JOHN DRYDEN: THE OLD LION IN 1700 Winifred Watkins Ernst A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: Thomas A. Stumpf (Advisor) Reid Barbour Tom Reinert James Thompson Jessica Lynn Wolfe ABSTRACT WINIFRED ERNST: John Dryden: The Old Lion in 1700 (Under the direction of Thomas A. Stumpf) Poetry and politics were important to Dryden throughout his career. They are no less important to Fables and The Secular Masque . My dissertation explores the idea that Fables involves an earnest, if covert, appraisal of both the merits and the flaws of William and Mary, as well as a reappraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the monarchs before them, including all of the Stuarts in relation to the legendary Plantagenets. In assessing the connections and evaluating the careers of past and present monarchs, Dryden draws on several themes, particularly the tensions between family and individual, love and war, persuasion and force, involvement and detachment, and ultimately the historical versus the personal. And throughout, he is aware of the analogy between the ordering art of the poet (or narrator) and that of the King. In the first chapter, I begin with Palamon and Arcite and The Secular Masque . The traits of an ideal king traditionally have been expressed in terms of concordia discors and the balance between Mars and Venus. Edward III is an ideal king in English culture, as Theseus is in Palamon and Arcite . The satirical epilogue The Secular Masque touches on the failures of subsequent English monarchs. Chapter Two focuses on a related pattern involving persuasion (Venus) and force (Mars), which is explored further through marriage (persuasion) and rape (force). These symbols have political significance: ii James I and Robert Filmer codified the typical views in the 1660s regarding the state as a family, and rape was a common image for usurpation. Finally, Dryden’s genius in Fables lies in the artist’s eye that perceives large historical patterns, but remains acutely aware of the individual characters that are part of those patterns. Chapter Three explores this aspect of Dryden’s poetry in 1700. I suggest that Dryden’s loss of political favor has not handicapped the urbane wisdom that is his signature. However, despite his ability to provide his readers with dispassionate yet committed patterns of both kingship and poetry, it isn’t clear whether or not Dryden feels that he himself has achieved such an ideal. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ‘All those at the banquet!’ they’d say, and shake hands or hug. Sometimes they said this laughing, and sometimes they said it in tears. But that they were still at the banquet of life was always affirmed. –Alice Walker This was my favorite quote at the age of 18, when I left Little Rock for Chapel Hill. Professor Thomas A. Stumpf was my second English professor that year, and he towered over all 100 of us in that marvelous survey. Since then, he has continued to both nurture and challenge my intellectual curiosity and capabilities through to the completion of this dissertation. Thus, it seems appropriate to end where I began. Who knew you could remain at the banquet while writing a dissertation? Then again, many of us read literature because we hunger for the feast. To Tom Stumpf, as I re-read the dissertation one last time, nearly every line reminded me of a discussion we had, or of a draft on which you wrote, or of a piece of scholarship that you suggested I read. Whether over coffee in Chapel Hill or over the telephone and across a few oceans when I lived in Singapore, it has been so exciting to work with you. Thank you. To my committee, who agreed to hold oral exams during both summer and winter breaks, read lengthy electronic drafts sent from overseas, and who have offered specific advice and genuine interest throughout. Thank you to Reid Barbour for his encouragement from my first graduate paper to my first efforts at publications; to Tom Reinert for his thoughtful suggestions after reading each chapter; to James Thompson for iv his enthusiasm regarding the ways my contributions might influence scholarship on Dryden; and to Jessica Wolfe for her pragmatic and astute advice, not to mention her depths of learning that never fail to inspire me. Thank you to Tommy Nixon, who always helped me find the texts I needed, even when I lived in Asia. And thank you to Lia Ernst, my steadfast sister in-law, who formatted each version of this dissertation from the Prospectus to the Defense, even when she herself was preparing for the Bar. Finally, thank you to my family, who always saved me a place at the table and who, when necessary, demanded of me my presence: Chris, Madeleine and Wilson Ernst, Winifred and Larry Watkins, Mary and Quin Thompson, Dick and Carol Ernst. To my grandmother and to my aunts, who have followed me on all my adventures and whom I love as dearly as when I was five: Ellen Smith, Jacqueline King and Ellen Kane. To Mom and Dad: in the midst of a few very busy years for Chris and for me, thank you for helping us take care of what matters most, our children. And Chris: to you and me, to Georges Pompidou and all our ideas, and to those days when we soar, not too close to the sun, but well above blue waters. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Historical Precedent as Political Argument .................................................................... 7 Literature Review.......................................................................................................... 12 Further Considerations Regarding Revolutionary Politics and John Dryden ............... 21 Chapter I. PALAMON AND ARCITE AND THE SECULAR MASQUE ....................... 25 II. MARRIAGE AND FAMILY....................................................................... 79 Marriage, Force, and Alternatives to Force .............................................. 79 Patriarchal Complications ....................................................................... 114 III. ARTISTRY AND KINGSHIP: DETACHMENT AND INVOLVEMENT ................................................ 140 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 193 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 203 vi INTRODUCTION A close look at two pairs of characters in Ovid XII reveals the care with which Dryden renders his characters in Fables , as well as the complicated and comprehensive context within which he places them. The depiction of Hylonome and Cylarrus, two centaurs in Ovid XII , appears in the midst of graphic violence between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. They are the shining examples of nobility and heroism, yet they are fighting for the “wrong” side. They are memorable yet minor characters in Ovid XII . That Dryden may have intended a parallel between the centaurs and William and Mary is rather surprising. In the Sandys translation of Ovid, Hylonome is dressed in “The skinnes of beasts, such as were choice and rare” (408), 1 but Dryden’s version is royal: “The scarf of furs that hung below her side/ Was ermine, or the panther’s spotted pride;/ Spoils of no common beast” (552-54). 2 According to William Cameron, “panther” signified the Church of England from “The Hind and the Panther” forward. 3 Furthermore, Mary II had established herself as the Church of England’s protector during her reign, as every panegyrist and satirist acknowledged. While the centaurs already are an exemplar couple in Ovid, Dryden embellishes Hylonome’s Amazonian qualities, and she becomes Cylarrus’s equal in the hunt as well as in love. (Ovid’s Hylonome, like Cylarrus, is unrivalled in exhibiting the ideals of love and nobility, but she does not participate in the 1 George Sandys, ed., Ovid's Metamorphoses Englished: Oxford 1632 (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1976). 2 John Dryden, “The Twelfth Book of Ovid his Metamorphoses, Wholly Translated,” Fables , in Works VII. 3 William Cameron, ed., Poems on the Affairs of State. Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714. Volume 5: 1688-1697 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1971). Quotation on 498. sylvan chase.) 4 Likewise, as William’s regent when he was at war, Mary was his equal. She faithfully followed William’s course, and he trusted her with his policies. 5 This passage, therefore, may be an allusion to the royal pair, though for all their virtue, Cylarrus and Hylonome are fighting on the side of the centaurs, the cause of the lustful violence at the wedding feast. Nestor is the narrator who highlights the centaur couple for the Greeks. Central to Ovid XII is Nestor’s relationship to Hercules who, though he defended the Lapiths, is notably absent from Nestor’s version of the war. He tells his labyrinth of stories while the Greeks are resting for the night, between battles of their own, outside the walls of Troy. Tlelopemus is the only listener who isn’t charmed by the narration, but the old storyteller skillfully calms even Hercules’ offended son: “Silence is all the vengeance I decree / For my slain brothers; but ‘t is peace with thee” (759-60). Nestor’s choice to end the cycle of vengeance is in contrast to the machinations of gods and heroes,