Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1967 Metaphorical Imagery in the Prose Works of Sir Thomas Browne. Pinkie Gordon Lane Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Lane, Pinkie Gordon, "Metaphorical Imagery in the Prose Works of Sir Thomas Browne." (1967). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1346. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1346 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 67-17,329 LANE, Pinkie Gordon, 1923- METAPHORICAL IMAGERY IN THE PROSE WORKS OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1967 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan PINKIE GORDON LANE 1968 All Rights Reserved METAPHORICAL IMAGERY IN THE PROSE WORKS OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Pinkie Gordon Lane B .A ., Spelman C o lleg e, 1949 M.A., Atlanta University, 1956 A ugust, 1967 i i ACKNOWLEDGMENT I should lik e to thank the members of my committee, Drs. William J. Olive, Lawrence A. Sasek, and John H. Wildman, for helpful guidance in the preparation of this dissertation. Special thanks are extended to my major advisor, Dr. Esmond L. M arilla, whose scholarly advice and kindly patience have been of inestimable worth in enabling me to realize this study in its initial stages and in its final form. And, finally, my appreciation goes to the typist, Mrs. Edith Radusch, who, having received the manuscript at the last moment, applied herself diligently in order that it might meet the deadline. ill PREFACE The study of imagery has, in recen t y ears, become an area of interest which has served to add another dimension to the analysis of an author's style. The purposes and aims of such studies have varied, ranging from biographical and psychological interests to analyses focusing on structural and functional values of such usage.^ But all of such studies have displayed a recognition of the fact that this kind of investigation has merit in throwing new light on the understand­ ing of an author's total artistic achievement. To my knowledge, no comprehensive study of Sir Thomas Browne's imagery has been made, though many have touched upon it in an incidental and cursory fashion. This fact has been the motivation in my choice of study. The following pages do not so much endeavor to classify the various uses to which Browne's metaphorical imagery may be put, as it does to analyze and interpret such images as they relate to the major and underlying themes in his works. Particular interest has been focused upon the functions of the images, as well as upon their general nature. As a rule, I have employed the method of grouping them by first listing what I found to be underlying themes in the various works and then sort­ ing out those images which are used by Browne to support these themes. The chief value, then, of this kind of study resides as much in the discussion of particular works as in any conclusions that may have been reached. ■*-See below, pp. 53-63• iv Because of the multi-dlmensional nature of imagery itself, and because the detecting of imagery depends so much on the perceptiveness of the individual making the study, I believe that no two readers of a given work w ill fin d the same number of images o r w ill p lace the same value upon those discovered. Many of the subtler images may escape notice. Also, because metaphor which has reached the fossil stage, the faded image, no longer strikes us as metaphorical, may even be regarded as literal, any attempt to include a study of such images would be in­ advisable. This study, then, makes no attempt to cipher out such metaphors, but concentrates on those which are still "alive" and full of vitality, and thus are still within the scope of the rhetorician rather than the grammarian or etymologist. In general, the above description gives the gist of the main body of this study, found in chapters three to five, in which analyses of the following works occur: Religio Medici; A Letter to a Friend; Hydriotaphia, or Urne-B uriall; The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunx; and Christian Morals. These are generally considered to be his purely literary works, best demonstrating his "poetic prose" style. Chapters One and Two serve to present valuable background material. The first chapter consists of an extended analysis of terms, careful distinctions being made between "imagery" and "metaphorical imagery." In this discussion I have pre­ sented a survey of a wide assortment of critical opinions and scholarly judgments on the subject. Chapter Two places Browne within his own chronological and intellectual milieu, reviewing the seventeenth century V from the point of view of its attitude towards the use of metaphorical imagery in written discourse. Since I have made no attempt to catalogue Browne's imagery, no such mathematical tabulation appears anywhere in this study. I collected my data for each work individually and organized such data in the manner that seemed most apropos for the work under consideration. From this material my discussion grew organically, with my endeavoring at all times to relate the images to each other and to the internal and overall structure of the work itself. Such, then, has been the purpose, aim, and method of my treatment of metaphorical imagery in the prose works o f S ir Thomas Browne. v i CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..................................................................................................... i i PREFACE......................................................................................................................... i i i ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... v i i CHAPTER I: IMAGERY .................................. 1 I I : THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.......................................................... 66 I I I : IMAGERY IN RELIGIO MEDICI...................................................... 109 IV: IMAGERY IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND: HYDRIOTAPHIA, o r URNE-BURIALL; and THE GARDEN OF CYRUS, or THE QUINCUNX...................................................................................... 166 V: IMAGERY IN CHRISTIAN MORALS................................................. 224 CONCLUSION....................................................................................'......................... 272 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................ 277 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 284 VITA .................................................................................................................................... 290 v i i ABSTRACT Sir Thomas Browne may be regarded as an outstanding prose stylist of the seventeenth century. One important aspect of his style resides in his use of metaphorical imagery; that is, imagery which is used in a figurative or non-literal sense. A definition of "imagery" may perhaps best be approached through a survey of critical judgment on the subject. For the purposes of this study the term "metaphor" embraces the five principal tropes: metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, and synecdoche. Browne, whose writings span the early seventeenth century, or late Renaissance period, may be regarded as the product of a milieu which knew divided loyalties in its adherents to prose style. Rumblings of the approaching era of "common sense," the Restoration Period, were manifested in vocalized hostility to the poetic metaphor. Thomas Sprat’s objections as expressed in The History of the Royal Society are typical. He felt that abundant use of the metaphor in serious prose writing violated the principle of a "close, naked, natural way of speaking." F o rtu n ately fo r us, the w ritin g s of S ir Thomas Browne survived this atmosphere and have come down to us as relics of a mind that pre­ served the ingredients of the imaginative use of poetic style within the medium of prose. His "prose poems" have reproduced an in f in ite variety of metaphorical usages, shifting from individual words v i i i impregnated with figurative suggestion to both short and long phrases and clauses, and to extended passages which reveal the ability to sustain a metaphorical idea. Not only is there variety in his applica­ tion of metaphorical imagery, but there may also be seen a pattern of a few recurring images which become symbols of certain basic concepts. The functions of Browne's imagery center around the thematic structures of the various works. These images, however, not only serve a structural function, but they become also an essential means of linguistic expression, reinforcing his ideas and giving depth and scope to his philosophical observations. No progression in