History of English Literature, Volume 3: From the Metaphysicals to the Romantics 1789971764, 9781789971767

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History of English Literature

History of English Literature Volume 3

From the Metaphysicals to the Romantics Franco Marucci Translated from the Italian by Arthur L. Whellens

PETER LANG

Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Marucci, Franco, 1949- author. Title: From the Metaphysicals to the Romantics / Franco Marucci. Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, [2018] | Series: History of English literature ; Volume 3 | Translation of Dal 1625 al 1832, volume 1, tome 2 of Storia della letteratura inglese. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018011220 | ISBN 9783034322300 (alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: English literature--History and criticism. Classification: LCC PR97 .M366 2018 | DDC 820.9--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011220 Originally published in Italian as Storia della letteratura inglese dal 1625 al 1832 – Dai metafisici ai romantici by Casa Editrice Le Lettere (2018).

Cover image: Joseph Nickolls, Pope’s Villa, Twickenham (c. 1755). Cover design by Brian Melville. ISBN 978-1-78997-176-7 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78874-226-9 (ePDF) ISBN 978-1-78874-227-6 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78874-228-3 (mobi) © Peter Lang AG 2018 Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers, 52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom [email protected], www.peterlang.com Franco Marucci has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work. All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. Printed in Germany

Contents List of abbreviations

xi/I

Part I

Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

1/I

§ 1. The Stuart century

3/I

  2. Literary genres up to the Restoration

19/I

  3. The Spenserians

28/I

  4. Wither

30/I

  5. William Browne

32/I

  6. Drummond of Hawthornden

34/I

  7. The Fletchers

37/I

  8. Suckling

40/I

  9. Lovelace

44/I

  10. Carew

47/I

  11. Herrick

53/I

  12–14. Herbert

60/I

§ 12. The quintessence of Anglican spirituality, p. 60/I. § 13. The Temple. The builder of temples, p. 66/I. § 14. A Priest to the Temple. A vicar’s prayer book, p. 70/I.

  15. Herbert of Cherbury

72/I

vi/I

§§ 16–17. Crashaw

74/I

§ 16. The English apotheosis of continental Baroque, p. 74/I. § 17. Cupid desensualized, p. 78/I.

  18. Vaughan

84/I

  19–20. Traherne

90/I

§ 19. A foretaste of Paradise, p. 90/I. § 20. Centuries of Meditations, p. 95/I.

  21. Quarles

96/I

  22. King

98/I

  23. Cowley

100/I

  24. Cleveland

104/I

  25–26. Marvell

106/I

§ 25. Cromwell’s regime. Justification and nostalgia, p. 106/I. § 26. Return to Eden, p. 115/I.

  27. Waller

122/I

  28. Denham

125/I

  29. The homilists. Andrewes, Taylor

126/I

  30. The Authorized Version 

129/I

  31–39. Milton 

131/I

§ 31. The uncreated idiom, p. 131/I. § 32. Early works, p. 139/I. § 33. Comus, p. 145/I. § 34. The enslaved voice, p. 146/I.

vii/I

§§ 35–37. Paradise Lost (§ 35. Genesis, allegory and theology of the poem, p. 151/I. § 36. Satan’s dynamism and God’s response, p. 161. § 37. Man’s redemption, p. 163/I). § 38. Paradise Regained. The new Adam, p. 167/I. § 39. Samson Agonistes, p. 169/I.

§ 40. Minor poets up to 1660

171/I

  41. Bacon

173/I

  42. Burton

179/I

  43. Thomas Browne

187/I

  44. Other prose writers

192/I

Part II

The Restoration

197/I

  45. Restoration literature

199/I

  46. The re-opening of the theatres

201/I

  47–51. Dryden

205/I

§ 47. The re-consecration of Stuart civilization, p. 205/I. § 48. Early poetry. Elegiac, encomiastic, celebrative, p. 215/I. § 49. The comedies, p. 217/I. § 50. Genesis, development and limits of Dryden’s heroic tragedy, p.  221 /I . § 51. Satirical and theological poems, p. 226/I.

  52. Lee

232/I

  53. Otway

235/I

  54. Etherege

241/I

  55. Wycherley

247/I

viii/I

§ 56. Congreve

256/I

  57–58. Shadwell

265/I

§ 57. Farces against foreign fads, p. 265/I. § 58. The Libertine, p. 270/I.

  59. Vanbrugh

275/I

  60. Farquhar

280/I

  61. Rochester

285/I

  62. Samuel Butler

290/I

  63. Oldham 

296/I

  64. Restoration historians. Clarendon, Burnet

299/I

  65. Pepys

302/I

  66. Evelyn

307/I

  67. Temple

311/I

  68. Hobbes, Locke 

313/I

  69–70. Bunyan

318/I

§ 69. The Pilgrim’s Progress, p. 318/I. § 70. Other works on the contest between God and the devil, p. 323/I.

  71. Early feminism

326/I

Part III

The Augustan Age

337/I

  72. England from the Glorious Revolution to 1745 

339/I



ix/I

§ 73. The Enlightenment in England

343/I

  74–76. Pope

354/I

§ 74. A ‘re-maker’ of genius, p. 354/I. § 75. Poetic experiments up to the Homeric translations, p. 359/I. § 76. Hordes of disorder, p. 366/I.

  77. Prior

371/I

  78. Gay

376/I

  79. Dennis

384/I

  80. Arbuthnot

385/I

  81. Bolingbroke

387/I

  82–88. Defoe

389/I

§ 82. The growth of the novelist, p. 389/I. § 83. Robinson Crusoe. Ambition, initiative and divine approval of the entrepreneur, p. 397/I. § 84. Captain Singleton, p. 403/I. § 85. Moll Flanders. Moral balancing acts in a monetized society, p. 404/I. § 86. A Journal of the Plague Year, p. 407/I. § 87. Colonel Jack, p. 409/I. § 88. Roxana. A more polished portrait, p. 411/I.

  89–95. Swift

414/I

§ 89. Anathema of the monster and pitfalls of Swiftian irony, p. 414/I. § 90. Satires against ‘enthusiasm’, p. 422/I. § 91. Paradigmatic pamphlets, p. 424/I. §§ 92–93. Gulliver’s Travels (§ 92. Travel literature revisited, p. 428/I. § 93. The enigma of Part IV, p. 434). § 94. Journal to Stella, p. 441/I. § 95. Swift the poet, p. 442/I.

  96. Addison

444/I

x/I

§§ 97–98. Steele

450/I

§ 97. Apostle to the gentiles, p. 450/I. § 98. The newspaper man, p. 456/I.

  99. Shaftesbury

458/I

  100. Berkeley

459/I

  101. Joseph Butler

463/I

  102. Mandeville

465/I

  103. Law

468/I

  104. Other deists

469/I

  105. Lady Winchilsea

470/I

  106–107. Thomson

473/I

§ 106. The theophany of nature, p. 473/I. § 107. The Castle of Indolence. England aroused from sloth, p. 481/I.

  108. Dyer

484/I

  109. Young

487/I

  110. Minor anti-Popian poets 

493/I

The Index of names and Thematic index for Volume 3 can be found at the end of Book 2.

xi/II 

Part IV

The Eighteenth Century Comes of Age

1/II

§ 111. Britain from 1745 to 1789

3/II

  112. The eighteenth century comes of age

6/II

  113–115. Goldsmith

10/II

§ 113. Patriarchal society: nostalgia and defence, p. 10/II. § 114. The Vicar of Wakefield, p. 17/II. § 115. The plays. Psychosocial mechanisms unmasked and exorcized, p. 20/II.

  116–120. Richardson

25/II

§ 116. Case histories and objectives of the seduction triptych, p. 25/II. §§ 117–118. Pamela (§ 117. Letter-mad maidservant redeems rake, p. 32/II. § 118. Degenerate nobility reformed from below, p. 39/II). § 119. Clarissa, p. 43/II. § 120. Sir Charles Grandison, p. 48/II.

  121–124. Fielding

53/II

§ 121. Richardson parodied, p. 53/II. § 122. Jonathan Wild, p. 62/II. § 123. Tom Jones. A justified sinner, p. 63/II. § 124. Amelia, p. 71/II.

  125–126. Smollett

76/II

§ 125. Transplant and growth of the English picaresque, p. 76/ II. § 126. Humphry Clinker. Turning towards the extravaganza, p. 84/II.

  127–128. Sterne

93/II

§ 127. Tristram Shandy, or concerning relations, p. 93/II. § 128. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, p. 105/II.

xii/II 

§ 129. Gray

112/II

  130. William Collins

121/II

  131. Churchill

126/II

  132–133. Johnson

128/II

§ 132. Rise and fall of the artist as creator, p. 128/II. § 133. The three monuments to knowledge, p. 136/II.

  134. Boswell

143/II

  135. Wilkes, Junius 

145/II

  136. Letter-writers 

147/II

  137. Hume

150/II

  138. Robertson

153/II

  139. Gibbon

154/II

  140. Mid-eighteenth-century drama

158/II

  141. Sheridan

162/II

  142. Walpole

168/II

  143. Radcliffe

175/II

  144. Beckford

182/II

  145. Other exponents of the novel of terror

186/II



xiii/II

  146. Burke

193/II

§ 147. Macpherson

197/II

  148. Percy and the Reliques of English Poetry

200/II

  149. Chatterton

202/II

  150. Cowper

205/II

  151. Smart

211/II

  152. Crabbe

213/II

  153. Wesley and Methodism

218/II

  154. The Scottish awakening

219/II

  155. Hogg

222/II

  156. Mackenzie

227/II

Part V

Romanticism229/II   157. From the Napoleonic wars to the Age of Equipoise

231/II

  158. English Romanticism

236/II

  159. Burney

246/II

  160–165. Austen

252/II

xiv/II   § 160. Janeites and Austenophobes, p. 252. § 161. Gothic vaccination, p. 259/II. § 162. Mansfield Park. A thoughtful diagnosis of modern youth, p. 266/II. § 163. Emma. The masochism of match-making, p. 270/II. § 164. Persuasion, p. 272/II. § 165. Juvenilia and fragments, p. 273/II.

§ 166. Edgeworth

275/II

  167. Galt

280/II

  168. Other late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury novelists

283/II

  169. Paine

287/II

  170. Godwin

288/II

  171. Mary Wollstonecraft

293/II

  172. Burns

296/II

  173–177. Blake

304/II

§ 173. The first English multi-media artist, p. 304/II. § 174. Biography and intellectual growth, p. 312/II. § 175. The contrary states of the human soul, p. 319/II. § 176. The Satanic verses, p. 323/II. § 177. The Prophetic Books, p. 329/II.

  178–182. Wordsworth § 178. The dialogue of the soul with itself in the presence of nature, p. 333/II. § 179. The ‘loco-descriptive poems’, p. 341/II. § 180. Lyrical Ballads, p. 342/II. § 181. The major phase, p. 347/II. § 182. The Prelude, p. 352/II.

333/II

xv/II 

  183–188. Coleridge

357/II

§ 183. From the epistemic context to symbolic recreation, p. 357/II. § 184. Conversation pieces, p. 363/II. §§ 185–187. The demonic triptych (§ 185. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, p. 366/II. § 186. Kubla Khan, p. 372/II. § 187. Christabel, p. 375/ II). § 188. Biographia Literaria and Shakespearean criticism, p. 377/II.

§§ 189–194. Shelley

382/II

§ 189. Poetry to break the chains of the world, p. 382/II. § 190. Action and introspection in the early Shelley, p. 391/II. § 191. Prometheus Unbound and The Cenci, p. 396/II. § 192. Other ‘Italian’ poems, p. 401/II. § 193. The Triumph of Life. A critical and phantasmagoric diagnosis of the Enlightenment, p. 407/II. § 194/II. A Defence of Poetry, p. 410/II.

  195–199. Keats

413/II

§ 195. The uncertain plenitude of myth, p. 413/II. § 196. Endymion and other oneiric rhapsodies, p. 422/II. § 197. The two Hyperions, p. 430/II. § 198. Poems of death-bearing and life-bringing love, p. 432/II. § 199. The great odes, p. 437/II.

  200–205. Byron

445/II

§  200. Phases and forms of Byron’s self-fashioning, p. 445. § 201. The anathema of Romanticism, p. 453/II. § 202. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The grand tour of an eccentric Englishman, p. 457. § 203. Oriental tales, p. 460/II. § 204. Disputes and dilemmas in the dramas, p. 465/II. § 205. Don Juan. Mimesis and estrangement of Donjuanism, p. 471/II.

  206–211. Scott

481/II

xvi/II  §  206. Range and critical fortunes of Scott’s fiction, p.  481/II. §  207. The poetry, p.  490/II. §§  208–209. The Scottish historical novels (§  208. The founding trilogy, p.  493/II. §  209. The last Jacobite, p.  501/ II.). §  210. Ivanhoe, p.  508/II. §  211. The last phase, p. 512.

   212. Mary Shelley

522/II

  213. Polidori

527/II

  214. Southey

529/II

§ 215. Landor

536/II

  216. Campbell

543/II

  217. Rogers

545/II

  218. Moore

546/II

  219. Clare

550/II

  220. Beddoes, Darley

554/II

  221. Keble

557/II

  222. Hemans, L. E. L.

559/II

  223. Humorous poets

564/II

  224. Lamb

567/II

  225. De Quincey

576/II

  226. Hazlitt

583/II



xvii/II

  227. Smith

589/II

  228. Hunt

589/II

  229. Peacock

596/II

  230. Cobbett

602/II

  231. Romantic drama

604/II

Index of names

607/II

Thematic index

635/II

Abbreviations W. Allen, The English Novel, Harmondsworth 1991 (1st edn London 1954). ASH M. Ashley, England in the Seventeenth Century (1603–1714), Harmondsworth 1952. BAUGH A Literary History of England, ed. A. C. Baugh, 4 vols, London 1967. CHI The Cambridge History of English Literature, 14 vols, Cambridge 1907, repr. 1949. CLA M. Praz, Cronache letterarie anglosassoni, 4 vols, Roma 1951 and 1966. CRHE The Critical Heritage, anthologies of criticism on single authors, with editors, and date and place of publication as stated in the bibliographies. DAI D. Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, 2 vols, New York 1960. DEA S. Deane, A Short History of Irish Literature, London 1986. DEE B. Dobrée, The Early Eighteenth Century 1700–1740: Swift, Defoe, and Pope, vol. VII of The Oxford History of English Literature, ed. F. P. Wilson and B. Dobrée, Oxford 1990 (1st edn 1959). ESE T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays, London 1963 (1st edn 1932). GGM S. M. Gilbert and S. Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic, New Haven, CT and London 1984. GSM H. J. C. Grierson and J. C. Smith, A Critical History of English Poetry, London 1956. HWP B. Russell, History of Western Philosophy, London 1964 (1st edn 1946). IDM F. Marucci, L’inchiostro del mago. Saggi di letteratura inglese dell’Ottocento, Pisa 2009. IZZ C. Izzo, Storia della letteratura inglese, 2 vols, Milano 1961, 1963. AEN

xx/I Abbreviations

JEL JLI LAM MAR MIT MVO OCE PGU PHE PLE PLU PMI PMLA PRA PSL REL SAI

I. Jack, English Literature 1815–1832, vol. X of The Oxford History of English Literature, ed. F. P. Wilson and B. Dobrée, Oxford 1963. S. Johnson, Lives of the English Poets, ed. A. Waugh, 2 vols, London 1979. G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, Letteratura inglese, 2 vols, Milano 1990–1991. Storia della civiltà letteraria inglese, ed. F. Marenco, 4 vols, Torino 1996. L. Mittner, Storia della letteratura tedesca, 3 vols in 4 tomes, Torino 1964–1977. F. Marucci, ‘A Victorian Oxymoron: The “Mastering” and “Merciful God”’, in Hopkins: Tradition and Innovation, ed. P. Bottalla, G. Marra and F. Marucci, Ravenna 1991, 191–206. G. Orwell, Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters, ed. S. Orwell and I. Angus, 4 vols, Harmondsworth 1970. The Pelican Guide to English Literature, ed. B. Ford, 7 vols, Harmondsworth 1968. M. Praz, The Hero in Eclipse in Victorian Fiction, Eng. trans., London 1969 (1st Italian edn Firenze 1952). M. Pagnini, Letteratura e ermeneutica, Firenze 2002. J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century, Harmondsworth 1950. M. Praz, Machiavelli in Inghilterra e altri saggi sui rapporti letterari anglo-italiani, Firenze 1962. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. M. Praz, The Romantic Agony, Eng. trans., London 1956 (1st Italian edn Firenze 1930). M. Praz, Storia della letteratura inglese, Firenze 1968. W. L. Renwick, English Literature 1789–1815, vol. IX of The Oxford History of English Literature, ed. F. P. Wilson and B. Dobrée, Oxford 1976 (1st edn 1963). G. Saintsbury, A Short History of English Literature, London 1948 (1st edn 1898).

xxi/I

Abbreviations

SDR SEC SEL SES SSI TAI TCR TLS WATT WHM

G. Sertoli, I due Robinson e altri saggi sulla letteratura inglese del Settecento, Genova 2014. J. Sambrook, The Eighteenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1700–1789, London 1986. J. Sutherland, English Literature of the Late Seventeenth Century, vol. VIII of The Oxford History of English Literature, ed. B. Dobrée and N. Davis, Oxford 1969. J. L. Styan, The English Stage: A History of Drama and Performance, Cambridge 1996. M. Praz, Studi e svaghi inglesi, 2 vols, Milano 1983 (1st edn 1937). H. A. Taine, History of English Literature, Eng. trans., 4 vols, London 1920 (1st French edn 1864). V. Woolf, The Common Reader, First Series, Harmondsworth 1938 (1st edn London 1925), Second Series, London 1935 (1st edn London 1932). The Times Literary Supplement. I. Watt, The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Harmondsworth 1977 (1st edn London 1957). R. Wellek, A History of Modern Criticism 1750–1950, 8 vols, New Haven, CT 1955–1992.

Volumes of the present work will be cited as follows: Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 4 Volume 5 Volume 6 Volume 7 Volume 8

F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 1, Oxford 2018. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 2, Oxford 2018. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 4, Oxford 2019. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 5, Oxford 2019. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 6, Oxford 2019. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 7, Oxford 2019. F. Marucci, History of English Literature, vol. 8, Oxford 2019.

Note. Except for the above abbreviations, full publication information of cited works will be found in the bibliography for each author.

Part I 

Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

§ 1. The Stuart century The seventeenth century – in England and more in general in Europe – shows clearly, if indeed proof were needed, that political, civil, cultural, and, consequently, literary history, is inextricably tied up with religion, which in turn becomes a ‘political subject’.1 The key to understanding aright the events of the century is to be found in the clash of confessional positions, in differing versions of the Christian life, and even in the debate on the importance of ritual and the hierarchical structure of the Church; in other words, in the acceptance or refusal of religion as the foundation of the state. This is also the century in which England becomes a parliamentary monarchy, or rather, more parliamentary, and produces a judicial system and an evolutionary process of decentralization which inverts the arrogant absolutism of the continental courts. The seeds of two-party politics are sown, and the controversy over the divine right of kings fades into the distance.2 From this time on, the English political system will become an exportable model championed by her libertarian thinkers. In 1660 and in 1685, a return to the past was a tangible threat, but by then the reins of powers were firmly in the hands of Parliament, and the king was forced to bow to its commands. 2. During the century, as may be seen in a statistical table drawn up in 1688 by the citizen Gregory King, the population of England had reached five and a half million even taking into account the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London the following year (among the consequences of the Great Fire were innovative building norms, the elimination of straw, replaced by carpets as a covering for floors, and the extensive use of bricks for walls). Demographic increase was limited by emigration; throughout the century colonization acted as a safety valve against Dissenters. Patriotic

1

2

Puritanism began as a religious movement but soon took on party political identity: the congregations of Bible readings in chapels were led by leaders of the elite ‘like Communist Party cells in the twentieth century’ (138 of L. Stone’s book, quoted below in n. 8). The last advocate of divine right after the Restoration was Sir Robert Filmer (1588– 1653) in Patriarcha, published posthumously in 1680. It was rebutted by Algernon Sidney (1622–1683) and, above all, by Hobbes (§ 68.1 and ASH, 162–3).

4/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

historians played down the suffering of those who embarked upon the long journey to America: any who did not feel at their ease in the home country could always find fame and fortune in the colonies, and could pray whatever way they liked, protected by the English flag. Quite apart from the religious motivation – Puritan proselytism – the Dissenters sailed in the hope of finding affordable land and opportunities for employment. The colonists indeed quickly exported models of local self-government, thus developing a federal system with ever weaker ties with the mother country. In the course of the century the English seized colonies from Spain and the Low Countries, and trade with the Indies made it necessary to increase the size of the merchant fleet. Thanks to the abolition of monopolies, spices were imported, along with silk, porcelain, tea and coffee, which changed the way of living of the middle classes. Another favourite theme of the patriotic historian was social responsibility. A sort of direct chain of transmission connected the King’s Privy Council in London with local authorities, whose job it was to look after the poor and the unemployed. This constituted a kind of welfare state ante litteram, which pre-empted and eliminated the possible causes justifying a real revolution, so that when a Glorious Rebellion did come it was a watered down version of what was to take place in France a century later. A comparison is often made between the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War, but such a parallel is misleading: the latter was fought for reasons that were less self-serving and materialistic, and more idealistic. 3. James I (1601–1625), who for a good half of his life sat on the throne of Scotland, proved to be a scholar king second only to Alfred the Great. As a ruler he was precociously Machiavellian. The son of Mary Stuart and her second husband, Lord Darnley, he was tutored by the classicist Buchanan, and by the time he was twenty-two had written and published a treatise on poetry.3 In 1597 he published Demonologie and in 1604 A Counterblaste to Tobacco (anonymously). His conception of the divine right of kings was put forward in two books published before the end of the century. James, who at the age of twelve laid claim to the throne of Scotland, developed a 3

Which deserves to be studied and placed alongside the various English treatises of aesthetics published at the end of the sixteenth century.

§ 1. The Stuart century

5/I

strategy of not making enemies; he stood aloof, equidistant from Catholics (even when conspiracies were discovered, as in 1589) and from Presbyterians, opting, however, for the latter when Catholic power became a threat. It is strange, therefore, that a king so precociously skilled and experienced – though ruler only, at the time, of a ‘minor’ country like Scotland – should find himself not up to the task of ruling England.4 The tug of war between absolutism and democracy began when James ceased to convene Parliament and relied more and more on the adventurer George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.5 Denied funds by Parliament, he borrowed heavily, doubling the royal debt, and was compelled, in the end, with disastrous results, to resort to dubious stratagems, like the selling of monopolies. These same financial straits caused him to leave the German Puritans to their fate, thus arousing suspicions of harbouring Catholic sympathies. Again for reasons of expediency, he pandered to Spain by having Ralegh executed. Ralegh had fallen into a trap laid by the Spanish ambassador, Gondomar, in an affair that caused a stir and provided the raw material for a play by Middleton.6 James had managed to silence the Scottish assemblies, but was unable to place the English Parliament under similar restraint. This was partly because of his weakness for his favourites. His ecclesiastical policy was summed up in the motto: ‘No bishop, no king’. Towards the Puritans he assumed a position of defiance but never brought them to heel. He harried

4 5 6

For his favouritism towards fellow Scots while he was king of England, see what happened to the playwright Marston (Volume 1, § 107.1 n. 12). Buckingham replaced Robert Carr, Duke of Somerset, as favourite when the latter became embroiled in indiscreet marital affairs. Volume 1, § 136. It was Gondomar who plotted for the king’s son, the future Charles II, to marry the Infanta of Spain. Parliament protested, but nonetheless Charles travelled to Madrid in 1623 to decide whether or not to contract the marriage. Nothing came of it. The ‘Overbury affair’ was a scandal with far-reaching consequences: Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, divorced from her husband, Robert Devereux, in order to marry Robert Carr, on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated; a panel of ladies was formed to carry out a gynaecological examination (it is possible that some other woman took the place of the Countess). In 1616 Thomas Overbury, who had opposed the divorce, was murdered; the newlyweds were tried and found guilty, but subsequently pardoned by the king.

6/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

them into exile or simply had them eliminated. As to the Catholics, he fined and persecuted them from the very start of his reign. The so-called Gunpowder Plot, organized by the Jesuits, discovered and neutralized in 1605, was a result of this repressive anti-Catholic policy. 4. Charles I, second son of James I, was a late child, and anything but precocious in learning to walk. He became an excellent horseman, but was plagued by a stammer throughout his life. He loved Italian painting and was a patron of the arts. A devoted husband, he became the subject of John Gauden’s Eikon Basilike, a text which was said to be the king’s memorial in articulo mortis, and helped to create the reputation of Charles the martyr. Milton’s pamphlet, Eikonoklastes, is a violent riposte to Gauden’s moving portrait of the dead king.7 Charles’s wife outlived him, and his sons were to become Charles II and James II. His dynasty covers the whole of the seventeenth century, and beyond, if we consider that, after 1688 and for three more decades, the Old Pretender, James III, wandered through the courts of Europe. As I mentioned, according to his father’s plans, Charles was to marry the Infanta of Spain. Instead, he married the Catholic Henrietta Maria, daughter of the King of France, Louis XIII, with the understanding of a solemn promise that Charles would grant English Catholics freedom of worship. Friendly relations between France and England soon faltered because Charles refused to help the French subdue the Huguenot uprisings. As if this were not enough, England suffered a setback in the Thirty Years War because the Elector Frederick (who had married the king’s sister, Elizabeth) was unable to retake the Palatinate. The Cadiz expedition against Spain in 1625 also met with failure, making the final result three defeats out of three endeavours. After the murder of the King’s favourite, Buckingham, in 1628, Parliament was not recalled for another eleven years, during which the king ruled as an absolute monarch, levying ever increasing taxes on the wealthier of his subjects in order to maintain his fleet. This period is in fact referred to as ‘the eleven years of tyranny’. However, it is also true that 1628 saw the approval of a Petition of Rights which provided guarantees

7

§ 34.2.

§ 1. The Stuart century

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against arbitrary imprisonment and the raising of taxes without the consent of Parliament. 5. ‘The causes of the Civil War’ is the title and the subject of a book by Lawrence Stone,8 who challenges the theory that the spark that lit the fire was the economic rise of the gentry throughout the century. He sees the root cause, instead, in the appearance of a political subject – Puritanism – which sought and found representation in the House of Commons, and the tangible and irreversible result of which was religious tolerance. By the end of this process, Puritanism had been assimilated and metabolized, and could no longer be expunged. According to Stone, there are six historical models of revolution, empirically reconstructed, from which to choose in order to identify and classify the English Civil War: of these, the ‘conspiratorial coup d’état’ seems the closest match. In reality, all six types are included by the Solomonic scholar in what is a kind of mixed regime model. Stone adds that the Civil War was a revolution that looked back to golden ages or similar, as well as forward, to the future. For him, everything comes together, because there are, as in every revolution, ‘pre-conditions’ and ‘detonators’. The causes are to be sought in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth: absolutism and the draining of the Exchequer to finance the war against France – so that the reign of James may be seen as chaos skilfully kept under control (the distant pre-condition) –; the nearer prerequisite was Elizabeth’s wait and see policy, made worse by her successors on the throne. Concrete steps leading to the Civil War, the detonators, can be identified in the series of repressive measures taken by Charles against both Puritans and Presbyterians. In 1639 Scotland reacted against blatant attempts to depuritanize her and to impose the Laudian Prayer Book (Archbishop Laud’s intent was to ‘re-Catholicize’ the Anglican Church on a model preceding the errors of Rome) by issuing the Covenant, a national pact against the English king and in favour of religious freedom and the laws of Scotland. In the same year, the English border garrison had been harried. The king summoned the governor of Ireland, Wentworth – celebrated 200 years later in a play by Browning – to lead a punitive expedition against the

8

L. Stone, The Causes of the English Revolution 1529–1642, London 1972.

8/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

Scots.9 But the financial requests made to the reconvened Parliament could not be met and the house was dissolved, becoming known as the ‘Short Parliament’. A second war against the Scots was inevitable and, owing to inadequate funding, was lost. The reconvened Parliament, traditionally known as the ‘Long Parliament’, had the upper hand, thanks to the guidance of the Puritan veteran, John Pym. By the summer of 1640 a silent revolution was under way and Parliament was largely victorious in bills discussed and approved, amongst which were: the obligation to summon Parliament every three years; the abolition of the Prerogative Courts; taxes to be levied only with the consent of Parliament. The Great Remonstrance of 1641, which formalized these successes, was passed in the House with a majority of only nine votes (among the nays was the poet, Waller, convinced that the reform was a step towards revolution, though Parliament included a number of moderate Episcopalians). The reaction of the king was a botched attempt to arrest five members of the house. The Queen saw the direction events were taking and left for Paris, where she subsequently was to take under her protective wing a number of Catholic or moderately Protestant poets. Furthermore, the Court was transferred to York (summer of 1642). The two parties which were to join combat in the war that was about to break out were called, from then on, ‘Cavaliers’ (royalists) and ‘Roundheads’ (Puritan parliamentarians); in other words, the nobility who were loyal to the king against the wealthy merchant class. This clear-cut opposition soon crumbled: sects appeared which were even more radical than the Puritans,10 overtaken in reforming zeal by Congregationalists and Independents, who demanded complete freedom from the Church of England and autonomy for local religious communities. On a national scale, an area comprising the North, West and Midlands, home of the landed gentry, was a royalist stronghold; the South, East and London were mercantile and parliamentarian. Generally speaking, the Puritan side had the support of those involved in trade and living in economically dynamic 9 10

Papers taken from Wentworth revealed plans and manoeuvres to land an Irish army to crush the Scottish rebels; with Laud, the Irish governor was imprisoned in the Tower, where both were executed in 1641 and 1645. For a complete list see ASH, 28ff.

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areas, as well as sea ports and manufacturing districts with a burgeoning network of connections between the smallholder and the merchant class. The countryside was largely royalist, as were market towns with no overseas connections. 6. Oliver Cromwell, a descendant of Henry VIII’s chief minister, was born in Huntington near Cambridge, into a family of the well-to-do gentry. He was a mediocre student of Latin, but excelled at sports from an early age. He inherited property and entered Parliament. Fiercely anti-Papist already in 1628, he stood up for his fellow citizens against abuses of power and petitioned in favour of the inhabitants of his native Fenlands. Around 1636, he went through a religious crisis and believed himself to be singled out as the secular arm of God’s design for England, which consisted principally in the ‘root and branch’ abolition of episcopacy. In January 1642 he organized a coup aimed at taking control of the army and key military infrastructures. Immediately afterwards, he formed a parliamentary army, choosing its commanders with great care and imposing iron discipline on the cadres. This was Cromwell’s reaction to the creation of an army by Charles, who in the meantime had repaired to Oxford. The name of ‘Ironsides’ was given to Cromwell’s soldiers by Prince Rupert, the royalist general whose troops were repeatedly routed in the field. At this point, enter at Cromwell’s side the famous General (or Lieutenant) Fairfax of Hull, or, more precisely, of Appleton House, the subject of several poems by Marvell.11 After the victorious battle of Marston Moor in 1644, during which Cromwell was wounded, the final blow to the king was delayed owing to the indecision of the Earl of Manchester, who in a famous speech pronounced that ‘the king was the king’. This defeatism was rejected by Cromwell, a maximalist and enemy to compromise, ready to criticize Parliament for withholding funds for the army, whose troops were underpaid (indeed, Parliament ordered the dissolution of the Army). With an act of insubordination, Cromwell proceeded to bring the Civil War to an end, defeating the royalist Scots and seizing the king, who was executed on 30 January 1649. By this time, however, Cromwell’s army had given birth to a number of fringe

11

§ 25.3.

10/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

groups – such as the Levellers and the Independents – who were to have brief significant repercussions on the political scenario. In 1647 a People’s Agreement was put forward on the initiative of agitators inside the army demanding payment of back pay, indemnities and sundry guarantees, and above all, a republican constitution, universal suffrage, freedom of worship, equality before the law and abolition of monopolies. Faced by the refusal of Parliament, the army at first mutinied, then increased the stakes, making demands that fell just short of blackmail. In play was the redistribution of seats on the basis of the counties’ taxable income, and increased levels of taxation for those counties with the greatest number of parliamentary seats. So there threatened to be an alliance between the agitators of the army and the radical elements of London. Fairfax restored order and calmed the agitators with promises. On this occasion the moderate gentry was already moving towards the king, fearing a widespread uprising if the radicals and agitators were to prevail. Ordinary people, on their side, protested against the current crisis and invoked honest government. In fact, they and the gentry formed a common front in calling for a return to law and order and the status quo, whilst at the same time denouncing the repressiveness of the Puritan regime. Alongside the Puritans, Independents and Baptists could be heard the clamour of the Fifth Monarchists who believed human history had reached the fourth of the five ages predicted in the Book of Daniel, the age of the Antichrist of Roman Catholicism. In their different ways all these separatist and radical groups were advocates of a ‘government of saints and the righteous’. But the coalition between ordinary soldiers and the Levellers aimed at radicalizing the People’s Agreement into a democratic constitution could not last, in part because some groups were willing to make do with the partial victories they had achieved, unlike other more extreme movements.12 7. In 1647 Cromwell found himself confronted by two enemies: the king, who had escaped and taken refuge on the Isle of Wight, promised 12

Some writers (Lilburne, Walwyn, Overton, Winstanley) did in fact put forward ideas not far from communism (cf. ASH, 110–12), or, rather, ‘Christian socialism’, which was to come back into fashion among the Victorians. Many of the above became Quakers.

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the Scots Presbyterianism for three years in exchange for their support. When the war resumed in 1648, the Scots were blocked on their way to London. A ‘purge’, which led to the expulsion from Parliament of those members who intended to come to terms with the king, was decided upon by the cadres of the army; the officer who proposed the purge happened to be called Pride. The king’s execution, while not decided by Cromwell, was approved in writing by him. Stories abounded of him wandering about in disguise at night, muttering, like some character out of Shakespeare, that ‘cursed necessity was the cause’. In reality, Cromwell, though at first intending to save the monarchy, soon became convinced that the king had to die. The birth of the Commonwealth entailed ipso facto the abolition of the House of Lords besides the monarchy itself, leaving a Parliament reduced to 90 members (irreverently referred to as the ‘Rump’), practically an oligarchy. With the end of the civil wars in 1652 came the need to restore the legal and ecclesiastical spheres. A Parliament subsequently named ‘Barebones’, instated in July 1653, lasted barely long enough to approve Cromwell’s election as Protector, an appointment welcomed by Milton but deplored by the Fifth Monarchists. Levellers and New Levellers, who set up forms of kolkhoz in Surrey, were wiped out; foreign courts sniffed suspiciously; Charles II was biding his time; royalist Ireland was rebelling, and Scotland was horrified by the treatment meted out to Presbyterians in an army dominated by Independents, and secretly considered the possibility of reaching an advantageous agreement with the king. After defeating the Irish in August 1649 (the massacre of Drogheda), Cromwell returned home to the praise of Marvell, whose protector, Fairfax, however, gave up his command of the troops when Cromwell marched against the Scots, who had indeed made a pact with the king to the effect that, if reinstated, he would allow the clauses of the Covenant. The Scots were defeated, and Charles forced to flee in September 1651. In the summer of the following year Cromwell declared war on the Dutch with a Navigation Act which imposed restrictions on the entry of Dutch goods into England. On the home front the army in disarray invoked either an oligarchic government of  ‘saints’ or a reformed Parliament. In April 1653 an exasperated Cromwell dissolved the ‘Rump’ and became from then on sole dictator of republican England. Yet he was a dictator who regulated ecclesiastical appointments,

12/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

levied taxes, formally kept Catholics under close scrutiny without persecuting them, and summoned and dissolved other parliaments. He also selected as regional commanders men of proven and boundless loyalty. Death took him (1658) when his star was beginning to fade. In 1654 he had survived an attack on his life, and refused the new Parliament’s offer of the royal crown; an expedition against the Spaniards in the Caribbean was largely unsuccessful. In a matter of a few years he had become a cynical and Machiavellian dictator; of the cheering crowd he would say, echoing Shakespeare, ‘these very persons would shout as much if you (General Lambert) and I were going to be hanged’.13 Overall, Cromwell was above all one of the greatest military leaders of all time, and, according to the English, second only to Marlborough or Wellington. His overriding aim was to promote the Protestant cause in Europe and to favour English colonists wherever they went. He may therefore be seen as the first conscious imperialist, and responsible for restoring England’s prestige among the European powers. His tolerant version of Puritanism, too, should be seen in a new light, though the English tend to overstate his much trumpeted freedom of conscience, from which only Catholics were excluded! He was a lodestar for Marvell and Milton and became an inspiration for future writers, not only English, in poetry, the novel and the theatre. Contemporary historians and those immediately following were divided in their judgement according to their religious and political beliefs. In the eighteenth century he was execrated by Whigs and Tories alike. Carlyle made him the model of his heroic, Romantic conception of history, which justified even massacre in the name of palingenetic ideals and aims. The repercussions of Cromwell’s rule on the cultural life of the nation are inescapable: not only did the Puritans call a complete halt to all theatrical performances, deemed ‘frivolous’, but at Oxford and Cambridge they presented the dons with an ultimatum: either they signed the Covenant which asserted the supreme authority of Parliament and limited the rights of the king, or they would be expelled. The objective was the puritanization of the nation’s culture (compare the ‘fascistizzazione’ of the state in Italy in 1925). Many teachers

13

ASH, 93.

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pre-empted the expected blow and escaped, first to royalist Oxford, then to France in the wake of the Queen, Henrietta Maria, who was already safely installed in Paris, where she extended her protection to those caught up in this temporary diaspora. From 1640 to 1660 literature became particularly militant, with writers becoming secretaries or government officials, either collaborating with the new regime, like Marvell and Milton, or choosing exile with the royalists. Cowley was the first to write a contemporary poem on the Civil War, and then to plan, begin but then abandon his Davideis, after taking from the Bible a ‘type’ of history then unfolding, the deadly quarrel between David and Saul, the latter representing Cromwell and inspired by the figure of Satan in the first diabolic council. 8. At the death of Cromwell, his son Richard proved to be incapable of taking on the role of Protector; the army was against him, and put forward their own candidate, an insignificant figure. Richard ended up by fleeing to France, where he lived under an alias (though he died in England in 1712). But why did Parliament, inexplicably, invite Charles II to return? Because it was feared that radicalism would rear its head again and haunt the country; because discord broke out between the two generals of the army, resulting in the victory of the one representing the moderate Presbyterian faction which favoured a monarchy that was willing to come to terms; and because the army’s political role was no longer predominant. In 1661, on the anniversary of the beheading of Charles I, the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw (his right hand men) were disinterred; their severed heads were displayed in front of Westminster Hall. Charles II was recalled, on the assurance (the Declaration of Breda) that he would pay salaries and arrears to the army, allow freedom of conscience, and regulate the selling and purchase of land14 – in order to restore not a personal monarchy but a parliamentary one. The King’s Council was made up of officials of the former Protectorate. The Scottish and Irish Parliaments were restored, many post-1642 laws were repealed, the bishops returned to their sees from abroad with greater powers than before, and the Laudian Book of 14 Not all royalist landowners were compensated for land bought by the Puritans at ridiculously low prices; these measures created new Whig landowners but made a lot of Tories unhappy.

14/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

Prayer was enforced, albeit with slight regional modifications. With a certain amount of discretion Charles chivvied local authorities to ensure their support for him, to control the farther-flung parts of the country and to influence the choice of members of Parliament. In other words, he broke the chain that Elizabeth had forged to link the Privy Council with local councils and justices of the peace. Persecuted Dissenters found a new institutional identity in the Whigs, while the Tories stood for the national status of the Anglican Church.15 The Whig party arose from a strange mixture of Puritanism and neo-rationalism. We shall see more clearly in the following section how the Royal Society gave rise to a huge amount of scientific research, and contributed to the separation of science from religion. On the cultural plane, for the first time in twenty years the theatres re-opened, but with significant functional changes.16 On a sociological level, consumers welcomed new goods on the English market, the production in series began of clothes and objects, local arts and crafts grew apace, the first regular coach service revolutionized travel within the kingdom. A townbased bourgeoisie, often called a ‘pseudo-nobility’, gained strength, creating relationships with the landed aristocracy, often becoming its partner: vicars, doctors, lawyers, administrators, as well as army and naval officers. The first weekly newspaper was published, the work of John Houghton and Roger L’Estrange, which advertised books, auctions, inventions and miscellaneous news. 9. Charles II, tall and dark-skinned, was an athlete, horseman, hunter, as well as an affable and incorrigible libertine, who appropriately fathered

15

16

The use of these ideological and political labels became stabilized when the Parliament of James II split in two, the ‘Abhorrers’ siding with James and the ‘Petitioners’ against him. Etymologically the name ‘tories’ may be traced back to ‘Irish bandits’ who supported the landed aristocracy and the royal prerogative and who were distinguished by non-resistance to the Crown. The term ‘whigs’, instead, goes back to ‘Scottish peasants’, who supported the progressive mercantile class, were against royal absolutism and favourable to religious tolerance. More precisely, ‘whig’ is a shortened form of  ‘whiggamore’, supporters of the Presbyterian cause in Scotland, and averse to the handing over of the crown to James II. § 46.1.

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a number of illegitimate children but none within wedlock. Known as the ‘merry monarch’, he was indeed popular and well-loved by his subjects; the care-free pleasure-seeking atmosphere of his reign, which owed much to the court of Louis XIV, was only temporarily disturbed by two national disasters: the plague of 1665 (68,000 dead in London in one year) and the Great Fire of London a year later (eighty-four churches destroyed, amongst which St Paul’s, subsequently rebuilt by Wren). Religious controversy was far from dead, although Charles did his best to maintain the balance between opposing forces. He promised to pardon the Puritans as soon as he came to power in 1660, but in fact resumed the persecution of Dissenters; this was entirely logical, since the Parliament was royalist. In spite of his Catholic leanings, Charles ratified laws against religious freedom, and made it necessary to belong to the Anglican Church in order to obtain public office. The opportunity was missed to turn England into a religiously tolerant nation, which would have made her stronger, not weaker. The fault lay both with the Anglicans and the intransigent Puritans. His foreign policy, too, was confused and contradictory. His need of money led him to take sides with France; he declared war on the Low Countries in 1665–1667 and 1672–1674, the motivation being the usual trade disputes and the American colonies, without winning either time (also because, as Dryden remarked, the outcomes of war were dependent on the two national disasters already mentioned). In 1667 Dutch vessels had sailed up the Thames creating panic until peace was declared. After the fall of Clarendon, the despicable social-climber Buckingham formed a ministry together with four other noblemen, whose initials, together with his, spelled the word ‘Cabal’. The Cabal ministry was forced to resign in 1674 after the third Anglo-Dutch war. Charles then formed an alliance with Sweden and the Low Countries in order to hinder French activity in Holland, while, shortly after, signing an agreement with Louis XIV to reinstate Catholicism in England as state religion. By 1674 Charles’s Parliament flaunted pugnaciously republican tendencies while his court oozed Catholicism from every pore. Some small colonial gain had been made at the expense of the Low Countries, but this, together with the fruits of the alliance with France in terms of subsidies, was insufficient payback for the king’s adventurous policies. Further obstacles were raised by the new minister, Danby, and Parliament. A hugely important

16/I Part I  Jacobean, Caroline and Republican Poetry and Prose

event was the marriage of Mary, daughter of the king’s brother, James, to William of Orange.17 Charles died a Catholic in 1680, proof of the victory of France, just after the discovery of yet another alleged Papist plot (Titus Oates), which sent a shiver through the nation, and led to purges and executions of Catholics, as well as to the rise of Shaftesbury and Buckingham, who presented to Parliament the Exclusion Bill (with special reference to the future James II), which is the central theme of Dryden’s famous satire.18 The last years of his reign were marked by bitter disputes between the two parties, for and against the king, by another far-fetched plot to assassinate him, and by new revolutionary, Cromwellian conspiracies. 10. James II, unlike his brother, was haughty, pedantic, attached to etiquette, and just as libertine though less discerning. Before his accession he had married the daughter of Clarendon. The second openly Catholic monarch of  England (the first being ‘Bloody Mary’), he had a distinguished career as an officer in both the French and Spanish armies, and, after the Restoration, reformed and governed the navy in attacks against the Low Countries. He converted secretly to Catholicism in 1671, and persuaded his wife to do the same, but his two daughters, Mary and Anne, were raised as Protestants. On the death of his first wife, he married the Catholic Princess Maria of Modena. He personally summoned the priest who administered extreme unction to his dying brother. All this induced the Protestants to demand his exclusion from the throne. Once king, he bullied a weak Parliament into handing over the money they had denied his brother. He punished severely those who took part in two failed rebellions (one led by the illegitimate son of Charles II, Monmouth, who was executed). But he lost the favour of his people by showing quite clearly his intention to bring back Catholicism as the state religion: key roles in the army, navy

17

18

ASH, 138–9, opines that this was a slap in the face of France, as Charles II, after all, had gained a very small subsidy from Louis XIV compared to his considerable needs, and that he aspired to become Europe’s arbiter. On the contrary, European diplomatic transactions in 1677 caused a reduction of British prestige and spread in the nation, once again, the fear that a form of Catholic despotism might be introduced. § 51.2. One of the better laws passed concerned legal guarantees, usually known as Habeas Corpus.

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and judiciary were already occupied by Catholics. Parliamentary activity, now reduced to a relationship between the king’s plenipotentiary and Parliament, gradually ground to a halt. Parliament’s deficiencies were made up for by the scrupulous work of local authorities. The point of no return was reached when James’s pro-Catholic policies were no longer tolerable, and it was clear that the king had lost the support of the country. The Anglicans reached out to William of Orange.19 In February 1689, the