Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1943 The Reflection of Eighteenth Century Thought in the Works of Thomas Gray Mary Wilfred Ross Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Ross, Mary Wilfred, "The Reflection of Eighteenth Century Thought in the Works of Thomas Gray" (1943). Master's Theses. 345. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/345 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1943 Mary Wilfred Ross THE REFLECTION OF EIGHTEENTH CEN'l'tfi.Y THOUGHT IN THE WORKS OF THCil.AS GRAY BY SIS'IER MARY WILFRED, ROSS, O.S.F. A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUlFILLMENT OF THE ~UIREMENTS FOR THE Dl!&REE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN LOYOLA UNIVERSITY DECEMBER 1943 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODOOTION I THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY KIND ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 Literary: classical, transitional, ranantic -­ Aesthetic: in literature, fine arts, nature -­ Religious: deistic, rationalistic, Anglican -­ Social: coffee-houses, theater, education -­ Political: Whigs vs. Tory, Hanover vs. Stuart, England vs. 110rld -- Economic: Industrial Rev­ olution, free trade, commerce, wealth. II LITERARY TRENDS AS REFLECTED IN THOMAS GRAY 1 S POETRY ..... 12 Introduction -- Biographical Sketch -- Resume' of the Augustan period --Gray's representative poetry of the Augustan period -- Resume' of the Transitional period-- Gray's representative po­ etry of the Transitional period -- Reswae' of the Romantic period-- Gray's representative poetry of the Romantic period. m AESTHETIC AND RELIGIOUS TOOUGHT AS REFIJ!'.CTED IN GRAY'S l\'()BlCS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 37 Aesthetic interest reflected in each: poetry - prose - music -- nature -- architecture -­ painting and sculpture - Religious conditions in England in the Eighteenth Century -- Gray's opinions on philosophy and religion. IV SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ATTITUDES AS REFLECTED IN GRAY'S WO.RKS •• • • •••• • •• • ••• • • ••• • • ••• • ••••••• • • • ••• • ••• • • • • • • • 63 Collegiate life at Cambridge -- Observations of the social scene in France and Italy - Observa­ tions of the English social scene - Political sentiments -- International relations. CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •.• • • • • • • • • • 86 BIBI.IOORAJ>HI' • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 93 THE REFLECTION OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THOOOHT IN THE WORKS OF THCW.S GRAY Introduction The average reader remembers Thomas Gray primarily as the author of the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." As a writer whose poetry and prose is .an index to the temper of his age, he is not so widely known. Because m&J:'l1' of his productions serYe as an excellent COlllllentary on his period, Gray's works seem to warrant special stu~. The aim of this thesis will be then to discover in its broad aspects the reflections of Eighteenth Century life and thought in the works of Thoa.s Gray; speeifical.l.7 this study will deal with Gray's representative poetic productions and his Correspondence and Journals, exclusive of the Latin and Greek poems and translations. After a certain amount of research had been made on this subject, it was found that each of the proposed chapter titles wollld be co.mprehensive enough in scope to warrant a thesis treatment. This presented the problem either of restricting the subject or of presenting a broad treatment of it. It was thought advisable to follow the latter procedure in the belief that such a survey would possess value as an overview of Eighteenth Century thought. The first chapter is an attempt to give a cross section of the mind of the century. Chapter two attempts to tabulate the attitu.cies which make up the bents of the three periods-classical, transitional, and romantic-into which the writings of this era natural.l.y fall. Chapter three will ailll to indicate which works of, and to what extent, Gray exhibits the traits and qualities peculiar to these three evolutionary periods. The fourth chapter will analyze Gray's aesthetic and religious attitudes; and the fifth chapter will have to do with Gray's social and political tenets. The Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley edition of Correspondence of Thomas Gra,y, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1935., •s used for the text of the letters. This edition contains the best available text of the letters,about three-fourths of which are printed tram the originals adhering carefully to Gray's spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Valuable contributions to the knowledge on Gray are mntained in the twenty-six appendices in which difficult problems have been explained for tlw first time. For the poetry and Journa1a the volumes from Edmund Gosse's edition of Works of Thomas Gray in Prose and Verse were used. The biographies consulted were Edmund Gosse' a Thomas Gray and Robert Ketton-cramert s Thomas Grq. The latter, a 1935 edi­ tion, contains the results of recent researches. The work was facilitated by access to primary' and secondary source ma­ terial at the following libraries: Chicago Public, Loyola University, the Milwaukee Public, and the Newberry. CHAP'l'.ER I THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY JIIND Since the object of this stl.liy is to discover to what extent Thomas Grq' s works reflect the tenets of his age, it will be necessary first to indicate what the mind of that age is. Then against this back-drop one can project the writer to determine in which of his works and to lilat eXtent he is a typical exponent of the era from which he derives. Do the author's literary effects reflect the mind of his century as to content and form? To what degree does he reflect the aesthetic, religious, and social intellect of his age? Does he countenance the political and eco­ nomic status? If there are divergent schools of thought current, with which one does the writer identify himself; or is there present a tendency to com­ promise? Perhaps one of the salient virtues of Gray rests in the fact that his writings are an almost barometric reflection of the transi tiona.l pro ceases which literature, in substame as well as in form, has undergone in its swing from the formalized standards of classical tradition to the freedoms which characterized the writings of the romanticists. The Queen Ann period represented essential~ a second-hand classical acumen. Yet, in spl.te of its super:ticial imitations and its uninspired spirit, this age set up rules of right reasonings, principles of correct form, and standards of restraint which have much to rec011111end them. 1 2 Almo at .from the turn o.f the century1 oowever 1 readers began to voice a dissatisfaction with classical delivery since it did not support a necessari- 1.y complex, artistic 1 and human system o.f values. The new age began to look to nature and to the conmon man .for inspiration. Highly individualized char- acters, improbable events, re.100te setting--these became the !!!:!!. .9!!:! .nga o.f the ranantic school. Rousseau's theory affirming the .fundamental fP od. o.f the individual until society had perverted nature's hamiwork became the literary and psychological caoon o.f the age. Imagination and license became legitimates; wam.th and color and passion became the purple .fran w.hich poetry should be born, .fullblown and unaffected. Suddenly and by juxtaposition, their slogan became: It is not how you say 1 - it that signifies; it is ~ you say. Conventional and solemn diction as well as the rhythm-bound, r~ couplet were substituted .for by a romantic paraphernalia which eventually let each writer become a law unto himself. Briet.zy the ess.entials o.f this new school were a belief in the value o.f the individual as optx~sed to group acceptation, o.f content over .form, o.f the subjective over the objective, o.f emotion and imagination over intellect and judgment. Needleman and Otis epitomize the transition thus: It was the victory o.f mysticism over clarity1 o.f color over s,mmetry1 o.f S)IID.pathy over law, o.f .feeling over intellect, o.f romantic atmos­ phere1o.r matter over classical precision o.f .form. 1 M. H. Needleman and William Bradley Otis. Outline-History 2l, English Literature. Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York, 1939, 409. 3 Bu.t this emergency did not occu.r suddenly. Of Wlcertain and often pain­ ~~ slow developaent, the intended transitional period was :factually nei­ ther classical nor romantic, but a variable of the two schools. It is tor this rather indeterminate middle period that ,the name of Gray has become a synonym. Yet Gray's writings portion themselves appropriate}Jr enough into the three periods which make up the Eighteenth Century. Qle of the ends of this essay is to graph the extent to which Gray reflects these three liter­ ary bents. The whole of man's existence is dominated by his love or truth, his passion tor justice, and his delight in beauty. These give direction to his interests, differentiate him from other orders or sentient beings, and assist him. in his quest for happiness. This quest is realized on}Jr when man has arrived at truth--and