23/3/07 - English Literature - Doctrine and Devotion

1. A brief overview of historical and political debates about doctrine.

The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man (1543):

1. the communion of one kind for the laity;
2. the celibacy of the priesthood;
3. the permanence of vows of chastity;
4. the benefit of private masses;
5. auricular confession;
6. transubstantiation.

"all and every person and persons inhabiting within this realm or any other of the Queen's Majesty's dominions, shall diligently and faithfully, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, endeavour themselves to resort to their parish church or chapel accustomed ... upon every Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy days, and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of common prayer, preachings, or other service or God there to be used and ministered; upon pain of punishment by the censures of the Church, and also upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit for every offence twelve pence, to be levied by the church wardens of the parish where such offence shall be done, to the use of the poor of the same parish...."
[Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559)]

2. An introduction to different devotional practices and their effects upon the individual

Ten Stages to Election:


1. a consideration of the word, usually accompanied by some outward misfortune, ‘to break and subdue the stubbornness of our nature'.
2. a knowledge of the law (i.e. understanding of how good and evil are constituted).
3. awareness of his or her own sin.
4. he or she realises a hopeless condition and despairs of salvation and this is the point at which the reprobate languishes.
5. only the elect can progress to stage 5, discovering in their minds 'a serious consideration of the promise of salvation, propounded and published in the gospel.
6. God kindles a spark of faith in the elect's collective heart.
7. mental combat in which the soul must pit a 'fervent, constant and earnest invocation for pardon' against violent despair and doubt.
8. While stage 7 is never entirely resolved, the combat is assuaged by momentary feelings of assurance and persuasions of mercy.
9. Evangelical sorrow, i.e., 'a grief for sin because it is sin'.
10. God gives the subject 'grace to endeavour to obey his Commandments by a new obedience’.
[Summarised from William Perkins]

3. Some examples of how these issues were reflected in contemporary poetry, with reference to the ‘Fall’

Show me, dear Christ, thy spouse so bright and clear.
What! is it she which on the other shore
Goes richly painted? or which, robbed and tore,
Laments and mourns in Germany and here?
Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year?
Is she self-truth, and errs? now new, now outwore?
Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore
On one, on seven, or on no hill appear?
Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights
First travel we to seek, and then make love?
Betray, kind husband, thy spouse to our sights,
And let mine amorous soul court thy mild dove,
Who is most true and pleasing to thee then
When she is embraced and open to most men.
[John Donne, Holy Sonnet 18]

"[women] were made of the rib of man, and that their froward nature showeth; for a rib is a crooked thing good for nothing else, and women are crooked by nature, for small occasion will cause them to be angry.

"Again, in a manner she was no sooner made but straightway her mind was set upon mischief, for by her aspiring and wanton will she quickly procured man’s fall. And therefore ever since they are and have been a woe unto man and follow the line of their first leader"
[Joseph Swetnam. The Arraignment of Lewd, idle, froward, and unconstant women, 1615]

• I Corinthians 14, vv.34-35 (Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church)
• I Timothy 2, especially vv. 11-12 (Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence).

"[In the Garden of Eden] had they instructions given them, and the lawe of life for an heritage. before them was laid both life and death, good and evill, with a freewill given them to take which liked them best. But their frailtie was such, that they, through a small intisement, chose the evill, and left the good: they left life, and chose death. Thus Lord, through sin and breaking of thy commandements, man lost the freewill that was given him in his creation, and purchased death to all his posteritie ... as by Adam, death came to mankind, so by Jesus Christ was mankind restored to life"
[Anne Wheathill. A Handfull of Holesome (though Homelie) Hearbs (1584)]

"… I have written this small volume, or little booke, for the generall use of all virtuous Ladies and Gentlewomen of this kingdome; … And this have I done, to make knowne to the world, that all women deserve not to be blamed though some forgetting they are women themselves, … speake unadvisedly against the rest of their sexe; … [like] evill disposed men, who forgetting they were borne of women, nourished of women, and that if it were not by the means of women, they would be quite extinguished out of the world, and a finall ende of them all, doe like Vipers deface the wombes wherein they were bred, onely to give way and utterance to their want of discretion and goodnesse. … they have tempted even the patience of God himselfe, who gave power to wise and virtuous women, to bring downe their pride and arrogancie. [Biblical examples] … As also in respect it pleased our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without the assistance of man, beeing free from originall and all other sinnes, from the time of his conception, till the houre of his death, to be begotten of a woman, borne of a woman, nourished of a woman, obedient to a woman; and that he healed woman, pardoned women, comforted women: yea, even when he was in his greatest agonie and bloodie sweat, going to be crucified, and also in the last houre of his death, tooke care to dispose of a woman: after his resurrection, appeared first to a woman, sent a woman to declare his most glorious resurrection to the rest of his Disciples. … All which is sufficient to inforce all good Christians and honourable minded men to speake reverently of our sexe, and especially of all virtuous and good women"
[Aemilia Lanyer, ‘To the Vertuous Reader,’ Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, 1611]

22/3/07 - English Literature - Andrew Marvell: Writing and Revolution

Marvell is known as a pastoral poet, which is not technically correct. He also wrote poems about Cromwell, and satirical poems during and about the Restoration. He was the MP for Hull, so he had a genuine political status, yet he is still much more associated with Thomas Fairfax and his family (remember Upon Appleton House). His most problematical works are his Cromwell poems. They were published posthumously, but soon expunged due to their dubious and dangerous nature. Marvell seemed to negotiate between retirement from the public and political world and public and political involvement, represented in his poems. He seems to have struggled with private debates over which was the 'good' life: retirement from, or involvement in.

What vision of politics does Marvell show in his poems? He explores what politics is.

It could be important to know about the modern revolutions that were happening around the time his poetry was written, as they were deeply political and probably influenced his works. Modern revolutions were radical, cataclysmic political transformations or a upending of an old political structure for something radically new. Revolting involved breaking the law, so it must question old law and reinforce new ones. Revolutions are also necessarily violent. They appeal to higher and more fundamental orders than the institution that is being revolted against, so they represent a higher, more fundamental law, such as God or another political authority like 'the people'. They were problematic, because 'the people' could not have a concrete institutional structure and had to initially break the law to found a new political structure.

For Marvell, Cromwell embodies the notion of revolutionary violence. Legitimate purposes are sealed when blood is sacrificed (in this case, the king's).

In his poetry, Marvell plays out the revolution as the throwing out of a political institution with the hope of establishing a new one, although they are not easily maintained or obtainable.

20/3/07 - English Literature - Royalism and Romance: Re-Politicising the 'Lives' of Anne, Lady Halkett

Little critical material has been written about the meditations of Lady Anne Halkett. The little material there is tends to focus on the romantic elements of her work. There is general agreement that her style anticipated Jane Austen, yet this notion is a way of patronising Halkett, as if she were subservient to the novelist. Halkett wrote over twenty volumes of meditations. In these, she is seen as spirited but misguided. She is best known as a collaborator of Bamfield and for her part in James' escape.

"I had desered him [C.B.] to take a ribban with him & bring mee the bignese of the Dukes wast & his lengh to haue cloaths made fitt for him[.] In the meanetime C B was to prouide Mony for all nesesary expence wch was furnished by an honest Cittisen. When I gaue the measure to my Tailor to inquire how much Mohaire would Serue to make a Petticoate & wastcoate to a young Gentlewoman of that bignese & stature hee Considered itt a Long time & said[,] hee had made many Gownes & Suites butt hee had neuer made any to Such a person in his Life. I thought hee was in the right[,] butt his Meaning was hee had neuer Seene any woman of so Low a stature haue so big a Wast."
[B.L. Add. Ms. 32, 376: 28]

Halkett had an affair with Bamfield, although she was to some degree innocent for she did not know that his wife was still alive. She was constantly in fear of her reputation because of the affair. It is unknown to us what kind of relationship she and Bamfield had. She was also a widow, and the window of remarriage was technically closed to her consequently, despite her hopes to eventually marry Bamfield.

Most critics, with the exception of Wiseman, tend ot overlook the political content of Halkett's work. There are three crucial elements to her writing:

The Nicholls incident - more of a cautionary tale of inconstancy than a romance.

Halkett and Scotland - took up approximately half of her memoirs. They relate how her political activities led her to meet her future husband; how she had direct access to Charles II in Scotland; how she became the Florence Nightingale to soldiers of the Civil Wars and was rewarded by the king with 50 pieces of gold.

"that Iudgement reduced[,] yett found itt imposible because itt was Confirmed by the Act of Indempnity made by the King when his Matie first Came home wch was much outt of my way as well iniurious to many others. Butt that was my Misfortune, wch I had felt the weight of more heauily if[,] att the same time[,] The King had nott beene graciously pleased to grant mee 500 pound outt of ye Exchequer[.] Butt of this I shall haue more occation to Speake hereafter."
[BL. Add. MS. 32,376: 123]

"[t]hough itt bee Long Since I left off, what is hitherto writt here yett the occation of itt may bee of some aduantage to mee if ye Lord sees fitt to giue a Seasonable opertunity to devulge itt. [B]y representing my vnparaleld misfortunes & the wonderfull power and mercy of God in Suporting mee vnder them; wch beeing an euidence of the Lords Compasion may incline others to the greater Charity whose Seueare Censare of mee occationed an interruption to ye Conclusion of this booke to relate a True accountt of my life. What effects itt may produce I Leaue to him to whom I resigne the intire disposall of all that Concernes mee."
[NLS Ms. 6494: 294]

The 'missing' pages - these have caused much critical speculation. Halkett does not conclude her narrative with her marriage; instead the last events she relates are that they survive a coach accident and travel to Edinburgh. It ends with political discussion and a hint that she meant to continue her narrative.

The memoirs begin and end mid-sentence. The beginning is thought to relate her dedications and intentions for writing.

"Some yeares since Looking ouer ye Bookes[,] which by the assistance of God I had beene inabled to writte[, a]nd neuer intending they should bee seene to any as Long as I Liued Butt fearing when I was dead if vndisposed of, they might fall into such hands as might make ill vse of them. Therfore I writt ye Contents of euery one of them & inclosed them in a Sheet of paper Sealed vp & derected them to Mr Cooper & Mr Græme with a letter aquainting them{,} that as I had formerly aquainted them with the Account of my Life & the occation yt made mee putt itt in writing{,} [s]o now I thought none so fitt as themselues to make knowne the effects wch my misfortunes through the blesing of God had wrought in mee. That[,] if affter I was dead[,] if they thought fitt then to make them knowne perhaps itt might excite some to haue Charity to my Memory. And others of greater capacity imploy them to the honor of God[,] when they see what an vnworthy person like my selfe hath indeauered [264] from most of the sadd dispensations of my life to ariue att the setting forth the praise of my neuer enough to bee admired who is the God of my Saluation. Something to this purpose I writt them desiring That[,] if my Deare Child Robin Halkett Liued to Come home (who Was then abroad)[,] they would aduise with him before they devulged any of them. Affter itt pleased God to bring him home (affter much hardship & imprisonment) Mr Cooper gaue mee backe the Paper Sealed as I deliuered itt. [B]utt itt seemes kept the Letter. [W]hich comming accedentally Lately to his hands hee came to mee & very earnestly desired mee that I would continue my former resolutions of letting him & Mr Græme haue those bookes & papers bookes I had written comitted to there trust[.] And that Mr Marshall might be ioyned with them to Looke ym ouer <& said> they beeing both outt of imployment[, t]hey would haue the more Leisure to consider them. Though I willingly condescended that Mr Marshall should bee intrusted with them. And that I had fully resolued to send the Sealed paper (hauing opened one end and inserted what I writt since I had first sent itt)[.] (For since my Deare Childs Death xx none butt themselues could I thinke fitt to Comunicate itt to[.]) And Resolued to seale itt vp againe & send itt with all the Bookes butt nott to bee opened as Long as I was aliue … [265] these beeing the Motiues yt were very perswasiue with mee[,] hauing for seuerall days before beeing very sinceare in seeking derection from the Allmighty to determine mee in itt. Yesterday Mr Cooper comming in[, w]ithoutt his speaking to mee farther in itt I began the discourse to him. And offered to send the Trunke to him with as many of them as would hold. [B]utt hee was against that; only desired one Booke att a time And promising Secresy. I deliuered him The Parchment booke with Pincke & Ashe riban where the most considerable of my troubles are [266] registred"
[NLS. Ms. 6502: 263-6]

Note that she defines her text as "a true account of my life," and note also "severe censure" of her which may allude to rumours about her relationship with Bamfield, but possibly another gentleman from a small town with whom she also had an affair.

While Halkett describes herself as "a widow indeed," the reality of her feelings for her dead husband are questioned. She meditates on the death of her husband every day, year, etc.

"[139] There is two examples of Widows wch I desire to folow one of Anna: … The other widow is what St Paul Calls a widow Indeed (Oh to be such a one) desolate (wch I vnderstand to bee alone & retired) trusting in God & Continuing in suplications & prayers night & day. blamelese, well reported of for Good workes brought vp chilldren Lodged strangers washed the Saints feet releeued the afflicated dilligently followed euery good worke this Lord I desire to doe therfore I beseech thee admitt mee into the Number of them that are Widows indeed & then I shall with the more Confidence claime an interest in the promises made to them"
[NLS. Ms. 6492: 139]

"As I desire euery Weeke to Comemorate my Widowhood, so more particularly when itt falls to bee the Same day both the of the weeke & Month (though nott the same Month) for as none Liuing had greter obligations nor a better husband so none hath more reason to Celebrate his memory with all the Gratitude that may Consist with faith & holynese. And if I am sometimes att a Nonplus to know how to exprese the Caracter his worth hath impressed vpon my hart. Oh how much more should I bee extasied in admiring the infinite Mercy and Condescendency of God, who hath Vouchsafed to giue mee Leaue to say My Maker is Now my husband"
[NLS Ms. 6493: 267]

Regarding piety and politics, Halkett was essentially a Jacobite and disapproved of William of Orange.

"that none presume to own or acknowledge the Late King James the Seventh, for their King, nor obey, accept, or assist any Commissions or Orders, that may be emitted by him, or any way to Correspond with him; and that none presume upon their highest peril, by Word, Writing, in Sermons, or any other manner of Way, to impugn, or Disown the Royal Authority of William and Mary"
[A Proclamation, Against the owning of the Late King James, 13 April 1689. My emphasis]

"[s]o when all the high attributes was giuen that Princess when itt is added shee vsurped her Fathers Throne and wore the Royall Didadem on her owne head what a dimnese doth that cast vp on the lustre of the brightest actions of her life: Butt it is to be hoped that repentance for her great transgression{,} & beleefe in the meritorious death & suffering of the Lord Iesus whose blood cleanseth from all sin hath purchased pardon for her[.] And I pray God that hee whose example & authority shee was insnared, may in time bee humbled for all his offences and bring forth fruit meet for repentance that so iniquity may nott bee his raine"
[NLS MS. 6500: 178]

So Halkett was concerned with Scottish affairs, politics and religion. She describes herself as a stranger due to her Englishness. We can imply from this that she placed most importance on place of birth, rather than place of habitation. She does mention that her son was born in Scotland, therefore he is Scottish. Note that her work is perceived as 'English literature'.

Halkett lived a precarious life: she was financially dependent, she was an Englishwoman living in Scotland, she had a tarnished reputation and she came up against much political opposition. So her work should not be considered as romance, but we must take all of the above into account. Her work is much closer to political memoirs than to romantic storytelling.

19/3/07 - Classical Literature - Seneca: Thyestes (3)

See Seneca's De ira, 1.20.2 and 5.3ff, about Atreus' transcendence of the gods.

On page 348 of the text is the moment of revelation, the crescendo of the anagnôrisis.

There are three aspects of Thyestes: rhetoric, Stoicism and politics (as of every work of Seneca's). Thyestes could be seen as a rhetorical declamation: there is no character development, no action, no logical consistency between the acts. The unity of acts and scenes is through different topics using the same characters. The play is a series of rhetorical acts.

Scholars say that Atreus represents Nero. So is Thyestes about Seneca's experience of Neronian regime and tyranny. This probably did influence his writing, but that doesn't necessarily make Thyestes an allegory of Nero's tyranny.

The play is grounded on Stoicism, not just rhetorical exposition and tyrannical politics.

The play is about evil, yet there is no resolution and no way to overcome the evil at the end. The ending is bleak and hopeless.

So Seneca's tragedies are rhetorical plays, and at the same time studies on the pervasiveness of evil with no answers.

Stoic philosophy gave us the concept that life itself is a play, with everyday people as actors performing a role. See Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.36 and Palladas, Anth. Pal. 10.72.

16/3/07 - English Literature - The Civil Wars

1. The Civil Wars in recent culture

Cromwell's image is inconstant and shifting. He is still a controversial figure; he can't be categorised. England was once a republic. Cromwell was to an extent its monarch, although he refused to be called a king. Cromwell was originally buried in Westminster Abbey, then he was disinterred and his head placed on a spike. Later his head was put into a Cambridge college and finally reburied. This highlights the fact that he never belonged anywhere, even after death.

2. The Civil Wars: what, where, when?

Chronology of the Civil Wars:

1637 Charles attempts to impose English form of Church govt., by Bishops (Episcopacy) on Scottish Kirk, together with a new Prayer Book.
1638 Scottish National Covenant commits signatories to defend Presbyterianism from Charles’s reforms.
1639 First ‘Bishops War’ ends in humiliating defeat for King and his English army.
1640 Scottish situation forces recall of English Parliament; Nov., the ‘Long Parliament’.
1641 Nov; news of Irish rising reaches Westminster; conflict over control of military force to be sent to suppress it.
1642 Charles leaves London after failed attempt to arrest Parliamentary leaders; raises standard at Nottingham; hostilities ensue - Oct., battle at Edgehill - one all after extra time.
1643 Solemn League and Covenant: Eng. Parliament promises to impose a Scottish-style Presbyterian mode of govt. on English church in return for Scottish entry into war on Parliamentary side.
1644 Marston Moor - destruction of Charles’s northern army by Sir Thomas Fairfax’s Parliamentary force.
1645 Parliamentary army reorganised into the New Model Army; King’s army smashed at Naseby; Royalist army under Marquis of Montrose wins victories in Scotland.
1646 Charles surrenders to Scottish army - handed over to English Parliamentary allies.
1647 Charles seized by leaders of the New Model Army; Army and Parliament and Scots increasingly at odds.
1648 Scottish Royalist army invades - defeated at Preston; Royalist risings throughout England and Wales, finally suppressed with taking of Colchester in August; Parliament purged of members willing to make a deal with the King.
1649 Charles tried for treason, found guilty and beheaded; monarchy and House of Lords abolished; radical democratic groups (Levellers, Diggers) suppressed; Ireland invaded - rising genocidally suppressed.
1650 Montrose executed; Cromwell invades Scotland, defeats Scots at Dunbar.
1651 Charles, Prince of Wales crowned King of Scots after signing 1643 Covenant; defeated by Cromwell at Worcester and flees to France; Scotland occupied by English army to 1660.
1653 Cromwell disperses remnants of Long Parliament (the ‘Rump’); becomes Lord Protector; attempts at forging permanent political settlement go on, but unsuccessfully.
1658 Cromwell dies; his regime collapses.
1659 renewed Royalist and radical risings; leader of English army in Scotland, Gen. Monck, marches south to force recall of pre-Purge Long Parliament.
1660 renewed Long Parliament votes for Restoration; Charles returns from exile.
1661 Charles crowned King of England; reneges on promise to impose Presbyterianism in England, and returns Scotland to mixed system of bishops and presbytery.

3. Competing meanings

In a sense, the Civil War does not have a correct place either: it is not quite over. There is not even an official name for it; there are many different titles under which these events go under: The English Civil War, The War of the Three Kingdoms, The Puritan Revolution and The English Revolution.

The competing names for the events of the civil wars come about by taking different perspectives on the them.

Firstly, the English Civil War is the term most often used by people writing a history of the events. It focuses on the constitutional crisis that came about in the 1630s-40s. There was an imbalance of power, an interdependence and conflict between monarchical and parliamentary institutions, which could not be resolved by either one of them. There became a paralysis of constitution whenever there was disagreement between the institutions. There was no law to say which should have the final word. The monarchy depended on the government to raise funds to keep the monarchy in place, yet parliament was not a ruling power, it was simply an event. So it could not be dissolved when the monarchy depended on it. There was a problem over who had the most power - supposedly it was the monarch, yet it was parliament that kept the monarchy alive, so now who had the upper hand? A stalemate was the inevitable result of disagreements.

Secondly, the War of the Three Kingdoms takes into account the disputes between England, Scotland and Ireland. There grew a disagreement between the king and the government over who had control of the armed forces to put down Scottish rebellions against a union with England. The king left for York to set up his own institution. Next there came Irish dissatisfaction with English rule.

Thirdly, the term Puritan Revolution accounts for the questions that arose over religion, particularly over churches.

Lastly, the term English Revolution refers to class and social changes at the time, including the rise of capitalism and the bourgeoisie.

4. The wars as cultural crisis

"When something as cataclysmic as the English Civil War and Revolution occurs, a massive destabilisation in the order of meaning is engendered. That there were so many words enhanced the sense of this, and it was a time which many acknowledged as a collective loss of reason. When historical analysis properly discovers so many kinds of continuity … so that the revolution seems even less than a ‘grand rebellion’, little more than a constitutional cough, or, in economic history, gradual transformations of ownership and the steady growth of entrepreneurial activity, it is well worth looking at the world of words, which is where the impact of the crisis was most strongly registered."
[Nigel Smith, Literature and Revolution in England (1994), 362]

"The Times… were never so full of faction, detraction and contradiction, as at this present, men being only full of windy opinion, so that the world is ground into a new confused Chaos, or a Babel of bawling, and foolish disputing."
[The Doleful Lamentation of Cheapside Cross (1642)]

"Truth indeed came once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when He ascended, and His Apostles after Him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb, still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, lords and commons, nor ever shall do, till her Master’s second coming; He shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to stand at every place of opportunity, forbidding and disturbing them that continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to the torn body of our martyred saint. . .

"Behold now this vast city: a city of refuge; the mansion house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection; the shop of war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion cut the plates and instruments of armed Justice in defence of beleaguered Truth. that there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new motions and ideas wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty, the approaching Reformation: others as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the force of reason and convincement. What could a man require more from a nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soil, but wise and faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies? We reckon more than five months yet to harvest; there need not be five weeks; had we but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already."
[John Milton, Areopagitica: A Plea for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing (1644; NEL 1806, 1807)]

"A Declaration to the Powers of England and to all the Powers of the World…

"In the beginning of time, the great creator Reason made the earth to be a common treasury, to preserve beasts, birds, fishes and man, the lord that was to govern this creation; for man had domination given to him, over the beasts, birds and fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, that one branch of mankind should rule over another.

"And the reason is this, every single man, male and female, is a perfect creature of himself; and the same spirit that made the globe dwells in man to govern the globe; so that the flesh of man being subject to reason, his maker, hath him to be his teacher and ruler within himself;... therefore needs not run abroad after any teacher and ruler without him; for he needs not that any man should teach him, for the same anointing, t hat ruled in the Son of Man teacheth him all things.

"But since human flesh (that king of beasts) began to delight himself in the objects of the creation, more than in the spirit reason and righteousness, who manifests himself to be the indweller in the five senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling; then he fell into blindness of mind and weakness of heart, and runs abroad for a teacher and ruler. And so selfish imagination, taking possession of the five senses and ruling as king in the room of reason therein, and working with covetousness, did set up one man to teach and rule over another; and thereby the spirit was killed and man was brought into bondage, and became a greater slave to such of his own kind, than the beasts of the field were to him.

"And hereupon the earth (which was made to be a common treasury of relief for all, both beasts and men) was hedged into enclosures by the teachers and rulers, and the others were made servants and slaves: and that earth, that is within this creation made a common storehouse for all, is bought and sold and kept in the hands of a few, whereby the great creator is mightly dishonoured, as if he were a respecter of persons, delighting in the comfortable livelihood of some, and rejoicing in the miserable poverty and straits of others. From the beginning it was not so."
[Gerard Winstanley, The True Levellers’ Standard Advanced (1649; NEL 1740)]

I think not on the state, nor am concerned
Which way soever that great helm is turned,
But as that son whose father’s danger nigh
Did force his native dumbness, and untie
His fettered organs: so here is a cause
That will excuse the breach of nature’s laws.
Silence were now a sin: nay passion now
Wise men themselves for merit would allow.
[Katherine Philips, ‘Upon the Double Murther of King Charles, in answer to a libellous rhyme made by V. P. [i.e. Vavasour Powell]’, (?1649; NEL 1680)]

15/3/07 - Classical Literature - Seneca: Thyestes (2)

Thyestes represents the true king. He wants to be known to himself but not to others. He wishes for obscurity. He does not fear death. See Seneca, De Beneficiis, 7.2.5-3.3 and Moral Epistles 108.

See Marvell poem, a representation of the third act of Thyestes. Thyestes speaks about true happiness.

In Act 4 is the description of a crime that is worse than anything imaginable. The act itself is about something great, beyond the bounds of nature, worse than evil. Seneca's teaching was not to persuade but to astonish and to do something unique that no one else had done before. The crime is suitably over-the-top as could be expected from a rhetorician.

The landscape in the play reacts to and feels evil and reflects it in its behaviour. In Stoic philosophy, nature is treated like an animal. The whole universe is a rational being governed by Zeus. Pneuma - breath or air - is within everything, e.g. stone, trees, animals, humans. It represents rationality and the soul. Everything feels because it has pneuma.

To what extent does the palace reflect the evil and false kingdom of Atreus/Nero?

The fourth ode is the reaction of the chorus to nature's reaction. They believe the world is ending. The destruction of the universe is described. It is a long and important ode. A good example of eschatology - a vision of the end of the world.

15/3/07 - English Literature - Milton, Crashaw and Southwell: (Anglo) Catholic Devotions

Southwell (1561-1595) was appropriated by Protestants and Catholics. Yet he was in fact a Jesuit, and became a Jesuit priest. He was distinctly Catholic: so why do we say 'anglo-Catholic'?

Lines 1-12 of Southwell's Blessed Sacrament of the Altar are about transubstantiation. In 79-90 he uses paradoxical logic to challenge Protestants to maintain their own logic. He uses simple meters, often thought to be 'drab' and 'dull'. Yet he cultivates the native English medieval style - this could be a statement about continuity and patriotism.

Penance is often explored by Renaissance poets (and others) through the figure of Mary Magdalen, which Southwell does in Mary Magdalen's complaint at Christ's death. The poem is controlled and ungendered. It is startling in comparison to The death of Our Lady. The latter invokes more sadness about the death of Mary than of Christ. His Virgin Maries conception also feels sadness at her death.

It should be noted that some of Southwell's work is aimed at Catholic audiences, and others at Protestant. His plain style made him more acceptable to Protestants than, for example, Crashaw, who was said to have a 'tasteless' Baroque style.

Crashaw (1612-1648) wrote On the Wounds of our Crucified Lord. Lines 1-20 seem to be obsessed with orifices and wounds. There is an indistinguishability of objects and who they belong to. There is an allusion to Mary Magdalen in lines 9-10. Crashaw uses saints to more and more extreme ends in his poems.

Crashaw's poem about St Teresa was thought to be based on drawings of the sculpture, but this is unproven.

Cowley wrote a poem, On the Death of Mr Crashaw. In lines 48-59 he comes dangerously close to identifying himself with Catholicism.

Crashaw's father was against Catholicism, especially Jesuits. Crashaw went to Pembroke College, Cambridge and converted to Catholicism later, astonishingly considering his upbringing. Note that the titles of his poetry suggest transition.

Herbert does with hearts and stones what Crashaw does with mouths and eyes.

13/3/07 - Classical Literature - Seneca: Thyestes

Seneca's tragedies are about evil - what it is and what its consequences are.

Atreus represented as uncontrollably angry. "O angry Atreus", 199. The second act is a lesson in this anger.

Logos - reasoning
Pathos - passion/emotions

Anger is the worst emotions according to Stoic philosophy and is defined as a desire for revenge. Yet Atreus also desires power and control over all things (Act 2, Scene 1). Atreus is the anti-philosopher, whereas the true philosopher is someone free from worldly passions and desires, someone in complete control of himself. Atreus is a slave to his emotions.

The following ode illustrates true and wrong kingship, in relation to philosophy. The true king is the philosopher who is at peace with himself, and the wrong king is one governed by power, war and wealth.

13/3/07 - English Literature - Donne and Herbert: Religious Lyrics

Donne and Herbert each have their individual personal way of addressing God in their poetry. In Donne, God can't get a word in edgeways, but in Herbert God is allowed to speak, sometimes directly.

Donne's poems express his personal emotions, not Christian emotions in general. Herbert, however, thought his poems would be of use to other Christians, which suggests he saw them as an expression of general Christian thought.

Donne's Holy Sonnet 17 was written after the death of his wife:

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravished,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.
Here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:
And dost not only fear lest I allow
My love to saints and angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

He says that love has led to him finding God. He looked to heaven because of her death, implying that he is not just looking for God in heaven, he is also looking for his wife. There are also overtones of God stealing his wife, so God is his rival. A "holy thirsty dropsy" - Donne is hungry for God's love, yet the next line says that God cannot replace his wife. The poem is not misogynistic like Donne's Air and Angels; instead he places importance on his wife.

In Donne's Holy Sonnet 14, Donne is a sinner and wants to be freed from his sins by punishment from God.

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet I dearly love you, and would be loved fain.
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you shall enthrall me, never shall be free,
Now ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Here Donne needs to be ravished and destroyed in order to fully follow God; he needs to be rid of the world.

Herbert, on the other hand, does not associate power and love with violence or sex. He finds the relation of God to Christians is like that of patron to supplicant or parent to child power relations. Herbert never thinks himself equal to God, so there is no rivalry between them. The world, the flesh and the devil are used metaphorically, and they represent spiritual lapses, not carnal sins.

Some have suggested that Herbert's work represents the shape of the church, or the journey of a Christian. Most credit is given to the theory that Herbert's The Temple represents a man's body (because God dwells in him). Herbert explores this idea and brings to light the problems that arise from this.

Herbert's work is very involved with seeking reconciliation and losing it again.

The Temper I has a neat and peaceful resolution, yet The Temper II picks up form where the latter left off and creates yet more problems:

Herbert is constantly in a state of flux and movement in his relation to God. He is concerned to create a correct shape about his feelings towards God.

The Collar is a very disordered poem. Visually and orally, Herbert leads us to expect a repetitive theme and length pattern, but denies us. There is a rebellion against obedience. So his disorder has a kind of orderliness:

I struck the board and cried, "No more;
I will abroad!
What? Shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free, free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did dry it; there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it,
No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart; but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which pretty thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and would not see.
Away! Take heed;
I will abroad.
Call in thy death's-head there; tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load."
But as I raved and drew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methoughts I heard one calling, Child!
And I replied, My Lord.

In Easter, Herbert addresses Christ, and questions if anything is good enough to represent God.

Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may'st rise;
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort, both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long;
Or, since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied,
Oh let thy blessed spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.

In Vanity I Herbert treats everyone as vain. He adopts a negative sense of human achievement.

Finally, contrasting Donne’s confidence in his poetry (even as he most abases himself) with Herbert’s sense that nothing of his making can be adequate to address or reflect God, it both confirms and modifies the old finding that Donne’s religious lyrics reflect a disordered self in a disordered world, while Herbert’s reflect a disordered self in an ordered world.

12/3/07 - Classical Literature - Seneca (4 BC/1 AD - 65 AD)

Seneca was born in Spain and educated in Rome in rhetoric and philosophy.

Life: Declamation, Philosophy, Tyranny

- Seneca's father: Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder and the declamation schools
- philosophical education: Stoicism
- Seneca's experience of politics and despotic power: Nero

Julio-Claudian dynasty: 14-37 AD, Tiberius; 37-41, Caligula; 41-54, Claudius; 54-68, Nero:
41: Seneca is banished to Corsica
49: Seneca returns and is appointed tutor to Aggrippina's son Nero
54: Nero's accession; Seneca becomes his political adviser and minister
55: Nero's (alleged) murder of his brother Britannicus
59: Nero's murder of his mother
62: Seneca asks to retire and offers to give his vast wealth back
64: Rome is devastated by fire; Christian persecution
65: Seneca is forced to commit suicide
68: Nero's suicide: "What an artist dies with me!"

For Stoics, the cosmos is ruled by a good God, who determines everything (i.e. fate), but also there is human freedom and choice. Happiness is important, so we have to be virtuous in order to be happy. Happiness entailed the soul and virtue, not success, wealth and health.

8/3/07 - History of Art - Reproduction

Nowadays we are bombarded with reproductions of art works on merchandise. In what way are original art works affected by reproduction? Remember that the intention of the artist is distorted by reproduction (and by hanging in galleries).

Printmaking and Photography

In the sixteenth century, copies of works of art could be engraved with wood blocks, to make a black and white version of the original. Manet copied some poses from a Raimondi engraving, rather than create original poses for his Dejeuner sur l'herbe. The problem with engraving is that they are too structured and so do not work well for subtle, flowing styles of art, e.g. Rubens' Samson and Delilah. As a result of the laborious process of wood engraving, a more subtle form of engraving was introduced: the mezzotint. A copy of Reynolds' Portrait of Joseph Banks was done in this way.

In the nineteenth century there was even further dissemination of work of art by dealers, who dealt mainly in copies: etchings, drawings, prints and engravings.

Degas effectively invented the monotype. For this, only one run was possible. This technique could be used to show glowing light, e.g. in Degas's Song of the Dog. Notice how the light distorts the singer's face to good effect.

Photogravure produces prints with subtlety of photo and quality of lithograph. It uses gelatin pressed onto the wet ink of a photograph. It is a messy and complicated procedure.

Daguerrotype takes its name from its inventor, Louis Daguer. The technique is fragile; it requires the sitter to be absolutely still for a long time. Colour was sometimes infused afterwards.

Sepia photographs came next. Artists painted landscapes from the reflection in an oval mirror, hence their oval shape. Kodak allowed this photography to really take off, to the extent that artists began to question the value of copying nature, and there was consequently a move towards Symbolism.

James Clerk Maxwell developed tricolour photography by using different coloured lenses.

The Lumière brothers developed the autochrome process which used less artificial colours than tricolour.

Finally the modern colour film, Kodachrome, was developed in 1935. Now there was a real possibility of recreating art. Walter Benjamin once said in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936: "...nothing is more revealing than the nature of the repercussions that these two manifestations - the reproduction of works of art and the art of the film - have had on art in its traditional form."

But surely reproductions do not compare to the original work of art? In reproductions we have no conception of the scale of the work. The context in which reproductions are seen affects the overall perception of the work of art. Benjamin also said: "The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity."

So how important is the original?

Authenticity: Replicas, Copies and Versions

The statue of the Borghese Gladiator is held up as the perfect human figure. Yet it is not the original; it is a copy of another work.

Apprentices copied the work of their masters, for example, the apprentices in the workshop of Sandro Botticelli.

Famous paintings in galleries were copied and emulated by scholars and admiring artists.

There are variations of the same painting by the same artist, e.g. Poussin's Finding of Moses, of which he painted three.

Jack Vettriano traced figures from a book in the production of his most famous work, The Singing Butler.

In all these cases, replicas, copies and versions are not held in any lower esteem than the original.

A famous forgerer, Hans van Meegeren (1889-1947) began to forge paintings which he said were by Vermeer. Vermeer's work was not very well known at the time because of a low number of surviving works and a lack of artistic appreciation. Meegeren perfected aging techniques that helped to make his forges look authentic, even though he was a poor artist and his style was actually very different to Vermeer's. People were easily taken in.

So the original work of art is still important, even in today's world of so many reproductions.

8/3/07 - English Literature - Shakespeare's Othello: Language and Power

What makes Othello tragic, and is the relation of language in the play to power?

The lecture framework runs as follows:

1. the ‘first principle’ of rhetoric
2. rhetorical and republican ideals in Othello
3. language and power
4. ethos and self-persuasion
5. hate speech: Iago
6. Othello.

1. The 'first principle' of rhetoric

Renaissance ideals of language were followed by their violation and disintegration. The Fall is manifested by language.

Language is understood through rhetoric. Othello is an expression of rhetoric, it is about the art of speech and reflections upon it.

Cicero talks about the purpose of language.

"The first principle is that which is found in the connection subsisting between all the members of the human race; and that bond of connection is reason and speech, which by the processes of teaching and learning, of communicating, discussing, and reasoning associate men together and unite them in a sort of natural fraternity. In no other particular are we farther removed from the nature of beasts . . . we do not admit that they have justice, equity, and goodness; for they are not endowed with reason and speech."
[Cicero, De Officiis. Trans. Walter Miller. London and Cambridge, Mass.: Heinemann, 1913), I.xvi]

The principle on which language is founded is the same principle of the world. This capacity is not determined by race. Cicero talks about the power of eloquence. Communities and societies are born through rhetoric, through bonds of communication. But we also know that Cicero was referring to men, not to women, and he knew that slaves were not fluent in the language of their masters.

2. Rhetorical and republican ideals

This principle comes to being in Act 1 of Othello. The fulfilment of rhetorical (and republican) ideals occurs.

Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i' th’ imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence
And portance in my travailous history;
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak,--
[Shakespeare, William, Othello. Ed. E.A.J. Honigmann. Walton-on Thames: Thomas Nelson, 1996 1.3.136-43]

This is Othello's response to Brabantio's accusations. There is an emphasis on, or self-consciousness of, speech. Othello uses eloquent, poetic language. Othello discloses the contents of his mind through the medium of language. He is poetic in his conception of himself. He has created wonderment in Desdemona, and he recreates this for us. Language overcomes difference:

That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord;
I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honour and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
[1.3. 250-60]

3. Language and power

Here is the act of coming into speech. New bonds of connection are formed between Othello and Desdemona. She articulates her wants and desires. The senate surprisingly agrees to her wishes. Her obstructive father is overcome by rhetoric. There is rhetoric, but there are also republican ideals; rhetoric only works in a republican state. In Othello, rhetoric is plunged into a tragic world.

Three great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp'd to him and by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion,
Nonsuits my mediators. For 'Certes,' says he,
'I have already chose my officer.’
[1.1.8-16]

This is Iago's speech. The language is different, to serve a different purpose - it is a speech of derision, an assault on the 'other'. This language is used to intimidate and abuse. Ironically, it creates bonds of connection between Iago and Roderigo, but this inverts the purpose of rhetoric. Shakespeare illustrates the different ways that words can be used. Othello says that we are not all equals, and Venice is not a community.

. . . a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster - unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership - but he, sir, had the election
[1.1.19-26]

Iago despises Othello because he is a Florentine. We see Iago's misogyny - "spinster," "fair wife", "prattle." Iago is modern in his disdain for rhetoric. It became perceived that people used rhetoric to deceive. Iago understands it well, but he sees bad speakers being rewarded all around him. He exploits the gap between rhetorical articulations and reality. He sees how rhetoric can be used to corrupt. Selfish and unfair social bonds are formed.

4. Ethos and self-persuasion

"Ethos in all its forms requires the speaker to be a man of good character and courtesy. For it is most important that he should himself possess or be thought to possess those virtues for the possession of which it is his duty, if possible, to commend his client as well, while the excellence of his own character will make his pleading all the more convincing and will be of the utmost service to the cases which he undertakes."
[Quintillian, Institutio Oratoria. Trans. H. E. Butler, vol. II. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U P, 1921). VI.ii.18 (emphasis added)]

Quintillian says that ethos is to pertain to be selfless. Self-persuasion is needed. Why does Iago do this? His soliloquies can be taken as acts of self-persuasion. If he believes it, so will others. "To plume up my will" - his motivation.

5. Hate speech: Iago

There is a communal aspect of rhetoric, as outlined in the Cicero speech above. If there were no prejudices in society, Iago would have no right to speak. He is not outrageous and unbelievable to everyone in the play. He demonstrates the way in which words create antagonism, how they can appeal to the cruel and corrupt as well as the generous and ennobling.

The language that the characters use is related to the relationship between language and power. At times Cassio uses perfect rhetoric with Desdemona, yet he does not with those he disdains or believes to be below him.

6. Othello

Iago knows that Othello's identity was formed through aspiration. Aspiration is to ennoble and illuminate oneself through language, yet it is also modified by language. Iago undermines this affirmation. There is a difference between the person and community, and those outside of it. In Act 3, Iago exploits his status with the words: "Dost thou say so?" Othello's pain is due to becoming an outsider after being an insider. The warning is that such a thing could happen to anyone.

6/3/07 - Classical LIterature - New Comedy in Rome

Invention of the protatic character. In the Eunuch, 560-578, Antipho asks useless questions about what Chaerea is going to say. So Antipho has a purely technical role. Such characters are mainly found at the beginning of the play in order to help the audience grasp the background/setting. Also, such dialogue is more dynamic than having a long speech and losing the attention of the audience. Romans tended to take long Greek speeches and break them up in this way. That way, the information was repeated and given slowly, so that it was easier for audiences to pick up.

The figure of the slave was more important in Roman comedy than in Greek drama. For example, in the Eunuchus, 923-33, a slave talks down on a free woman, and 934-40, the slave gives a moral judgement, so exercising influence.

Slaves were not the same as citizens, although endowed with speech. Terence does not represent slaves in this way. Some citizens who owned slaves were beginning to realise that the slaves worked better if they were treated in a friendly way, as equals to their masters, and if they thought that they were the ones making the suggestions.

In the Eunuchus, notice how Parmeno, a slave, sneers at Gnatho, a free man. There is often transcendence between slaves and free men in Roman comedy. Why do Romans focus more on slaves than the Greeks? Plautus was born 'Titus Maccus Plotus' (dog-eared). He was born in Italy and moved to Rome to gain citizenship. Terence was born in North Africa, a slave country. He translated Greek plays into Latin for money, and probably finished six plays. Terence allowed slaves to become prominent after Greece was defeated permanently.

The Roman acting companies hired a group of actors with which they stuck. Therefore, they could choose plays that were most suited to their actors, or plays which the actors preferred to play. If the play was successful, they would turn to the same writer again, so the audience decided what was successful. Members of the jury would give the audience what they wanted in the hope of being elected to a higher post in the future.

6/3/07 - English Literature - Christopher Marlowe: The Jew of Malta

The lecture framework is as follows:

1. Anti-Semitism and the ‘tragedy’ of The Jew of Malta
2. Christopher Marlowe and the Death of the Author
3. Marlowe and Machiavelli
4. The Jew of Malta (c. 1589-90).

1. Anti-Semitism and the ‘tragedy’ of The Jew of Malta

Consider the opinion of the French philosopher Sartre:

"If the Jew did not exist, the anti-semite would invent him . . . The social bond is anger; the collectivity has no other goal than to exercise over certain individuals a diffused repressive sanction . . . the Jew is in the situation of a Jew because he lives in the midst of a society that takes him for a Jew."
[Sartre, Jean-Paul. Anti-Semite and Jew. New York: Schocken Books, 1965, p. 13; p. 30; p. 72]

This may seem irrational. Does Marlowe's play indulge and satisfy the passion that Sartre describes? If so, should we read and perform it?

The title page of the play read "a famous tragedy," yet the play is far from tragic in the sense that it does not evoke the conventional tragic emotions of fear and pity. Instead, we might delight in the fall of Barabas. The play is more humorous than cathartic, so it is closer to comedy than tragedy. However, the tragedy may be found outside of the play, in the reality of prejudices against Jews.

The Jew of Malta is a document about anti-Semitism. It acts against and punishes the Jew, yet it also rebounds on the other characters and the justice of their actions. It takes a critical attitude to the norms and prejudices represented within it.

All of Marlowe's plays have the figure of the 'over-reacher':

Dido, Queen of Carthage
Tamburlaine the Great
Doctor Faustus
The Jew of Malta
Edward II
The Massacre at Paris

Marlowe shows attunement to drives, knowledge and energy in his plays, and he celebrates such things. Through this we learn about the worlds which consume the characters. Marlowe also shows an interest in victimisation and suffering.

2. Christopher Marlowe and the Death of the Author

Roland Barthes' philosophy was not to concentrate on the author of a text, but does this theory apply to Marlowe who was writing in the early modern period and was himself killed? He died in May 1593. On 18 May he had been arrested by the Privy Council and charged to stay in London. A spy monitored him. Two weeks later, Marlowe was stabbed to death. Two other victims of the killer were spies who were charged with following Marlowe.

What was Marlowe like? he had ideas that were inextricable from his work. Nothing was sacred to him. He scrutinised the New Testament and found it wanting. His works were as outrageous as he was. He fearlessly kicked free of his perceived constraints. He exposed hypocrisy and illusions.

I am Machevil,
And weigh not men, and therefore not men’s words.
Admired I am of those that hate me most:
Though some speak openly against my books
Yet will they read me
[Marlowe, Christopher. The Jew of Malta. Ed. N. W. Bawcutt. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1978. Prologue, ll. 7-11]

3. Marlowe and Machiavelli

Marlowe was strongly influenced by Machiavelli.

"a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist. If all men were good, this precept would not be good; but because men are wretched creatures who would not keep their word to you, you need not keep your word to them . . . one must know how to colour one’s actions and to be a great liar and deceiver."
Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. 18, http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm]

Lies and deceit, according to Machiavelli, is a sign of prudence. In the context of success, such immorality can be reassessed and found to be a good thing. Hence came the term 'Machiavellian', meaning corrupt, destructive and evil. Marlowe introduces Machevil in the prologue of Jew of Malta.

4. The Jew of Malta

Barabas is avaricious and everything that one would expect from an anti-Semitic stereotype. He is deceitful, cruel, materialistic and scheming. Shakespeare's Shylock isn't so stereotypical; we pity him so he is sometimes a tragic hero. It is shown that Christian culture demonises Jews.

Note that in The Jew of Malta, the Friar reacts in the same way to Abigail's joining the convent as Barabas would.

Ay, and a virgin, too, that grieves me most.
But I must to the Jew and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.
[3.6.41-3]

Later, the Friar gloats. The exchangeability of roles within The Jew of Malta is fluid.

Barabas uses the word "charity" cynically and so abuses it; its true meaning is Christian virtue, seeing the world as God sees it. "To undo a Jew is charity and not sin." The more Barabas continues his intrigue and deception, the more we see the corruption of Christianity.

No, Jew, like infidels.
For through sufferance of your hateful lives,
Who stand accursed in the sight of heaven,
These taxes and afflictions are befallen,
And therefore thus we are determined
[1.2.62-66]

Here, Jews are seen as infidels, not citizens. Later, Barabas states that some Jews are wicked and all Christians are. Marlowe so adopts Machiavellian reason to demystify the play. He explores the reason of state, self-interest, power and appetite. There is a twist in the play, that Ferneze changes loyalty and so establishes that it is he who is the manifestation of Machiavelli, not Barabas.

5/3/07 - Classical Literature - New Comedy in Rome

Romans invented a form of drama in the 4th century BC due to superstition and religion.

"In 364 and 363 BC there was a plague ... so powerful that neither human skill nor divine intervention could lessen its effects. As one way of appeasing the gods, and giving way to their own superstitious fears, the Romans began to hold stage-shows - an entirely new idea for this warlike people, whose only entertainment until then had been that of the Circus. These shows, like most first attempts, were on a small scale - and they were imported from outside Rome. There was no singing; where were no gestures imitating singers. Dancers were invited from Etruria and performed grave dances in Etruscan style, to flue accompaniment. Soon young Romans began imitating them, at the samt time making crude jokes in cross-talk style, fitting movement and words together. The idea caught on, and was kept up by frequent repetition. The Roman performers wer given the name histriones, from the Etruscan ister, their word for ludio (player). Soon they gave up their rough-and-ready cross-talk in the Fescennine style, and instead performed entertainment (saturae) in mixed meters, with songs an dances carefully worked out to suit the flute player."
[Livy 7.2]

Fecennine verse was the mixture of one Etruscan city and the word for 'black magic'. None of the performances were written down, so nothing was fixed, a little like improv. theatre. Modern improv. only works if the actor never says no to a suggestion, so it is possible that this is what the Romans did. Romans might have borrowed conventions from other places in Italy, from Attelan plays. A host of standard characters had to be included in every play: Maccus - the fool or clown; Bucco - the greedy, boastful coward; Pappus - the silly old man; Dossennus - the clever cheat.

Terence's Eunuch was a response to political events of the time. It was produced in the 3rd century BC, when the Roman stage was hit by Greek comedy. The Senate paid for translations of Greek comedies. The Romans used drama to celebrate their defeat over the Carthaginians.

Livius Andronicus directed the festival and was paid by the Romans to do this. Naerius was successful in bringing Greek drama to the Roman theatre (approx. 207-1 BC), for after Andronicus he continued to translate Greek texts into Latin. Very little work survives, but there are over 30 titles of Greek plays in this oeuvre.

Literature was used as a response to political events. Rather than simply translating Greek texts, they had to be slightly altered to suit their new context and audience. The Romans were getting bold because they had some influence over Greece, which had at one time been considered the greatest empire in the world.

In his prologue, Terence admits he has used a Menander play, and also plays by Luscius Lanuvinus (The Phantom, The Treasure). Terence was accused of plagiarising two Roman characters, but it was acceptable to copy from a Greek play. Also, Terence borrows from more than one Greek play, which was probably common.

The prologue from Captives suggests that the audience needed to know the plot structure and ending to be able to follow the play's progress. Other dramatists did not like writing prologues.

Characters in Roman plays were played by a small number of actors (probably five). This may be due to the cost of employing actors.

The Pietrabbondatte was the first stone theatre in Italy. Outside of Rome, built around 200 BC. In 55 BC a theatre was built in Pompeii.

2/3/07 - English Literature - Other Worlds: Jews, Turks and Moors

Encountering other worlds
In encountering other worlds, the other can be used as a means of bolstering our sense of ourselves – we shore up our own identity by defining it in opposition to that of the other. In encountering other worlds, and in registering the difference of others, we can become aware that to those others, we too are foreign: we are as strange and as foreign to them as they are to us. Other worlds are viewed as exotic: places of wonder, settings for romance and adventure.

The New World v Other Worlds
In its encounter with the New World, Europe struggled to absorb and assimilate the shock of the new. In different ways, Europe had been living alongside - and exposed to the influence of - Judaism and oriental cultures for centuries. There were thus long-standing traditions of representing Islam and Judaism:

Islam: the crusades
Judaism: profound cultural animosity

• The Old and New Testaments - There was an ambivalent conception of Jews because they were God's chosen people, yet they had been supplanted by Christians. This made it unclear how they were viewed by God and by Christians.
• Usury
• The expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 - They became present again in the 1700s.

Islam, Judaism, and the Renaissance
1452: the Turkish conquest of Constantinople.
1492: conquest of the Islamic kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. They expelled Moors into North Africa and forced the confessions of Jews in Spain, which indirectly led to the Spanish Inquisition.
1571: Battle of Lepanto.

In the Renaissance there was a developing academic interest in Judaism and in the Hebrew language. The Regius Chairs of Hebrew were established at Oxford and Cambridge in 1540. Also, Menassah ben Israel (1604-57) submitted a petition for the re-admission of the Jews to England.

Writers of the time demonstrate an interest in Judaism and Islam, and develop their own perceptions:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
[Andrew Marvell, ‘To His Coy Mistress’, lines 1-10. NEL1, p. 1690]

In this poem, there is a presupposition that the conversion of the Jews will not happen until near the end of time. However, Christian sympathy of Jews should be read sceptically.

Islam and the New World
"Why did the Mediterranean peoples cease to dominate Europe? What led Europeans subsequently to spread all over the globe in post-Renaissance times? The starting point for the European expansion out of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic continental shelf had nothing to do with, say religion or the rise of capitalism – but it had a great deal to do with pepper. In the Middle Ages pepper was essential to flavour otherwise insipid vegetables and to mask the taste of rotten meat and stinking fish . . . By the beginning of the sixteenth century Venice had begun rich and beautiful from the profits of the pepper trade, which was a Venetian monopoly; however, since about 1470 the Turks had been impeding the overland trade routes east from the Mediterranean, and by 1520 they had nearly brought the Venetian spice trade to a halt. As a result the great Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish explorers all sailed west or south to reach the Orient. The Americas were discovered as a by-product of the search for pepper."
[Henry Hobhouse, Seeds of Change: Five Plants that Transformed Mankind. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985, pp. vii-viii]

It should be remembered that Columbus' original motive for sailing to and conquering the new world was to fund the conquest of Jerusalem, not to prove that the world was round.

The Jew of Malta
There is a reproduction of Jews in Christopher Marlowe's Jew of Malta and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, which has been seen as a response to The Jew of Malta.

Barabas
As for myself, I walk abroad a-nights,
And kill sick people groaning under walls;
Sometimes I go about and poison wells;
. . .
Being young, I studied physic, and began
To practise first upon the Italian;
There I enrich’d the priests with burials,
And always kept the sextons arms in ure [use]
With digging graves and ringing dead men’s knells.
. . .
Then after that was I an usurer,
And with extorting, cozening, forfeiting,
And tricks belonging unto brokery,
I fill’d the gaols with bankrupts in a year,
And with young orphans planted hospitals,
And every moon made some or other mad,
And now and then one hang himself for grief,
Planting upon his breast a long great scroll
How I with interest tormented him.
But mark how I am blest for plaguing them:
I have as much coin as will buy the town.
[The Jew of Malta, Act 2, Scene 3, lines 176-78, 183-87, 192-202]

The name 'Barabas' comes from the Jewish murderer who was freed by the Jews. He is the stereotypical Renaissance Jew: a miser and murderer. In the above speech, Barabas celebrates his murderous self and makes a virtue of his wickedness. Marlowe seems to be racist, attacking Jews. However, there is a kind of sympathy for Barabas. He is also witty, enchanting and funny. The audience is placed in an ambivalent position. Marlowe responds positively to the sceptical view of Jews, and Barabas as murderer is justified by all the other characters being murderers also. Barabas stands out because he is refreshingly honest about his crimes, while everyone else keeps their own crimes a secret. Marlowe responds to the figure of the outsider, not particularly or simply the figure of Jews. Barabas is endorsed by Machevill and hence by Marlowe.

Machevill
Though some speak openly against my books,
Yet will they read me, and thereby attain
To Peter’s chair; and when they cast me off,
Are poison’d by my climbing followers.
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
. . .
I come not, I
To read a lecture here in Britanie
But to pewsent the tragedy of a Jew
Who smiles to see how full his bags are cramm’d;
Which money which was not got without my means.
I crave but this: grace him as he deserves,
And let him not be entertain’d the worse
Because he favours me.
[Prologue, 10-15, 28-35]

The Merchant of Venice
In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare seems to use The Jew of Malta as a source book. He doesn't question Marlowe's Jewish stereotype. His Jew, Shylock, is vindictive and bloodthirsty. But again, he is represented as an outsider, not necessarily as a Jew.

Shylock
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gabardine
[Merchant of Venice. Act 1, Scene 3, lines 108-9]

The above quote demonstrates Christian contempt towards Jews. The audience are meant to sympathise with Shylock. Racial 'others' are treated the same in the theatre - Shylock and Caliban both wear gabardines.

Othello
Othello is the subject of racial abuse and stereotyping which his conduct seems both to resist and confirm. The language of racial difference is so deeply embedded in the play that Othello himself frequently has recourse to it.

Iago I hate the Moor
And ‘tis thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets
He’s done my office.
. . .
The Moor is of a free and open nature
That think men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
As asses are.
[Othello. Act 1, Scene 3, lines 385-87, 398-401]

Othello
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents of flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i’th imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence
And portance in my travailous history
. . .
And the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
. . .
She loved me for the dangers I have passed
And I loved her that she did pity them
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
[Act 1, Scene 3, lines 135-40, 144-46, 168-70]

Notice that Iago refers to Othello as "the Moor". And Othello's conduct both resists and confirms this racial stereotype.

Othello
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe
. . .
Set you down this,
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog
And smote him – thus.
[Act 5, Scene 2, lines 340-46, 349-54]

Here, Othello identifies himself with an American-Indian and a Turk, a "circumcised dog."

1/3/07 - New Comedy in Greece: Menander

Old comedy of the 5th century BC
- chorus plays a crucial role, often dominating dramatic action
- complicated structure with different elaborated elements (parabasis, agon, etc.) and a wide range of metrical forms
- 'fantasy plots' often placed in a fantasy world with fantasy characters
- imbedded in the political life of Athens of the 5th century BC, contemporary political concerns, criticism of contemporary politicians, etc.

New comedy for the new world after 323 BC
- disappearance of the chorus
- simple five-act structure, simple metrical form
- 'realism' of the plots and characters taken from the everyday life of the middle- and upper-middle class bourgeoisie and placed within the possible experience of the urban well-t-do audience
- completely apolitical; private and thus universal nature of the porblems confronting the characters.

These changes appeared gradually. Some scholars mention 'middle' comedy, but we know nothing about it.

In 323 BC Alexander the Great died in Babylon. Greece conquered much of Asia under Alexander, so the Greek Empire grew, hence the 'Hellenistic Age': the world was hellenicised. So Athens was not the centre of power any more.

Menander
- ca. 344-291 BC (approx.)
- debut probably in 324
- produced over 100 plays, all of them lost by the 7th century AD
- Menander's Maximus: an old collection of gnomic single lines
- discovery of papyri with the nearly complete text of Dyskolos, produced in 316 BC, as well as substantial fragments from Samia, Epitrepontes, Aspis, Perikeiromene, Sikyonios and Misoumenos.

New comedy contains the opposite irony to Greek tragedy: in tragedy the hero doesn't know that his fate has been sealed, but in comedy the hero may think that he is in a tragic situation but the audience knows this is not the case (paratragedy). The conflicts are resolved peacefully at the end. This world is not ruled by ruthless gods, but by a goddess, Tyche. Chance causes events, not the gods.

The notion of the human being crops up first in new comedy (ánthrôpos). Being 'human' is considered admirable; it has connotations of generosity, tolerance, and more.

Philanthropia - kindness, tolerance, politeness, civility (being nice to humans and enjoying them) and connotations of wealthiness.

Such problems of human nature made the plays universal and popular.

Menander's Samia:

Moschion: "Oh dear! - I turned spectator, for the noise
They made kept me awake. They carried plants
Up to the roof, they danced, they had an all
Night party - spread all through the house! I'm scared
To say what happened next - ashamed perhaps
When there's no need, but still I am ashamed.
The girl got pregnant. Saying that I tell
What happened earlier, too. I didn't deny
I was to blame, but first I went to see
Her mother, I agreed to marry now,
I mean when father's back, I swore an oath.
The baby came quite recently, and I've
Accepted it ..." (43-55)

1/3/07 - Enlgish Literature - Shakespeare: The Tempest

The lecture outline is as follows:

1. The Tempest and its place in the Shakespearean canon
2. Traditional interpretations of The Tempest: Shakespeare's valedictory play - Prospero as Shakespearean self-portrait
3. Romance v tragi-comedy
4. Comic and tragic elements in The Tempest
5. Romance: forgiveness and reconciliation
6. A qualified forgiveness?
7. Returning to Italy: marriage and death.

1. The Tempest and its place in the Shakespearean canon
The Tempest was written and staged in 1609-10. It is thought to be the last play Shakespeare wrote, although he did collaborate on The Two Gentleman of Verona and Henry VIII after this time.

Shakespeare started off as a writer of comedies and he eventually mastered this literary canon. They began to become morbid and couldn't securely contain the issues which he wanted to explore. These are his so-called 'problem plays'. He then began to write tragedies, and had a long and sustained engagement with them. He finished with four 'romances'. Although there is a definite natural progression to his work, he did also absorb parts from other peoples' works into his plays.

2. Traditional interpretations of The Tempest

Is The Tempest the culmination of Shakespeare's dramatic career? He seems to impart his wisdom, knowledge and experience to us in the play. The Tempest is invested with Shakespeare's genius, through the figure of Prospero. Prospero is described as a puppeteer who directs the actions of others by pulling their puppet's strings. His magic is a reflection of Shakespeare's own theatrical art. Prospero is Shakespeare's mouthpiece and manifestation of self-reflection. Prospero creates illusion and enchantment; he is the source of books and the manipulator of language. At the end, Prospero renounces his magic and drowns his books - a metaphor for Shakespeare's retirement from theatre? Is Prospero a Shakespearean self-portrait? Scholars have ascribed Prospero's characteristics to Shakespeare himself, but this is distorting. Frank Kermode sees Prospero more as a white witch, something malign.

3. The Tempest as Romance

"Although they weren’t classified as romances in Shakespeare’s day, modern critics have identified in his last four plays – Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest – qualities that have come to be characterised as romantic or romance-like.

"It is fair to say that Shakespearian romance frequently includes the separation and disruption of families, followed by their eventual reunion and reconciliation; scenes of apparent resurrection; the love of a virtuous young hero and heroine; and the recovery of lost, royal children."
[Stanley Wells, ‘Shakespeare and Romance’, in Later Shakespeare: Stratford-upon-Avon Studies 8 (London, 1966), pp. 49-80, p. 50]

Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest are viewed as romances by contemporary critics because they have salient features that are similar, yet differ from Shakespeare's other plays. Wells lists what he believes are the characteristics of Shakespeare's romances. The Tempest certainly has these features contained within it: the journey of exile and return, both literal and figurative, is delivered through Prospero and Miranda and the Neopolitans; there is much disillusion in the play, through Prospero's magic; the reconciliation of families such as Ferdinand and Alonso; the loss and restoration of identity such as Ferdinand's and the madness of the Neopolitans; symbolic death and resurrection of Prospero and all of the shipwrecked people; the marriage of the young lovers symbolising hope for the future.

4. The Tempest as a tragi-comedy

A tragi-comedy is usually a composite of both tragic and comic elements, a mixture of both bleakness with laughter. Yet The Tempest seems to be split down the middle, with the tragic elements in the tone and subject matter at the beginning and the comic elements coming at the end with the resolution of the plot. At the same time, it is more complicated than that; The Tempest seems to be a 'hybrid.' It contains such tragic elements as Antonio conspiring to depose his brother and niece to almost certain death, and his later conspiracy to murder Alonso in a political and familial plot, the inclusion of courtly characters and courtly dissembling. Yet there are such comic elements as the young lovers overcoming obstacles and marrying at the end, and such parallels with Twelfth Night as a shipwreck, marriage and the belief that particular relatives are dead.

5. The Theme of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

It is the opinion of Stanley Wells that forgiveness and reconciliation are a crucial element of romances, however in tragedy they are an impossibility. Although Prospero was deposed and left for dead, the play is about Prospero's struggle to forgive his brother. The plot also includes sundered kingdoms being reunited.

Gonzalo
Was Milan thrust from Milan that his issue
Should become kings of Naples? O rejoice
Beyond a common joy, and set it down
With gold on lasting pillars! In one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find in Tunis,
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost, Prospero his dukedom
In a poor isle, and all of us ourselves
When no man was his own.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 205-13]

Often reconciliation is found through marriage, and forgiveness also leads to reconciliation:

Ferdinand She [Miranda]
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan,
Of whom so often I have heard renown,
But never saw before; of whom I have
Received a second life; and second father
This lady makes him to me.
Alonso I am hers.
But O, how oddly will it sound that I
Must ask my child forgiveness!
[Act 5, Scene 1, 191-98]

The encounter between Ariel and Prospero:

Ariel
Your charms so strongly work ‘em
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.
Prospero
Dost thou think so spirit?
Ariel
Mine would so were I human.
Prospero
And mine shall.
Hast thou, which are but air, a touch of feeling
Of their affections, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick,
Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose does extend
Not a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel.
My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,
And they shall be themselves.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 17-32]

Prospero has the choice to either take revenge or to forgive; he chooses to forgive. Notice the theme of 'otherness'. Are they entitled to be treated equally to 'us'? "Nobler reason" suggests there is a social model of human identity. Prospero considers nobility to lead to virtue, not vengeance. Why is forgiveness the "rarer" action? Because the nobility are fewer than the poor. Prospero contrasts himself, a noble, with the fury of the many.

6. A qualified forgiveness?

Caliban is forgiven despite his unnaturalness.

Prospero I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 78-79]

Prospero forgives his brother, but note that it is not out of generosity, and there is the threat that Prospero might later tell tales.

Prospero (Aside to Sebastian and Antonio) But you my brace of lords,
were I so minded.
I here could pluck his highness’ frown upon you,
And justify you traitors. At this time
I will tell no tales.
Sebastian (aside) The Devil speaks to him!
Prospero No.
For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault – all of them – and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know
Thou must restore.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 126-34]

It is a political, convenient forgiveness and there is no trust involved. In terms of tone, the ending is muted. Other romances end in unqualified joy and everything is made right. Here, Prospero abandons magic but the world to which he returns is no different to the one to which he was exiled. He still has a murderous brother, and lives in a corrupted world.

7. Returning to Italy

The retrospective nature of the play may be what makes the tone muted: it seems to come from Prospero's point of view, that is, from the view of an old man rather than the view of the young lovers.

Prospero
I’ll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples,
Where I have hope to see the nuptial;
Of these our dear belov’d solemnised,
And thence return me to Milan, where
Every third thought shall be my grave.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 307-11]

This speech comes before the epilogue, and highlights the fact that Prospero is not overly optimistic about the future. Prospero spends the whole play looking back, and when he looks to the future he sees death (and even his view of marriage is unoptimistic; it is to be "solemnised"). He has a cynical view of the world.