Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized online Chapter Title «Remarks Upon that Wonderful Chapter»: The Controversy on Luxury Between Mandeville and Dennis Copyright Year 2015 Copyright Holder Springer International Publishing Switzerland Corresponding Author Family Name Revolti Particle Given Name Matteo Suffix Organization Goethe Universität Address Frankfurt am Main, Germany Abstract In the debates triggered by the Fable of the bees, John Dennis was one of the earliest critics of Bernard Mandeville. In the essay Vice and luxury Dennis attacked Mandeville’s text, paying much attention to the economic system elaborated by the Dutch author. Specifically, the English writer denied the beneficial effects generated by luxury in enriching society and increasing the wealth of the nation. According to Dennis, this perverse model was responsible of the corruption of English society and was related to slumps such as the South Sea Bubble. In this perspective, Dennis appealed to Machiavelli’s civic humanism as the main bulwark against the Fable. In particular, he considered liberty and moral virtues as the main defense of civil society. From this point of view, the controversy between Dennis and Mandeville assumed a political meaning by stressing the clash between the values of the ancient constitution and the new economic model promoted by the Fable. Keywords Luxury - Corruption - Machiavelli - Civic humanism - Public (separated by “-”) spirit - Foreign customs - Liberty - Mercantilism - Laissez-faire Chapter 11 1 «Remarks Upon that Wonderful Chapter»: The 2 Controversy on Luxury Between Mandeville 3 and Dennis 4 Matteo Revolti 5 Abstract In the debates triggered by the Fable of the bees, John Dennis was 6 one of the earliest critics of Bernard Mandeville. In the essay Vice and luxury 7 Dennis attacked Mandeville’s text, paying much attention to the economic system 8 elaborated by the Dutch author. Specifically, the English writer denied the beneficial 9 effects generated by luxury in enriching society and increasing the wealth of the 10 nation. According to Dennis, this perverse model was responsible of the corruption 11 of English society and was related to slumps such as the South Sea Bubble. In this 12 perspective, Dennis appealed to Machiavelli’s civic humanism as the main bulwark 13 against the Fable. In particular, he considered liberty and moral virtues as the main 14 defense of civil society. From this point of view, the controversy between Dennis and 15 Mandeville assumed a political meaning by stressing the clash between the values 16 of the ancient constitution and the new economic model promoted by the Fable. 17 Keywords Luxury • Corruption • Machiavelli • Civic humanism • Public 18 spirit • Foreign customs • Liberty • Mercantilism • Laissez-faire 19 11.1 Introduction 20 On 9 April, 1724 the Daily Journal advertised a book entitled Vice and luxury public 21 mischiefs: or, remarks on a book intituled, The fable of the bees. The book’s author 22 was 66 year old John Dennis, an English critic, who in those years was engaged 23 in a literary controversy with Alexander Pope (Hooker 1943: xxvi–xxx.). In the 24 124 pages of Vice and luxury, Dennis proposed to criticize some arguments of 25 the Fable, focusing his attention on its “Remark L”, where Mandeville defended 26 theUNCORRECTED presence of luxury in England, and praised its beneficial PROOF effects for society. In 27 particular, the Dutch physician was of the opinion that the presence of foreign luxury 28 did not diminish the wealth of the British nation. From Dennis’s point of view 29 Mandeville’s remark was a symptom of England’s corruption. Dennis ironically 30 M. Revolti () AQ1 Goethe Universität , Frankfurt am Main, Germany AQ2 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 E. Balsemão Pires, J. Braga (eds.), Bernard de Mandeville’s Tropology of Paradoxes, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 40, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-19381-6_11 M. Revolti referred to Remark L as «that wonderful chapter» (1724: 51), mentioning that the 31 dispute on luxury was at the origin of his essay against the Fable. 32 Within the British public debate caused by Mandeville’s Fable, though, Dennis’s 33 critic Vice and luxury was not a great success.1 Kaye, in his classical edition of 34 the Fable, described Dennis as «an extreme rationalist author» (1924: 407–409) 35 and accused him of misunderstanding Mandeville’s text. Nevertheless, Dennis’s 36 contribution to the topic of luxury in the Fable is important for several reasons. 37 First, the topos of luxury is strongly anchored within Dennis’s literary production. 38 Second, Dennis was the first critic of Mandeville interested in this topic. As Martin 39 Stafford remarked (1997: 139), his work came out within months of the early attacks 40 against the Fable by Law and Fiddes.2 Unlike these authors, Dennis’s criticism 41 did not only concern itself with the moral aspects of the Fable, but also with the 42 problem of luxury exposed in Mandeville’s text. Moreover his book against the 43 Fable symbolized the clash between the values of the ancient constitution and the 44 new social model promoted by Mandeville. 45 In this contribution I intend to clarify the controversy between Dennis and 46 Mandeville, analyzing first of all Dennis’s literary and political background. As 47 we shall see, those elements are important to understanding his polemic against the 48 Fable. Later on I want to pay attention to his response to the Fable by explicating 49 the arguments and the cultural tradition to which Dennis referred. 50 11.2 Sir Tremendous: Dennis Between Literature 51 and Politics 52 Born in London into a saddler’s family in 1657, Dennis attended Caius College 53 in Cambridge and received his Master of Arts in 1683 at Trinity Hall.3 After his 54 degree he began to spend some time in the Will’s Coffee-house. Situated at the 55 crossing of Russell and Bow Streets, this coffee-house was the principal meeting 56 point for many poets and literati. Here he met the famous dramatist John Dryden, 57 who was to become his patron later on. Dennis was soon known in literary circles 58 for his ferocious reviews against contemporary authors such as Blackmore and 59 Steele.4 Mandeville himself in his Letter to Dion described him as «a noted Critick, 60 who seems to hate all Books that sell, and no other, has, in his Anger at that 61 UNCORRECTED PROOF 1This is also evidenced by the absence of a second edition of Vice and luxury. 2As reported the Monthly catalogue for the year 1724, Law’s Remarks were published in January, whereas Fiddes’s Treatise in February. 3For an account on Dennis’s life, see The life of Mr. John Dennis 1734;Paul1911;Lenz1913; Tupper 1938: 211–217; Hooker 1943: vii–cxliii. 4On the controversy between Dennis and Blackmore see Dennis 1696. On Dennis’s relationship with Steele see Hooker 1943: xxxi–xxxiv. 11 «Remarks Upon that Wonderful Chapter»: The Controversy on Luxury... Circumstance, pronounced against the Fable of the Bees in this Manner: it is a 62 wretched Rhapsody; the Wit of it is low; the Humour of it contemptibly low, and the 63 Language often barbarous» (1732: 46). 64 In his literary works Dennis showed himself to be a supporter of the protestant 65 succession. At the death of William III he wrote an epitaph where the defunct 66 sovereign was called the best and greatest of kings (Dennis 1702). According 67 to Dennis the Glorious Revolution restored the values of the ancient constitution 68 repressed by the Stuarts and established the vigour of Christianity in England 69 once again. Politically Dennis was a supporter of the Whig party. This political 70 involvement is especially apparent in his tragedy Liberty asserted presented in 71 London in 1704, where he applauded the Whigs as «one who is for the Present 72 Establishment, and the Protestant Succession [ :::]» (Dennis 1704: a1). In addition 73 his political sympathy is proved by Dennis’s friendship with some important 74 members of Whig circles like Charles Montagu, William Cavendish and the Duke of 75 Marlborough. Thanks to those friendships Dennis was engaged not only in literary 76 works but also received official appointments. In 1701 the Duke of Marlborough 77 procured him the place of one of the Queen’s Waiters in the Custom-house. During 78 that time Dennis published an essay entitled A Proposal for putting a speedy end 79 to the war that concerned the conflict between England and France. In the essay 80 he proposed boycotting French maritime commerce and strengthening the power of 81 the English fleet in international waters (Dennis 1703). He advanced the idea that 82 English merchants could have the monopoly of the market, financing the English 83 fleet against their foreign competitors. Particularly in the Proposal Dennis presented 84 a plan concerning the English independence from foreign customs and commerce. 85 During the years of the debate on the Fable, the old critic was losing his ancient 86 prestige. His financial resources became insufficient: he was accused of bankrupt 87 and he was forced to sell his title of Queen’s waiter (Paul 1911: 58). In addition 88 Dennis stood more and more in opposition to the literary establishment and entered 89 a controversy with Alexander Pope. Pope and other members of the Scriblerian Club 90 described him as a lunatic writer, calling Dennis «Sir Tremendous or the greatest 91 critic of our Age» (Gay 1717: 18). Dennis responded by claiming that Pope and 92 the Scriblerian Club represented the lowest level of English literature. Dennis’s 93 isolation from his literary environment was manifested in his works, where he 94 made up analogies between the ancient Roman world to the present-day situation in 95 England.