This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Re-examining the 'Poet of Felicity' : desire and redemption in the theology of Thomas Traherne Inge, Denise Louise Longenecker The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 08. Oct. 2021 Re-examining the "Poet of Felicity": Desire and Redemption in the Theology of Thomas Traherne Denise Louise Longenecker Inge King's College, London Department of Theology and Religious Studies Ph. D. Thesis 2001 ::; n-_ irve examining the "Poet of Felicity" : Desire and Redemption in the Theology of Thomas Traherne Abstract This thesis begins by tracing the critique of Traherneas the "Poet of Felicity". In contrast to the notion of Traherne the naYveand contented,it exploresthe dark side of felicity, that shadow of desire without which felicity hasno depth, in order to urge a new reading of this often misread poet and theologian. The thesisis primarily theological but refers to the literary tradition. It includes recent manuscriptdiscoveries -- The Ceremonial Law, and the five prose works of the Lambeth Manuscript. Its aim is to redefine Felicity in the light of Desire and Redemption in Traherne. Chapter two considersDesire and sexuality in Traherneand balanceshis insistencethat desire should be passionatewith his high view of prudence.It explores Infinity, and the insatiablility that ariseswhen infinite desire is expressedin a finite frame. It culminates in a considerationof divine desire: "You must want like a God that you may be satisfied like God." Want that is infinite and eternal,that is both passionateand prudent, insatiable want that speaksof infinite capacity, the want by which we know our treasures,is the want of Traherne's redemptive desire. Chapter three considersdesire and treasure,prizing and the importance of renewed vision. Traherne's links with the CambridgePlatonists are discussed. Chapter four has to do with issuessurrounding Desire and Act such as liberty, grace and hope. It defines the human position suchthat humandesire can matter and it assertsboth that acts that are morally good must be rooted in desire and that our desire has the power to pleaseGod. Chapter five concernsthe dynamic of gift and receipt whereby the satisfaction of desire is attained. The experienceof longing, the call of 'Sorn great thing', our need of and responseto an Other, is explored as part of Traherne'sdoctrine of Circulation and Communication. Ultimately, in communion and union with God, the soul may find felicity, not as the end stateof a linear progress,but as a continuing experienceof satisfaction and renewed desire. INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER 1: TRACING THE CRITIQUE 8 CHAPTER 2: DESIRE 46 Desire and Sexuality: 46 The Passion Imperative: 52 Passion and Prudence: 57 The Infinite End: 71 The Finite Means: 83 Wanting like a God: 95 CHAPTER 3: SEEING OUR TREASURES 109 What is Treasure? 109 An Economy of Need and Treasure: 120 Prizing: 124 Right Sight: 131 I CHAPTER 4: CHOICE 163 In Defense of Liberty: 164 The Golden Link: 173 Power and Act: 193 Free Agency: 204 Liberty and Grace: 209 Hope: 220 CHAPTER 5: COMMUNION 226 Felicity as Unity- 226 The ImPortance of Difference: 229 Circulation and Communication: 251 Communion: 279 Gratitude: 316 CONCLUSION 331 BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 2 Introduction Underlying this study is my belief that Desire, in several forms and by many names, is fundamental to Thomas Traheme's thought and structures, that he is, in this sense, primarily a writer of desire. He has been dubbed the "Poet of Felicity"' and for generations studied not so much as a theologian as a second rate late metaphysical poet. My first chapter traces the critique of Traheme, examining how this label came to be attachedto him and with what effect, before moving on to chart the course of the critique so far. This is particularly important in light of the recent manuscript discoveries which I believe will significantly alter the way Traheme is read since the concerns of the newly discoveredmanuscripts are primarily, and more specifically than ever before, theological. What we are witnessing in the study of Traheme is a departure, and the question the first chapter seeks to answer is a departure from what. The thesis as a whole is primarily theological but it begins with and refers to the literary tradition. Its aim is to redefine Felicity in the light of Desire and Redemption in Traherne and in so doing to also affirm Traherne as pnmarily a theologian. As a theologian, it is really the soul's progressthat is Traherne's concern. Desire is not always his explicit theme, it is more often implied; but it is the engine of his soul's progress nevertheless. As I hope to demonstratein chapter two, desire underpins all of Traherne's thought and is implied ubiquitously in his work. And so the subsequent chapters on Treasure, Choice and Communion emerge not so much as discrete categories ' By Bertram Dobell and others, see notes 17 ff. 3 (though there is a kind of progress through them) as excursions anchored in Desire. Chapters three to five revolve around the primary theme, exploring different faces and features of desire and the way desire functions as a means to felicity. Chapter three sees desire as a kind of "treasure-maker". Chapter four defines the human position such that human desire can matter and it assertsboth that acts that are morally good must be rooted in desire and that our desire has the power to please God. Chapter five explores the dynamic of gift and receipt by which the satisfaction of desire is attained. Throughout the thesis the themes of treasure, choice and communion recur, not always in their allotted chapters. I have allowed this pen-neability as a reflection of Traheme's own approach to his themesas noted by Joan Webber2. This means there is an overlapping in the thesis not unlike that found in Traheme's work itself. And this is a danger, both for Traherne and for the writer of this thesis. Malcolm Day believes Traherne's apparent digressions and repetitions form the very basis of his style. Rosalie Colie believes that they reinforce and deepenthe awarenessof truth. She contends that Traherne operatesmuch as does paradox, in circles and spirals: "Paradox begins an infinite action, not an infinite progress;" writes Colie, it demonstrates,rather than argues simple truths. "It demonstrates that fact by its own operation, circling and spiralling about its central fixed point, always deepening, thickening, reinforcing our 2 "Largely becauseof the interconnectednessof all Traherne's themes (another communion), it is not always possible to confine a theme or discussion of it to the century of its central location. The more alI -encompassinga theme, the more radiant its effects throughout the whole book.": TheEloquent T: Style and Seýfin Seventeenth-Century Prose.(1968), (hereafter TEI) p.233. 4 ,, 3 awareness of how multiplex any simple truth IS. I hope to avoid the piling of synonyms and parallel phrases that Traheme employs, but repetitions and apparent digressions will appear in this thesis. These both reflect the nature and form of the works studied and serve the important purpose of reinforcement and demonstration Colle notes above. The study of a theologian/poet must take into account the tensions of treating poetry and prose together, and there have been critics who have avoided this difficulty by taking a 4. primarily prose approach to Traherne and those who do poetry only studies Some of the 4poetry only' studies are concerned with defending his poetry which has often been seen 5; as the younger sister of his prose some authors seem to like the manageability and neatness which the discrete unit of a poetic sequence provides, others treat his poetry as part of a larger project whose concems are primarily poetic (eg. Barbara Lewalski). Those critics who treat both his poetry and his prose, like Stanley Stewart and Richard Douglas Jordan and Day are perhapsthe most effective at noting his overarching patterns of thought. Largely for this reason, and because Traherne himself often employs both genres in the same work and even in consideration of a single idea (witness the Commentariesof Heaven where prose meditations often end in poetry, or The Kingdom of God in which prose is interspersedwith poetry; as well as the poetry included in the Centuries and in Christian Ethicks) in this study I will privilege neither, citing from his 3 Colie, Paradoxia Epidemica, (hereafter Paradoxia) p519. Colie setsout the perils of paradox on p.520. Contrast for example, Martz whose Paradise Within concerns itself mainly with the Centuries with, Clements whose Mystical Poetry treats the poems.