72-15,217 HAIGHT, Richard Paul, 1934- POPE'S DUNCIAD AND BLAKE'S JERUSALEM: AN EPIC EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DIALOGUE. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1972 Richard Paul Haight ALL RIGKTS RESERVED POPS'S DUIICIAD Aim BL/UCS'S JEP.USALSI: AN EPIC EEGKTSaiTH CZnrPUBY DIALOGUE. A Dissertation Aresented in Partial Fulfilljzent of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy. ty Richsrd P. Haight, B, A., M, A,, The Ohio State University. 1971 Approved ad^ Departnofôi of English PLEASE NOTE; Some pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company VITA June 15f 1934 ...... Bom - Cindnnatus, New York 1959 ..................... B. A. , Radio and TV Speech, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1962-1970 ................. Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University 1965 ..................... M. A. , English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1970-I97 I ................. Instructor, Department of English, Southern Ilethodist University, Dallas, Texas 1971 — ................... Assistant Professor, Department of English, Southern Ilethodist University, Dallas, Texas -li- ABBREVIATIONS USED IW TEXT: PF'/B David V, Erdman (ed.)* The Poetry and Prose of UiHlan Blake. Unless othertd.se noted, all quotations from Blake are taken from this edition. In quoting from Jerusalem I prefer to note the Chapter in Roman numerals, foUovred by the plate number and the lines, as follows: (J.II.30:2-14). K Geoffrey Keynes (ed.). The Complete Writin/;s oCWilliam Blake. Some of Blake's writings, not available in PHZB are necessarily quoted from Keyne's edition. TE Twickenham Edition of the poems of Alexander Pope (John Butts, gen'l ed.), Vol V. All quotations from the Dunciad are taken from this edition, and unless otherwise noted are from the "B" (1743) version of the poem. When quoting from the prose apparatus of the poem or from footnotes I will note the page number: (TE, p. 314) or (TE, p. 2?ln). —iii— TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VITA................. m n ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT INTRODUCTION............ 1 Chapter I ............. ..... 7 II .......... ........ 36 I l l ................... 63 IV .................. 108 V, CONCLUSION ...... 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ 218 POPE'S DKirClAD Aim BIAKE'S JERUSALH3I; AN EPIC EIGHTEENTH CENTUKT DIALOGUE. INTRODUCTION Exajuined together, the Dunciad and Jerusalem contain a pervasive pattern of thematic and structural complementarities and antagonisms. It is not just that the two poems express opposite points of view; they define each other dialectically. Whatever is up in one is down in the other. Whatever is black in one is idiite in the other. V/hat- ever is positively valued in one is negatively valued in the other. Or to cite more specific examples of the process, vAiile "shame" operates in the Dunciad as a force for moral health, it is everywhere in Jerusalem roundly and particularly damned as a force for moral depravity. Enclosed space is abhorrent in the world of Jerusalem. but prized in that of the Dunciad. The female deities central to the two poems, Dulness and Jerusalem, are type and anti-type, presences, respectively, which becloud or enlighten the minds of men. Structurally, the Dunciad moves from light to dark, tov/ard the "victory"— "Universal Darkness"— of Dulness; Jerusalem moves from dark to light, tovrord the "victory"— "Eternal Day"— of Jerusalem. These examples are merely -1- 2 suggestive of the extent of the dialectic to be found in the two poena. There is a pervasive pattern of thematic and structural coiq)le- mentarities and antagonisms in the tivo poems because Pope and Blake give expression to the rival halves of an image-bound ideological squabble \diieh v/as current in English life for a period of time spann­ ing both their lives; they vrere moving along the well-vrom ruts of a long parallel track. This track had its beginning during the Puritan Revolution, though in fact one could trace it back much farther. But the fratricidal horrors of the Interregnum izqwinted the terms of the squabble forcefully and unforgettablj’- on the minds and hearts of eighteenth-century Englishmen. The squabble vrcis given structure by two sets of opposed images. One set had an international cast and was built around the supposed differences between Romans and Goths. The other set had a more parochial, Sn&Lish cast and iras built around the supposed differences betvreen Ilormans and Anglo-Saxons. Both seta, needless to say, t/ere based upon faulty, and largely fanciful, versions of history. According to the imagery of the Ronans-Goths set, and depending upon point of viei-r, either Rone had once been the pinnacle of all that civilization and civilized learning night be until it was destroyed by barbarians and the iriiole world lounged thereby into a "Dark Age, " or the Goths had tivice ransomed mankind— Luther*s Refor^ nation was the second occasion— from the cruel and depraved oppression of Ronan despots and priests. According to the imagery of the IToimans- An^n-Saxons set, and again depending upon point of virn-f, either the Nomans had brought civilized order to a barbaric land, or a hardy, freedom-loving, egalitarian race had been temporarily brought under the crafty heel of Noman kings,and priests and their henchmen, temporarily. 3 until "the Ifoiman Yoke" could be thrown off. Englishnen vrfio lived between 16$0 and 1800 tended to accept the a elf-definition and de­ finition of "others" offered by these rival image sets. Their adoption of these image-sets vra.s as inexact and sloppy as, say, the adoption by Americans of some version of the frontiersman-city slicker image set. Pope and Blake, hoifsver, vrere not at all inexact or sloppy in their ivorking out of the terms of rival "inage tracks"; Pope's Augustanian and Blake's "Evangelical Republicanism"^ are beliefs and habits of mind very much in the tradition of the Ronan-IIorman v. Gothic- Anglo-Saxon image rivalry of the seventeenth and ei^teenth centuries. For a variety of reasons the Gothic-Anglo-Saxon half of this rivalry is somewhat slighted in literary criticism; it is all-too-casually accepted that the oj^slte of Augustanism is barbarian!am, but that is to take Pope's word for it. On the other hand, the Grothicism- Anglo-Saxonism v/ith idiich I am identif^/ing Blake is not quite the same thing as GotMcism of the sensationalist, sentimental and ^oulish literary fashion of the latter half of the eighteenth century. Having identified Pope and Blake ivith rival image traditions, it is necessary to add immediately and emphatically that neither poet presents his version of his tradition in simplistic or undisplaced form. Pope's Augustanism is strongly influenced by traditions of "retirement literature" and Renaissance biblical commentary as well as by his personal experience and his experience of the fate of the Tories during Walpole's regime.^ Blake's Evangelical Republicanism is influenced by some modish religious esoterics of his day, by the century of unremitting vilification of the "factionalism" irfiich English­ 4 men were taught to associate with "leveller" ideas^ and by the fate of English Jacobinism during and after the French Revolution.^ Further­ more^ Blake was of the meet radical stream of the GothicmAnglo-Sazon tradition. Heedless to say, the imys in viiich both poets modify and depart from their traditions are important and must be considered if over-simplification is to be avoided. Too, as a vrorking principle, it would be ^feU to assume that neither poet has a lock on all wisdom, truth, and morality. In order to develop, clarify, and defend the arguments I have begun above I propose first of all to survey, in Chapter One, the relevant critical scholarship, scholarship vriiich has inspired, facilitated, and, in some cases, anticipated this study. In Chapter Two I will examine the Dunciad and Jerusalem in relationship to the poetic careers of the two authors. It seems obvious that the differing personal experiences of Pope and Blake pitched each poet headlong into a rival camp of the "image vrar" I outlined above. This seems so obvious that I i/ill not be primarily concerned iiriLth it in Chapter Two. Rather, I w n t to demonstrate the large number of coincidences in the relationships of the poems to the careers of the tivo poets. In Chapter Three I will more specifically and more fully outline the terms of the traditions to vAich I believe the two poems owe allegiance. And since each poem, as I will show, treats a number of similar themes— the growth of the class-consciousness of the masses, the popular press, the ideas and ideals of the Enlightenment— I will try to trace the interrelationships among such themes and the tim traditions of 5 imagery. Chapter Four will be devoted to a dialectical analysis of the two poeos. I consider this analysis to be the most inqsortant work under­ taken hei's, for even if the poems owed nothing to rival traditions, they wt>tild display complete, sophisticated, and complex imaginative "systems' Tthich happen to be dialectical opposites. I an impressed by the fact that both poems do present such "systems," and for myself this illus­ trates the truth of the notion that even the most complex, sophisti­ cated, cosmic, and satisfying system of "energy and order" is at best an imperfect glass through which we can see darkly and against which a Pope or a Blake can pit an equally complex, sophisticated, cosmic, and satis­ fying alternative, against vAiich numerous other poets, prophets, scien­ tists, and shamans can pit many other true and bevrltching alternatives. There is something about the "modem world" which indicates to me that the attempt to come simultaneously to terms with rival "systems," such as those of Pope and Blake, is not only a challenge, but an imperative.