Wit in the Early Modern Literary Marketplace
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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 8-2014 Wit in the Early Modern Literary Marketplace Danny Childers University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Classics Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Childers, Danny, "Wit in the Early Modern Literary Marketplace" (2014). Dissertations. 283. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/283 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi WIT IN THE EARLY MODERN LITERARY MARKETPLACE by Danny Paul Childers Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2014 ABSTRACT WIT IN THE EARLY MODERN LITERARY MARKETPLACE by Danny Paul Childers August 2014 The concept of wit undergoes a transformation in the sixteenth century from having associations with the intellect, with its cultural productions, and with classical study towards more direct associations with the writing trade and with clever wordplay. This transition, as I will demonstrate, relates specifically to tensions between humanist culture and the early modern literary marketplace. This dissertation begins by examining the early sixteenth century humanists' concept of wit and goes on to examine the presentation of the concept by four late sixteenth century writers—John Lyly (1553- 1606), Thomas Nashe (1567-1601), Robert Greene (1560-1592), and William Shakespeare (1564-1616). I argue that each of these writers find themselves squarely at the crossroads of humanistic influence and marketplace demand and that their individual presentations of wit demonstrate the way each of them negotiates this territory. ii COPYRIGHT BY DANNY PAUL CHILDERS 2014 . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation director, Dr. Jameela Lares, for her patience and meticulous attention to detail. The greatest respect any writer can receive is demonstrated by someone who carefully reads every word, and I could ask for no better reader or advisor than Dr. Lares in that regard. I would also like to thank committee members Dr. Mark Dahlquist, Dr. Kay Harris, and Dr. Charles Sumner for their willingness to serve on my committee and all their good suggestions. Special thanks to Dr. Joseph Navitsky who stuck with me throughout this project and agreed to serve as a reader on my committee despite a very busy period of transition to another university. I would also like thank Dr. Graham Hales and Michael Howell for the countless hours of proofreading and advice while editing the many drafts that paved the way to this dissertation's completion. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I. TWO CONNOTATIONS OF WIT .............................................................1 Introduction Methodology Two Connotations of Wit Four Writers in the Marketplace of Wit II. HUMANIST WIT ......................................................................................28 Introduction Divine Wit Expanding Wit III. JOHN LYLY'S PRODIGAL WIT ..............................................................54 Introduction Rhetorical Wit Prodigal Wit IV. THOMAS NASHE'S BARGAINING WIT ...............................................88 Introduction Beggarly Wit Bargaining Wit Marketplace Wit V. GREENE'S ECONOMICAL WIT ...........................................................123 Introduction Aestheticized Wit Repentant Wit VI. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST'S INDIFFERENT WIT .................................160 Introduction Satirical Wit Continuous Wit Indifferent Wit iv VII. SUBSUMING WIT ..................................................................................187 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................190 v 1 CHAPTER I TWO CONNOTATIONS OF WIT Introduction Many of the concepts valued by intellectuals and academics seem to have little to no direct economic value for the general public. Questions such as "What value is this?" and "When will I ever use this in real life?" establish a familiar, almost universal refrain in classrooms throughout the United States. Conversely, intellectuals and academics frequently lament the lack of funding or lowered financial investments in the humanities and the arts. The tensions between the perceived cultural value of ideas by intellectuals and the immediate economic value of these ideas in the larger society define one of the central conflicts in modern intellectual life—especially for those attempting to make a living in fields directly related to the humanities. When it comes to discussions about the value and function of literature, the conflict can be traced back to the complex relationship between the values promoted by sixteenth-century humanists and the values perpetuated by the early literary marketplace and how each informed arguments about the nature and function of literature.1 I am using the phrase "literary marketplace" to denote the system of exchanges by which literary texts were bought and sold throughout England. In the early modern period these exchanges largely consisted of bookstalls mangaged by publishers or print houses such as those located in St. Paul's Churchyard in London, the most popular and the frequently referenced location for the buying and selling of books. However, I am also using the 1 While this study focuses primarily on prose fiction and poetry, many of the arguments I make could be applied to a much broader definition of literature. In fact, I would argue that the type of debates in the early modern period I am exploring are important not just to these categories, but to the formation of our entire conception of the nature and function of the humanities as a whole. 2 term as a metonym for the consumer demand and literary tastes that emerge out of this system similar to the way critics such as Arthur Marotti, Alexandra Halasz, and David J. Baker have frequently employed it. 2 In the early modern period, the concept of wit lies at the center of a conflict between humanist thought and marletplace values. Wit, for the early humanists, was a metonym for the intellect, its productions, and their social and cultural value. But the humanist concept of wit was itself disputed in the English literary marketplace of the late sixteenth century, where the term wit often came to be used as a marketing device associated with clever wordplay, sometimes even wordplay devoid of any real meaning. Charges of the abuse of wit became common and often involved both implicit and explicit arguments attacking individuals who were perceived to be writing texts for their own monetary benefit rather than for the improvement of the commonwealth. From this secondary usage we perhaps derive the term's use as a tepid compliment. Referring to something as witty often carries a connation akin to calling a barking puppy cute. Today the term often functions to distinguish mental playfulness from serious intellectual contemplation. In short, wit's bark is often bigger than its bite. The more weighty connotations of wit have all but disappeared from modern parlance, but the underlying tensions between humanist values and marketplace values have not. This study grows out of my desire to track the origins and developments of the humanist concept of literary value in the early modern period. It was this desire that first led me to examine the evolution of the concept of wit since the early humanist used the term wit to describe an individual capacity for classical study. Similarly, the term wits 2 For more on the particular conditions of the literary marketplace and its growth in early modern England see Baker 1-34. 3 was often used to describe intellectuals as a social group during this same period. Later the term came to define particular groups such as the university wits of the 1580s and 1590s and later the court wits of the late seventeenth century. But as I studied sixteenth- century writers' conception of wit, I gradually became aware of tensions that formed out of the term's usage. In particular, I was compelled to investigate the tensions behind these claims in fuller detail by Thomas Nashe's fictionalized complaints in Pierce Penniless, wherein the protagonist argues that he was unable to make a living writing while those of far less wit and those who abused wit were able to thrive. I believe an examination of this topic helps lead to a better understanding of not just the relationship between early humanist culture and the early literary marketplace, but also the relationship between humanism and capitalism in general. The tensions and the collusions between these two forces are still very much with us today and very much worth examining. The term wit undergoes significant transformation in the period in a way that betrays the tension between these forces. In attempting to identify the origins of a shifting point in the connotation