edited by FRdenck Bracher. Contents Contents .............................................................. iv Chapter One .Disguising the Satinc Intent ................................... 1 Chapter Two .Satire as Inquiry ............................................ 33 Chapter Three .The Beginnings of Dramatic Realism .......................... 76 Chapter Four .Conclusion ................................................ 1 13 Bibliography ......................................................... 117 Chaptcr One: Disguinng the Satiric Iment Sir George Etherege thw- expectatïom. He was an amiable wit of the Restoration court, a self-confessed fop whose perceived life pursuits were pleasure and folly. No one doubted his nanrral tala&tbe Iiterary ease which led him to proQice a modest collection of poems and three plays. tbe last of which proved to be enormoasly successful: The Man of Mode (1676). As a comedy of ma~ers,rhis final play wdd ensure Etherege's reputation as a rwpected minor dramatist and complement hir personal repulation as a "brilliantbutîerfiy, alighMg only upm such things as aüract him; a creature without much depth. but of an extraatdinary charm and a marveiiws [sic] surety of touch* @obrée, 58). The problern with this nPvrtiption, however. is that The Man of -Abiodeis not a comedy of mannes. It is a sa& of the kind which DUSMGriffin cab "satire as inquiry " (Griffin, 39). The powemil ciramatic realism that Etherege inaoduced to the stage with such chanicters as Sir Frederick Frollick. Lady Cockwood and Dorimant could easily be mistaken for the comedy of maaners because Etherege did bomw hmthat form. bar he then re-shaped it to his own purpose. Perhaps no one would have expecred Etherege to write satire because his Mestyle. so accuratdy porpayed in Arthur Huseboe's Sir George Ethere~e,provideci ample evidence that he couid be identified with the vices of his charactem. But in satire as inqiriry, the objecu satkiz& are not played against a nomi or or at the very least challenge& so that finther exploration is encourage& Today's reaQet is 2 engage-by Elhaege's work, as was the Restoration audience. but we shall see that the reader is left without a pcsition to occupy ami incapable of self-reflection. The satinc intent is bldby the playfd and poiished dialogue in Etherege's dramatic works, but his maseuse of inversion makes the reader's inner joumey an uncornfortable one. Ln his fidelity to the d,or more aptly, true nature of the characters he created, most My developed in The Man of Mode, Etberege let Iaxe a satire of his own making. Rimary consideration in this thesis will be given to the effect of Etherege's satue upon the reader, with concessions made to J. L. Styan's observation that the "general consensus was. however, that this smge materid leaped to life when it was perforMEDLEY. From the fust revivals was heard the cry that the plays were bemr to act than to read" (Styan, 244). While the te= &r and audience motbe used interchangeably. there is evidence that the Restoration piayhouse, the styles and repurations of actors and actresses, and the rnakeup and behaviour of the Restoration audiences strengthen rather than weaken the argument for an engage anached and vulnerable dr.Edward A. Langhans describes the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theam, noting a "playgoer sitting on the bench furthest hmthe stage would have been only about 45 feet hman actor standing at the footlights- Theatres with this kind of intimacy encourageci dramatists to &te plays in which the spoken word was of primary importance. ." (hnphans. 39). The text is of primary impomin this thesis, for the satire that Etherege lets lowe and which &es on a Meof its own draws ia ewrgy from the words themselves. It would be a wdwhile endeavour to stody in greaîer detail the 3 promptbooks of the plays to bring us closer to the achial Restoration theaaical experience. Furthemore, there continues to be a need for the "ieading version, always improving as historians. linguists, bibliographers, paimgraphers work closer to the play-ght's originai intention, a the acting version, always in a state of flux.