Northrop Frye's Lectures : Student Notes from His Courses, 1947–1955 [1 ed.] 9781443896580, 9781443893046

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Northrop Frye’s Lectures

Northrop Frye’s Lectures: Student Notes from His Courses, 1947–1955 Transcribed and Edited by

Robert D. Denham

Northrop Frye’s Lectures: Student Notes from His Courses, 1947–1955 Transcribed and Edited by Robert D. Denham This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Robert D. Denham All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9304-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9304-6

For Margaret Kell Virany, Peter Evans, Gordon Wood, Margaret Gayfer, Richard Stingle, Ross Beharriell, and Allen Bentley

CONTENTS

Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Religious Knowledge, Fourth-Year Course (1947–48) Notes by Margaret Gayfer and Richard Stingle Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 54 Religious Knowledge, First-Year Course (1951–52) Notes by Allen Bentley Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 81 Seminar on William Blake (1948–49) Notes by Ross Beharriell Chapter Four ............................................................................................ 119 Spenser and Milton (English 3j (1952) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 153 Spenser and Milton (English 3j) (late 1940s) Notes of an unknown hand from Gordon Wood Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 162 Milton (English 3j) (1953–54) Notes by Peter Evans Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 204 Milton and Spenser (Renaissance Epic: English 3j) (1953–54) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 307 English Poetry and Prose, 1500–1660 (English 2i) (1952–1953) Notes by Peter Evans

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Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 360 English Poetry and Prose, 1500–1660 (English 2i) (1951) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 412 The Novel (English 3l) (1952) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 421 The Novel (English 3l) (1953–54) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 480 Modern Poetry (English 4m) (1954) Notes by Peter Evans Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 492 Modern Poetry (English 4m) (1954) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 524 Nineteenth-Century Thought (English 4k) (1954–55) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 614 Literary Criticism (Greek and Latin Literature) (1954) Notes by Margaret Kell Virany Notes........................................................................................................ 649 Index ........................................................................................................ 661

PREFACE

During the course of editing Northrop Frye’s diaries I had occasion to correspond with the more than one hundred of his students who were mentioned in the diaries. My immediate purpose in writing was to gather information for annotating what became The Diaries of Northrop Frye, 1942–1955, volume 8 in the Collected Works of Frye. But I also asked the correspondents whether they might reflect on Frye as a person and teacher, as well as on the scene at Victoria College in the 1940s and 1950s. The correspondents responded generously, and eighty-nine of their extraordinary reminiscences have been brought together in Remembering Northrop Frye: Recollections by His Students and Others in the 1940s and 1950s (Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2011). Several of the correspondents offered to send me their notes from Frye’s classes, and what is collected in the present book is a transcription of the notes that eventually came to me from these students. Outside of the video recordings of Frye’s course in the English Bible, these notes are the only other available extended record, so far as I know, of what Frye said in the classroom. For all those who wish that they could have sat in one or more of Frye’s classes, the present collection of notes will perhaps partially fulfill that wish. One can now sit in on fifteen of Frye’s classes, as it were, without having to pay tuition. Student notes do not constitute a widespread category of writing, but there are sufficient examples of published student notes from courses taught by recognized writers to consider such notes as at least a minor academic genre. Examples include Jacques Lacan, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis; Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1933; Ferdinand Saussure, Course in General Linguistics; Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought; Michel Foucault, Lectures on the Will To Know; Alfred North Whitehead, Lectures, 1926–1937; Theodor Adorno, Lectures on Negative Dialectics: Fragments of a Lecture Course 1965/1966; John Maynard Keynes, Keynes Lectures, 1932–35: Notes of a Representative Student; and Harold Innis, Notes and Papers from Innis Seminar (Toronto, 1947/48). Just as these texts, which come from student notes, are now a part of the canon of the separate writers, so the notes collected in the present volume help to amplify the corpus of Frye’s work.

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The notes come from an eight-year period, beginning in 1947, the year Fearful Symmetry was published, and continuing through the spring of 1955. This was during the period that Frye was deeply engaged in writing Anatomy of Criticism. One might expect, then, to find in these lectures material that would later find its way into his published work. As is well known, Frye came to many of his central insights early, a fact that these notes, like the theology papers he wrote as a student at Emmanuel College in the 1930s, help to validate. Similarly, Frye lectures provide a more complete picture than we have had about the roots of his later work. He often remarked that his writing kept circling back to the same issues, and his lectures illustrate that his insights into a number of the questions that were to preoccupy him for more than sixty years came to him quite early. The relationship between his teaching and his writing is clearly a symbiotic one. There are scores of examples of topics in the lectures that receive more expansive treatment in Frye’s books and essays: the medieval theory of four levels of meaning, the difference between the spiritual body and the natural body, the bardo state in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the imaginative versus the imaginary, and so on. Early on in his fourth-year course in Religious Knowledge, Margaret Gayfer reports Frye as saying, “The accuracy of history in the Bible is in inverse proportion to its spiritual value.” Such an iconoclastic epigram, which dismisses the higher criticism of the Bible in a single gesture, could well serve as an abstract of Frye’s two books on the Bible, The Great Code and Words with Power, which appeared decades later, 1982 and 1990 respectively. At he same time he introduces his students to the Wellhausen or documentary hypothesis, which postulates that the Pentateuch was composed over the course of 450 years by redactors who brought together four or more independent narrative strands. Frye’s 1947–48 fourthyear course in Religious Knowledge provides a kind of template for the theories of Biblical narrative and imagery that emerged some thirty-five years later in The Great Code. Readers will find scores of other examples of topoi in the notes for the Religious Knowledge courses that Frye developed more fully later: the unity of Biblical myth and metaphor; the categories of time and space, as opposed to eternity and infinity; the development of consciousness; the centrality of the dragon-killing myth; the symbolism of the Leviathan; the royal metaphor; and the relation between ritual and myth. In 2009–2010 I transcribed the more than 200,000 words in the class notes, generally following the various formats of the originals. I have silently corrected punctuation slips and spelling errors, and I have maintained the note-takers’ underlinings of headings and of words that were

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apparently intended to indicate a point of emphasis in Frye’s voice. I have put titles of poetic and other works, which Frye’s students sometimes underlined and sometimes did not, in italics. Finally, I have expanded the students’ abbreviations and other shortened forms. Square brackets indicate an editorial addition. A question mark inside of square brackets means that I am uncertain about the transcription or that I have guessed at what the word or phrase might be. The note-takers’ square brackets are represented by braces: { }. My own endnotes largely provide bibliographic information for books Frye mentioned and for quotations, or at least what his students thought were quotations by their setting off passages within double quotation marks. No one expects student note-taking to provide a complete or even an accurate record of a classroom lecture, Aristotle’s Poetics being the classic example of what results when the student note-taker yawns. Readers will encounter passages in the present notes that seem to make little sense or are incoherent or cryptic. Rather than altering what the students wrote, I have reproduced their notes without emendation, although occasionally I speculate in square brackets about what the note-taker might have meant. When Margaret Kell Virany writes that, according to Frye, the Greeks were practical and the Romans speculative, we suspect that she reverses the commonplace. But as my goal has been to transcribe what was written, not to ghost write, I have let such passages stand as written. Still, exact reproduction was often a challenge, especially for the five sets of Margaret Kell Virany’s notes that were written partially in Pitman shorthand. It is clear that Virany’s shorthand skills resulted in a more complete record of what Frye said than the notes of students who relied simply on their own handwriting. Her notes, which are for nine of the fifteen courses, form the backbone of the present collection, and my editing chores were made substantially easier by the fact that Virany typed some of her own transcriptions. The endnotes are largely bibliographic, supplying publication information for books and articles mentioned in the text and identifying the source of material that the note-takers have put within quotation marks. Frye did not write his lectures or even prepare notes for them. He told David Cayley that he made up his mind early on that he wouldn’t write out his lectures until after he had given them (Northrop Frye in Conversation [Toronto: Anansi, 1992], 142). He makes a number of arguments for the lecture method of teaching, as opposed to the seminar. What was Frye like as a teacher? Here is a sampler of his students’ tributes drawn from the introduction to Remembering Northrop Frye:

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Northrop Frye was the greatest single influence in my life. His view of things permanently altered the shape, not only of literature, but of life as I saw it. And even now, though inevitably modified––& I fear sometimes distorted––Norrie’s view of literature and the world still shapes my own. (Phyllis Thompson) • My own memories of Frye are filled with respect and gratitude. What incredible luck to have been “brought up” by him! I remember the excitement of his first lecture every fall. There was a ping of the mind, like a finger snapped against cut glass. You came back from your grungy summer job and then there it was, the whole intellectual world snapped into life again, the current flowing. (Eleanor Morgan) • I still cannot believe my good fortune in having been taught so many stimulating courses by a person of such brilliance and compassion. His ideas were electrifying, encyclopedic, and revolutionary. . . . Each year when I returned to the university, the hinges of my mind sprang open, and my brain pulsed with the excitement of Frye’s thinking, his eloquence, and his wit. But what keeps his influence on my life vivid and profound to this day is that he enabled us to translate the leaps of intellect we experienced in his lectures into the emotional underpinnings of a way to look at the world and one’s place in it––in short, to be in the world, yet not of it. (Beth Lerbinger) • Frye would lecture without notes, yet the class rarely turned haphazard. He asked questions constantly that required a knowledge not only of the Bible and classical mythology, but also of the major works in English and American literature. No one could keep pace with all the references, but still the effect was to illuminate and give a structure to a rich and fascinating verbal universe. And then, as an added bonus, just when you thought he had reached the conclusion his investigation was leading to, he would use that “conclusion” as the opening position in a new line of investigation. (Ed Kleiman) • In short, the Frye course [Religious Knowledge] in one way made for a lot of fun at home. In another way it changed our lives forever. (M.L. Knight) • In 1950 while at library school there was no need for me to run hard at either studying or football so I and a classmate would range the campus auditing lectures and we found Frye had the largest, most intent crowds and the most graduate students. Even now I take up my lecture notes, particularly on Job and Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, and find him stimulating. (Douglas Fisher) • The outstanding lecturer, the one who made my university education a spiritual one, setting the mode for the rest of my life, was Northrop

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Frye. . . . My memories of Northrop Frye are fond and precious. I still have the essays I wrote for him, with his comments on them. I have a collection of almost all of his published books. . . . I wrote to him a few times. I recall that one letter, probably the one that occasioned his notation in his diary, was to thank him for what he had taught to me, because of the perspectives he gave me about life. (Jodine Boos) His shyness and genuine modesty, coupled with a witty self-deprecation, made him the quintessential Canadian. Underneath all that, of course, was the finest literary mind in the Western world. (Don Harron) I was in Philosophy & English and we had marvellous, thrilling courses with Frye on the Elizabethan period, Spenser & Milton, 19th Century Thought, The English Bible . . . They filled my thoughts for three years! Frye was university for me. Nothing else counted. I couldn’t just take notes on his lectures, I had to try to write down every single word he said. . . . I got so spoiled listening to Frye that I couldn’t stand other lecturers. (Gloria Vizinczey) I expect a lot of people, when they heard he had died, said to themselves, “I may as well lay down my pen since there is no one in the world for whom I can now write, no one whose good assessment I crave.” (Catharine Hay) Frye’s teachings were the main influence in my life and thought. . . . My friends and I always left his classes feeling elated. We felt we were extremely privileged. In later years we knew we had been. (Gloria Dent) Frye was the most stimulating of all our professors. The mind expansion was incredible. (Barbara Beardsley) He was the finest teacher I ever had; my two post-Frye years at Cambridge offered no one within miles of him. He was demanding, very, brilliant in his lecturing, very, gave no student an easy grade, ever (not me, anyhow); he tugged at and stirred undergraduates’ minds every class, if your mind wandered a half-minute you were lost, hardly anybody wandered. He was witty and very funny too. (Don Coles) I had asked permission to attend a lecture with a good friend of mine who was doing graduate studies and had chosen a series being given by Professor Frye. This lecture was on a winter afternoon, on the top story of the great old stone building, at the end of a brilliant sunny day with a golden sunset. That light, coming through the immense west windows, turned our lecturer’s thick fair hair into an angel’s head. His language, however, was precise, and his presentation was concise––truly brilliant but also modest. We saw and heard a very sharp, intelligent, clever (but modest) angel. (Jessie Adams)

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As Frye often said later, the class of 4T8 was the first that he came to know so thoroughly and we were certainly devoted to him. A group of us would appear at any outside lecture by him whenever we became aware of it. (Richard Stingle) I had taken a first year Religious Knowledge, and a second year English, with Professor Frye. When I was choosing third year courses, his English and the History class I wanted conflicted for one of the two hours a week. When I approached Professor Frye and told him that, he asked if I had a class at 10 o’clock, and as I said I did not, he told me he would repeat the conflicting lecture in the following hour, each day necessary. I accepted without argument; I remember being in wonderment at such generosity, but did not even consider further discussion. I went to his study each time, and sat quietly if he were not yet there. I would look around at his book shelves, not brave enough to go near or touch. He gave his lecture, and I took notes, rarely questioning him, and so it did not require a full hour of his time. I doubt that it was rewarding for him, but it has been a treasured memory for me over the years. (Belva Walker) My course from Northrop Frye was Religious Knowledge. It was a first-year pass arts elective. . . . he was a brilliant lecturer with a vast command of his subject and the course made a deep impression on me that lasted all my life. (Don Weinert) No one could forget the “Paradise Lost” lectures by “the Great God Frye,” as he was known even then. The students from U.C. [University College] and Trinity who used to crash our classes were jostled to the back of the room. After all, he was “ours.” To comment on the brilliance of his lectures seems to me to be redundant. When I think of Northrop Frye, I remember late one afternoon when a few of us gathered in the music room of the old Wymilwood on Avenue Road and listened to him play the piano and chat about 16th-century music. Because our course was small we were able to meet our professors more informally than perhaps they do today. (Judy Bowler) I think, in retrospect, I would have been more moved if Frye at the end of the course had delivered himself of Prospero’s epilogue. I think, looking back, that I wanted on some level to release him and ourselves from the sheer spell of his brilliance that at the time had swallowed me whole and even Blake whole. (Ross Woodman) Apart from his brilliant mind, the most amazing aspect of Frye was his complete humility. Needless to say, as undergraduates we felt that writing an essay for Frye was like writing an essay for God, but he never failed to give thoughtful specific evaluations of our work in a

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positive encouraging way. We loved him as a sympathetic friend, admired him as a brilliant scholar, and were very proud of his loyalty to his own University, even though he enjoyed teaching in the great universities of the world. (Marie Gardner) Norrie was a brilliant teacher from the start, breath-taking in his insights, dazzling in his clarity and inspiring in his challenge to the life of the mind. He was above us but still he was one of us. (Newton Rowell Bowles) As a teacher, he gave the impression of having read everything (and I mean everything, not just the text or author or period under discussion) just the day before, and seeing all of it in an intellectual context where everything made sense or could make sense. At the same time, his lectures were delivered, never read nor dependent on notes, and appeared to be the thoughts of someone thinking through the subject right before one’s eyes. . . . Norrie . . . was the epitome of self-confidence or selfassuredness in the classroom, devoted to clarity of expression appropriate to the level of his audience and to challenging it by seeming to be saying things that were just above its present reach. The effect was that of having one’s head literally lift off one’s body several times a week. He was simply the best lecturer––inspiring, stimulating, coherent, incisive, and truly knowledgeable––I have encountered or heard. . . . quite simply the best embodiment of thinking and learning and teaching I have ever known. (John B. Vickery)

Enough superlatives. Time to go to class.

CHAPTER ONE RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, FOURTH-YEAR COURSE (1947–48) NOTES BY MARGARET GAYFER AND RICHARD STINGLE

Course notes for twenty-four lectures compiled by Margaret Gayfer from her class notes, incorporating some notes by Richard Stingle. The notes are repetitive in places because they are assembled from two sets. They also include some of Frye’s answers to questions, and his review of the previous week’s lecture. Margaret Gayfer and Richard Stingle were members of what Frye said was the “most brilliant” class he ever taught (1947–48). Gayfer became an editor for the International Council for Adult Education. She is the author of The Multi-grade Classroom––Myth and Reality: A Canadian Study (1991), An Overview of Canadian Education (18 editions published between 1974 and 1991 in English and French), and numerous other publications on adult education. Richard Stingle (1925–2014), who received his M.A. from the University of Toronto and did further study at the University of Wisconsin, taught for most of his career at the University of Western Ontario. He authored a book on James Reaney. Religious Knowledge (or a Religious Knowledge option) was a subject that all arts students, except those in commerce and finance, were required to take during each of their years at the University of Toronto. Frye taught one of the several offerings for both first- and fourth-year students in the Honour Course. The first-year course, on the English Bible, was intended primarily for students in language and literature. The fourth-year course, also on the English Bible, was as “a course in the appreciation of Biblical literature.” Both of the Religious Knowledge courses met for one hour each week.

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Lecture 1. 30 September 1947 The Bible is the grammar of Western civilization; it brings down an entire culture and civilization to us. Christianity and Judaism represent the only religions which have a sacred scripture; both have tried to achieve a single, definitive scripture. The Bible is unique in its symmetry. It represents a vision of the whole of human life. Its aesthetic beauties are accidental. It contains transcendental genius and ridiculous genealogies side by side. It is crude, shocking, funny. The Bible has a beginning, middle, and an end. In telling a single narrative from Creation to the Last Judgment, it takes an epic survey of time. The Bible sees the whole of time as a category of time and as a thing separate from itself. Time is seen in the perspective of eternity. Jesus is the centre of the Bible. Jesus and the Bible are identical. The traditional approach to the Bible is synthetic, to see it as one work. The modern approach is analytical and scholarly. For Frye, the synthetic approach is the real approach to the Bible, to see it as a unity. Several theological systems are based on the Bible and all claim to be equally correct. All religions are on a level as far as moral doctrines are concerned; the moral loftiness of the Bible is accidental, like its aesthetic beauty. The synthetic approach sees certain recurrent symbols in the Bible that form a single pattern of symbols. The structure of the Bible is complicated and must be studied. The original authorship is a very minor point. The literary person can see lyrics, parables, letters, memoirs, and so on— literary forms that have been smothered by repeated editings. The Bible is as much an edited book and its editorial processes must be regarded as inspired, too. The whole Bible is the history of man’s loss of freedom and organization and how he got it back. There are two kinds of symmetry. One is chronological, seeing the Bible story of creation, etc., as a legendary and mythical story of the fortunes of the Jewish people from 2000 B.C. to 100 A.D. and the spread of the Christian Church. (Some books are out of order. John should be the opening book of the New Testament since it is the Christian statement of the opening of the Old Testament.) The second is a kind of symmetry that does not correspond to the chronological pattern exactly. The difference between time and false history doesn’t arise in the Bible. The whole conception of true and false as we think of it is not dealt with in the Bible. The fall of man and the apocalypse have nothing to do with history. The Bible is not a straight line of chronology; its time is a circle. The beginning and end are the same point.

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You can’t “jimmy” Adam and Eve into ancient history. The whole question of causation, order, purpose, etc., is not dealt with by the Bible. Christianity clings to revelation, and the only practical way to do this is in a book. All we know about God is in the Bible; there is no God in nature or “up there” in the sky. The association of God and Man is the basis of Christianity. CATEGORIES OF EXPERIENCE Time and space are the categories of experience. Historical studies deal with Time, and science with Space. The primitive mind arrives at the religious experience early, and a place is assigned to religious myths, so that God resides in various places. In this way, religion reflects the society of the people. Foresters and farmers have a particular god, for example. The dying and reviving god of the farmer reflects the pattern of the farming life. When you get a Federal God, he is placed “up,” that is, in the sky, like Jehovah who is a mountain god. All gods fall under the monarch of the sky, a god who is “up” on a mountain, either Sinai or Olympus. This conception is seen in the theology of the Middle Ages in which God is “outside” the primum mobile. In Dante, one goes through spheres “up” to God. Although since Copernicus there is no “up” and “down” in the universe, the idea persists. However, in religion, space is vanished. Heaven and Hell are not places. Even after Copernicus, God is still enmeshed in time; He started it and it will end. With Darwin, the lid blew off time; it has no beginning and no end. To go back in time gets you no nearer to God, since God is banished from time. The 19th-century deist position of the universe running according to a God who started things was blasted by Darwin. Evolution showed that nature can create itself; there is no need for bringing in an outside God. Time and space are indefinite and shapeless, and in that indefinite universe there is no God. Time and space are categories of reality, and yet they are grotesquely unreal. Time has three phases—past, present and future—all of which never exist. The same is true of space. Man has an “up” and a “down” category of experience and yet there is some time in indefinite space which eliminates the idea of “up” and “down.” Man operates with points of reference—time and space—which he calls real. Time makes a distinction between Now and Then, even though neither of them can be proved as real. Our conception of space turns on Here and There, which also do not exist. “Here” in space and “Now” in time are the central points of man’s reference. One of the functions of religion is a perspective of reality concerning these worlds.

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Religion does not deal with time and space but with eternity and the infinite. Eternity seems to be indefinite time; infinity seems to be indefinite space. But this is not so; we are just confusing categories. Eternity and infinity are concerned with the real Here and Now. The religious perspective gets us clear of time and space to the point where you look down on both. The Bible presents reality in eternal and infinite terms: time begins and ends as a circle. The Last Judgment re-establishes the world as it was before Creation. Time has a shape. Space has a shape too, a beginning and end which are the same place. The Creation myth shows the tendency in the human mind to look at the world as not being subject to time and space. For most of us, Creation involves time. Actually, Creation never happened in time. Man’s mind is hunting for something central to hang on to. The real Creation myth is one which defines the present and continuous relation of God to Man. It happens in the real Here and Now. “In the beginning” is right now. God creates. The Gospel story is not the biography of Jesus. It doesn’t tell how Christ came but how he comes. This is what always happens; this is the way redemption comes. The apocalypse never happens in the future; it happens now within the individual soul. The nature of religion is that it reveals something; it does not threaten man with something he cannot see. “Metanoia” is the word for repentance, and it means “a leap of the mind.” The Bible responds to the child’s request, “Tell me a story.” The sophisticated mind wants an answer and will not relax and listen to the wisdom of simplicity. Simplicity comes from a relaxation of the mind which enables you to say, “Well, why not?” The parables are stories because the mind cannot take in abstract ideas. NO FACTS, ONLY TRUTHS The historical Jesus is not the basis of Christianity; the present Jesus is. Historical legends are in the Bible because they represent something which is timeless. There are no facts in the Bible, only truths. God defined by man is but a shadow of the human mind. It is like putting a corset on a finite thing; it won’t do. The naive man thinks of two realities, subject and object. The Wisdom Literature shows that both subject and object are unreal. Reality is in the contrast between the two. The usual primitive process is that natural forces become symbols. This is a conception of personal gods which appear as natural objects although they are not identified with them. To see God as the epiphany of

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nature is all through 19th-century poetry. But the quest for a God outside of man breaks down. We must look for him inside. But, where is “inside”? What it breaks down to is God versus nature, and yet, there is something called human nature. Man is a natural being, and in the human mind there seems to be no eternal object or subject. The usual notion of the soul is of a spirit, breath. This is nonsense. The Bible talks of a spiritual body. Leviathan in the Bible is organized monstrosity. He is surrounded by water. The activity of salvation is drawing a fish out of water into the higher sphere of air. In the New Testament, light and fire are presented as higher elements. People talk of the tyranny of the past. The Christian is delivered from time, but he is still involved in an irrevocable causation which makes every free moment done and accomplished without recall. How much of man can be redeemed from that? What about the Leviathan within us? First, we must separate human nature and humanity. In Adam all die; human nature always falls. Christ becomes Man, but not human nature. Not one person is with Jesus when he dies. With Pilate, we all deny the possibility of the union of Christ and Man. We either condemn Jesus or condone him. Every man is Caiaphas and Pilate, who would not see God in Man. “My river is my own” [Ezekiel 29:3] is the key to the Book of Job. Leviathan is the king of “all the children of pride” [Job 41:34]. He rules the world of humanity as well as of tyranny. Every tyranny is the epiphany of Leviathan. The fact of death is the fact of time. The world of death is the world of human nature which proceeds in time to death. There is no end to life for man but death; for natural man, that is. To see the end of life as life means you are not talking about human nature but humanity. THE WORD OF GOD The Word of God is in the Bible, the person of Christ, God’s power of creation. In Genesis, it is the words God speaks that create; they are what Blake calls “the originals of creation.”1 In the Gospel of John, “in the beginning was the Word,” which restates Creation. If the central figure of Christianity is the God-Man, why isn’t the Bible merely the Gospels? How can we make the same phrase apply to the Bible and to Christ? The Bible is the revealed form of Christ. The present Christ appears in the form of a book. A real God must be anthropomorphic. It is an anthropomorphic universe he created for Man. God doesn’t create Man and then think up a job for him. Man is born into a pattern of what he shows forth.

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Milton’s individuality is his poetry. He is a man born to write poetry. The part of Milton that survives is his book, as for all creative people. The men themselves have disappeared into the unreality of the past. Their ego has gone. The book is not something salvaged from the life of the dead man. It is something alive, not dead. The revealed form of Milton is his book; nothing else in Milton’s life ever did exist. The life of the Bible is in its contact with the reader. It must be chewed and digested, an organic process. After you have got to that point, then it doesn’t matter about the editing, the censorship. The vision of the Bible in which you operate is your justification of faith. The fulfillment of man’s being is an eternal progression open at the top. The Protestant revolution affirmed the autonomy of the Word of God. The church should never interfere with the contact of man with the Bible. The variety of readers is not important, but the reading is; there is unity there. The church is one Man, one unity; yet there are individuals within it. Christianity adopts the Jewish idea of redemption but places it in the eternal present. In the Bible, Egypt symbolizes the state of bondage into which man is born, while the Promised Land is the paradisal state of man. The forty days in the wilderness ends the “legal” phase of Jesus’ life. The law of Mount Sinai is the climax of the Hebrews’ forty years of wanderings. The Sermon on the Mount is the climax of Jesus’ time in the wilderness and reinterprets the Ten Commandments. During their wanderings in the desert, the Israelites were rebellious and God sent a serpent to bite them. Moses intercedes, and puts up the Serpent of Brass on a pole and tells them look at it and be healed of the serpent’s bite. The brazen serpent is the imprisoned sun on a dead tree. This is the Crucifixion. The New Testament tells us what the Old Testament means. It is the consolidation of everything the Old Testament says about Jesus. In the prophetic mind, the recognition of God-Man, the epiphany, is always present. The apperception of this pattern is there in the Old Testament prophets. The articulation comes in the New Testament with the Word of God. The whole effort of education is to discover the simplicity that is always there. First we must wander through the wilderness of sophistication, which is really the commonplace. The child lives in a universe in which all things are possible; that is, God’s universe. The child doesn’t leap over nature to get the transcendent but stays within his own experience. Leap over yourself and get to God. The simple transcends the commonplace. Some fairy stories search the centre of experience and are myth, that is, they are true. Once the myth is in your mind it matures and is never lost.

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Lecture 2. October 7, 1947 The writers of the Gospels were writing about Jesus, but they are not writing a biography. The events are there because they fit the pattern of what the writer was trying to present. The life of Jesus is the drama of spiritual Israel. When we study the Bible we see that in the Book of Isaiah fragments are pasted together and that a lot of editing has been done. We cannot accept the Bible as the work of one man, but we can look at it as a complete book, a unity. It has editorial unity, and this is true of the whole Bible. The first part of the Bible is arranged by people influenced by the Prophets. The opening books are later, written by men impressed by the earliest Prophets, such as Amos, in the 8th century. The Exile took place around 586 B.C. Before that, there were attempts to reform the early religion, such as taking old traditional laws and reforming religion according to the teaching of the Prophets. Then you’d have the Law and the Prophets. The Book of Laws is an attempt to reform religion according to the spirit of the Prophets that there is no God but our God. The Prophets taught a historical dialectic and Genesis to Kings is written in this light. The sanctity of the Law and the truth of the prophetic interpretation is their dialectic of history. The Torah is the Law, the first five books. The former prophets were historians, the latter were like Isaiah. The Torah is the Jewish kernel of their Bible, and the Christian Gospels are the commentary on the Law. The Law in the first five books has an elaborate ritual and ceremonial code, as well as the moral duties of the law and punishments, as in the Ten Commandments. In a primitive society there is little distinction between moral and ceremonial law. The framework of the narrative tells the story of the Hebrew people from the Creation to the entry into Canaan. The kernel is the descent into Egypt and the deliverance into the Promised Land. The narrative focuses on a different level: Abraham is the Hebrew tribe; Jacob is Israel. Here we are dealing on a plane in which the nation is conceived as a single person. The story of Jacob’s descent into Egypt is the story of the people. It is based on historical reminiscence, but we don’t know what. However, we needn’t worry about it as history, but look at it as a single pattern. The Israelites go down into bondage, a kingdom of darkness, another fall, of Israel. The plague of darkness is the most deeply symbolic. The dream of the Promised Land is the Garden from which man fell. The leader, Moses (Son), leads them through the wilderness to the boundary of the Promised Land. But Moses does not conquer it; that is reserved for Joshua,

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whose name means Jesus. Israel was guided through the wilderness of the dead world by the power of the Law and a man named Jesus began the assault on the Promised Land. The Exodus is the central story of Israel. Here you get Joseph, one of the twelve brothers who goes to Egypt. There is a cruel king, a massacre of the firstborn. Then comes deliverance by Moses (son), the Exodus, the crossing of the water, the Red Sea, the forty years in the wilderness. The New Testament parallel is Jesus, Egypt, a cruel king, leaves Egypt, twelve followers, baptism in Jordan, forty days in the wilderness. Moses is the law, so he can’t enter the Promised Land, but Joshua (Jesus) does. The Annunciation in the New Testament is the annunciation that the assault on the Promised Land has begun. Egypt is the fallen world, the Promised Land is the Kingdom of God. The symbol and allegory of the Old Testament become reality in the New Testament. Old Testament Manna Water out of the rock Serpent of brass Promised Land (Joshua)

New Testament Bread of life Water of life Crucifixion Resurrection (Jesus)

The Gospels are indifferent to proof, historical proof. The people who saw Jesus’ life are a mixed bunch. They are not concerned with how He came but with how He comes. This is what always happens. Lecture 3. October 14, 1947 There is a historical background to the Bible, but what is important is the imaginative ordering of the events. Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 715 B.C. David and Solomon illustrate a brief interval of prosperity. The Kingdom of Judea struggled on longer because Assyria (Nineveh) was destroyed. The Chaldeans come into prominence with the Babylonian captivity. The Jews in Babylon kept their own religion, literature, pedigree. The fall of Jerusalem consolidated them spiritually and nationally. Then came the Medes and Persians, especially the latter, which took over. The Persian Empire was organized under Cyrus, who became the pattern of the Great King. He had a different policy and let the Jews keep their religious traditions and allowed them to return. Nehemiah describes

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the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Cyrus cleaned up on Croesus and got all of Asia Minor. Darius I was the great organizer and Xerxes carried on the conquest of Greece. The Persian Empire was destroyed by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. The Greeks enter oriental history in migratory droves. The Philistines were Aryan and closely related to the Greeks. For example, Goliath is described as “gigantic.” At the time of Alexander’s empire, Palestine was ruled by Selecus and Egypt by Ptolemy. These dynasties became absorbed into the country; Selcia [Seleucia] became Syria. The tolerant policy was succeeded by attempts to force the Jews to abandon their religion. At the time of the Maccabean rebellion, the third brother, Julius, was the field commander, and his success was consolidated by Simon. This independence gave them a small period of prosperity because the Romans had not penetrated that far. The rebellion lived on; people looked for a Messiah to deliver them. This was not very long before Jesus’ time. The Maccabean period saw the consolidation of Jewish literature, and the patriotic party of the Pharisees was formed. The Romans expanded under Pompey. Octavius became the first emperor and Jesus was born during his reign. The Romans became more intolerant; they couldn’t stand the Jews and, therefore, the Christians. In 71 A.D. Titus wiped out Jerusalem and Hadrian completed the process that made the Jews a wandering people. They embarked on a new Babylonian captivity in which Babylon is the whole world. We must see that the history of the Bible is a mental life, like a child’s memory. Other events become superimposed upon another. For example, for the Hebrews, the Egyptian and the Babylonia captivity become one. Jerusalem is a squalid little town; its magnificence is in the mind. History is not important, but the imaginative pattern is. The Jews are an oppressed people; therefore their imaginative pattern is greater. The Celtic imagination, for example, creates gigantic heroes, magic, enchantment, a super-nation idea to compensate for being oppressed. This leads to imaginative literature. In the USA, you get a historical sense of fact. What persists are not tall tales, like Paul Bunyan stories, but stories about Washington and Lincoln. America is a successful nation and therefore needs no compensating imaginative history. Lectures 4 and 5. October 21 and 28, 1947 In dealing with mental truth we must detach “truth” from the Bible as it is known in history and science. The first fact we are aware of is that we live on a flat surface and the sun rises and sets. Then, by explanation, we know it is an illusion. But the fact of experience is still real. The truth as it ap-

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pears in the Bible is like the truth of that fact of experience. The accuracy of history in the Bible is in inverse proportion to its spiritual value. In the Old Testament we see a chasm opening between two types of minds. One type sees experience in historical terms, and the other, the prophetic mind, transforms human reminiscence into drama. The shape and form of that story becomes a parable. A cleavage emerges between the literal and the spiritual comprehension. The literal acceptance survives in Judaism and represents a type of attitude that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees. The Gospels bring the spiritual approach. RITUAL AND MYTH Ritual is the act, the thing done. Myth is the Word, the revelation, the scripture, the story of how this came to be; that is, what is said in the Bible. Ritual comes earlier because the act must precede its explanation. Myth is the explanation of the ritual. The Bible is a gigantic myth, a mythic account of human life. It is definitive myth which gets everything in and consolidates all mythic tales of any significance. What ritual is the myth explaining? The ritual of human sacrifice. This must be dug out of the Bible because it is clear only in myth. Much editing has covered up this human sacrifice ritual and it survives only in odd and lurid passages in Judges, etc. All myths do not explain a ritual. The explanation of customs of various tribes have mythical explanations. The anthropologist is looking for different explanations because a different conception of myth is necessary to him. Myths deal with gods. God is the God of Christians; god is a supernatural being. All products of human civilization are products of myths; they are attempts to reflect on life. Man doesn’t evolve; he resists evolution. The development of consciousness is an evolution of mental form. Evolution takes place in time, while consciousness looks back at time. Myth is word, idea. Natural Ritual Act Will

Human Myth Word Idea

Monolotry is the stage of religious statement in which the Hebrews say “Jehovah is our God.” It is not polytheistic nor monotheism, but a kind of halfway house. Other people have gods and each god chosen is a war-god–

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–“my god can lick your god,” which means no tolerance of someone else’s god. Monotheism is when our god becomes the only true god, the only possible God. This represents the advance of civilization. Polytheism: Man never assumes he is the greatest thing in the world. He is a natural being among nature. God here is seen as unknown, which means we separate him from the known, that is, from nature. To make god knowable, he must combine subject and object, human nature and the forces of nature. There becomes a god for each natural phenomenon; the god humanizes the natural force of the storm, for example. Man never forgets the circumscribed nature of his power. He can use his intelligence to harness natural animals but he never forgets the power in nature. He knows it is nonetheless powerful for being stupid. Man creates God in his own image because he exists in a split world of weak intelligence versus powerful natura. Therefore, God has intelligence and power. GOD subject known man intelligence creator myth word

object unknown nature power creation ritual act

We must approach God through the left side . . . . To look for God in nature, you stupefy God, you get a brutal God. There is a kind of stupefied sense of justice in nature, one of natural consequences. In nature you see an order and a form, cause and effect. Science tries to see how cause follows effect, to make nature predictable. Once power is predictable, intelligence subdues it. The ultimate aim of science (which is the application of intelligence to nature) is prophetic: science judges truth by predictability. It is true because it will work. Science stops before mystery, before what it cannot predict. The prophet in the Bible is dealing with human life which is unpredictable. He doesn’t tell the future of man’s behaviour and life. If that is true, science can reach it. When you look for God in man you see lack of power, the babe in the manger. Intelligence is vital, alive, but weak. Intelligence makes form out of chaos, but it is not a thing that is measurable. We

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also use the term “intelligence” in the sense of knowledge, which is the accumulation of comparative judgments. The true God is the creator God. The deepest intuition of religion is that God must come out of the human side, not the natural side. You can’t approach God as a creator of nature, although He did create it. The God of creation, of unknowable power, is a god of superstition. God as creator, as Son of Man, is true Christianity. Ritual comes from man in nature. Myth is concerned with stories of God. The Bible works along the line of myth, creator, intelligence. There is value in understanding that God is a person, has a sense of humour, loves children, prefers mildness to cruelty, and in understanding that there is an evil in nature that God loathes. He is not a lazy pantheistic god who has his own way. He has enemies to fight. (Example of ritual act and myth. Judges 11, Chap. 30,2 the rash vow which is followed by the ritual act; the four-day feast of lament is a mythical explanation. The ritual is growing out of human sacrifice. The God to whom Jephthah sacrifices is a much cruder God.) Faith is not the uncritical acceptance of what is rationally absurd. Faith is associated with doubt. There are no limits to human comprehension. The sceptics set limits to the possibilities of knowledge. The same is true of a religion that says the Will of God is already completely known. Myth does not limit; it suggests infinite meanings. MAN AND NATURE Primitive man contrasts himself with what is outside him. He knows he is inferior to nature. The contrast between the human world and the world “out there” is the beginning of religious experience. The more conscious man is of himself, the more marked the contrast is. The original impulse to postulate god or gods is to complement man’s weakness. But the farther we go from man the more stupid nature is. Freedom Intelligence Consciousness Morality (conscious fabrication of a social unit) Weakness Form

Death, hell, bondage Stupidity Unconsciousness Indifference Power Monstrousness

Conventional Christianity begins with strength—God the Father, etc. Christianity starts with intelligent consciousness and moral weakness—the child in the manger. God the Almighty has been annexed to Christianity.

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The Christian instinct is that one finds God in Man, not in nature. Religion then becomes polarized between a monster and the tamer of the dragon— Leviathan and the Messiah. The Messiah is the God-Man who grows in power and kills the dragon. He is also the tamer of chaos. Man seeks a state of freedom. As long as he is in the natural world, he in bondage to its power. The Messiah, then, frees man. The fight between the giants and the gods in the Elder Edda saga, for example, suddenly ends and you wake up and find yourself in a garden. The human mind can wake up from the nightmare. The original sin is the fact that man is born into a stupid, unconscious world. The natural within man drags him down to the level of nature. The human deliverer is to overcome the stupidity of nature. Nature has an order, a cyclic movement of natural law, repetitive and predictable. Science predicts what nature will do. The arts are divided into the arts of rhythm and pattern. The basis of human effort is the conception of predictable pattern of energy. In the cyclic movement, light and life conquer death. The sun fights the powers of darkness, the young, divine hero battles the dragon of death and darkness; he is swallowed but coughed up again. The religious experience is crystallized in the dragon-killing myth. The Saviour withdraws man from the dragon so that he can see that the dragon is not alive after all. The rhythm of the seasons shows that life goes underground in winter, as in the Greek myth of Persephone. The power of the seed, of life, is imprisoned for half the year and returns in a cyclic victory. Human life has its analogy. Beyond man are civilizations that rise and collapse. The Israelites see the Egyptians, Syrians, Babylonians come and go. The cyclic movement of history is strong. The divine deliverer is like the sun, the spring, and the national hero. A definitive myth about such a man will include these symbols. He is born at the solstice when the sun is weak; he is swallowed and coughed up; dies and revives in the spring. He has the same qualities of the national hero and will deliver the Israelites from Rome. He will suffer and die and his triumph is not simply killing the dragon, but his death will defeat the dragon. When you focus on the defeated deliverer, you get the dead sun pinned to a dead tree, mocked as a national hero. Yet this is the reverse of the real situation. The image of the dead hero is turned inside out—the physical defeat is eternal victory. This intuition of the divine deliverer is seen in the prophets. Amos teaches of a God who has human qualities, plus more: justice and spiritual balance. Hosea tells of a God who is concerned with man (Israel), a God who is willing to help Israel indefinitely, no matter if the people do go wrong. The exile supplies the key to this problem. The exile is the dawn-

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ing of the conception that the deliverer cannot come from somewhere else; he must be Israel and go through the same suffering. Lecture 6. November 14, 1947 There are three periods to the Hebrew religion: Pre-prophetic, prophetic, post-prophetic or priestly. The pre-prophetic is a mixed cult. The pre-exilic prophets—Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah—represent a spiritual awakening in history. It might be part of the general movement of Zoroaster whose teaching affected the life of the Hebrews. The prophetic follows the worship of Jehovah. The post-prophetic (priestly) is the legalizing of Jehovah. This period is Judaism, the founding of the second temple, the synagogue, the Pharisees, and an organized cult. * * * Amos is one of the earliest prophets. Genesis and Kings II have four or five main documents showing the people affected by prophetic teaching. There is no “pure” pre-prophetic phase. First there was YHWH (Yahweh) which became Jehovah, the tribal, ancestral God of the Hebrews. This is what the prophets preached. The pre-prophetic religion which the prophets attacked as not “pure”: that is, it had a mixture of other gods. The mixing of cults was wrong, and the wrongness hinged on the ritual and the ceremony. REVELATION IS CONSOLIDATED REALITY One Leader Serpent

Tyranny

Human

Community

Beasts of prey

Animal

Dead tree

Wilderness

Vegetable

Stone

Ruin

Oragnization

Domestication (flock of sheep) Cultivation (graden) City (cornerstone)

One human body One lamb

One tree One stone

The prophets emphasized doctrine and teaching. Judaism, or the priestly period, was the synthesis of religious doctrine with the prophetic teaching. The prophets were actuated by a feeling of moral evil on the part of any mixed cult.

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WHAT CAUSED THIS FEELING? Palestine is an agricultural country, a land flowing with milk and honey. Its chief products are grain, wine, oil. Before that, the people were nomads with their herds. The tradition is that the Hebrews were not always farmers. They learned it from the surrounding people. For the nomads, the sun is a destroyer and the moon is a friend. The word for moon is halle = hallelujah. The nomads were not interested in rain and nature. Abel is the idealized shepherd but the real shepherd is descended from Cain, whose name means smith, artificer. Cain founded the first city. Reflected in this nomad-farmer background we see the steady expansion of civilization from farm to city. Every time this happens, the land of the nomads has been cut off—by barbarians, Tartars, Huns, and so on, which inspires panic. We see it in American western stories of the ranger menaced by the city slicker. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, but the bloodless one of Cain was not accepted. There is the paradox of the killing of Abel. It is the death of humankind, and it marks war as a state of existence, springing from Cain, the artificer of the ploughshare and the sword. In the story of Isaac and Abraham ([Genesis] Chapter 22), we see God accepting animal sacrifice still, but he doesn’t like human sacrifice. The Canaanites practised it, and the characteristic of the Kings Who Went Wrong is that they practised the rites of the kings about them, human sacrifice. Ahaz was influenced by the Israelites in this respect. Connected with sacrifice is the idea of transference of power. The king is the reservoir of force, like a charge of electricity. The more he is a reservoir of power the more fragile he becomes, the more enmeshed he is in taboos. When he is killed you’ll feel something pretty terrific. This electric energy must go into the tribe, so they drink his blood and eat his flesh. Human sacrifice is also a communion. The body of the king becomes the body of the tribe; the social body is the incarnate leader. The king’s successor gets his share; he is smeared with fat, the anointed one. In the art form of tragedy, the king is killed on stage and his body and blood pass into the audience. That is catharsis. However, a society so organized is not that stable. Some modifications came in with the idea of substitution, his own son or his wife. The king must die at the height of his power, about age thirty. The substitute king can be a captive from another tribe who may be made mock king for a while. It varies in tribes; he can be the buffoon or like the king. Christ has both the triumphal ride and the mockery. Sometimes it was the sacrifice of the king’s son or mock-son. For the Canaanites, it was the son.

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To a farming community, the king is solidarity. This is different from the solidarity of a nomad tribe. The centre of gravity in the farming community is in the land and its fertility, the harvest. Their king would be the harvest and the vintage, the bread and the wine. The God of farmland incorporates the forces of nature and the fertility of the crops. He sums up literally the social solidarity which is the wine and grain as his blood and body. It is not symbolic here. The tribe still has the leader who is their blood and body. Human sacrifice is not a bribe in this sense, but a communion with a god incarnate in a man. The original victim was a god-man; then came a substitute. The victim of the sacrifice would have more than human quality as the son of the god. There are rituals that are bribery to some demon in the sky. But the true religious impulse doesn’t think of God as separate but as incarnate in a man. Lecture 7. November 18, 1947 For farming people the sacrifice was concerned with the cycle of crops. First it was the pastoral, hunting age of existence, the Stone Age. It was followed by farming, the new Stone Age. To tell this story, the Bible gives us Cain and Abel, the pastoralist and the farmer. The Bible deals symbolically with what we have dealt with historically. From the tillers of the soil come the village, the city—the move from stone to bronze to iron. Out of the unity of social interests comes the unity of religion. Judaism and Christianity evolve out of a Mediterranean culture and religion. Palestine would be less independent than any other country because it is at the crossroads of the world. To expect a unique experience in Palestine would be like expecting New York to be invaded by wild Indians. Much of the pre-prophetic religion is obliterated because the Old Testament is founded on prophetic writings. Solomon’s temple shows a generous mixing up of religious influences. His successors show that every king who Does Right keeps to Jehovah and every king who Does Wrong mixes cults, which include Moloch. There are hints of pre-prophetic religion in the story of Jephthah’s daughter, and at the end of Judges are queer stories of an abominated religion. II Samuel, Chap. 21, describes an oracle system. When the famine comes one consults the oracle. David inquires because he is the king and therefore responsible for the famine as the principle of fertility in the society. It is a private prayer, but really an oracle. There is a feeling of divine vengeance for some crime, as in Greek tragedy. Because crime is unnatural, nature must right herself. It is the act of treachery of Saul that causes the sin that caused the famine. However, Jonathan’s son is spared. Ideas persist of a human sacrifice at harvest to right the famine. The sacrifice originally is the tribe in communion as one man––through the

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one man who symbolizes the unity of the tribe. They enter into communion as one body. For the farmer, the blood becomes the vintage and the flesh the harvest. The man sacrificed becomes the regular recurrence of the cycle of nature as well as the unity of the tribe. There is no symbolism here; they are the body and the blood. IDEAS OF KINGSHIP The Israelite kings take on the symbolic attributes. The Israelites do not have kings for a long time; there is a distrust of state religion. The choosing of Saul is told twice in Samuel I, from the side of supporters and from the opposition side. The Israelites are aware of the lurking danger in the conception of a divine man, of the idolatry which is associated with the king. Saul is the biggest man in Israel. He is a great tragic figure, like Achilles sulking in his tent. David is the symbol of what a king is. The Judaic phase of the Pharisees and Maccabean rebellion is the time when the Psalms were gathered. The Psalms concentrate on the king, like King Arthur. Solomon is the king of a united nation. He and David are the Great Kings. They represent a man of peace and a man of war, the wise and the valiant kingship. There is a primitive idea in kingship that the king must humble himself and that any wrong to society must be his fault. David must humble himself; the wrong is his fault. In the Psalms, the cult of the king is so symbolic that the historical David has little to do with it. Psalms 2 and 110 show the cult of the divine king. There are two interpretations of kingship and therefore there must be a showdown between the spiritual and the physical king. In a monarchy, the literary king takes on qualities of a divine king, which will be interpreted in historical terms, e.g., the king will have the power to beat the Babylonians, etc. The issue must be forced between the divine and the physical king. As long as you have the King, the Temple, and a symbolic God, you will have a King to whom all of these qualities are attached. The showdown comes when a foreign enemy triumphs. (In the Aeneid, the defeat of the people means the defeat of the god that protects those people.) To get past the idea of your God to the only possible God, the chosen Son and the Chosen People, you have to take a big step. The Book of Lamentations is an elegiac poem on the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Chap. 19: the king is captured; he is their God and he’s done for and so are they. From Jeremiah on, the issue is forced more and more between symbol and the realization that the king must be a universal spiritual force.

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Trying to rebuild the Temple and the Monarchy in physical form is Judaism. That was the atmosphere when Jesus began his work. People were hanging on to the visible symbol and did not know what Jesus meant. All their hopes were bound up with the Temple. Jesus said, I will restore it in three days, meaning the temple of his body. He is the man whose body is the whole people. The real temple, therefore, is the body of God’s people. The people are in the form of one man’s body. This is the Old Testament idea of the doctrine of the divine man, the Son of God who is all his people in bodily form. He is responsible for the calamities of the people. The king takes upon himself the miseries of the people. The idea of suffering is attached to the idea of the king; he is also put to death when his powers fail. Lecture 8. November 25, 1947 David and Solomon represent the focalizing of the symbolism of the king, the consolidation of religious and secular authority. These men are important not so much as rulers as for the consolidating of religion. David captures Jerusalem, the focus of political and religious aspiration. But it is the same centralizing of something far more primitive. It shows up in the Middle Ages in the person of the consolidating figure of the priest-king, the head of religion and state. II Samuel, Chap. 6: David brings the ark to Jerusalem, the City of David. Before Jerusalem was taken and the temple was established, the Israelites had a wandering temple, the Ark of God. This Ark would be the thing that represents the protection of the Israelites by God. When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, the Israelites knew they were licked. Then they got it back. A temple is built for the Ark. The return of the Ark is told in Samuel, in which it is regarded as a sacred thing, as a reservoir of electric force. David leads the dancing procession (verses 20–22). The king who leads the service is also exposed to humiliation. David is willing to accept this as part of kingship. Verses 18–19: the entry of the Ark is signalled by a communion feast distributed by the king. This is repeated in the feeding of the 5000, which is the prelude to the communion feast itself. The conception of communion is still there. True honour comes from the act of suffering and humiliation. David is intimate with God, the chosen Son of God. It doesn’t make him divine, though. Psalm 45 shows the symbol of the king. The city and the temple are seen as the only place where religion is. God is only there. The distinction between city and temple is dissolved until there is no distinction. The king represents the people in a single hu-

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man form as the elected Son of God. David is the Son of God and, at the same time, all the Israelites are in the body of David. The Songs of Solomon show the king in a real sense as the fertility of the land. They have three meanings: 1. A love song between two people of whom the man becomes Solomon; the male represents the king; 2. The marriage of sun and earth, the awakening of fertility. Chap. 4: the king speaks. The woman is the land that comes awake with spring; she is black because she is the fruitful soil. The male is Solomon who is all the people in one form; the woman becomes the man; 3. An allegory of the love of Christ for his Church. Zechariah himself describes the rebuilding of the temple. Verse 16 [of chapter 4] shows that the fertility of the land is bound up with observance of the cult. This marks the passing of the farmers’ religion into the nomadic Israelite cult. But with the king as the male and the land as the female, this allegory holds only as long as you believe in sympathetic magic. All magic is founded on the fact that you can bring out an effect by imitating it. The Israelites outgrew that stage. They realize that God sends rain on the just and unjust alike. They see that the laws of nature cannot be run that way. This involves a shift of symbolism. First you have the king and the people as one body (male) and the land as female. This shifts to God as the male principle and the people and the land as female. The people and the land are subordinate to God who is the real or active principle. The king and the people do not produce the fertility; God does. In the prophets, it is the people of Israel who are the bride, the faithful. The unfaithful is the harlot. In Christianity, God is Christ. Later on, the people are not associated with the land anymore; they are the church; the people are the body of God’s church. Among the prophets, you get Amos in the Northern Kingdom in the 8th century, then Hosea, first Isaiah, Micah. This is the first of many attempts to reform the pre-prophetic religion, the law of God. They want to reform the cult. This teaching continues to the fall of Jerusalem and Jeremiah. In the 8th century they prophesied before the fall of the Northern Kingdom. When Jerusalem fell, then the pre-exilic prophecy ended. In the exilic period comes the hope of rebuilding, in Ezekiel and Isaiah II.3 This is followed by the post-exilic prophets.

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Lecture 9. December 2, 1947 The king is regarded as the archetypal man in whom all the people who follow him find their own being. This is based on the idea that man is part of a larger human being. To see society as a larger self we must move from atomic individualism to some kind of abstract idea. Man sees in society only himself and others like him, but knows there is more than must a mere aggregate of individuals. “Body” and “being” are vague terms. The essential thing is that society is seen as a human form, larger than the person. That’s what man expresses in the king—the larger body of society. He picks out a concrete symbol to express that idea. The king is an individual and, at the same time, the larger human being. Cannibals express literally that they are members of a single human body. There is a certain distrust of the king in the story of Saul; he is seen as something of an idol. The Israelites saw in Egyptian culture the idolizing of the king. Thus, deliverance from Egypt meant deliverance from the divine man, Pharaoh. When the Israelites pick a king, it develops from the genuineness of kingship. Instead of a physical idol, they saw the spiritual reality that the king symbolizes and that all subjects are united in a common human body. David rejoices, repents of his sins, etc., because he is the King. The individual worshipper says that David is myself, my larger human body in which I find myself. David is the typical man; therefore, each worshipper goes through his emotions when he says his Psalms. The idea of kingship carried with it one important factor: the King in the Old Testament is not divine. And yet, there is danger in an idol and a danger in making the spiritual abstract. The danger of idolatry must be faced. The concrete symbol must be the king representing the larger human body; the concrete stands for the symbol and has to be the flesh incarnate. The king is society incarnate in a man. He is Israel incarnate because Israel is the larger human body of society. The Bible doesn’t use abstract ideas. It doesn’t use the term “society,” but Israel, or Jacob. The king, therefore, is the Son of Israel, the incarnate form of Israel, the Son of Man. Accepting the divine king in spiritual form is the consolidation of the symbol. We see that the most primitive is often the form of the most highly developed. The most crude form of the cannibal feast is the real form of the highest development at the other end. KING, PROPHET AND PRIEST Three ideas emerge, that of the King, Prophet, and Priest. In the preprophetic religion the Israelites took on the characteristics of other religions, namely the farming religion. The common ancestral tradition was

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the nomad tribe with its own tribal God, Jehovah. The prophets want to get rid of the agricultural accretions and go back to the pure religion of one God, the only God. They idealize the nomadic stage of Israelite life, the patriarchal life, the pastoral life, the wandering free life, as opposed to that of the farmer. Abel becomes the prototype of the original god, while Cain moves on to found cities. The idealization of the pastoral life is one of the reign of peace. But Abel was murdered. Therefore, we must return to the shepherd’s life––the Lord is my Shepherd. Farming is a curse—Adam had to till the ground. The pastoral life is the only one of peace. But man has gone on to the city stage. If he gets back to the pastoral life, the experience he has gone through will still remain. He will live in a city state, possess the tools of civilization, and not let them possess him. This harks back to the old myth of the Golden Age. It is important to remember that the prophets do not speak with their own words. They speak with the voice of the current God. The prophets become mediums. This is most fully dealt with in Saul, which describes the whirling dervish stage. Those qualities are not confined to the Israelites; Greek oracles spoke with the voice of the god. The theory is that God has taken hold of the medium. The prophets are oracles. The oracle form is still there in the older prophets and this is particularly true of Isaiah. It is easy to trace the Hebrew religion to the days when the king had prophets around him as oracles, such as at Ahab’s court. But the oracle is no longer a man in a trance. The Lord has taken possession of the whole man, his intelligence and his consciousness. Before Amos and Hosea, the prophet was a kind of magician. Ezekiel is taken as the typical prophet in the Old Testament. This is part of a pre-literary stage. We are told stories about them; these early prophets are imbedded in history and religion. Amos and Hosea are collected sayings of the king that make up the bedrock of Hebrew literature. “Thus saith the Lord”––the meaning may be conscious or the prophet may be unconscious of a great deal of the meaning. The prophet is like the artist: what he communicates is reserves of meaning of which he is completely unconscious. It is impossible for the prophets to know fully the meaning of what they are saying. The life of Jesus tells us what the prophets meant. God takes possession of the prophet’s creative power. The prophet does not abandon his mind; he is in the fullest possession of his powers when inspired by God. In the same way, the artist conceives of his work as something requiring all his faculties. Yet he is not the source of his own energy. The growth takes place and yet it is in you. The prophet wants his

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mind to be clear. God doesn’t want to drink out of a dirty glass. Milton thinks of himself as a spiritual athlete. The Nazarites abstain because they have a job to do. Lecture 10. December 9, 1947 The key ideas are ritual and myth. The active side of religion is ritual, the ceremony, the religious act. The myth side is the explanation of a ritual, the religious Word. Ritual Myth

Act Word

Ceremony Doctrine

King Prophet

The basis of ritual is sacrifice, and this goes back to the idea of the substitute for the human sacrifice. The prophets come along with teaching so that the doctrine aspect is connected with the prophet. The pre-prophetic is ritual dependent upon the king. Now, the symbol becomes interpreted in mythic terms through the prophet. DEVELOPMENT OF PROPHECY The Psalms are the doctrine of the king in prophetic language. The prophets are concerned with the meaning of the ritual, an attempt to explain the true nature of the king. The king is the visible symbol of the larger human body, “society.” He is the social body united in one man. At certain points, the prophets have a special authority to appoint kings or heirs apparent. The original motive for sacrifice is that the king’s energy is that of the tribe. In pre-exilic prophets you get the feeling that the old king is not good enough. Isaiah is one prophet who has got beyond that mental tailspin. For him the source of inspiration is consciousness; he is the trusted adviser of the king. Mixed up with what he says is a criticism of what is going on in history. Isaiah Chap. 6, v. 8: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for me? Then said I, Here I am; send me.” But no one wants to be a prophet. Isaiah asks, How long will it be? It’s no fun. In the same way, says Frye, the artist is wholly possessed by what he wants to say. Genius has nothing to do with sanctity or with whether or not the artist is good or bad. When he has genius, it possesses the whole of him and gives him the power to shape words as he wills. Yet the work of art itself is taking form; the artist releases what is being created. The sculptor sees the statue in the block of marble; it is not an act of will. There are always times when the artist, the prophet, is saying more than he knows.

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Isaiah 7: 10–12: Ahaz represents conventional piety. “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” This is the right answer, up to a point. But Isaiah takes up the idea of the “great sign of the Lord thy God.” Isaiah speaks of the arrival of some new form of life, Immanuel, God with us. He speaks as if this is going to happen at once. In Chapter 8, Isaiah begets a child, and in the next chapter the arrival of this new life inspires him to say what is over Ahaz’s head, and over the whole situation, too. He talks of a new king on the throne of David. He is talking about the real king here. In Chap. 2 he talks of the “last days” and the spiritual king who will restore the age of paradise. Still, there is not any doctrine here yet that you could not match outside the Christian religion. Micah makes the famous statement of the prophetic position against the sacrificial cult. Chap. 6:6–8: the utter uselessness of ceremony in itself. Even human sacrifice will not attract God’s attention. There is the conception of the blood of a child as a redeeming scapegoat. “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” In Chap. 6, Hosea speaks a message of forgiveness, of the restoration of Israel through the love of God. “Come, let us return to the Lord.” The pre-exilic prophets have the inspiration of the prophet and speak with consciousness. They condemn the moral evils of their community, the superstition, the mental attitude towards magic. But Amos is concerned with the paradox of the relation of God to his people. God has chosen one nation, and yet he is no respecter of persons. Amos denounces the neighbouring nations, and the audience loves it. He denounces Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and they still love it. Then, he turns and denounces the Israelites with the same voice. He acknowledges the uniformity of men, and yet retains the peculiar relation of God and Israel. To begin with, Israel means the larger human body, the concrete symbol of which is the King of Israel. The prophets are led from the contemporary situation and the feeling that their own country is exceptional to the conception of the King of Israel as the source of authority in Israel and of its health and improvement. The prophets, therefore, become frank advisers of the king and will not flatter. The feeling emerges that only the king is authority and God works through him. The pre-exilic prophets idealized the King of Israel as the Prince of Peace.

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The paradox of a monotheistic state is seen in Amos where the hangover remains that God is concerned with the nation of Israel. This creates a difficulty that is not cleared up until the later prophets. Lecture 11. December 16, 1947 After the Babylonian Captivity, prophecy is modulated to the themes of the invisible king, since the Jews could no longer have a visible symbol for a spiritual reality. The ideal king may be eternal or an ideal to be reestablished in the future. Two directions appear here. The distinction is already present in the exilic prophets and is finally expressed in the conflict of Judaism, which stopped at the exilic age, and Christianity. With the destruction of Jerusalem, Judaism had to become a permanent exile, completing the idea of the coming Messiah as established in the Captivity. They rebuilt Jerusalem and staggered on, accepting the future Messiah bound up in time. The second exile under the Romans completed the pattern of the coming Messiah. The breakaway started as early as Jeremiah, the first of the exilic prophets, and is carried on in the prophets. There is ambiguity in Isaiah II and in Ezekiel: they are read by both Christian and Jew. The prophets speak of a deliverer who is to vanish and return, which could be interpreted as an eternally present fact or one in time. The Jew and Christian both see it in the future, but it is the difference between resurrection and revival. The Jews speak of a rebuilt Jerusalem, which the prophets did speak about, and perhaps that is all they thought they were talking about. However, the conception of hope and confidence is connected with something that is symbolized in the future. The pattern of exilic prophecy emphasizes that the city and the king have disappeared and must come again, symbolized by the future. It is important to remember that the Hebrew language has no future tense. It can differentiate between a complete and a progressive action, but not between the past, present and future. It is an admirable language for expressing a God in an eternally present existence; everything is complete in God’s mind at once. TWO STRANDS OF THOUGHT From the exile on, we can separate two strands of thought. We see this same split in Buddhism. The Great Way: the Saviour of all time (China, Tibet, Japan), and the Lesser Way: the Messiah yet to come (Burma, Ceylon, Siam).

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The Judaistic idea is one of a temporal deliverer, and this is still in the modern world, bound up with the future, anchored in time. Hope in the future deliverer is a fascist belief in the divinely inspired leader. The enrichment of the symbolism of the King brings out the latent qualities of the divine-king superstition. The symbolism includes suffering as an inevitable part of the king’s duty. Their own last king was blinded and led into captivity. The King must suffer even as the people suffer: this is a new feeling, that humiliation belongs to glory and kingship. The idea that the king must die and revive comes out of the feeling that the Israelite kingdom has been sent into exile and will return to the rebuilt Jerusalem. In speaking of the Messiah, the prophets enrich the meaning from the pre-exilic Prince of Peace to the Suffering King. The heroic suffering of the Messiah is described in Isaiah 53. The King must exist on two levels. He is the King of light and splendor who descends into the valley of the shadow of death and of lost directions. Then he rises into his former state. He must descend into the fallen world of nature in order to re-emerge as King again. He is King of majesty, light, jewels, crowned with the Lord’s anointed, but he must also descend into the order of nature and follow its pattern of death and rebirth. The Messiah is the visible embodiment of Israel. He is the spiritual Israel, the larger human being in whom all the people find their existence. When historians of the Bible go to work on the traditional legends, they see the drama of the descent and resurrection of Israel. There are two leaders of the Exodus, Moses and Joshua. One dies, the other carries on. God commanded all Israel to leave Egypt, and the people die in the desert, but a new generation carries on. All the prophets are concerned with the focus on one God, but not someone different from Jehovah. The Messiah must be, in some strange way, Jehovah. The prophets see the early history of Israel and thus mirror that pastoral state. They see the traditional God when they were a wandering tribe when they worshipped only Jehovah. They idealize that nomadic existence and the life of the patriarch and the paradisal state of Adam and Eve. But revival is something different from a mere to return to pastoral simplicity. There is something irrevocable about development: you can’t reverse time. The real crisis of the Promised Land is the setting of the Ark in a settled place. This marks a change from a pastoral state to a civilized one. From then on, Israel is bound up with the idea of the city, as seen in David’s recapturing Jerusalem. The Golden Age of the past is the garden. The future is the city. The pastoral element is there, but it will always be a city. The Book of Job is the exception in that Job is merely restored to his

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former pastoral life. In the story of Adam and Eve we are told that they lost the Tree of Life and the Water of Life. The whole of the progression from darkness to light is found in all the prophets. Psalm 23 is the idealization of the pastoral life, and then comes the valley of death. God will descend from Eden with man to the valley of death. Isaiah 2:54; the prophecy of the Messiah is associated with the return of life in the spring. Verse 2 brings a new image of resurrection, the promise of the founding of a great building full of precious stones. Chap. 54:12: “And I will make thy windows of agate and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” Chap. 41: the rebuilt temple is accompanied by the release of the waters of life. There is no more dead sea; the sea becomes a river. Verse 18: “I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” The last eight chapters of Ezekiel are about the restoration of the new city, the garden and the temple. The symbol of restoration is the city (a collection of buildings) and a temple (a single building) merged into one building that is yet a group of buildings––a house of many mansions. “Society” is also a collection of men and yet, somehow, one man. The King is a collection of men, and yet one man. Around this city is a garden, a river and the Tree of Life. The river is a circulation of water, but not a sea, the same as the bloodstream: it’s a circulatory system. The prophets are showing the city as the home of man and the temple as the home of God. The city and the temple are the same thing. The home of man is his own body. The home of God is God’s body. The city is the body of God who is Man. Our home is in the body of God who is Man, the God-Man. We live inside the body and the blood of GodMan. This theme is worked out fully in the Book of Revelation. Lecture 12. January 6, 1948 THE HERO AND THE PROPHET A distinction exists between two types of human beings: the hero and the prophet, and the relationship between them is of primary importance. In the hero, humanity has projected a symbol of physical man fighting the forces of the power of darkness. The Bible contains all literary forms. It is the super-epic and it deals with the act of the hero. One of the key ideas is the struggle with nature or with other men who symbolize the forces of nature. The development is the great archetype of the hero’s struggle with darkness, such as the dragon, and the victory of light over darkness at every sunrise. The solar symbolism here is exhaustive.

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The Bible centres on a single heroic act: the struggle with darkness and the resultant victory. In medieval sculpture Jesus is pictured as dragon killer. The hero, or king, is not fully conscious of what he is doing. The hero is illusive, inscrutable, and therefore commands loyalty. Christ as the suffering hero has that illusive quality. There is a feeling of the distant hero who proceeds to inevitable fate and triumph in the “heroic” Christ who says “touch me not.” The hero is too preoccupied with his action to know what he is doing, like Achilles brooding in his tent. The heroes are figures moving in a ritual, not in the myth, and they move with a silent and unconscious quality. The other type is the prophet who, in a sense, is the opposite. He has the disinterested view of humanity, and yet is articulate. He is not known for physical perfectibility and is likely to be stunted or deformed. He is the observer, the watcher, which the king is not. The man who is both hero and prophet is such a schizophrenic that he can’t do anything. The hero and the prophet are different. The hero is the actor, the prophet is the articulate person who explains the myth. The poet, then, is the prophet. The hero is the centre of activity; the prophet is the circumference of activity—the whole range of experience is in his mind. The hero is always “somebody else,” while the prophet is identical with ourselves because we have to go into his mind and make contact. All through humanity, in practise the hero and the prophet are separate. But ideally they are the same. The hero’s inscrutability is because he knows what is going on. The prophet must be able to practice what he preaches. The priest is the intermediary, neither prophet nor hero. He stands at the point at which the ritual and myth converge. The hero still triumphs but he will be killed. The prophet will become articulate but never causes [sic]. The poet who enters the social causal sequence contaminates himself. It is the priest who understands the myth and who performs the ritual. The thing done and the reason for it are understood by the priest. The function of the hero is to die for his crusade, but it is not the function of the prophet to die unless he becomes the hero. Christ takes on aspects of prophet and king, and also priest, in the sense that he is the intermediary between man who suffers and a Father God who does not cause, although He has total comprehension. Man begins his life in this world as weak; intelligence is weak and power is stupid. He tries to assign intelligence to the power around him. He thinks that lightning must be the power of a god with man’s intelligence but with more power.

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The function of art is to sharpen the human imaginative conception of the world. It is sharpened in epic, ballad forms which show the powers of darkness as dismal and stupid. The epic deals with the heroic act, human versus nature; that is, the physical world which presents itself to man as something to be overcome. Man tries to develop the garden out of the wilderness, a city out of rock and desert, a river out of the sea, form out of chaos. Human Garden City River Intelligence Form “Normal,” the norm of existence, what is true of oneself

Natural Wilderness Desert Sea Brutal power Chaos Monstrous: power and chaos

In Exodus, the two great heroes, Moses and Joshua, are concerned with a heroic act. Moses is true to the epic hero who struggles against the wilderness and dies at the summit of his achievement. The Promised Land is both city and garden. The story behind this is that of Israel (a single man) versus a wilderness which can become the Promised Land. When the prophets foretell of a prophet-king, they talk in terms of killing a dragon, Leviathan. Isaiah 51:9–10: the conquest of the sea is something which Isaiah takes us to. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, and the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

The dragon is a sea monster connected with the power of God which defeats the sea; he dries it up. Jesus’ ability to command the sea and still the tempest is part of this. Chap. 27:1: “even Leviathan that crooked serpent . . . .” On the day of crisis, God will kill the dragon. Lecture 13. January 13, 1948 Ritual embodies the ceremonial aspects of the law. The teaching of Jesus is a commentary on the law. He transforms the action to the understanding of the action; that is, myth explains the ritual. In the conception of ritual

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you act according to the law. In this aspect, sin is a positive act of breaking the law. But for the Gospel, law is the foundation of the human act, not the super-structure. Sin is the failure to transmute the law into human life. All theories of law, justice and judgment are expressed by Jesus in spiritual terms. The Gospel is not a new law. The law supposes a judge and a person as prisoner. The Last Judgment is usually seen as God “up there” with the people below as sheep and goats. But the sheep and goats are not human, and Jesus does not judge; he casts out devils, and the swine go over the cliff into the “deep,” which is the Hebrew word “tehom,” meaning nothingness. The arena of the Last Judgment is the human soul. God enters into the human soul and with His help we cast out the goats, the devils within us. The apocalypse of personality is God’s descent into the human soul. The Gospel does not bring peace, but a sword. It discriminates and divides. It brings the principle of absolute separation of good and bad in the world. The sheep are the pure, those who have used their talents. The bad are those who have not used their talents, but have buried them. The myth of the Gospel is the explanation of ceremonial cleanliness. The white sheep are separated from the black goats, the light from the dark, the human from the monstrous. The image to sum up Jesus is the act of casting out devils, the forgiveness of sin. The power of God descending into the human soul to cast out evil even as Jesus descended into the human and fallen world to cast out devils. It happens in man. It is the descent of divine power into man. You cannot make a sheep out of a goat. The sheep is a sheep no matter if it has strayed and been lost. Jesus will find the lost sheep. Sin is the negative act which fundamentally does not exist since all action is positive and good. The driving out of goats is driving “nothing” out to achieve the complete reality of unfallen man. I know this sounds like a riddle, but play with it for a while . . . . If casting out devils is the symbol of Jesus’ activity, then we see the relation between prophet and hero more clearly. The prophet is the observer, the watcher, the interpreter of the hero’s action. For the hero or king, what is the heroic act? Fundamentally, it is the destruction of the powers of darkness. The Gospel tells you the spiritual aspect of the physical act. The religious experience is crystallized in the dragon-killing myth. The Saviour withdraws man from the dragon so that he can see it is not alive after all. The fairy tale of St. George and the dragon, or the Perseus and Andromache legend, are not just “stories.” St. George is the symbol of the sun, of life; hence his colour is red. The dragon and the old man are

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the same; winter, waste, sterility. In medieval drama the old king is dressed up inside the dragon. In most variations of this story there is a sinister old woman to balance off the young daughter. In the same way, Perseus has to kill Medusa before he can get cracking on the dragon. LEVIATHAN, THE POWER OF DARKNESS The power of darkness in the Bible is Leviathan, the dragon. The Messiah is the dragon-killer. The pure “nature” force in the dragon isn’t enough; the dragon is also an enemy. In Ezekiel he is associated with the King of Tyre, a tyrant. The hero’s army is of another tribe or nation or social group. It can be an unrighteous nation or a city like Babylon or Tyre. In Psalms 87 and 89, Leviathan is also called Rahab––“thou has broken Rahab in pieces” [Psalm 89:10]. The dragon of folklore means the powers of chaos and waste. The parable of “a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” [Luke 10:30] means he went down from the unfallen state to the fallen state because Rahab lives at Jericho. Leviathan or Rahab means tyranny in some form. The hero is fighting for liberty against tyranny. It sounds phony, but it is something like that. The activity of Jesus becomes the true form of the hero’s act; casting out devils equals the killing of the enemy of man. Ezekiel 29:3–4: I am against thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks into thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. Ezekiel 32:2 (of Pharaoh): “thou art as a whale in the seas.” Psalm 74:13–4: Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Isaiah 27:1: In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent; even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

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In the Gospels, leviathan is the sea monster; but God can control the sea. The hauling of leviathan out of the sea is important to the fishing symbolism in the Gospel. Jesus is the fisher or men. The fish are not in the sea by accident. Leviathan is the sea. When he is drawn out, the sea no longer exists, only rivers circulating freely. Lecture 14. January 20, 1948 The word “ritual” begins to expand its meaning. It begins to focus on certain symbols, for example, the killing of the dragon by the hero. This is the essential theme of the epic. It is given symbolic expression in the life of Jesus who embodies the character of hero and king. The theme of the epic takes place in the individual soul. The antagonists must be interpreted in certain ways as chaos, sterility, wasteland, sea; that is, the unorganized aspect of nature. Leviathan in the Bible takes the form of cosmological and political enemy. The so-called “laws of nature” are sub-human; they are indifferent to the human and the conscious. God is not in nature. The order and precision of the stars is still sub-human; there is no conscious purpose of human qualities. Man’s religious impulse is that he cannot worship a god who is no better than he is. God in nature is subconscious and sub-human. In human society, as man lives in nature, human civilization is in the grip of nature. Psalm 87 contrasts the heavenly city with the earthly one. Revelation 11 has the symbolism of two cities, and of the city or the temple, as well as the emphasis upon accurate measurements. The city of God has shape; it is bounded and finite. There is emphasis upon the indefiniteness of the “outer court” which is our world. The two witnesses are Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophet. Revelation 11:7: “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.” Verse 8: the great city is the fallen city of Jerusalem, also called Sodom and Egypt. (“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”) Leviathan is that which binds man in the fallen state. The earthly city is part of the body of Leviathan. The doctrine of the two cities is the subject of St. Augustine’s The City of God, and it also shows in the opposition of light and the power of darkness. There is also the following contrast, in which the right-hand side is the physical reflection of the spiritual side, as a type of parody. Fertility Form Light

Sterility Amorphousness Dark

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Human body (individual or social) Hero (Christ) Freedom Human Hero (dragon-killer) Heavenly City Water of Life Tree of Life Temple of God

Monster Dragon Tyranny Nature Leviathan Earthly City Water of death Tree of death Heathen temple

Only in a state of nature is the power of darkness seen as continuous and fertile. In the natural cycle the serpent symbol has its tail in its mouth—the circular or cyclic vision. Jesus lifts light out of darkness, not just for one turn of the wheel of fate and nature, but eternally. Resurrection Regeneration

Renewal Generation

The aim of the Bible is to sharpen the antithesis between these two sides. Eternally there is a gulf between them; that is, between the state of heaven and of hell. In the natural world we tend to think of ourselves as individuals locked up in ourselves. With the co-operative act we are aware that there is something in humanity that is connectable. Man is either part of the body of Christ or he is swallowed up in Leviathan; that is, a complete individualist. Each of us is involved in dragon-killing; we kill the dragon or we are swallowed by him. THE STORY OF JONAH Jonah is swallowed and coughed up in three days. This is like Jesus’ descent into hell for three days. In the drama of the Middle Ages, hell is Leviathan, and Jesus walks into the monster and then comes out. In doing that he repeats the rhythm of the human soul. We are all born within Leviathan, within the order of nature. One sees it in the North American legend of the sun being swallowed up by a monster every night. The Book of Jonah is a grim business; it just misses being sardonic. Jonah goes through an archetypal experience that is like The Tempest, which takes place under the sea. Jonah has gone into a world of chaos and comes out of it. But the experience of a thing does not give you knowledge of it. Jonah is not changed when he comes out. (Israel went through the same experience without knowing what it was about: Egypt is the monster and Israel escapes through the dry land in the Red Sea.)

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Jonah comes out still an agent of the Law. He denounced Nineveh and is annoyed when the people repent. He wanted the wrath of God to destroy the city. He believed in prophecy as foretelling the future. It failed in that, but it filled the other prophetic role. Jonah gets coughed out of the whale as soon as he realizes he is in there. Once you realize you are in hell you are no longer wholly there. Jonah talks back to God. The humour of Jonah and the pattern is repeated in Job, which is also one of the greatest comedies of the world. The suggestion is there of suffering, doubt, despair, but no tragedy. It belongs to Shakespeare’s maturer comedies like The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, not to King Lear or Macbeth. The mature comedies have a sardonic bite that is lacking in the earlier ones. He has gone through the tragic phase of death and emerges with a comedy which takes tragedy in its stride. There is tragedy within comedy. Tragedy deals with the tragedy of suffering and death, while comedy hinges on the comedy of life, which includes death. Lecture 15. January 27, 1948 THE BOOK OF JOB The whole meaning of this book is complicated. It is completely a work of literary art, and affords the guarantee that, for the Bible, the use of the poetic imagination is legitimate and essential. It is akin to literary forms we meet elsewhere. The original of epics and sagas are all there in the Bible, but they have been incorporated into something else. Only the forms that are on the more remote side, such as letters, memoirs, have continued as definite forms. Job seems unconnected with anything else in the Bible, except in tone. It was probably subject to an editing process. But the editing, as well as the writing, is inspired. It is a fairly late book. Shakespeare’s comedies start out as light, urbane, sophisticated romance, like Twelfth Night, which has a lilt to it, and we enter into a carnival world where frustrations have disappeared. The later comedies have elements which disrupt the feeling of pleasantness. The Merchant of Venice is practically a tragedy. Shylock disturbs us, and the metallic quality of the imagery effects the whole tone. Then his comedy digs more deeply into the tragedy of life. The sense of escape, of the fairy world, fades out. All’s Well That Ends Well has an ironic title. Falstaff is an ambiguous character; he is not a figure of fun; the tragic and the comic are rooted in him. The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest have serenity and repose. Job is a tough piece of work. The last chapter has the feeling of comic resolution—he has got everything back. Yet it isn’t resolution. If you lose

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something, you don’t get it back. The notion that Job could be restored doesn’t work. WHY DO THE INNOCENT SUFFER? The heart of the book is a discussion as why the innocent suffer. The three comforters are not fools; they are trying to help, to bring balance and reason into his mind through Jewish law. They are people of human sympathy, conventional people as in Greek tragic chorus, the voice of common sense. Job doesn’t make a much better show than they do. The sense that Job is a tragedy is because of the dialogue concerning the suffering of the innocent, which is the theme of all tragedy. It is tormenting to anyone but the reader who has read the prologue. We cannot forget that “way up in the gods”4 are God and Satan betting on Job. The one argument that never occurs to the comforters is that God wants to settle a bet. They assume that Job is suffering because he has done wrong. We know it is because he has done right. Job is happy and prosperous because he is attached to God. Man fell because he detached himself from God. Here, God withdraws from Man, a paradox. Job and his friends take part in a dialogue. The author is trying to fish something out of tragedy, to establish the point of tragedy. The point of Job is “why do the innocent suffer?” This is the same question as in Lear in Cordelia’s death. The tragic flaw as a moral judgment is not a tragic flaw at all. In Milton, the flaw in Adam is that he is a creature of free will. But Adam’s flaw does not infer a moral judgment on God. Job says, I have done nothing to deserve this. The flaw is that he exists. The flaw, therefore, seems to be in the God that made him. Yet, a moral judgment on God is irrelevant. Lecture 16. February 3, 1948 ELEMENTS OF TRAGEDY Aristotle’s catharsis means that the audience is not to have pity or fear. The correct response is: the hero is a man suffering from the tragic flaw; how very like the way things are. The Greek idea of fate was not external; it is the way things always happen. The law of human life is not moral, but a law nevertheless. Tragedy is a kind of implicit comedy. It is the full statement of which comedy gives only a part. The complete story of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is a comedy. The implicit resurrection gives balance and serenity. Tragedy completes itself as comedy. The story of Christ has no ultimate tragedy. Death is a tragedy, but there is resurrection here.

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In other tragedies the hero dies on stage and he revives in the mind of the audience. Tragedy is the development of the ritual of sacrifice. The typical act is the death of the central figure, the king or prince in whose death the people find life. Aristotle’s catharsis is not a moral quality. It casts out pity and fear, which are moral good and moral evil. To say that Macbeth is a bad man is the reaction of terror, of moral evil. Sympathy with him on the grounds of fate, his wife’s influence, etc., is pity: moral sympathy with the hero. The real function of tragedy gets beyond moral reaction. The point is not whether Macbeth was good or bad. Tragedy goes beyond that. The catharsis in the audience is that the dead man on the stage is alive in them. The audience is united in the death of the hero. Modern tragedies are moral in that they stimulate sympathy or condemnation. Shaw’s St. Joan is moral. In King Lear, though, his death is a release. He attempted to find divinity in his kingship and failed. He found it in suffering humanity. From the spectator’s point of view, Job is funny. The watcher is released from the action and his perspective, therefore, is one of comedy. Tragedy has the reversal of perspective. Tragedy is a work of art seen from the spectator’s point of view as entertainment. Hamlet asks to be written up: Othello, the same. Tragedy has a point when limited in art form and seen by an audience. The audience’s perspective is comic because they are the watchers. The tragic hero is unaware of the humiliation of being watched. Lear is mercifully unaware of this when scampering around the stage mad. Hamlet feels that all eyes are upon him. He feels this to such a point that he takes it out on Ophelia. He kills Polonius because he is being watched. In Aeschylus’ Prometheus, he is stretched out on a rock. He speaks first so that people won’t stare at him. He says, “Behold the spectacle.”5 Job sees God as an inscrutable watcher. In Chapter 7 he describes his fallen state––no sense in what happens––if there is a God who doesn’t interfere, then he is merely the watcher, and this is unbearable to Job. Verse 12: “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?” Verse 8: “The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more; thine eyes are upon me and I am not.” A sense of loneliness, but of being watched. Othello’s black skin means that all eyes are drawn to him. Here, it is subtler. The comforters are not making fun of Job. But sympathy is harder to put up with than ridicule. Job knows God acts—but why this way? It worries Job.

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COMEDY INHERENT IN TRAGEDY The audience is imaginatively detached from the tragedy: this isn’t happening to me. This enables the audience to get rid of pity and terror. When you are detached, you let the whole stream go before you. Comedy is inherent in tragedy because the hero is separate from the people who are watching him. Shakespeare has some grotesque, horrible comedy. The Fool and Edgar and the madness in Lear contribute to a horrible comedy. In Othello, there is the sense of a comical situation that twists the neck of tragedy. Yet, they are a part of the fact that comedy binds up the wounds of tragedy. Job is not a tragic hero in the Shakespearean sense. The hero always has an aura of divinity, a man marked for this. Job’s point is that he is not a special figure, but an ordinary observer of the law. Lear must go through more than Job because he has to fight his way out of kingship. Hamlet won’t compromise and follows through the pattern of not submitting to the powers of darkness even when they are disguised as his own father. The tension in Job is that of a Platonic dialogue rather than tragedy on the stage. Tragedy presents a sense of lost direction; the hero never knows why he suffers. Job finds out. In Greek tragedy there is the deus ex machina. In Jewish law, it is the deus in machina, the machine of rites and ceremonies. From the fulfillment of the law comes the highest good of man, but the progression of ceremony and rites can mechanize life. God operates this “machinery” of the world. In Job, God withdraws the machinery from the world. It is because Job refuses to let God withdraw that something eventually happens to him. The effect of the prologue is to detach God from the moral and natural law. He is the watcher, not the ordaining, God. Job is thrown into a desert world where the law doesn’t operate. The Jewish idea of deus in machina means “do this and you get your apple”: bribe and reward, happiness is the inevitable result of virtue, and so on, because God is the First Cause, etcetera, etcetera. Then God withdraws and the rain falls on the just and the unjust––the evil prosper and the good man gets it in the neck. Job is forced to outgrow a God that causes things. Job knows that, and therefore he won’t listen to the comforters. We feel that God has played Job a dirty trick, and Job feels it, too. He doesn’t defy God; he curses the day he was born. Job is not given a chance to strike a pose or to look dignified; he is too busy scratching himself. Greek heroes suffer in dignity. The thing that permits dignity is the act of dying. But God spares Job’s life. You can never work out a consoling formula about the Book of Job. Tragedy ignores moral order. The feeling exists that Job is in the Bible and therefore must be reassuring and respectable. The same idea is in A.C.

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Bradley’s critical work on Shakespeare:6 in spite of all the horrid tragedies, Shakespeare was a good guy at heart and believes in a moral force governing the world. All you have to do is to read the plays to see how completely that theory is blasted. Here is God creating hell, and letting it happen in a way that creates the least sympathy for him. It resolves into the fact that there is no point in moral arguments at all. Lecture 17. February 10, 1948 To understand Job, you must see that the book is a blend of tragic, comic and satiric. All great drama is a blend of these three. The satiric tone is a blend of the moral and the humorous. Pure humour is not satire; pure denunciation is not satire. Satire is a detachment from evil; it brings out its wrongness and ridiculousness. You can’t find anything more detached from evil than God; therefore, there are some aspects of the sardonic in God, or the gods. This is inescapable in any serious religion. Wrath is the reaction of good when confronted with evil, and wrath is the opposite of irritation. God is incapable of irritation, which is a personal egocentric thing which desires to triumph over and score off someone. Wrath is impersonal, detached. God speaks in the tones of the wrath of the sardonic. Yet these tones are different from Job’s friends who approach him with elaborate friendliness and politeness. They talk in vague, general terms about the goodness of good and the badness of evil. Then their approach sharpens; the reproaches come clearer to a point of open antagonism. They are trying to hint that Job had better “‘get right” with God. They are trying to interpret their own sense of the wrath of God, of man in an evil state. But Job insists that he’s done nothing wrong. The friends become irritated; they want to scare him off. Job tries to scare them off, too. All agree there must be some justice somewhere. Only Job’s wife suggests something else: curse God and die. At the end, God curiously enough seems of the same opinion. Man searches for a God equal to him. God feels the same way; he wants a man equal to him. The dialogue breaks down into a deadlock. If Job has done nothing wrong, then nothing makes sense. His friends are pious Jews thinking in terms of the Hebrew law, the best of the Pharisaic mind that Jesus condemns. They try to interpret God’s design in terms of the law. Job comes to the discovery that rain falls on the just and unjust alike; the sun shines upon evil and good alike.

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Job, his three friends, and Elihu are all under the same cloud. The breakdown point is that there is no revelation of God to Man. All seems to be mystery. The collapse is tragedy and satire, not comedy. Tragedy and satire are inseparable. There is an ironic kernel in all Shakespeare tragedies. Hamlet’s death is a tragedy, yet it takes place after a muddled attempt at revenge. Horatio must tell that Hamlet has been a damn fool. In Othello’s last speech he is trying to cheer himself up and rescue some fragment of dignity. It is not that he realized what a fool he has been, but what a fool he is. In Antony and Cleopatra, the Antony who held the stage in Julius Caesar, the demagogue, in this play is crowded right off the stage by Cleo. She has him killed off in Act IV and has the fifth act to herself. She puts on a good show, but the irony is that it is a good show. Octavius comes in at the end of her show and says, “Oh yes, I heard she was doing some research on a painless way to die.” The hanging of Cordelia, in Lear, blasts any theory that there is a moral order in tragedy. The point of tragedy is not punishment, but that the hero fell, whether he deserved it or not. That is the irony. The author of the Book of Job is not trying to clear God’s name, as Milton was. There is no self-defensive, aggressive tone as in Milton’s God. At the end, God speaks with what seems colossal impudence. He feels he has a right to condemn Job, in a sense, for feeling that he is righteous in his own eyes. The reader has the curious feeling that God has done something wrong, in view of the prologue. NO SUCH THING AS INNOCENCE Why do the innocent suffer is the problem of the Book of Job. What is the meaning of the term “innocent”? If we look at the people in the Bible who claim to be innocent, we come up against Pontius Pilate. For Job comes the dawning that there is no such thing as innocence. There is no reason for Job’s troubles other than that of his own existence. He was quite right in cursing the day of his birth. Both good and evil men are caught in the same rat-trap. The “innocent” person is not only free from sin, but free from the consequences of everybody else’s sin. There is no such person but God himself. So, there is some stain on Job’s birth which the goodness of his life cannot remove. Two things limit the rewards of virtue, if it can be said there are rewards: 1. You can’t escape the sin of other people. You cannot be a good man in a Nazi state. You’ll be polluted by it even if you become a victim.

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2. There are diseases and disasters in the world that man cannot control. You cannot discover any divine benevolence in nature or in other men. Nature is indifferent to moral values. There is no guarantee that lightning will strike the drunk and not the saint. Job is led to the fact that there is a fatality in being born which the goodness of your life will not remove. Now we can see what Satan is and why he entered into the pact. Satan is the agent of all these disasters which fall on Job. He is bound up with this world that limits and conditions us. Satan actually is this evil world. He is called the Prince of this world, Prince of the powers of the air, of tempests, floods––and boils. When man is born there are two powers which control and watch him. There is God himself, but a certain amount of autonomous power is given to Satan. What finally unrolls is a picture of man born into a Satanic world, with God permitting Satan to have a certain amount of leeway. Job has observed the laws of God, not for self-interest, but because he is good and because God is God. There are a lot of people who will follow God only so long as things are pleasant. Satan bets on this. The bet is to test the holy-willies7 of this world. Liberty is given to Satan because it is the only adult conception of God above that of a God who says “do this or else.” The immature idea is of reward and punishment for behaviour. If there was a law like this it would be a kindergarten world; there would be a visible and clearly operating moral law in this world. Lecture 18. February 17, 1948 In tragedy, something comes through directly, a vision beyond that of the social and the moral. Iago is a figure in a tragedy but he is not heroic. Macbeth is an experiment in a tragedy where the hero and the villain are the same person. Emotions of pity for the hero through the reproach of the audience somewhere; for example, they blame Iago. In a social tragedy, such as the lynching of a negro, the audience is morally condemned for tolerating such cruelty. A tragedy in which man is innocent and blames God for the scheme of things is not a real tragedy. Even Henley’s Invictus—“I am captain of my soul”—is still handing out a high moral line. Job gets past this morality stage. He will not condemn himself, and therefore his three friends have nothing more to say. At this point, Job leaves the moral aspect and goes on to the tragic. Elihu has an organic role because he brings the tragedy to a focus.

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The arguments with the friends are based on law. Wisdom means following the tried and tested ways––the fool is he who breaks away, etc. Yet, the law has not brought Job the wisdom he wants. Elihu is the Old Testament conception of the prophet. He has no personal authority––I must speak; therefore it is God talking to you. The three friends are the old men of Job’s generation. Elihu is the young spirit of prophecy. He condemns Job on grounds that are implicit rather than implicit. He places the condemnation on a broader basis and comes closer to the doctrine of original sin: Job is condemned because he exists. Elihu deals with the “otherness” of God from man. This is the first step in religious feeling, the sense of the opposition of the divine and the human; the feeling that man cannot reach God through the human means of reason, etc. God himself breaks in on Elihu’s speech and pushes him aside. It sounds as if God was merely continuing his speech, but he turns it upside down. The same thing is being said, but from a different quarter. Elihu has found the scent somehow or other. The voice which is outside Job is Elihu, but when the voice is inside Job, it is God. The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, the symbol of confusion. It is confusion in terms of what is going on around him. That is, out of Elihu’s words without knowledge and the confusion they create in Job, comes God’s voice. Elijah is the typical prophet, and Elihu’s name is close to his. I Kings 19: Elijah repeats Jesus’ period in the wilderness [I Kings 19: 8] and also Moses’ exile, so that he is the Law and the Prophet. Verse 9: the word of the Lord is represented by the pronoun “he.” “And he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?” The action turns inside Elijah. He goes through the wind, earthquake, fire and doesn’t find God in any of them. But it is after the fire that there comes “a still small voice” [I Kings 19:11–13]. Job’s religious experience starts with God separate from man, up in the sky. Then Job realizes that God can’t be up in the sky; he is inside Job. The speech of Elihu rounds off the tragedy and brings it to a tragic resolution. Elihu says Job’s sin is in getting born; it is not a moral sin. He is driving sin into the involuntary; it is not moral. The tragic resolution is on the point of evil attendant at birth. Evil things just happen. It is not moral but natural. Nature is majestically indifferent. Morals are sticks and stones, a barricade against nature. Elihu takes you to the bedrock of natural man: you are not different from that world that knocks you around. This is “fate” in tragedy. What Oedipus did wrong, he did unconsciously. The moral sin is one of choice; in tragedy, it is involuntary and inevitable; it is the co-incidence of nature

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with the involuntary ignorance of man. Tragedy is the identification of nature with man. Job is unwilling to surrender his conscious identity. Elihu says there’s nothing in man over which he can call himself king. What has man got that is better than the natural forces which swallow him up? Law and morality won’t help him. Job won’t find God in “the foundations of the earth” [Job 38:4]. The point is that God can’t be found in the sky, in space or time as the First Cause. He is not outside the limits of time and space because there are no limits to time and space. Job, instead of being the centre of what is happening to him, is the circumference of an entirely new vision. He finds himself wholly removed from the things which he thought were outside him. Nothing exists outside him. What use is a God at the beginning of time when man is here and now in the middle of time? Law is founded on causality, a God who starts things in time and space and is therefore enmeshed in the natural cycle. Even knowledge itself is different from what we thought of it as getting hold of this and that: these are terms we use when panicky. The wisdom of Job is not grasping but letting go of something. It is the same as an experienced guide and an inexperienced man getting lost in the forest. The inexperienced man gets panicky; all he can see is the thereness of the forest all around him. He feels helpless, fated; thinks about how he will starve to death, but at least then the forest won’t be there. The experienced guide accepts the conditions under which he finds himself, but he is no longer imprisoned in the forest. He is not aware of the thereness of the forest; it neither exists nor does not exist. In the same way, Hamlet and Falstaff are both real and unreal, just as a point in mathematics is (a) a point and (b) not a point. The growth of knowledge is a growth of freedom, a detachment, a letting go of the world around. The man who gains knowledge comes back to saying that “something” is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul—but the word “I” means something else. It is no longer the ego of the suffering man Job but the universal voice within him, which is God-Man. Lecture 19. February 24, 1948 THE SEARCH FOR WISDOM There are concentric spheres in the Book of Job. The inner sphere is a morality play with virtue and vice in argument with friends. From the deadlock of the argument to the end of Elihu’s speech is another sphere. The still-wider concentric sphere is that of a divine comedy—God watching Job and then restoring him. There are ironic overtones to the “tragic” story.

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The same concentric pattern is in the life of Jesus. The active Jesus, the teacher and healer, is the kernel of the story. His tragedy is another sphere. Then comes the divine comedy of redemption. King Lear is a morality play at heart with the good people against the bad. Outside that is tragedy which is not moral because Cordelia dies. Around that is the adumbration of the comedy, of a man who attempted to find divinity in kingship but finds it only in suffering humanity. In the last chapter, verse 8, Job becomes the redeemer of his friends. “And my servant Job shall pray for you.” But Job has suffered too much for the restoration of his flocks and children to be the answer to his problem. Job’s is a personal search for wisdom. What the restoration of his children represent are the symbols of that new wisdom. In the Old Testament, the histories focus on a king. In the prophecies, they focus on the watcher as opposed to the doer of the New Testament. Job is the third division of the Old Testament, the Wisdom books, like Solomon, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. What takes place is a personal form of wisdom. Comedy will not come with restoration. Too much has happened. God is too responsible. Job is not hankering after his goods and children but the reality of which they are symbols; this he identifies with wisdom. He begins the search for wisdom with “why did God do this to me?” This expands into “what is God?” The search for God is the search for wisdom. And God is inside Job. In Chapter 40, God describes Behemoth and in Chapter 41, Leviathan. The chief point is this description is the phrase “he is king over all the children of pride” [41:34]. Why is this so significant? Why does it enlighten Job so that he says “now mine eye seeth thee” [42:5]? We would expect God to lead him to Satan, but he leads him to Leviathan. Satan and Leviathan are the same person. Satan stands for the tyranny of nature and man. Job sees the form of his tragedy as a monster, that is, now he can see it because he has been coughed out of the belly of Leviathan. Job is detached from a world of the tyranny of man and nature. He has found a new centre of balance in a spiritual world where God is, which is inside himself. He no longer lives in the moral world of the conflict of good and evil. The world he is in has only heaven and hell, a personal God who is human against a monster which is evil, that is, Satan. Man has two alternatives. He can be caught up in the body of God or swallowed by Leviathan. What you see of Job in this world no longer matters, whether he is restored to prosperity or sitting on a dunghill like Ezekiel. Ezekiel 28:14: “Thou art the appointed cherub that covereth; and I

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have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” Ezekiel 29: 3–4: Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

There is a link with Genesis 3:24, describing the Covering Cherub who guards paradise, and who is also associated with the King of Tyre. They both prevent man from returning to paradise. Job can see these monsters because he’s pushing them aside on his way to the unfallen state of man. God’s description of Leviathan is full of humour and zest, as if he was the biggest pet in God’s zoo. God asks Job, where were you when the world was created [38:4]. Job’s answer is to see, not to make the world but to get free of it. The advance of knowledge is a letting go of the world. The panicky desire to come to grips with knowledge is like fighting a dragon too big for yourself. You must find the centre of reality in yourself, not of yourself, so you can relax. Detach yourself from the pursuit of knowledge and you’ll find it. The true philosophic gesture is to throw your head back to get your brains free; remove yourself from the problem order to see it, like climbing a tree in order to see the landscape. When I say that God is in Job and therefore wisdom is in Job, I don’t mean the egocentric self because the ego never understands anything; it only uses. When you understand something you are surrounded by it. It is in you but at the same time it is the circumference. Something you understand takes a shape of its own although it is in your mind. The study of mathematics shows you the pattern and shape of science but you still contain that in your mind. Lecture 20. March, 2, 1948 THE WISDOM LITERATURE The Book of Job is like a Platonic dialogue in that out of it emerges a form; out of the conflict of ideas arises something like a dialectic. Job’s task is to find wisdom. His story is an intellectualized romance, a quest which is realized in human form. The conception of wisdom in the Old Testament is Egyptian as much as anything else because the Hebrews took from it their idea of practical

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wisdom. The Egyptians have little literature but what we have of it is the practical kind of wisdom of making your own way in the world. The Jews regarded the Egyptians much as Christians regard Judaism: we have escaped from its bondage but we can still see its spiritual form. The Jewish wisdom books at first were like the Egyptian: little sayings about the wisdom of following tried and tested ways. The Book of Proverbs has many of these ancestral sayings. Under the influence of the prophets the emphasis upon pagan wisdom changed. Job and Ecclesiastes are full-fledged wisdom literature. The Apocrypha contains the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of Esdras. It says something for the stupidity of the Protestant canon that it excluded these books because they were not written in Hebrew, but in Greek and Latin. It is impossible to understand the Bible without the Apocrypha. Its books are of central importance, as Job is, both to the Bible and to literature. St. Jerome followed the Hebrew tradition, but he got it in the Bible. Ecclesiastes is somewhat obscure and easily misunderstood. The author is a Hebrew Montaigne and like him easily typed, inaccurately. Like Montaigne, he is labelled a sceptic, wrongly, because both Montaigne and the author of Ecclesiastes were showing the limits of sceptism. In the 19th century when pessimism was fashionable, Ecclesiastes was quoted as a pioneer of scepticism. Schopenhauer was read widely then, too; or, rather, was quoted widely. Both pessimism and optimism are attempts to find a formula, and the author of Ecclesiastes is too shrewd to fall into the trap of a formula. The problem here, in many ways, is subtler than Job’s. The author is a good man, too, etc. etc. Then comes a sudden breakdown in motivation. In medieval times the word for it is accidia; in Elizabethan, melancholy; for Baudelaire, ennui; and for Blake, the Selfhood. It is the feeling: what is the use of it all? The sudden collapse of one’s sense of motive is very contemporary. Existentialism is a commentary on Ecclesiastes, a search for the unmotivated act; to act in such a way as to eliminate choice between this action and that. In Ecclesiastes, there is this sense of collapse of moral values. What is the value of doing this rather than that? The basis of existence is, naturally, man himself. A philosopher is always assigning undue place to man’s reason and consciousness. For the poet, man is imaginative; for the statesman and economist, man is active man, attaching much importance to the voluntary, to the will. There is a tendency to interpret man in terms of one thing that he is. Descartes said that man exists because he is thinking man. But how many people are con-

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sciously thinking? A great philosopher may spend about four percent of his time thinking. The focus must narrow fundamentally to the fact that man is. That is what oppresses the writer of Ecclesiastes. It doesn’t matter if the fool isn’t being a real man; he exists, as does the wise man. What is implied in the fact of existence is life and death. Existence is not life but a life. The basis of all philosophy, poetry, religion and economics is man squeezed between the narrow limit of birth and death. The feeling here is one of dread. It is not fear, for that implies fear of something. This is the fundamental character of human existence. Dread may turn into fear, fear of death, for example. This is the basis of the existentialist movement today, which is crawling over the pages of every magazine you pick up. It is the Americans who have taken up this movement. The rise of Nazism had convinced people that we know absolutely nothing about the human mind. Reasonable ideas about the mind and American middle-class bourgeois psychology aren’t going to help, either. MAN IS. THEREFORE HE DREADS Ecclesiastes isn’t a tired book. There is terrific energy in it. The point: Man is, therefore he dreads. This breakdown of motivation, loss of usefulness in life, is a paralysis of activity by the uselessness of it all. This is the manifestation of dread of life which is always there. You are unable to focus your mind because there’s no place on which to focus it. In that state, we see the world as the writer of Ecclesiastes sees it, as vanity and vexation of spirit. Dread, when pursued long enough, is dread of death. You see how close Montaigne is to existentialist philosophy in his statement: the aim of philosophy is to know how to die.8 You all know the feeling when you have a completely free evening and you don’t do anything but wander around. You feel trapped in limitless expansion; you have a persistent sense of dread. It can be channelled into work but the force of dread is always there. Nothing can remove it. The sudden feeling of tears for no reason; you make yourself miserable, oppressed, by the fact of your own existence. Dread excites the panic which prompts the search for distraction, novelty. People who are free can relax and sit by themselves, even though the dread is still there. Those who let dread haunt them can’t be alone. Dread is above religious or atheistic feelings because it is inherent in the fact of existence. Anyone with atheistic tendencies can channel it into a revolutionary belief and into a force against something, like society, the bourgeois, etc. A person with religious tendencies, when aware of dread, may have the feeling of fear of God. If dread is a fear of something it may

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be removed, like fear of economic security, of parents, etc. But the dread is still there. For the existentialist, man lives; therefore he dreads. The ability to distract oneself is still motivated by dread. A hobby is a pernicious thing if only taken up to pass time. Man is the only being who can have dread because he is conscious of it. Yet I am sure it is in animals, too. This dread could also be a dread of life, which is just as common as dread of death. The Nazi state focused dread into a concrete form—fear of life is more concrete than fear of death. The Nazis weren’t afraid to die. The sense of dread results in a feeling of discontent; the sense of finiteness. It is not so much a fear of life or death but the ticking of the clock reminding one of the finiteness of life. Whenever we start studying or doing something worthwhile, we know we are tackling a job that will outlast our lifetime. This is the state of mind which psychology cannot reach. This is what the theologians mean by sin and guilt: man’s sense of finiteness. It goes beyond the moral sense of “I have done wrong” to “I have not done much.” Religion heightens the feeling of dread. To see finite life in relation to eternal life is appalling, like an eternity of evenings at home with nothing to do. We can’t relax in that state. Religion has an answer—we’re coming to that! Any respectable religion worthy of the name has within it the awareness of this inherent sense of dread. But the dread exists whether one is religious or not. Kierkegaard, the existentialist philosopher, was a deeply religious man; yet existentialism has used his philosophy. The author of Ecclesiastes is a religious man, yet Hardy uses him to express deepest feelings of nihilism. Lecture 21. March 9, 1948 The sense of dread is not religious melancholy. It might appear in a religious or atheistic person’s experience. Ecclesiastes is not a religious book, some feel. Without this feeling of dread there is no realistic or wise life. This is the basis of intelligence and of consciousness. If the book was not in a biblical context it could be looked upon as non-religious. The book belongs to the Wisdom Literature. The author knows there are two solutions, neither of which is good. Do not be overly righteous (Pharisee) or overly sceptical (Sadducee). He is not a sceptic, but a realist. There is something “oriental” in this book, like Buddhism. Oriental literature is saying the same thing, and it requires a mental discipline to read it. The Preacher’s “vanity” is emptiness or “void,” as in Buddhism. It doesn’t mean things aren’t there. The Buddhist attitude is that there are two forms of illusion, attraction and repulsion, toward good and away

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from evil. But this doesn’t work because both good and evil are degraded knowledge and therefore aren’t knowledge at all. To find reality, we must avoid illusions of moral varnishing. Life is not a moral doctrine. Knowledge of good and evil is fallen knowledge. One should become detached from all things, good and evil. In this detachment, all things are empty of moral content. Job discovers his problem is not a moral one. There is something illusory about the life in which he thought he was allied with the power of good. The first step of detachment is that things don’t make moral sense. You have a vision of the senselessness, the emptiness, of all the things you see around you. The starting point of consciousness is the consciousness of dread; existence is the narrow limit between birth and death. The problem is also cosmological. You feel there is an objective mattress “out there” for consciousness to sleep on. The feeling that there is something objective and beyond us. You don’t feel a mystical confidence in the world “out there.” Wisdom doesn’t trust itself to anything outside itself. Wisdom is not external, mysterious, and unknown. The pursuit of reality outside oneself ends in mystery. Are we to assume that nothing exists outside yourself? You must avoid the sceptical attitude that you are the only real subject matter, alone and an individual. That leads to the “I am captain of my soul” bilge. You must also avoid an objective belief in “out there.” Ecclesiastes points out that there is something the matter with the religious life which seeks validity outside itself, like people who try to buoy up their religious faith by taking vows. There are converts who must attach themselves to something. You don’t run around and find external compulsion. Wisdom isn’t in any place. As you grow, you catch the rhythm of existence. You can’t reduce life to a formula. “There is a time to love, and a time to hate . . . .” [Ecclesiastes 3:8]. THE REALITY OF THE HERE AND NOW If you look outside yourself, you see neither flux nor permanence. You see a combination of being and becoming. The law of recurrence shows that things go away and return. This doctrine of recurrence enables you to see the rhythm. This brings you close to the datum of experience; man is a moving point between birth and death. Dread itself is a recurrence. “Man is, therefore he dreads” equals the symbol of the wheel. Consciousness of renewal is the starting point of wisdom. The vision of formlessness takes on a concrete form. Once you see that you are part of the unconscious machinery you are trying to fight, you give up trying to fight.

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But to learn how to die is the see yourself in the eternal recurrence which is neither being nor becoming. The wise man has got to a point where he can look down and see his own life going through the pattern of life and death. The fallacy of withdrawing from life—this is the giving in to the illusion of the non-reality of things. The hermit attempts to order things on the assumption that all things are an illusion, which is in itself an illusion. We must live in a world of good and evil and remain spiritually detached. The whole perspective is that of choice. Frye is contemptuous of those who chase an external reality—“someday we’ll understand” and “let’s wait and see and it will all be cleared up when we are dead.” If you postpone the consciousness of eternity until you are dead you’ll never get it. You carry your own solitude with you. Eternity is not in the future, but is the reality of the here and now. It is not something seen in terms of progress but recurrence. Lecture 22. March 16, 1948 TWO PLANES OF REALITY In Wisdom literature there is the figure of the monster who must be overcome. Job is presented with it. There are two planes of reality: one makes sense and one doesn’t—that’s the one we are living in. The world we are in is associated with the monster, a world without conscious intelligence and purpose. For the 18th century, the intricacy of the natural law argued a conscious creator. The 19th century blew it up. The law of nature is a subtle affair, but consciousness or morality of purpose is not there. A God inferred from nature is a pretty stupid God. You can’t postulate intelligence from the world we see. The Bible discourages us from trying to advance arguments which make God a logical inference from chaotic nature. Man is conscious of the world’s size and indifference to human values. Man is conscious of being imprisoned within a monstrous body. The other plane of reality, which makes more sense, uses symbols derived from man’s fight against nature––man in nature, in the wilderness, in the forest, the desert, the prairie. Man evolves there the farm, the garden, the park. That sort of symbol is used. A world humanly ordered makes sense. Paradise means park. The symbol of the city is a human palisade of conscious and intelligent ideas in a world of man against nature. The higher plane of existence is not a mental or spectral order, but is portrayed by certain symbols. Also, the sea, which is associated with Leviathan. The river is the necessity of human existence, live water circulating within a body like the bloodstream. The other plane of existence is life

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inside a body, as this world is life inside the body of Leviathan. The former is a conscious, purposeful human body. The other is a stupid, monstrous body. The two forms of reality show us a human, universal body and a monstrous and chaotic body. Reality is not a place but a state of existence. Job eventually discovered the natural world in terms of Leviathan. He started off within the monster. His story is like that of Jonah. There are two forms of existence: 1) Inside the human body (which is our own) and which ends up as the universal form of the city and the garden; 2) Perpetual imprisonment of the monstrous body of nature. Natural law is the development of mental and spiritual values. Man’s development from this is to human law, building up from an ordered and predictable nature his own law. Scientific knowledge is a phase in the evolution of the human spirit. It is not the knowledge of God. God is not at the end of wisdom. The progress of science will not bring the world nearer to God, although it might bring an individual nearer to him. In a flight from the body into the spiritual you are betraying reality. Man constantly tries to realize in bodily form the body of his spiritual values. The Word becomes Flesh and dwells among us. The New Testament presents enlightenment in terms of the future. Christianity does not give light, but it presents a crisis by which you can see the light, the potential infinite in man. Death is potential evolution. Death is a means of adjusting one’s body to a different state of affairs. Physical death is part of the evolution of the spirit. In death you get a more sensible idea of time and space. The timeand-space world is bewildering and unreal, a world of indefiniteness. Yet, all of our conscious life is concerned with form and limiting. You can’t find a here and now in this world in which the present is a continual moving point. The way to visualize the real here and now is as infinity and eternity. This is what is revealed in the Bible: two planes of existence. The reality that dawns upon us is a familiar one, the home, the human body. For Jesus, no one goes to heaven; you are already there if you are aware of it, and you work from there. You don’t have to die to get from one plane of existence to another. If you do wait, you’ll never get there. The people who look for revelation are those who knock at the door, and it will be opened to them. The child has this simplicity of mind; she is

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content to listen to stories, to take in symbols, has an active and alert mind, not the glossed-over mind of the sophisticate. Revelation goes beyond good and evil. There is a form of knowledge which is forbidden knowledge because it is degraded. The part of the artist that survives is the body of his work and is his eternal body. Lecture 23. March 23, 1948 APOCALYTIC LITERATURE Apocalyptic literature is very late and is contemporary with Jesus. The Book of Daniel and Revelation are the most important. The others are Second Esdras and Enoch. These are pseudo-epigrapha, ascribed to people who could not possibly have written them. Apocalyptic literature is often written to evade the censors. This is true of the Revelation of St. John the Divine, in the sense that it attacks Caesar. The Apocalypse grew out of literature that is suspect and therefore represents free and uncontrolled vision. The impetus to apocalyptical literature is given by two contradictory things: 1. The rise to prosperity of the Jewish people under the Maccabees, and the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God. Many Messiahs tried to rebel against the Romans. In 70 A.D. the Romans razed Jerusalem. The conception of the rebuilt temple, the coming glory of Israel haunts a great deal of the Old Testament, some of the Psalms, and Daniel. The 100th Psalm hints at the “last days.” 2. The spiritualizing of the conception of the temple and of the king. In origin, this was attached to physical things. Around the time of Christ, there was a tendency to spiritualize things. The Nativity in Luke, and the Magnificat, etc., are stories that crystallize from the popular consciousness. In the New Testament, the apocalyptic tone is there in the whispered hush, the waiting for the complete clarification of vision––“the time is at hand” [Revelation 22:10]. Jesus is born into a period in which certain conceptions are made mental and spiritual realities. Jesus annihilates the physical counterparts. He brings the reality of the idea, not the physical. The physical temple will be destroyed; the real temple of Jesus’ body takes its place. The author of Revelation is working along the same line. His central figure seems to have no relation to the Jesus of the Gospels. It is worked out with immense care, everything taken from the early prophecies and welded into a unity. The four beasts are from Ezekiel; Babylon and the broken cup from Jeremiah and Daniel.

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The book is called Revelation. What is revealed is the unfallen world of mental and spiritual reality which has a human form, not a monstrous one. The Holy Scripture of this world is almost wild allegory: you don’t get a clear impression of what’s going on. It is a curious example of the type of writing like Finnegans Wake—we see the point of such as experiment—to clarify vision. Gertrude Stein does it to break down the customary association of words. This New Testament book is overpoweringly child-like; a child trying to tell a story about the purple elephant in the backyard and the great big gleaming city full of precious stones, with a big witch in the middle of it. The book has elements of the child-like vision: the simple mind of the child who will listen to a story. The book seems deliberately written to baffle those who want a logical story. The villain is the Whore of Babylon—Mystery—and yet most people regard it as one of the most mysterious books in the Bible. Chapter 7 is like a child’s map of the four angels holding the winds of the earth. The children of Israel are one body. Israel is Jacob and the twelve children are the twelve tribes. Jesus is a spiritual Israel, with twelve apostles united in one body. The number 144 means the allegory is based in twelve. A thousand merely means a great many. It is pre-American; now he would have used millions! In Chapter 2, the real temple is the God-Man. The cleansing of the temple is the casting out of the devils from the human soul, the temporary triumph of the power of evil. The real meaning of this is the fallen city of this world—Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, Babylon, Rome, Tyre, etc. Verse 6: Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophet, the past and the future in the eternal present of the body of God. The tree is the real thing of which the three corpses are the parody. Zechariah 4 is the origin of the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, the two olive trees, candlestick with seven lamps, etc. (Rev. 11:3–4.) Lecture 24. March 30, 1948 FORM OF THE UNFALLEN WORLD The symbols of the fallen world are scattered, but the unfallen one makes up one form. Man must impose a human pattern on the natural world. Out of the mineral world he builds a house; the city is the human form of the mineral world. Out of the vegetable world he makes a garden, etc. Divine Human

God’s body Human body

Spiritual body: one man, human and divine

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Animal Mineral

Domesticated animals City & temple

The Lamb Made of living stones

The unfallen existence is a continuous dwelling of fire. This is not the fire of hell, but it is light and fire. Hell is heat without light imprisoned within the furnace of the body of Leviathan. Christians are spoken of as stones of the church, the “living stones who cry out” [Luke 19:40].9 Jesus is the cornerstone of the temple. The stones of the New Jerusalem shine with their own light. The tree of life is a body, the water of life is the circulatory system, blood and water, which flowed from Jesus’ side. The tree is the erect vertebrae of this body. It is the burning tree, a burning bush which is not consumed. Dante’s red tree is the mystic rose, the culmination of his vision, and it is cross-shaped. The tree is the living form of which the cross is the dead form. The Lamb is the innocence of the unfallen world. Daniel 3: the fiery furnace, and yet the men in it are not consumed. Our categories in this world are time and space, which are indefinite. The un-commonsense of the unfallen world demands that you become the circumference of vision, not the egotistical centre. The religious perspective of reality is that there is only one human being, one human body. When two people are together they feel they are beating against prison bars because there is really only one human body. We must achieve annihilation of Self. Rimbaud says, “Je est un autre.”10 There are two people inside us. One is the kicking, squalling ego; the other one has the sense of objectivity. The lunatic is the man who has looked inside himself: he becomes the circumference, but he loses the opening; something is sealed up. We must control the imaginative vision. The genius has everything in common with the neurotic, except his neurosis. He may have it, but it is controlled and directed. The fallen vision of the world, the commonsense one, becomes a vision of eternal recurrence, wheels and wheels. The doctrine of eternal recurrence is that of being imprisoned within time and space. Christian immortality is the real here and now. It is not a place in time. You can only grasp the nature of it by seeing things in nature as a single human form. This recurrence produces the inverted religion which is the first opposite to Christ-—the dead lamb on a dead tree and a dead stone against his tomb. The enemies of religion feel that the death of the man is the death of the god. The dying and reviving god of winter and spring is Christ in time, Christ imprisoned in the body of death, the Adonais of cyclic nature who demanded animal sacrifice.

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The man of action without vision is caught in a squirrel cage; what he does only contributes to the cycle. Caiaphas says “one man must die for the people” [John 18:14], that is, the wheel of sacrifice must be kept going. Christ on the cross is the most obvious form of the cyclic sacrifice: the flogged, naked, crucified Jewish wretch. The more anti-Christian a society becomes, it seizes on this as a symbol. The Nazis selected the anti-Christ as a symbol and quite rightly chose the twisted wheel. The dead God is what man does to God. The dead Christ represents the complete form of Caiphus and Pilate, which is common sense religion. Jesus assumes this character in order to consolidate error, to show what the opposite of Christianity is. There are symbolic patterns in the Bible, and it doesn’t matter if they are conscious or not. The Nazi life was one of sleepwalking in which the dream is life in terms of unconscious habits and rituals. Hitler knew he was one form of anti-Christ; he accepted that role deliberately. People of goodwill cannot understand what a lost soul is. They cannot understand that the Nazis knew what they were doing and liked it. The martyr is the watcher whose vision is focused on another vision of reality. The real martyr sees the divine in the human body. It all depends on what you see. You do not lose individuality in the larger spiritual body; you merely lose the Ego. Rebecca West, in her book on the Nuremberg trials, The Meaning of Treason, describes the lost soul. A dead man is not terrifying, but a man who casts his vote for eternal death is terrifying. The opposing principle cannot be wiped out by the death principle. The Nazis were terrified of winning. They wouldn’t know what to do with victory because they were organized for death. That is what made them dizzy, the dizziness of the temptation upon the pinnacle in Paradise Regained. There is a balance, a permanent reality of the spiritual body.

CHAPTER TWO RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, FIRST-YEAR COURSE (1951–52) NOTES BY ALLEN BENTLEY

This was a first-year pass course option for honours students. It met for one hour each week. Peter Evans sent me Bentley’s notes in May 1994, with the notation that Bentley “just might have skipped a lecture or two, though he was captivated by this course.” The general subject matter of the twenty-two lectures, the notes for which become somewhat truncated toward the end, is as follows: 1. Biblical Texts and Translations 2. Categories of Books in the Bible 3. Ancient History 4. Ancient Near Eastern History 5. Pre- and Post-Exilic History 6. Primitive Religion 7. Hebrew Poetry 8. Hebrew Poetry and Prose 9–10. The Documentary Hypothesis (JEPD) 11–12. Prophecy 13–15. Job 16. Job and Leviathan 17. Typology 18. Word of God 19–21. Symbolism 22. Concrete Imagery Uncertain words are marked by [?]. Other material in square brackets is an editorial addition.

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[Lecture 1] Texts: Introduction to the Bible Cook [Stanley Arthur Cook (Penguin, 1945)] Bible––King James translation We shall study the historical background of the Bible. There are different versions of the Bible due to the fact that two languages tabulate the material. Old Testament––Hebrew. New Testament–– Greek; also due to the fact that the process of amassing the books was a long, complex procedure drawn from lost sources, & in the case of the Hebrew a small residue from vast fields of literature, misinterpreted & expurgated in complex editorial processes. There were two types of Hebrew texts: 1. the fluid & 2. the fixed (Masoretic) used by Jewish scholars after 100 B.C. Fluid Hebrew had no vowels, but these were added as provisional sounds later, whereupon Christianity had a reliable text for biblical translation. Then the Old Testament was translated to the Greek (Septuagint) & it is this Septuagint referred to when the Old Testament is mentioned. Now Christianity moved to Rome, & a Latin translation became necessary, whereupon St. Jerome of the 5th century (fall of the Roman Empire) translated the entire Bible to the Latin (Vulgate) from the fixed Hebrew & the Septuagint Greek. Fluid Hebrew text ĺSeptuagint (LXX) Fixed Hebrew text (Masoretic) + Septuagint ĺ Vulgate Later clamour arose for an English version of the Bible. The Greek & Hebrew tongues were little known to Western scholars in the Middle Ages so all translations were made from the Latin Vulgate. However, Church authorities refused to grant permission for an English Bible unless the idea was sanctioned by Rome, and ecclesiastical opinion was definitely against it. But in the 14th century (around the time of Chaucer) a translation was made under sponsorship of John Wycliffe. However, surreptitious distribution was necessitated by authoritative prohibition. This Bible is the ancestor of all English Bibles. 1500. Renaissance. The Greek & Hebrew tongues more widely diffused, and the demand for an English Bible, coupled with Lutheran demands & attempts for a German Bible, allowed William Tyndale to translate the first English Bible from the Greek & Hebrew. Henry VIII, who established himself as church head, was opposed to Tyndale’s translation. However, copies were circulated in England. Tyndale was eventually captured & burned at the stake. But Henry said that the breach between himself & Rome was increasing & that he & English

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religion needed a new Bible. This, the Coverdale version, was edited with the Anglican prayer book. Now the English Protestants split into two groups––the right-wing Anglicans and the left-wing Puritans––each group developing its Bible from the Tyndale & Coverdale Bibles. Anglican Bible––Bishop’s Bible Puritan Bible––Geneva Bible (offensive footnotes) This was the state of things on the death of Elizabeth in 1603. King James ascension to the English throne meant favouritisms to the Anglican Church & an attempt to reconcile Anglicans & Puritans. King James called an unsuccessful conference whose only virtue was the instigation of a new Bible translation. Anglican & Puritan scholars worked to produce the Authorized Version (1611) whose literary power and propitious appearance in a crucial religious & historical period established it as the authorized & fundamental text of the English religion. Meanwhile, Roman Catholicism saw how necessary the Vulgate Bible was, & the Catholic refugees in France created the Douai Bible from a translation of the Latin Vulgate. In the 16th century new translations were needed due to new documentary discoveries. Then came the Revised edition (1881), not too happy a compromise between old and new forms, whose chief & ineffectual purpose was to preserve the virtues of the old language. The 20th century saw the modern translations of Moffatt and Goodspeed. Accounting for variable interpretation of the Bible: Greek “metanoia” = change of mind penance––Roman Catholic repentance––Protestant Greek “presbys” priest––Roman Catholic presbytery––Protestant [Lecture 2] History of Bible a work of modern scholarship. Process done by archaeology. Napoleon has begun process of archaeology in Egypt; a French scholar translated the Rosetta Stone found there. This was coupled with Schliemann’s discovery of Old Troy. These discoveries give a wide perspective to history. Now the Bible can be viewed in a new way, e.g., the story of the flood originated from old Babylonian tale. The Old Testament books are grouped in categories:

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I. Genesis–Deuteronomy: Law, Torah, Pentateuch II. Joshua–II Kings: History––Former Prophets III. Chronicles–Nehemiah: Later History IV. Esther–Psalms: Poetry V. Isaiah–Daniel: Major Prophets VI. Hosea–Malachi: Minor Prophets [written vertically in the margin is the following list of books] A Companion to Biblical Studies––Manson [probably T.W. Manson, A Companion to the Bible (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1950)] Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Bible,” 11th ed., 1910 Lit. of O.T. Bewer [Julius A. Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament (New York: Columbia University Press, 1933)] N.T. Scott [Ernest Findlay Scott, The Literature of the New Testament (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932)] McFadyen [Edgar John McFadyen, Introduction to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1906)] Pfeiffer [R.H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (1941) and/or A History of New Testament Times (1949)] Jewish Bible ends with Chronicles at point where Jews return to Holy Land. Although the order is different, Jews & Christians have the same books up through Chronicles. Apocrypha––Excluded by Jews & Christians Jews––Sacred books must all be Hebrew. Although Apocrypha was in Hebrew, no text could be found & original was Greek Christians––no particular [?] Apocrypha is close to time of Christ Some books: Ecclesiasticus Susanna, See “Daniel come to judgment.” Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice11 Maccabees I & II Judith Tobit Wisdom––one of the wisest, most profound books ever written [vertical, in left margin] Apocrypha––Little World Series / Digging up Past––Pelican Book [Sir Leonard Woolley, Digging Up the Past (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1937)]

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Logical sequence of books in the Bible. Christian interpretation continues after Chronicles (of Jews) Malachi––which treats coming of Christ Today we know that the prophetic selections of the Bible are the oldest. This is a change in the previous ideas of the Bible. The Old Testament treats many different peoples ––Hebrews––descendants of Abraham ––Levites––descendants of Jacob ––Jews (Judah & Benjamin) Late Old Testament & all of New deal with Jews Oldest civilizations: Egypt at Nile Babylonian––Tigris & Euphrates Mesopotamia (Iraq) Two divisions of influence are expressed in the Bible Palestine: influenced first by Egypt in part of Bible; second by Mesopotamia in another part of Bible. [Lecture 3] In the Bible story & history are roughly in a chronological order: ––creation, flood, folk tales ––Abraham––historical reminiscence ––Exodus––folk lore & reminiscence Story & history are synonymous in the Bible. After this, historical thread becomes harder to follow. Kingdom of David––true history First recognizable man––Old Stone Age––Paleolithic. Their culture revealed in art & drawings. Were excellent artists. Realize that art does not evolve. Neolithic. Man produced food. Bronze Age. Copper tools culminated in bronze tools. At this time, people amassed into cities & civilizations––beginning civilizations: Indus, Mesopotamia, Egypt Paradise (Eden) was somewhere between Nile, Indus, Tigris, Euphrates (fertile crescent). This establishes a parallel between history & the story of Eden. Ezekiel 28:14––obscure––older than story of Eden in Genesis. Continued to fit story in with Adam & Eve’s Eden. This suggests other stories of Eden.

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Genesis 4:2––allegory––parallel between pastoral & agricultural civilization. Some kind of advances in pastoral life existing before Adam & Eve. This new agriculture perhaps [?] Genesis 4:16––assumes that there were more people in the world Genesis 4:17––more people in city Writer tells us that from Cain sprang agricultural development (parallel to Neolithic Age man), cultural refinement, working metals. This is an allegorical way of telling history Mesopotamian kingdoms––East––most had died by the time the Bible was written Egypt––West Sumerian civilization––very ancient Babylon civilization––3rd Mesopotamian At this time come the first stories. We are told Abraham left Ur in Mesopotamia (Ur has been dug up). Dug up the great legal Code of Hammurabi. Genesis 14. Amraphel = Hammurabi perhaps. Then this dates Abraham. Recognizable history. At time of Exodus Egypt held overlordship & was beginning to decline. Ramses knew Egypt at the height of its power. There are two exodus stories––one from Egypt, one from Babylonia. Two stories reconciled by leadership of Abraham & Moses respectively. Story of Sargon I put in a boat in water, discovered by someone else. Therefore, story of Moses has mythical elements. HISTORY Earliest civilizations Rise of Egypt & Babylon Decline of Egypt

BIBLICAL NARRATIVE Story of Eden Abraham, Isaac, Jacob Exodus, Conquest of Palestine, Judges

[Lecture 4] Jews had two or three sets of traditions about their origins 1. Abraham––Babylonian 2. Moses––Egypt Hebrew culture indebted to Babylon & Egypt. Obtained practicality from Egypt & her literature. Part of Proverbs is of Egyptian origin. Canaan under Egyptian domination––Joshua & Judges

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The Babylonians gave more speculative culture to the Hebrews. Astronomy––calendar––week & month. Traces of lunar worship in Hebrew religion. The Babylonians figured out the difference between the planets & other stars––world at centre––moon & stars. Babylonians made original measurements & assumptions leading to our calendar. Order of their universe was this: Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury (second nearest planet) Moon (nearest planet) Earth Each hour of the day had a planet in ascendancy. Egypt began a decline & marauders attacked, as they do in all declining civilizations. Hittite kingdom weakened & marauders attacked from the north, proceeding south to Egypt. Aryans were these marauders–– proceeded over Asia Minor––[2?] [attacked?] probably Achaeans & later Dorians––after expedition around Crete probably settled in Palestine, becoming Jewish enemies––Philistines––probably closely akin to Homer’s Greeks. 1300–1200 B.C.

Palestine drew name from Philistines, excluding Jews from western coast. Assyria rose on Tigris––dominant power in ancient world after Egyptian–Hittite collapse. Built too large an empire for administration & became excessively militarized. (Sparta, Germany & this nation naturally became excessively cruel.) Presented in Bible as demons, cruel. Rose during 900–800 while Israelites were weakening––after Solomon & division of Israel & Judah––Judah from David. Israel set up at Samaria. Division

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lasts for 200 years. As Assyria expanded, it contacted Israel & wiped it out––722 B.C. Judah now exposed to Assyrian attack––can follow the terror in the Bible. King tried to formulate policy with Egypt. No good. Assyrians attack & are repelled for some unknown reason. Assyria still dangerous. Overexpansion occurred. Babylonia & Persia allied & attacked Assyria, and in 606 Assyria fell. Jews overjoyed. Nathan: exultation when Nineveh fell. But Jerusalem besieged by Chaldea (Babylonia). In 586 Jerusalem fell & Judah wiped out. Babylonian captivity. Chaldeans, to break up social organization & culture, migrated people from conquered country––teachers, leaders. Returning captives divided––some to Northern Kingdom, Samaria, others to Southern Kingdom, Palestine. In Jesus’ time, Samaritans were considered outsiders because they had lost pedigree of race with inter-marriage, & the pure, good people were the Hebrews. [Lecture 5] Pre-exilic period––before captivity of Jerusalem (Babylonian captivity) Post-exilic period––after Babylonian captivity 606 B.C. Fall of Nineveh––Assyria Captivity of Babylon Collapse of Assyria by coalition of Babylonia of south & Persians of the north. Persians––Medes & Magians. Persian army felled Babylon & became the first world empire. Persia had first properly administered empire. Divided empire––provinces. A satrap in control of each province responsible for own tax-collecting. Enabled Persian empire to become larger & stronger. First Persian monarch, Cyrus. Took Babylon by altering course of Euphrates to go through town. Cyrus went west to Lydia––Lydians had first coinage (Croesus). Lydians attacked and were felled. Persian was now in contact with the Greeks. Persians were more lenient & respectful for racial customs. Darius followed. He first worked out system of administration for the Persian government. Darius & Cyrus allowed Jews to return to their own land, since they liked people living in their own lands. Cyrus invaded Greece. Marathon 490 B.C. Beaten. Succeeded by Xerxes. Renewed attack on Greece & was decisively defeated. Next masters of the world were now from Europe, not from Asia.

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Xerxes (legendary soon after) in Esther mentioned as Ahasuerus. Darius mentioned in Daniel. Retrospection: Jerusalem fell 586 Babylon fell 538 Darius attacks Greece 490 Xerxes attacks Greece 480 Jews still under Persian rule. The Greek states began civil war until a big juggernaut arrived from the north. Macedonians with phalanx defeated them & later went on to defeat Persia under Alexander the Great. Persia declining anyway. Susa & great cities withdrawing as centres of administration. Persian army full of mercenaries. 323 Alexander died. Alexander’s empire split & fell immediately part to Egypt––Ptolemies––538 last Cleopatra part to Seleucus––Seleucian Empire––Asiatic part to Greece & Macedonia Antiochus IV––of Seleucia was a king whose religion he felt very keenly about & forced on Jews In Jewish history two times when surrounding powers were too weak to hold them ––in David ––after defeat of Syrians, Seleucian Empire was weakened by the Maccabees––Judas Maccabeus. Idealized period of the past for the Jews. Meanwhile, Rome was moving east. Greece, Macedonia absorbed. Pompey rolled over Asia Minor & took Jerusalem. Broke into temples & couldn’t understand how Jews could worship an invisible god. Atmosphere of Jews feverish. Memory of freedom under Maccabees strong during time of Jesus’ birth––revolts––until Jerusalem destroyed by Titus & Hadrian––Diaspora––both Christianity & Judaism begin at this time. Judaism––dominant emotion was to return to homeland [Lecture 6] Primitive Religion Animism––idea of an invisible force behind life Polytheism––worship of many gods––natural elements Primitive tribes did not have a sophisticated idea of a single Lord of Creation. Creation was vague, unknown to them.

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Polynesian idea of religion––mana––a force which accounts for certain qualities ––strength of a warrior is mana ––something precious is mana This is animism. It is reasonable to worship dead things, say, a curiously marked stone, as long as you think it possesses a spirit or a god. So numerous forms of gods marked tribal religion. This is polytheism. The Hebrew worship of Baal (a deity) was a hang-over from animism. Baal was no particular god but any deity in anything. The Hebrews substituted Adonai for Baal. The Hebrew temple priests read the chief god’s name as Yahweh. But when they read it they substituted the vowels of Adonai for the consonants of Yahweh Yehowah (Jehovah), because “a” in Adonai is short & would be long in Yahowah. The society advances from tribe to nation. Religion changes to henotheism. There are three religious developments corresponding to three social developments. Henotheism––belief in our god Greek religion––a deity of a particular city Theology––fundamentally a warrior’s belief “my god can kick your god” ex. Philistines vs. (Hebrews) ? God vs. God At this stage national gods were accepted: Troy vs. Greece Now religion passed to monotheism, as imperialism occurs after nationalism. Advanced society––unity After Alexander’s time people tended to monotheism. Time of Persian Empire when great wave of monotheism occurred over the world. Before that time only one period when monotheism occurred: Egypt––IKHNATON––a fanatic––worshipped Aton. One of the first prophets of monotheism––in Persia––Zarathustra Whenever monotheism occurs, there follows an attack on idols, invisible gods polytheism––images, visible gods. Later in Greece, another teacher of monotheism, Orpheus, a musician, founded religion of Orphism

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Growing speculation and philosophical process trying to integrate what scholars of Zarathustra’s time knew about science & life, i.e., elements of air, fire, water, earth––fire being the greatest since it destroyed all others. Hence its relegation to the foremost and its assimilation as basis of Zarathustra’s religion. Today the existing religion of Zarathustra is in India––Parsees (Persians) Amos––earliest Bible writer (8th century B.C.) [Lecture 7] The Bible is not an anthology of Hebrew literature. Writing which we can call a Hebrew literature (certain literary pieces)– –Job (drama) Structure seen in way people compiled books––overlapping of interest. In the development of the people’s writing, poetry comes first––prose always follows Poetry: a savage achievement. Prose is the designation of advanced literature The bulk of the Bible is in prose––Genesis–Chronicles––therefore, these books were not written at the dawn of Hebrew literature––an earlier long-developed literary development. Occasionally in Genesis through Kings there is poetry––sometimes archaic. Writers quote from historically these oldest parts of the Bible. Distinguish between them and Job, Psalms. Primitive literature ––ballad ––primitive epics––built up by ballads ––ritual hymns (myth) ––work songs. Sea Shanty, Volga Boat Song––rhythm rising from cooperative effort––lullabies ––work songs (taunt song, making fun of enemy) Primitive poet: duty, to memorize chronology. ––all kings’ names begin with the same letter ––all gods’ names & myth ––lucky days inherent in nation (astrology) e.g., Works & Days––Theogony––Hesiod does something similar in Greece Hesiod––knows many proverbs & riddles––the poetic proverbs are very old. Samson’s riddle. Proverbs

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Cognate objects––originally read, took cognate “read a riddle”––everything that was anciently written was in form of riddle “bid a bead”––conception of rosary12 Oracle (Delphi)––primitive verse Numbers 21:14–15. Poetic fragment in prose narrative. Tells us where it came from. Earlier stage in literary history. Old work song––digging of a well––“staves & scepters” [21:18]––not sure how to translate. Numbers 21:27. Oracle of the destruction of Moab––“they that speak in proverbs”––i.e., the author got it from an anthology of proverbs Exodus, Chapter 15. Crossing the Red Sea––death of Egyptian army–– nugget of primitive verse. War song––“I will sing unto the Lord” [15:1] Later, sophisticated poetry. Psalms. “I will thank you O Lord” [Psalm 9:1] The song in Exodus 15 could have been put in by someone else; then back to the narrative. Extremely ancient. Pre-Judaic. Later incorporated into something more highly developed. Genesis, Chapter 4. Violent, malignant song (in verse, in the Hebrew). Writer describing primitive life but not primitive himself. Would be oldest passage in the Bible. Joshua, Chapter 10, vs. 12. Name of another source from which prose narrative is taken. “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” Comment turns it into a true act. Pedestrian, unimaginative. II Samuel, opening. Death of Saul––& Jonathan ––lament from death of Jonathan ––poem ––“The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places . . .” [II Samuel 1:19] ––Wonderful evocation from early military society ––heroic age ––love of one warrior for another ––love of comradeship in war Read 4th and 5th chapters of Judges

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[Lecture 8] Judges, chapters 4 & 5 Judges is a collection of stories of the Hebrew people based on legend & tradition––local heroes of tribes Judges collects these in chronological sequence Samson––tribe of Dan, etc. Vague feeling that all tribes were Israelites but could do nothing for political organization. Hero––leader of tribe making resistance to enemy––limited support from other tribes. Not supported by Israel on the whole. Moral in Judges: we need unity in a solid political structure. Deborah––1st hero of importance ––prophetess (chapters 4 & 5) ––the writer writes in prose ––writer’s source was one of the greatest war songs in literature. Writer tells story, then gives source 4th chapter––writer’s narration 5th chapter––original war song, source of story This is one conspicuous passage which illustrates manner of giving story with source. N.B. All war songs: curse enemy, praise valour of own men, teach cowards who should have been with us but weren’t Judges––Zebulun, Naphtali––fought Southern tribes didn’t because attack was from the north. This too illustrates political isolation of tribes Chap. 5––excellent poetry––wonderfully organized chapter Verse 28––no actual description of battle. Symbolic, suggestive, effective Chap. 4, vs. 11. Kenite = smith (metal worker) Cf. vs. 1–24, chap. 4 [prose] vs. 23–31, chap. 5 [poetry] The poem. The difference between the two stories is the nomadic, tribal desert act of hospitality in the poetry narrative. This passage means that the writer is a member of this fundamental tribal institution. Sisera here murdered outside tent. Not a guest.

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The prose. The prose indicates writer is not in close touch with this institution. Patriotic. Because it says that Jael deliberately invited Sisera into the tent (as a guest) and there slew him. Even though the poetry preceded the prose in the history of Hebrew literature, as in all literature, the prose is still very old. In the Bible it first took the form of memoirs––David, Saul David & Solomon remembered as [?] of a period of literature & culture. After Samuel––on David––writer speaks with an “eye witness’s” authority––in prose These are probably oldest prose sources of books in the Bible. Generally accepted that the first five Bible books are of four sources. See Genesis 1 & 2 Genesis 1. Male and female Animals before man Man as image of God Creation from water (first creation: firmament) (move from water to dryness to man) Day as our day

Genesis 2. Adam then Eve Man before animals Man as living soul Creation from drought (first creation: mist) (move from dryness to water to man) Day synonym for time

[Lecture 9] Very early: fragments of poems & lost sources Pre-exilic: before the fall of Israel––J [Jahwist] and E [Elohim] sources, Amos, Hosea Pre-exilic: during and after fall of Israel: D [Deuteronomic] source, I, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum Exilic: (Jeremiah), II Isaiah, Ezekiel Post-exilic: P [Priestly] source, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, Job, Book of Wisdom ––these drafts or placings are still indefinite Judges to Kings––not included––source: Deuteronomy. Inserted later. Deuteronomy––more humane, more highly organized society, less primitive Exodus 20.––10 commandments Deuteronomy 5.––10 commandments: taken from earlier, Exodus source

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Deuteronomy 20:14. Concerned with larger household than Exodus. Complicated society Exodus 21. Laws governing release of slaves: man, after six years; woman, never Deuteronomy 15. More humanitarian. Men and women slaves released. Given more consideration. Deuteronomy is probably a revision of the law by someone influenced by the prophets. First attempt to combine letter of the law with spirit of prophecy––also a centralization of religion. Jerusalem is only true sanctuary. J & E were older sources of Deuteronomy Exodus 34: 11 12, 14 (first commandment), 17 (second commandment), 18 (third commandment), 19 (fourth commandment), 21 (fifth commandment), 22 (sixth commandment), 23 (seventh commandment), 25 (eighth commandment), 26 (ninth–tenth commandments) These commandments are earlier versions of the ten commandments. Laws are ritual, not moral. Later commandments are completely moral. These are products of Christianity’s casting off old Jewish custom. Negative commands given too. Neighboring peoples then guilty of crimes which needed prohibition. Passage from more dictatorial commands to those of a more humane nature was a product of the growth of civilization & the development of a more humane spirit among society. The sources of the more humane commandments are as old as the Exodus, but the compilers are of an advanced society. II Samuel 24:1. The Lord was angry & told David to commit sin of taking a census (superstition––bad to count things), so He might punish him, but in I Chronicles 21:1, the devil is responsible. Whole period of priestly development between these periods. [Lecture 10] Discrepancies of creation of Eve in Genesis 1 & 2. Adam had two wives. First, according to folklore, Lilith, by which he begat race of devils. Second, Eve, by which he begat humanity.

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Genesis 1:1. God created. Elohim in the Hebrew Genesis 2:4. Lord God created. Jahweh Elohim has a plural ending. Therefore, a literal translation is “gods.” Just as royal “we” which is nothing but a sophisticated development of speech Difference in tone. Chap. 1. grandeur, magnificence, grandness Chap. 2. intimacy, humanity, domestic. Jahweh is more intimate, specific, domestic. God close to man. From point of view of second narrative, earlier God is fussy. Here [i.e. Genesis 2], more a ritualist; a narrative, story. Writer of first narrative gives man a calendar. What God does is a law for man. This is a priest writing. This is the P narrative. Second narrative is the J narrative––Jahweh. Writer of priestly narrative is philosophical, interest in creation ([came?] from nothing). Writer of J narrative only concerned about what familiar things are done. Taken for granted God does them. Priestly writer working when we see strings of “begats.” The third old source is the E narrative, using the name of Elohim. Story of Abraham. Distinguished from P narrative. Difference of feeling. Distinguished from J narrative by use of Elohim, which the P writer never uses. II Kings 22. Down to the reign of King Josiah––620 B.C. Northern Kingdom wiped out––200 years. Destruction of Assyria fifteen years away; of Jerusalem, thirty-five years. Judah struggling on. This period later than J or E, earlier than P. Josiah decides to rebuild the temple. Long lost book of law now discovered. Code has translated it. Core of book of Deuteronomy, so this is the fourth strand of the Old Testament–– D. Later than E and J but earlier than P. Destruction of Jerusalem. People scattered, carrying their E, J, & D sources, which are later amalgamated by the P source. Two distinct appellations for God, Elohim & Yahweh, came about by two distinct tribes, north & south. The south insisted on the sacredness of Jahweh, as it did on Jerusalem’s sacred nature.

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[Lecture 11] [in left margin: Patterns of Culture, Ruth Benedict. Epic of Gilgamesh. Read!] Development of Hebrew prophecy. Unique to Israelites ––settled agricultural society––priestly ––nomadic society––prophetic Israelites had both nomadic & settled. Palestine: desert with group of oases. Much attention paid to trance, ecstatic experience ––giddiness or dizziness, foolishness of action were much reverenced. These words used to mean divinely inspired. The people uttering oracles under trance were socially useful. In the Bible, connection of Spirit of God with coming of Word of God paralleled by prophecy. Judges. Samson stories. Tales of local hero of tribe of Dan. A folktale. Has many parallels in other nations. Not religious or moral stories. Vast strength. Like a bear. Stories go back to primitive level of society. Level of religious experience when Samson feels the Spirit of the Lord is primitive. First main prophet: Samuel I Samuel 3:1. No visions in utterance. Then story of God calling Samuel. Two stories of King Saul in Samuel: one favourable to Saul, one unfavourable. I Samuel 10. Prophecies, trance administered by band of prophets. Origin of Saul as prophet. I Samuel 19–20. Probably written by a person more unfavourable to Saul. Prophecy trance, physical, brutal, barbarous. Other origin of Saul as prophet Numbers 22–23. Balaam’s prophecy. Again, inflicted somehow against the will. Idea that it would become fact no matter what was uttered. Belief held by Balak. No matter what uttered, efficacious. Story of ass––even condition a control over an ecstatic state, i.e., one can enter into an ecstatic state without divine inspiration. True that in this time paid & mercenary prophets were rampant. [Lecture 12] Functions of prophet. Micaiah Development––pre-Biblical––respect for ecstatics ––biblical time. Elijah, Elisha

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––later prophets. Writing prophets, Amos, at time when old kingdom was going down––pessimistic I Kings 22. Pure alliance of Israel & Judea to attack Syria. Moral level of Jehosaphat & Ahab different. Both agree to consult a prophet (Greeks, Vates, Delphi). 400 prophets of Jehovah––fakes. Hebrew prophecy built out of this. Unanimity. False prophets accounted for––legitimacy of deceit when people are bound to be deceived––story of lying spirit I Kings 22:28––Typical social consequence of prophet I Kings 22:15–16. Satire. Doesn’t actually mean it Ahab demands to hear what he wants to hear. Prefers band of 400 prophets Micaiah––continuation of Elijah––prophet of Jehovah. Fighting the power of the prophets of Baal I Kings 18. Later. Brings rain. Worker of natural phenomena Elijah’s political activity did not stop with extermination of Baal’s priests, but he did away with royal family & instituted a dynasty which favoured Baal. Prophecy developed from expression of tangible symbols. Elijah’s descending fire––to a prophetic teaching not requiring material support–– Jesus’ prophecy. So religion develops but it must not forget its original state––the beginning. A man develops but he is still the same man as in his youth, although physically he has completely changed. This is Jesus’ comment. You won’t enter heaven except as you become a child. Retain that youthful conception of everything made for its benefit––worthy to him. [Lecture 13] Read Job Job––relation of Bible to literature. Don’t need to worry about historical connection. A drama––examined as a work of art. A story applying to infinity of situation. Parabolic. Jesus’ parables relative, not actual. Palestine influenced by other cultures, by literature of surrounding people. Characteristics of Hebrew & Egyptian literature in the Bible. Egyptian religion––practical––an investment in the next world. The only direct Egyptian influence is in Proverbs––secular. Mesopotamian literature, more imaginative, artistic. Influenced stories of Samson, etc. Greek influence predominant too in Hellenistic culture from which Christianity sprang. Symposium.

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Egypt closely allied culturally to Greece. Ptolemaic dynasty. Writer of Job reflects Jewish culture at time of Alexandria. Aspects of Greek drama––uses its machinery at the beginning. Dramatic. Recounted to Job by messengers as in Greek tragedy. Rest of Job completely original. Bulk of Book of Job is like Platonic dialectic. Discussion of three friends, possibly Greek influence. Possibility that Job has been tinkered with. End does not return to Satan & God. Each of three characters talks two times at end, except the last. In its place, a new constructed ending. Opening––great scene of Job & God (Faust) ––the devil––“accuser”––interpretation of Old Testament Accuser Job’s virtue––Job is virtuous & prosperous. Satan says that Job would not be virtuous if not prosperous. Devil knows human nature Job’s comforters––not successful in comforting him––sincere in postulates––constant friends––see him when he is alone, destitute, desolate. Show sympathy by presence. Sit with him for a whole week. When they speak, full of insight and imaginatively rich poetry––true sympathy. Human relationships not native to one culture. Episode of Job’s wife––perhaps added––not by the author. Chap. 3. Job speaks and curses his birthday. Deeper indication of despair, sorrow. Does not wish for death or annihilation of the past. An immediate death would not console him. The wiping away of the past would. He desires that he had never emerged from his mother’s womb. Job is not a Stoic. Not silent dignity. Sets up one terrific “squawk” after maintaining a Stoic silence. Baffles devil by accepting things resignedly. At second evil, devil touches something more fundamental in Job. [Lecture 14] Job moves from area of tragedy to area of symposium or discussion. What the comforters have to say is not wrong––inadequate––haven’t suffered as Job has. Deadlock is fundamental to whole story. Break-down by speech of God Dialogue following (Job & comforter)––not on same subject ––Speaker’s philosophy on how God’s justice visits evil people ––Job wonders how this applies to him. The comforters do not say Comforters: voice of Law. The theory of God’s punishing evil & rewarding good is to Job too simplified. By accepting their theory he must believe in an irrational, impetuous, vicious God. He doesn’t want this.

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Elihu = voice of prophet. Elihu follows, trying to clarify the situation to everyone’s satisfaction & ironically succeeds in repeating old vague comforter’s dialogue. Elihu––transition between comforter’s dialogue & entry of God into matter STRUCTURE OF THE DRAMA Two ways of raising suspense (1) ignorance of reader––solution at end (2) telling reader more than the character. This is device of great literature–– irony. In Job, the reader knows the plan of the Devil & God. Job searches the universe for reasons: the comforter cannot conceive of a pact of God and the devil. Job doesn’t know why things are happening to him. He wants a statement of the case against him. Job’s enlightenment is not what he wanted. See later. Job does not answer any problem––not, why do innocent people suffer? The answer to that is given by the comforters. There is a limit to the profundity in which a work of art may answer a problem. That is not the purpose of art. Job’s suffering is not a reflection or relationship [sic] on his own character but on the world in which he lives. The truth of life: these things do happen. There is no such innocence as being exempt from the calamities of life. All suffer. The consideration that Job’s sufferings are real. [Lecture 15] Drama of Judaism & Christianity deals with tragic innocent hero. In Greek tragedy, most tragic heroes have committed evil. Job is the innocent hero. His is not a story of why innocent people suffer but a subject of environment. The verse “God gives rain to the just and unjust” [Matthew 5:45] means Job is not to be considered this way. Greek tragedy is completely rational. The forces producing nemesis, âte, are logical. Hence, a sense of righting a wrong, an equilibrium. Things are done to justify a weakness & are done rationally. Shakespeare’s Lear is irrational. The pure, innocent Cordelia hangs. (Two great tragic movements: 5th-century Athens & 17th-century Europe. Both parallel scientific development.) So in Job is irrationality, since he suffers due to no flaw or no necessity demanding a nemesis or justifiable punishment. But Job is more than a tragedy. Job is aware of the unconsciousness of nature. God speaks of leviathan & behemoth––subtle, mysterious, gigantic

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forces of nature. Chap. 3:8. Correct translation––who are ready to raise up leviathan?13 In Isaiah we find indication of the leviathan connected with darkness. Referred to as two monsters in Hebrew poetry & connected with the exodus of the children of Israel over Red Sea. In Job, there is a working out of a concept of this monster as a great natural force. Two sides: (1) unconsciousness of nature––boils, etc. (2) conscious rule of man––robbed property. Are there other references to leviathan? Natural phenomena–– leviathan a symbol of natural workings. Psalm 89. Concept of Rahab as natural chaos, tamed & defeated by God. In Revelation [21:1] “There is no sea” in God’s kingdom because this is a symbol of chaos & there is none of that in the end. Sea in the Bible is always the symbol of chaos. Now, we are all inside leviathan. Natural chaos is all around. Spatially, we cannot be removed. We must make the fish vomit & throw us up. Job has been delivered from the inside of the whale & sees things in a new light. His apocalypse = revelation. [Lecture 16] Punishment of Job––condition of state he is in. This state––stupid, sinister, monstrous, symbolized by behemoth & leviathan. These symbolize: (1) chaos of nature (b) human tyranny By interpreting Job according to material in it, we have an interpretation consistent with other material in the Bible. In Isaiah, leviathan is the antagonist of God In Job, leviathan is God’s pride (somewhat) God’s final speech not interpolation on leviathan & behemoth but well-knit interpretation Leviathan & behemoth are one & the same. Nature: indifferent, monstrous, mysterious Man: tyrannical, proud, luxurious In 4th chapter of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar becomes a behemoth–– tyrannies of man.14 Leviathan identified in the Bible with tyranny of Egypt & Rome LEVIATHAN = serpent in Eden: mysterious in nature & sin of man. There is an association then of leviathan in Ezekiel (29) & serpent in Genesis, although the former is not a clear-cut or obvious symbol. Revelation 12. Leviathan & Satan (serpent) are the same. In conception of leviathan in Job there are two aspects becoming separated: a vast mysterious force associated with Satan at the beginning and

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great power in sight of God at the end. Not evil, because revealed to Job at end as accounting for mysterious force of nature. There is in the Bible an image of the great beast with a woman & harlot resting on it whose names are a mystery. This is nature’s definition of leviathan. Babylon (tyranny) is the human definition of leviathan. The history is taken into account in the Christian Bible more than in any other sacred book: Koran––Mohammedism––disunited series of revelations edited in chapters according to length. Buddhism––quite the same Bible––begins at the beginning of time and ends with ending. Chronology, narration between is unified, bound by one central unity of thought. [Lecture 17] ––Historical background of Bible––books not a rag-bag ––Unifying structure taken by examining individual symbols & bending this back into a unit. The New Testament is an interpretation of the Old Testament. Christ is embodiment of Old Testament Messiah New Testament theory of the Old Testament. For example: Galatians 4:2 ff. Two children mentioned in Old Testament now interpreted in New Testament as symbolic of the two testaments. Gospel––New Testament––freedom––Jerusalem––Sarah (Isaac) Law––Old Testament––bondage––Mt. Sinai––Hagar (Ishmael) Therefore, the two children symbolic (Isaac, Ishmael) of the two human states of freedom and bondage Hebrews 10:1 Law of Old Testament taken somewhat lightly by Paul––too set, uninterpretative Leviticus 14 & 15. One freed, the other sacrificed (sacrifice of animals). To the Christian this would be interpreted as Christ crucified and Barabbas set free. OLD TESTAMENT Creation History of Israel Creator is Governing God Creation (Cosmos) is Israel Chaos (deep) is Egypt–Babylon Mythical

Historical

NEW TESTAMENT Christ’s Story Revelation is Christ is God-Man (Lamb) is Church is City of God is Pilate, Caiaphas is Hell (Beast & Whore (leviathan) Messianic Apocalyptic

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Israel––born of Abraham Governing God––Moses led out of bondage by pillar of cloud & fire Church––instituted by disciples & Paul by Christ City of God––New Jerusalem Beast & Whore––Rome or leviathan [Lecture 18] As we read from Old Testament through the Bible we see an argument forming––in pattern above [four-column chart in previous lecture] Column 1––Genesis 1–3––doctrine of creation of universe by Word of God. The form of creation is not God but Word of God Column 2––Exodus 20. The creation of Israel came from the Word of God––speaking & dictating law and commandments through prophets Column 4. Revelation 1:8, 16. God as a Word of Himself. The City of God––here the creation on the body of or Word of Christ Column 3. Word of Christ identified by John with founding of Church Word of God Genesis 1–3. Creation of universe. Let there be light. Old Testament Creation Exodus 20. Creation of Israel. Dictating law & commandments to Moses & prophets. Old Testament History of Israel John 1: Founding of Church. Word of Christ identified with John, Christ Himself being the incarnation of God’s Word. New Testament Christ Story Revelation. God––Word of Himself. New Testament Apocalypse. [Lecture 19] Revelation 4:8 Symbolism of the fallen cities. This chapter is the story of the persecution of two witnesses, Moses & Elijah. Moses, central figure of law; Elijah, the prophets. Spiritually, the law and the prophets in Revelation. In transfiguration, Jesus flanked by Moses & Elijah, Law and Prophet. This is a concept of the Old Testament

Religious Knowledge, First-Year Course (1951–52) Creation Will of God Word of God Spirit of God

Judaism Law Messiah Prophets

Christianity Will of the Father Jesus (Son of God) Comforter (Church)

77 Apocalypse Throne Lamb Living Water

In the Genesis story, there seem to be three aspects of the same God, which move to the corresponding law, etc. of Israel. Law to them is the obedience to God’s will, the prophets speaking of the coming of Christ inspired by God. The Comforter is the spirit of God actually moving in the Church (Pentecost). Jesus draws inspiration from his Father’s will & Spirit. The living water is a carry-over of the baptismal water of Peter. [Lecture 20] The Book of Revelation teaches us that there is a different world from that offered by sense. We can believe that the world is round (reason). We can see that the world is flat (sense). Nature and the world as we grow older in intellect become less & less human. The sun is not some human warming [?] but a blast furnace. 93,000,000 miles in space. Revelation wants to show us the possible reality & truth of the child-like conception of the universe. Revelation: to restore validity of sense-conception of nature. That is why biblical symbols are so simple & natural. A second effort made to view reality in addition to the reality imposed by reason. Thus Revelation can interpret the human animal, vegetable, & mineral worlds in terms of child-like symbols––natural & domestic human––free society animal––domesticated animal (flock of sheep) vegetable––farm, garden, park mineral––city, building, tool, mines A.—the classification of reason of our world B.—the world grasped by our senses Now, Revelation would offer the whole world in terms of one individual symbol: human––One Man animal––One Lamb vegetable––One Tree mineral––One Stone

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[Lecture 21] Divine––Symbol of love & society (God as Man)* Human––Symbol of love, friendship, society (Israel) Animal––Symbols of food & protection, movement** Vegetable––Symbols of food & drink, harvest, vintage, trees, farms, etc. Mineral––Symbols of shelter: city, building, temple *Essential of the mind––Man cannot conceive of God, the greatest power, in any but human or man terms. Therefore, conceive God in human form. Therefore, divine symbols are in human form **ass––symbol of stupidity & humility––Stupid not true––indicating greater intellect than a horse––horse associated with the aristocracy–– hippeis, equites, cavaliers Mithraism, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Symbol of bull to Roman soldier–– was basis of their religion. Associated with horse [again?]––aristocracy–– cult of Mithraism.15 Now, we must conceive of all these different symbols identically. Christ is love, protection, tree of life, temple. identity: one is the other Two ways of the mind: abstraction & concretion: Philosophy–Reason tree reasoning vegetable back to its organism primordial substance element

Imagination–Poetry tree––a part of the Concrete Universal–– a symbol of the great class of trees

If all these symbols are identical, are the same, there is no differentiation of nature in these symbols; the difference is in the form––Therefore, all are equally alive. I Peter 2:4, 5 the individual is the lively stone in the whole city of God. Stone is the individual organism of the whole city––society. [in left margin: two weeks from today. Class Essay. verses interpreted]

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Revelation 21:9, 10, 11, 12. Lamb’s wife is Israel or Rachel = Israel (wife of Jacob) In Revelation, many symbolic references to 7: 7 days of the week, 7 days of creation, revelation itself is 7th day Chap. 20. 6000 years of history to be followed by the millennium. The 7th (1000 year period)––the reign of Christ, where Satan is laid dormant. All of history & time––7000 years Significance here: time is a category of the mind; has a beginning and end. This is to us, though, limitless: indefinite in extent. Space––indefinite in extent. Bible begins & ends in Paradise: Genesis to Apocalypse. (Eden) to (City of God) Goes through creation, birth of Christ, resurrection, incarnation––all history, to the end. Same with space. Start with any point in space travel & because space is curved you will return to the same spot Revelation 10:7. History as 7 ages Revelation 4:8. 7 Spirits of God Revelation 5:6. 7 original planets––unity of space Revelation writer got information from Zechariah’s 7 candles, which received inspiration from the Exodus and from 7 planets. This shows the totality of space in the human mind. Way of expressing God’s omnipotence in universe. Identification of reality with God. No. 12 is another sacred number. Zodiac––12 constellations––in heaven––expressed totality of space. Sun passes through these, giving solar calendar––unity of time. Babylonians divided the year into 12 months by observing this process. 12 tribes of Israel = totality of Israel, the body of Israel. Actually, more than 12 but fused into 12 to represent totality.

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Now, Israel in Revelation = Church = 12 tribes = God’s elect Exodus 28:15. Description of Jewish dogma & ritualism. Taken up by writer of Apocalypse as burning stones in Christian sense, representing the elect––or the 12 tribes of Israel. Chap. 21. [Lecture 22] Writers of the Bible do not deal in abstract reasonings, images, but in concretion, which is comprehended by the intuition of a child. ––Emphasis in Bible on simplicity as an attitude. ––An artist of wisdom at height of career can obtain, create a thing of genius, of great simplicity. The means taken may be complex but the effect is simple Images of living water

CHAPTER THREE SEMINAR ON WILLIAM BLAKE (1948–49) NOTES BY ROSS BEHARRIELL

Ross Beharriell received his B.A. degree from Victoria College, his studies having been interrupted by service in the Canadian Navy. He returned to Victoria, finished his B.A, and began his M.A. studies. He met his wife-to-be Patricia in the summer of 1947 while teaching at the University of Western Ontario. They were married a year later and then took up residence in Toronto, where Beharriell finished his M.A. In 1950 he attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, receiving his Ph.D. in American literature in 1954 (his dissertation was entitled The Head and the Heart in Melville). After teaching at Wabash College in Indiana and Niagara University in New York, he joined the English department at The Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario. Beharriell died in 1989. The notes, 34 pages of typed and holograph material, cover the period 14 October 1948 through 5 May 1949. They were sent to me in 1994 by Ross Beharriel’s widow, Patricia. The notes on the first 38 plates of Jerusalem begin on 17 March, but the next entry is 28 April. The intervening classes appear to have been devoted to student presentations, notes for some of which are included by Beharriell. The Jerusalem lectures break off with plate 38. A more extensive account of many of the points in these lectures can be found in Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake, which had been published the previous year. Oct. 14, 1948–Lecture Allegory: there is a language made up of symbols––any image is a symbol. Some ask, “What is it a symbol of?”––is a symbol really a symbol of something? Blake doesn’t use the term “symbolism.” An image must be used for a purpose, not in isolation. The meaning must relate to the unity of the poem at a whole, so if it symbolizes something, it must symbolize the whole poem. The meaning of the image must be inferred from the meaning of the whole poem.

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Proceeding from the field of common experience, mathematics can be considered as: 1. A commentary or 2. A language The mathematician says it is (2) but we can also consider it at (1). When the mathematician proceeds from two apples and two apples is four apples to two and two is four, he advances from (1) to (2). Sociology, etc., is restricted to (1). In Poetry: it can be considered a commentary, evaluating common experience in emotional terms, e.g.: 1. Burns’s mouse it a symbol of a real mouse. But it is also many other things; so in order to understand it we must go beyond this concept. 2. The mouse it a poetic image. Human qualities are surcharged on the mouse, and they have reality. The meaning here it inferred by the context. Application in Criticism: Painter’s art often wrongly thought to be reproducing (1) life––the mouse in a picture is a symbol of a real mouse, and should be at lifelike at possible. This may be sometimes valuable, but it not essential (as a mathematical symbol may or may not have a counterpart in real experience)––fidelity to common experience it not the real purpose. The painted mouse is a symbol, a pictorial image––its meaning is in the totality of the image. Frye’s Theory of Criticism: see Dedalus, last chap. of P of A as YM [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man] Three qualities in a work of art: Integritas––wholeness––unity, being a thing isolated from all else. Consonantia––harmony––demonstration by relating the units to the whole. Claritas––radiance––the manifestation of the work of art.16

The stages for the critic are: awareness, analysis, synthesis. The word quality––meant whatness. The debased use as applied to Art forgets Integritas, and should only be applied to it––should be used only in the singular. MEANING: This mouse means that mouse out there. So develops allegory and that may be legitimate, but it may also be an illegitimate parallel of poetic object with natural objects.

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Images or symbols can have correspondence with not the physical but another mental universe, so the lion represents courage, the unicorn virginity, etc. This, too, may be legitimate, but is often open to the flaw of formlessness; neither side should become too powerful, e.g., poetry where the references are not complete and must be explained by footnotes. The true image cannot be isolated. Types of Meaning: Equivocal––relates to the totality of the poem. Univocal––relates to something outside. The legitimate use of univocal meaning is in explicit treatises. There is a difference between a book “on” something, and a work of art. The practice of criticism is the translation of the equivocal to the univocal. There is always a variety of meanings in a work of art. Equivocal––1. Likeness––allegory 2. Contrast––irony There are two antithetical fallacies: (extremes to be avoided) 1. The preservation of a one-to-one corresponding meaning so as to prejudice the form of the art, e.g., mediaeval allegories, pedantry, and art which demands a dictionary or key––art which is a cryptogram. 2. The opposite and a reaction to (1) carried so far that the meanings become a matter of overtones and suggestions, resulting in vagueness. Great Allegory: Intelligible meaning is found within the work of art itself––no need for a search for what the artist conceals, no attempt to read something into it. But we should refuse to be satisfied with anything less than the total meaning. The progression of images is just as important as the progression of words. Lecture Oct. 21 THE MYTH The Jung Archetypes of the realm of psychological consciousness theory show up in literature, showing some connection between symbolism and consciousness. A Myth is a story of a god. What is a god? Why is there a difference between mythology and theology? The Myth has a psychological quality (Jung says the symbol perceived is really a person).

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The Act of Consciousness is the imposition of human form on nonhuman environment. The Creation of a God is peopling environment with human forms, or projecting the archetype. As the human mind progresses, it improves on this and regulates, systematizes and departmentalizes the gods. This goes on according to Blake, till it becomes one man (the individual) and one man perceived (the universal) or the consolidation of gods become[s] God. STAGES Creation. The world is made prior to man’s existence. When you start to perceive, Creation is there, and so are you. The first act is an attempted projection of man onto the environment. In this act, man begins to discover a world that seems indifferent to whatever values he finds within himself. Nothing answers his sense of law, etc., in the realm of nature. Whatever morality he finds must be his own. The only laws of nature are mechanical laws. So the first act of consciousness is man’s realization of his own sense of moral standards, and also the realization that there is nothing similar in the environment about him. He realizes that he is involved in this stupid unintelligent world. The desire for a god is the attempt to find something behind nature, on the other side of nature . . . something which can have morality and power. This is the FALL. Fall, i.e., man trying to preserve his morality in the desert of stupidity. He finds that God is not there (hence the concept of God living “up,” which he might conceivably be until this idea proved false). Man looks in the human world for a Being of morality, intelligence and power. Thus we have the search for a god-man. Redemption. This search is Redemption. Apocalypse. Following this the state of the world will be the Apocalypse, in which state the individual perceiving the nonhuman environment sees the universal. The world shapeless until man superimposes form on Nature. MAN intelligence morality weakness form life the Messiah

NATURE unconsciousness indifference power monstrousness death Leviathan

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When the answer can’t be found in nature it must be in man––a god-man with power. The dragon is a symbol of the alive and amorphous, but it is an amorphous concept. It is one of the first myths: The victory of the human, of life, of light, over dark, monstrous death (the dragon in St. Paul is identified with Satan).17 There is some limit to the amorphousness in nature, the pattern of natural law is the imprisonment of energy in something predictable. Science is prophetic. Cyclic Repetition. All art, all science are founded on this conception. Its two forms: in time . . . rhythm in space . . . pattern The cycle repetition comes in the solar, seasonal cycles. So from the day that the myth developed, the cycles take on meaning. The Deliverer (the sun, Spring) burst out of darkness or death, achieves light or life over darkness or death. The ultimate victory again expressed by a cycle. But all victories over death in the cyclic pattern, eventually die. This develops into the myth of the hero god who fights the dragon, kills it, but also dies himself (see Frazer, The Dying God, vol. ii). Note the importance of the female and male form in Grendel and his mother. The ultimate aim is the apocalypse, the complete destruction of Leviathan. The victory cycles are images of what man wants, but only images, as they end in death. They are also [?], parodies, because they are the exact opposite. This myth in Blake ORC. The dragon killer, the sun god, the leader in the struggle of liberty against tyranny, expresses the longing for liberty, for life, embodies hero worship. Embodied in the American Revolution. He is a LEFTIST. As he gets older, he becomes URIZEN. The old man, the original impulse. The rising sun, the Orc, is setting, falling back into the laws of nature, becomes Urizen. He is a RIGHTEST. SATAN. The principle of death, Leviathan.

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LOVE. Every human has some Orc in him. Every new Orc is the result of sexual union. Love is an imaginative ordering of the immediate environment, i.e., housekeeping. Note the wilderness of the fallen world. At the end of every cycle, there is a loss of home and of love, expressed by the forsaking of every man by the female spirit (see Satan and the whore in Rev., Grendel and his mother). The separation of the environment from man. Cf. Samson. Thus victory often implies marriage (a new Orc). Marriage of Heaven and Hell: a study of the sun-god etc. awakening of a new Orc. America: How Orc leads America to the triumph of Urizen. Europe: More complex. The cycle of Western Culture. Jesus is more than Orc producing the Western Culture which winds up with the Fr. Revolution ending the cycle. Note that Finnegans Wake has this cyclic pattern. Heaven and Hell. Something bigger than Orc. The revolt of energy against law which incorporates itself in a new law which is the [?]. Oct. 28. Conclusion of the attitude or approach to the study of Blake Sciences normally begin in crude induction, i.e. trying to account for a great number of facts by principles. This stage must be superseded by some working principles, by working axioms, as in Bacon’s Inductive Leap)––axioms which the facts can illustrate. For example, mathematics provides the working axioms for the science of physics. Most younger sciences are still in the crude inductive stage, still in the process of discovering their functional form. Scholars still look at literature as a huge collection of complex facts. Perhaps there will be a discovery of functional forms. Literary criticism needs it. There is no such functional thing as English Literature, or even literary history. A literary history must be a narrative, along with judgements which have nothing to do with it. Frye says there may be a form and the possibility of working it out is already inherent in critical methods. Dante’s critical suggestions: some good ideas, though he is inconsistent in them. Wrote his great poems for this type of criticism. It has four levels of criticism: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogic.

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Literal Allegorical

Psychological Historical

Moral

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REPRESENTED BY Freud and Jung Spengler, Toynbee Frazer, Murray

WHAT IT IS dream symbol

EXPRESSION

myth

genre

Bible

entity

verbal universe

mind of poet age

The Levels of Criticism LITERAL. Not logical––not what does it mean? but what does the poet mean by it? This level is psychological, and its meaning is provided by the psychologist. It is the dream of the poet’s mind; not the poet himself, but his mind. Psychology is just emerging from the crude inductive stage, is just finding its functional forms (id, ego etc.). Jung and Freud are the answers on the literal level. Biography may be useful as a background but you must come back to the mind. ALLEGORICAL. This is the one-for-one correspondence level. Thus the Old Testament prefigures the New. What does it symbolize? The answer is life. The approach must be historical. We see the work of art as a symbol of the age which produced it. History’s functional form (from Spengler and, in a modified form, Toynbee) is found in the cultural cycle theory. Thus on the allegorical level, Paradise Lost is a symbol of Baroque culture. MORAL: Ethics also took a long time to discover its functional forms. It is in the general concept of ritual, i.e. stylized activity. The distinction between ceremony and moral law does not exist. The enforcement of moral law is really a ceremony. On this level, art is articulation of social ritual, and becomes the myth. The genre is then important; cf. development of the drama, epic, etc. from social ritual. In Jane Austen, we have the ceremonial parade and legal parades of a class and hence a class myth. Dickens is a higher sense of conflict, but essentially the same––a myth of a class. ANAGOGIC. A transfiguration of the literal sense. The concept of anagogy depends on accepting the conception of the verbal universe, the one word. Necessary for the complete theory of literature. It is not by itself

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religious, but where it becomes connected with religion, the universal word becomes the word of God, both in the Bible, and in Christ. So for criticism on this level, we must turn to the Bible. The work of literature, as literature, can say nothing. Poetry is a disinterested use of language. The art for art’s sake group of the 19th century insisted on the integrity of art. Art can say nothing. The novel cannot say anything. The artist shows forth, he doesn’t say. Their theory is probably good up to this point, but they take it too far; they reject criticism and its functions. When art rejects criticism, it becomes esoteric, a silent mystery; cf. Shaw who in his early works is artist in his plays, and critic of them in his prefaces. Later Shaw (from Back to Methuselah on): the artist takes over, the critic fails. MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL Literally the poet’s dream; the dream idea is parodied in the Memorable Fancies. Also a parody of Swedenborg, who lays down propositions dogmatically, then illustrates by visions (memorable fancies) where he talks to angels etc., who tell him that his propositions are correct, and confirm his statements. Blake also lays down propositions, and illustrates them in the fancies, which are humorous. There is a very fine line between the comic and the serious because of the high urbanity (cf. the same thing in Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jonah). A very fine balance of tone between the serious and the comic. Historical Level. Again the fine balance between the allegorical and the ironic (also seen in the Bible and Blake’s Job). An Angel came, etc. “We create Heaven and Hell––we get what we deserve.” This kind of irony is typical of Butler. Here Blake shows what he means by Heaven and Hell. The attempt to find them somewhere by going through the church door. Later the vision frightens the angel, although it is really a creation of his mind, and vanishes when he runs away. Blake shows what the church interpretation can lead to: this is not what the prophets mean by Heaven and Hell. On the four levels: The dream is a revolutionary situation, with the confined forces trying to break through (libido etc.). History represents a sequence of cultural cycles in which the decline and death of some is accompanied by ascendency and life of others––all in organic rhythm. Blake adopts Spengler’s cultural cycle theory (cf. St. Augustine)––i.e. a sequence of rising and falling empires, with the recurrent contention of the rising empires with the

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falling ones. Blake sees opposition between the sinking European and the rising American, later leading to the French Revolution within the European empire itself. On the Moral level: The pattern is one of the precarious status quo (cf. Mark) attempting to maintain itself in the face of opposition. Class tension leading to revolution––a precarious apocalyptic sense. Cf. Frazer. On the Anagogic level: the opposition of the Messiah and Leviathan. The ascendancy of the fallen world threatened by the redeemed world. You begin your approach on a level, and then you reverse it. On the Psychological level: the revolutionary is bad; later it becomes good. Historical: The American Revolution is a threat to the interests of Western civilization, so the men leading it are bad; later the attitude changes. Moral: The lower classes should be kept in their place. You are impressed by the prestige of the upper class. All society is later transformed by the lower class. Anagogic: All the given things, the pre-established order is presided over by Satan, and will some day burn up. Marriage of Heaven and Hell summary. Common sense accepts the ascendency of the established over the revolutionary, and of Satan’s world over the hidden world. So eventually you must reverse the decision. You start out: Heaven is the projection of the ascendant world and Hell is the projection of the descendent elements. But the values are transformed. Power of the submerged to keep breaking through, setting the established order on fire. We also reverse the symbols. Fire is normally destructive, but in this symbol there is also the exact opposite––to natural fire in spiritual fire, and opposed to the natural of Shadrach etc. The angel’s orthodox teaching of life in fire. Fire comes to burn the world, the precarious status quo, and so neurotic fear of a life of fire. Nov. 4. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the point is the adoption of the fertility theme––the marriage of the sun and the earth. This conception, when it comes into art, becomes an allegory in the four levels of criticism. 1. the private dream––the libido 2. in history, the revolutionary 3. the victory of human liberty 4. the explosion of the world inside out On level 4. ANAGOGIC

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Blake’s revolutionaryy pattern here is connected with his geneeral ideas about imaginnation. The naatural man is the centre of hhis perception n. As natural men, w we are externall, facing outsiide. The imagginative man surrounds s experience. All creative effort e takes a different d view of the world. Civilization is the atttempt to makke a home, which is a part oof nature surro ounded by man’s ideas. Man draws a little circle around himseelf and says “tthis is my home.” Thee home exists in two formss, the city andd the garden. Thus the idea of the Garden of Edden meant th he whole worlld (cf. the fou ur sacred rivers).18 Noote the referennces to the garrden of God annd the universsal city of God in the B Bible. The anagogic explossion turns the circle inside out. Man is an indefinnite centre of his h own percep ption, but therre is no definiite centre. After the exxplosion, whenn man is the circumference c , it is Man with a capital M––theree can only be Man, not men n. The natuural idea of a city c is only an n aggregate off men. But the imaginative idea of a city is alsoo a larger hum man body. Sim milarly the im maginative idea of counntry is not onlyy cities and faarms, but also a larger humaan body. Man findds himself in nature. Outsiide of himselff is a nature, and in it, he can find no response to t certain thin ngs within him mself (moralitty, intelligence, etc.).. He is weak, but nature is strong. Religiious imaginatiion, in an attempt to reconcile thhis, projects itself and m makes many y gods–– polytheism. Then man gooes further, lo ooks to the oth ther side of naature (the concept of uup). Then he realizes r that th here is no Placce for God to be, so he looks for thee god delivereer in man himsself. Blake saays god is in man (comparre Shelley annd perfectibilitty, which says that good is man). Natural N man is wholly evvil (Blake’s sttrong acceptance of original sin). But the imagiinative man iss all right. Cf. the storyy of Israel

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When it is all reversed, man is the circumference of the universe (this on the natural level). But the imagination is also universal––we enter the body of universal Man. See Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being and its hierarchy of matter god angelical Man domestic animals garden or tree building or city

God Spirit body of man lamb tree of life, garden of Eden house of many mansions, Jerusalem

body of God human animal vegetable mineral chaos Hell

All things find their proper fulfillment by finding their proper place in the ladder. All things pointing upward, seeking to rejoin God. Note: THE ANGEL in Blake is something, a block, between man and God. When man makes a home out of nature, the real or spiritual form of the mineral world is a building or city, etc. The spiritual world is one form. The joining of the natural and spiritual by Christ is no trick. The Eternal Man is in the body of God. The Apocalypse is the blowing up. When everything is transferred into its spiritual form, this is the anagogic revolution. Blake’s concept of the great chain of being is connected with the symbol of the revolutionary. The Apocalypse in the Bible is a restatement (universal) of the individual private dream of the transformed dream. Dante has the anagogic conception––the bowels of the natural earth, purgatory on the other side, then Eden, then the moon, then the end of the universe (all this journey is within the great chain of being). Dante’s vision is pre-apocalyptic––his people are still waiting for the last judgement. He has double vision. In one sense, it is climbing up through a sequence of degrees. In the other, there is no Place; thus the anagogic melts into the real anagogic form. Purgatory becomes history, and the Inferno disappears. Blake says Dante is anagogic vision imprisoned within a Urizenic order. Except for the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, all the other works deal with a separation of Heaven and Hell, i.e. of the natural from the spiritual form, of the illusion from the reality. Illusion reflects reality. Phenomena can be read as inverted symbols of the spiritual world. The king (a natural symbol) is a symbol of Orc. The Crusades (a fight for Jerusalem) again reflected the illusion of a reality. The physical world is a distorted parody of spiritual reality (of Heaven and Hell in Paradise Lost). The Crucifixion, a physical parody of the spiritual reality.

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Truth comes from error rather than from confusion––Bacon’s consolidation of error. A form of spiritual consciousness, distinctive as a transformation of the great chain of being––also distinctive with the Gnostic (Carlyle, Fichte, Kant), which is deification of the mystery. Blake divides the world into spiritual reality and the natural world. Nature presents a jumble of facts––gives the feeling that nature is gigantic. Blake uses the term “indefinite.” The real infinite and eternal are different things. The ultimate categories are time and space. These are indefinite and unreal. None of the three dimensions can be applied to time––the same with space. The central ideas are here and now, but in natural perception now is a moving point and hence indefinable. In the spiritual, time becomes the real Now, and space becomes the real Here. Most outlooks go wrong by using the natural, unreal concepts of time and space, of here and now, rather than Here and Now. These are then natural knowledge on the natural level and revealed knowledge on the anagogic basis. Four Zoas: the natural mind trying to understand the natural world. Bible Man or Israel is confronted with enemies, symbolized by serpents or dragons. Leviathan. Israel looks beyond Leviathan for its God, Jehovah, then looks for the deliverer within Israel. This is the Messiah which conquers the dragon. The continuous fight: 1. Individual man facing the individual enemy sin or the death impulse 2. The chosen people fighting tyranny Leviathan 3. Moral imagination struggling against nature, which is Covering Cherub proved to be an illusion 4. Triumph of Heaven or One Man over hell Satan The Covering Cherub is (1) serpent and (2) the guard of the gates of heaven. A dragon of nature which must be removed before we can get into heaven.

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LOS. The perception that everything imaginative is beyond time, is timeless. Orc is not timeless, because he is cyclic. Los is the perception of the eternal moment—he is deliverance from the whole of time. Insofar as he is a natural man, man is a dying man––all acts are proceeding toward death. All action is negative, passive action. Not really action at all. Sin is then inertia, or more precisely, pride, meaning the illusory activity of the shut-in natural man. Nov. 11 /48 (short lecture) Note that in level 1 of the four levels of criticism, there is no distinction between the conscious and the subconscious intent of the author. A good example of the four levels is in Lycidas, where the four levels can be discerned. MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL. Voice of the Devil (pp. 250 ff. Viking) (Plate four) He gives three principles, and their contraries. The third is the theme of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The opposition of the two outlooks produces the orthodox view of Hell, and Blake’s view of Heaven. The orthodox view of heaven sees the soul confined to fire. Blake sees a salamander able to live in fire. Heaven is usually associated with light, seldom with fire, since fire has the sexual overtones. Point 1. This two-principle theory about body and soul has many overtones. Descartes combines a soul-less body with a body-less soul. The idea of a soul and a body is prevalent; both Platonic and Christian views. The body is viewed as the prison of the soul. The incarnation of the soul is the hell of the soul. The soul goes back to heaven when it is released from the body. This free and easy dualism is the first thing Blake deals with. His answer to 1 could lead to base materialism. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell skirts the fringe of materialism. The Body is the form of the soul. Blake refuses to set soul over against body, but rather sets spiritual body over against natural body. The soul as distinct from the body is not mentioned in the Bible. Dante’s body-less souls are inconceivable to Blake. If the body is the form of the soul, then the concept of the fall of man must include nature. Nature must be fallen too; man partakes of the general fall of nature. The Body separate from soul idea, which views the soul as a ghost, leads to a principle of consciousness, mirroring the outside world. Blake insists you cannot distinguish the natural body of man from natural nature. The natural man looking at nature is also looking at himself. Everything that is active or creative is created by the spiritual body.

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All that is passive and reflective, by the natural body. Natural man must die, must return to nature. Since he is inseparable from nature, he is dying all the time, completing his identification with nature. This leads to the Blakean principle that “All act is virtue” (see pp. 555, Viking) There is no such thing as an evil act. Evil is refusing to act, or hindering action in others. Evil is the natural man going to his death, or hastening others to theirs. All vices are really expression of the death impulse, and are not really action at all. This brings him to the conclusion that all vice is a waste of time. all act is virtue all vice is passivity This is the opposite of the natural view which tends to see virtue in passivity and vice in action. There are basically only two forms of desire, the desire for death, which is passive, negative, unimaginative and evil, and the desire for life which is active, positive, imaginative, and virtuous. There are three stages of distinction: Heaven is 1. Life 2. Reality 3. Reality Hell is Death Illusion Reflection This doctrine of active good and passive evil divides the world into principles of life and death. It is a spiritual perspective: Spiritual Perspective (1) (IMAGINATIVE)

active good passive evil

(2) Natural perspective passive good (MORAL) (rational) active evil

Life Death

Los Satan

“good” Death

fallen Urizen Satan

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is wedding active with good in part (2) and producing part (1), i.e. the imaginative. Natural man sees good as conformity and evil as breaking the rules. Part (1) is the tree of life and death––the imaginative––the world of the gospel, the world of redemption. Part (2) is the tree of knowledge of good and evil––the world of law and of bondage. Man fell when he partook of it. He should have been content with the tree of life. In this wedding, Hell becomes the consolidated form of nature; including natural man. It becomes death, illusion, reflection.

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Nov. 18/48 Blake’s theory of the imagination: The use of the term with a creative meaning dates form the late 18th century. Before, in the Renaissance, the term meant fantasy, and the users were more interested in pathology and the connection with pathology. The concept of the imagination as a faculty of creation comes later, along with the connected ideas of the subjective, the introspective, and the externality of nature. When there is a new consciousness of these things, the articulation of creativeness as a factor comes into criticism. The doctrine of the imagination is part of the anti-empiric swing. Blake seized on Locke as having defined the opposite to his own point of view. Blake’s view of Locke’s view of Imagination: Locke’s (to Blake) is a theory of knowledge in which the natural man perceives nature. But man is part of nature, so you go from objective realities to subjective illusion. Both Blake and Locke would start in the same field, i.e. external nature. Locke’s mistake, according to Blake, comes in the next stage. Blake dislikes the rationalist in Locke, not the empiric. He sees Locke as with a core of rationalism founded on mystery. Locke moves from the sensation to reflection. It is this that Blake calls illusion–– subjective illusion (e.g. of Locke: abstracting a number of real trees into a concept you might call treeness). Blake says this is a shadow thrown on the mind, as in Plato’s cave. The generalized abstract form is the shadow or spectre of the real thing; it is the shadowy duplicate of sensation. Passiveness of mind is important to Locke. The mind is a tabula rasa, receiving impressions, passively exposing itself to impressions. Summary: Locke says the natural man perceives nature. Blake says it is nature stamping itself on natural man, who is its own reflection. Blake stands for the mental revolution, which reverses the whole Lockian order, and turns it inside out. He starts with the outer world. But if you regard yourself as active, rather than passive, the relation will be one of aggression and conquest. The active mind with the aggressive attitude imposes form on the material world. Blake sees two causes: The Natural Cause––the exterior world––and the Formal Cause––the mind which perceives it. The trouble with Locke is that he confuses these two causes and tries to reproduce the form of the exterior world. Blake says that there is no form in the material world: you must impose form upon it. This act is not at all an hallucination. There are two levels of FORMING THIS MATERIAL. 1. bringing out the form which seems latent in the material. This is science.

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2. a more conscious method. The forming of nature takes place on more obviously the shape of the human mind. This is art. Example: distinguishing trees from rocks is science. A building is a material object built out of natural objects, and following natural laws. But it is also a mental form, in which a part of nature has come to human life and reflects the organizing form of the mind. To Blake art is everything connected to civilization insofar as it is an attempt to bring nature into human life. So in art he includes commerce and law. Therefore art is the total expression of the creative and active in man, and therefore the total expression of man’s life as distinct from the illusory act which springs from the death impulse. Just as art brings nature into human life, it also redeems nature, and cannot be a product of natural man, but must be a product of conscious man, i.e. supernatural man. Man is therefore divided into creative, supernatural, active, conscious man and dying, natural, passive, animal man. The natural man is dragged along through time until he dies. Every conscious and creative act represents a break with time––it is a vision of the timeless. The creative drive (including such creative acts as love) is potentially a break with time. This creative, active part of man could be called Mind or Reason or Intelligence etc., except that the terms have wrong connotations because of improper application. For Locke, the reflection of the image is the idea. For Blake, the image belongs to the material, and is not form.

The term imagination was wrongly used by Locke to describe Ulro. Blake uses imaginary and imaginative to convey the meaning of Locke and Blake respectively. Notes: IMAGINATION is the human mind operating on nature and creating out of it triple relationships: subject, object, and creation. This is the world of love, landscape. BEULAH is the state of love in this triple world. The fourfold world is EDEN, the world of pure creative art, the reflection of human creative power, and includes autonomous creation,

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such as a symphony. EDEN is paradise (see the Bible symbols of the city and the garden). These are symbols of the redemption of nature by human effort. Religious implication of this concept: The double world, which he calls GENERATION, is a battleground in which everyone is compelled to make decisions for or against passivity, for life or death. The first act of the creative mind is to separate from the death impulse. So it divides the common world of experience into heaven and hell, the world of reality and the world of illusion. The whole effort of the imagination is to make this division as complete as possible. Death is Satan. All evil tends toward this evil, and is therefore Satanic. Where the complete separation is made, death becomes hell. In its creative act, the mind attaches itself to the external reality, external existence. Thus God is regenerate man. The core of the religious impulse is therefore the creative equivalent of Satan, i.e., divine humanity, eternally real and existing. Blake calls this Jesus. All the technical achievements (building cities, etc.) are the product of the vision of an eternal city, as are all acts of love. Their final cause is the eternal community, and also the body of God. Blake finds in himself an affinity with the doctrine of imagination as creative, and so the creative man is identified with God. Compare Coleridge and his primary and secondary imagination, and also the Elizabethan critics. For Blake, the imagination does not create; it rather recreates. We start with fallen man in fallen nature; there is no form. The present state of creation is fallen and formless. The creative activity is a secondary one imitating the redeeming power of Christ, and not the creative power of God as in Coleridge. Albion is part of the divine body, divine humanity, which fell away from the rest. The Fall can be viewed on four levels: Literal one individual man Historical companies of nations Moral human society Anagogic one man (the larger human body) Adam is man fallen as far as he can go and still be redeemed. Blake calls Adam the limit of contraction (physical life). Satan he calls the limit of opacity (physical death). The myth of the fall: Body of God or Jesus (of which Albion is part) Albion as a fallen angel or Titan Albion as fallen giant or Druid Albion as fallen man or Adam

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Man is not strong enough to destroy himself. The monstrousness of the outside world is the reflection of the mind in a cramped position. Man at the centre, God at the circumference of the universe. In the world of sensation, separating Heaven and Hell, there are stages: Evil––the opposite to good, the opposite to life, finally as illusion, a reflection of the spiritual world, and ultimately as a nothingness. Separating the world of sensation into a Reality and its Shadow. The physical world, once separated into life and death, the acts of the mind can be divided into real imaginative acts and the natural illusory acts, which are parodies and imitations of real acts. The natural aspect: inverted reflections of the eternal qualities––the king, Christian wars, etc. See the Bible. Physical laws of the Jews become spiritual laws of the gospel. Ritual becomes inverted illusion––the analogy of the spiritual. The Old Testament is spiritual reality still imprisoned. The New Testament, of spiritual reality set free. Nov. 25 Blake’s View of Poetry His distinctive quality as a poet is the thoroughness of the anagogic view. The difficulty is that he expects the reader to reach the anagogic level at once, and then look back at the other levels. Literal level—psychological (archetypes): usually correspondence of words with facts, i.e. allegorical, or grammatical, but prose meaning is only part. Therefore the poem is literally itself, i.e. the Integritas or unity of all its parts and elements. It is the product of the author’s will, which is both active, and passive, at once. There is a distinction between the conscious and the unconscious. anagogic––depth literal––surface Allegorical––historical, illustration of some life outside it. This is only a part way stage, and may not be considered the final stage. Moral––translating into moral concepts Anagogical––theological With Blake you must reach number four immediately; the other levels are to be inferred from it. Contrast between the kind which builds up, and the kind which diffuses. Last Judgement is not 2 or 3; 2 and 3 are inferior, memory, and distinct from 4. Blake is not wholly consistent with his terms, sometimes using the word allegory to imply anagogy

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Pickering Manuscripts––a third set of lyrics to go with the Songs of Innocence and Experience. Auguries of Innocence—to see the world in a grain of sand. The expansion of every perception into its universal form. The rose is the anagogic wild flower. In the Bible, the living stones are part of the city, i.e. the world in a grain of sand. The Innocent Eye jumps from level 1 to level 4, from the particular to the universal. The Single Human Mind The imaginative man perceives the particular––unification. The natural man perceives the universal––uniformity The passive mind sees treeness, a green blob, an abstract idea of vegetation. The imaginative mind perceives the particular and proceeds to the universal. The end of general is Hegel’s absolute idealism. The end of particular––unification of particulars, the total form of which all particular objects make. This total form of perceived objects is a single human mind. Auguries of Innocence The Bat: a symbol of doubt (moral level). To stop at this level is to ignore the real bat, and is unfair to bats. The anagogic bat: recover the fall. Internalize whatever the bat was before it fell. The ability to fly in darkness. Applied to the imagination: a reminder of our own fall. In the imaginative mind the bat is internalized, inside the brain. In the unimaginative, the bat is external. The Ox: false with regard to experience, but true in the state of innocence. In experience, love and cruelty are inseparable. In innocence, the unfallen world, the statement is true (cf. the meek shall inherit the earth) Caterpillar on a leaf: mother’s grief––life born in pain. The caterpillar is the larval existence of fallen man––parasitic on the vegetable, fallen world. The unorganized vision sees visions as objects. The organized vision sees them as creatures. Everything is a divine creature, and because it is, it is a human. Coleridge: his primary vision is divine, his secondary is human. For Blake, all human imaginative perceptions are creative, and see things as God. To the imaginative man, the bat does not symbolize doubt. It is doubt. We see

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the bat, and he reminds us of our own fall. What is in the mind are not spectres, but real forms. The final cause of all perception is creation. Archetypal Creativity: we have a creative God alone in infinity––divine humanity. The sun-god is the real creator. The fall, or the creation (nature) Imagination or recreation, i.e. trying to recreate archetypal activity Archetypal creativity––body of Jesus (man at centre), Urizen with compasses––deistic God, SATAN Imagination––Incarnate Jesus Dec. 2 The contrast between imagination and nature. The final imaginative cause is life, the final apparent cause is death. The goal of natural vision is nature. You meet the categories of time and space. They are not infinite and eternal. These terms are reserved for the imaginative. The indefinite is the goal of natural perception. But if you visualize endlessness, you must account for mechanical existence. The first imaginative perception of nature is perception of a combination of energy and order. We don’t see them, but we see Reason as the outward bound of energy, i.e. the order of energy. The fundamental perception (natural or imaginative) is perception of energy as order, i.e. the basis of all the arts is rhythm and pattern. Both are expressions of ordered energy– –musical pattern/rhythm in painting/the idea of recurrence. We find the pattern of recurrence on all four levels. See Dunbar on Dante. Chart

The goal of the natural vision is indefinite, and therefore is indefinite recurrence––fatalism, the endless cycle. The imaginative vision sees everything as one man who is God. Compare Finnegans Wake––a negative and satiric approach to the same view. Finnegan is the one man; the story is his

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funeral as satire on his failure to become imaginative. The whole book goes around in a circle. Note the contrast between the cyclic and the anagogic. Note use of Zodiac and sons of Albion. On levels: the distinctions in 3 are cyclic, but 4 goes beyond, i.e. the crux of the anagogic is the passage from Beulah to Eden (in Blake as in Dante). Numerology: 3 is natural 4 is imaginative, i.e. the trinity plus the assumption of a man into God. FOUR ZOAS: cf. Isaiah and Ezekiel––the chariot and 4 creatures with eyes (eagle, lion, ox and man). These four turn up again in the Revelations 4. In Medieval iconography, they are the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. In Revelations, they are beasts (Zoa in Greek). Blake applies them to the four elements of divine man. STORY: the progress is one of fall and redemption. He starts at level 4, falls to 1, comes back. The fall of Albion into Adam and his return. There are three stages of fall, and three of rise, i.e. the cyclic myth of the fall of man. Compare the seven cycles of history (3 fall and 3 rise): Going down: 3. Lucifer, Titanic 2. Moloch, Gigantic 1. Elohim Coming up: 1. Shaddi19 7 eyes of God. 2. Pachad20 3. Jehovah firstly and finally, 4. Jesus This is a conception human beings have had in their history. In Genesis chap. 1, God is called Elohim, chap. 2, Jehovah. Elohim: the god who accompanies creation as we know it. The first stage Shaddi: Abraham (in Job) Pachad: Isaac––fear; the Mosaic period Jehovah: end of the Law Jesus: the beginning of the Gospel 1. Lucifer––titanic 2. Moloch––gigantic 3. Elohim––humanity 4. Shaddi––-power 5. Pachad––fear

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6. Jehovah––law 7. Jesus––Divine Humanity Note the similar concept of fallen Adam in Paradise Lost, Bk. 9, as a sort of Byronic, romantic hero––Rousseau, primitivism. Milton knew what the cult of natural man would lead to (cf. Montaigne’s Essay)21 WHY DID MAN FALL? We acquire our knowledge of the fall through the sense of disorganization of nature. Imaginative effort, the making of form, is made out of the material, which suggests recreation, therefore ruin and fall. The Fall then is a psychological account of what man does when he repeats the fall and gives way to the natural instead of the imaginative. Worlds: single––brain and idea double––subject and object triple––lover, beloved and child quadruple––four zoas, creator and creation The fall from Beulah to Generation: In the state of repose, Beulah, the female, becomes objectified. The Emanation is the totality of creation (in Eden). In Beulah, it becomes the thing loved; in Generation, or experience, it is separated from the creator, and becomes a spectre. The spectre is opaque man, separated from environment. Dec. 9 Conclusion of General Introduction Cf. Joyce in associating the stages with genres: Lyric––youth Epic––middle age Dramatic––older period. It is the sprit that counts, not the actual genre. A similar progression from the subjective to the objective is found in Blake. But Blake writes only in the lyric and epic periods. His dramatic expression is in art. (No poetry in the last 20 years.) The long poems and prophecies are in the epic period. THE EPIC attempts to present a unified vision of reality in one form. It is an entire treatment of the subject. The dramatist has no explicitly formulated view (though there is a latent epic quality in Shakespeare), but presents episodes, illuminations of a larger implicit vision. The epic is encyclopedic. It contains everything that the writer knows, plus something more. The aim is to tell society what it knows. The epic writer carried the central tradition of the primitive poet. He is the walking ency-

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clopedia (Homer and Hesiod). Therefore the epic must be long, but a long poem is not necessarily an epic. Epics can also be short (Waste Land) (Southey is not epic). The Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde are epic, while medieval romances are not. The pure narrative is endless. But the epic goes in a circle. The epic poet starts in the middle, with the action advanced. The beginning and end are in sight. The beginning and end are alike, and the middle is a contrast to both. Cf. Aeneid and Paradise Lost. The Romance (Moby Dick) is halfway between the pure epic and the pure narrative, has the idea of quest. In the Bible: story of David is narrative. Job is epic––the wandering in the wilderness is romance. EPIC Divine Comedy Faerie Queene

Eden Beulah

Aeneid Iliad

Generation Ulro

creator & creature art: recreation of man lover & beloved love: wedding of king & country subject & object life: founding a city ego & enemy war: wrath of warrior

Song of Songs: a key to Spenser’s symbolism, also for Blake; e.g. Beulah means marriage. Dante: first part is Ulro (wrath––best thing in hell is the earthly city–– when he comes out on the other side of the world (the mountain is the city). Next part is Beatrice, love, ending on the plain of Venus. Beatrice disappears in the final part, i.e. recreated man. Ulysses: parody of quest (there is nothing to find)––theme of return, but deprived––pure vision of cycle, between romance and narrative. Finnegans Wake: a parody of The Faerie Queene Tasso: crusade a symbol of the recreation of Jerusalem. Note the war, city, love court, art again. The MINOR PROPHECIES all seem to be studies in epics, beginnings of epics. The epics proper start with the Four Zoas, but even these are not really true epics. Note Milton’s distinction between diffuse epics and brief epic (Job, Paradise Regained) and Beowulf. Blake’s epics are concentrated, brief, dehydrated, but their symbolism is epic, so we may consider them to be brief epics. The Four Zoas was abandoned with engraving.22 Milton and Jerusalem were engraved. They have the same principles and symbolism.

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Jan. 6 [Here follow notes on a series of seminar papers: by Woodman, Hughes, Pitt; on aesthetics; and on post-Romanticism] Blake and Milton: (paper by [Ross] Woodman) The eternal form of history, the holy city poet’s role as redemptive. Law is a curse from which man must find release. Cyclic vision, fallen world, symbol of marriage. Blake claims Milton has left this important symbol of consummation, fulfillment. Milton (the poem): to restore two points to Milton: 1. the satanic nature of the fallen world: Milton might be misunderstood to mean that the world which God created is the one we now see. 2. The omission of the marriage symbol, including the harlot (person who meanders away from God) and the forgiveness of the harlot (Redemption). (Compare Virgil: must abandon Dido to get the city. Homer: Ulysses must leave Calypso to get going. Influences: Europe: nativity ode and Comus. Albion: Comus. Comus is England in its Beulah perspective (the garden of Adonis is Spenser’s Beulah): close association of Israel and England. Samson is the nation in Areopagitica. This becomes expanded into Albion, the body of the chosen people. Blake knew the Areopagitica, but not the Christian Doctrine. Tillyard: Milton’s two stages. The unwritten song of experience, reflected only is spots in the prose,––Areopagitica, Church govt. Blake on Milton’s trinity FRYE (after Hughes’ paper) Dante tries to see a fourth principle, human nature which god added to himself. Fourfold God: Boehme: 3 stages in the evolution of god: 1. wrath (fire) the empty shell becomes Lucifer, evil. 2. Light. 3. Life. In Blake, there is Albion and the mirror: that which he has created becomes objective, part of the mirror in which God is reflected. Eden Beulah Generation Ulro

human animal vegetable mineral

humanity of Christ lamb of God tree of life stone of the city

The Great Chain of Being traceable to Iliad, bk. 8., Zeus Eden Beulah

Head Heart

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Loins Legs

Blake and 18th Century ([David] Pitt) Necessarily influenced by the neoclassic in early poetry plus individuality, but not in revolt. Criticism of neoclassicism (To the Muses) is not a tirade, compared to Shelley and Keats. 18th century: no inspiration since Milton, reliance on reason, lack of archetypal myth qualities, lack of poetry of revealed religion, lack of epic, false fable. As opposed, Blake’s doctrine of divine inspiration, as equal to divine imagination. Thomson, Collins, Young, Warton, Smart, Cowper, Celtic revival. Eighteenth century has 2 veins, Augustan and something else. The something else (Pre-romantics) mostly 1750–1800. See Fearful Symmetry on this––places Blake with them. Kant’s noumenal world is mysterious, falls in love with nature. The Kantian distinction is simple Lockian for Blake. Feb. 3 Frye (general) Marginalia: Blake had the habit of crystallizing thought; the epigram fitting in with “you only conceive what you can execute.” Locke and Newton: they are debunked, and later raised. He is trying to draw lines sharply. The stronghold of error is confusion. Their work is a mixture of right and wrong. He opposes truth and error, and sees Locke, Newton, Bacon, as a good battleground for truth and error––an attempt to awaken people from uncritical lethargy. He has nothing against them personally. Also wants to consolidate error as error, so he illuminates the mind to complete apprehension. So the last part of Jerusalem is concerned with defining the Antichrist. They are redeemed by being cast off. By the process of rejecting the picture presented by deism, you clarify the vision of the fallen world. Four Zoas Spectre and Emanation refer to the double aspect of existence 1. creator-creature 2. lover-beloved subject-object ego-enemy (i.e. elusive shadow or female will) 1. Entire creation is an emanation of God.

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2. Reappearance in the natural world. The bride is the emanation, creation of the groom. Art gives a clearer picture, because the thing loved is also the thing created. 3. The common sense view of the world. The coming together of two objects, stressing separation (Lockian philosophy). All activity, imagination, is the unification of the subject and object. Everything else leads to separation, and 4. Ulro. The ego: is also the Spectre, the man who is trying to achieve unreality, to become unsubstantial, the ghost; you are also alone with your second-hand dreams. The emanation becomes shy, coy, elusive, unobtainable, just beyond reach; the court of love, coy mistress, etc., is a ritual expression for the unobtainable world. Religion symbolizes it in the whore or harlot. In Blake, the harlot is also the professional virgin, who makes a business of keeping out of reach. Tharmas: loss of power. The spectre of Tharmas is the power of nature. In the unfallen world, touch and taste are the same––what the ego does with its idea: it swallows the shadow of the world, a parody of what the creator does: He swallows the universe and becomes its circumference. The pulling of the sea monster out of the sea (he really is the sea) becomes a symbol of the redemption. Tharmas is associated with the sea, the thing that blots out the paradise, which is the Atlantis under the sea. Origin of Tharmas:

Thoth, Hermes (hidden power) Thermos heat Thumos passion Thomas, doubt. Prospero is a regenerate Tharmas, as is Merlin.

head heart loins feet

Urizen Tharmas Luvah Urthona

Ahanai Enion Vala

Eden Beulah Generation Ulro

Urthona splits into Los, Enitharmon (which takes you back up into redemption). Urizen is divine wisdom that man has after he has achieved redemption. Luvah is the principle of generation––the life potentially. Eros and Adonis, the power of love, the organic power of sexual reproduction, power which eventually dies; he is the same as Orc. The song of the ancient Mother is the song inspired by the sense of time.

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Lamb and Tyger: in the world of Jesus, the lion lies down with the lamb. Beauty and strength remain––Tiger Christ, cf. Lamb in Songs of Innocence. Innocence and Experience: present unfallen and fallen worlds; also to some extent, the world of moral good and moral evil. The creative power of God cannot be identified with moral good and evil. So he who made the lamb did make thee. 1. image of a man shaping a tiger; 2. image of a tiger shaping himself. Directions 4 zenith 3 circumference 2 centre 1 nadir

south west east north

fiery city burning bush or tree crucible furnace

Paper on aesthetic [student unidentified] The idea of the general: dictionary words are forlorn ghosts, poetic words are many things not meanings. Blake: art as the word of God. The generalized is memory, egocentric. The particular: divine, Jesus, the Word of God, the recreation of the divine world. Vision: archetypal myth. Allegory has universal significance; symbol stands for something else. Art reasserts independence from natural world; the relation of all things to the universal Human Form; creates and preserves order in society. Cf. Reynolds, Burke. The rationalizing school (Wharton on Cromwell’s nose); justification was you painted the man of quality or the hero. Blake sees a far higher future for art than portraits. The Pathetic: the strong the sublime the beautiful the pathetic

Rintrah Palamabron

lion lamb

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Songs of Innocence: world is beautiful, pathetic Songs of Experience: world is sublime, majestic ruin. Genius: all men have divinity; very few have genius. He does not assume the genius more divine, G[enius] is responsible; the really important thing is the divine. Brotherhood: every work of art is the focus of the community. If the community brings together only highbrows, too unhealthy. If it appeals to the aggregate of natural men (Reynolds), it does not have a community. After Romanticism paper [student unidentified]: 2 types of prophet: Withdrawn: Rintrah In society: Palamabron You withdraw; when you return, you are in but not of society. The poet should be exposed to society, should also have the insight of Rintrah. Byronic Hero: The animal becomes man through sin, this does not concern the unborn man. Feb. 23/49 Blake and Pre-Romanticism. They are not really Blake in painters––they got through Ruskin into another type of program––they were good commercial artists, i.e., meticulous detail & screwy subject matter. Cf. surrealism. Consider surrealism as Victorian bad taste. Founded on the nineteenth-century idea of conscious & subconscious mind. The Augustan Age was aware of the subconscious, but kept it underneath, where it belonged. Therefore, sense of balance. In the eighteenth century subconscious things gradually break out. Puritanism was a kind of democratic compromise between the conscious & unconscious. The Pre-Romantic also kept the conscious in control––underneath was the mythopoeic reservoir of power. Victorian Age tended to be singular, individual; therefore it produced no group arts: no music, drama, fresco painting. Blake’s interest in portable frescoes: it has public response and requires a public symbolism. Blake wanted to shape some public symbols.

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Used historiical (Nelson, Pitt) and biblical characteers. Felt indiv vidualistic painting wass restricted. Descripttive Cataloguee. Propagandaa for frescoess, water colou ur. Therefore, Blake one of the earrliest to advoccate democrattic painting. Cf. C Morris & the Pre-R Raphaelites. Pre-Rom manticism likeed Masolino (1400). ( Discoovery of persp pective–– and Florentiine realism. Lippi, L Botticellli––later with Raphael it beecame the high Renaissance. March 17

Beharriell’s ssketch of Frye

Lake of Udaan-adan23 = mirror m mind––““tabula rasa” Discussion oof Yeats-Blak ke paper [stud dent unidentiffied] Chaucer: 7 pplanetary typees

} 28 + 1 = 29 4 hhumours Malory: [rt.??] has 28 places Yeats fills uup some of Blaake’s holes 1. patterrn of cyclic hiistory 2. cyclic pattern of death & rebiirth; cyclic paattern of rein ncarnation (from m Eastern philosophy) Cf. Tibettan Book of thhe Dead––also o Mme Blavattsky

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Yeats took over reincarnation & applied it to Western spiritualism––the world of Bardo was the other half of the life-death cycle. Identified the Bardo world with fairies. Bardo is “here & now” but out of the range of sense perception. Also tended to associate the Bardo with Catholicism. Tragic curse––conditioned by Bardo. It is taken into Bardo & then brought back. No clear reference to reincarnation in Blake. Beulah, a kind of rebirth, but this is different from reincarnation. Book of Thel ––world of unborn, imm. ode24 ––Vaughan, “The Retreat” Blake cannot fit in because he doesn’t separate soul & body. Butler––no birth, just rebirth Transmigratory ? Compensatory ? History cycle (in Blake) Spengler: Decline of the West History = a sequence of cycles behaving like organisms––cycle–– organisms grow, mature, decline, die WC [Western Civilization] Classic Spring Feudal=agrarian economy = chivalry ––heroes of Homer, agrarian Summer City-state economy, great arts, ––city-state in Greece––drama individualized Autumn c 18––Bach, Mozart, consolidation ––Plato, Peloponnesian War of philosophy Winter uprooted––huge cities––culture exhausted ––Alexander Science––war––dictatorships

We are now at the stage of the Punic Wars––ahead is Caesarism Jerusalem Commentary Introduction: The theme: Albion subject totality of man Jerusalem object totality of nature. The uniting of the two is the integration of the universe, and then it becomes, on different planes, feminine (relaxation) bride communal (in activity) city

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“To the Public”: the goats won’t understand. The three years are those at Felpham. Banks of the ocean are the boundary or outline of his vision. Giants not men, or gods, but states, archetypes, so giant is a good word. Fairies: imaginative power as contrasted with heathen deities, which are projected. Sinai––the supposed origin of writing. Ear: the spiral, vortex, maelstrom. The passage on rhyme; cf. attack in Paradise Lost, which is also political and religious. This is religious. The freedom of the ancients. Plate 4. England is fallen, sunken. The black water is the symbol of the fall. Albion: white land, radiant city, sheen, unfallen England. Emanation: the totality of what man loves: the beloved environment, viewed in single form, which viewed up close is a lot of things, i.e. the daughters. The variety of things that man is trying to love in the fallen state are a bunch of opaque egos, not one form, but many indefinite forms. Jealousy: perverted by the egocentric approach to love. Plate 5. Ancient porches also mean ears. Udan-adan: a lake, vague and watery. The subjective mind tries to make a mirror of the indefinite world it perceives: corresponds to doubt. Entuthon Benython is a valley, like the lake a symbol of mystery, concealment, a feminine symbol (coyness etc.) of the fallen world. Moab etc.: a list of the enemies of the people of God, corresponding to the seas around England. Rock of ages: the confining form of imaginative life. Tirzah: see Milton plate 41. The fallen five senses, mother of Rahab, the fallen daughter. Tirzah is a mother goddess, infantilism. Rahab is the perverted creation, the coy mistress. The male within the furnace is the man in the womb. The female, within the male, is the imaginative creation of man. In the unfallen state, there is no difference between a mother and a daughter, or a wife. Tirzah in the Bible is the capital of the northern kingdom; like the woman of Samaria, a perversion of the chosen people in a false religion. Rahab is Babylon, the heathen and hostile. In the list of names, not the Lear element, and Geoffrey of Monmouth. The names represent memories. The Covering Cherub: becomes the outward form of yourself. The sword of fire: the double-edged sword of the word. The eastern gate: centre, everything unimaginative; see [chap.] 4, [plate] 77.

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The furnace: creative human being is a crucible. The man not creating is sealed up––heat but no light, hell. Jerusalem is pushed further and further from England. Her children are revolting against her and driving her out. Beulah’s daughters are the muses, sources of inspiration. The Starry Wheels are the cycles of nature from the western ocean to the sunrise. Vala: the emanation of Luvah, the sexual aspect of the fallen world: the genital part of Albion: continues sexual symbolism: producing men and women which keep dividing into men and women. Plate 6. Los: his spectre [Urthona] cannot exist without Los, and is a recurrent tendency to look at things in a natural way. Man has within him a malignant enemy of his own soul. Plate 7. The spectre stands for contemplation. He says imaginative life is quixotic. Egypt is called the furnace of iron. The sky-god, Urizen, is afraid of the apocalypse. Edom: the kingdom outside the promised land, or the fallen world. The cult of Moloch is the only logical religion for the selfhood. The stars are the cyclic universe; also the sons of Albion have zodiacal significance. Wrath: is innocence confronted with evil. Plate 8. The triple form of the spectre; the human ego, the consolidated vision of error. Shinar is Cain’s land; means the same as Babel, the land of natural man. The Spectre of Urthona: creative power (poetry, art, etc.) if it becomes Albion’s, it makes weapons. Hyle: eternally dying God (fallen Orc). Hand: always beating ploughshares into swords. Koban: superstition. (They are loins, head, heart respectively.) Plate 9. The building of the city (see Jerusalem: [plate] 54, [line] 16). Los is the smith, the spectre is the waster. The dialectic: the mental operation of either/or, or reducing the middle ground. Los: the marriage of the sons and daughters of Albion has become cyclic. Therefore he must look for another synthesis, the one which is possible has the vision of the Atlantic (the British Isles. Plate 10. The human body described in terms of the Hebrew Temple; the unknown hidden god in the holy of holies is identified with Antichrist (cf. Daniel 12, 11). The spectre is the pure natural man in the torment of sin and he identifies himself with the devil, the spirit of angst, claustrophobia, proceeding towards self-annihilation. (Los is working in the face of despair). When the spectre calls for Enitharmon, he wants to cut her throat.

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Plate 11. Cf. the prophecy of Jacob, Genesis 49. Reuben: the central figure of the fallen man. Rachael, the bride of Israel, means Jerusalem. Leah is Babylon, the other wife, the Great Whore. The Mandrake is vegetative man. Compare map of Canaan. Plate 12. Space seems a place in the vision. Golgonooza is the human brain (the fallen form is the place of the skull, the shell, Golgotha). Enitharmon: queen of the waters, night, female will which appears in the fallen world: fallen Eve, the nature of Milton’s Nativity Ode. Lambeth is where he wrote Jerusalem, and is personified as one of the builders of Golgonooza. Jerusalem is put on top of London. Calvary fits on Golgotha, the place of hanging, palace of art, nadir of the fall, transformation to one Man taking place in the skull. Every work of imagination comes out of time, and does disappear in time. It forms part of a real saying (the temple of Zion). Plate 13. The vegetative universe: distinction between imaginative astrology and astronomy, reading the stars, and reading the space between the stars. The salamandrine men live in fallen fire, mischievous daemons. Churches: Irony: Babylon, Rome. etc. Plate 14. Forest of affliction: men grown into trees, mandrake etc. Plate 15. Polypus: the totality of life in the fallen world, identified with Orc. The triumph of hostile tribes, Adam, Noah, etc. down to the New Jerusalem. Hinnon takes Moloch’s place, Plate 16. Los feels the need of a book, a permanent record of the creative side of his life. Plate 17. The fear of the daughters: fear of losing as a result of the view of the beauties of the fallen world. Beauties represent the recurrent attempt to fall under the spell of mother nature. The power of organizing is imaginative organization of imaginative pattern. Inconsistency can be only in a rational pattern. Bath is physical healing. Canterbury, spiritual healing. The Globe of Blood: the first sea out of which all life springs, the centre of Polypus (cf. Four Zoas, 4, 293) Plate 18. Blake as a continuous fantasy: images in a diagram etc. Reality is contact of subject with object. ? Old Testament.

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Plate 19. 24 elders of the apocalypse in fallen form. The island is the individual cut off. male: Albion, Mountain female: Jerusalem, tree Plate 20. Samson: later vices are symbols of fallen man (shame etc.). Fear of incest: is fallen, because in the unfallen state there is no difference. The mother’s original hold over the son is part of the Babylon symbol. The veil and the net are the enmeshing and trapping of the female will. Fallen Albion becomes identical with Luvah, and what he is chasing is Vala. Plate 21. The expulsion of children (association with Noah) and Job. Worship of the death cycle is all that is possible to fallen man. Plate 22. Vala crucified, nailed-up serpent. Nimrod the mighty hunter before Jehovah––the first dictator in Paradise Lost: here a god-man appearing at the centre of the fallen world. The struggle and search become perverted into the ritual of death in the fallen world. The ark is a portable form of the temple. The unfallen ark is Noah’s: contains everything; the castle of the spirit, the unfallen body of Noah, is Albion, with all living creatures within. Vala is the dark secret place of sin, later the ark. Plate 23. The tree and stone are interchangeable. Christ between the thieves, Samson between the pillars, the Stonehenge between the pillars. The whole veil is: totality of fallen life, veil of the temple, the seamless garments of Christ. April 28 Plate 24. Jerusalem: veil = imprisoning force of nature. One level: we are all born under Atlantis. The veil in the Atlantic means much the same as Leviathan. Jesus is like Messiah, pulling the whale out of the sea. Then the revelation will be here (this explains the fish symbol). The power of the gospel to pull fish out of the sea. The veil here is a great fish-net. Part 2 [i.e., Chap. 2 of Jerusalem, plates 28 ff.] 0. Introduction. The building of palace of Solomon. The Spectre of Urthona put in subjection by Los. 1. The artist & public. The world the artist lives in & the world the public lives in established.

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2. The Jews. Deals with establishing the law––the order of the fallen world (limited by Adam & Satan). Part 2 revolves around the creation of Adam. Temple of Jerusalem: apocalypse in terms of fallen world. It confused spiritual, mental reality with the symbol. To the Jews. Blake’s pre-Adamic civilization of giants. The British church preserved it: megalith sun worship and swastika oak-tree worship mistletoe serpent worship human sacrifice The Old Testament patriarchal period comes out of that civilization & the exodus is the symbol of this. Jewish error of accepting the physical form in an attempt to perpetuate Druidical form. 451––Original gigantic Adam––paradisal home of Adam was Adam’s body (explain Lilith)25 Plate 28.––dread of incest again ––unfallen world begins as a garden but to Blake it must have been also a city Cause of the Fall?––begins by the separation of begetting from loving, seeing the creation as something separate, the female will innocence [?] original sin came with recognition that the world is separate from him. Blake’s doctrine (possible heresy)––the divine eternity of form (cf. [Isaac] Watts). Leads to: the eternal God not isolated––the city. The fall of man was the fall of part of the eternal city. Fall of Lucifer & Adam are different stages of the same event. Lucifer falls from the eternal city. (In Milton the angels are older than Jesus.) In Blake, Lucifer the light bearer becomes titanic, gigantic. Finally human. Plate 29. Albion linked with Covering Cherub. Man of sin & repentance––antichrist––here the death impulse, inertia, withdrawal

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––Stone of London––[Scone?] Stone Albion is talking like a creature. Luvah––Satan afflicts Job & God that wrestles Jacob ––heart in place of Beulah & 4 rivers (bloodstream) —description of fall of generated Adam & Eve, Luvah & Vala & the serpent Plate 30. Adam & Eve looking for clothes: spectre of Urthona––space Enitharmon––space ––union produces indefiniteness of time & space as we know it. Feminine allegory: kind where physical thing is supposed to have a connection with the spiritual (addressed to sensuous rather than intellectual powers) (28)––4 Zoas: 24 elders––Joyce ––fallen form of sexual relationship in hermaphroditic. Cf. Browne––an indefinite progression towards the hermaphroditic26 The actual = producing & creating, a total identification (Swedenborg & Milton) Plate 31. Newtonian mind trying to get a grip on the world. line 7 [they?] = abstract ideas Bricks = generalizing through abstraction The brick building (pyramid)––a symbol of tyranny May 5 Jerusalem Plate 31. again separating sin from sinner Strife of Albion and Luvah ––recorded as Jacob & angel Job & Satan

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The fallen world––generation becomes antagonistic Urizen = moral law, stabilization is all that Albion has to take refuge Luvah is driving power ––living Eros Corrupt & devoted to death ––dying Adonis 12 altars of stone (Bible) & megalith Stonehenge = temple of falling Albion, sun between pillars (sacrificial). The stone of sacrifice. ––human skull in wall of rock Imagery of worm: fallen man either underwater or underground. Human reason = a woman making tunnel. [?] = Vala Sexual R[easoning]––attempt to unite subject & object––unnatural intermingling of two aspects of split world. Essential human city, eternal city, is not interested––regard for other humans which the sexual produces––The difference between love & lust. This is what makes Vala the harlot. Plate 34. Unfallen Vala = aggregate of what Albion loves; in state of [?] Fallen Vala = something separate––she annexes moon & stars––becomes objective nature, female will ––shame & sense of sex––every new life contained in female Embryo = symbol of shame, secrecy, underground worm, etc. Child never really escapes Reuben ––corresponds to Adam––outside of the East (Luvah) ––mandrake enrooting himself Plate 36 creation of Adam objective world––Zodiac––incarnate in Hand Merlin: Druid prophet––imprisoned imagination; still struggling R[euben]-Adam = imag. in fallen world of which archetypal forms are C.R.S.

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Plate 37 Insanity result of despair impulse Plate 38 London ––laments of abandoned Jerusalem ––spiritual city––its houses are thoughts Tent = symbol of nomadic existence 1. fallen: man a wanderer in desert carrying ark nomadism = lost direction 2. imag. person free to go where he wants––pastoral Urthona: feet & legs––lowest point of Albion’s fall––the world we live in– –underground, underwater

Urizen Tharmas Luvah Urthona

head heart loins legs

Resurrection trees garden soil underground

thought feeling love sleep & dream

Los (poet) has to begin his work at bottom, the level of sleep & dream, and see it as such. Urizen lies in ruins Tharmas lies in ruins Luvah lies in ruins Sleep & dream is still here. Los is “this world” in its manifestation as a creative energy.

CHAPTER FOUR SPENSER AND MILTON (ENGLISH 3J) (1952) MARGARET KELL VIRANY’S NOTES

Margaret Virany (née Kell) was a 1955 graduate of Victoria College. In these notes her abbreviations have been expanded. Material in square brackets is an editorial addition. The notes stop on 27 November 1952. At that point Virany quit school and worked as secretary/receptionist for the editor emeritus, editorial writers, and librarian of The Toronto Telegram. “This,” she reports, “suited me perfectly: the office was not busy so he [my supervisor] suggested I learn Pitman shorthand so I would look occupied. The reason I quit was to get on top of the reading for my course. By earning money, I could afford to stretch my undergraduate life out for one more year” (personal letter).

[Milton] Sept. 25/52 Civil War ––economic struggle religious struggle political struggle ––background for Milton ––Tories vs. Whigs ––Tories came to power after War of Roses––filled vacuum of feudal lords ––landed aristocracy, strong in north & west economic.––Whigs––more money, equally strong––south & east ––business, mercantile ––war between king & parliament 1642–5 (1st civil war) ––1648–51 (2nd civil war) dictatorship of Cromwell political.––in 1660 Charles II was restored by very people who fought his father in 1842, i.e. enemies of 1st civil war united to fight the 2nd civil war

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{Milton’s seeing revolution as an apocalyptic struggle of light against tyranny contrasts with the true facts of his civil war background––missed out on all the short-sighted views of the situation––saw deeper truths.} ––Anglicans vs. Puritans ––originally Puritans were left-wing Anglicans ––distinctly separate by latter 17th century religious––right wing wanted bishops––left wing didn’t (really a political struggle within religion) ––theologically little difference between Anglicans & Puritans. ––Milton didn’t go into the church because it was becoming more high church every day ––Oxford––right wing––high church ––Cambridge––Protestant intellectuals ––logical choice for Milton ––students trained to write oral speeches on certain theme (a general subject) & deliver it to audience (founded on Middle Age system of education with its seven liberal arts, including trivium of grammar, logic & rhetoric) ––this system of education had been challenged by Bacon ––began where it should end (i.e. in general ideas) & ended where it should begin ––human mind moves naturally from concrete to abstract. Young children understand objects––takes them time to make abstractions ––Milton disliked his Cambridge training ––thesis a waste of time e.g. 1) Is day more excellent than night?–– must take one side & support all arguments with classical references & allusions ––Milton’s L’Allegro & Il Penseroso had some imaginative relation to this (thesis didn’t train in facts. Aimed to train the wit & ingenuity.) 2) a prolusion on “The Muse of the Spheres” (such a subject is poetically a fact though otherwise a fable. Milton was getting a solid literary training.) Phil: 1450–1750 ––philosophers were amateurs ––philosophy not a professional discipline with a technical language, as it was before & is now ––speculative period ––no continuous tradition in philosophy––no fixed language ––humanism a literary revolution vs. philosophy. Made philosophy a branch of literature.

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Therefore Protestant theology is far less philosophical than Catholic theology. It attributes the primacy to revelation. Even theology attracted by what was a literary revolution. ––scholastic rebellion did more good for other branches of knowledge than for philosophy ––turned it into a dead language. [Spenser] Spenser I, II & III Faerie Queene ––begins big development of British Renaissance Poetry ––details of his life somewhat elusive ––married twice ––born London “a nervous weak intellectual” ––poorish family, therefore needed patronage ––Cambridge (intellectual centre of his day) ––met Gabriel Harvey, Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of Leicester ––Shepheardes Calender ––metrical diversity, dexterity ––to establish him as “the new poet” Therefore published anonymously––E.K. ––launched a prominent literary career ––broke off connections with Leicester family & Sidney, who were embarrassed politically by the satire Mother Hubbard’s Tale ––went to Ireland & spent most of his life there. ––work begun on Faerie Queene soon after Shepheardes Calender. Poets then bound to write epic poem, though they began with lyric poetry ––in Ireland––classes ––small governing group––“civil service” ––old families (landed) about Dublin ––more or less pro-English ––native chieftains ––ordinary people––little significance ––Lord Gray (moved there with Spenser) ––enforced his policies in Ireland by extermination ––eventually recalled by Elizabeth ––Spenser supported Gray’s policy––felt government must put rebellion down & face things afterwards ––View of State of Ireland Spenser’s only important prose work ––Faerie Queene Book 4 tells of state of Ireland ––rose rapidly in civil service

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––given an estate in southwest Ireland ––lack of intellectual companions there––Spenser lonesome for London. Saw Ireland as a place of his exile. ––detached, on sidelines of political scene (contrast to Milton) An epic ––an encyclopedic production ––a poet’s offering to humanity ––only one can be written in his life––puts his ALL into it ––choosing his subject = defining his work as a poet Spenser & Milton ––both Protestants of about the same period ––close to Non-Conformists The Church of England began low church under Edward VI, then more Episcopal from time of Elizabeth ĺ Archbishop Laud who left it as very high church. Puritans foremost part of Church membership in 16th century ––Spenser leaned in Puritan direction yet definitely a church member ––Milton found church much too high so broke with it––pro Non-Conformist party. In the 16th & 17th centuries Protestantism started by trying to get a temporal leader on its side, so appealed for royal support. Became increasingly a politically revolutionary force. ––Spenser deeply conservative yet committed to an established revolution. Book V Faerie Queene shows a revolutionary ferocity. ––Milton gives a much more purely revolutionary view. Exponent of liberty. ––contrast in their poetic techniques ––Spenser begins by showing his originality––Moves to more and more conventional forms ––felt need for complicated conventionalized forms ––Milton goes on to become more & more experimental, revolutionary, generally subversive. Seen in Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes. ––Milton belongs in class of Michelangelo, Beethoven ––all their lives radicalists, experimentalists; therefore most radical near end of career ––Spenser can be compared to Mozart, etc. ––shy, elusive personalities content to express selves purely within their own art, not apart from it

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––Michelangelo might be thought of as a great personality who happened to be a great artist Ref: Greenlaw, Osgood, Pedelford Variorum of Spenser27 Renwick28 Davis29 Bennett Evolution of the Faerie Queene30 31 Bradner Greenlaw historical background of Faerie Queene32 Lewis C.S. Allegory of Love N.B. final chapter33 Judson biographical study of Spenser34 35 Bush D. Woodhouse “Nature & Grace in Faerie Queene” ––in periodical––look up36 37 Sirluck Spenser’s Reputation as Poet ––Milton: “sage & serious poet Spenser” ––Milton greatly influenced by Spenser ––fell out of fashion in Dryden’s time ––back again in Gothic revival 18th century ––good appreciation of him written in middle of 18th century ––admired by romantics ––read him for sound––don’t bother with the allegory ––Spenser major influence on Keats ––in 20th century we’ve regained respect for Spenser as a poetical thinker ––immense power to express thought in a poetic way Sept. 26 Renaissance Conception of Poet ––public figure ––type of orator (1) fully educated––ability to write poetry therefore a public ability–– poet had intimate relation to public responsibility (2) poetry primarily rhetorical. Thought of as a rhetorical form of speech. (3) poet concerned with moral, philosophical truth. (4) i.e. poet must be scholar, man aware of what was going on in his day

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(5) orator (poet) had gift of persuasive speech; therefore a necessary essential servant of his friends & also a servant of the state (6) therefore national affairs (problems) one of his main themes Conceptions of Decorum and Style ––decorum: use of language appropriate to a subject, character ––Shakespeare: no style in his plays ––style: later term. Trying to make all pieces of one author as much alike as possible; therefore, same style ––in Shakespeare: each character has own style, rhythm, way = Decorum ––Renaissance idea of hierarchy of poems minor poet––love lyrics, conventional satires (for common people) aristocratic poets––epic & tragedy (deal with upper-class people) This idea largely from Aristotle ––a great epic = complete cultural heritage in itself encyclopedic––of national importance ––with Renaissance came great age of nationality; therefore national epic ––before, religion or philosophy the main epic theme ––Spenser’s career as major poet therefore quite clearly laid down ––great poet emanates tradition ––poet makes evident, manifests what’s latent in language just as scientist brings out what’s latent in nature. Nothing can start from scratch in these matters. Conception of Imitation “following” ––only choice that of copying the good or the poor writer Spenser felt himself a poet with great gifts. Wrote: 1st––pastorals etc. ––study, years of practice to prepare great epic which would follow great epic tradition Spenser showed more originality than contemporaries in defining the great epic tradition ––high-brow humanists: must imitate Latins, real epic can only be written in Latin or Greek ––Petrarch held this idea––Latin epic on Africa ––enough Italian writers to establish modern languages as poetical languages ––Dante provided authority for use of Italian as Chaucer provided authority for use of English. ––later, Ariosto (close of 15th century)

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––criticized by Cardinal Bembo (humanist) for writing in Italian ––Ariosto would have none of Latin ––“first rate Italian than third rate Latin”38 This influenced Spenser. Ariosto Chaucer influence Spenser ––courage necessary for English poet to write English epic ––not way to gain quick reputation ––was true in Milton’s day ––cf. modern Albanian ––close imitation of Latin & Greek next best to real McCoy ––English quantitative poetry. Stress as in Latin ––Sidney, Spenser, Harvey experimented in this ––Spenser most unqualified to write in this way ––very dependent upon artifices, classicists condemned (rhyme late barbarous––alliteration contempted because popular.) ––Dante used terza rima ––almost impossible not to rhyme Italian ––stanza not found in classic poetry ––Ariosto, Chaucer wrote in this form ––Spenser original in appreciating, understanding later traditions of medieval-early Renaissance times ––saw some things he could use ––Daniel, Defense of Rhyme––also defends medieval forms. Therefore, by using stanzas, imitating Chaucer, Spenser put self on side of middle brow ––contrast to Milton ––Paradise Lost opens by attacking rhyme on stuffy, humanist grounds ––no rhyme, blank verse ––epic in stanza form was leap in dark ––unity very necessary in epic––continuity ––story-telling power grips in Homer ––allowed long poem meant to be recited in total. cf. Beowulf. Steady beat but not a monotonous metre ––same continuity in Milton But: in Spenser we find the opposite ––9 line stanza ABABBCBCC therefore full, dead stop almost every 9th line This deliberately breaks down narrative metre

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––use of such metre obviously experimental ––Spenser must have sacrificed narrative, continuity for something else i.e., Allegory ––Spenser wants compact structure of allegory & allusion ––in no hurry––unfolding pattern ––reputation of “dream poet” results ––timeless ––hardly conscious of movement of story ––puts reader in relaxed, receptive frame of mind ––Spenser unusually good in describing narcotic scenes as result. Oct. 2 The Faerie Queene––background ––Growth in nationalism meant growth in importance of national epic ––influence of developments in romantic poetry of Italian Renaissance (Ariosto etc.) ––Spenser more catholic in his literary tastes than the ordinary highbrow ––e.g. his adaptations of medieval themes ––epic contains fantasy (even Homer) yet total effect is one of realism ––never worried about where to eat etc. (contrast to Don Quixote–– surprised when he had to pay at hotel) ––poet in primitive societies is one who remembers Epic fulfils this function––derives more directly from this primitive function than any other form. It is the civilized development of primitive function. ––Spenser’s purpose to create encyclopedic synthesis of Renaissance society. ––modified by his conception of what poetry is. ––wanted historic theme free from controversy ––wanted to present both history & moral truth in idealized form; therefore, settled upon allegory Conception of Sidney etc. history poetry philosophy fact image truth example pattern precept act creation thought ––poetry an intermediate combining form ––more like history than philosophy ––here presented both as a history & idealized figure. ––connected to historical & moral truth, but poetry is neither itself

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Spenser: This was the conception Spenser followed. It came not only from Sidney, but Renaissance thought as a whole ––alludes to moral ideas often ––in Faerie Queene both moral & historical allegory ––series of relations to moral principles ––writes in pattern of continuous counterpoint ––announces a topic, which is continued in the historical & in the moral sphere cf. contrapuntal music––elaborate in Spenser’s day His Allegory ––gen. large scale relationship of story to moral & historical allusions ––allegories differ a great deal in separate books Book I––skillfully worked out historical allegory Book II––sketchy historical allegory Book III––hard to find historical allegory Book IV––also a less well-organized allegory Book V––more consistent allegory ––in Book 2, the allegory could be applied to almost anyone. In keeping with Spenser’s intention to idealize ––in Book 1––theme of Reformation ––follows events from Henry VIII’s to end of Elizabeth’s reign NB: READ “Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh” ––in this Spenser reveals purpose of Faerie Queene. ––Josephine Bennett, in Evolution of Faerie Queene, believes Spenser’s original purpose was lighter, less ambitious, more like Ariosto, than that revealed in the “Letter.” She sees traces of this still in Book 3, which was likely written earlier than Book 1 Faerie Queene ––planned in 12 Books (evident in its arrangement) ––each book has 12 cantos ––Alfred––prince––the private virtues ––king––the public virtues ––actually in 6 Books ––Homer: “in medias res”––Iliad & Aeneid start in middle of action–– works to beginning ĸ ĺ to end ––Milton & Spenser follow this scheme ––don’t know who knight is at first or what he’s doing on the plain ––Faerie Queene, heroine, never enters the action, i.e., never appears as a character.

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Theme ––Faerie Queene holding twelve-day feast (perhaps twelve nights of Christmas). Each day someone comes to court with tale of woe. Each day knight is sent out in quest of help. In twelfth Book, Arthur marries the Faerie Queene. As the Faerie Queene stands it has no beginning & no end. Fortunately, letter to Raleigh makes sense out of it ––in the moral allegory each knight represents a virtue Book I––St George––quest to kill dragon––virtue of holiness––Church of England seeking to free self from tyranny of Church of Rome Book II––knight Guyon––virtue of temperance––biblical & classical symbolism Book III–Britomart, a woman is heroine––virtue of chastity–– something to do with Queen Elizabeth. ––in 1591, the first three books were published Book 4 friendship Book 5 justice Book 6 courtesy Spenser foreshortened the scheme laid down in the letter to Raleigh. Accomplished in six books what had been planned for twenty-four (both private & public virtues) Frye: Spenser probably quit after Book 6 Didn’t intend to finish it after he got that far. ––1596–Books 4, 5 & 6 printed along with reprints of first three books. Form ––Spenserian stanza complicated for epic of this kind ––certain advantages though: ––once in the swing of it, easy to carry on & on ––slow––can get only small part of action in stanza but must pad out lines ––however, this doesn’t happen very often The letter to Raleigh must have been written after the first three books were written & presumably before the last three books were written. Oct. 3 Faerie Queene as Historical Poem ––in time of Elizabeth ––Arthur––historical English royalty ––figure that lends self to idealization ––symbol of the united England

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––imported into England as a Celtic-Welsh myth. First in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s writing. ––medieval romances in two main cycles 1. about figure of Charlemagne 2. about figure of Arthur ––Roland (main figure) ––Arthur himself ––the Dane ––Sir Lancelot, Percival, Galahad, etc. ––Holy Grail Spenser and the Arthurian Legend ––knights are those of Elizabeth’s court––not those of legend ––story of St. George resembles that of Sir Gareth in Malory ––same sort of romance ––Faerie Queene definitely subordinate to St. George––i.e., superiority of Arthur was preserved ––wanted to construct Renaissance romance about Arthur parallel to that of Ariosto, built about Charlemagne Spenser & Ariosto (Ariosto, Orlando Furioso ––Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato) –Ariosto’s story is easy, engaging––serious with somewhat infantile form. His tone as close to Byron’s as anyone ––Spenser different tone, though lifted most of his stories, lots of characters from Ariosto. e.g. contrast dedications to Faerie Queene & Orlando Furioso ––wanted to be better than Ariosto––stand beside the epics of Homer & Virgil ––this would take great erudition, study, genius, but Spenser’s reading was very casual–– Ariosto his model. Didn’t know Latin but read Virgil & Homer in translations. Not a scholar in any sense ––easy confidence comparable to that of Shakespeare. ––Arthur has a special reference to poets living under Tudors. ––Henry VII married Yorkist heir, i.e., Lancastrian Yorkist ––Tudor claim to throne very uncertain. Put on political propaganda campaign in which they used Arthur legend ––Arthur asleep not dead ––would wake up, lead them ––Tudors were Welsh––Arthur was a Welsh leader––i.e., Tudors represented selves as the reborn Arthur in order to win over & unite the English

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––Henry VII called eldest son Arthur, who died on eve of his wedding to Catherine of Aragon ––to make story stick, a historical rather than a legendary Arthur was needed ––tragic end of Arthur’s story not included in Spenser (nor was it ever planned to be). ––Arthur could represent ideal better than any actual king could. Renaissance Culture ––focussed on central figure of Prince ––next, the Courtier, servant of the Prince. This underlay Renaissance theory of education (most important to have educated Prince) ––ideal education for others was that Prince ought to have ––Castiglione’s courtier is supposed to be trained for military position, the arts, the courtesies––a specialist in all the main points of society ––Prince must know everything ––Elyot’s The Governour—showed Renaissance education founded on social responsibility of those who got the education ––one of central aims of education to depict qualities of the perfect Prince ––Spenser says this in letter to Raleigh––“fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtue & gentle discipline” ––Faerie Queene is account of perfect qualities or virtues for knight ––virtues all conceived as aspects of Arthur––therefore he’s stronger than any of the knights individually–-even than St. George ––Spenser a Christian poet––virtue of holiness founded on revealed religion––obviously then he didn’t just copy Aristotle’s list of virtues but derived his own What virtues did Arthur have? (Faerie Queene) ––in Aristotle––greatness of soul supreme virtue (Latin “magnanimitas”) ––Spenser gives Arthur “magnificence” as virtue ––a brave knight having the twelve virtues which Aristotle had devised–– having “magnificence” the perfection of the rest, & contains them all ––implies splendour in Spenser ––seeking to get Aristotelian conception of totality in one virtue Arthur not by any means the strongest knight in Malory (15th century) ––reflects social condition when king was nominee of a feudal lord ––time of War of Roses Contrast to time of Spenser in both degree & kind Spenser’s portrayal of education of prince is a moral one ––courtesy the last virtue Books I & II ––similar in structure

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––knight starts on quest––preliminary adventures––two-thirds of way through in trouble–– Arthur appears & turns tide ––contrast in theme holiness Christian virtue temperance classical virtue ––Tasso especially in Book II ––more fitting for Spenser’s use than Ariosto ––essential idea of spiritual crusade Oct 9 ––great deal of historical allegory enchantress ––pope witch (Duessa) ––Catholic reaction (especially female–– Mary Queen of Scots etc.) ––general outline of story opening cantos––initial efforts under Henry VIII––imprisonment in dungeon moral allegory ––St. George’s efforts those of Christian people to maintain purity of doctrine & worship ––killing of dragon––Christian making way to heaven ––overcoming sin & death ––frame of Book I much like that of Pilgrim’s Progress ––similarity in allegory; therefore Bible common reference. Knight lady (Una represents truth) familiar character lamb (traditional in George legend) St. George ––eastern in origin ––came in from Asia Minor ––celebrated in April ––St. George play or pageant ĺ popular features of English life ––theme: stereotypes ––knight, damsel, dragon, Turkish knight ––knight often died himself, then character (Dr.) came on––brought him to life again ––features of this play incorporated into Spenser Turkish knight ĺ 3 Saracens (barbaric tribe) Sans Foy Sans Loy Sans Joy

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––respective antagonists of faith, joy & love ––Orgolio––pride––also modification of Turkish knight Dr.—Arthur an incorporation of him; therefore he saves George ––most elaborate St. George play in Dublin. Spenser undoubtedly saw this. Allegory ––George imitation of Christ––following in His life ––general elaborate pretence of Faerie Queene is in a non-Christian world canto I––vague hints about who George is ––arms untried, bloody cross ––Elizabeth––Gloriana ––lady in black cf. nun ––Una’s parents: See Book I, canto III, v. XLIII ––4 rivers of garden of Eden ––dragon: serpent of garden of Eden story ––beast in Book of Revelation ––the great whore ––Satan pg. 68 “that old dragon”––this phrase from Book of Revelation39 Book of Revelation ––follows rhythm of two days death & resurrection of Christ ––death, sin. ––Harrowing of Hell––what Christ did when dead ––brought spirits from Limbo to Heaven where they couldn’t go till Christ liberated them. First: Adam & Eve ––one of most popular medieval legends ––hell portrayed as great shark with mouth open cf. Jonah ––Christ emerges carrying banner or standard (red cross on white ground) ––these significant to Elizabethans as colours of unity of England–– Lancaster & York ––also blood & body of Christ ––also bread & wine of Eucharist ––Battle of George & Dragon ––actually fought in Eden––rightful kingdom of Adam & Eve. ––Eden––tree of life ––tree of knowledge of good & evil ––four rivers

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––when Adam lost battle in Eden he sampled tree of knowledge-– he lost tree of life (immortality). Regained this through Christ. ––rivers: water of life. Symbolised in Baptism. Fruits of life symbolised in Eucharist ––battle: lasts 3 days ––knight beaten back twice ––rescued by well of life at end of first day ––second day fruits of the tree of life. These are for the healing of the nations Quest after Una is that to restore world to its paradisal form New Heaven & new Earth in Book of Revelation would be restoring it to its form in garden of Eden, where it was a part of Heaven Oct. 10 Legend of St. George & Dragon ––could be interpreted as nature myth 1) dragon, king––sterility, winter ––accounts for St. George festival being held in spring 2) world paradise, then bleak, old man Adam unable to defend it, messiah restores it to fertility 3) Christian symbolism heroine––Church 4) Spenser: St George––people of England Una––true Christian faith dragon––error, evil ––many people interpreted dragon of Book of Revelation by whatever they disliked most great whore & dragon––church of Rome? ––persecuting emperors of Rome Spenser follows this view in general ––Duessa has Catholic overtones ––Spenser wants to purify one church from its errors. Is not simply pitting one church vs. another. Would admit same errors growing up in Protestant as Catholic Church. Former younger–– time to change, from self differently. ––Catholics think of physical objects in terms of a reflection of spiritual truth. Lends self to allegory. For Spenser things which had become actual fact were allegories of spiritual truths.

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e.g. Protestants. metanoia Catholics

repentance (changed state of mind)

{ penance (––literally physical act of sacrament of penance as well as state of mind)

––Spenser uses such physical acts as allegories of his spiritual vision (monasteries etc.) Book I ––first act, in order to purify church, is for knight to purify his vision ––lacks discretion, is innocent, simple ––confused as to who his friends are, like church––different extremes under Edward & Mary ––dragon in habit of disguising self ––George not shrewd enough to see through them ––humour––knight “too solemn, sad” [bk. I, canto 1, l. 17] therefore Sansjoy will be the most dangerous enemy of the three canto 3 “forsaken truth long seeks her love,” etc. [bk. II, canto 3. l. 1] ––St. George separated from Una because Duessa in disguise & he goes with her ––lion ĺ her protector ––mysterious people: Abessa, Corceca, Kirkrapine ––lion makes habit of them ––Sansloy kills lion ––heroine in clutches of villain i.e., Truth, sans Holiness acquires a (royal) power leading to anarchy ––monasteries not necessary to truth, but were suppressed without charity. Truth without charity is a merely ruthless dialectic. Under Henry there was, actually, almost civil war. To make this point Spenser has cleverly made no change in Una’s character. cf. Spenser’s allegory to contrapuntal music––voice in middle, with both moral & historical allegory. Holiness sans Truth ĺ unable to distinguish between idolatry & genuine worship ––this is the trouble with St. George. The crucial ordeal George must experience is the encounter with despair. ––Can only gain regeneration by overcoming sin ––seven sins in Spenser’s time (enumerated in Book I)

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––pride, sloth, wrath, gluttony, lechery, envy, murder. These counterbalance the seven virtues: hope, faith, charity, justice, wisdom, strength, temperance ––last four are virtues of enlightened men in Aristotle. Can be obtained without revealed religion. ––first three impossible without revealed religion in Spenser––justice Book 5 temperance Book 2 holiness––purification of faith more than anything else ––pride, worst sin––caused fall of Lucifer, the devil, in first place outward form––ostentation, vanity spiritual pride––sense of separate individuality, cut off from God. House of Pride

} in Book 1 Dungeon of Pride ––George doesn’t have too much difficulty with House of Pride. ––spiritual pride comes from excess of solemn zeal. George thinks too much with what he can do with his own will. Takes George long time to realize this sin. Encounter with despair––normal reaction from a state of pride. Despair is sense of lonely ego. Desire not to be––want to be annihilated––throw self into something else. George escapes. Despair hangs self but can’t die. This is a subtle point that emerges again in Milton George geo–earth eigo–work i.e. earthworker, farmer, plowman. represents common people of England * NO LECTURE NEXT FRIDAY Oct. 16 (cont’d) [this is on p. 20 of Virany’s notes, preceding p. 21 which is dated Oct. 16] Spenser taught to think partly in verbal terms of this kind. Rhetoric training made him conscious of the things you could do with words.

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Oct. 16/52 * ESSAY The Structure of Symbolism in Book I (2 or 3) of the Faerie Queene ––examine the imaginative unity & how Spenser achieves that unity Allegory: abstraction put into image Symbolism: concrete image to which meaning is attached. ––natural place for allegory is sudden visualizing of immediate situation. (abstract ideas) ––sort of naïve form of wit ––best place for it is the political cartoon ––not successful in murals dedicated to Patriotism, etc. ––Spenser needed something more than allegory. Allegorical writers endeavor to find a pattern of meaning running parallel to visual images. e.g. The knight of the Faerie Queene stands for holiness, etc. but it does not merely mean these. The poem also has a plot & is a story To construct a work of art you must not merely make a representation of some quality & put it in a conventional form. You must make your art a study of the thing which it will represent to others i.e. Do not confuse all allegory with naïve allegory. The best allegory does not gyp you out of your story or let it dissolve into the allegory. A poet who writes allegory is almost always one who has got erudition, yet the story he bases his allegory upon is a primitive, popular romantic story. ––these stories have a terrific amount of unified power. ––communicative power ––strong lines: bad villain, good heroine ––story can be complicated but not subtle or sophisticated. Same applies to characters. Any form of convention has its own particular limitations ––character somewhat neutral because adjusted to various parallel meanings. ––poet judged by the success by which he carried out his postulates ––in one or two passages of Faerie Queene the narrative drops out while the allegory goes on. e.g. canto 10, Book I ––knight invited to take hold of Speranza’s anger ––stanza always has a complicated rhyme scheme. Therefore not found in classical poetry

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––never a poet more dependent on the tricks & devices of rhyme etc. than Spenser. Therefore purposely used the most complicated rhyme scheme he knew Book IV canto 11 vs. 42 ––wants to show the three brothers are one ––does this by sound of verse & spinning of verbal pattern. i.e. Spenser plays around with the pattern of the stanza. ––uses very intricate verbal patterns e.g. Book IV canto 11, v. 34–5 Book I canto 1, v. 8 & 9. ––conventional to have a catalogue of trees. (Spenser copied from Chaucer) ––feat to get these in Spenserian stanza ––alliteration ––pattern eg 1. for / p / p / for [“And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led”] 2. heare pronounced like har; therefore consonance of sounds [“Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony] 3. tic of the two ded sounds [“Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred”] 5. intricate ss srr rr st [“Much can they prayse the trees so straight and hy”] 6. s sounds [“The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall”] Oct. 23 ––Spenser would have learned rhetoric e.g. of rhetoric is in the style of euphuism ––taught to convey meanings in the rhythms of verses––onomatopoeia ––much onomatopoeia in Spenser ––e.g. catalog of trees ––best example of complex alliteration ––also some onomatopoeia “The yew obedient to the bender’s will” [1.1.9.4] ––this line itself in bent “The Laurell meed of mightie conquerors” [1.1.9.1]. This line marches. ––p. 470––repetition of n’s––best way to express he was a liar p. 30, v. 51 emphasizes her insincerity p. 423 “Through the tops” etc. [3.7.5.1]—the difficulty in scansion suggests the difficulty in seeing

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p. 383 stanza IX “wrecks” his line to suggest the ship-wreck “blowes” “shallows” [3.5.3.2 and 4] p. 314 stanza IV l. 1 gives a sinister foreboding tone. Broken-back line. p. 330 Spenser gives a sort of chorus in four parts––bride, voices, water, wind p. 125 Despair trying to hypnotize the knight. The lines become slower & slower––repetition of “seas” “ease” etc. [1.9.40] ––something calculated, rhetorical to indicate the calculating insincerity of Despair “Is not short pain” [1.9.40.6], etc. consists of monosyllables alone–– calculated to overwhelm knight, cause him to despair Spenserian stanza has a narcotic, sleepy, dreamy effect p. 28, stanza 41––hypnotic effect of sounds coming together as you fall asleep, “noyse” & “annoy” [1.1.41.6–7] Oct. 24 Historical Allegory ––begins in reign of Henry VIII––contains destruction of monasteries, etc. ––Fradubio––doubting brother. Spenser means those whose courage does not equal their vision ––Satyrs—always represent the natural man. At his best he’s capable of natural religion ––reactionalism under Mary Tudor represented by imprisonment of George (ref. Variorum Spenser––best for historical allegory) Moral Allegory. (best reference is Ruskin in the Variorum) ––knight full of zeal & courage, but lacks what Una represents (truth); therefore his deadliest enemy is Archimago who’s a monster of illusions ––he overcomes vanity & outward pride but is temporarily overcome by deep spiritual pride ––nourished under Faith, Hope & Charity ––finally sees the heavenly city on the mountain. ––comparison between New Jerusalem & the city of London ––a double vision (cf. Roman Catholic) (see Jones, A Spenser Handbook)40 Book II ––similar to Book I in construction ––knight goes on adventures which test his virtue ––Like George, Guyon separates from his companion ––not much feminine interest

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––holiness

}

//? temperance ––Spenser a zealous Protestant & strong supporter of Church of England. ––Book II brings together two ideas 1) Eliz settlement a middle way between two extremes Therefore, Anglicans prided selves on moderation; therefore attracted bulk of liberal opinion to selves in 16th century––Spenser’s general religious position 2) Spenser’s moral position. Aristotle’s idea of virtuous action is the golden mean; i.e. linking of relig & classical middle way golden mean Spenser not claiming this alone is virtue, but when you do find virtue there are two extremes on each side of it. Therefore, several pairs of twins in Book II which represent two extremes. ––Book I canto 1––direct opposition of truth & error ––Book II canto 1––the two who represent extremes of joy & despair–– later meets the three sisters. The elder (the prude), the youngest (the wanton), the middle one just right. Therefore Guyon is attracted to her. ––Guyon also a temperate fighter––never gets wild ––difficult to make virtue of temperance exciting because it’s not a positive virtue ––a negative quality in his virtue––just says no thanks all the time––not too admirable ––the real battle fought by Arthur, not Guyon ––temperance not a virtue which will lead to salvation by itself ––real Christianity has something deeper to fight––original sin ––Guyon is strong enough to kill temptation on a social & moral level (not like George’s dragon) Theme of original sin or guilt runs all through Book II ––the baby left to Guyon has blood on its hands, which represents original sin ––can only be washed by the living well (Later in Hades Pilate represents inability of the non-Christian to be free of his sin.) Also Maleger only overcome when Arthur throws him in the water. ––extremes are usually related––e.g. tyranny & anarchy (really much the same because both end the same way––the mob sets up a tyrant) ––they only appear opposite when contrasted with justice cf. rashness courage [word circled] cowardice

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e.g. Pyrochles & Gymochles––two opposites: the former fiery & the latter lazy. Actually both are much alike. ––Guyon’s trials are the kind we can sympathize with. e.g. mirth––also Bower of Bliss ––his two main temptations: Beauty & Money ––main point is, his temptations are those things which aren’t usually considered evil in themselves e.g.––money OK when used to further other interests, but when prized in itself it leads to miserliness ––beauty a virtue when subordinated to a healthy, active life ––Palmer represents wisdom & prudence––the discernment of reality ––Bower of Bliss ––static. Those who stay there are always stimulated by outside influences. ––greatest danger its attraction to youth e.g. Verdant––not really a bad type ––will grow up ––normal stage for youth. Only danger is in staying there too long. ––Christianity doesn’t object to pleasure as such––only when it leads to laziness & passivity Oct. 30 Book II ––not a very consistent historical allegory in this book. ––Protestant party feared Elizabeth would marry a continental prince & gain unsatisfactory alliance ––she encouraged Duke of Anjou (heir apparent in France) in early part of her reign ––Spenser wrote Mother Hubbard’s Tale on flirtation of Duke of Anjou. Elizabeth sensitive to such criticism. Perhaps Spenser lost patronage of Earl of Leicester over this. ––Spenser returns to charge in Book II Braggdachio––Anjou Trompart––French ambassador Belephobe––Elizabeth In Book II Spenser seems to have tired of keeping his allegory historical. Characters simply become qualities (Furor, Occasion etc). ––great deal of historical allegory is bound to rest on gossip, speculation. Therefore its interpretation doesn’t add too much to Spenser’s poetry

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––much of it interpreted by knights of Elizabeth’s court to their own advantage ––possibly that original scheme of 12 broke down ––Arthur is no particular person in foreground of historical allegory. ––poem left “swinging on one hinge”––Elizabeth. ––accounts for considerable lack of interest––probably any revolutionary period could be interpreted from the allegory built up on one such period (because universal symbols) Temperance ––a condition of virtue in Aristotle ––must reject certain amount of things as ends in themselves though they may be instruments. Guyon’s enemies are money & beauty (Acrasia). Temperance–– disciplining of body ––house of temperance (Castle of Alma––the natural human body) corresponds to house of contemplation in Book I ––elaborate allegory in canto 9. ––type of allegory which is ingenious, fussy. This sort of thing can be overdone but was much admired in Spenser’s day. Renaissance writer doesn’t think of relation between Plato & Aristotle as an opposition––a modern idea. ––in Book II––an Aristotelian idea tacked on to a Platonic one. i.e. golden mean––via media––Church of England. ––the social & the human body in the same form (three elements) ––six virtues in Book II ––first three are private virtues ––next three are public virtues ––Books 2 & 5 have close relationship between their virtues. 5 is the public manifestation of the private virtue of 2 (justice–– temperance). cf. letter to Raleigh––public & private virtues of the prince Book 5 rather unpleasant. Justice founded on the extermination of all subversive people. Book II canto 16 books Arthur, History of England Geoffrey of Monmouth ––breaks off just as Arthur gets to himself ––long summary of British history

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Guyon––see Variorum for interpretation of what he reads St. George––brought up in fairyland but a mortal human being Guyon––belongs to world of goblins, elves, etc. ––attack on Castle of Alma canto 11 ––allegory of the temptation of the human soul –-five gates ––canto 12––paucity of the mind dangerous ––Renaissance readers read all the classical poetry they could, allegorically ––e.g. Ulysses’ perils allegory of temptation: steering middle course ––Acrasia belongs to big group of evil women all stemming from Homer’s Circe ––represents sensual lust ––Renaissance concept 1) Work of art made from natural objects, it grows out of nature without being strictly natural. Its form must stand up to nature. For Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare––art a second nature. Not an antithesis–– ––Bower of Bliss––a work of calculated artifice 2) This is not a second kind of art––a false art which induces passivity of mind ––tastelessness with an object in mind ––ivy of pure gold painted green. Stanza 50 gives Spenser’s own description of the relation of art to nature ––for Spenser––greatest work of art is that which looks to be natural. In Bower of Bliss––the manipulated, calculated element which makes a work unnatural ––fundamentally a place of frustration where nothing really happens ––closely parallel to his description of hell ––Bower of Bliss tantalizing in same way as the torture Tantalus goes through ––it will cheat you out of whatever it promises you. Those who have sense of reality can escape ––when Guyon destroys Bower of Bliss he performs a kind of Apocalypse––judgment ––very end of Book II echoes end of Book of Revelation, where good defeats evil. Difficulty is in Guyon’s mind. How to distinguish between thing which is instrumental to good & that which becomes evil when it is passively interpreted? This explains apparent ambiguity of Bower of Bliss––Spenser realizes what it is, but is also aware of its power.

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Oct. 31 ––meanings of some words would be different for Spenser ––“by & by”––right away ––most of the virtues have since been vulgarized in meaning. Chastity is one of these. ––refers to a condition of the spirit. Not a sexual thing Book III Britomart protagonist of chastity ––carefully distinguished from Belphoebe who has taken a vow for virginity. Chastity a kind of temperance which means a containing of powers, concentration by the spirit on the proper end of its life ––a more positive, dynamic presentation of the virtue than in Book II. Britomart is one of the names of Diana (the chaste goddess) but Belphoebe is associated with Diana Luna Moon earth

Cynthia (Delia) Diana

underworld

Hecate

Phoebe Britomartia Artemis, virgin hunter of forests patron of witches

In Greek, mythology, Diana was most closely [. . . line missing from original] Nov. 6 Venus––both mother & mistress ––myth that lamented death, looked forward to rising ––Spenser developed myth to make Gardens of Adonis a kind of earthly paradise ––place of seed––“furnace room of nature” where life begins & where it ends ––change in form ––presents love as rooted in the rhythmic, cyclic movement of nature. This shows the operation of love in nature ––constant reshaping, reforming of life In Dante, Garden of Eden is on top of Mount of Purgatory. i.e. borderline. Beyond it is the spirit of the moon––inaccessible to climate. Therefore has a perpetual spring. Is place of seed––where all life (vegetable & animal) returns to be reborn in the world. Human soul can’t stop here––goes on farther.

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Spenser’s conception taken mostly out of Ovid, though much the same as Dante’s These conventions enable a poet to deal with two very different things at once ––ambiguity, e.g. of word “grace” Male–female principle––male searches for female, yet in end finds that she has been looking for him (just as man seeks God & finds God has been seeking him). Mutabilitie Cantos System of ideas is central in Spenser ––appeared first in folio of 1609. Printer suggests they may be middle of a lost book on constancy (really no evidence for this). ––however, a complete poem as it stands ––kind of appendix, or commentary on Faerie Queene as a whole ––cosmological theme Jupiter main characters Mutability (Giantess) ––represents spheres of water, earth, fire ––everything here subject to change ––above her is world of planets, presided over by Jupiter Both Jupiter & Mutability are subject to a greater principle

Mutability claims Jupiter has no right to exist. Claims planets are not much subject to change ––makes some personal attacks on Jupiter––calls him Saturn’s son

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Jupiter says Mutability can’t advance beyond her own sphere. Claims there is a kingdom of being etc. in which he is predominant ––dispute takes place on top of hill in Ireland ––between the two––on edge of sphere before you get to moon Nov. 20 [Milton] Milton ––precocious. Learning came easily to him ––had two or three private tutors as well as regular schooling ––sense of mission by time he was in his final year at Cambridge ––felt he must dedicate his life to poetry Nativity Ode perhaps turning point that turned his attitude to one of dedication––sobered Milton. Made him think of his duty to God & society. The Ode the work of a great poet ––sprung from Renaissance conception of poet. If person had ability to write poetry he must be a scholar, shrewd in public affairs, plunge self into whole literary tradition ––religion also compelled him. Parable of talents––responsible to God for your talents. He didn’t need them, but demanded the fullest expression of them on your part. These two sources were compulsions for him ––exercised practiced writing in simple forms, both Latin & English (love poetry, Latin elegies, pastorals). ––deep personal reserve in Milton made him never a really good love poet. Never seems to use his own language for it ––major poet can express self only in major forms (Renaissance ideal). Therefore Milton must have felt destined by his responsibility & talents to develop self in direction of major forms ––M. preferred the epic (encyclopaedic form). Strong Non-Conformist bias pretty well turned him away from the stage ––drops significant hints in the course of his development ––impulse to get to work––finish his calling ––equally strong, valid impulse to postpone his work till he felt fully capable of doing it ––his moods of despair not merely temperament, blindness, but the strain of these two conflicting impulses: to work & to wait. Very exacting moral situation. Cannot hurry poetry or achieve it by an act of will. This is a problem for both religion & poetry ––“class prophecy” or sort of valediction in last year at Cambridge

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––broke tradition––spoke in English, not Latin. ––takes audience into his confidence. Told them that someday he was going to write an epic in English that tells of the eternal world stretching from heaven to hell. Difficulty of a person who knows he’s a genius but too young for other people to recognize this. Lycidas 1638 ––precocious ––not yet ready to write his big poem ––still belongs to his minor period, but felt he was ready soon after this. ––wanted to follow Spenserian writing an epic on King Arthur All the way through a Spenserian poet: ––zealously Protestant & patriotic ––no sympathy with metaphysical school or Cavalier poets ––same idea of poet’s prophetic mission ––followed Spenser’s works (in general form). Therefore, not surprising he follows him in epic After Lycidas Milton went to Italy. ––met Manso––addressed courteous Latin poem to him, stating that he was about ready to write his epic ––returned home––one of his friends had died ––commemorated his death in “Charles Diodati Epitaphium Damonis” ––great Latin poem ––again states him ambitions ––going to recapitulate the whole of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s history from time of Brutus––take it to refugees from Wales who settled in Brittany 1640 ––great patriotic epic ––Arthur––symbol of united poet ––symbol of reformed church (carry this theme a little further than Spenser) ––began making first sketches for Paradise Lost ––Cambridge manuscript––number of themes but no mention of Arthur Reason against Church Government––introduction to part II of this pamphlet assumes prose is for mean, low subjects, poetry for great ––launches into discussion of great poetry ––distinguishes between two kinds of epics In Milton: Paradise Lost 1) diffuse epic––Homer & Virgil models ––full scale ––in 12 books

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––works out epic theme in full Paradise Regained 2) brief epic––Book of Job model ––(shrewd, enlightening critical category that no English critics have since picked up) Samson Agonistes 3) tragedy––refers to Greeks, tragic forms in the Bible. Says form of a tragedy has been discovered in Book of Revelation––a sequence of choruses (no one has picked this idea up either). Milton may not have had this exact scheme in mind when he wrote the pamphlet, but it shows remarkable consistency ––first sketches for Paradise Lost are in tragic form. Therefore he perhaps thought of it as his tragedy, not his diffuse epic. ––shrewd comparison between Alfred & Ulysses––King Alfred most remarkable king in English history yet has never been treated properly in English literature ––Milton abandoned Arthur. Realized he had to record the failure rather than the triumph of a revolution ––Paradise Lost would be a record of human failure. Therefore, collapse of all his hopes for England. His great song of innocence remains unwritten & was replaced by Paradise Lost ––most of Milton’s best poems in Latin ––tended to write better in Latin Difficult for him to decide whether to write his epic in English or Latin Nativity Ode his best poem in English To get a reputation fast in Milton’s day, you must write in Latin In Italy Milton found he was well known because he had written in Latin Nov. 21 Early Works ––experiments, tentative gropings ––two collections 1) Book of elegies 2) group of miscellaneous pieces (elegy––refers to meter, not subject matter) ––wrote Latin elegies (e.g. On Death of University Beadle) in his Cambridge days ––climaxes in two magnificent elegies––Lycidas (English) Epitaphium Damonis (Latin) ––Milton good at symbolic structure ––elegiac meter ––syncopated rhythms ––not a personal poet––deeply reserved

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First Elegy ––to Charles Diodati on [Milton’s] being kicked out of Cambridge in middle of first term ––turns, phrases of elegy conscious of their literary precedents. Sixth Elegy ––to Diodati ––accompanies the first major poem––the Nativity Ode Nativity Ode ––just “came off,” “exploded in the head” of Milton, when 20 ––Sixth Elegy talks about the duties & responsibilities of major poet ––medium of inspiration––must live in ascetic way, sparingly, strict manners ––spirit must be disciplined, trained by extremely frugal & temperate living ––prophetic nature of poetry ––flash of unconscious prophecy of his own blindness that set in twenty-five years later ––bard sacred to the gods. Milton thinking primary in Christian terms “Gunpowder Plot” ––famous subject for poets of that time ––shows Milton’s sense of responsibility ––indicates fact that Milton’s poetry tends to move to the extremes of existence: heaven & hell Elegy on Coming of Spring (Fifth) ––exercise in seasonal symbolism ––intensity, energy with which he practiced poetry. What he had thought poetry ought to do ––the Christian simultaneous with the pagan (both poetry & prose) ––some poems largely academic subjects ––treatise of education ––more attracted to Baconian program of education–– emphasis on science ––similar objection to humanist education ––ended studies where they ought to begin {Medieval system of education: ––quadrivium––geometry, arithmetic, astronomy & music ––trivium––grammar, rhetoric, logic i.e. the seven liberal arts ––went into the church or the world––i.e. law} ––Milton remained at Cambridge––thinking of taking holy orders

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––educated man must be an orator ––taught to debate, think on your feet at University ––tested on ability to draw an argument correctly, have effectiveness in delivery, draw on great writers of classical works for your authorities ––thesis––maintaining an argument ––Milton hated whole procedure ––made people disputatious. Didn’t give them basis of facts, discipline that would give weight & background to the training ––one poem on theme Naturam Non Pati Senium (i.e. culture doesn’t suffer age) Background: cosmological theory––world running down

{ literary theory––ancients better than the moderns (originated from cosmological––French) Milton takes the negative side in both. (doesn’t argue, just says no) ––paints Aristotle as rather stupid materialist in one of his earlier Latin poems ––enormous number of poems when between 17 & 20 Influenced, in English, by: ––Spenser & his followers (the Fletchers) ––Joshua Sylvester (translated a sixteenth-century French poem by Du Bartas––Protestant poet who wrote “La Semaine,” poem on the Creation ––Contained load of cosmological misinformation––handbook. Sylvester is the only successful attempt to translate it Milton’s poetic development now in opposite direction from Spenser’s Nov. 27 Nativity Ode ––a poem that speaks for itself ––limpid, clear poetic structure ––sudden burst of great poetic power ––Milton never returned to the stanzaic form ––this poem made Milton realize the great abilities he had as a poet ––complex stanza structure––27 stanzas ––Milton keeps it moving smoothly & inevitably

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––makes form follow every curve & ripple in the meaning ––beginning of the poem is an elaborate picture ––manger ––snow around it ––allegorical figure of peace coming down through spheres ––body of female nature covered with snow Winter solstice––days coldest, shortest ––sun at its weakest––therefore clusters about it––fear that it will go out & never come to life again ––Milton here is using this pagan symbol in Christian terms ––Sun god worshipped at winter & summer solstice, i.e. in Christian terms “Birth of Christ & birth of John the Baptist” ––Nativity Ode describes world coming to stop (?) at its darkest point ––new Sun arrives––hailed by new star––begins to turn the world around again ––tiny invisible spot of life in middle––great shadows loom around it. These slink away as life grows (cf. Hamlet—evil spirits feel they must leave at dawn) ––long roll-call of pagan gods––referred to in veiled language, looney names, horrible tasks ––end of poem brings you back to quiet hush of manger, point of light before which all evil spirits depart (according to Frye, the ghost of Hamlet defeats an evil spirit) Final dismissal of spirits ĺ nativity itself ––paradoxical phrase––courtly stable ––“latest star been born”––star of Bethlehem ––star of peace ––reference to story of Cupid & Psyche ––identifies Christ with classical lord of love ––feeling of vast reserves of power ––tense and waiting (cf. “They also serve”)41 ––poem ends with a feeling of titanic power gathered around the baby waiting to move. cf. scene of Christ’s betrayal ––Christ says it’s their hour though he has millions of angels he could call to his assistance. ––Typical of Milton that his poem ends on the same point as the whole earthly career of Christ ––Janus––gateway of new year. Another factor in symbolism here ––“birds of calm”––halcyon birds42

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––supposed to do their nesting on the sea at the winter solstice because it was the calm part of the fabulous natural history used for poetic purposes ––“precious influence”43 ––originally technical astrological term ––real sun that rises this morning is the sun of righteousness. Jesus absorbs the pagan sun god & then the pastoral sun god (Pan) Music of the angels’ song––comes from some kind of world as the music of the spheres (each planet has a note––give out continuous music as they rotate––man can’t hear the music since his fall) ––reference to Job––control of the Creator over the chaos & the sea ––spheres forming vast pattern of contrapuntal music with the organ’s base beneath it. ––paradox in the conception of the harmony of the spheres when they make their music. Music is a series of discords which end in harmony (a stable relationship). Therefore spheres can be in harmony from the point of view of eternity. In Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony––all notes of the scale are sounded at once. Idea of Apocalyptic music of spheres, transfiguration of man being interpreted. (If spheres are in harmony, each planet must scream same note.) ––Golden Age ––everyone free & equal ––Silver Age ––Bronze Age––heroes ––Iron Age in statue in Daniel’s dream these four sections are seen and Daniel interprets the statue as the four great kingdom’s of the earth [Book of Daniel 2] ––messianic kingdom prophesied (This is what the fifth monarchist in Britain has in mind). ––Saturnalia––a Roman feast ––a temporary reign of social equality ––masters waited on their servants ––held it around winter solstice ––Astrea, goddess of justice, kept world in Iron Age & won’t return till Golden Age comes again After this point is made, the theme of the poem changes. st. 18––Satan a serpent. Christ has absorbed the old Apollo, the serpent killer & so became the true oracle (Apollo killed dragon Epitha at Delphi. Oracle established there & priestess called Epitha)

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st. 19––Plutarch ––sense of wonder & mystery as these dark gods are touched with life & disappear ––Milton very much aware of the parallels between all the cults & Christianity. ––Christian God must take over another God: Hercules who in his infancy strangled snakes L’Allegro & Il Penseroso ––thought to be derived from delusions of Milton ––represent a contrast in moods (could call Il Penseroso “Andante”) ––how he would spend an ideal day in two different moods ––octosyllabic couplet––both in the same meter but different in movement, vowels ––e.g. in L’Allegro––often the beheaded iambic line (i.e. first light syllable omitted. Begins with heavy syllable & then trips to end) ––in Il Penseroso ––l. 63: complete control ––vowels deepen ––rhythm more regular ––slow & contemplative.

CHAPTER FIVE SPENSER AND MILTON (ENGLISH 3J) (LATE 1940S) NOTES BY UNKNOWN HAND FROM GORDON WOOD

These notes came to me from Gordon Wood, who graduated from Victoria College in 1943. Wood identifies the six-page typescript as “lecture notes from early teaching period.” He is uncertain about how he acquired the notes, which apparently date from the late 1940s. The course was doubtless English 3j: Spenser and Milton. The notes end abruptly with Book I, canto II, of The Faerie Queene, so they represent only the initial lectures of the course. After serving in the army Gordon Wood returned to Victoria in 1947 and enrolled in Frye’s Blake and Spenser courses, receiving his M.A. in 1947. He began his teaching career at Carleton University (then Carleton College) in 1951. For Frye’s much more expansive notes on The Faerie Queene, which date from 1949–50, see Notebook 43 in Northrop Frye’s Notebooks on Renaissance Literature, ed. Michael Dolzani (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 9–92. An epic is a poem in which in great poet says all he has to say about human life: a complete synthesis of his ideas. There is an occasional prose epic of this description, generally humorous: Rabelais, Burton, Cervantes. Epics are most frequently successful in a society with an integrated social pattern running through its cultural ideals. One must hence be a scholar to be an epic poet. People in Spenser’s day believed in certain hierarchies in cultural values. The authors could write with the assurance that none of their values would be challenged. Spenser is the greatest conservative power: he loves

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old things and looks on tradition as creative. Milton is the greatest revolutionary genius in English culture, on a par with Michelangelo and Beethoven. His genius is of the analytical kind which makes an individual synthesis rather than a contribution to tradition. He wrote his own grammar, his own dictionary, his own history––a process of absorption and interpretation. He was original in the sense of seeking back to origins. Spenser and Milton are bound together. Spenser regarded himself as Chaucer’s successor. Milton refers to Spenser with the greatest respect. Both wrote their great works in retirement, with considerable leisure at their disposal. Spenser is a critical, bookish, contemplative poet, with a certain delicate quality. As a corollary he is extremely theoretical. Spenser and Milton were both conscious of themselves as poets. They felt that the poet by creating imitates the creative power of God. Elizabethans derived their etymology of this idea of the poet from “maker” etc. The poet is not God’s rival, however. The source of great poetry must be inspiration. The Holy Spirit took on certain duty as the Christian Muse. The great Renaissance poet saw himself foremost as a Christian whose work had religious significance. Poetry was a great power of good or evil. Spenser and Milton saw themselves as poets in the role of prophets, in their great moments divinely inspired. Above all others, the poet is responsible for what he does, and as a result must work harder than any ordinary scholar to bring himself to the pinnacle of knowledge. THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER is a series of eclogues. In October he lays down his plans for the future. EK sees the source of poetry as enthusiasm. In such a lofty view of poetry form is very important. EK lays down an aristocracy of forms (by implication). Love poetry and comedy were low. Epic and tragedy were great, and had to be used by a major poet. So Spenser lays down in October his plans for an epic or tragedy. Despite his ideas, drama was out of the question. He was a learned and bookish poet, without the drive of Shakespeare or Marlowe to attract the populace. The university play was a dry form. The Calender shows a great catholicity. Spenser was actually a conservative and believed in the creativity of tradition. Unlike many humanists, Spenser had an ear for many types of poetry. Most humanists had a highbrow contempt for the medieval Gothic, and loved only the classics. Spenser, on the contrary, had a love for the medieval and The Faerie Queene is an example of a Gothic, a thoroughly medieval poem. He admired particularly Chaucer and Malory. He has the love of the classical periods, but with it this catholicity. The attempt to decry or deny the learning of great poets is a modern vulgarity, unseen in Elizabethan criticism, which saw the great poems as

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concentrated and better collections of wisdom. Homer’s poems, for example, bind up theories of art, religion, government, etc., with other ideas and aspects of life. The Elizabethans carried this view pretty far, and saw great poetry as something cabalistic and secret. The surface meaning of Virgil, for instance, might mislead the reader from the hidden meaning. This contains the fallacy of regarding Virgil’s hidden meaning as conscious, rather than unconscious. This led to long pedantic allegorical interpretation stretched to fantastic limits. Spenser had an extremely self-conscious approach to the problem of language. Elizabethan rhetoric consisted of a treatise on the use of English according to a huge number of polysyllabic figures of speech. Any line of The Faerie Queene will display Spenser’s use of these figures, so that he is, in poetry, a prominent euphuist. Pastoral poetry seemed always to demand a special language, dealing as it did with shepherds. As Theocritus wrote in Doric, so Spenser pretends to write in dialect. Spenser did not know what dialect was, for it was very limited to its various regions. Therefore he creates a rustic speech whose forms are drawn willy-nilly from north, south, etc., plus a number of archaic words from Chaucer, Gower, plus Elizabethan slang, plus Italian, plus invention. Johnson said that Spenser “writ no language”: but he does! He writ Spenser’s language, and damned if it doesn’t work. EK claims that these words give a certain authority, or authenticity (auctoritie) to the verse. Sidney would not condone it. This language suits the rustic background, yet still shows the working of a man of learning and discernment. Spenser never writes Elizabethan English: it has always selfconscious archaism, which is what he wants in order to give an air of remoteness, dreaminess, of a place removed, but with a spiritual reality and the feeling of ancient tradition. His etymology was pretty fantastic but was respected. THE FAERIE QUEENE. Elizabethan poets looked on the original poet as a founder of society, e.g. the Orpheus tradition. The epic Spenser was to write would be an allegorical synthesis of all he knew. Only through allegory and symbol could a poet say more than he knew, and fill in his deficiencies as a man of learning through the suggestive power of allegory, symbol, and parable. We do not consider Jesus as a scholar, but his parables are full of universal patterns. The epic had to be in twelve or twelve times X books. So Spenser drew up his plan for The Faerie Queene for either twelve or twenty-four books. He outlines his general scheme in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh. His general scheme is grouped around a hero, and a heroine, King Arthur and the Faerie Queene. By the Faerie Queene he meant the queen of Faery, i.e.

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Fairy-land. By Faerie the allegorical poet would mean the allegorized or idealized nation, in this case England, as it is seen by the inspired poet. So the Faerie Queene is an idealized queen––Elizabeth of course, but much more, the whole spirit of the nation. Arthur meant English courage and heroism of course, in an idealized form. An ethical or moral philosophy deals largely in abstraction. A religion deals with persons, gods. In Spenser there are two levels. 1. Arthur and the queen as gods. 2. below them the abstractions dealing with generalized human experience. Each book of The Faerie Queene will be concerned with a knight of her court, bearing the name of an abstract noun, and each book will follow the same general pattern, complicated by the fact that it is epic form to begin the poem in the middle to draw attention, and then work back to the beginning, and closing with the ending. The Faerie Queene is complicated by the fact that it was unfinished, and so has no beginning and no ending, but a huge middle. We begin in medias res with the Knight of Holiness in the midst of a journey. In Book 12 we were to have learned that the setting was the court of the Faerie Queene at a twelve-day festival. Every day someone was to arrive with a grouch to whom the queen would assign a knight to straighten things out. Running through the six books is the connecting link of Arthur’s love for the Faerie Queene who never appears. More and more connecting characters do appear! The final book would have been devoted to the marriage of Arthur and the Queene, ending in an epithalamion, perhaps the one he wrote for his own marriage. Abstractions are hopeless things to write poetry about, and how Spenser fell for it is a mystery. They tend to coagulate; i.e., the Knight of Courage has to have the qualities of temperance, chastity, and so on. So there is less and less distinction between the knights of succeeding quests. He speaks of Aristotle as the source of his virtues, but he does not follow Aristotle’s list, because Aristotle was not a Christian philosopher, and Spenser is writing the Christian epic. The classical epics are not the exclusive source of Spenser’s epic. He was as tolerant of medieval as of classical learning. Moreover he was a man of his time, and interested in current attempts to synthesize knowledge. He could not read Greek very well in all likelihood, but was at home in Italian. His epic was based essentially on Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso in incident, names, etc. Medieval epic clusters around Arthur, Charlemagne, and Alexander––completely romantic and vaguely historical. Spenser with his archaizing mind went back to Arthur. Ariosto had gone back to Charlemagne, and is also dealing with Petrarchan love. Ariosto had a sense of humour, an Italian ironic scepticism, much like Chaucer. Orlando is a take-off on medieval love conventions, managed by overdo-

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ing the wildest of the romances. His attitude is like Cervantes’s but his method is different. He accepts all the conventions, and sets them down in all their grotesqueness, but somehow changes the spirit. The literary descent of the method is not found in Spenser but in Byron. Spenser admired Ariosto but did not want to copy his tone. He was in deadly earnest in writing an epic of the English nation. However he is not as humourless as he is reputed to be. But he did desire a systematic and serious treatment of the medieval epic. A similar purpose was undertaken by Spenser’s contemporary, Tasso, in his Jerusalem Delivered. These Italian epics are very different from Virgil and Homer. Ariosto does not obey the classical rules of construction: he tells his story masterfully, but with a certain tendency to digression purposely constructed to imitate the wandering medieval epic. (Ker—Epic and Romance)44 Allegory: The use of simile implies a sophisticated mind able to differentiate between real and unreal. Allegory developed in its least intelligent form requires the art and the interpretation of the art tacked on. This form is generally dull and always popular. In reading Aesop we come to like the tale and to forget the moral. Only a crude and naïve taste wants the moral in abstract moral terms––a crib, an explanation. The person of crude taste demands the explanation of a Cézanne painting, for example. There is a feeling of the supremacy of the abstract statement, generally false, dull, or misleading over the concrete example. So a portrait of the Madonna is to be regarded as a pattern of form, line, colour, etc. To regard it as the Church does, as a moral lesson, places art in the same class with programme notes and Aesop’s fables––popular, dull. The cure is to snip off the moral. Medieval literature, developed from the allegorical sermon, is full of this stuff. So we find many good stories followed by the ponderous word, “significatio.” The bestiary is similar. The metaphor, “he was a lion,” drops the link of abstract and concrete and leaves a focus of meaning and concentration. The metaphor represented by the national flag can cause cheering: it has its own meaning with no further interpretation necessary. This focus of the meaning is one of the mind and not of the senses. It is of this sudden and complete illumination that art consists. The imagination is the image-making faculty, the primary concern in the creation of art. The metaphor saves the argument by presenting the image. The emblem refers to a background often vague; it is an artificial stimulus. The emblem in art refers to no vague background, but focuses the mind. The total response to the image art produces is conditioned by the unity of the work of art as a whole. The image of the Madonna is an ikon, a tool in religion. To look at it as a work of art it becomes a focus of

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many things—the last mentioned line, colour, form, etc., none of which is an adequate explanation of the picture. The allegory of metaphor is the impact of a unified vision. Its difference from the simile allegory is one of degree. The simile allegory has to have a certain impact or else it fails. The metaphor allegory has to leave room for something to be said for and about it. There is, then, a hierarchy: literal––simile––metaphor. According to Dante there are four levels: literal––allegorical––tropological––anagogical. The moral and the allegorical lead away to other systems of thought. The anagogical leads back to the literal version, but from a visionary point of view. The Faerie Queene can he read for fun as an expert piece of epic writing, or it can be read for its political or ethical meanings, or we can read it as a great poem, as a unity. Spenser’s allegory is in three parts––historical, political, moral. He did not deliberately take the four-fold method from Dante, but he doubtless knew it. Spenser’s political ideal is a state ruled by chivalry (Faerie Queene). The queen’s power is administered by the knights, a reflection of her perfection, for the common people. The moral ideal is the complete man, the complete Christian of the Renaissance, represented by Arthur. On the literal level Spenser is a most self-conscious artist, elaborate and artificial. The tropes and the schemata were important to him, but instinctive. He was a poet who knew how to write English in such patterns as these. There is an elaborate pattern of onomatopoeia––an attempt to represent the sounds and rhythms of the world. BOOK I: The first book is predominantly Christian and medieval. The idea of having the hero get into trouble and be rescued by Arthur is carried through to Book III. This in moral allegory implies that no virtue is complete in itself, whereas Arthur is a synthesis of virtues. In religious allegory it means that no man can save himself, but must depend in the end on the grace of God for his salvation from evil. The knights in Malory are a group of separate players—Launcelot, Tristram, Palomides, Gawain, and well down the list, Arthur. There is no sanctity, no all-conquering spirit. The king in Spenser is a symbolic sacerdotal monarch. Henry VII had used the Welsh background to picture himself a Briton. The Tudor coming represented the awakening of Arthur and the reestablishment of a British king in London. The men of the period were contemptuous of the romantic Arthur in order to make him an historical figure, but Spenser had every respect for the medieval romances. St. George is a knight of the Faerie Queene’s court. Spenser distinguishes his faerie people from his men. St. George was born a man, but spirited off by the faeries. His name is analysed as Gorgas, or farmer, a

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rustic Saxon clown at the court of the princely Arthur-–Saxon England struggling to the Reformation aided by a British house. St. George came to England with the Crusaders but never captured the British hearts as did Arthur. The red cross on a silver shield is taken from many romances. In the quest of the Holy Grail Sir Launcelot and Sir Percival both wear it. St. George in Spenser is closely related to one of the grail knights, Percival, who turns up in Canto 13 as Perlesvaus, whose adventures are much as they are in Malory. There is a suggestion of a grail theme. In Malory is the legend of Sir Gareth, a young untried knight who comes to court a rustic. He overcomes three brother knights––red, green, and black, duplicated in The Faerie Queene as Sans-Joy, Sans-Foy, and Sans-Loy. St. George was the figure of an ancient folk-festival in England, celebrated with a folk play of George killing the dragon. Mantuan [Baptista Spagnuoli Mantuanus] gives this a very sophisticated treatment in a typical Renaissance Latin poem. In the east the legend has the dragon representing drought and winter, and the hero representing reviving spring. By analogy this was extended to the creation as adapted by the Hebrews. Leviathan represents original chaos and the pull of’ the created world back to chaos, and in the moral world tyranny and reaction. Spenser’s dragon is the Leviathan of Revelation, and his Duessa is the great whore of the Apocalypse. Biblical references to Pharaoh as Leviathan get chaos connected with tyranny. The serpent of paradise is the same as Leviathan and as the angel of the flaming sword guarding paradise. St. George must kill the dragon, and regain paradise where Una lives. The dragon killed by St. George is the evil personified in the Bible by Leviathan and the great whore’s monster. It is associated with a covering cherub who guards Paradise from man. Man is in two levels––the level of individual salvation in purgatory, and the apocalyptic level in the recovery of Paradise. The knight sets out to conquer the dragon guarding the entrance to the land of joy. The knight is Holiness, and as such has visions of the evil of the world rather than the beauty of paradise. His guide is Una, truth, but he mislays her easily and his real saviour is Arthur, in his role as grace. The knight is solemn and self-conscious and does not realize the exuberance (I, ii). This explains why Sans Joy is the deadliest of the pagan knights. The joy of the future world is symbolized by the light and life of this world, while the night is darkness and evil. This symbolism runs all through Book I. In Canto 5, st. 25, night expresses a belief in fatalism and necessity which are possible means––gloomy and evil means––of explaining the fallen world. The tendency to gloom on the part of Holiness is his worst enemy. No crude, unsubtle monster like error can conquer him, and he gets through the house of pride all right. But there are two symbols of

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pride, theology’s original sin, in the castle and the dungeon. Cutting the thread binding us to the love of God is the sin of pride, and it has two stages. The first is the heroic feeling of Prometheus freed from God, and the ostentation and swagger of pride seen in the castle. This succeeds the viewing of oneself as independent, as an end in oneself, which eventually leads to melancholia and despair. This is the Satan of the later books, and of Bunyan’s Giant Despair. Holiness falls into the dungeon of pride. It is a spiritual pride to which the Puritan is susceptible. He is a Protestant, and as such is liable to be seized by the demonic spiritual pride of loneliness. The castle and dungeon represent the extreme evils of the Catholic and Puritan faiths. The True Church must avoid both. The dungeon of pride is not the extremity of his temptations. That comes with the challenge of despair. God, after all, is the author of life. What begins as pride inevitably ends as the will to die, as despair. So all evil tends in the direction of a death impulse. The dragon George sets out to kill is not evil, but death. This being a fallen world it must be a tyranny, which is a social projection of fatalism. If we live under a tyranny we abandon our birthright and do as we are told. The will and purpose of the state become the will and purpose of the tyrant. That is why at the back-door of the House of Pride is a butcher’s stall full of the bones of tyrants. Politically the dragon is tyranny. That is why the Leviathan is associated with Pharaoh (Ezekiel 29) and the great whore and her beast with Babylon and Rome (Rev. 17 and 12). Canto 7. Duessa and dragon given by Orgoglio. The great tyrannies of the world have been associated with tyranny and pride. See House of Pride. That is why Protestants refer to Pope as Anti-Christ in the 16th century. So Arthur vs. Duessa is benevolence of God vs. proud and vicious anti-Christ. The Catholic Church is the heir of the primitive apostolic church. Spenser feels it corrupt and that the return should be to the primitive church. But Christianity cannot be overthrown by atheism, which is negative. A deadlier enemy of the true Christianity is the false symbolism of hallucination. The hag Duessa appears beautiful. Archimago supplies cheap copies for the originals of the characters. That is Spenser’s symbol for the Roman Catholic Church which he hates and respects. This is not un-Christian, but is anti-Christian. So though Una is truth, man may only avail himself of truth through divine grace. The mount of purgatory in Canto X purges his eyesight and gives him vision. In the fight with the dragon much real estate is covered, and the point is that it covers the whole earth. The humour arises in the fact that he covers the whole world, and yet most people do not see him at all. The reason for George’s delay is not lack of courage and strength, but that he can’t see the damned thing at

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all. A man fighting evil without grace is fighting blind-folded. The fight is followed by the marriage with Una, the uniting with truth. Duessa in political allegory is Bloody Mary and Mary Queen of Scots, and these are derived from John Knox’s terrific diatribe against the three Catholic Marys in 1560. The third is Mary of Guise. “First Blast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women”45––Revelation terminology used to connect them with three incarnations of the Great Whore. The natural world as fallen is feminine and Mother Earth is an evil mother. In Spenser we see the generation of monstrous forms. Error is compared to the strange creatures bred on the banks of the Nile: this is part of the common theory of spontaneous generation. Earth conceived as fallen nature breeds monsters, all incarnations of the same dragon. Spenser follows Dante in regarding Hell as the centre of the earth, and therefore the core of the great reservoir of evil. There is an up and a down symbolism with evil descending into the bowels of the earth for sustaining power, and the knight ascending the hill of purgatory for his own salvation. There is an ambiguity in the attitude towards life. Health is good for itself, but the world of nature is fallen. The birth of Orgoglio is a parody of the birth of Adam––a clod puffed big with wind. The mirages surrounding holiness are false images of truth bred by anti-Christ. There are two realms of the church, the visible and the invisible. There is the social realm to which all men belong, and also the higher spiritual communion of saints about which God only knows. The Protestant criticism of the Roman Catholic Church was that it lost sight of the invisible church in favour of the visible, which they deemed the more important. The false Una mistaken for the real is the visible mistaken for the invisible. In Canto II Fradubio, the Doubting Brother, has been turned into a tree and can’t escape until bathed in the living stream because he fell in with Duessa, finally saw what she was, but could not escape. He is the doubting brother who sees his Catholic Church wrong, Protestant in that he protests, but who can’t escape it because he wants some way to salvation. He is made free, but as such is bound to a cycle of existence. This, to Spenser, is the essential characteristic of all false religions––you are bound to time and space, and merely go through the motions of evolutionary rhythms. To him, Christianity was eternal vigilance. Catholicism is what the Jews had before Christ came.

CHAPTER SIX MILTON (ENGLISH 3J) (1953–54) NOTES BY PETER EVANS

English 3j was devoted to both Spenser and Milton, but for this year, according to Evans, Frye lectured only on Milton. This seems not to have been the case, as Margaret Kell Virany’s notes for the same course in 1953–54 are devoted to both Milton and Spenser. The daily notes are undated (except in two instances), but there appear to have been twenty-nine class sessions. Whether the lectures on Paradise Lost that come at the end (27–29) are out of sequence is uncertain: I have followed Evans’s numbering of the pages of his lecture notes, the major topics of which are: 1 2 3 4–6 7 8–16 17–22 23–24 25–26 27–29

Nativity Ode Civil War background and Cambridge years Elegies L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus Lycidas Prose pamphlets Paradise Lost Paradise Regained Samson Agonistes Paradise Lost

Peter Evans sent me these notes in 1994. He occasionally recorded a word in Greek, apparently practicing what he had learned in the language course he had taken as a Religious Knowledge option the previous year. [1] Revolutionary & analytical genius, entering the Renaissance conventions & bolstering them up from the inside. Fills the old conventional forms with so much explosive material that it simply blows apart Nativity Ode––a technical miracle. Each stanza is a triumph of its own. Milton’s early imagination is largely influenced by the calendar–– conscious of the suggestion given by the passing of the seasons. His early

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elegies contain the imagery of the passing of the seasons––death & resurrection (winter sleep just before spring begins to stir it). This especially fascinates Milton’s early imagination. This symbolism informs not only literature but religion. Christ was a latecomer to Christmas. No one knows when he was born, but Christmas placed at the winter solstice. Christ’s birth is set at the winter solstice. John the Baptist’s birth is arbitrarily set at the summer solstice on his remarks “Christ must increase, & I must decrease” [John 3:30]. Infant son of God––light shining in darkness––lengthening of days; shortening of periods of darkness. Rebirth of the sun. Milton cannot detach paganism’s beauty from its darker side. He takes his own view of paganism on all levels. Note passing of great Greek & Roman gods––a nostalgia. Beauty in their passing. But hideousness & terror of Moloch too cannot be separated from the beautiful side, so both pass together. Nativity Ode is based on the passing of the god Pan, as told in Plutarch.46 Christians seized on this story as a tribute of the pagans themselves to the coming of the true Word. At opening of Nativity Ode an absolute antithesis between light & darkness set up. We get the idea that God is wholly different from what we see in nature. Antithesis between mystery & truth, between nature and true knowledge, between infant “sun” and darkness. All things move toward the consummation––the marriage between the bride & the groom. The final apocalypse, the burning or consummation of all darkness by full light. Stanza 3 of “The Hymn”––a technical miracle. The sense exactly fits the rhythm of the stanza. Milton here draws out the tradition that at the birth of Christ the world had an instant of perfect peace. Spirit brooding on the waters. Picks up a bit of old legend & fits it into a great biblical context. Tradition that all that occurs in Old Testament recurs in life of Christ. A single intelligible structure of symbolism embodied in this poem The figure (XXV) of Christ absorbing all these traditions. A time of waiting watchfulness at end of poem––common to Milton [2] Behind Milton––Civil War struggle. 1. Political 2. Economic 3. Religious Economic struggle between what were later Tories & Whigs. Tories–– landed aristocracy since War of Roses. In Milton’s day this class was being threatened by the merchant class––built in cities from overseas trade,

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etc. Landed aristocracy strong in north & west. Merchants strongest in south & east Political background along much the same lines. Two civil wars in regard to Milton’s background. (1) war between king and Parliament (1642– 5, when Charles surrendered) (2) Second war between two classes in Parliament––two classes which had fought each other in first civil war joined in the second civil war. Milton thought entirely opposite. He thought what was going on was an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of light & darkness. In reality all that had occurred was that one class had gained enough power to overthrow the other. He missed the real point, but discovered deeper & richer values. Religious struggle. In Tudor times both Anglicans and Puritans were in the same Church, although Puritans were the strong leftwing difference. In 17th century they became embattled sects. The real issue was largely political. One side wanted bishops and the other side did not. Theologically there was very little difference. To enter Oxford or Cambridge they had to & could subscribe to the 39 Articles. Milton decided against holy orders because of episcopacy. He was opposed to England getting more and more high church. Oxford––intellectually high church with strong leanings to old faith. Essentially royalist. Cambridge––centre of the Protestant intellectuals. (When things got too hot, they went to U.S.—Cambridge––Harvard University––in 1636.) Milton didn’t like university curriculum. General structure (although reformed on Protestant lines) had not changed since the Middle Ages. Seven liberal arts: trivuim––literary subjects: grammar, rhetoric, logic quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music University students taught to write oral speeches on a certain theme. Your audience was trained to watch your logic & grammar, etc. most carefully. The idea was to present a thesis & defend it oratorically. This training has been attacked, especially by Bacon. He said university training ended where it ought to begin, i.e., it began with large general ideas and ended with specific concrete ideas. A great trouble was that many major premises were silly. The accent was too much on form, not on content. Bacon says that the mind naturally moves from the concrete to the abstract. Some of Milton’s early works were of the thesis-defence type––filled with arguments and quotations in support of these arguments. This training in rhetoric actually turned out into a great training in literature in many

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senses. This training was to train you in ingenuity & wit (“wit” & intelligence). The idea was that the more paradoxical the thesis you had to defend the better your wit. Early writings: (1) Whether Day Is Better Than Night (2) On the Music of the Spheres. Other theses were concerned with biology, etc. The weakness of the subject was shown here. This rhetoric is carried on independent of scientific study. Even in these theses Milton shows some indication that he is bored & in disagreement to some extent with this method. N.B. Influence of humanism & positivism Philosophy––a special discipline with a technical vocabulary except between 1450–1750. Then since Kant it has returned to the former. From 1459 to 1750 we have amateur philosophers working outside the schools. Non-technical, speculative, no fixed philosophical vocabulary, no systemization. Technical discipline––a product only of medieval philosophy & modern philosophy since Kant. Protestant theology was less philosophical than Catholic. N.B. Aquinas vs. Luther & Calvin. Protestant theology is only a commentary on scripture. There had been a great revolt against medieval philosophy––see what happened to the great Duns Scotus. Philosophy was turned into (1) a dead language, or (2) amateur speculation. Either you go through academic mill, or you speculate like Locke, Bacon, etc. Milton––Protestant humanist––his philosophy largely literary. Earlier poems––Nativity Ode––Later poems, etc. [3] Milton’s favourite poem was the funeral elegy. It sprang from the Renaissance convention. A huge number of his early poems were elegies written in either English or Latin. Lycidas is the last and perhaps greatest elegy which closes out this early period. Personal feelings have no place in the elegies which follow this convention. The earlier groups of these elegies are not great poetry, but they show him learning. Milton is a poet of very deep reserve. He believed he had a definite political & social function. Must catch the beat, the metre of history. “The keeper of the poetic utterance.” Very rarely do we find any passages of personal revelation in Milton. He never pours out his feelings or biography. In his foreign language poems we learn more of Milton than we do in his English poetry. He uses the language barrier to hide behind.

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The classical elegy is a hexameter followed by a pentameter––very difficult skill to master––carrying over a beat from one line to the next. His Latin poems divided into two groups––one of seven elegies, the other a miscellaneous group. Of the seven elegies, the first and sixth were written to Diodati, his friend. N.B. Epitaphium Damonis––triumph of his Latin poetry. A poet of London––loved the theatre & to walk the streets & see crowds. Elegy VI to Diodati––written at the time of the Nativity Ode. The Nativity Ode is in a class by itself in his early poetry. The rest of the early stuff is more easily predictable. It was good poetry, but he was no infant prodigy. But the Nativity Ode burst right out of him––great poetry. In Elegy VI he sees classes of poetry. Convivial poets can drink, make love, etc., but the great poets have the responsibility to keep themselves in tune––the themes of epic & tragedy in the classics; of prophecy in religion. The major poet must be a transparent being who cannot be muddied up. Nature speaks through him. Milton spends his life waiting & listening, building up & preparing to speak. Finally the time came in Paradise Lost. Speaks now of ceremonial purification of these “prophets” or seers. Like the blindness of Tiresias. “Now he can see” idea. An eerie note here of things to come. The figure of Orpheus. L’Allegro and Il Penseroso are almost built around this magic pre-Homeric poet of nature. Elegy VII is one of his very rare love poems. It is written almost mechanically in the courtly love convention. It is plain in Milton’s poetry that he distrusts the convention. Milton dislikes the centring of all attention on the lady. Elegy IV is a formal epistle––a favourite form of Renaissance humanism. Elegy V is poetically the most interesting of the seven. Milton is not particularly a rhapsodic poet––not a poetry of enthusiasm. This fifth elegy is the only real rhapsody in Milton’s poetry; but he manages to catch the rhythm very well. The Miscellany. On the 5th of November––bad because it gets out of hand. Milton gets too deep into its gunpowder, sulphur smoke, hell. Now he is launched into his favourite theme, which is much too vast for this dimension. It is bad poetry but we can see something coming. The rest of the poems in the Miscellany deal with academic subjects.

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[4] Milton’s Cambridge Latin poems––a period of experiment in all directions. Deciding which were his best types. Abandons the stanzaic poem almost altogether. His rhythms tended to extension and he tried (Elegy VII) courtly love as a convention, but dropped it too. Has only a slight relation to the Elizabethans as a poet. An admirer of Shakespeare & Ben Jonson but not interested in Elizabethan lyric, or in metaphysical poetry. Too much of an architectonic mind for that. Set feet solidly in English Protestant humanism. Not technically at all like Spenser. Neither in any strict sense of the word allegorical. Yet Comus and Paradise Lost in their epic character are a descent from The Faerie Queene. A few poetic exercises on academic subjects––a poem on whether or not the world was running down (battle of ancients and moderns). Milton takes bright modern point of view. Also a poem concerning Aristotle––we see Milton’s Platonic view showing through here. More idealistic, less literal during the Cambridge period L’Allegro & Il Penseroso latest of his Cambridge work. Milton had the feeling (1) he was to be a major poet (2) he had to wait until his creative fulfillment––must wait until things came. We see both will power (as a Christian) and driving (inspirational) power. The latter cannot be forced. He must wait. We are not in his period of strained, disciplined writing. His valedictory [At a Vacation Exercise] breaks his tradition as he gives part of it in English (“Hail native language”). An ingenuousness–– the assumption that everyone is interested in what he will be doing. A sonnet on being 23––in response to a note from a friend who felt he now ought to start working for a living. Milton had a private income, & this made it possible for him to live the way he did. L’Allegro & Il Penseroso––etudes––studies in moods. Not much to say about them––they speak for themselves L’Allegro settles on & establishes the mood of pleasure, cheerfulness Il Penseroso settles on and establishes pensiveness Antithesis between the world of pleasure, nitwits of experience & literature. Milton points out that literature is itself experience. No antithesis between world of mind and world of body. Poems filled with fresh and unspoiled natural imagery. L’Allegro––fresh, cool, crisp day. Bright English countryside. All one with the total experience of a cultivated man. Then after such a walk, a man goes home to read Jonson’s comedies, etc.—in keeping with material in much the same mood. Il Penseroso––the moon, night, pensiveness now appreciated & reading of works appropriate to such an experience. He shows us just about

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everything that can be done with the octosyllabic couplet in the English language. In L’Allegro a great many “beheaded” lines––with only seven syllables. Quickens the pace Il Penseroso more eight-beat lines––softer liquid consonants, slower, resonant vowels sounds See p. 25 (Madrigals now hopelessly out of date in Milton’s time. Poets liked the single melodic line with musical accompaniment so that their poetry was not lost in the elaborate counterpoint. This 17th-century development made opera possible later.) L’Allegro––popular tales of local superstition Il Penseroso––contains occult qualities. Philosophy is studied in the occult tradition. In both poems reference to mystic Orpheus. [5] Two kinds of melancholy. (1) Hamlet’s type––a disease (2) Introversion––a pleasing type of melancholy. Solitary type of studies. A somber aesthetic sensitivity. The complete triumph of the life of contemplation. It is this latter which appears in Il Penseroso. While at Cambridge the last thing Milton did was to write a masque Arcades for a noble family. It went over big & so he was asked to write another––Comus, which put an end to the masque’s popularity Samuel Daniel & Ben Jonson had written masques. Milton was a great admirer of Jonson and probably took the name Comus from him. Masques were written for certain occasions and always had as a focal point the praising or welcoming of the person in whose honour the party was being given. The masque was connected with the court, always indoors. Relation between actors and audience very close. Actors were members of the court themselves. Much more elaborate in scenery and costumes than were dramas. Enormous amount of money squandered on these. Usually a chorus, all dressed in one type of costume. As compared with the ordinary play, there was a great emphasis on aspects of the play other than acting––i.e., the scenery and the music. Stage devices of all kinds were employed. The more elaborate the better. The masque often took the form of a dance & ended with a dance. The Tempest––a very masque-like play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream–– extremely masque-like, like a ballet. Masques often played under very crowded, heated conditions. Danger of fire. Too much food & liquor. Milton’s masque was meant for outdoors,

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in the cool of the evening. Milton as a guest rather than a court employee could be freer too in his writing. The structure under Ben Jonson made the main theme high-brow. A great deal of classical reference. A polite and cultivated form. This was at the beginning & end. The middle was the antimasque, which was entirely opposite to the rest. Crowd often dressed as animals. Atmosphere changes to the ribald, noisy. Welsord, The Court Masque47 traces the masque back to pagan ceremonies. Milton incorporates this antimasque into an allegorical scheme. In the play the people essentially acted their own parts in real life. They moved through the centre of action in which all other characters were elemental spirits (earth, air, water, fire). The whole action carried on by these spirits included a guardian angel, Comus, and his demons (fire spirits), etc. Comus begins with a long conventional presentation––a guardian angel. Then the regular antimasque entry. Noisy, unruly, like animals. Comus = a reveler (in Greek). For Milton this becomes a symbol of the upsetting of the order of things. Comus is the son of an evil being. A rebellion against the order of God’s nature is his revel. A successful rebellion. Now man is born into a kind of bacchanalia. Comus tempts Chastity. Nature is fertile, licentious, creative. Chastity is a denial of Nature. When the lady resists Comus’s temptations she is really fulfilling the Nature God intended––the Nature of order in which Comus has no place. Action is paradoxical. Comus gets our dramatic sympathy––stands for tolerance––a more relaxed and spontaneous morality. Lady does nothing but say “no.” Hence, we do not sympathize. She appears a wet blanket. But Comus is the blinder of man by passions: he really binds man to his passions. The Lady is in reality captive to Comus. In her lies real freedom. Forest––symbol of lost direction, bewilderment. A place of enchantment. Here Comus and his retainers appear as fireflies. Chastity––discipline which unites body & mind. Thus, you can live in the world of Comus but still be untouched by it. (Chastity does not equal Virginity). The chaste person has achieved what God wants in nature. In tune with the spheres, structure of the universe. She is still enough under Comus’s power to be frozen by him––but here the brothers rush in and overturn his glass. Still, they have not broken his spell. The Lady is still held in prison. Guardian Spirit says that help will be needed from spirit of nearby river (in the case of this masque, the Severn). Thus, Lady is released.

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Setting of Comus is not a Christian setting––a kind of pagan atmosphere. Greek gods are talked about. Chastity here is the highest point of natural virtue. But by itself a prison. Still can’t move. Comus––pagan and only implicitly ending with a sort of baptism. Paradise Regained––Christian––begins with Christ’s baptism [6] A lot of variety in Comus. Plenty of songs, dances, and music to break it up. Still, a very erudite piece of work. Comus is the spirit of revelry––a fallen world, a world of darkness in which the pilgrims become separated. In this fallen order of Nature Comus is able to plan his seducing of Chastity. A great degree of occultism in Comus. An enormous amount of classical mythology, all based on the idea that the Christian reader can see dimly in the myths Christian truths & symbolism (e.g., Circe––the temptress who converts men through their sensuality to a lower order of being). N.B. Woodhouse, University of Toronto Quarterly 1942 on Order of Nature in Comus.48 The attendant spirit represents a higher world, a higher form of law. He is equated by Milton with the Paradise Garden and the Garden of Adonis (Faerie Queene, Bk. III). Versification––triumph of Milton’s early period. A peak of harmonic performance. Unrhymed iambic pentameter as a base, but this could be converted to just about anything. (The general masque was more a spectacle than a great work of art. Difficult to take in both oral & visual impressions). In Comus scenery is reduced to a minimum, as in Shakespeare. The beauty lies in the ears in Milton’s poem. Mysterious rustlings & whisperings are hidden throughout the verse. One must listen carefully. Lycidas––one of the greatest poems of its length in English. A pastoral elegy. (Theocritus & Virgil began this). In the pastoral convention. All Mediterranean countries with any agricultural growth had gods of fertility––died in fall, rose again in spring (Adonis, Hyacynthus, Osiris, Balder). Women every fall sang a lament for Adonis. Spenser and Milton knew all about these sources. See Frazer’s Golden Bough––fertility rites. Ceremonial lament for dying god, with at same time a feeling for his eventual revival. A pastoral conventional elegy on the death of Edward King. Builds his imagery on the dying god.

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[7] Lycidas––a pastoral poem informed with birth & death in spring & fall. Takes the two figures about King’s life––poet & priest––and works them into the symbolism of the poem. Lycidas is built on a rondo form (ABACA). There is a main theme for Lycidas (an Adonis figure). The two episodes deal with him as poet and as priest. The main theme deals with the role which King has assimilated in the poem: the man cut off in early life (Adonis) who does not accomplish the supreme work of the poet. Lycidas is lamented for he doesn’t live out his life. In the “poet” section Milton uses Orpheus, and in the “priest” section he uses Peter. Peter is a man who failed to accomplish his mission as priest (denies Christ could walk on water). Milton sees that a man never fully completes his work––it is completed by God. King was drowned in the Irish Sea. When Orpheus was killed his head floated away, singing, to the Isle of Lesbos. Peter was (1) a fisherman (2) could not walk on the water. In poem (1) premature death as man (2) a section discussing premature death as a poet. All poets die too soon. But all poets as regards their long social influence do have a long life. But a failure to complete is a theme here. Dies too soon. [8] Following this early period Milton took a trip to Italy. A period of tying together some of his early experimental work. Also his first and only real contact with Catholicism. Milton in Italy found himself already well known due to his Latin poetry. Scarcely anyone could read English poetry. Around this 1640 period he wrote some of his best poems. Epitaphium Damonis, etc. The period of the die-hard humanists who felt that only in Latin could great poetry be written. But still in the 17th century it was easy to gain a quick reputation by writing in Latin. On Milton’s return to England he turned his back to baroque continental Europe. He began work at once on his great epic. First sketches of Paradise Lost found around 1640. He accepts the Renaissance view that the epic & tragedy are the only great poetic forms. But he makes a distinction between the diffuse epic–– the long (12 or x12) epic (Homer & Virgil) and the brief epic (Book of Job, Paradise Regained, Endymion). His model of tragedy was Greek drama. We can see Milton’s consistency of thought, for his three great works after 1640 were Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Paradise Lost first appeared to him as a good subject for tragedy. He even got so far as to write the first speech (now incorporated in Book IV). He intended to write a diffuse epic about Prince or King Arthur.

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His switch in subject matter was because of (1) his disappointment in the Revolution now plunging toward the Restoration, (2) a growing realization that romantic poetry should not be the footing for a great poet, (3) his desire to write true poetry rather than that based on legend. Ceases to glorify the rise of the British nation, as he became politically disillusioned. (Except where it gets out in Areopagitica, etc.) Prose Pamphlets Liberty, he said, was the guiding spirit of all these works Liberty Religious––Church (of England) Domestic––education, marriage & divorce, freedom of press Civil––organization of country’s government First thing Milton did between return from Italy until Civil War (1640–2) was to write five anti-episcopal tracts Domestic period 1643–5––Of Education, four divorce tracts, Areopagitica Civil period 1649–60––four Regicide Pamphlets, three tracts issued on eve of Restoration (anti-Restoration tracts) 1640––The early Stuarts had supported the Elizabethan settlement––the episcopacy. The Puritans were originally a group within the Church who did not believe in such Church organization. James I felt that the episcopacy was needed to safeguard the king & he was a devout believer in the divine right of kings. He in a way set up a political & religious conflict. He was opposed by Parliament representing the South & East mercantile interests & supported by the land-owning lords of the North & West. A tricky situation when he died which Charles was incapable of handling. Within three years Parliament had passed the Petition of Right, so he dissolved Parliament & ruled without it. He believed that Parliament should only vote money to him. For eleven years he managed to run the country through his own revenues, using a few questionable practices. At the same time Laud (& company) had been making the episcopacy more & more high church. In Charles’s reign, then, the Puritans really broke away. The English Puritans were Congregationalists & Scottish Puritans were Presbyterian. But Charles had to call another Parliament––the Long Parliament, which lasted longer than he did.

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Grand Remonstrance––Charles chief minister was impeached & Charles was powerless to save him. In 1642 Parliament passed a law by which they had control of army & navy. Charles tried to swoop on Parliament, but that failed. He tested his own military strength. When not permitted to enter Hull, he set up the royal standard at Nottingham on Aug. 6, 1642. Charles had every psychological advantage. Parliament was frightened over what it had done. Insurrection against the king was unthought of since the time of the Old Testament. Charles had a better army but failed to capture London, although the first year was one of Royalist success. A year of extremely confused & divided loyalties. The question over which army had the right to conscript. Many of the Parliamentary leaders were killed––moderate men. Then Cromwell arose, a real revolutionary with an Ironside Army. Made it a real war. Also the Scotch joined in to help the Puritans. In 1645 war came to an end with the king as prisoner. King now sent a message to the Scotch for help. So in 1648 Civil War began. Cromwell against the Royalists, the Scotch, the Irish, and later the Dutch. Cromwell realized the only way to really end the war was to kill the king. Cromwell purged the Parliament, leaving only the Rump, which supported the king’s death. The king’s death started some anti-Cromwellian rebellion which Cromwell finished in bloody fashion. When Cromwell died, Rump Parliament summoned but army surrendered to the king. Army––a real political faction in England. [9] Pope, cardinal, archbishop, bishop, priest, congregation. Early church had congregation & priest, and one of the apostles had supervisory power. Following the first generation, bishops (İʌȓıțȠʌȠȚ) overran the Church, and gradually in cities one bishop overlooked a number of churches–– hence archbishop. Pope and cardinal were added later, & were not carried over into the Church of England. But the left-wing Puritans felt that bishops had been given no place in the New Testament hierarchy, & wanted to get back to Scripture. Anglicans (Episcopalians) carried on the apostolic succession through their bishops. The Scottish people adopted a Presbyterian system (priest in charge along with elders). English Puritans were Congregationalists. Episcopalian––Bishop––centre of authority Presbyterian––Priest––centre of authority Congregationalist––Congregation––centre of authority, which delegated this authority. Anglicans formed a united front against these two Puritan systems.

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Milton throws himself into the argument on the side of the Puritans. He calls the bishop the first perversion of the Church, a corruption, putting temporal authority in a spiritual institution. Anglicans felt you could not abolish tradition. They accepted the authority of the Church tradition, as far as the point where the Bishop of Rome declared himself the head of the Church. The principle of Milton’s argument is the separation of spiritual from temporal authority in the Church. The first corruption of the Church was the putting of temporal authority into it, making it a department of state. His design is to show that the Reformation led by Henry VIII was only half-finished. He did not adopt a clear-cut reformed view of the Church. During the persecutions under Queen Mary the bishops achieved much prestige, so in the Elizabethan succession the bishops saw to it that the constitution was drawn up in their favour. The bishops held that the Puritans were politically subversive, as they implied that the bishops were parasites on the authority of the state. (Of the Reformation Concerning Church Discipline). The Puritans held that the retaining of bishops was just a bastardized Catholicism. This objection became quite violent. “Bishops are not the pillars but the caterpillars of the Church.”49 The main body of Puritans in this warfare were a group of pamphleteers who signed themselves Smectymmus (consisting of the initials of five of these pamphleteers. Milton in On Prelatical Episcopacy puts forth his reasonable argument.—shows bishopry to be supported not by reason but emotion. A clear break should be made with tradition and custom. Milton says that the repetition of liturgy is not the religion of the Gospel, but of the law of Judaism. He demands Christian liberty on this matter. The Puritan view on this matter was that every church service should be a re-creation of the Holy Spirit. Against prepared sermons & prayers. There should be a direct re-descent of the Spirit of God into each service. Against “vain repetition.”50 For Catholics the centre of the service is the Eucharist. The general tendency of Puritanism is to say that the centre of the service is the distribution of the Word of God, rather than the presentation of the body & blood. The sermon replaces the Eucharist as the central act. A shift of emphasis here also led to a change in the meaning of the Eucharist. The Puritans said that the concept of the Eucharist as sacrifice is Jewish & pagan. There should be no altar in a Christian Church as this is pagan, Jewish. Therefore, centre in Puritan Church is the communion table. The repudiation of the Mass was the repudiation of sacrificial pagan rite.

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[10] Liberty is not what man does. It does not start with man, but with God. It consists of what God will do for man. Man can do nothing to achieve liberty directly, but he can demonstrate willingness to be set free. A negative preparation––stop obstructing the will of God. Man does not want freedom because of its responsibilities. Man naturally inclines toward servitude. Man does not realize he is in bondage. He likes to do what he wants, but what he wants to do is horrible. He accepts slavery as liberty. He wants a neurotic individualism––a sort of isolation (either in mastery or slavery). Man’s approach to liberty is bound to be a fully negative one. He can express a desire to be set free by knocking down the idols of his own servitude. So the person who really desires liberty is one who is regenerated. He is a prophet, a subversive, an iconoclast in our society. Milton still sees the function of the prophet in biblical times in smashing idols––physical illusion rather that spiritual reality. We have therefore the natural man standing for bondage, leading to idolatry, and the regenerate man standing for liberty, leading to God. This latter is a mirror of the love of God; He is a reflection of spiritual reality. Natural man is reality in physical terms, and idols turn out to be mirrors of his own fallen nature. Thus the ultimate essential idol is the mirror which reflects back the life of bondage & servitude––custom, convention, tradition. That is why it is said that the one is the world of revelation, the other of physical law (reflecting servitude). God’s world is a world of love, the other a world of force. The relation between these two worlds is one of antagonism, hatred––man naturally hates God (they killed Christ). Since God is incapable of hatred, He feels wrath. Man in regard to the Church is a Pharisee. He wants to see all the law there––automatic repetitions of prescribed acts. He wants to see the principles of physical force, compulsion. Heaven for regenerate man is a cube, the celestial city, four squares. In natural man we find a love for the pyramid––a hierarchy. faith–– nature––U To apply that to other spheres than church structure. In the Bible we find the essential instrument to set man free. Regenerate man sees there the manifesto of human freedom. It is then that the Holy Spirit in him reads the Bible. But if natural man reads the Bible it will be a manifesto of the law, of authority. To love liberty is to have simultaneously all the other

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virtues. These few are right. The Bible must be read by the rule of ĮȖȐʌȘ (charity)––faith in action. The Bible must be read as the exposition of God’s will to make us free. There are always two senses of “law.” In one sense it is that which Christianity abolished. In another sense the law is emancipated, fulfilled, redeemed. Milton attacks the simple mind which opposes freedom to necessity. Certainly it is opposed to outer necessity, but not to inner necessity. The man in complete bondage & the man in complete freedom have striking similarities. The latter is bound by inner necessity to act a certain way–– almost unconsciously. Conduct. If you say that a man is free––free to choose between right & wrong––you are insulting him. A man truly free acts in a certain way by inner necessity. If we have to struggle between having or stealing we are not in as high a state as one into whose mind the thought of stealing would never enter. Freedom does not equal external necessity. Freedom equals inner necessity. “X cannot steal”––all sense of choice between stealing and not stealing is abolished. You are free, you have no choice, but you are bound by inner necessity. He who says he is entirely free from all compulsion is the one who will be affected by whatever comes along––a stoic or existentialist. The Gospel obliterates the law, and yet transcends or fulfills it. [11] Essay for Nov. 17. Milton’s Treatment of Religious, Domestic, or Civil Liberty in His Prose, Plus a General Treatment of Liberty What would Milton as an individual add to the concept of Christian liberty? ––Wrote on education, divorce, Areopagitica (freedom of press) Divorce Tracts––Christian law is of the internal kind. The law has been fulfilled in the Gospels. All heathens are bound by external law. Freedom is bound up in the choice of means––once chosen you are bound to them. The free man is disciplined internally by himself. He is not free. The free man is free because his reason is the unquestioned ruler––his will a strong thought-police. Plato’s Republic––the analogy between the perfect state constitution and the perfect individual constitution. The state must be discarded, but as Socrates says (end of [Republic,] book IX) the wise man will take this constitution as a pattern laid up in heaven. There is no moral difference between wishing a person to die and actually murdering him. If you tried to make the Sermon on the Mount into

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laws, things would be impossible––an awful police state. All this must be interpreted as internal laws which give true freedom. Milton feels Christian religion should not consist in ceremony. Why replace circumcision & first fruit ceremonies with baptism and the Eucharist. The Christian religion should be internal, not external show. Christ’s attitude to divorce resulted in a very nasty situation. In Milton’s day both church & state had adopted a totally negative attitude to divorce. Here we find one of our New Testament laws (internal––bound to make you free) has been made into an external law. This is in conflict with Milton’s concept of the Bible. Christ here appears more intolerant, bigoted & stupid than Moses. It has been said that Milton wrote on divorce trying to rationalize it from the point of view that he wanted a divorce––this is utter bunk. He would have had to write on divorce anyway, regardless of domestic problems. Milton says law in the Old Testament remains law on its own level–– external, social, i.e., law of bondage & servitude, which is desired by all men who do not wish to be truly free. Consequently, such a law remains in society because such a vast majority require external law rather than internal discipline. What applies to murder & rape applies also to marriage & divorce. Marriage in the social sense is a civil contract. (In the Catholic Church marriage is a sacramental union; therefore, indissoluble. But in the Protestant Church only two sacraments left––hence marriage no longer a sacrament but a civil contract blessed by the Church.) In Cromwell’s reign, law passed that all marriages must take place before the Justice of the Peace. According to Milton, two concepts of marriage: (1) Social––a contract––idea of companionship, rearing of kids, etc. (2) Union of two souls into one––one of the attributes of a perfect life. When Jesus speaks of marriage he speaks of the latter “gospel” type. Every time a ceremony is performed, it does not mean that two souls have been united, merely the social side of the contract is fulfilled. No person, Justice of the Peace, or external law can decide whether such a contract is indissoluble or not. Milton says that if a man divorces his wife he is not breaking the union that Jesus said was insoluble; he is only breaking the social contract. They were never really married in the gospel sense. Divorce should therefore be permitted for those who do not have the right partners. It is Milton’s respect for marriage in the gospel sense that gives him the outlook on divorce.

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[12] Milton attacks a certain application of censorship––censorship before publication. Parliamentarily there was no legal basis for censorship until Parliament’s triumph, when it was made legal. The method of licensing was to give all printing to the twenty printing houses in London. This gave them the right to break into houses and find presses. But it is virtually impossible to stop the flow of small pamphlets. Areopagus––court of judges in Athens, elected. To this court the great Athenian orators, such as Isocrates, often gave addresses (Logos Areopagitikos––a speech to the assembly) The larger application of the Areopagitica is that in this revolution they are trying somehow to form the kingdom of God on earth. All through this runs the theory that Britain is the second Israel. England is leading the way in striking down power, superstition, idolatry. England has consistently been the pioneer in the fight for Christian liberty. In writing on censorship, Milton is not thinking of pornographia. He is thinking that the things that will be suppressed are political & religious Jews. He says that the idea of censorship rose out of the Council of Trent and the Counter Reformation. He says that this is quite in keeping with the Catholics, but not in keeping with Protestant liberty. The censor is going to be always the voice of society. He will speak the voice of the majority, & the majority represents inertia, authority. They don’t want liberty. The crucial distinction for Milton is that the censor will not be able to tell what is above the norm & what below. [13] Areopagitica Paradise of freedom––unfallen world––Gospel––Tree of Life. Wilderness of nature––fallen world––Law––Tree of Knowledge (good and evil) God will feel that this world is not the world he made. This is the fault of man, & God tries to give us back the good world. Man attempts to rescue a moral good from his fall. The characteristic of moral good is that it assumes the supremacy of evil. Good is what he rescues from it by contrast. Man knows good only through his knowledge of evil. We cannot handle pure good or pure liberty in this world. There has never been a mass desire for liberty or peace that has stuck. Therefore, moral good since the fall has been inseparably a part of evil. In the Areopagitica Milton is attacking the view that you can get to be good by separating moral good from moral evil. Milton says you cannot run away from evil; you bring good or evil with you, inside you. “To the pure, all things are pure” [par. 20]. The idea that good is something that retreats from evil is abolished. “I cannot praise a good, cloistered away

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from experience.”51 Evil is already there in people. You cannot get rid of it. Moral good & evil are inseparably bound up. The only distinctions made are those which society poses as a matter of convenience. (Murder is wrong, war can be right, etc.) Thus, no one can ever be saved by the law. There is no such thing as a morally good act––it is a mixture of interpenetrating good & evil. This moral goodness is achieved in negation––it is a series of don’ts––don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance, etc. etc. The end man gives for himself is death. It is the only logical end for the negation of activity. If we find any good in Christ, it must be extremely different from moral good. He was an explosion of energy which works in this life. This is real good. It is generally consistent with a moral pattern of behaviour. The good & liberty transcend man’s nature, but in the Civil War we have a great explosion in the desire for liberty. This is in a sense an offering to God. Man cannot gain his own liberty––all he can do is clear away idols, clear the way, & then let the Word of God circulate. Now this licensing of books is a movement back to law––like Pharisees. Milton says that we must permit bad books to circulate in order that the words of the prophets may circulate. We are less likely to destroy bad books than the prophets––we are more likely to approve the law-breaker to him who transcends the law. Toleration follows as a necessary principle from this two-level way of thinking. Man must always doubt his own action for fear he has misinterpreted God, for a finite mind can never exhaust the revelation of an infinite mind. Whenever we say that the revelation consists in such & such, we have stopped worshipping God & begun an adoration of our own faculty of mind for understanding. This is heretical. We can never be sure that anyone is totally wrong, so we must admit tolerance. All certainties are boomerangs, for we are putting a period to the revelation. The only certainty is that God’s revelation is a great source of growth. We can never be sure if some new absurdity will arise as another growth from the Gospel. There must always be a doubt of one’s own capacity for understanding. [14] The sharp distinction between the Church & the world is in Milton blurred, much more difficult to find. No longer an autonomous institution with Word of God at the centre. For the Bible is outside the Church–– outside & above. A prophet can be literally outside the Church. Authority is spiritual & can come from outside the Church. The real Church is the total body of religious opinion & worship in society. Where there is a sin-

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cere desire to listen to the Word of God, there can be no heresy. The Church cannot define heresy. The real heresy is to believe what you have been told to believe without trying to understand your own belief. The only heresy in the Bible is in not trying to believe & understand. All quiet acceptance is hypocrisy, which Jesus condemns. Trying to get general acceptance in all society for a certain doctrine is actually worship of self–– trying to get everyone to come around to your viewpoint. Such a man is Antichrist, for he feels all others are heretics. With the second Civil War & the execution of Charles I, Milton found himself a politically important figure, for he was one of the few intellectuals on the Cromwellian side. In the Old Testament the Jews are in constant rebellion against their lawful rulers, right from Pharaoh on. This seems to be one of the chief characteristics of the people of God. But in the New Testament we/ hear no word of rebellion against Rome. Everything there counsels submission to temporal authority. So Milton tried to overcome this problem––to reconcile this with his concept of New Testament thought. There is no hierarchy in the Christian Church. All is equal. While society is triangular, the City of God is always a square. When Caesar demanded that which is due to God (i.e., worship), this is where the Christians refused. Caesar hence has somehow or other to come to terms with this society. He must give up his claim to divine worship. Is Caesar going to get along on these terms? If not, he must be removed. And this must be effected only by a revolution of the people of god, for this is the only kind which has any hope of success. Milton has no theoretical view of an ideal society. He therefore has no objection to monarchy as such. There is no pattern of state government laid down by God, so although he joined the Regicides he continued to write panegyrics praising the rule of the Queen of Sweden. What he objected to was the use of the monarchy as a hideout for idolatry. The obedience of the New Testament never talks about compromise with the principles of their religion. Milton’s social contract comes closer to Locke. If the king breaks the contract & becomes a tyrant the people have the right to remove him. Milton is still a little leery of Locke’s contract theory; he talks rather of the contract between God and God’s people. Caesar must in some way fit into this contract. (The tyrant is a projection of innumerable acts of self-worship. A sort of Narcissus of the people. The tyrant is the mirror of the populace.) Cromwell’s dictatorship is excused by Milton as a Judge (from the Book of Judges)––a strong military leader to aid God’s people in their first bid for liberty. But Milton accepts Cromwell with ill grace & never forgets his role as a prophet. He

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tells Cromwell & Parliament that the enslaver is actually the first to be enslaved. In such a society of master & slave no one is free. Milton seeks constantly to drive a wedge between spiritual & temporal authority. Spiritual authority rests with the people of God. [15] In Paradise Lost––three levels of existence: (1) heaven––order, which makes the characteristic act of God creation, making order out of chaos. (2) earth––disorder (3) hell––perverted order––everything there is a perverted counterpart of heaven. In heaven God is king––king as unity; but those who serve God do so [sic]. Satan’s freedom lies in his being attached to the body of god; once he is severed, he is no longer free. He is impelled to set up his own state, which is based on perfect slavery. Man on earth is torn between these two states––human societies are constructed on the demonic model. The words that we apply to God have a demonic sense (e.g., “God is a king”––but the determined king as dictator, arbitrary ruler––never was there an earthly king whose passion it was to set all his people free). Milton has to meet the notion of the divine right of kings. In his civil liberty pamphlets, his opponents were in a panic, & Milton had to handle the most fatuous & silly arguments. There is a strong tone of irritability in Milton, & his hatred of a popular democracy is influenced by this & the fluid times. Talks of “golden yoke”––people like children fascinated by it. The people want Charles because he is bright & attractive superficially. They want their idol back. Although Cromwell dies in 1658, the Rump Parliament was the legal power, but the real power was the army. Army tried to carry on the succession by electing Richard Cromwell, but he resigned, so the army led by General Monk called on the king. Milton advises that the Rump Parliament reassert its power, & its rule of longevity. Milton suggests a general council or senate. Did not like elections–– chaotic. Also a local magistracy––the counties should be as autonomous as possible. The English people had a desire to end the irksomeness of tyranny, but no great desire to enter the heritage of freedom. In Christianity there should only be spiritual authority, no physical force. A heretic should be corrected by the authority of truth against error, & that authority is powerful enough. Milton asserts a Protestant position in total opposition to Catholicism. Pope has temporal authority. Milton felt that evils in Christendom arise from temporal authority within the Church. Milton’s principle is the complete separation of spiritual & temporal authority. The real bishop is one of

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only spiritual authority. He must play only an apostolic role. Milton does not appear to be any more against bishops theoretically than against monarchy theoretically. His Of Education theme runs through his Commonwealth. He feels the only way to set people free is through education. individual heaven

earth hell social

The higher type of society can be achieved only by the individual himself. The free individual has set up an absolute dictatorship in himself. We find this in Plato with the man of strong will who lets reason rule absolutely. This dictatorship cannot be applied to society, or a terrible tyranny would result. This is why education has such a vital role, & this is why the Republic is an educational & not a sociological treatise (See end of Book IX). [16] Milton’s Of Education serves to put him in line with all Renaissance humanism––a new conception of education. In every good theory of education you have a whole body of theory that people ought to know. Cyclic, or encyclopedic education. In Renaissance humanism it was believed that the ancients had written authoritatively on every important subject. This idea of education was geared to the workings of society. Prince educated first, etc. on down. Milton felt that the classics were authoritative, but the keystone lay in Scriptural revelation. In Scripture you find what Plato & Aristotle, etc. were driving at. In all proper education Milton feels that you cannot sever too much the education of the mind from that of the body. (Platonic). He feels it important that boys be educated both in peace & in war. His concept of education had an end in public service.—potential magistrates. He believed in an intellectual balance & proportion––not so much how much you read, but the balance in your writing. Milton stuffs his list of reading material

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with authors who wrote in the subject he mentioned but whose works had been lost. Milton is just trying to appear impressive. Milton has the same beef against present-day education as had Bacon. The medieval process of knowledge was from large deductive intellectual propositions to the particular, ending where it ought to begin. Milton feels the process ought to be reversed & go from particulars (sensations) to universals (intellectual) following the contour of the young mind’s growth. N.B. Importance of training students in practical techniques. His potential young magistrates are to know how their country is run, the economic workings. The real trouble with Milton’s curriculum is that it is typical of people who construct one after their own education has been finished. He unconsciously eliminates the organic difficulties in learning, distinguishing a rhythm that overlies education & growth as a whole. He assumes “grammar” is Latin grammar. “They should have learned by this time at odd hours the Italian tongue”––unconsciously.52 He forgets the difficulties of the learning process. A great merit of his theme is that he is short on theory, long on the practice of it. (Unlike today with a lot of half-baked psychology in education. Education today is a pseudo-subject.) The Renaissance did not have a theory of education. They were practical. All through, Milton was aware of the insufficiencies of the kind of mental training that is not absorbed into personality. He does not make the mistake of saying that books do not tell us about life. Concrete for him not only precedes the abstract, it is also the coping stone for the abstract. The highest reaches of literary training are poetic rather than philosophical, for poetry is more concrete than philosophy. Poetry, as compared with philosophy is more “simple,” sensuous,* & passionate: Milton’s closest definition of poetry * sensuous––derived from sense experience. Milton himself coined the word to get away from “sensual,” which had moral implications. This is the second time it is used.53 [17] Paradise Lost Opening speech of Satan in Book IV was written about 1640 for a proposed tragedy. Milton’s political fortune from 1640 to 1660 made him turn this theme of the loss of liberty from a tragedy to a diffuse epic––a notable form. In his proposal to do Prince Arthur, Milton would only be copying Spenser, & he didn’t want to do that.

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All the heroic epics up to then were classical––brave men. So writing an English Christian epic was difficult. In the Renaissance attempts to write a Christian epic were often made simply by substituting a Christian hero for a classical one (e.g., Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered––about the First Crusade. The worldly counterpart of the battle of light and darkness– –the new Jerusalem). But what is a hero? What is the significance of such a hero as Achilles as a Christian hero. You can perhaps baptize him a bit. Milton was thoroughly sick of the traditional hero; in Christian terms the real hero is one who endures suffering, misunderstanding, etc. to bear witness to his God. This is evident in the Gospels What is an act? How can the chopping of other people’s skulls be an act? An act must be a conscious & directed action. Constructive and purposeful. Battles and wars are not. They are only a manifestation of energy. Three levels in Paradise Lost: (1) divine––order––Act of Creation (redemption). When this first world is spoiled, it must be recreated or redeemed (2) human––chaos––Act of Disobedience. Adam’s chance of keeping his freedom to act or throwing it away. He throws it away (3) demonic––perverted order––Act of Rebellion. An attempt to rival God. Still negative but has more of an appearance of activity about it. This last is a paradox to many of Milton’s great poems. By jumping over a cliff you lose your power of action. By staying where you are you retain your power to act. The Lady in Comus by remaining still at the centre of the action preserves her power to act. Christ in Paradise Regained preserves his power by remaining motionless at the devil’s temptations. In Paradise Lost Christ is the hero by default. He drives the devil out of heaven, creates the țȩıȝȠȢ [cosmos, order], confronts the devil. Reincarnation foretold in Book III. Abdiel––the faithful angel (Book VI)––sets the pattern of heroic action in human life. Christ’s man will find himself in a fallen society. As a result he will become prophetic & be reviled by those around him. This is the true prototype of the human Christian hero. What then becomes of the traditional theme of heroism? This is transferred to Satan, who becomes a mock-heroic character. Satan is much like the brooding, ferocious Achilles. Studies revenge, hate. As Satan develops in the poem he gradually takes on the form of the dragon of the romance whom the knight was to go out & kill. The drama rests on the attempt at rivalry with God. Satan takes on the idea that God is only a god. He thus becomes a fatalist, for the God between them becomes Luck or Chance.

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Satan is the leader of the Achilles type. He is a dictator. He takes the qualities of God and applies them to the demonic world. Everything in hell is a perversion, mockery, or parody of heaven. Everything in hell has its counterpart in heaven. The figure of Nimrod is the setting up in society as a demonic act. Nimrod is the builder of the Tower of Babel. This is the essence of a rebellious act against God. There is in most works of fiction a complete action & the mode of telling. Most writers begin at an interesting point & stop when you get all you need. There is some conception of a total action, but no attempt in a good story to recount the whole action. It was traditional in the epic to begin in the middle of the action with the total action well advanced. In most stories we get a feeling of the total action as cyclic in nature (notably in the Odyssey). The total action is from Ithaca back to Ithaca. But the Odyssey begins in the middle of the total action. When it begins Ulysses is at the farthest point from home. The story goes forward & backward, as Ulysses begins to return home, but also tells a story of how he got to where he is. The Iliad shows this too, except that it is less epic, more dramatic. Total action which is cyclic. And a narrative action beginning at the middle and working both forward and backward to the same point. In the Aeneid total action begins in Troy and ends in a new Troy. Aeneas’ action is more positive, creative––founds a city. His fighting is secondary. But the narrative action begins at the farthest point from his quest––at Carthage. Recital of story up to this point takes us back to Troy, & the story moves ahead to a new Troy. The narrative action of Paradise Lost begins with Satan already fallen & ready to attack the world. Action now back to beginning (speech of Raphael in Books VI, VII, VII) and forward to end (Michael’s speech in Books XI, XII)––forecasts the return of God to all, which was the starting point of the total action. The foreground story is in Books I–IV and IX. [18] Sense of tremendous ease, yet mighty power in verse. Therefore, readable. Choice of metre: Milton took great care to get every detail right, as we can see from the manuscript. You cannot jump in reading from chunk to chunk. He made many tiny corrections, which show how acute his ear was––“admiral” to “ammiral” [bk. 1, l. 294] as he did not want the “d” sound so he changed the spelling to fit its origin in the Arabic. “horrid” = bristling (about Satan’s army). You must know the power of Latin to understand Milton perfectly. [bk. 1, l. 392] “insinuating” = wriggling (about the snake) [bk. 4, l. 348] “cherub” is pronounced “kernjb” and is a gigantic angel54

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The English language has two sources of metre––native & imported. Iambic pentameter is imported. But the Old English four-beat line lies at the basis of most of Milton’s poetry. If you read the opening of Paradise Lost naturally you will note a four-beat rhythm, although there are ten syllables. This is to be found often in Shakespeare too. This is a part of Milton’s genius. Pope and Dryden have only iambic pentameter as the rhythmic beat as well as the formal beat––heavy & sonorous. Milton has the one beat influencing the other; this makes a twelve-book poem much more interesting. In Paradise Lost we have a sequence of verse-paragraph unity. Often this may begin in the middle of a line. A rhythm of prose runs across the other two. The function of the long word in English verse. Most of English alone is monosyllabic or derived from monosyllables. A monosyllabic word always demands an accent, however slight. It slows & heavies the rhythm. The long word lightens, brightens up the passage. Onomatopoeia––English is unusually rich in onomatopoeic words (words that sound like the action––“rumble,” “hiss,” etc. Also certain consonants or combination of consonants create certain effects. For example, in the scene of the serpent tempting Eve, lots of “s” sounds. Use of “w” gives feeling of fear, loneliness. Watch for noises made in heaven (strings, woodwinds) & hell (heavy sonorous brass). Read Milton like an orchestra score. Two heavy beats in centre of line. You get a sudden heavy somber sonority. Milton uses it rarely but with great effect. (Raphael warning Milton [Adam?] of the tree). “Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal skie” [bk. 1, l. 45]. The fall of Satan from heaven. Satan rattles & bumps all the way down. The use of proper names: A cheap way in a poor poet to get resonance. Milton uses them rather to sum up a background atmosphere; he doesn’t need the former. Milton brings up names of heathen gods––dark gods, oracles, vague, shadowy, elusive names. Satan associated with this. Milton also surrounds Satan with names of chivalric romance & their associates in hell. This too is vague, half-forgotten, yet somehow ominous. It is difficult to picture a fallen angel––in Dante the devils are evil & repulsive but not awe-inspiring. They are gargoyles, grinning monkeys. But Milton brings in the concept of awe, attractiveness to evil. Adam must fall to something attractive, not repulsive. Adam was to fall to something splendid, powerful, for that was what Satan was––the awful majesty of evil.

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The particular kind of detachment Milton preserves Shakespeare does not seem able to accomplish. For example, in Macbeth, you often say “poor Macbeth,” but never in Paradise Lost do you say “poor Satan.” [19] Atmosphere of first book is one of mysterious darkness with a few sinister lights. Very well done. Threshold symbol at opening of Paradise Lost––action fairly well advanced, angels have already sunk into next world (like Alice in Wonderland). A gloom here of depression and sadness, loneliness, isolation, terror; also a somber beauty. The sea with its great mysterious monster is symbolic in the Bible of the underlying, mysterious, demonic power. Feeling, first of all, of unmitigated blackness, but as angels rise, cloudy shadows group, until we get a segmented mass. A sudden burst of light as Satan gives order & they draw their swords. Pandemonium is built and the book ends in a glitter. Book II––a logic or dialectic of evil that builds up as you go along. The government of hell is a parody of that of heaven. Satan is man’s idea of a leader––the commander or dictator. Cosmology of Paradise Lost: [here Evans reproduces a diagram that Frye put on the blackboard. A cubic, four-square box at the top, representing “Heaven (Empyrean).” An arrow pointing from this to a semicircle of “Hell” at the bottom. In between is a series of concentric circles, labeled “The World, the entire țȩıȝȠȢ [cosmos, order] (created after Satan fell).” On each side of the circles is “Chaos.” The concentric circles represent the orbits of the planets, the first of which is the moon, the others being “Mercury, Venus, Sun, etc.” To the right of this diagram Frye wrote on the board: “4 elements / 7 planets / fixed stars / crystalline sphere / primum mobile.” To the left of the diagram, with an arrow pointing to the centre of the circular diagram: “Heavy element, earth at centre (water lies on top of earth. Each element seeks its own sphere) (air lies above water)––Sphere of fire left out.”] Milton’s universe is finite. Milton had met Galileo in Florence, & certainly knew the real shape of the universe, but deliberately adopted the Ptolemaic system with man as the centre, for this was the only one of real poetic significance. The Copernican universe would not be suited to the subject matter. Milton puts heaven and hell outside the created universe; gives us the Ptolemaic system with man at centre, with Satan and God vying for him. But he gets also the Copernican feeling of loneliness.

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A baroque poem––light & shade, disproportion. Milton uses as much disproportion as Dante emphasizes proportion. Milton puts mystery into God’s ways. What may appear reasonable to us may not be God’s reason. Milton does not give too many details, but fits into the pattern of Genesis 1. N.B. Two meanings of heaven: (1) The Empyrean (2) The Firmament, reaching from the Crystalline Sphere Beelzebub’s plan––attack not heaven but the new suburb that is being planned. They intend to frustrate God’s purpose. How does Satan get through to Paradise? There is only one break in the Primum Mobile & that is the entry through heaven. Satan has to go through chaos to this entry. He has two dangerous spots (on the border of hell & chaos as he passed the sun). He fools Uriel by hypocrisy for an angel cannot understand hypocrisy. [in left margin a small diagram showing Satan’s journey from Hell to the point where he is in the cosmos at the end of Book II] Guardians of hell his wife & daughter (Sin) by whom he had in incest a son & grandson (Death). A sort of unholy Trinity, or else unholy family (perversion of Holy Spirit, Mary & Jesus). Book I––Satan, great Promethean rebel Book II––Prompts Beelzebub to suggest his plan, & then volunteers to do the job. He is brave but expedient. He volunteers just a little too quickly, and we see the use of expedience. Gets past Sin & Death by dissembling, gets past Uriel by hypocrisy as a Cherub, & then takes on more & more distasteful manifestations, wolf, etc. down to snake on earth. Snake just fits him. The great Promethean rebel becomes less & less great. In Book IV he wants to take all the angels on at once but by Book IX he rejoices in having caused Eve alone. Courage is now superfluous; evil looks for expediency. A subtle but inexorable change in Satan’s character. Satan once cut off (as a hand) from God, loses his vitality, is alone, lonely, self-enclosed ego. Pride––centre of reality in yourself & nowhere else. Satan is the undying ego––the eternal “I” Form of pride in Spenser––Dungeon of Pride (isolation) & Palace of pride (ostentation) [20] In Book V Milton works out the dialectic of evil in the speeches from Moloch (sinister “king”––the idol who demands sacrifice of children) &

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Beelzebub. Moloch wants to continue direct war against heaven; hence is evil as the active opposite of good Belial (an abstract noun meaning worthlessness)––draws his arguments from the chain of being (the ladder of form or matter––God is form without matter. Chaos, matter without form). In the spiritual revolt the spirits have unnaturally fallen below chaos, so what they should do is sit tight & they will automatically rise like bubbles to their proper place. Belial is evil as negation. Christianity had to drive a middle course between two extremes: (1) Manichenism, which is a duality––evil is a power equal to & coeternal with good. Satan is a Manichean. (2) Pantheistic view (Plotinus) that there is no evil––it is only a negation. Christianity is in another paradox: morally, evil has an active role; metaphysically & philosophically it is that which is not, the hindrance or privation of good. Mammon, then, gives us something closer to Milton’s treatment of good. Mammon is evil as the parody of good. Man is in the middle, drawn both ways, & both appear attractive. Man is drawn spiritually to God & naturally through the physical world to the devil. Mammon sets forth a doctrine of isolation. Beelzebub––Since evil is perverted good, it cannot create but only destroy. Since God cannot rest until he has made man, Satan cannot rest until he has destroyed God’s creation. Therefore, Beelzebub is evil as the temptation of Good. Sin and Death are the personification of the Manichean & Pantheist views. Sin is evil as active, yet the heart of sin is utter negation, i.e., death. The role of death is different in man than in the devil. Satan cannot die because the devils cannot make the act of surrender––they go on in a living death. They cannot let go of their lives since they are pure lust & pride, ego. Even at their worst, they greatly fear annihilation. In Satan’s journey through Chaos, Milton remains deliberately vague. He tries to suggest a world in which there is neither life nor death. In his doctrine of creation, Christianity had to steer a middle course again. If god made the world out of matter which preceded creation, then matter would be co-eternal with God. This is impossible for Christianity. The orthodox doctrine is of God making the world ex nihilo, but this is still out of something else. God did not make the world out of anything. Ex nihilo leads to the pantheistic view that God made the world out of God. Milton’s solution is that God made the world de Deo, i.e., from God. Then, what is the role of matter in Milton’s thought? He conceives chaos negatively––it is that part of the world into which God naturally chooses not to extend Himself. The chain of being is a part of backing-up process as God retracts

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from his creation, leaving the being he has created, but which is no longer identical with Himself. God is seen differently at different stages. God wanted man to be free to choose. His higher creations with a spiritual existence do not have a power of choice. God, Spirits, Men: free will. Animals, Plants, Minerals, Chaos: existence. The workings of God’s mind appear differently at different levels. Angels have direct vision of the mind of God. Man looks up at the creation, so when he conceives of eternal will or purpose, he conceives of it as fate or fortune. Animals or plants fulfill the law of their being in a way half between automatism & choice––instinct. In the mineral world, automatism. In chaos things are all mixed up––things happen by luck or chance. See Milton’s journey through chaos––lucky bounce gets him to earth, but it’s still God’s will acting through matter that gets him there. [21] Dec. 17 Raphael’s views on astronomy not necessarily those of Milton. Must be read in character. Adam has to resist idolatry––created rather than creation. The speech of Michael balances Raphael’s speech. Michael’s parable is a prophecy; Raphael’s, a warning. Book XII is not a poetic success. Transmits Old Testament history. Milton does not feel himself as creator but as transmitter. Rather perfunctory & pedantic at times. {Recounting of some incidents in Old Testament interpretation.} Paradise Lost––Nature of Christian hero. In demonic society the military leader is a sign of Satanic heroism. The traditional hero (Ulysses, Achilles) is Satan. The Christian hero in the fallen world is Abdiel. His life must be lived in opposition to this world’s demonic society Model––Incarnation––life and death of Christ. Political moral––seen in Milton’s concept of liberty. How does man lose liberty & why does he fail in his attempts to restore it? Both questions answered here. Liberty –– Hesitation –– Bondage ––

Divine –– Human –– Demonic ––

Creation Disobedience Rebellion

–– –– ––

Reason Will Passion

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Milton associates liberty & reason. Adam––“Reason is but choosing.”55 Man had this freedom & should have chosen choice, but he didn’t & so has lost this freedom. The person who really wants to do as he pleases follows reason. Michael explains the loss of liberty on Adam’s terms in Book XII. The tyrant is the source of authority, the projection of human inertia, love of bondage, passion. Reason for Milton is not a logical process, but the power of choice. [22] Dec. 18 In Milton’s conception of the Bible there are three stages of the vision of God which fallen man gets: (1) Moses. Vision of the law––Israel as chosen people––allegory. After the flood, comes Nimrod, who sets up a demonic pattern. A crisis arises & God decides to choose one people, to whom he gives the law so that they may rescue moral good through their knowledge in this world of evil. Knowledge of moral good in this world is secondary, derived from the knowledge of evil. The law in this world is absolutely powerless. No law makes anyone better. “Law can discover sin, but not remove” [bk. 12, l. 290]. The law consequently is a kind of allegory of a redeeming power. (2) Jesus. Vision of the Gospel––Israel as God’s people––revelation Brings a new conception of Israel. Jesus’ coming cancels out most of what Michael says, for what Michael says is interpreted & seen through the law (3) Second Coming of Christ. Vision of apocalypse––Israel is one with God––eternal life. Here we have man’s unfallen state again. The city & the garden––the tree of life & the water of life (the four-fold stream of Eden) return. In reading Paradise Lost we can hardly help but feel that Adam and Eve are a pair of naughty children who outgrew Eden. We feel that it is almost necessary that they should fall as a natural part of their growth. Milton tries to offset this idea in the poem, as it runs against the doctrine he is trying to put across. What we get back in the apocalypse is a state of existence & a state of mind, not the physical Garden of Eden. In Book X the Garden of Eden is washed out of the world by the flood; to teach, says Michael, that God knows no sanctity of place. An attack against idolatry. The new order will not be a garden, but something springing up in the mind.

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The sexual act at the end of Book IX shows supreme irony. The two are not together; their minds are apart; they are essentially alone and lonely. But in Book X we see them going out of the garden hand in hand & this is symbolic that the seed of man has already been planted. A new society has sprung up between them. An impressive tribute here to marriage. Adam & Eve are not two solitudes but one. They are now knit together as they never have been knit before The argument shows how the demonic takes more & more of this life. The gradual overthrow of the people of god & their absorption––Jerusalem in captivity, the Apocryphal Civil Wars, Christ born in obscurity. Then the Incarnation. Following this the world moves in & takes over the Church. So no matter where the true follower of Christ is, he is isolated. The rhythms of the whole of Paradise Lost are ranged around the poles of creation & destruction. Book XI––The recession of the flood is a superb piece of writing City of God (New Jerusalem) & Garden of Eden. Earthly City (A rhythm here) [Here Evans reproduces Frye’s blackboard diagram of an undulating, snake-like series of U–shapes] City of Destruction (Sodom, Egypt, Babylon) & Wilderness, Desert, or Sea Captivity in Egypt in Exodus & the wilderness. Flood of Noah is one of the down dips (Genesis). All the people of life in a little box floating on the sea. Another dip is all of Israel under Rome. Little manger floating on a vast expanse of snow. Christ as the epic dragon-killing hero is the theme which lies in the background. “From the loins of Eve will spring a hero who will kill the serpent” [“Virgin Mother, Haile, / High in the love of Heav’n, yet from my Loynes / Thou shalt proceed, and from thy Womb the Son / Of God most High; So God with man unites. / Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise . . .” bk. 12, 379–83] & also Adam’s speech to Michael which retains the visual image of Christ fighting the dragon in a spiritual context. ––This leads to Paradise Regained & the conflict of Christ & Satan.

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[23] Paradise Regained Temptation in the life of Christ is almost the only place which is filled with suspense, drama. It is the one time he fulfills the role of the fighter, conqueror. The temptation of Christ is an action which is a passion. As with Comus the apparent situation is the exact opposite of the actual. Christ holds all the power & retains his freedom by his inaction. Satan gets all our sympathies. This part of the poem is a parody of the epic form. Satan has to form the dialect of evil, has to refine & subtilize his words; becomes more & more crafty. We get the idea that the external world is unreal, evil. In Paradise Regained he deals with temptation in much the same way he treats Eve’s temptation in Book IX of Paradise Lost, but with different results. The main thing to watch in this poem is the order of the temptations (he chooses the order found in Luke rather than in Matthew). In the Gospel the baptism, Christ’s first manifestation as the Son of God, immediately precedes his temptation. In heaven in Paradise Lost, after Christ’s first manifestation, he has to fight the great battle. Events in Christ’s life correspond to certain actions in the Old Testament. Christ is taken into Egypt by Joseph, as the Israelites once were. The slaughter of the innocents corresponds to the slaughter of Egypt’s first-born. Christ’s going into the wilderness corresponds to Israel’s wandering in the wilderness (forty days as compared to Israel’s forty years). The choice of twelve disciples corresponds to the twelve tribes. Joshua’s name = Jesus’ name = Saviour, Redeemer. Moses is not to enter the promised land because he represents the law. Jesus is given his peculiar name because he is like Joshua to lead an attack on the promised land. The temptation presents Jesus in a phase of complete withdrawal from the world. Flesh, world, devil seem all equally evil. To pass this temptation he must spiritually withdraw himself from the world; a wholly dissimilar spirit from the world. Jesus’ life proves that man hates God––absolute opposition of token enmity. Through all this time man is under God’s wrath––the objective regarding of absolute evil by absolute good. In Paradise Regained the son of God enter the state where he is under the wrath of God. Satan tries to make him accept the heritage of the people since Adam. Christ appears in an unfriendly light; he is here unattractive, but his abnegation of this world is necessary before redemption can proceed. The point at which you lose sympathy with Jesus is the point where you yourself would give in. Christ rejects all of forbidden knowledge–– moral good as well as moral evil. There is a chilliness, iciness about the Christ character. We almost feel he is bored. A kind of aimless skirmish-

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ing in some of the opening scenes. This corresponds to the aimless wanderings of the people in the wilderness. Christ refuses to accept bread of the devil in contrast to the Jews acceptance of manna. Christ refuses to fall into the rhythm of the Jewish law. “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead; but I am the bread of life” [John 6:49; and a paraphrase of vss. 50–1]. Satan knows he cannot make Christ do something foreign to his nature; all he can hope to do is to make him the Anti-Christ– –to make Christ seize the outward, physical types (shadows) of his inner spiritual realities; therefore, by rejecting the temptation Christ gets the real spiritual form of all the devil offers him in its perverted physical form. Thus, Satan offers Christ kingship (a substantial job, with a real gold crown––kingship as it is understood by fallen man). Christ knows this is the shadow of spiritual kingship. In rejecting this he truly becomes king. He rejects human wisdom, philosophy, the knowledge of the fallen human mind. I doing this he becomes wisdom itself––ȜȩȖȠȢ [logos]––the Word of God. Christ rejects the illusion of Christ, which is man’s concept of him: this would be the Anti-Christ But Satan does not accept Belial’s suggestion that he be tempted with woman. Christ takes his mission too seriously for that. If he can be persuaded to take his Messiahship literally, physically this is Satan’s only chance. Christ is for one instant in his life paradoxical. Rather than the essentially active love, he for an instant holds this power forcibly within himself while he does a job no one else can do. This is how all the paradoxical symbolism can be worked out. In Christ’s wandering forty days in the wilderness, he imitates Moses’ forty years & Elisha’s forty days. Satan’s use of banquet to tempt Christ is a difficult point in Paradise Regained. It is the strategy, perhaps, of temptation to be beaten once. He knows Jesus is very hungry, & willing to take the opening gambit. After giving Jesus the temptation of stones as bread, & weakening Jesus in that fight, he immediately wheels around & gives him a real barrage of food. Giving Christ stones as bread is appealing to Christ as Jew; the banquet corresponds to Peter’s many meats [Acts 10:11–13], which Milton refers to in Areopagitica;56 it is more specifically Christian––the abnegation of old Jewish law. [24] The devil attempts to reduce Christ by appealing to him to take time by its ears. Anticipate God’s time for doing things by becoming a ruler immediately. A particularly subtle temptation. Satan wants to reverse the balance of power––ally Palestine with the Parthians to knock off the Ro-

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mans. The temptation of Rome is an even more subtle one than the temptation of Parthia. The tempter talks of Glory, i.e., the physical illusion of a glory. Christ keeps his eyes fixed on the spiritual reality & is not fooled. But in the temptation of Rome Satan works in the concept of justice, a good emperor. Wants Christ to become a world ruler, the same role that Julian the Apostate later took. Satan could give all fallen knowledge. Julian has been called by Cardinal Newman the Anti-Christ,57 and we see the subtlety of the temptation here. This time Satan has fallen for moral good on his side; & Christ’s rejection makes us lose some of our sympathy for him. Book IV. The next phase is subtler yet, for Satan sees his mistake. He presents Christ with the pagan wisdom of Plato & Aristotle. Again, Satan has moral good on his side & Christ in refusing will lose even more of our sympathy. This is the temptation of Athens. Christ is in the Hebrew tradition, which has to do with revelation. It is not reasonable & discursive. The revelation of God as the deliverer of man has power behind it. The Greek conception of God as First Cause, does not give God this power and attractiveness as deliverer. The temptation of Christ is more or less “innocent.” If he had fallen for this, he would conceivably had led a sinless life; although he would have never saved the world. After that temptation Christ spends the night in the middle of a storm raised by the devil––evil omens, dreams. Shows the devil’s temptations to be physical as well as spiritual. This storm shows Satan’s own power since his conquest of Adam. The power of waste land, sea, meteors, etc.—the upsetting of nature’s balance. The demonic in human affairs. Christ is shown through this storm that if he insists on waiting for God’s time, he will have the whole order of nature against him. The end of the devil’s assault on Christ is to place him on the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem––asks him to jump, telling Christ that it says in Scripture that the angels will be given charge over him. A remembrance that when man climbs to his pinnacle, he is smitten with a kind of dizziness, hubris. Man’s life in tragedy & in the medieval conception is a parabola. The devil feels that perhaps Christ may be dizzy, having had all these temptations thrown at him. The devil hopes perhaps some of the illusion of glory has slipped past the guard of his consciousness. If so, he will certainly be dizzy. The temptation to fall is a subtle one––a fascination to throw ourselves over. All a heritage of fallen man––a “death wish” about which psychologists tell us. But Christ has no desire for death, either now or in the time of

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the Crucifixion. He doesn’t go to his death with a will to die. He has protested strongly to God in the garden. He has no narcotic wish for martyrdom. In falling Christ would be trusting to luck, i.e., Satan. Hence he would have fallen into the arms of Satan. A new centre of gravity would be established in the world. Christ’s standing on the temple shows the subordination of the old law to the new liberty. The devil knows Christ is to be the Messiah. He does not know that Christ was his conqueror (Book VI, Paradise Lost). The final evidence of that fact is given on the pinnacle of the temple. Here he finally realizes Christ to be that figure, & the devil’s defeat is complete. It is he that falls. [25] Christian hero––a sufferer, patient. His heroism shown through suffering, obedience. The defeat of the dragon in Paradise Regained has no physical heroics about it. It has been just a quiet walk in which he changed the history of the world. Isolation––he went out alone to do it. Milton always uses decorum––the proper speech for the proper person. Clowns & satire usually use the low style (Tetrachordon). High style is for leaders in Paradise Lost. But in Paradise Regained the middle style is used––a quiet, natural, speaking style, & we get it in its perfection of tone. A sort of string quartet rather than a full orchestra. Direct positive style–– immediate rather than obscure references to the Bible. Talk of wood-gods & wood-nymphs in Comus would have been worked into the verse, but here they are not. The style remains flat. Milton’s conception of originality was to go back to the origins of literature––to steal as much as possible from the Bible. His originality does not consist in what he adds to the theme, but in how well he can hand on to the reader the great story of the temptation in Paradise Regained. He plays down his own role of creative poet in order to be a transmitter. (Nietzsche) The great tradition in literature is to copy as much as possible what is great. Try to tell the same story again & tell it better. Samson Agonistes (Samson the Wrestler or Struggler) Samson in Hebrew tradition had tremendous physical strength; at one time he was considered a sun god. The story, derived partly from Mesopotamia, is a primitive one; much more so than the others in Judges. Samson Agonistes is an essay on drama which turns its back on the current theatre (Restoration tragedy and drama). Hence, Milton says that Samson Agonistes was not meant for the stage. But his dramas are not closet dramas; it

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is a real play. It was written in the Greek form based on an Old Testament story, which was unique at this time. As essay in the Greek classical form– –a religious ritual, surrounding a god. Milton is a poet of the ĮȖȫȞ [agon], the struggle––we can see this is also the case in Paradise Regained. In the original Greek the hero struggles & wins but dies; then he comes to life later. In Samson Agonistes the form is followed––he struggles against temptations; then there is the pathos when he dies in victory; finally, the lost memory & glorification of deeds is made immortal. The last line of the play shows a preoccupation with Aristotle’s țȐșĮȡıȘ [katharsis]. Emotions of pity & fear are emotions directed towards & away from the characters. Tragedy must pass beyond these emotions. (In Othello Desdemona deflects our pity; Iago our fear, & we have mixed feelings about him. The tragedy in no way depends on the moral worth of the hero.) Tragedy itself must not be associated with pity or fear; it just happens. This carries over to Samson––he is neither a good man nor a bad man. The full meaning of any Old Testament story for Milton is derived from the New. Hence Milton finds the significance of Samson in the life of Christ. Christian meanings are to be discovered here. Samson goes through the same type of process as the Messiah. Manoah, Dalila, & Harapha represent Samson’s fight for liberty & roughly correspond to religious, domestic, and civil liberty. There are many analogies between Samson & Milton: both blind giants under the power of the Philistines. Samson tried to free the Israelites before, but had been defeated because his countrymen deserted him (like Milton). In Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained the action is foregrounded. They are all puppets. The only one who really acts is Christ & he is the expression of God’s will. There is only one point of view of the action–– the will of the Father produces the whole show. In Samson Agonistes we again have the conception that the real source of power is working behind the scenes. [26] Samson Agonistes In tragedy there is always a contest between the hero and some other force. It may be called God (as in Samson), or fate, etc. or undefined. But it is a force on the other side of the stage to the audience. It is unseen. The tragic hero can be set against the force & be broken, or set against it and finally become reconciled to it after the contest. Tragedies of passion & serenity.

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The Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of passion; he is broken. The Oedipus at Colonus is one of serenity. Oedipus dies, but is reconciled to it. Samson Agonistes is like Oedipus at Colonus. There is a real serenity at the end. First of all we find Samson as himself, as his own character––a situation comic to the Philistines, tragic to the Israelites––doing sport for the Philistines, but the bondage of the saviour of the Israelites. Then suddenly it is all reversed. The Israelites’ humiliation becomes their triumph. And the Philistines end in tragedy. The same situation occurs in the passion of Christ. Christ is the subject of mockery, a buffoon. Then suddenly it turns into a triumph for Christ & his followers. For Samson we have a turning point with a very involved double meaning. Use of messenger. Greek tragic touch. When he says he won’t go entertain the Philistines, he comes to the end of his own will. Then suddenly he changes his mind––quite suddenly without apology. Here another force has taken over Samson’s will. The turning point is inscrutable, but we know that Samson is the sole mediator between the audience and that force on the other side of the stage. In most tragedies the hero is not usually the legitimate hereditary ruler (ȕĮıȚȜȚȐȢ) but rather a chosen leader or a leader whose position is insecure (IJȪȡĮȞȞȠȢ [tyrannos, tyrant]). Samson is surrounded by a world of mocking voices. People stare at him uncomprehendingly, & he is unable to stare back. Almost total condemnation of him by those he loves. Naked & elemental human relationship between Samson & Dalila. After this scene we have the stock comic miles gloriosus [braggart-soldier] scene. Parts a bit wooden, but most of the versification is wonderful in English. Radical & flexible free verse, which is truly great. The ȤȠȡȩȢ [chorus] passages are wonderfully free & yet hold together by a rhythm we cannot quite see. Greek tragedy was still partly a religious ceremony & corresponds perhaps to the Christian Eucharist. The tragic hero usually dies and hence a sacrifice. Sort of a half-human, half-divine body of the hero (like Christ in the Mass). Tragedy is impersonal. Not a thought of morality. [27] [Paradise Lost] Three stages of Satan’s advance (1) Building the castle in hell (2) Opening the door into Chaos, making Hell and Chaos continuous (3) Making Adam & Eve fall, so that Chaos can flow into the țȩıȝȠȢ [cosmos] making all three continuous. When ȤȐȠȢ [Chaos] is made continuous with țȩıȝȠȢ the

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world swings 22 ½ degrees off the perpendicular, beasts of prey come on earth, etc. Book III. Praise of heaven’s great light at opening––contrast with Book I. God the father is now turned into a gramophone record announcing the Creed. Milton accepted the doctrine that the Father is unknowable except through the Son. Therefore, he makes a mistake in terms of his own theology in letting God speak here. He puts God’s argument concerning man’s place into the mouth of God. He knew man was going to fall but did not compel him to do so. Therefore, he is not responsible. Sets a baited mousetrap in front of Adam––a wide open fallacy which would never stand up in a court of law. God in his very creation of Adam creates him in the knowledge that he would fall. If a man has been framed by God, irresistibly compelled, then you chuck out the principle of divine providence & intelligence & substitute a sort of mechanical causation. Man’s fall is then the cause of God’s will. But the poem has man falling by his own will, and God’s taken up with the problem of redemption. So Milton separates God’s knowledge of man from God’s action on man, so that his will can express itself in redemption, not in making man fall. Accepting this principle in Paradise Lost every crisis seems to be followed inevitably by the next step, but every step is actually not inevitable; at each step there was a possibility of freedom. Therefore, through the chaos of the weak argument Milton is trying to show God’s great love for man––trying to make this love intelligible. Book III sets the stage for the reverse movement. Christ’s promise to step into the țȩıȝȠȢ [cosmos] & defeat Satan, driving him back. Ingenious parallel between heavenly council & Satan’s council (in Book II)–– hesitation before someone volunteers. Becomes from there a heroic conflict between Satan & Christ. Limbo of Vanities––Satan’s [position] on the primum mobile. This sick bit of humour degenerates into an attack on the Catholic Church––has no business here. But the Limbo of Vanities does mark the extent of the power of people who try to make their own salvation without regeneration. They try to achieve heaven alone & fall just short, as Satan does here. Satan gets past the angel by using hypocrisy. From here on Satan’s medium is sneaky––disguise. Not like a true heroic character. [28] The cosmology of the poem is part of its poetic shape. The chain of being is intrinsic in Milton’s poem. Each level has its primate, i.e., the most perfect form––e.g., rose, dolphin, lion, eagle, gold, man (as opposed

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to woman). The chain of being ranges from pure form to pure matter. Where in this chain does the material pass into the spiritual in man? The physiology in Milton’s time, besides the four humours, divides man into three groups of spirits or fluids which are on the border between material & spiritual. These were (1) Digestive spirits (2) vital (cordial) spirits–– bloodstream, emotion, heart (3) Animal spirits (animus = soul) = intellectual spirits. The conflict of Christ & Satan has for Milton not only a moral but a physical reality. Satan is the explosion of Chaos into the cosmos, the world of God’s creation. Book X is a partial triumph for Satan––the world become half-chaotic. In Book III as Satan ends his journey to the world, he takes the forms of the fallen world. Just as he must attack Paradise instead of heaven, Satan must attack Eve instead of Adam, for Eve is the link with the animal world. He tries dreams––Milton feels dreams represent desires, which are churned up from Eve’s inferior spirits. Literally, her lower self. Chaos enters her. She loses her balance and feels herself a self-enclosed creature. Pride enters. In her dream she wishes the one thing she is not to have, and from this gets a feeling of exaltation, flying, rising on the chain of being. The angel’s dropping in for lunch and talking for three books has a result that we do not realize how the dramatic results of Book IX follow so swiftly on the opening lines of Book V. Eve already feels (1) Desire (2) Exaltation (3) Individual. For the first time in her life, at the opening of Book IX she wants to be in insulation, luxury. She is now defined as target for Satan’s attack. Satan disguises himself as a royal serpent, who until the fall slides around on his rear. Satan gives her flattery designed to appeal to her self-enclosed feeling; but he doesn’t actually want her conscious self to hear him. “Into her heart Satan’s words found their way” [“Into her heart too easie entrance won,” bk. 9, l. 734]. He slips past the guard of her consciousness into her subconscious. Eve stands agape, wondering how the serpent can talk. He says from eating of a certain tree. She doesn’t stop to think of what tree, so she is confronted with it in the physical sense before she realizes what she is doing. She now repeats all that Satan has been slipping into her subconscious. She eats, and the fallen world is now divided from the world of God & spirits. Woman is the wedge that splits this. Eve worships the tree– –this is (1) an act of idolatry (2) the consummation of a contract with the fallen world. She now is a temptress, a wedge, when she confronts Adam.

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She no longer wants to be seen; she feels a remoteness between heaven & earth; she resents the thought of being watched. She wants secrecy, self-enclosure. She is now in a state of pride, & everything she comes in contact with is subordinated to her; she desires to possess them. Hence, for the first time she feels jealousy. The fall of Adam is perfunctory. He falls in full consciousness, without the flutter & dither that was in the mind of Eve. Adam has the choice of sticking with his Creator or going over to the fairest of the created. The act is essentially one of chivalry. Adam does what we feel any other man would have done in his place. If we could not feel this, we would not be involved in the fall of Adam. It is essential to maintain this feeling. The original story from which the story of Adam & Eve is derived is the threat of the Gods by man. The Gods fear that Adam will reach for the tree of life after he eats of the forbidden tree. The Gods feel that Adam might become a God. In Milton we see something of this too. Adam must not eat of the tree of life for he must not live forever in the fallen world. Last part of Book IX is full of wonderful subtlety. Adam becomes the first natural man––they feel naked, try to cover themselves, hide. They are naked & resent being looked at. This sense of deep melancholy which surrounds the noble savage is found in Adam. Ironic [Byronic?] sense of isolation––being cast out from a society. Self-enclosed yet under a curse. The working out of a state of pride. Then comes the working of sexual lust. Milton is careful in handling sex relations. Before the fall, sex relations are a matter of love––Adam’s love for Eve. After the fall, it is lust––a man desires a woman. The desire for satisfaction of an urge––the feeling of possession of another’s body. [29] Books I–IV, IX–X––continuous action, well planned. Books V–VIII– –Raphael’s speech, where we go back to the chronological beginning. Adam is to be introduced by Raphael to Christ. To create is to create in time. The Son does not live in time; he is begotten from eternity. The Son was begotten from eternity, but when God makes Christ manifest for the first time––“This day I have begotten my son”––he says this.58 This is the first occasion of Christ’s being shown. Parallels which link the Christ in the speech of Raphael with the speech of Michael about Christ: Defeat of Satan Cleansing of temple Creation out of chaos Command of the sea to be still (command of chaos symbolized by the sea) Creation of Adam Incarnation Fall of Adam Temptation

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Two of the four gospels are nativity gospels, & they deal with time. Mark & John begin with the baptism––Christ’s first earthly manifestation (epiphany). This corresponds to his relation to the angels as described at the beginning of Raphael’s speech about him. (We have called epiphany the exhibition of Christ to the Magi, but such is not the case in the Eastern Church, which still calls epiphany the baptism.) Abdiel is the Christian hero for Milton––remaining faithful among the revolting angels, just as a Christian must in the fallen world. Satan makes the mistake of thinking Christ came later than the angels, rather than knowing him to be an eternal manifestation of God. God––time as eternal present (no distinction of time as past, present, future. Whole of time contained in the eternal presence) Angels––Time as energy of eternal life (sense of presence). Angels have day & night for enjoyment, alternation of moods: L’Allegro & Il Penseroso) Unfallen Man––“a little lower than the angels” [Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:7]––not temporary. More of necessity Fallen man––time as temporary duration (we are blessed with death since Adam didn’t get to hold the tree of life) Devils––time as unending duration (our sense of infinite time) All action centres on a certain moment. God’s moment is Incarnation, when the timeless enters the world of time. Our moment is Adam’s choosing death instead of eternal life The war in heaven anticipates not only the cleansing of the temple, but Christ’s death & resurrection. The battle takes three days. The second day, evil has some success––corresponds to Christ’s struggle with death & hell. The third day the Son of God goes forth to war. Sulphurous fumes. Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot––the invention of gunpowder by the devils––all tie in in Milton’s mind. Discussion in Book VIII of Copernican & Ptolemaic universe systems seems to detract from the poem. Milton knew the score, having met Galileo, and he does not need here to try to justify his poetic choice of the Ptolemaic universe. But in the context of Raphael’s character, the harangue does have some merit. Raphael tells Adam the kind of knowledge he needs for his salvation. The Ptolemaic universe, which makes us the centre. Raphael centres

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Adam’s attention on his immediate situation. Temptation comes from without. Adam needs his inner strength. At the end of Book VIII, when Adam says he adores Eve, Raphael bawls him out on the dangers of idolization. This is exactly the cause of Adam’s fall.

CHAPTER SEVEN MILTON AND SPENSER (RENAISSANCE EPIC: ENGLISH 3J) (1953–54) NOTES BY MARGARET VIRANY

The notes for this course, which was on Milton and Spenser, were partially recorded in Pitman shorthand. They might be compared to Peter Evans’s notes for English 3j, which are entitled “Class Notes for Frye’s Course in Milton” and were taken the same year. Evans’s notes, however, stop with the class of 11 December 1953 (lecture no. 29) and do not include Spenser. Sept. 24 The Study of Milton––Milton Bibliography ––involves much historical background ––Masson––Life of Milton in connection with the history of his times, shows scope of Milton ––Hanford,59 Tillyard60––good general introductions to Milton ––no really satisfactory biography of Milton ––Hanford, John Milton: Englishman, the best61 ––texts––The Student’s Milton, ed. Paterson––most useful text62 ––World’s Classics––Oxford––introduction Wilson––English Poems of Milton63––the poetry ––Hughes––very fully annotated––prose too ––Rinehart ed.—introduction64 ––special studies ––Milton and the Puritan Dilemma, Barker65 (deals with middle section of Milton’s career and thought––three parts) 1. Early poetry 2. Puritan Revolution––political prose 3. Political figure ––Puritanism and Liberty66 ––introduction good background––collection of pamphlets

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––Saurat, Milton: Man and Thinker67 ––straight narrative and summaries, O.K. Milton ––Cockney––born Cheapside, London 1580 (?) ––significance: Cheapside is in eastern part ––old––medieval––Roman––walled ––number of places end in “-gate” ––Westminster, west––connected to London by Strand ––seat of government––crown, court, high church associations, whereas city of London bourgeois, middle-class apprentices, guilds. London led town in fight against feudal system in the Middle Ages. The King had to get permission to enter London––wait for key. The custom still continues. London was the centre of all revolutionary forces in England. Therefore, all Charles has to do is capture London to win civil was (the money was there) ––Milton––intent on middle-class security; therefore, almost destined to be on left-wing of disputes of his day ––Puritan––his people highly cultivated (not traditional) ––Puritans––powerful, wealthy middle-class group ––number of peers (this class divided though) ––commerce ––Milton was well educated ––his father was extremely cultivated: a scrivener––published steno-notary publications. Music, main hobby. A composer. ––bright student; attended solid, middle-class school. His tutor (Alex Gill) very interested in the English language as a medium of education. (All schooling given in Latin then; English was only a means of translating it.) This drill of translation is behind the easy lilt of Elizabethan lyrics. Spenser’s teacher was also unusually interested in the English language. ––Cambridge (––Milton wrote poems in Italian, Latin, Greek, and English.) ––kicked out in first term of first year ––classmates made a bit of fun of him ––slight reputation for priggishness––“Lady”68 ––graduated to write Valedictory and Prediction ––at Cambridge, first discovered that he was a major poet ––wrote Nativity Ode there

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––exploded; showed he was a major poet; became aware of the responsibility of people with special talents; almost obsessed with responsibility of his own genius ––broke tradition by breaking into English, not Latin ––self-conscious sense remains with him all his life The Renaissance has a strong sense of the hierarchy of forms; for the major poet, these were epic or tragedy; several long apprenticeships before tackling these forms; therefore, Milton felt he should develop in direction of eventually writing a great epic or tragedy. Two contradictory pressures on Milton: 1. Supreme job to produce epic or tragedy or both to express talents given him 2. Postpone these efforts until mature enough to tackle them ––most can’t understand nature of such a conflict ––accounts for Milton’s irritability ––pressures equally strong ––ramifications everywhere in Milton’s life because poetry is a profound psychological paradox––it takes will power to write it (will to relax the will)––work and at the same time wait ––precarious balance of psychological forces which has an analogy in religion ––relax, wait for will of God ––central theme in Milton––terrible, tense strain of waiting ––main poems are poems of temptation––close relationship with time (“tempestas”) ––e.g., Paradise Lost ––Adam destroyed for divine inheritance if he has sense to wait ––devil tempts him to snatch ––Paradise Regained ––reversed them––Why are you waiting? ––Christ refuses to snatch, grab, and salvation of the world is effected Paradise Lost is more “written out” than “written” ––like ripe fruit falling off tree in its time ––wakes up with a number of lines in his head, ready for dictation ––tremendous power and ease because work for it has been done in Milton’s whole life. All of Milton’s poetry is crystallization of the same kind––as easy as Shakespeare’s. Two main types of poet:

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1) greatness entirely confined to his art e.g. Mozart in music; Raphael in art, Spenser in poetry ––make very little impact on life of the time because they are so wrapped up ––everything they have to say comes through their peculiar medium ––the great creators of form 2) the great men who happen to be artists e.g. Beethoven in music, Michelangelo in art, Milton in poetry ––exploding of great personality ––likely a revolutionary genius; e.g. Milton ––Milton’s life in a constant state of development ––an explorer ––bursts all the forms ––tears up one stage for something better ––i.e. a revolutionary approach Spenser and Milton therefore very different types ––Spenser became more conservative e.g. in form moved toward very complicated Faerie Queene and stuck to it ––Milton begins with a complicated form, moves to greater freedom Milton had a kind of prophetic force which was profoundly subversive Oct. 1. ––revolutionary, analytic type of genius ––enters a form and then blows it up from inside by charging it with explosive material Nativity Ode ––more or less contains its conventional framework ––has reached pinnacle of articulation and speaks for itself ––technical miracle––each stanza is a triumph on its own ––sense exactly fits the rhythm of the stanza ––Milton seemed affected by the seasons ––early part of year: elegy (symbolism of death and resurrection), e.g. Lycidas ––this kind of symbolism informs religion as well as literature ––Jesus late comer of the Christmas tradition ––primitive sense of terror––shortening days, lengthening nights––“still point of the turning world” (T.S. Eliot, [Burnt Norton 1.21]). This absorbed by Christianity

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—birth of John the Baptist arbitrarily set in the summer solstice & absorbed all primitive superstitions regarding midsummer ––this theme stuck its roots deeply into the Nativity Ode ––new light born in the world ––powers of darkness begin to retreat (same symbolism as the opening of Hamlet) ––Milton takes his own view of paganism on all levels ––its beauty and hideousness are inseparable ––basis of the ode is a story in Plutarch (in Shepheardes Calender––April or May) ––Christians treated this story as a pagan tribute of the fact that old oracles must cease at coming of true word Stanza II. abstract antithesis––between light and darkness at the beginning of the Ode ––God is something absolutely different from what we see in nature ––all things moving toward a final revelation, Apocalypse. ––all darkness burned up ––wedding––bridegroom new light ––bride is body of redeemed man and nature; therefore bride must have been at one time a harlot––therefore nature is described as guilty ––trying to hide self in the dark Attitude not one of condemnation but redemption ––breathless instant of peace throughout world when Christ is born ––stanza 5: bit of old natural history legend ––immediate reference to certain birds making nest in solstice when sea is calm ––Milton fits this into biblical reference––first part of Bible–– vision of watery chaos–– Spirit of God brooded over face of the waters in the form of a dove. Everything in the Old Testament repeated somewhere in the life of Christ. This is repeated in Christ’s baptism influence: “poured in” originally a technical term in aetiology Lucifer: “light-bearer” ––Christ absorbs function of Pan in his own nature––shepherd ––music of the spheres. Vision of what life would be if Adam didn’t fall ––revolving of spheres makes a continuous harmony ––Adam could hear this music before his fall

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––harmony = order, a stability (opposite of chaos) ––{in Merchant of Venice––“man that hath no music in himself” [5.1.92]} ––harmony in this sense as opposition of what we call harmony in music. Heavenly music begins where our music leaves off More than once Milton turns to music as a symbol of fallen man ––“speckl’d Vanity” [st. 14, l. 4]––full, resonant––of serpents, diseases, vanity all dressed up, original sin (serpent can’t change spots) This poem is wrapped up in a single, intelligible structure of symbolism. ––roll call––defeated gods Horror––bristly, quills ––oracle of Delphi is shut up ––general spiritual exhaustion of Greece (most intelligent people in Greece took oracle seriously––including Socrates) ––oracle is traditionally ambiguous. Founded at Delphi because serpent killed there and rocks contained nitrous gasses (cf. serpent inspiring Eve––forbidden knowledge––priestess of Delphi going into a trance) ––end of stanza 25––vision of Christ absorbing all that other civilizations had attached to their gods ––reference to legend of Cupid and Psyche (a soul) at end ––poem ends with a feeling of tense, waiting watchfulness Oct. 2. ––relation between a poet’s poem and the body of poetry is the same as the relation between the individual and society ––the new individual is his own society appearing once again; therefore, there is no such thing as an original poem, but a new order of words can appear in that new perspective. Convention is to poetry what being a 20th-century Canadian is to me ––to write at all is to write in convention ––Milton realized that poetry is fundamentally convention and that originality grows out of it ––Elegy was the dominating convention of his early period ––this period climaxes with two elegies ––at Cambridge he used elegy as a practice form ––On the Death of a Fair Infant was one of his earliest elegies ––Milton’s own feelings about the corpse are not at all important; i.e., personal sincerity and literary sincerity are not at all the same ––none of these poems are great in themselves, but they show Milton as mastering a kind of skill that will enable him to write great poetry ––Milton the public orator

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––personal reserve––not a confessional poetry––feels he’s a keeper of poetic literacy (Virgil, not Catullus, type) ––writes his most personal poems in Latin––seems to want a barrier of a foreign language. Elegy ––meant a certain kind of metre––hexameter followed by pentameter– –syncopated rhythms ––very tricky to handle “elegy” didn’t refer to a subject, though it was usually funereal ––Epitaphium Damonis ––written to Diodata p. 85–Elegy I––deals with expellation from University ––writes from London––says he’d rather be there ––gives some insights into tastes of the young man of the 17th century ––has admiration for Shakespeare quite unusual for that day–– shows sensitivity for drama Elegy VI––also addressed to Diodati––accompanies Nativity Ode ––Milton is not a great infant prodigy ––up to the Nativity Ode his poetry was quite predictable ––it was revealed to Milton that he was the greatest poet of his time ––therefore, Elegy VI is very important ––announces Nativity Ode at the end of it ––those who write epic, tragedy, prophecy must keep themselves in tune ––major poet must be a transparent medium––not muddied up by drink or passion Milton spent most of his time waiting. Forces of articulation gathered in his subconscious. ––chastity was something with almost magical powers for him (background of remark that major poet must be like Pythagoras) ––Milton was the typical Protestant humanist ––contains philosophy and theology in his imagination ––presents arguments in essentially literary form. Elegy VI ––goes on to compare poet to divine augur ––Tiresias was one of the great soothsayers of classical poetry––comes into Oedipus Rex––blind

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––the narrator of T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land ––eerie prophecy of Milton’s own blindness––an accident, yet inherent in his own genius ––refers to great poets who lived before Homer, poets with magical powers ––Orpheus fascinated Milton ––Homer also blind ––poet is as sacred as the gods ––breaches the voice of the gods with his lips Poet as a deliverer. Releases poetry––his job is to see that it is released from him in as uninjured state as possible. Revision is harmful. The egocentric poet does not allow his poetry to develop its own shape. The poem is his real personality––also as an ego. Elegy VII ––one of Milton’s very rare love poems––court of love convention–– Milton uses court of love convention very seldom. Seems to feel it’s something to distrust. Elegy IV ––form of episode is one of the favourites in Renaissance humanism Elegy V––poetically the most interesting of the seven ––enthusiastic poetry––poet possessed by Dionysus’ spirit (wine god) ––rhapsody (Shelley Ode to the West Wind) This is Milton’s only real rhapsody ––based on image of life stirring in sprint On the Fifth of November ––interesting because it is so bad––gets completely out of hand ––dealing with hell (It takes genius to produce bad poetry. Minor poets produce mediocre poetry.) Minor poems on academic subjects e.g. Nature is not a subject of old age ––important dispute in Milton’ day: Is world actually running out of energy? ––from this came the famous quarrel of the ancients and the moderns (Milton defending the moderns here)

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next week: Comus Oct. 8. Milton abandoned poem on the Passion and with it the stanzaic form ––realized that he wrote best with lines of elongated rhythms. So remarks to Diodati that he found his own feet as a poet with remarkable speed ––great admirer of Jonson as well as Shakespeare, but was particularly interested in developing Elizabethan lyrics ––had a more synthetic mind than the metaphysical poets who were around him––was not interested in their technique ––disciple of Spenser more than anyone else ––humanist, Protestant tradition ––Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained have the same kind of epic structure as The Faerie Queene ––Milton was not essentially an allegorical poet like Spenser ––Milton was on the optimistic, modern, progressive side of the ancients and moderns quarrel ––academic poem had Aristotle’s Platonic ideas [On the Platonic Idea as Understood by Aristotle] ––shows Milton’s general position in the Cambridge period L’Allegro and Il Penseroso ––likely written during the Cambridge period (latter part) ––connected with prolusion about day versus night ––establishes pattern of tense, disciplined waiting ––see p. 15––valedictory ––confides in his audience that he’ll be a major poet ––between the lines––difficulties of genius in social adjustment are evident –VII, p. 32 ––effort for Milton to let time pass without getting in a panic ––ripening of genius is a process which cannot be hurried ––temptation to force the issue ––L’Allegro and Il Penseroso ––primarily etudes, i.e. studies in mood ––can’t have alteration of mood in the lyric ––L’Allegro has mood of cheerfulness––playful ––Il Penseroso fixes mood of pensiveness ––ignores all notions of the antithesis between the world of life and the world of books

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––absolute perfection of literary expression ––experience of literature as itself ––for the cultured mind there’s no antithesis ––these poems are full of freshness of natural, unspoiled imagery ––all one in the total experience of man ––in Il Penseroso centre of gravity is about night ––fresh outdoor life plus the pleasures of the pensive mood (philosophy––religious experience) ––both written in octosyllabic couplets ––exhausts its resources by illustrating everything that can be done in this form ––Il Penseroso––more eight-syllable lines than in L’Allegro ––softer, liquid consonants ––slow, heavy vowels ––cultural background of L’Allegro is a feeling of cosiness gained by sitting around a fire in a group telling stories ––English fairy tales for the background––popular superstitions ––marriage and drama fit in his comic mood ––need a group to sing the madrigals ––poets hated the madrigal because words were lost in elaborate music ––in 17th century, revolution in music made musical drama possible ––single melodic line ––bass instrumental accompaniment––it’s consistent with the poem that Milton mentions madrigals––one of the delights of his household ––background of Il Penseroso is occult superstitions ––one of the things Milton is going to do here is study philosophy in the occult tradition. ––Plato most influenced by this field, so Milton is going to read him ––l. 85––great image of poetry––old man in tower (used by Shelley) ––occult speculations regarding spirits of nature ––l. 88––Hermes––patron saint of occultists and alchemists ––reading of tragedy and romance ––pensive forms of literature ––Milton’s favourite romance was Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale ––l. 117––refers to natural affinity of romance for allegory. Partly a reference to Spenser.

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1. real depression of spirits––schizophrenia 2. result of self-communion. The mood of Il Penseroso expresses this introverted emotion, solitude ––somber, aesthetic feeling such as gained when seeing beautiful buildings Il Penseroso is more conventional than L’Allegro Masque’s characteristics not very important p. 28, Arcades ––One of the last things Milton wrote before leaving Cambridge ––Ben Jonson and Samuel Daniels were the chief practitioners of this form (1) a set, occasional piece ––court party entertainment for an ambassador, etc. ––welcoming or greeting of a guest of honour was a focal point (2) usually indoors (3) relation between actors and audience closer than in case of a play (4) actors often actually gentlemen at the court (5) led up to the dance (6) more elaborate in scenery and costumes than the drama ––great amount of expense (7) subject was something connected to a focal point ––therefore theme mythological, allegorical ––allegory could be interpreted as a compliment to the guest of the masque (8) great deal of emphasis on stage scenery and music––more important than words even ––usually took the form or a dance and ended in a dance ––incidental songs very frequent (The Tempest is a masque-like play ––contains a masque ––possibly connected to a royal wedding Love’s Labour’s Lost extremely masque-like in its total construction) Milton’s masque was acted outdoors ––small cultivated audience ––advantages of the court masque––more freedom in writing than a court employee would have ––masques began and closed with politeness, cultivation ––Milton developed an antimasque in the centre of the masque

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––opposed to the mood of the beginning and end as much as possible ––atmosphere changed to the ribald, riotous ––antimasque developed from animal disguisings which went back to ancient Greek rites and pagan ceremonies ––see Welsford, Court Masque69 ––Jonson absorbed antimasque into the court masque ––Milton incorporates the antimasque structure into a general allegorical scheme Comus––Milton’s second masque ––central characters: Lady, two brothers, courtly house ––all other characters are elemental spirits ––central characters move through this action ––guardian angel, protecting spirit ––Comus––fire spirit ––his entrance as a regular antimasque ––cf. The Tempest––figure of Prospero with rod and glass ––“apparel glistering” [Tempest following 4.1.193]. ––“riotous and unruly noise” [Comus, stage direction, following l. 92] ––Comus means “revel” in Greek ––It’s likely “comedy” derived from this word ––his revel is a rebellion against God’s order of nature (therefore, an evil spirit) ––but, rebellion was successful––fall of man; therefore, present nature for man is largely controlled by rebellion ––man is now born into an order which reverses what was intended for him Comus speaks for the subverting of what God created ––Lady resists Comus’ temptation ––not denying nature because nature God intended was a disciplined order in which Comus has no place ––action, therefore, is rather paradoxical ––Comus gets some sympathy ––common sense ––tolerance ––stock Epicurean argument but represents binding of the man of passion (not the release of life) ––actually related to bondage and servitude

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––in her chastity the Lady contains all possibilities of freedom, spontaneity There were also protecting spirits as well as demonic ones in the symbolism ––lady lost in the forest (symbol of lost direction) ––Comus and others appear as fireflies, which will lead them into the swamp that will follow ––separated from his brothers ––chastity is a kind of discipline which unites the body and the mind ––capacity to live in the demonic world and to be untouched by it ––develops powers which seem magical to the ordinary person ––in harmony with the real structure of the universe which Comus and the others can’t overturn ––powers of insight, understanding, experience These powers operate to protect the Lady from real harm ––Lady is under Comus’ power to the extent that she can’t move (she can only talk) when his brothers rush in ––setting of Comus––not explicitly Christian ––lady’s chastity as highest point of moral virtue ––by itself it still can’t move ––thawed out of her frozen state by the returning water (a possibility that an analogy to baptism is intended) Oct. 15. Comus produced in 1634 ––fits neatly into the development of drama at this period ––moral tone of Comus is reflected in the development of drama itself ––becomes more delicate, refined ––later drama full of romantic love, Platonic love. Theatres closed in 1642 ––war measure ––psychologically good for people to sacrifice things ––playhouse was something of a rallying point for the Royalists because of the traditional Puritan dislike of the stage ––Milton was the greatest dramatist, yet on Cromwell’s side ––references to the characters in the masque to what they were in everyday life and as they were known to the audience. ––this is characteristic of the masque

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––Lady and her brothers actually are the children of the household in which the masque was performed. ––erudite piece of writing ––demands a great deal from the audience ––Comus represents fallen world ––plans temptation of chastity ––great deal of occultism ––nature shot through with mysterious beings This shows the bent of Milton’s mind at this period of his life ––classical myths to be read allegorically ––ultimately allegories of spiritual truths ––attendant spirit = higher order of nature = garden Adonis in Faerie Queene Versification ––consummation of Milton’s early verse ––shifts from one metre to another ––subtlety ––loveliness of the verse was a dramatic necessity ––sound and movement of the verse creates most of the imagery of the play ––through your ears you get the real, visual qualities of the play ––mysterious, hidden harmony of the spheres, mysterious rustling ––Milton’s imagery was imagery of light and shade ––outline often vaguer ––shading subtle He wrote this way because he was a baroque artist e.g. line 543 [“I set me down to watch upon a bank”] Il Penseroso mood Tennyson––very sharp eye, sharply focused; the whole sight and sound come through. Il Penseroso and L’Allegro are almost etudes of different vowel sounds and different rhythms. Lycidas ––perhaps the greatest poem of its length in the language ––in the convention of the pastoral elegy

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––gods of fertility: Adonis, Hyacintus, etc. (named differently in different places) ––the rise and fall of the seasons ––Milton was not too emotionally involved with his subject ––“How does poetry demand that such subjects be treated?” (Milton’s approach) Lycidas––the name is suggestive of the dying God Adonis Oct. 16. Elegy informed by a pattern of death and rebirth ––poet and priest worked into the symbolism of the poem ––Rondeau––main theme; repeated twice; two intervening portions. ––main theme: a lament for Lycidas (a kind of Adonis figure) ––the two episodes: Lycidas as poet and Lycidas as priest ––King has been a symbol of Adonis in his role as a drowned man ––King as a poet is assimilated by Orpheus––both Pan and Apollo also work into the symbolism ––King as a priest is Peter (universal form of human priests) Because Lycidas dies before his time, he fails to accomplish his purpose as a poet and a priest ––Orpheus descends to redeem his bride––doesn’t succeed ––Peter denied his master ––Milton says everyone fails to complete their work completely ––their efforts are completed by God King drowned on the Irish sea Orpheus figure of singing head floating down the river Peter tried to walk on the waves Premature death of Lycidas as a man and as a poet ––every poet dies prematurely ––impossible for one life to take in the full life’s work and society’s response to that work i.e. another pattern of immature death The whole of Lycidas is contained in the figure of Christ ––His work is completed in eternity, after premature death ––Milton works himself in. He is also part of the body of Christ This poem is not Milton’s greatest poem; i.e. he himself still not ripe (ties in with opening lines)

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––pastoral begins ––lament ––symbolism: English as well as classic l. 64. Episode of Fame l. 75. Image of the cutting off of life Apollo comes in to guarantee the value of the poet’s life ––reference to Arethuse ––returns to the main theme ––episode: brings in various rivers Hyacinthus––accidentally killed by Apollo; i.e. another dying god story Peter––“pilot of the Galilean lake” [Lycidas, l. 109]. ––aspect of Peter which fits the poem “two-handed engine” [Lycidas, l. 130] ––something for the cutting off of life ––repeats image: “abhorred shears” [Lycidas, l. 75] This episode is satirical Pastoral god image for satire––by idealizing country, casts reflection of city ––sheep as image for Christian ––wolf as image of powers o darkness Main theme––“Return”––l. 132 l. 85 and l. 132 are tricky points in the poem ––must return from episode l. 85 Arethuse: indirect reference to Theocritus (because in Sicily) ––addressing predecessor Allusions ––Mincius (a river)––a reference to Virgil ––needs a reference to Pan ––in transition, Milton returns to pastoral imagery l. 132 “Sicilian Muse”––Theocritus “Alpheus” [l. 33]––an image of the river going underground and coming up again for a new life i.e. marks return of episode to main theme ––Coleridge also fascinated by image of Alpheus ––symbol of the water of life in English poetry Imagery of the poem moves from fall to spring (dying fertility god) ––throwing of flowers on tomb as part of the Adonis ritual; lovely description of the flowers ––“Amaranthus”––the flower of immortality [l. 149] ––“false surmise”––body of Lycidas not present [l. 153]

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––turns to the body of Lycidas l. 164––reference to Arion (mentioned in Twelfth Night) ––image of head held up by water (Orpheus imagery not quite enough because he died after being thrown in, even though his head did float singing like a swan) l. 712––rhythm of setting sun ––Lycidas rises in resurrection again Final stanza ––a daily as well as a yearly cycle ––poem stops at sunset; began at dawn Milton himself turns from contemplation of sunset to his own work ––image of death and revival worked into his own life Oct. 22. Milton’s Trip to Italy ––contact with continental and international culture ––in England he was a major poet in a minor country ––already well known in Italy because of his Latin poems ––Spenser, Chaucer, Shakespeare unknown in Italy ––resulted in increase of Milton’s Latin poetry around 1640 ––“From now on I am content with these British Isles as my world”70 ––could have won quick international reputation writing in Latin ––not a die-hard humanistic attitude that great epics must be written in Latin ––going to plunge into his great epic commitments Milton made these divisions in a pamphlet in 1641 Homer, Virgil––diffuse epics Job––brief epic Greek drama––tragedy ––25 years later Milton produced an example of each ––these three forms (shows the consistency of his thinking) ––Paradise Lost ––Paradise Regained ––Samson Agonistes ––the subject of his diffuse epic changed from triumph of British nation to story of fallen man (1) shows disillusionment (2) shows literalism: should be founded on fact (not King Arthur legend) (3) didn’t feel romance adequate for the epic

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Period of Prose and Controversy (second period of Milton’s life) ––began when Milton returned from Italy ––a number of prose pamphlets ––claimed “liberty” was their unifying theme ––three-fold ––religious––organization of the church ––domestic––education, press, marriage ––civil––organization of government 1640–2: five anti-Episcopal tracts 1643–5: question of education four divorce tracts Areopagitica (press) 1649–60: (period of the execution of Charles I and the Restoration civil pamphlets––four regicide pamphlets three anti-Restoration tracts Historical background 1640 ––first civil war began in 1642 ––Charles had terrific advantage ––psychological advantage––Parliament was shocked it had actually defied a king ––better army ––king’s base at Oxford––Parliament’s at London ––first year––almost unbroken Royalist successes ––cavalry––Prince Rupert ––cavalry charge was a new technique ––year of extremely confused, divided loyalties (people pro Parliament might fight for the king because he really represented Parliament) Oliver Cromwell emerged ––a real revolutionary ––organized Ironside Army (previously a number of Parliamentary leaders had been afraid to win the war by too much) ––allegiance with the Scots ––matter of time until they won the war ––king: a prisoner of Parliament ––appealed to Scots who agree to fight for him, for he set up Presbyterianism in England when he won Second civil war ––everyone in Parliament who wouldn’t vote for the king’s death was thrown out ––Rump Parliament left

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––executed the king ––revolt against whole Cromwellian set up ––Cromwell went north to settle opposition––to put an end to the Royalists in England ––Prince Charles escaped ––Cromwell defeated the Dutch and took Jamaica from the Spaniards ––Cromwell threw the Rump Parliament out (1653)––proclaimed Protectorate ––country under martial law ––Cromwell died in 1658 ––Rump Parliament summoned again ––army was the actual power ––didn’t want the Rump Parliament ––surrendered to King Charles, who came to the throne ––religious liberty was applied to particular situations (in this attitude five religious pamphlets written) ––apostle––a sort of federal authority––travelling overseer ––priest ––congregation ––this supervising system of church was reflected in Paul’s writings ––beginnings of hierarchy ––“episcope”––Greek for “overseer”; “bishop” is the English form of the word; retained authority over groups of churches ––conception of archbishop began as bishops got more authority. Bishops inherit power–– Episcopalian ––Rome and Constantinople were the two big cities left in the Mediterranean world; each had an archbishop; the bishop of Rome came to be the head of the church: pope; cardinals consolidated their position (higher than archbishops) Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church, therefore laying down somewhat the same position Milton picked up later. ––Milton rejected Pope’s claim of temporal power. Turned English Church into a model of the Greek or Eastern Church, not Roman. Archbishops highest; i.e., cardinals have no position in the hierarchy ––left-wing Puritans

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––must take all authority for the constitution of the Church from the Bible ––no bishops––perversion of the original apostles ––word “bishop” in the New Testament meant apostle for the Puritans, not a permanent official ––Scottish Puritans thought of the Church government as vested in the priests as elders (presbyters) ––Congregationalists thought all power was delegated ––the congregation was the basis ––descendants of the English Puritans nearly all Congregationalists ––Cromwell’s army nearly all Congregationalists Milton argues that the bishop represents the fundamental spiritual perversion and corruption of the authority of the Church; puts temporal authority on top; interrupts the apostolic authority of the Church {Baptists, Quakers, etc. were groups within the Congregationalist order} ––principle of Milton’s argument was the separation of temporal and spiritual authority ––no place for the equivalent of ordinary law in the Church ––no place for someone who hires and fires ––no place for enforcing the law in temporal terms (e.g., don’t eat meat) ––temporal authority makes Church essentially a department of the state ––system where the Church was being judged by the world Reformation brought about by Henry VIII was imperfect, confused ––unwilling to adopt clear-cut reform of church; he left the bishops in Milton wants to prove that it is in the best interests of the monarchy to abolish the episcopacy ––revolutionary distrust of tradition ––extensive pamphlet campaign begun in Elizabethan times––“Martin Marprelate”71 ––abusiveness ––“Smectymnuus”––pseudonym of five Puritan pamphleteers (Milton on their side––TY [Thomas Young] was one of his tutors)

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––Milton uses “reason” versus “tradition” ––reaction to Word of God versus prejudice, automatic acceptance ––reasons versus emotion ––no such thing as a religious conscience ––ritual, tradition of the Church: pagan in origin, not Christian ––automatic repetition––Old Testament ––religion of law, not the gospel ––Milton accepts Puritan interpretation of religious liberty in a narrow sense ––the Word of God should be re-created in every Church service– –new, fresh experience e.g., Eucharist ––for Catholics something happens in Church ––change of bread and wine into substantial body and blood of Christ ––Protestants reject doctrine of substance ––bread and wine mark Word of God becoming living word ––altar––pagan idea ––associated with sacrifice which Jesus spoke against ––communion table central instead. Priest turning his back to congregation to go to the altar —table symbolized for non-Conformists the perversion of the Church ––non-Conformists attack the mass as based on the rejection of sacrifice. Milton shows the Episcopalian form of service is essentially that of the mass. 29 Oct. Domestic Phase––Milton’s Defense of Liberty ––his conception of liberty begins with God ––what God will do for man ––man can do nothing to achieve liberty directly ––can demonstrate a willingness to be set free by God ––tries to stop obstructing the will of God Because (1) man does not naturally want freedom ––terrified by the responsibilities of maturity ––man naturally wants to be a slave or a master ––no one wants liberty except people who, in a Christian sense, are regenerate ––others want license, not liberty

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––all the natural man can possibly want is dictatorship, isolation, or slavery (2) man’s approach––liberty is bound to be a fundamentally negative one ––person who wants that must be regenerate, saved, i.e. a prophet ––his work in society must be iconoclastic (breaking down idols) like prophets in Old Testament times ––idols: physical illusion instead of spiritual reality ––the Devil Spiritual revelation, love faith

regenerate man (mirror) nature natural man (reality {physical})

liberty

love of God (reality) bondage idolatry (mirror, physical law, force)

What man worships instead of God is custom, convention, doing what other people do ––relation of antagonism between their two worlds ––relation of hatred from man’s point of view ––they tortured God to death when he came to earth ––relation of wrath from God’s point of view (the reaction to goodness and badness) Natural man in regard to the Church is a Pharisee ––wants to be bound to the cycle of nature ––automatic repetition ––principle of force, compulsion Image of state of bondage is a pyramid ––narrowing hierarchy––state on top Image of city of God is a square ––all sides free and equal Bible ––essential instrument of God’s will to set man free ––man with grace can respond to the Word of God with something profoundly like itself ––man without grace sees himself as a reflection of his own natural tendencies––law ––the few people who see a manifesto of liberty in the Bible are right.

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––Milton says the Bible must be read by the rule of charity (agape) and faith in action Law itself is not a bad thing ––mindless, habitual response to it is ––in one sense, Christianity came to abolish the law ––in another sense, Christianity came to fulfill the law ––only the lazy, superficial mind sees “freedom” as opposed to necessity. It is identical with inner necessity ––iron grip: a painter must paint the kind of picture he wants to paint and set himself free ––“Man is in complete bondage” and “Man is in complete freedom” are in strikingly similar states and achieve the same kind of discipline on the plane of freedom ––mindless, witless acceptance of the right notes is the freedom of a great piano player. Doesn’t occur to him to play the wrong notes. Conduct ––we insult man by saying he is free to choose right or wrong ––if he’s honest, it wouldn’t occur to him to steal something ––people who are unconsciously honest are in the highest state of freedom ––freedom is opposite to external necessity the same as internal necessity. No such thing as freedom apart from internal necessity. Freedom necessitates a high degree of internal discipline. The pattern of a free man’s life decides issues for him. ––you don’t transcend the law by breaking it; you just get more fouled up in it. To transform the law in its inner structure is to transcend it. Oct. 30. Essay Nov. 14. Milton’s treatment of religious, domestic, or civil liberty in his prose ––based suggestions for reforming Church on the basis of Christian liberty––partly Puritan, partly his own ––problem of civil liberty going to be settled by swords ––religious liberty liable to follow ––produced a series of pamphlets: three on domestic, civil, education; four divorce tracts Law is a prerequisite to liberty as long as it is an internal discipline

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Christians form a new kind of Judaism which fulfills the law by internalizing it Freedom is bound up with choice of the means. When you freely choose an end, you bind yourself to a means. There is no freedom without discipline. e.g. immoral life: external dictatorship of your passions. Plato’s Republic profound when read as a picture of man’s mind ––abominable as a picture of an ideal society. Analogy of the mind to society won’t hold. Can’t set up in society a kind of dictatorship of the mind a free man must have. If you do, Orwell’s 1984 results. Sermon on the Mount––laws must be inner discipline, not a prescribed social law. Sort of commentary on the Ten Commandments. ––no moral difference in the Gospels between a man who commits murder and one who wants someone to die. Anyone who looks at a woman and lusts after her has committed adultery in his heart. Can’t turn Sermon on the Mount into social law ––must be taken as part of the interior, organic discipline that keeps a person free. The Old Testament was interpreted by external rather than internal law. What’s the use of replacing circumcision and sacrifice by baptism and the Eucharist if you still have the same mental attitude towards them? Three kinds of law in the Old Testament abolished: moral, judicial, ceremonial; i.e. no use abolishing ceremonial without moral. Divorce Pamphlets Jesus says marriage after divorce would be adultery ––very explicit ––however, inconsistent with Milton’s conception of the Bible as emancipating, liberty for man ––here, Jesus seems more bigoted, stupid than Moses. This is not as it should be. ––break in Milton’s own family was partly a political break. What was the marriage tie for the poet? ––religious views were irreconcilable? ––Old Testament law had its own level as bondage, servitude. This is a necessary state for all those who don’t want to be free (the majority of men). Most have no regard for the higher, more subtle internal laws. Therefore, external life remains in society. Relatively few people feel

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they’d do irreparable damage to the structure of their being if they were to steal ––marriage is a social contract ––it is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church; therefore, indissoluble ––in Milton’s Church, only baptism and the Eucharist were accepted as sacraments. Marriage was a civil contract blessed by the Church. Cromwell carried this view to the extreme. Legal marriage had to be a secular one. ––conception of marriage as a social contract: external law ––conception of marriage as a union of two souls: internal law ––Jesus was speaking of a kind of marriage which is an indissoluble union of two souls. No parson or justice of the peace can say whether it’s this kind of marriage. General orthodox view is that marriage is indissoluble as soon as consummated. For Milton, marriage can be consummated only when one of the partners dies and the lifetime companionship is over. Milton can’t believe that Jesus was endorsing the view that as soon as the sex act is committed a trap snaps and the man is trapped for the rest of his life. Obscene. In fact, the marriage Jesus was talking about has never really happened. Divorce is permissible because the sign of the Gospel marriage has never taken place. Milton would say that Jesus is encouraging divorce just as much as forbidding it. Milton has a very high respect for marriage in the Gospel sense. This leads him to advocate divorce. Innocent marriage: two partners are the only ones for each other in the world, like Adam and Eve, when the fact was there was no one else. The family is a wedge the devil drives into the prophet’s life. In a crisis a man’s family is his worst enemy. His love for his family is most likely to make him compromise. Therefore, it is essential for the righteous man to recognize the quality of his own freedom. Nov. 5. Christ’s teaching on divorce was part of the Gospel which has been put into the law. ––for Milton this is part of Pharisaism. ––civil war cut across families ––pointed out that in times of crisis man’s worst enemy might be his family ––Lutheranism established itself under the protection of the German prince

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––Catholic reaction set in around the middle of the century ––partly in response, Protestantism turned revolutionary ––John Knox was associated with this change Catholic Church had a particular appeal to women ––Knox wrote on this––directed against Mary Tudor ––Mary Queen of Scots was Catholic (associated with St. Bartholomew’s massacre) This helped build the anti-Puritan and anti-Protestant view on the part of the monarchy ––the husband was the spiritual and temporal head of the house ––Milton held this view ––far less sense at this time of marriage being a union of two people on practically the same level Milton is saying that when two people don’t form an indissoluble union they’re not married in the sight of God ––attacks obscenity of the idea that marriage is consummated with the first sexual act ––canon law: godfather and godmother married by the act of baptism; therefore, couldn’t be physically married; therefore, if you and your wife could remember that this instance occurred, you could get the marriage annulled ––by entering into a marriage relationship technically incestuous, you could get it annulled (e.g. how Henry VII sought to get rid of Catherine of Aragon {remember she was the deceased brother’s wife}) ––Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, uncle of Catherine––displeased Reformation had come to England essentially through divorce ––this partly accounts for Milton’s writing about divorce ––by Milton’s time Protestants had forgotten what they had originally believed about divorce. He dug out pamphlets by Martin Buccer written one hundred years before and published them on his own. The reception of the divorce pamphlets startled, shocked Milton. Showed that natural man is always a Pharisee (i.e., makes law out of Gospel) Milton next turned his attention to liberty of the press. Nothing more degrading than the legalistic interpretation of vows. Don’t realize what you’re stuck with (this was how the account of Milton’s admitting divorce even though it is a vow to God) and conditions of ignorance do yet apply to conditions of knowledge. The grace of God makes indissoluble union, not man’s will (according to Milton)

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In Areopagitica Milton says that license should be allowed to some degree because liberty is so tremendously important. 17th-century Protestantism rigorously consistent Today––almost a moral principle to become specialized ––certain distrust of versatility ––very few people know that their religion hangs together as an intellectual system, right or wrong ––regard systems as some kind of indoctrination ––Frye believes there is a conspiracy against indoctrination, against students’ minds today. Want 20th-century Miltons to be mute, inglorious.72 Anyone who has real guiding principles should be able to comment on that particular life. Liberty of the Press ––censorship of books before publication dealt with in Areopagatica ––i.e. attacking certain aspects and principles of censorship that one feels is a violation of Christian liberty ––Parliament had begun to sink into the Pharisaic mode ––conferring monopoly of printing on twenty companies London ––authorized to break into and search houses for unauthorized printing presses ––title indicates Milton was recognizing Parliament as the legal court of the country: Areopagus––legal body, elected, i.e. it was democratic. Great Athenian orators often addressed this body. Means “Mars Hill,” where Paul preached the revelation of Christ. There was something about the nature of revolution in the name of God, i.e., larger implications in the name also meaningful ––proud conviction runs throughout Areopagatica that the English were a chosen people––second Israel. Leaders against abolition of customs, laws, etc. ––debates question of censorship as part of the machinery of government ––says notion of censorship borrowed originally from the counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church ––consistent with Catholic conception of things––utterly inconsistent with Protestant conception of Christian liberty ––censor represents in society the principle that the intelligent person speaks to the mass of society, which wants inertia. Censor can’t tell the

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difference between the prophet and the natural man. This was a crucial distinction for Milton. Nov. 6. Areopagatica is Milton’s clearest statement of Christian liberty ––two levels of thought (1) man originally created by God in a state of freedom. God tries to restore this state for man (a) through the work of reincarnation and (b) through the Last Judgment (2) paradise of freedom unfallen world Gospel tree of life wilderness of nature fallen world law tree of knowledge (good and evil) When God made the world he said that it was good. He would say that we have spoiled the world now. He is trying to give back to us a good world. ––in the sense that Adam fell because he was trying to get something good Two kinds of good ––original good––man’s freedom ––lower moral good, which is what man rescues in the fallen world of evil, by way of contrast. All moral goods assume that evil is antecedent to them. Man knows good through a knowledge of evil ––e.g. peace is the end of war mercy comes after evil ––The moral good of liberty in this world is a release from tyranny. After a few years, liberty will lapse back into tyranny, because of much responsibility involved in liberty. ––There has never been a mass desire for peace, liberty. Therefore, moral good in the fall is inseparably a part of evil. In Areopagatica Milton attacks the idea that you can get to be good by separating moral good from moral evil. This is the theory involved in censorship. Milton says you can’t run away from evil toward good because evil is something within you; the whole theory of good from innocence is therefore completely and utterly mistaken. ––Milton “I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue.”73 All attempts to make people good by sheltering them from evil don’t work. There are really no standards for distinguishing moral good from moral evil except those of convenience to society e.g. private murder is evil

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war is good if society determines it to be rape is morally evil marriage is good ––the kind of moral good you rescue isn’t real good––only temporary. Therefore, Milton says you can’t be saved by law. The attempt to become perfectly good through moral virtue ends in negation. Their good becomes more and more frivolous as they go on. They only way they succeed is by dropping dead (then). You can’t do anything. Death is the only logical end of morality––death through the negation of activity. In Milton, soul and body are very much one. Two forms of the world: one fallen, the other unfallen. Moral good covers everything in human life Real good is founded in the Christian conception of the incarnation ––God comes from the fallen world ––the good found in Christ’s life is very different from moral good ––Christ brought a tremendous explosion of energy which works in this life––of the world ––roughly consistent with a general moral pattern of behaviour ––the Pharisee and the criminal are equally fouled by the same machinery. Censors can’t distinguish between the force of the criminal and the force of the prophet. The censor’s force will make it impossible for the prophet to function. He would always choose the criminal as being less dangerous to society. The choice is always Barabbas, not Christ. The censor of society = the Pharisees. It is easy for man to say what power the Gospel has, because it always transcends his natural capacity. Attempt for the whole people to gain this liberty is an offering to God Man can’t gain his own salvation but he can knock down idols. Make way open for prophetic power ––censorship is a sinister move––back to the law and away from the Gospel. Man can’t distinguish the good book from the bad one. The process of censorship is certain to try to destroy the power of prophecy and certain to fail to destroy moral evil. In a crisis it turns out that serious writing is always hated by people who want to censor books.

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For Milton, religion depends on revelation (from God to man). In all revelation there’s the possibility of infinite growth on the part of sympathetic hearers. ––man believes in the adequacy of his own comprehension (the adequacy of God). This is another form of Pharisaism. It is ridiculous to suppose that man can reach this understanding. There is always the necessity for tolerance in religion. One is never sure if man is wrong or if he is totally right. Only certain truths are circular expressions. All certainties are boomerangs. Everything God says about man is certain in that it is fertile soil for growth. Never certain in the sense that propositions are. Human can never say “I fully understand this.” Therefore, there is no right doctrine and wrong doctrine. Gospel itself is the person that contains you in the long run. The Gospel understands you. By an effort of self-will to surrender to divine grace, man finds a resting place in his understanding of the Gospel. Can never rule out possibility that some new absurdity is actually the growth of the Gospel. Must always be some residual doubt (of one’s own mind) in religion. It is a kind of idolatry to try to measure yourself by an objective standard. The most effective idols are those of custom and tradition. The test of faith is to realize that you might have been wrong about anything at the time We all remain infants in mental and moral matters Have happiness in releasing the power of your own growth; cf. child–– releasing the power of his physical growth. Nov. 12. ––insufficiency of morality is Milton’s main frame of reference Areopagatica ––flattering self if you look for final sanctions in this ––two levels in Milton ––life, release of the Gospel ––bondage to law ––morality––stifles to the point where you cannot do anything ––central question of the Reformation was the Word of God as the authority versus the Church as authority ––the subordination of the Church to the Word of God means for Milton a less sharp distinction between the Church and the world. (This distinction is pronounced in Roman Catholicism.)

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Milton’s thought goes in the direction of breaking down the conception of the self-contained, autonomous Church Divorce pamphlets are anti-Episcopal pamphlets––suggests you can have temporal corruption within the Church ––Milton is technically outside of the Church. Not sanctioned as a priest. Feels he has spiritual authority for preaching, prophesying This is the fundamental reason for writing against censorship The real church is the total body of religious worship in society ––there is no heresy where there is a sincere desire to listen to the Word of God ––only God himself can define heresy. ––real heresy is to believe as you were told to believe without trying to understand your own belief ––the only heresy condemned in the Bible is that of not listening, in not bothering to try to understand ––it is hypocrisy to say you believe when you don’t. In the long run the attempt to build up unanimous consent on the doctrines of human society is really worship of the human mind. Sin is intellectual pride In the long run the only man who is a heretic is he who thinks everybody else is Areopagitica is one of the great manifestos of tolerance because of the principle it lays down that the mind of God is bigger than the mind of man. Areopagatica takes Milton right to the boundary of civil liberty Second civil war ––execution of Charles I ––Milton finding himself politically an important person as one of the few real intellectuals supporting the dictatorship Civil Liberty ––In his divorce pamphlets Milton seemed to be in the position of having to defend the Old Testament against the words of Jesus ––The Old Testament implies that God’s people are in a continuous state of rebellion. The Jews constantly rebelled but always failed ––extraordinary contrast in the spirit of the New Testament ––early Christians full of submission to the central magistrate, overthrew the Roman Empire. Therefore, it seems that submission was a more effective political weapon than rebellion. ––Christian Church is a community where all members are made equal by their faith. Therefore, the shape of the City of God is always square.

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Caesar’s kingdom is triangular. Caesar must come to terms with a free society in the middle of his kingdom ––same principle holds politically ––there is no liberty except Christian liberty. There is no such thing as a revolution of the people. There can only be a revolution by the people of God––the only kind which can be permanent and that has any chance of success ––in the Catholic Church, the pope is the head ––in Protestantism, the king is the head ––i.e. the Church as Church has no head but Christ. As a temporal institution it acknowledges the authority of the king ––render unto Caesar the things that are his, i.e. temporal society. Only God has a spiritual society Milton has no theories about the ideal form of society. There is only one ideal society: the City of God. If he has no objection to monarchy, etc. as such, no pattern of state government is laid down by God, as far as he can discover, in the Bible. ––objected to the tendency to use the monarchy as a kind of hideout for idolatry ––symbol of worship instead of symbol of God Christians resist any assault on their religion. (This brings Milton close to the conception of the Social Contract found later in Locke, by which he justified revolution of 1688.) Milton thinks in terms of the contract between God and God’s peoples ––this is a contract that is essential to keep ––Caesar must somehow fit into this contract Milton puts no trust in the people as people but puts trust in them as against the earthly king Tyrant––the projection of the innumerable acts of self-worship Tyrants have been imposed from without, in the last analysis but use the idols that the people themselves set up. No society seems to be able to maintain itself permanently in this situation ––Ideal societies are unstable because every human society is dependent on the grace of God for its maintenance. Cromwell belongs with the judges, not with the monarchy. Consistent as Word of God that leader can rise past the crises and help God’s people. Milton addresses Cromwell: you can’t be truly free unless we are free ourselves

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––in the world where there is slavery, the master is completely enslaved by his slaves––more dependent on his slaves than his slaves are on him. Therefore, there is no freedom of masters. There is wisdom in the Christian Church, but in the people as people there is no guarantee of wisdom because of original sin. Blake: If man were wise no tyrant could hurt him.74 If the free people insist on their freedom, soon the vast tyranny runs into its Waterloo. Milton is working towards driving the wedge between spiritual and temporal authority. ––Great gulf between people who want liberty and those who want mastery Nov. 13. 1. heaven––order 2. earth––disorder 3. hell––perverted order––direct counterpoint to heaven heaven––God is the absolute monarch––as unity ––freedom through attachment to the body of God ––Satan became detached from the body of Godĺ independent but not free hell––Satan as king––as dictator ––to serve Satan in hell is absolute slavery. man is torn between two kingdoms ––when man sets up the king, he should become the symbol of kingship in heaven ––but, societies constructed on demonic levels ––kings become dictators, etc. ––words that would apply to God become perverted in a demonic sense ––never the earthly king whose one aim was to set all people free. We think of the king at the top. That puts us at the bottom. Milton meets this argument: e.g. idea of divine right of kings ––must understand panic and fear of his opponents ––fatuity of the arguments he had to meet

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––kind of demoralized panic ––irritability in tone of the pamphlets ––but he was dealing with a panic-stricken people ––he feels contempt for democracy ––on the eve of Restoration people felt that bringing back king would restore trade ––people became fascinated by the glitter of the golden calf ––Milton felt that God had chosen the English people as his people They had forsaken worship of God in favour of this “golden calf.” ––felt relapse into monarchy was essentially idolatry ––England could have achieved her reformation through monarchy if Charles had agreed to the anti-Episcopal tracts Milton feels that the government he advocates is more mature and adequate than monarchy. Refers back to the Bible. Cromwell died in 1658; therefore, who was the supreme authority in the country? (1) authority was the right of the Rump Parliament, 1642 ––purged by Parliament in 1649. Dismissed 1652 (2) authority in fact was the army ––tendency to think in categories of hereditary monarchy ––army tried to put in Richard Cromwell as Protector. He resigned. Army finally surrendered to the king May 1660, Charles restored ––Feb. 1660: Milton’s pamphlet ––Rump Parliament should reassume its role as a perpetual power ––Long Parliament had passed law preventing king from dissolving Parliament. Parliament became the permanent legal authority of the country Milton wants a reaffirmation of this. Commons would become something like a senate––not monarchial or democratic ––no example in history of a permanently successful republic ––Milton’s precedents in history were senatorial rather than democratic ––wanted local magistrates in the counties ––aware of the chief problem in a democracy: how to combine federal and local authority ––counties should have as much of their own authority as possible Areopagatica––God wants to set man free

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––England made an effort to knock down idols in the 16th and 17th centuries ––God seems to be working with England ––no limits to the power of God’s Word —man might be returned to a free state “all of God’s people may become prophets”75 ––strong feeling that man may be advancing in history to an unfallen state ––by 1660, no longer so confident that the English people had caught the rhythm of the advance to freedom Israelites––wanted to get away from the slavery in Egypt ––no great desire to enter the Promised Land English––no great desire to get out of bondage and enter the heritage of their freedom. ––division between the divine and the demonic, like the division between the spiritual and the temporal ––temporal authority is drawn to the demonic ––spiritual authority is drawn to emancipation ––no temporal authority here ––in the Church, which is the attempt of human society to mirror heavenly order, there should be no temporal law (e.g. penal offenses against Jewish religion) ––this = law versus Gospel ––the process of excommunication may be necessary, but should never be the temporal act of jailing, fines, etc. ––heretic is one who holds views against what Christianity stands for ––should be corrected by spiritual authority, not jail sentences ––in his treatise on Civil Power Milton says “heresy” is a “smear term”76 ––variety of opinion is a much safer guide to truth than insistence on unity of belief ––toleration is a consequence of the separation of Church and state ––Protestant position is irreconcilable with Catholic position, which assumes that the Pope has both spiritual and temporal authority ––the real bishop is one who has spiritual authority in the Church ––role of the apostle is not one who hires and fires ––Milton has no ideal structure in mind––no more opposed to bishops theoretically than to monarchs theoretically

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Education ––wants to see some kind of paternal organization clamp down on people ––can set people free only through education, and that is a long-term process ––two forms of organization: (1) mind––individual organization (2) body––social obligation, e.g. body politic ––structure of individual comparable to that of society ––shows difference between absolute monarchy of God and demonic type of monarchy to which man turns. ––the only free person is the rigorously disciplined person who has set up a dictatorship in the mind ––-strong will acts against flesh and irrationality ––cf. Plato: the free man’s mind Society = aggregate of individuals ––can’t apply to society the discipline of the mind ––temporal authority must be more indulgent than spiritual authority Temporal authority can punish the thief. Spiritual authority prevents the impulse to steal. Education has a central place in the community. The wise man carries on as though the republic of Plato were set up. Nov. 19. ––tract on education puts Milton in line with the whole educational tendency of Renaissance humanism i.e. beginning of a new conception of education in the classical revival ––involves conception of the total body of things people ought to know ––encyclopedic idea of education ––humanists thought ancients had written authoritatively on every aspect of education ––models for philosophy, history, arts, etc. ––In the Renaissance, this was geared to a certain conception of society ––prince was the most notable person to be educated ––Faerie Queene was in some respects the “ideal” education ––Milton thinks that knowledge of Greek and Latin literature was knowledge of the definitive sources of education ––Christian revelation fulfills and emancipates education by showing its whole meaning

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––people who were going to learn were people with potential social responsibility ––some legal and administrative knowledge ––can’t distinguish training of the mind and the body ––Milton assumes the old Platonic idea ––two aspects of education––peace, war ––assumption Milton makes because education is for life in society ––conceives curriculum for students 12–18 (essential thing in any education) ––reading lists are to some extent stuffed ––gives names whose works have been lost. Just there to look impressive and indicate general content or direction of study ––impelled to write on education: interest in it at this time ––general structure of education not radically altered at Cambridge ––After the Reformation a different slant given to it ––Milton objected to this kind of education the same way Francis Bacon did ––only the adult can take in the reality of abstractions and generalizations ––therefore, educators were ending where they should begin ––education should follow the natural curves of the human mind Milton shows unusual interest for his day in the practical, manipulative side of education ––Puritans very interested in the development of science ––felt that science and religion were in completely different planes ––Milton’s program: to train pupils in practical techniques. ––boarding school assumed that thorough education demands everything from students ––no moment of one’s life is not potentially educational ––our present society fosters the retarding of adolescence ––prejudices against learning are prevalent We may feel that Milton demands the maximum. Remember that we today demand the minimum. ––Milton unconsciously eliminates the organic difficulties in learning which take place when the mind is growing ––the rate of learning is slowed down by this process

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e.g. ––Milton assumes grammar means Latin grammar ––learning of Greek also fundamental ––Milton himself was an unusually fluent linguist ––suggests learning Latin in “odd hours” ––should know Hebrew Milton eliminates theory of education. Puts emphasis on practice of it ––no such thing as the subject of education. This was the merit of Renaissance education as a pseudo-subject ––means of establishing contact with real subjects ––Milton was aware of the insufficiency of mental training which is not absorbed into the personality ––concrete should precede abstract and be the coping stone of the abstract e.g. in the study of English: 1st conception of correct speech 2nd abstract stage ––highest reaches of literary training are poetic, not philosophical because poetry is more concrete. Poetry is more “simple, sensuous, passionate”77 (closest he gets to the definition of poetry); sensuous = derived directly from sense experience. To some extent Milton incorporates his own ambition about structure by putting Christianity as a coping stone. ––for all education, epic is the highest literary form ––the barrage of propaganda encourages the 20th-century student to remain in the adolescent stage ––powerful, ruthless method of education Only remedy is absolute insistence on the authority of education Just as much impersonal authority in the humanities as in the sciences English literature should train you into a situation of the mind where you see that the great works of literature pass judgment on you. Nov. 20. Introduction to Paradise Lost ––about 1640 Epitaphium Damonis ––Trinity manuscript: notes and jottings for a possible epic work ––open speech of Satan, Book IV ––written about 1640 as an opening for a tragedy

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––beginning to be dissatisfied with the legendary aspect of the Arthurian legend ––had the choice of doing what Spenser did over again or finding a different subject ––these are a few of the places that give hints of the epic that is coming. Renaissance: admiration of the classics and Christianity led to attempts to rewrite the great epics in Christian terms e.g. Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered ––the greatest Italian poet of the 17th century––theme was the First Crusade ––this theme becomes a Christian allegorical theme ––secular counterpart for achieving New Jerusalem, City of God and of the battling of the forces of darkness But the problem still remains: In Christian terms what is the hero and what is the epic? What is the religious significance? Milton was sick with what the world calls “heroism” at the time he wrote Paradise Lost. ––In Christian terms heroism is more likely to be suffering passively for the sake of virtue. ––i.e. the real hero is he who endures injustice of all kinds for the sake of bearing witness to God. What is an act? ––on what terms can chopping other people’s skulls be called an act? ––conscious, directed, purposeful action was of no importance to the person interested in human nature ––otherwise, just a manifestation of energy divine order act of creation (redemption) human disorder act of disobedience (i.e., throwing away possibility of acting) demonic perverted order act of rebellion (destruction)–– involves an attempted rivalry with God but as more appearance of the act about it than disobedience is. This paradox is central in many of Milton’s poems.

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E.g. if man doesn’t jump he seems to be not acting but actually is preserving his ability to act. Once the nature of the act becomes clear, it is easier to tell who the hero of Paradise Lost is Adam and Eve––naughty children ––this makes them more typically human than if they were at all heroic Christ is the hero of Paradise Lost by default ––displays the consistent power of creative act ––therefore, sets pattern of genuine heroic action of human life Abdiel––caught among rebellious angels ––revival ––goes back to his own people ––this sets the real heroic pattern of human life. Such a man finds himself in a society given over to the devil. Denounces it and as a result meets with persecution, ridicule, etc. The imitation of Christ as heroism What was the traditional theme of heroism in the classical and medieval romance? ––transferred to Satan. Incorporates traditional theme ––sort of mock heroic all through Paradise Lost ––Satan, like Achilles, doesn’t lack courage but more courage of ferocity than chivalry ––study of revenge and mortal hate ––Satan, like Ulysses, is wily in many devices––gets through one danger after another. Sets out alone ––as his character develops, he insensibly takes on the form of a dragon that the knight should go out and kill ––By rebelling against God he assumes he also is God. There can be no God between them. There can only be fate or chance ––prompts disobedience of Adam and Eve ––after the flood, distinction between rebellion and disobedience was established in human life ––tyrant set up. Image of temporal power ––represents construction of human society on the pattern of the demonic ––Satan the dictator. Kind of military leader of the school of Achilles, King Saul, etc. Monarch is a good image of God, but must remember that the tyrant is demonic and worship of the demonic is idolatry. Note that everything in heaven has a counterpart in hell ––natural tendency of society is to look at the demonic counterpart rather than the reality

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––treat real redeemer with ridicule, hatred when he comes Nimrod––represents setting up the first demonic kingdom ––first king mentioned in the Bible ––Milton has him building the Tower of Babel ––perfect symbol. Ambitious to build a tower that would reach heaven Epic: narrative sequence and total action: the two actions usually differ e.g. most story tellers begin at interesting point and stop when you’ve got all you need ––traditional for epic to begin in medias res (as Horace put it) ––in all stories there is a feeling of a total action that is somewhat cyclic in nature ––e.g. Odyssey––concerned with Ulysses’ attempt to get back home; therefore, we assume he came from that home in the first place However, that is not the action of the poem ––begins as far away from Ithaca as Ulysses ever gets ––action moves simultaneously forward and backward ––same pattern in the Iliad, though the action is more dramatic––the poem is less typically epic ––begins at a point furthest removed from the capture of Troy ––incidental allusions give the whole story In the Aeneid, the conception of the total action is a little closer to the Christian one. Runs from Troy to the New Troy. ––cyclic action is more sophisticated than Homer’s ––action ultimately is an ordering and creating one founds city––old city reappearing on spot Paradise Lost is a very symmetrical treatment of the same cycle ––prophecy of Michael tells what is going to happen––covers the whole of human history ––Raphael––These two angels between them carry the action back to the beginning and forward to the end Nov. 26. Milton’s long period of study in preparation bore fruit in the final result ––completed in 1665. Published in 1667. ––opening of Book IX ––Muse––dictating “Easy my unpremeditated verse.” [bk. 8, l. 23]

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––makes Paradise Lost more readable than most epics ––extraordinary pains to get every detail right ––not a letter out of place e.g., Sheba always appears as Saba ––makes whole sound pattern of the line different Milton is aware of the splutter of consonants in the English language and so avoids too many “sh” sounds ––carefully reproduces “admiral” as “ammiral” [bk. 1, l. 294] ––proper spelling of “island” should be “iland.”78 Milton thought that a blind man didn’t want “s” seen in this word even when it wasn’t pronounced ––uses a large number of words of Latin origin with a thorough knowledge of Latin behind them. Must be read with some sense of their original weight, power, and vigorousness ––e.g. “astonished”––struck with thunder [bk. 1, l. 266] “frequent”––crowded [bk. 1, l. 797] “exploded”––hissed off the stage “horrid”––bristly (also has something of this modern meaning) [bk. 1, l. 51] “cherub”–carube––gigantic and powerful angel [bk. 1, l. 157] Metre––blank verse ––normally ten beats in the line Two poetical origins in the English language ––iambic imported ––native Anglo-Saxon: four beats. Some with ten-syllable lines when read naturally turn into four-beat lines One rhythm infuses the other Paradise Lost has a very rhythmical bounce In Pope the rhythmical beat coincides with the metrical one ––makes the line sonorous, powerful, effective for satire ––the four-beat line is musical in its associations. One of the subsidiary rhythms of the verse is the rhythm of prose. In Paradise Lost there is a sequence of verse paragraph units as well as just one line after another. This is a third rhythm running across the other two. e.g. Book I, line 100: impressive pause in the middle of the line.79 Milton uses a fair number of long words (because of the Latin origins). A monosyllabic word has the accent (though perhaps a slight one). Roaring line of ten monosyllabic words in one line needs longer words to give the line more bounce, rhythm, flow.

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The English language is very rich in onomatopoeia e.g. Ebenezer Scrooge––miser ––also a general pattern of onomatopoeia ––certain vowels and consonants have certain effects; e.g. “s” sounds like the hissing of a snake are used in Paradise Lost where serpents appear ––“w” suggests awe, loneliness, terror or isolation Milton’s writing is a kind of orchestration Book III, line 410––suddenly orchestration swings into a heavy rest80 Enormous number of things can be done even at its simplest (the ten-syllable line) ––broken line with two heavy beats in the middle can give a very ominous impression ––Milton uses it rarely but gains tremendous effect by it ––line 1 starts with a downbeat and then picks up the speed ––e.g. “Hurled headlong flaming from ethereal sky” [bk. 1, l. 45] Use of proper names: ––to summon up a kind of dim and vague background atmosphere ––brooding gloom, mystery, darkness conveyed by the names of heathen gods used in the Nativity Ode ––used if what the god is is mock heroic ––surround devils with an aura of chivalry and romance. Something vague, half-forgotten, yet somehow ominous Extraordinarily difficult to create the effect of fallen angels. Milton has performed a great technical feat in doing this. Even the devils of Dante are like evil monkeys, repulsive. Medieval artists showed evil as contemptible. Didn’t show that they had a profound attraction for humanity and were awe-inspiring. Something powerfully magnetic about Milton’s Satan. The particular kind of detachment Milton preserves isn’t found in Shakespeare. You never say “poor Satan” as you do “poor Macbeth.” Nov. 27. ––atmosphere of Book I: mysterious darkness; a few sinister lights burning ––wonderful piece of painting ––lights turn out to be huge eyes of the archangel ––associations of romance, chivalry Of all forms of literature, romance is closest to dream

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––threshold symbol in all dreams Paradise Lost begins with the action advanced ––world where angels have already fallen (cf. Alice in Wonderland falling) ––sense of misery, depression ––Il Penseroso mood––it is actually a mood of pleasure ––feeling of somber beauty ––also isolation, terror ––association with localities––isolation, desertion e.g. Egypt––plague, darkness ––great volcanic regions ––sea with great mysterious monsters (Leviathan: symbol of the demonic in the Bible) Unmitigated darkness Eyes glowing in the dark Various cloudy masses and shapes form Gradual order Sudden burst of light as angels draw swords Construction of palace Book ends on atmosphere of intense glitter ––the burning, shrouded in light ––Oriental fairytale atmosphere in Castle of Pandemonium “light / As from a sky” [bk. 1, ll. 729–30] ––suggests hell is a false replica or parody of heaven ––names hover around the strange tribes which outskirt the promised land ––Egypt of one side, Babylon on the other Sequence of speeches work out a kind of dialectic of evil as they go along. ––government of hell is a parody of that of heaven ––freedom of each member of heaven is the communion with others ––hell is the beginning of the set structure of fallen life. Dictator, inner council, men awaiting orders, etc. Heaven––cubical or square (Empyrean) World Chaos Hell ––world is an entire cosmos ––it was created as a result of the angels falling ––paradise is the middle of the universe (world)

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––spheres around it 1. four elements 2. planets 3. fixed stars 4. crystalline sphere 5. primum mobile Milton not interested in the details of this system––didn’t believe in it ––he met Galileo ––only universe that made poetic sense was one with man at its centre ––combines poetic effects with Ptolemaic and Copernican universes ––Dante’s hell was at the centre of the earth ––Mount Purgatory stretches toward the moon on the other side of the earth ––paradise: spheres with the seven planets Milton puts his heaven and hell outside the earth ––Ptolemaic sense of the universe with man at the centre But, gives sense of the universe of loneliness, etc. conveyed by the universe’s without man at the centre. A baroque poem––light, shade, disproportion ––In contrast, Dante’s poem is most symmetrical Thronged with people Milton deliberately disproportions his poem ––good deal of sense that what seems absurd according to reason may be an accident of fate (common 17th-century idea––seen in Thomas Browne)81 ––fits Ptolemaic–-Copernican universe of the Book of Genesis (1) light (2) firmament––waters above––crystalline sphere––waters below––the elemental waters Milton uses heaven in two senses Heaven of the sky we know If fallen angels can capture the universe, they’ll be at a strategic point to destroy the creator in the heavens ––Satan has to find a way to the primum mobile to get through the crack in it ––only crack in it is opening to heaven (hence story of Jacob’s ladder) ––Satan gets through crack and down through spheres to the planets ––two crises in his journey (1) meets sin and death at the boundary of hell and chaos (2) sees earth dangling from the battlements of heaven as pendants from a necklace

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––finds crack. Has to pass sphere of sun on the way. Guarded by Uriel. Gets by in disguise From there lets himself down into the sphere of the four elements (which we know as the earth) Satan’s wife and the daughter of sin ––sin becomes his mistress ––death is the result of this union Only place Milton uses this kind of personification of allegory. A trinity united in incest. On the journey Satan is forced to reveal himself more and more for what he is ––hint that evil is a matter of expediency as well as defiance ––becomes more and more repulsive as he nears paradise ––assumes form of animals not yet fallen ––anticipates their later fall of ferocious beasts ––form that fits him is that of a serpent ––his courage is more and more superfluous. Expedient to attack weakness Promethean Satan in Book I begins to look a little remote Problem for Milton ––follow Genesis in cursing the serpent ––follow the New Testament in saying serpent is Satan in disguise Gets around this by saying that Satan is form in which he can best understand the nature of evil Satan no longer has any vitality ––enclosed ego. That of pride. ––centre of reality in himself and nowhere else ––dungeon. Sense of spiritual isolation. Oneself. ––has been given a ghastly parody with the gift of immortality. Dying is an act of surrender. Satan is the undying ego in the eternal eye Dec. 3. Book II. Council of Devils––developing argument is something like that of Paradise Regained ––works out dialectic of evil through a series of speeches Moloch wants to renew the conflict on heaven ––evil as active antagonist of good Belial (means worthlessness. Sons of Belial in the Bible are men without souls) ––draws arguments from the chain of being

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—in Paradise Lost some of the spirits who revolted had been plunged down below chaos ––a profoundly unnatural movement ––wants everyone to sit tight––they’ll naturally rise up to their natural place in the scheme of things ––conception of evil as negation Manicheans: dualists. The religion arose in Persia 200 years before Christ ––good and evil are equal antagonists ––when Satan revolts against heaven he becomes a Manichean Pantheist view: there is no such thing as evil. Both Pantheist and Manichean views are rejected by Christianity. In Christianity the treatment of evil is a paradox morally––positive metaphysically––a negation. A privation of good (cf. conception of cold in physics) Eternally, evil is a void––that which is not. Neither viewpoint exhausts the meaning of evil Mammon: evil as a parody of good ––man is drawn either toward the source of good and creativity or to its parody ––naturally attracted toward the demonic order ––proposes setting up the kingdom of hell which is a parody of that in heaven (sort of doctrine of isolation) ––doesn’t realize the psychological pull the cosmos has exercised on man. Both the divine and the demonic are attracted to the central pole which is human life ––active antagonist of good, so must attack ––negation, so must destroy Beelzebub: evil as temptation of good ––devil’s parody of grace ––sin: an active state of resistance to good Moloch and Belial are personified as sin and the wife of the daughter of Satan Satan’s grandson is death ––the heart of sin is negation. Expression in man as the renunciation of life in favour of death.

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The wages of sin is death ––the conception of original sin is another way of expressing the fact that man is mortal. ––the role of death in man is different from that in the devils ––Satan and the fallen angels can’t let go of anything or surrender their lives to death. Pure ego ––terrified by the notion of annihilation Journey of Satan through chaos ––deliberate vagueness in Milton’s language ––number of words capitalized ––can’t be sure if personification or not ––this vagueness is deliberate. Trying to calculate the world which is neither life nor death. Milton’s Doctrine of Creation ––steers middle course ––as material must have been coeternal with God, this is impossible. Must mean there had been a previous creation ––orthodox doctrine is that he made it out of nothing. Still, indicates that God made it out of something. Would be clearer to say he did not make it out of anything. ––leads to the doctrine that everything God made is God. This is not so. Devil, etc. aren’t God, but creations of God Milton’s solution: Creation took place de Deo, i.e. from God ––Milton conceives the origin of matter negatively. That part of creation in which God choose not to extend himself ––God creates angels by withdrawing himself from them enough to make them sufficient and independent beings. He retracts from things he has made. The operation of God is seen differently at different stages in the chain of being. The highest stages are so independent they have the choice of whether they’ll worship him or not (i.e. whether they’ll remain attached to His being). From his higher creation God doesn’t want automatic response. Spirits and men have free will. Animals, plants, minerals and chaos have existence but no power of choice God’s will seen by the angels ––world of direct vision ––understood his power of intelligence Man, since the fall, can’t understand the will of God so directly

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––conceives of the universal will and purpose in terms of fate and fortitude, as a mysterious power Animals and plants ––fulfill the law of their being ––half-way between automatism and choice, i.e., instinct Minerals ––automatism. Presumably, the law of God is that the law of gravitation works Chaos ––luck, chance ––e.g. episode of Satan falling––hits cloud and then bounces back. Shows that it is God’s will for Satan to get to attack Adam and Eve Milton’s argument reflects the old problem of trying to explain a bad world from a good God. Dec. 4. ––steers a middle course between the view that matter is co-eternal with God (Manichean) and the view that God made the world out of nothing Matter must be something fundamentally good in Christian thought ––no conception of the soul without the body ––instead, references to the spiritual body Milton says in Book II that a curse was put on chaos at the creation of the universe. Becomes part of the empire of the demonic ––as a result of Satan’s victory over Adam, chaos comes pouring into the cosmos (Book X) Before the fall earth spun on its bottom with the climate being temperate and constant After the fall it leans sinfully and the seasons alternate. Coming of birds of prey. Book II ends with Satan on the outer bounds of the cosmos Book III begins with a blaze of light ––the first impression that heaven makes ––contrast with the opening of Book I ––becomes more and more aware of the ordered society ––device of turning God the Father into a gramophone record repeating the creed ––poetic failure

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––has committed a grave theological blunder ––God unknowable except through his son ––Milton accepted this but made the mistake in terms of his own theology ––in one sense this is the very crux of the poem ––puts justification for his argument in the mouth of God ––God put baited mousetrap in front of Adam ––when he nibbles, trap springs ––wasn’t compelled, so God is not responsible fallacy: can’t split off action from thought in this way when dealing with a divine being. God must have known he was creating a being who would fall God made ridiculous. Why did Milton feel impelled to put his argument in the poem? If man has been framed by God, this results in fatalism. Removes idea of a wise over-ruling Providence in favour of a perpetual motion machine. ––If God knew man was going to fall, he was nothing but a first cause of everything, including man’s fall ––This is the opposite of Milton’s real view, that man’s fall is his own fault ––Milton tries to separate God’s view of man from God’s action on man in order to show that God’s will expresses itself in wanting to redeem Adam and not to make him fall cf. dipsomaniac ––inevitability of his spending money on more drink ––possibility of greater freedom ––not created by the dipsomaniac In the story of Adam we see the event that seems to be the inevitable result of the previous event, but it isn’t ––none of the events preceding the fall are actually inevitable ––at each step there is the possibility of freedom Providence = the foreseeing of power Love is not a process of self-hypnosis but a clairvoyant sense of what they [sic] are and desire of it [sic] and what you can [do?] for them Milton is trying to put God in a kind of relationship to man where his love for man will be intelligible ––the real answer (one Milton knew) is that you can’t work one out in terms of good and evil at all, but the conflict of life and death. Good and evil are equally parts of forbidden knowledge.

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God––Adam ––exact relation of the poet of the tragedy for the hero of the tragedy ––angels in heaven form a sort of Greek chorus in the divine tragedy ––the difficulty is inherent in the whole Christian theology ––the way to get around it is to create a poetic illusion Council of Heaven in Book III closely parallels council of devils in Book II ––hesitation––volunteer steps forward ––whole question becomes defined as a conflict between Christ and Satan Milton is not a humorous poet ––description of limbo of vanities ––uncalled for attack on Catholic Church (cf. person who gripes under the cover of a joke) ––limbo of vanities represents the extreme limits of the reputed human will when it seeks to get salvation by its own efforts ––make the assault on heaven which falls just short of heaven (exactly what happens to Satan) ––same motives which prompted Satan ––people who’ve tried to take the kingdom by either violence or fraud (the two aspects: Moloch and Belial principles ––somewhat of a parody of the Catholic doctrine of purgatory (cf. Mephistopheles appearing as a monk in Faustus. Same idea of Satan meeting himself coming the other way) Book III––theme of hypocrisy ––medium of disguise is a central one for Satan Satan is working out the inner logic of evil Tragic hero: bound to accept the logic of the critical situation they are driven into by the act of free will. Once you jump, all that follows is inevitable. Dec. 10. ––cosmology of the epic poem is part of its poetic shape ––cosmology in Milton has two aspects: (1) range of action––spatial dimension (2) great chain of being ––two poles are form and matter

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––one level of the chain of being as a formal principle in itself e.g. primate of plants is a rose; that is, it is the clearest manifestation of the formal principle Difficult to determine where the material passed into the spiritual ––divided more into groups of fluids which were substances on border between the natural and the spiritual (1) digestive spirits ––transformed food into shape which can be assimilated by the human body (spiritual) (2) cordial spirits, grouped around heart ––had to do with the blood stream and with feelings and emotions (3) animal spirits grouped around brain ––point where physical passes into intellectual In Milton conflict of God and Satan has not only a moral but also a physical connotation ––Satan’s victory in Book X is a parody victory of chaos over order ––world of tropics, birds of prey, etc. is a half-chaotic world Book II defines the nature of Satan as the emissary from chaos as well as from hell ––point of attack is by Eve, not Adam directly ––she is the link between humanity and the animal world ––strategy he uses on people is to suggest dreams; i.e. digestive spirits churning to where animal spirits should be. Dreams represent for Milton desire, wish fulfillment which wells up in the lower part of being. Satan churns up in Eve a disordered, chaotic state. Whenever this happens, the result is pride. The person loses his sense of perspective. The dream is completely Freudian––wants the one thing she can’t have. Gets sense exultation from the image of the tree by eating of the tree, you become like God, knowing good and evil. When she awakes her animal spirits are in control, but the image has been planted. Action in Book IX follows closely on action of Book V. Eve’s dream has given her a sense of individuality. Wants to get off by herself. Thinks of isolation as luxury. In itself this is sinless. But Eve has been defined as a target of Satan’s attack. Devil disguises self as a serpent––at that time a splendid animal that slid around on its rear. ––flattery. Eve surprised he can talk. ––“into the Heart of Eve his words made way” [bk. 9, l. 50]––i.e. past consciousness

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––must take into account the inner state of Eve and not outward actions. She is not stopping to think. Sense of self-sufficiency is gaining on her ––confronted with the physical tree. She repeats all of the devil’s ideas as if they were her own. Effect of that was that woman became the entering wedge to the lower, fallen world. After eating the fruit, Eve bows to the tree ––an act of idolatry ––an act of confidence. Contract with fallen world. She is now a temptress. ––very evident in her intoxicated speech. Sense of the inscrutable, withdrawn. Remoteness from heaven. Resents thought of being watched by God. With pride come feelings of jealousy. Other things are related to her now as possessions. Everything she comes in contact with must be subordinate to her, possessed by her. This only became natural human feelings at the moment of the fall. Fall of Adam goes by in a few lines. ––can stay with God or attach self to the fairest of the creatures ––Eve is now primate to the fallen world ––decides to stay with Eve. A chivalrous decision. Milton wants the reader to feel he would have done the same in Adam’s place––i.e. other[s] must be involved in the fall of Adam. Man’s primary knowledge in this world is of evil. Moral good is what he salvages from it, i.e., he knows good through evil. The tree of life is one of the things that is identical with Christ, “the true vine” ––restored by man finally ––God does not want man to live forever in a fallen world Whole process of pride has in it a paradoxical quality which goes with being self-contained ––exultant––feeling of release ––actually the worst of all prisons Volcanic surging up––but on chain of being, whatever goes up must come down. Milton interprets the whole of the Byronic part to the Victorian movement ––trying to get clothes, hide under trees, ––naked, resent being looked at

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––sense of deep melancholy, associated with the noble savage ––Byronic sense of being cast out of society This is the working out of the state of pride. Human nature is not self-sufficient Working of sexual lust ––sex relations there before the fall. Changed after the fall. ––before: expression of Adam’s love for Eve ––after: expression of lust. Desire of a man for a woman. Simply seeking some object of gratification ––before: a union of bodies ––after: mutual possession of bodies, one by the other Dec. 11. Books IX and X––rigorously planned action ––speech of Raphael introduces Adam to figure of Christ ––Adam has met him previously only as a creator ––first introduces incident of the beginning of the son by the Father ––all through Paradise Lost there are a number of puns on the word “day” ––God has a foggy conception of time because He is living in eternity ––“This day I have begot whom I declare. My only Son” [bk. 5, l. 603–4] ––the son doesn’t exist in time but from eternity. To create is to create in time ––this is the first moment of manifestation, i.e. the epiphany (Mark and John begin with the epiphany, i.e., Jesus being baptized, presented by God). Christ’s action is symbolic: defeat of Satan creation out of chaos creation of Adam fall of Adam

cleansing of temple command of the sea incarnation temptation

––for Paradise Regained must be understood as the temptation of Adam and the temptation of Christ ––God is talking about Christ’s first manifestation of the angels. Milton’s account of Christ begins with the epiphany Abdiel is a type of the Christian hero for Milton

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––Christ’s manifestation of heaven in the middle of Book V God––time as eternal present Angels––time as energy and eternal life (sense of Presence) Unfallen man––a little lower than the angels but still not temporary Fallen man––time as temporary duration Devils––time as unending ––Hebrew language can’t distinguish past, present, and future ––convenient for speeches of the prophets ––unity is not uniformity ––likeness is not identity ––accepting more than one mood is the expression of imaginative energy, e.g., moods of both Il Penseroso and L’Allegro ––sense of the alternation of evening and morning that the angels have are present in the divine Being. The divine nature is one but not monotonous. A unity that implies variety ––a mood of manifestation of the divine presence which we would interpret on that level of time. At the time of Adam’s creation, the human mind understood God’s creativity as time, and that time has not got an order to it. The whole action converges on a conception of the significant moment. From God’s point of view, the moment he is manifested, incarnated. From our point of view, the moment Adam chooses against God ––conception of the significant moment has returned in the existentialists. War in heaven anticipates the cleansing of heaven. On the third day, the fallen angels have some success. Son of God triumphs over death and hell ––on the third day we see only the rising Son, not the fallen angels ––sense of a volcano lurking in the back of Milton’s mind ––explosive upward movement of sulphur ––Guy Fawkes Day. Poem on gunpowder plot is his earliest poem about Satan. ––instruments of destruction buried in the ground: gunpowder and gold ––two kinds of gold––(1) unfallen, that the heavenly city is built of and that is reflected in the stars (2) demonic reflection of heavenly gold ––Pandemonium built on gold. When devils invade they will take on the sense of a demonic parody Book VIII––a blemish? willful obscurity on Milton’s part

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––Ptolemaic universe more adaptable poetically to his end ––feeling he has rationally a purely poetic choice ––must not imagine Satan as a mouthpiece for Milton ––also don’t need to take Raphael’s speech as a mouthpiece for Milton ––must be read in character and in its context; therefore, it takes on more shape ––simply talking to Adam, Raphael is a voice of revelation. Tells Adam the kind of knowledge he needs for salvation Centre of your universe is always where you are. Therefore, Ptolemaic universe is always the imaginatively right one ––temptation comes from without. Adam needs inner strength to resist it ––Raphael is cautious not to get Adam in a state of mind where he’ll start idolizing. Doesn’t want him to contemplate the outer world at this point ––end of Book VIII. Adam says he adores Eve. Raphael proceeds to bawl him out. Raphael is right because this did turn out to be the cause of Adam’s fall. Dec. 17. ––certain amount of humour between Raphael and Adam ––Raphael doesn’t know the answers to all the questions he’s asked ––Adam has to be careful of idolatry Speech of Michael in Book XII ––balances that of Raphael ––Raphael’s speech tells speech parallel to the fall of Adam as a warning [sic] Message of revelation that takes the form of a parable ––prophecy. Just as important as though it were superb poetry Milton thinks of self as transmitting a great story. Derives a greatness from greatness of theme. By first producing a poem in ten books and not twelve he was defying epic tradition. When he put it in twelve books in the second edition, the proportions were right even though no alterations were made except a word or two in the opening lines. ––presents moral of the poem and moral and political meaning of the poem. Shows Milton’s original ambition to write a national epic. ––casts Bible in the shape of Milton’s religious beliefs Extraordinary work of pleading for his views ––division between Books XI and XII marks the point at which the human being becomes demonic. After the flood comes, the period of devil

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worship. Tower of Babel represents rivalry against God––associated with Nimrod, its founder. Actively rebellious as the Titans of Greek mythology were. Element of parody comes into human life ––person is free when in absolute control over his body. Automatic discipline not a sense of bondage ––government in heaven should have the same kind of organization and unity as the human body has. Freedom and liberty are opposites of anarchy and license. ––can’t put this organization of society without hideous tyranny resulting. This shows how one is the parody of the other. Human life swings from the merely disobedient to the actively rebellious when it sets up a pattern of the government of hell (military dictatorship) within the self. The structure of order looks the same but is exactly the opposite. Nimrod brings a society organized in classes, military leadership at the top. Society takes this form when it has become capable of worshipping devils. Paradise Lost tries to define the nature of the hero and the epic. ––kind of mock heroic epic included––Satan hero ––traditional hero has become a Satanic type of heroism ––true hero as follower, imitator of Christ Abdiel is the faithful angel. Normal course of his life will be the opposite of human society. Must take path of renunciation––martyrdom, ridicule, persecution. Reason why Milton didn’t write Paradise Lost in the original model with Arthur as hero is a political moral of the story. Instead, How did man lose his liberty? Why did the attempts to regain liberty fail? liberty –– hesitation –– bondage ––

divine –– human –– demonic ––

creation disobedience rebellion

–– –– ––

reason will passions

Adam faced with the choice of preserving liberty or throwing it away. That is, choice between losing or retaining power of choice. Choice to lose and power to choose Should have chosen choice In Areopagatica Milton says “Reason is but choosing”82 is the possession of liberty. Passions

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In expressing, selves take the form of a parody of liberty. The person who does what he likes obeys his reason––which states as such that our passions appear to us as a thirst for freedom and that reason appears to us as external obligation. This opposition is the real state of affairs. In this way Michael explains to Adam the loss of freedom. Book XII, line 79. Intricate passage.83 ––puts parallelism between individual and social order in the right perspective. Things will inevitably happen if you enter into the realm where fate is supreme; e.g. a man who jumps enters a field where fate takes charge and automatic consequence follows. The working of grace in Milton is the renewal in man of the power to choose. Hell is pure fate. Progression of time there is absolutely inevitable. In the sight of man, Christ and his followers look rebellious because opposed to the dictator which is the order in human society. Abdiel looks rebellious but is actually attached to the real source of order and liberty. Milton considers Episcopal prelacy demonic because founded on the temple of authority Tyrant is a projection of human inertia, passion, love of bondage. A nation can’t regain its liberty except by becoming wise, listening to the voice of reason (question he dealt with in the prose pamphlets) Dec. 18. Three stages of vision of man that fallen man gets according to Milton’s conception of the Bible MOSES 1. vision of the law. Israel versus chosen people. Allegory ––means by which man rescues his idea of moral good from the reality of moral evil ––law brings knowledge of moral good and means of distinguishing moral good from moral evil ––Milton is thinking about Jewish Old Testament law ––law has no power. It is a kind of allegory of the redeeming power Michael’s prophecy moves forward to the second stage JESUS 2. vision of the Gospel––Israel as God’s people. Revelation JESUS 3. actual transformation, regeneration of man SECOND COMING. vision of apocalypse. Israel as one with God. Eternal life.

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In Paradise Lost you get the feeling that the garden of Eden is a bit like kindergarten. They are naughty children. Outgrow Eden. This contradicts the doctrine of the fall. Whole of Christianity as one paradox of the doctrine of “felix culpa.” Milton says that since man has fallen God put forth greater act of redemption so it looks now as if it were a good thing for Adam to fall. We get a better Eden back than that which Adam and Eve left ––not a place but a state of existence. Inside, not outside, the mind. End of Book X. Garden of Eden was washed before the world of the flood ––contradicts Dante ––even in Columbus’ time, notion that it lingered somewhere in the world Part of Milton’s attack on idolatry. New Eden had been something springing up in their minds. A parallel. Prophecy that Michael gradually extracts from the Bible. Old allegory of the two cities. City of God, city of the Earth Nimrod––city of destruction. Where is the city of God? vision 1––Jerusalem vision 2––Church vision 3––body of Christ Effect of fall on Adam and Eve is estrangement from each other. They have two separate egos, two solitudes. Book IX ends in an atmosphere of each person locked up in a jail of his own ego. Being linked together though in a society of closeness and intimacy that wasn’t there before. They go out of garden together hand in hand. Sign that seed of real human society that will eventually become a new Eden in the body of Christ that has been sown. Still symbolize a society tighter and more powerful than anything Nimrod can break. Paradise Lost ends in the most impressive tribute to marriage perhaps in all literature. Solitary no longer means two solitudes but one human society solitary from the rest of the world. Adam and Eve knit together as they have never been before. Direction of the argument in Books X and XII is toward isolating of the hero. ––Absorption of people in the city of destruction ––Civil wars, unrest before the coming of Christ ––Jesus born in obscurity. Completely isolated from his country and exiled from his earthly birthright. ––Church steps in and takes over.

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Follower of Christ always isolated from the world ––prophecy of the woes of the Church (as well as prophecy of the end of the world––traditional reading). Great Whore has always been identified with what the reader hated most in his own time. Milton says growth of the Church in the world the same way the Israelites were before them. Rhythms of the whole argument in Paradise Lost are arranged around the two poles of creation and destruction. Books VII and VIII. Creation. Book IX. Fall. Books XI and XII. Destruction. Book X affects the fall of nature. Counterthrust. Theme: allegory of sin and death making way in the world. End of the flood. Book XI. Recession of the flood. Superb piece of writing. Sense of guilt. Great flood easing away to a trickle. Every image has tremendous weight and a set of associations behind it. City of God (New Jerusalem) Garden of Eden City of Destruction (Sodom, Egypt, Babylon). Wilderness, desert, sea [here, between the two cities, Margaret Virany has drawn a diagram of six connected semicircular arcs, indicating the ascent to the city of God and the descent to the city of destruction] ––pattern of the renewal of life taking form granted by Milton. Not made explicit. Final definition of the relation of the theme of Paradise Lost is the tradition theme of heroic epic action. Spenser, of all English poets, influenced Milton the most as an epic writer ––one of the themes of the incarnation: fight between hero and dragon ––lies in the background. Given in Michael’s speech ––spiritual conflict still retains physical imagery Contest of Christ and Satan is the theme of Paradise Regained Jan 7. Paradise Regained ––the brief epic: 3,000 to 4,000 lines ––sequel to Paradise Lost ––word “regain” appears in about the fifth line of Paradise Lost84 ––Book XII suggests that the sequel is the conquest of Satan by Christ ––this struggle in its symbolism recalls the romantic hero and the dragon ––not physical but mental and spiritual.

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––Paradise Regained is more like a Platonic dialogue or dialectic than an ordinary epic poem ––temptation is the only place in Christ’s life where there’s a real occasion for suspense. ––scene in the garden is more a dialectic between Son and father ––temptation of Christ is an action that is essentially passion ––the apparent situation is the exact opposite of the real situation ––all power, action remains in the motionless character at the centre ––bustling action of Satan is ultimately principle of bondage Almost a reversal of the traditional conception of the epic of heroic action. More a Platonic dialogue than a conventional epic or conventional drama ––we get the poetic equivalent of the development of the mind of Christ. Actually the temptation never enters Christ’s mind, but we get the affect of Christ clarifying his own mind as Satan enlarges on the dialectic of evil ––we get the impression that world––flesh––devil are an illusion, i.e., external substance, antichrist included ––whole technical point of the poem is in the sequence of the temptations ––the temptations are the same in essence and form as in Matthew and like but different in order ––decides for Luke ––baptism scene in the middle of Book V of Paradise Lost After successfully overcoming temptations Christ begins his ministry ––Christ’s life seems to suggest the story of Israel in the Old Testament. Events in his life are the outcome of the Old Testament prophecies ––other events follow the general rhythm of the history of Egypt This pattern is suggested in Paradise Regained Resurrection corresponds to the final conquest of the promised land. . . . [a page missing here from Margaret Virany’s notes] . . . . of philosophers––knowledge of nature He becomes wisdom itself. The Word of God Satan has a chance if he can get Christ to take his own Messiah literally, physically ––everything he tempts him to do is a form of idolatry. Once Christ retains the spiritual liberating force with which he is entrusted, he can use it

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Wandering in the wilderness ––career of Moses ––in both cases miraculous provision of food ––Satan feels food is an opening attack; therefore, bread to stone second brings on whole banquet (not simple biblical temptation) ––shows strategy of the temptation, which is always ready to be beaten the first time ––almost a suggestion there is something of a mirage in Jesus’ mind because of intense hunger It is a vision that later convinces Peter that certain foods are to be eaten while others aren’t. Feb. 11. Spenser ––in a letter, Spenser assumes The Faerie Queene is a historical poem ––conditions the poem’s structure ––repetitions of the romance are the key to its structure ––situation recurs. Accumulation provides incentive to read on ––Epic structure: in one of its parts is the text of the whole. In one book is an index of the whole Virgil summarizes the whole of the Aeneid in one word––“pius” ––Spenser is offering a valuable clue to the poem Note the repetition––Saracens are called by various names ––Christian versus pagan (i.e., ultimately East versus West) as one of the elementary conflicts of the poem cf. the Iliad which has Europe versus non-Europe. This claims to put his poem in the tradition of the European epic ––two cities in the poem ––one shown to the Red Cross Knight at the end of Book I ––Jerusalem––heavenly city ––Cleopolis––earthly city of the heavenly queen. Counterpart to the other ––therefore, conflict between the order of heavenly grace and the order of this world. ––therefore, Book III has a dimension the others haven’t ––the other books proceed in the order of this world I holiness II temperance III chastity IV friendship V justice VI courtesy ––first three are private virtues ––second three are public virtues

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––courtesy is the behaviour of the chaste person toward others. In this way the second and third books correspond to the first three [virtues] ––chastity is a crown in this world of temperance and holiness. Spenser conceives of it as a positive virtue. Chastity sums up the first three books. Christian and Aristotelian. Britomart in Book III is a crown of the first three books ––a projection of Elizabeth If a man displays the virtues needed for friendship (loyalty, unselfish love) and also justice (righting of wrong) he will also be courteous ––courtesy is a crown of these virtues The hero of Book VI is a crown of the second half. ––modeled on Sir Philip Sidney, an almost legendary perfect man. The six books seem to accomplish Spenser’s end ––fairly complete demonstration, both public and private, of the virtues which made for success in this world What more could he have done? Book XII was to have been completed in Fairyland. ––in one way [it can be?] England Book I goes in the direction of the heavenly city, not England ––this book also envelopes the whole world. Deals with virtues that can only be practiced in respect to heavenly grace. Sort of background against which all the rest of the design is played. Embraces not only British history but also the end, the divine pattern of all things. Gives a vision of the New Jerusalem as if virtue in this world must be seen in reference to another world. In the first three books one gets the impression of a descent ––conscious [from?] reading Scripture ––something inclusive, not being discerned purely in human terms In the second book, world of morality, discipline In the third book, descend still further into the world of romance. Realm comparable to Ariosto. Variety of colour and incident. Almost area of entertainment Seems a descent, but in the pattern of virtue––ascending––also coming towards modern times First book––scriptural world Second book––classical world (so far as doctrines are concerned) Third book––medieval world of romance

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These books gather together a whole literary tradition behind them and also microcosm of religious, moral, and literary history. When reading an epic you are conscious of the total pattern all the time but don’t have to think back, just be where you are now at, enchanted castle, etc. Spenser is big but neat Spenser had some plans for a book that was called “Constancy” he could hardly treat this as a separate virtue because it was entered in the six others These two cantos of mutability though probably have reference to The Faerie Queene as a coda, finality. Set crown on whole work. Perhaps knew he could do no more ––goddess of The Faerie Queene––Gloriana ––appears in various aspects, guises ––heavenly, fairy ––her land under the domain of Luna (Hecate in another form). Appears as mutability (i.e. governs change, rebirth) ––Natura passes judgment in limited way over her pretentions to power over all things The Faerie Queene has gone full circle. Stops short at the threshold of holiness. Doesn’t enter the realm of the eternal. Book I reaches around and touches the cantos of mutability. Spenser’s poem is circular. Pillars of eternity are the realm of change, that is, realm where moon is always full Faerie Queene is a philosophical poem in a way. Spenser sees all creation subject to change and transition. We participate in eternity insofar as we are saved by God’s grace This pattern––inclusive, because Spenser employs everything that comes to hand and imagistic resources of Greek mythology. It has to be history, geography, mythology, and morality all at once. ––queen is a microcosm of all this world ––Red Cross Knight is a microcosm of all reverence and godly fear ––given name: St. George, late in Book I ––untried. This is his first adventure ––old battered armour (of righteousness. St. Paul) ––suggests this whole adventure for every man who would reach salvation. Can’t pick your armour, your companion. She rides on lovely ass (humility) ––first of all you get into the dark wood

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––last of all you get married ––in the middle: pass through a kind of training. In this case, training in the house of holiness i.e., inferno, purgatorio, paradiso Spenser adds to this––the Red Cross Knight appears again in Book II, because holiness goes on into the lives of others knights’ adventures. He’s a Protestant knight, Puritan. Not in the Catholic world of being useful, working in the community chest. Sin––penance––redemption Pattern is repeated to a certain extent in Book II, picked up in Book III. Shield, containing English cross and English colours Book I, in one aspect is a pageant of St. George’s Day––close to Easter. Book I symbolizes a paradise regained Feb. 12. (Pattern of The Faerie Queene) Book I––hero begins adventure. ––dark wood. Overcomes the monster Error ––confronted by the arch deceiver ––therefore, separated from truth (Una) ––goes by appearances and is deceived by them ––goes off with Duessa (sacred) and falsehood appearing as truth. Knight is still capable of overcoming evil. Strong, doing his best but he is misdirected ––overcome by sensual, carnal pride and cast into dungeon ––relieved by Prince Arthur ––falls into clutches of Despair ––recovered in the house of holiness ––then able to proceed with true mission and marry Una Resembles pattern of Pilgrim’s Progress and that of the allegory of the Christian life Book II Sir Guyon abused by Archimago ––comes out because of power as a moral force ––overcomes blind furor and the immoral excesses of the passions ––OK as long as nothing more is required of him than strength ––tempted by light-mindedness. Weakens his moral temper

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––further weakened by Mammon (corresponds to Despair in Book I). Temperance can be weakened by acquisitiveness. ––redeemed by heavenly grace and by himself ––becomes guest in the house of temperance ––completes mission––overthrows the Bower of Bliss i.e., 1. initial success. 2. deception. 3. temptation. 4. weakness. 5. redemption. 6. recovery. 7. triumph (1) two houses or castles in each book––fortresses of evil and good ––schematic allegory in the medieval manner, i.e., explanatory castles more than symbolic castles ––castle of pride is the opposite of the castle of holiness ––house of Medina ––should be good but isn’t because of her two sisters ––house of Temperance These two houses correspond to the house of holiness ––temperance, discipline of the everyday world, corresponds to holiness ––Alma: sweetness, harmony (2) In each book there is a deliverance ––deliverer to aid patron most in need i.e., Prince Arthur appears in different books ––overcomes anarchy, Maleager (one of the most loathsome figures ever represented to be a moralist: the weakness of the senses) ––he [Arthur] represents deliverance at a critical point in each book. He is the patron of all the virtues. Idea of a patron is consistent with the ideal courtier. ––shows that combat with evil is a three-cornered affair. At a critical moment we don’t stand alone (3) British theme: champion is Prince Arthur ––prominent in Book I because Elizabeth should be the patron of Protestant holiness. The Gloriana of this book is a pure Protestant champion Book I––vision of the Faeries Queene has been seen. After being in the house of holiness, his name is George, i.e., the champion Book II––material more detailed, elaborate. Both Arthur and Guyon find chronicles. On the level of morality and discipline, you go by the book.

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Arthur finds list of kings from Brute––critical point near his own birthday Guyon explores his background. The two coincide in Elfland––the British Queen Elizabeth and these chronicles give historical depth and relate a moral development. Spenser’s primary source is Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Brittonum. Amount he believed in is unimportant. Plantagenet disorder you find. Shakespeare’s plays come out of The Faerie Queene. Fluella will swallow Arthurian material right from the start. Reincarnation of the Arthurians by the Tudors was behind it––political intentions. Spenser knew the richness that could be conveyed in the epic by the listing of names. This is not scientific history in our sense. Adds a political dimension to The Faerie Queene, making it unmistakably Tudor. Adds a temporal dimension: glories can be thought of as reborn, recreated in Elizabeth’s time. Spenser can think of a poem as a pageant illuminating history and suitably honouring a monarch. Near the beginning of Book II, canto I, stanza 33, he mentions something he thinks of his poem in this way. “Pageant” here has the sense of something being done, consciousness of importance of what he is doing in the sense of a show––something that exhibits something. One of the things it exhibits is a British tradition. In Book I colours run from red and black to light and dark, good to evil, primitive virtue to present disorder and evil. Gold is red-like colour in the British lion, silver shield of Red Cross Knight. Underworld is always black. The very materials thus represent the conflict of good and evil, eternity with time. Gold and silver against brass and iron. Dragon acts exactly like a dragon made up for a show. He is symbolic––a cardboard dragon–– immense creature. Red and gold are ambivalent images. There is another red, another gold. False glitter of pride, false scarlet, among other things, a scarlet of the Church of Rome. Within a good, there’s a possibility of deception. Stanza and Language Famous stanza: AB AB BC BC C ––quality of deliberation Can’t speed up the Spenserian stanza ––each stanza paints a clearly defined piece of a great design. Cf. the tapestry Don’t get the still integrity and roundness of a sonnet or the onward movement of a narrative but a combination of the two movements in the surf on a beach

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––swell after swell. Press and throb. ––critically useless for argument and exposition. Would have been impossible for Milton to rewrite Paradise Lost in Spenserian stanzas ––hopeless for dialogue because entirely light in intention and continuity. ––most people have just enough breath for one Spenserian stanza. Pause and go on. ––perfect as a rounded jeweled piece of wisdom, and Spenser often uses that. ––admirable as a prose statement. Less light than its nearest relative, the Chaucerian rime royal ––the language was far from fixed in Spenser’s day ––the language of The Faerie Queene is archaic. Trusty [Crusty?], mouldy flavor. Not to be thought of as a contemporary poem. British and antique at once. This is not the way people spoke and wrote in the earlier century, nor in 1588, but somewhere in a never-never land between the two, making it a “pleasing analysis for all.”85 The language of the epic is of a no-time, embracing both past and present. The language is created and creates the world in which the poem exists. No one has created so much of a particular aura or atmosphere as Spenser does in his poem. Feb. 18. ––poem opens with a pun ––reference to Shepheardes Calender and appropriateness of the pastoral form ––masque, pageant show ––second stanza––invocation to the Muse: Clio––muse of history “antique rose”86––appears in the chronicles Spenser thinks of the poem as something uncovered from antiquity Prologue concludes with an invocation to the Queen Emphasis is on the real hero of the poem: Prince Arthur ––poem is a kind of historical glorification of Queen Elizabeth Book I, canto 1 ––kind of comprehensive tableau ––fairy land ––more serious knight––not just jolly, bent on adventure note the escutcheons of the first three shields first––red cross nobler metals––gold, red, silver

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––old armour (righteousness) and a new knight in it ––Red Cross Knight lacks a certain flexibility of imagination ––feels the burden of his task ––confident in his own strength, but really yet untried ––white and black garments symbolic ––lamb at the beginning, dragon at the end ––obviously scriptural parallels ––wood––obviously trial of a religious man Stanza 6: literal reference: original shower was of gold light instead of blackness This prepares for the images of the whole poem ––Spenser pauses in the manner of Ovid to give a catalogue of trees. They are anthropomorphically considered and humanized. Paradise Lost also homocentric. Symbolical landscape where every element is related to human existence on the natural or supernatural level. All sorts of mythical references emerge Stanza 14: monster is wholly repellant Conflict with error really falls into three parts ––counterpart with the three-part struggle with the dragon ––goes back to the tripartite nature of Christian redemption Error represents the error which emerges from false learning Stanzas 21–24, epic similes. Nile––slimy––overflowing––leaves lumps of mud ––lower, pestiferous orders of existence. Shepherd––flies about him Knight overcomes error ––error fundamentally destructive of its offspring. “Drinking of all error.”87 Explicit moral statement incidental to the adventure. Clinches significance of the first episode. Spenser takes care to define limits of his first monster. “Making her death their life” [1.1.15.9] Stanza 29. First appearance of Archimago ––represents false religion. Black gown, weak, eyes bent, sober ––equated with Roman Catholicism in the immediate purposes of the poem ––woman and her daughter represent blind devotion ––underworld––earth and water––lowest elements Morpheus––sleep ––suggestive appropriateness of the language. Stanza 41 ––messenger realistic. Shakes Morpheus awake by the word Hecate. Mutability one of her manifestations

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Two false ladies ––Florimell Book III At end of Book I false Una is in dream. All bad people in the poem are unenlightened. Talk blindly about Providence, etc. Stanza 51. Moral is close to the surface. False Una says God has made George judge her life and death indifferently. Knight has overcome error, and right afterward he falls into moral, historical, and religious error––a more deadly kind Una––royal virgin ––Virgo in the zodiac ––quality of holiness, righteousness and godly truth, which is best seen in queens (especially virgin queens) Disguise and deception of the rational faculties Canto II, stanza 5. Knight didn’t stop to think. “The eye of reason was with rage yblent” [1.2.5.7] “could not have been mistaken?”88 ––he is disordered because of upsurge of his passions ––called St. George ironically (canto 2, stanza 12). One moment he sees “goodly lady” [1.2.13.2]––false gold, scarlet woman, whore of Babylon, Duessa. Two-faced representation of the Bishop of Rome. Riding of the infidel East. In reality, Christendom is facing heathenism north of the Baltics. ––assimilation of Roman Catholicism with the heathenism that was common in the period. Knight––does great deeds but does them for the wrong reasons and gets the wrong rewards Stanza 26. Knight’s state of mind. “He in great passion all this while did dwell” [1.2.25.5] ––fascinated by her beauty. Too busy looking to really hear. ––outward show deceives him––his senses are captivated Strange tree episode completes Canto II ––transformation of Fradubbio (uncertain friendship) ––lower order ––suffering––tree bleeds Descent––sinfulness, false pride, sensuality Red Cross Knight is blinded. Goes to Duessa in the house of pride Canto 3, stanza 1 ––plight of Una introduced. Humanity. Note the superb openings of the cantos

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––lion becomes her protector. One of queen’s beasts Spenser is very subtle ––lion belongs to the animal realm. Its king. ––man belongs to the natural world, but does not live under different laws. Animal recognizes instinctively truth and righteousness. Una deserted her rational protector, still protected by the natural world. Best protector she can have now. Stanza 13––woman has false, blind devotion ––servile politically ––chief brings spoils to Abessa (daughter of the blind woman). Church robber. Don’t associate this with Catholicism, but Puritan wing of the gentry. False devotion is associated with the plundering of holy things. Catholics who accuse extreme Protestants only of church robbing may be wrong. Catholics are plundering their own way. Feb. 19. Canto III, stanza 21. Reference to Odysseus (long wandering Greek) ––passage of the sojourn of these people seems to be one of the most unsuccessful passages in this book. May be politically successful because so suggestive Stanza 27––light and dark is all through Book I. Regains light when she thinks she’s found the Red Cross Knight ––truth has been momentarily deceived ––ironically she is undeceived by the second brother (pagan counterpart to faith, hope, and charity) Spenser underlines the pathos of the situation of truth and righteousness when forsaken by truth, Christian strength, and godly fear ––Duessa takes the Red Cross Knight to the House of Pride ––first great pageant in The Faerie Queene ––every detail is schematic ––point by point medieval allegory ––precise, overtly didactic ––sticks out from the context of The Faerie Queene ––completeness of design ––affects the very detail ––noting oblique or suggestive. All is explicit e.g. porter: Malvenu ––Lucifera––false glitter of pride. Light and fear The satanic condition is an imitation of the good––“gold foil” [1.4.4.4] is the perfect image ––everything has contradictions

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––superb façade, no back Clock on top. Cf. House of Holiness This house time is of the wrong kind of experience Pageant of the six deadly sins emerges from the House of Pride ––nothing new in the description of them, but extraordinarily acute completeness ––green and black main colours ––everyone is in some way or another diseased ––illness––contradictions ––sin self-consumed (can be worked out in detail) ––gluttony a disease of the wealthy secular gentry ––lechery––venereal disease––in a green gown ––envy––always watching. Cankered mouth ––anger has something like epilepsy General picture of grotesquerie and horror. Greasy atmosphere. Dirty, shiny, green and black ––obviously wrong place for the Red Cross Knight to be ––he has one unquenchable faculty––Canto V, stanza 1––courage ––restless––in the burning atmosphere. Spenser not too good at describing jousts. Feels too much obligation to detail. Each joust is symbolic and therefore must be a perfect joust. Determined to have everything appropriate and perfect Stanza 12. Knight moved to wrath and shame ––appropriate for fighting but for holiness? Canto V ––Duessa rescues pagan knight. Goes to underworld (second descent in Book I). When was first? House of Pride? Archimago and Morpheus? ––light and dark imagery ––Duessa––daughter of deceit and shame––offspring of darkness ––black and rust, iron and rust––old blood Element of water beneath the earth. The underworld is dark in its components. No longer in the realm of the schematic allegory of the House of Pride. Spenser is explaining the real source of Duessa–– adding a mythological dimension to her. She’ll later be shown in her monstrous form––demonic, unnatural Stanzas 34 and 35. classical Hades Stanza 39. Sort of digression ––mythological ornament assimilating modern epic to the categories of the myths of the ancient world. Hippolyte’s death is a result of deception. Ornamental commentary on the main action of the book

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Duessa returns and finds Red Cross Knight departing. If you’re enlightened enough to leave before you’re destroyed, you pass the bodies of those who weren’t. In Canto V there’s not one element that is not destructive. Self-destruction. The description of the House of Pride ends with a dunghill of dead carcasses.297 Sylvanus––one of the manifestations of Pan. The natural protects truth. Same meaning as for the lion. Canto VI, stanza 19. The truth to pagan eyes is beauty and is made an “idol”––not appropriate as rational truth ––ride on under the protection of Sir Satyrane (son of satyr and the lady). Above all, courageous. Is Spenser saying that the first of the natural virtues is founded in judgement? ––Spenser’s heroes are always physically and morally tough, yet was brought up above the bestial level. Canto VII ––really pursued out of House of Pride by Duessa. Red Cross Knight tired. Further weakened by drink from fountain. Waters of weakness, falseness. Images used to describe patterns of scripture here. ––slack physically and morally. Slipping more and more––paying court to falsehood ––attached to the very spot when he begins to survive. Unprepared. This is what happens when you submit to carnal pride and fleshly dalliance. Orgolio: “eyes did shine as glass” [1.7.17.9] Stanzas 17–19. Red Cross Knight thrown in dungeon ––imagery of the apocalypse Giant of carnal pride is the source of the power of the scarlet woman, Church of Rome Beast with the seven horns and the seven hills of the holy city Godly reverence for the Church. God as fallen. Three carnal deceptions in the false Church of Rome (Beware exact identification). Temporal power is set up for Duessa on many-headed beast. There can be no redress from this point of the powers of the Red Cross Knight himself. Has to be rescued. Nature itself supporting nature, righteousness burns itself out. Can’t survive without infusion from something else. Stanza 29. Shield––perfect, pure and clean. Beautiful details. “But all of Diamond perfect pure and cleene / It framed was” [1.7.29.5–6]. Gold hair, powerful eyes, dragon on helmet. Awe inspiring.

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Hesperus––western star. Great lady of the western isles. Imagery of the sun and stars at the beginning. This is the real thing, not gold foil. He looks like an immense statue, a jeweled shrine. He is a minister of heavenly grace At this point, Arthur, Earl of Leicester (?), lover of the Faerie Queene, a shrine and hope Includes all the precious stones––diamonds are the best because he includes all the virtues. Like an explosion. Feb. 25. ––Arthur is an apparition ––magnificence ––all the virtues are concentrated in his shield, the one Merlin gave him (connected with fairyland) ––life light of the Reformation––is going to overcome the dragon of sensual pride four years shut up = four ages of the world Structure underlines these points e.g. at the beginning of Canto VIII, explicit diagnoses of the plight of the Red Cross Knight: many perils for the righteous man––needs heavenly grace and truth, which is a constant––Red Cross Knight is a prisoner through sinful pride, weakness Canto VIII––conflict complicated by the entrance of Duessa as the many-headed beast. ––suggests confusion of the religious and secular elements of the Reformation ––power of sensual pride is a hollow power when attacked by grace and reason, but is very solid when attacker is not armed with these. ––dungeon: Stanza 36 ––iron door ––Red Cross Knight there for three moons––familiar triple descent to hell ––beautiful touch as holiness receives his protector ––stripping Duessa. A type of reformed religion ––She, like Error, is misshapen and monstrous ––images of fox (cunning), eagle (ravenousness, imperial power), and bear (misshapen) A painter of the medieval tradition indicates schematically the animal parts of a person by protruding the fact that passions are part of our animal nature, when he draws something half-animal and half-human.

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Rest after battle––Arthur describes his virtues, etc. and visions of the Faerie Queene Stanza 11: “Nothing sure that growes on earthly ground” [1.9.11.5] Throughout the poem Spenser reminds the reader that the course and flux of human events is governed by mutability. Both good and evil are protean in The Faerie Queene––no champion without transcendental presence. God moves in change, mutability Stanza 17: exchange of gifts ––drops of liquor pure––infusion of divine protection ––Jordan Knight very weakened by his trials. Faces spiritual danger of self-destruction. Has erred greatly and is tempted to destroy himself in the sense of his own worthlessness. Bunyan made Despair a giant Spenser makes Despair a casuist who is unable to kill himself ––a self-defeating intellectual and poet e.g. Stanza 41––uses more persuasive rhetoric in the poem. Talks of “doom” of all the unenlightened [“Who life did limit by almightie doome” (1.9.41.6)] ––Stanza 36: appropriate symbols fill the foreground Despair attacks the final fortress of fortitude, promising calm: “Ease after war, death after life” [1.9.50.99] Knight doesn’t see Despair’s argument as circular ––his logic is bad but his rhetoric is wonderful (Despair, a poet) Stanza 52––Arthur rebukes him for the first time. Saves knight by reminding him of God’s mercy, which has already felt the sword of God’s justice. That he should kill himself is most ironic to the whole purpose of his mission “self-tormenting poet”––brilliant touch House of Holiness ––allegory is once more schematic ––balances Castle of Pride ––allegory comments upon itself Fidelia and Sperenza (faith and hope) are virgins. Must always be because always look to the future Charity (stanza 31) ––list can be made of the correspondences in the House of Pride; e.g., porters

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––Duessa has cup of gold. House of Pride was covered with gold foil. Fidelia has a cup of gold. Hope has silver. Stanza 36––hospital embodies the works of Charity Stanza 46. Cf. old woman who lived in the valley and counted beads. Simple picture. No trappings. Just lived there in sacred chapel, hermitage, contemplating God and goodness Stanza 53. Cf. Milton: Michael’s contemplation of the future ––see vision of Jesus from [?] Angels. People going there. Parallels with Moses, biblical mountains ––Mt. Prophecy ––visions Stanza 58. Earthly city of The Faerie Queene––Cleopolis. It is the subject of mutability. However, it is a heavenly vision. ––his name is now announced to him because he is ready by himself–– the glory of Protestant England and St. George Canto XI, stanza 7. epic touch. “Till I of warres and bloody Mars do sing” [1.11.7.2] Three dragons and monk of hell––painfully symbolic––rust ––a medieval woodcut A harrowing of hell––an overcoming of the dragon––a redemption from the power of sin The point at issue is the way the battle moves ––first day, knight has a rough time ––falls into well of life Follows pattern of story of descent and rising ––must have both water and blood (because of elements of Christian redemption) The well restores him after the second day. Second day very vigorous because his hands are baptized ––falls beneath the tree of life. Eden. Balm restores the knight ––third morning. Very quickly disperses the dragon all at once. Like a magic charm––down down down ––resurrection on the third morning Knight has grown up to his armour. Has fought a good fight. All that remains is the sacred marriage Beginning of Canto XII––lovely bit––like a painting Spenser has in mind what he must have seen on the coasts of England when the whale came ashore. Remarkable Shakespearean tenderness of observation and accuracy. “The fry of children young” [1.12.7.1]

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Stanza 14. usual Spenserian commentary. Primitivism. Glorifies antique times. Doesn’t describe “dainty dishes” etc. of the feast. Just says nothing riotous or vain such as grown up lately. [“What needs me tell their feast and goodly guize, / In which was nothing riotous nor vaine? / What needs of dainty dishes to devize, / Of comely services, or courtly trayne? . . . Such proud luxurious pompe is swollen up but late” (1.12.14.1–4, 9)] ––under Golden Age again, so to speak Fidessa––Duessa ––as in Bunyan, there is a way to hell even at the gates of heaven. Final Puritan comment on this world. Even in the holy marriage a messenger from the underworld appears ––continued attempts of wrong advisors to reinstate a false faith Archimago remains. The fight goes on and must be sustained. That’s the way the world is––needs a transcendental God. Book ends with a typical Elizabethan peroration. Last stanza repeats idea of first stanza of Canto XII. ––bright ship. Poem is in one aspect an Elizabethan voyage of adventure. Voyage of discovery into a land never before explored by Englishmen At the very end Spenser retraces the narrative. Turns back on vision of the holy city and descends again to the world. Mar. 4. Book II Guyon––mixed series of conflicts until he finally subdues wrath temporarily Book IV, stanzas 14–16––binds Furor Opponents of temperance are wrath and sensuality, both forms of irrationality Spenser has so many varieties of irrationality, perturbation ––it is as if he thinks in a hierarchy of human faculties ––various conflicting forms at the base of the human psyche. Some are beautiful, some horrible, or products of the horrible. Paralysing effects of jealousy and inconsiderate passion “Griefe is a flood” [2.3.35.3] etc. After stanza 37––image of fire––Pyrocles (fiery). Unbridled affections are self-destructive. They suffer, are in conflict with themselves. They are in hell. Pyrocles’ brother Cymocles means contention, disorder

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Their ancestry goes back to the ultimate uncreated state of chaos and darkness. Makes them of a lower order of being really. Their conflict is really directed to any end that serves their purposes. Provide political moral. They were urged on by Strife and Occasion. Guyon with Palmer, in contrast, are partisanship Perturbation of quality of fire: dances, moves; therefore, emblem of fire suitable in stanza 2, 5. Four complexions of the body: ––sanguine––excessive blood Pyrocles illustrates the excess of this humour Attempts to cure Pyrocles by temperance ––as a result Pyrocles unbinds Furor i.e., to permit any kind of freedom, such intemperance causes the most confusion Strife (Atin) goes to seek Pyrocles’ brother Cymocles ––sort of preliminary picture of the place of sensuality, which is therefore clearly connected with wrath Element: iron in the underworld. “And now he has pour’d out his idle Mind” [2.5.28.5] Note the destructive nature of sensuality. Stanza 28 cf. 17th-century’s pose when in Duessa’s clutches ––a dream world ––not a natural world “Art striving to compare / With Nature” [2.5.24.1] Looks natural but actually is contrived. ––fleshliness is what isn’t genuinely natural but perverted by art Enchantress hangs as a vampire ––male as victim, passive, where he should be active Wrathfully intemperate––psychologically, never relaxed Lustfully intemperate––passes beyond this into incapability of action Represents an almost schizophrenic state Stanza 34: another characteristic of sensuality: half-offered but not enjoyed sensual delights peeping, feigning sleep ––striptease appears here to the end of canto 12. Emblem of the nature of sensuality. A half-hidden display. A place to offer a withdrawal. Spenser’s psychological insight on this point is beautifully sound. To get out of sensuality fly out of it. Book II is interpreted in practical moralities and psychological entities. Can’t avoid this as you read it.

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Guyon is given over temporarily to Athalia’s realm of power. One of the most beautiful creatures Spenser has created. She’s in an oarless boat about an Idle Lake. Amusing herself alone ––sheer delight in being alive, but Spenser interprets it as complete, irresponsible lightness of spirit. Anti-Puritan spirit. She can amuse herself because it takes so little to amuse her. Spenser’s psychological insight ––remember what Guyon has been through ––Athalia is obviously relaxed and charming, pleasant to look upon Choice little island. Stanza 13 ––song of sloth––stanza 15. Lotus eater song that lulls Cymocles to sleep. Parody on lily of the fields Stanza 19 ––courtesy is one of the characteristics of temperance ––Guyon tires of Athalia because there’s so little there Stanza 44. Pyrocles burning. Calls on Archimago for a cure, which is worse than the disease ––Guyon has been separated by Athalia from Palmer Stanza 19. Frivolous sensuality––has nothing to do with precise reason. Guyon is in a dangerous state of mind. Shouldn’t take credit for resisting the temptation. A little over-confident Guyon’s virtue is politic, social, stylic (?) Mammon––riches Antithesis of God. Mammon is undoubtedly in Spenser’s mind. Represents intemperate addiction to the things of this world. Represents what Spenser would think of as the modern man, the commercial spirit. Perhaps temperance can’t exist except as a virtue Not actually clear whether Guyon will fall to temptation. He’s watched by a sort of secret service of the underworld Cave of Mammon is an inferno with a descent Sort of pivotal point for Guyon cf. descent of the Red Cross Knight into the dungeon of pride and also despair Sources for the cave of Mammon are exceedingly various Mammon––hoarder ––natural evil is self-destructive ––useless wealth ––destructive power Stanza 11. Creates kings. “Do not I kings create?” [2.7.11.6] Stanzas 16–18. image of the golden age––antique, unspoiled world. “Like angels life was then mens happy cace” [2.7.16.5].

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––a progresssivist. Exploits national resource Political echoes here Colours: red, black, rust Iron, owl (stanza 23) Spenser makes exact maps of the dark places of the soul Mammon’s underworld is a little like a mint, a factory, and a warehouse Stanza 38––beautiful irony in the use of the word “fountain”––“the fountaine of the worldës good” [2.7.38.6]—suggests Christian, the bubbling up of pleasures, i.e., factory type raw materials. Ambition is his daughter Guyon persists in his temperate mind Requisite triad of days A harrowing of hell Guyon faints when he comes back to the surface. More an ordeal than a temptation Guyon went on to the bitter end. Completed the course. Part of the quality of temperance, especially politic, is to know the opposition. Guyon exposes self to the ultimate ambition and resists, but he is very tired and could hardly take it. There are no facilities in Mammon’s cave for the temperate man. Extraordinary tension, variety of movement No letting up on part of ambition. [Tear?] right along until retirement to-day. Mar. 5. This is schematic allegory ––reach Alma when they get to the heart ––Stanzas 35–36––turrets = the head ––memory––man of ripe imperfect age ––books they read correspond in structure to the epic hero’s instruction e.g. Raphael instructs Adam in the poetic way of placing the hero in human history and geography ––therefore connects him with the world ––provides hero with the self-consciousness of his mission and his reason for being in the action ––Spenser designs to him the legendary semi-historical material in a poem. Almost all of it comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth

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At the time there was a dispute between scientific historians and those who followed Geoffrey of Monmouth who traced history to Brute. Sort of westward movement of Troy Therefore, Spenser’s motive here are (1) antiquarian (2) epic (3) propagandist. Hard to tell which is the most important. In [canto 9] stanzas 3 and 4 it looks like a propagandist motive is most notable. However, this element can’t be separated from the epic element. e.g., glorifying of Elizabeth. Also antiquarian is the learned component of the epic. An epic is the poetry of a nation. Quality of emblazoning was the heraldic catalogue. Emblazoning is not history or even technically chronicle. It is a blazon of names. Series of historical vignettes embedded in the structure of The Faerie Queene. Full of historical material and most interesting references. Note well the various associations in it. ––virginal story of King Lear, Gorboduc, etc. ––associations with Roman history. Obvious allegory in the career of Henry VII after stanza 38–9. Stanza 48––dangers that always beset those ––temporal allusion to the birth of Christ ––note well for Shakespeare’s Cymbeline Guyon’s history is short, but difficult ––Stanza 70––Creation of man by Prometheus, who was called Elf ––note reference to the Bowers of Bliss ––connection between the Elfin chronicle and Arthur’s ––Oberon is Henry VIII. He’s the only king who ever disposed of the English crown by will ––reference to queen’s facility in Latin, Greek, Italian, and other tongues. Begins as a creation epic. Ends as a glorification of Elizabeth. Infallibly connects Elizabethan England with the creation of the world Creation’s power seen from Elfin point of view ––shades out into pure folklore. Out of Greek myth, Celtic folklore. Delicate, careful shadings Shakespeare’s attitude to fairyland, e.g., Midsummer Night’s Dream, is very different from Spenser’s. Guyon still has his task to perform ––get at the centre––the evil goddess Acrasia

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In medieval woodcuts: a four-square castle sometimes referred to as the castle of the body. Moat = bound by geography, four elements. [here Margaret Virany sketches a four-sided castle with moat, turrets at each corner, and a central tower] In Canto XI the body is beset by sinful forces ––Stanza 7––five great boulevards ––enemy divides into twelve troops Canto 8, stanzas 1–2 ––sensual, earnest piety of Spenser comes out here ––since he is capable, by his double nature, of falling into greater danger than the beast, he is in greater need of grace All problems in Book II arise out of the rational faculty of man and results in the abuse of that ––suggestion that grace is the love of God ––exaltation of human love (Eros), not a different kind of love Palmer fears he’ll become a prey of his foes Arthur appears in stanza [canto 8, stanza] 17 ––overcomes two brothers ––first uses persuasion and the mollifying influence of temperance ––appears as a sort of elevated Sir Guyon, i.e., temperance backed by all other virtues Battle of Guyon with the two other knights is very complicated. Arthur’s task is complicated ––fighting two elements of perturbation, ungodliness and intemperance ––they are fighting with stolen weapons Sir Guyon needs the rest of his physical constitution (just as Red Cross Knight needed holiness) The physical and the spiritual aren’t separated (for Spenser or for any Elizabeth poet, doctor, etc.) Castle of Alma ––house of personality, as expressed in the likeness of the body for the whole of creation Canto IX––painful emphasis on detail ––visionary quality is absent ––medieval morality tradition i.e., didactic allegory to express theme of order and temperance ––begins with ode to man’s body Spenser’s underworld is always monstrous ––notion of man’s body as microcosmic index of all creation ––sign of the zodiac

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––picture of the world ––man’s body on cross of the world ––the most terrible thing about Spenser’s monsters is that they are human, or have some human qualities ––political and social level between cosmological and spiritual is present in Book II, though it is almost impossible to trace the historical allegory in detail ––Stanza XIII––realistic natural reference closer to surface than in most stanzas ––Irish kerns Alma ––virgin, golden hair, crowned with garlands of roses. These connect her with other good heroines in the poem ––rose––zenith of reigning perfection in England ––perfection of love, human and divine ––castle is subject of mutability ––diagrammatic shape ––two figures––one, by its imperfection, contributes to the perfection of the other ––circles and the triangle suggest mind of man ––man’s soul is a circle ––triangle is his body (because the first and lowest of all figures) ––seven––correspondence to the planets ––nine––angels ––body is harmonically appropriate by number and composed of both divine and earthly perfection and imperfection Very concentrated statement of the whole philosophical tradition in one stanza ––suggests first and foremost harmonious proportion of the whole structure Stanza 23––mouth Stanza 25––tongue Stanza 26––teeth (in the sign of the Barbican) Stanza 30––lungs Each sign in the Zodiac corresponds to a part of the body. The twelve troops are in zodiacal formation, each attacking his part of the body Maleger

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––sick captain. Evil is sickly. Cf. Despair in Book I. Physical, moral, spiritual disease of the body. Maleger is old also. Victim of time. Cymocles moved from poles of loose lust and lawless rage Perhaps Maleger represents time itself to a certain extent Violent confused struggle because can’t overcome this creature in the usual way. Must be overcome by the power of the body itself. He’s a child of mutability. Virtue can crush him once you get him into the upper air. Note the psychological accuracy of Spenser’s allegory here ––sick and old and ghostly versus temperance. Mar. 11.89 ––wrath and sensual love are really not too far apart ––it is man’s nature to aspire since he is the image of God ––not natural to imitate bestial passions ––appropriate emblem for subjugation of human tendencies ––sea voyage ––pass many perils––approach grows more and more monstrous ––element of monstrosity is multiplicity ––virtue presents a single face ––monstrous approach to Bower of Bliss which is itself so beautiful really ––Palmer’s staff is stronger than the magic of evil––projection of rationality ––Bower of Bliss looks natural but isn’t ––contrast with Garden of Adonis which is seed-plot of nature, garden of generation ––this is a parody of nature’s generation ––enclosed by a weak, thin fence ––not a citadel, as fortresses of Eden and Virtue are ––prophecy of what is to be found within ––meet a comely person––not too impressive athletically ––porter appears comely and gracious but is really the foe of life–– suggests self-destructive nature of all that goes on in the Bower of Bliss ––carries bow and staff––parody of symbolism of Holy Grail–– also reflect primitive sexual emblems Stanza 50––looks like Eden but can’t be compared with Eden Canto 12

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Guyon still guarding his will, passes through Bower––emphasis on art in almost every stanza ––cup of gold appears again––Stanza 56 ––feel that this woman reflects the two-faced character of Duessa, who also carried a cup of gold ––certain feverishness in construction of Bower––beauties of nature exaggerated, become almost elements of evil ––frenzy ––like opening of supermarket––things are pressed on you––free gifts to attract you––too eager a welcome ––two elements reflecting excess ––Excess herself with cup of gold ––Porter Stanzas 63–69. Guyon passes two naked damsels ––Spenser dwells on this ––these are emblems of a type of joy that is available in the Bower of Bliss ––teasing type of joy––strip tease––deliberately disguised to promise what it can’t fulfil ––very beauty of damsel becomes artistic and not natural ––they go through their performance before joyous wandering eyes ––Palmer rebukes Guyon ––music, joyous birds ––whole thing accompanied by background music ––semi-vaudeville and review atmosphere gives insight into false pleasure Stanza 71––nature orchestrated ––provides music of dalliance to reduce the senses [Canto 12] Stanzas 73–75––most beautiful expression of rosebud theme ––sensual image of rosebud opening to rose ––pathos here ––rose is evil––bed of roses upon which wanton lady and her lover lie– –bed of artificial roses ––element on which Spenser dwells is that this too must pass ––love is subject to eternal change, decay ––greatest temptation of all here ––images connected with lady are all liquid

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––whole thing is bathed [Canto 12] Stanza 78––lusciousness of picture ––perspires after toil of love––imagery of roses, fire, pearl, water ––very lusciousness makes a clever and somewhat revolting parody of the red and white of Gloriana ––bathing love in dissolution ––but Acrasia too may represent one aspect of Gloriana ––young man is really an adolescent Stanza 80––belongs to a fine old family shield ––destructive power of older woman who has young man for a lover (Elizabeth I?) ––Palmer catches them as Vulcan caught Mars and Venus––in a subtle word Guyon tears out ––place is full of victims of Acrasia (?) Grylle is interesting ––wishes to preserve free will ––we can see Grylle’s point of view ––has been a burlesque element already ––sudden appearance of Guyon as inverted burlesque in midst of all lusciousness serves as warning commentary Guyon has overcome enemies of Gloriana as did Red Cross Knight ––but overcoming has only begun ––already in Book II have been suggestions that the power of temperance is involved with continence in general and continence in love in particular. ––passions in Bower are close enough to real love to be mistaken for it––far enough from it to be destroyed ––continence is a complicated virtue ––chastity more complicated still Book III––pattern of I and II dropped Book III ––heroine is Britomart ––heritage in line of Brute; cf. her coat of arms ––she is a piece of Britomart’s chastity

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Canto 1. Stanza 8––parallel with Prince Arthur ––Britomart usurps functions of Arthur in I and II ––Arthur lost in wilderness of love ––Britomart remains calm ––rescues Amoret, who should be the hero of this book, but isn’t ––different type of narrative based on Ariosto with no conclusion to a certain extent Spenser’s chastity is not monastic chastity, but a purity Mar. 12. Book I––scriptural Book II––moral ––Prince Arthur goes underground––Britomart takes his place ––choice of a feminine heroine suggests that union of Arthur and Gloriana at end of poem is not a simple marriage ––Britomart is a beautiful woman, but has many qualities ––true love is rational and athletic––has quality of manliness––cf. with other kinds of love in Book III ––Acrasia’s evil is a cloying kind of evil ––incidental comical application––clues given ––one clue in Proem: see stanza 4 ––reference to Raleigh’s poem, which dates just before his disgrace ––Belephone––manifestation of queen Canto 2, stanza 22––move backward in time––learn ancestry of Britomart ––more emphasis on human emotion than elsewhere in the poem ––describes emotions of young girl ––Old nurse Glauce is fascinating––reminds one of a character from Le Roman de la Rose ––morally she is good, but her mind and means are double-faced ––woman of the world, experienced in love, descendant of the Wife of Bath ––also the “good old nurse” found in Keats90 ––we are now on human level for the first time––not allegory ––problems here are partly social, partly sexual ––mixes potion for Britomart ––visit to Merlin required––takes place in Canto 3

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Canto 3––descent to underworld different from others ––Merlin transcends time––mysterious emblem of past and future, which dominates whole of Arthurian legend ––discussion of Britomart’s conversation with Merlin ––Stanza 21––genealogical tree ––Stanza 22–23––sounds like Tudors ––Stanza 25––Merlin’s reply is somewhat unsatisfactory ––great deal in Book III about prophets, fate, fortune. Merlin seems to be pointing out some ultimate immutability Canto 3––politically is declaring absolute political right for London ––morally is declaring immutability of divine powers ––Stanza 28––unpleasant prophecy ––Stanza 40–ff.—historical prophecy precedes millennium of Elizabeth Proem––treats him as Elizabeth did Devonshire Squire ––remarkable variety in faces of women reflect many facets of queen’s nature ––Spenser had in mind not only Elizabeth but what Elizabeth symbolized––goddess––perhaps moon goddess ––great confusion at the beginning––running to and fro ––atmosphere of romantic epic of Ariosto ––figure of Britomart emerges ––flashback explains why she is there ––Britomart comes forward again at end of Book III ––design involves elements from Books I and II ––must take Book III piece by piece rather than as a whole ––total effect gained by process of addition Canto 1.—joust––Britomart and Guyon––Guyon overthrown ––knights are unidentified but typically magnificent ––Stanza 12––reconciliation ––Stanza 13––bursting forth ––Stanza 15––goodly lady appears––narrative explodes Canto 1. Guyon and Prince Arthur pursue lady ––we leave them and turn to Britomart

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––stanza 20––Castle ––unpleasant introduction to unpleasant place ––Castle of Lust––in stanza 31, called Joyous Castle ––Stanza 34––great tapestry of Venus and Adonis ––this symbol will be used later in most philosophical part of poem––description of Garden of Adonis, Garden of generation ––here it emphasizes erotic motif ––abandon in scene Canto 4––interesting symbolism in tree ––tree of life and also tree of generation (sexual significance) ––crown of chastity would be wedlock of Britomart and Artegall–– finds its expression in generation Mar. 18. Book III, Canto 4. Britomart goes down to sea––meditates on unhappy lot of one who is in love ––gracious person ––note use of image of ship––favourite of period––Spenser’s image for his poem Martinell––taught by his mother. Stanza 26––will have nothing to do with women ––sins against Chastity by refusing natural love of man for woman ––in Aristotelian scheme, this is deficiency––overthrown by Chastity ––does everything that his mother says ––sins against nature, though he is a noble knight ––takes negative attitude to positive virtue ––degrees of love––excesses and defects––get idea of masque of love ––parallel with episode in Book I when Duessa seeks cure for pagan knight ––narrative shifts abruptly in latter part of canto ––Arthur pursues Florimell, but misses her and knight falls ––Florimell is supposed to remind us of one aspect of the Faerie Queene––beauty ––deceptive nature of love

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––inability of Arthur to carry on alone as champion of all virtue ––Britomart takes over ––Arthur is momentarily infatuated by a mistake; becomes a prisoner of night and its false dreams ––passion and power of love subject all creatures, even Britomart ––Arthur has a long way to go before union with Gloriana is complete. Canto 5––drop Arthur––turn to another aspect of image ––His squire Timias pursued by forester, wounded & overthrown ––Belphoebe brought to his aid ––taken to a sort of earthly paradise. Stanza 41––wounds treated ––treatment accompanied by deadly pangs of love ––may be some relationship here with connection to Raleigh or Leicester and Queen Elizabeth ––Belphoebe represents static element of chastity whereas Britomart is dynamic ––her question described in canto 6 Four main female persons Britomart Florimell Belphoebe Amoret––essence of love, beauty, softness, defencelessness––love as loyal passion and reciprocate––falls into danger and must be rescued ––complexity of Spenserian conception of chastity Britomart––represents masculine, yet tender element, dynamic Belphoebe––stillness, graciousness, delicious Belphoebe––presides over chastity instead of defending it as Britomart does ––her field is the forest––represents chastity in antique, pastoral mode– –not citified as Britomart Florimell––never really characterized ––seems to be an image of chastity which fixes on wrong object ––love is defeated ––she is the object of evil passions Amoret––softer gold than any of these ––brought up in gardens of generation ––chastity in purely sexual aspect ––almost sacrifice of sexual love

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––object of desire––passive, subject to all manner of dangerous vicissitudes from which she is unable to rescue herself ––desirable woman who cannot help attracting desire though she doesn’t herself want it ––is like the rose––helpless, fragile, in need of attention ––Spenser exhausts psychological and social possibilities of chastity ––it becomes positive––its end is wedlock in realm of Eros and yet marked with courteous, debonair, honourable nature ––complexity of Gloriana ––she is a protean creature ––chastity is a protean virtue as temperance, holiness, justice are not Belphoebe, Amoret––sisters, born of the sun. They are twins Stanza 51––how it happened that they were born Canto 7. Analogy with pagan myth. Offspring of fire and water ––also miraculous virgin birth ––are nature herself in one sense (natura) ––many mythical parallels ––expressing idea of natural generation ––long and tedious story of Venus’ search for her son Cupid. ––semi-allegorical allusions to where you find love ––Diana raises Belphoebe––gives her her nature Stanza 28. Venus rears Amoret in Garden of Adonis Stanza 30 ff. First purely philosophical passage in The Faerie Queene ––read this in harmony of proem in Canto V and with Mutabilitie Cantos Stanza 30 ff. Garden of Adonis ––natural not artificial– ––the seeding place; origin of all natural things ––double gates––represent cycle––birth, death, rebirth ––all things grow of their own accord Stanza 44––opposite to Bower of Bliss ––Venus and Adonis are in the centre of that Bower

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––influences of Lucretius, Ovid, etc. transformed into a myth of generation ––two things in garden ––substance, moon of all things, symbolized by Venus ––form––dies, renewed––symbolized by Adonis, masculine element ––everlasting cycle of birth and death ––subject to mutabilities, but eternal in mutability through succession ––garden participates both in time and in eternity ––Great Mother fertilizing Son ––substance and form ––eternity and time ––no suggestion of lust, displeasure, or artificiality ––this is the seed bed of the world ––stated explicitly that these ideas are seen more or less throughout the poem ––death and revival of Adonis symbolized mutability, the effects of time, eternity ––prefigured in revival of holiness and temperance ––later marriage of Thames and Medway reflects vital experience of return of spring (?) ––whole poem springs from multiple, changing forms of things ––form of poem, especially Book III where rise and form of fortune is related to underlying conception––reflects ideal ––Garden of Adonis are standards by which we must judge the Bower of Bliss & later in this book the house of Busyrane ––here all is ordeal, cycle––in Bower of Bliss, disorder, destruction ––Garden of Adonis is middle earth realm ––reflects in eternal aspect the heavens ––reflects in dying, successive aspect ––the demonic powers ––whole passage connects poem with antique world ––mythical allusions ––powerful image of ancient world––image of Adonis, dying and reviving god

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––whole poem may rest upon this ––one of the parables in which the meaning of the whole poem is expressed ––Venus may be Gloriana ––Adonis may be Arthur ––The Faerie Queene not only a romantic allegory but a philosophical poem ––move into wilderness of cross-purposes ––figures appear and reappear ––motifs dropped to be picked up in later books ––witch’s son and his lust––image of lust and deceitful and deceived passion ––he is a sort of juvenile delinquent––stanza 12 ––inflamed with passion ––there is a beast here––stanza 22 ––element of scandal and ill repute ––different colours of falsity Canto 7––Sir Satyrane appears again––saves light and imperfect knight from giantess––perhaps she represents prostitution ––mythical motif going back to idea of unicorn being tamed by a virgin ––fairy atmosphere in Book III 25 Mar.91 Book III, Canto 12 ––rescue of Amoret is in the natural order and analogous to the harrowing of hell––the rescue of the damned souls by Christ ––Castle: Spenserian parody of the garden of the Roman del la Rose seen in its demonic aspect as hell At this point Spenser is closest to the court of love tradition ––demonic counterpart of the Divine Comedy— ––rose: his lady’s love ––alternately enticed forward and rebuffed by aspects of the lady’s personality or aspects of love itself

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In the Roman de la Rose the lover finally achieves the rose which turns into the lady herself––sexual consummation Superb allegorical satire on women and sourcebook for poets and allegorists to follow. Always varied pattern In Spenser, sterility of the court of love tradition is what makes it in a sense demonic. Consummation is in sanctified wedlock. Compounded of chastity and honour as well as desire. Castle of Bliss described in last five or ten stanzas of Canto XI ––desert of the heart ––place of intense enchantment ––attack upon the senses, especially that of visions ––this is also monstrous ––this is not alive––Stanza 53 ––sort of forecourt of the palace of love ––uncanny effect, as a warning is painted around and over the door. Strikes as a strange gong in the magic house ––general atmosphere is uncanny in the extreme ––exhibits delight, but shows no one enjoying it. Boldness and caution at the same time Spenser delicately creates unearthly sort of atmosphere ––his own psychological version of the state before love enters. ––wonderful and also powerful It is at once enticement and warning descent and attraction at the same time. House of Bondage––iron and brass, like the gates of Milton’s hell––a fearful place ––masque, stanza 6––lasts until stanza 26 ––a processional of figures––all figures of the court of love tradition and their subsidiary abstractions ––fancy, desire, doubt, danger (C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love) ––image of love itself ––next morning Britomart wakes [there?] a palace ––sees Amoret ––analogy with Milton’s Comus ––Stanza 36––enchanter in fear of death ––lady is released by saying a spell ––freeing of Amoret is the freeing of love, good desire from the code. Forecourt, tapestry, masque, pillar of the moon: all are reversed from the natural order. Masque––monstrous, decrepit form. Tapestry––descent and transformation. There’s a place for jollity, which is empty. At once, a frightening and enticing motto.

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––union of Amoret and Scudamore––original version, stanza 43. In this version their story is delayed ––remains a sort of phantasmic castle ––disappears when you conquer it. It is only sustained by charm ––unnatural––almost made of air, fire ––subject of mutability of a different kind than that which reigns in the natural world ––peculiarly haunting air in the whole passage In the world of the lover, it is a lover’s hell In Spenser’s plan: a polarity between a heaven of grace and a heaven of nature Busiris and his Memphian chivalry [“The Red-sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry” (Milton, Paradise Lost, bk 1, l. 307)]. “Egyptian” enchanter––demonic counterpart of Osiris ––resembles Comus––performs some function in a way ––figure of maiden bound to the pillar. Enchanter performing before her ––sort of parody, in love, of Eve––plucking fruit in a sense bound her to the tree Isabel Rathborne, The Meaning of Spenser’s Faerie Land92 ––sort of identification of Osiris––fruitful progenitor of the fairy race– –fertility god With Milton––work out the mythological progeny With Spenser––must work out a set of analogous associations All through the poem Spenser is creating a world and a nether world of counterparts e.g. Gloriana has an underworld nature ––fairyland somehow poised between them ––Faerie Queene narrative process pursues a course of descent and rising. Cycles of day and night, grace and nature. Dying and rising gods. This culminates in the Mutabilitie Cantos, where day and night appear in a different guise. ––some patterns seem to be cut (Book IV, Book VI) The poem is like a moon one-half full which prophesies a full moon Even this incompletion is perfect. Moon poem––light and dark alternation all the way through it Sort of linear process––goes from house to house and pageant to palaces. All are, in a way, types of Gloriana’s palace Analogy to Dante is useful––simply moving to another realm.

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Book I faces the opposite way from the rest of the poem. Has [?] [?] because [?] poem would end up circular (Speculation). It goes towards Eden. Others are on a level of nature. Mutability––can set it on a crown of any of the other six books. Provides an appropriate commentary on them. Also can cover each one and perhaps would be an appropriate cap for the whole twelve. Spenser reminds us of the fickle state of all mortal things in the more philosophical and suggestive sections. The Garden of Adonis he gives mythological, allegorical picture of the cycles of life and death and of nature fighting a never-ending battle of devouring time. Recurring theme––nothing is sure that grows on earthly ground. Notion of world’s decay is stated in Mutability, in book I of Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity In man’s life––change and dissolution In larger world also change and dissolution. This is an imperial poem politically Decay and dissolution remind us of the glories of past time. Points to the millennium when things will be better. Notion of apocalyptic disaster (see Book of Daniel where this is worked out to a 6,000-year span.) [pages 46 and 47 of the hand-numbered pages are missing at this point] Spenser is touched by this apocalyptic notion. His mind is more affected by change, growth, and decay though ––finds himself at the end of a cycle. He is aware it is a cycle. Aware of smaller patterns that work within the larger Mar. 26. Mutabilitie Cantos ––two cantos ––look like continuation of Book VI of the Faerie Queene ––resembles The Faerie Queene in stanza ––strongest resemblance to The Faerie Queene is a processional pageant ––Mutability produces as her evidence for reign over all things ––constitutes a unity of this ––invocation––a sort of parody of the Proem in Book II. ––two stanzas at end of Canto 8 too imperfect to constitute a conclusion i.e. the poem has a shape and must stand by itself

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––seems a sort of conclusion or a philosophical commentary on The Faerie Queene as a whole Retraction: a sort of conventional conclusion to the medieval poem ––a sort of statement of eternity as opposed to time Mutability cantos seem to add up to such a statement Spenser never uncritically adopts a fragment from mythology or philosophy of the ancients, etc. He synthesizes it into his own pattern. Eliot: “Mature poets don’t borrow, they steal”;93 i.e. make it their own. Digression about hill and river––of the end of Canto VI Pronouncement of nature Canto VI, stanza 1––echoes passage from the beginning of Book V ––evidence of decay in the world Spenser thinks of self as writing on a down grade of the cyclical movement. Evidence of mutability all around us. Book V––darkest of all– –evil and decay. Exploring that evidence he moves to a statement of mutability from it. Deep religious sense of God mollifies this sense of darkness. Who is Mutability? ––almost the same words in which he announced to Elizabeth he’d find her ancestry in fairyland ––daughter of pre-Olympian deities ––described in stanzas 2, 3, 26, 27 The Gods of the Greeks––Kerényi94 ––exceptionally clear picture ––good for background ––a titaness. Titans subordinate to Jove Stanza 3––Hecate Stanzas 26 and 27––heroic statement of her ancestry Stanza 29––kin of Prometheus, a Titan. Her sister, Bellona These deities have certain elements in common ––suggestion of the grand and the monstrous, i.e. the monstrous on a large, overwhelming scale Mutability has some of the qualities of Hecate and Bellona ––extraordinary beauty ––arbitrary, cruel, dangerous ––perhaps Spenser has underworld counterpart of Britomart in mind ––also an underworld counterpart of Gloriana herself, because of her destructive power and ambition This dualism, parodied opposites, continual sense of balance seems to run through the whole poem

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––monstrous in her intentions, yet beautiful in her being ––in one aspect she is the moon ––comes from darkness to overtake light ––she is Gloriana fallen, so to speak ––her realm is death and decay ––the dark of the moon ––the shaded half-cosmos ––Spenser describes her assault on Cynthia, the moon, very vividly ––she’s an earthly power, sits at the heart of things ––onward, upward movement ––there is insisted in this a sense of passing tranquility ––dynamism belongs to her. What she wishes to overcome is a state of static, idealized tranquility ––a sort of cosmic myth being explored. Stanza 20. Has learned what is going on, so describes a number calling for suggestions in the meeting in hell in Milton ––cf. stanza 21 She is a bit shaken Stanza 25––Jove has to speak first -–gathers spirit and tells who she is ––kin to Duessa ––granddaughter of night Stanza 28––her beauty ––all stand astonished Stanza 29––Jove rebukes her ––appeals for trial before God and nature. Stanza 35 Spenser drops the whole cosmic myth Descends from Olympus upon a point in Ireland ––pleasant myth ––a digression––probably legitimate one ––provides interval between first and second scenes ––expands the whole of creation from pinnacles of heaven to a point in the British Isles ––ties and fuses together the Greek source and the British source of his material ––naturalizes, transplants a cosmological myth he’s inventing ––relaxes from high style. Idyllic mood (also prominent in Book VI). Even personal allusions in the last line. Remembers they burned down his house. This episode lends to Mutability a dimension it otherwise wouldn’t have

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All of the gods assemble. ––ranked by order: nature’s sergeant Nature ––can’t tell whether nature is man or woman ––can’t be looked at directly––only through glass ––bisexual Venus and Adonis ––personified as opposite of the great grandmother of all ––all creation personified as goddess, yet not goddess ––Spenser is attempting to adapt in the myth a really ultimate conception here, just as night is personified in different ways in the poem Stanza 17––offers evidence that she does in fact reign ––the four elements are subject to mutability ––pageant of the seasons––stanzas 27–8 ––Spenser’s most glorious effort in the pageant line ––colours, vigour ––escapes all limitations of the medieval convention ––packed with illuminating detail ––each season associated with appropriate zodiacal sign ––comparable to the pageant of the deadly sins, but greater ––reminds one of the Shepheardes Calender ––fall in love in May ––June in green leaves ––September as [?] of weights (zodiacal signs) ––October––drunk ––November––fat ––increasing age––mutability ––day and night are under sway of mutability ––after all came life, and lastly death ––procession of plants ––speak of mutability of the moon ––Ptolemaic disarrangement of the planetary motions ––becomes almost feminine, i.e. a little catty––stanza 53. She is feminine throughout Stanza 56––rests her case. The case has been proved. Last two stanzas: what he had said in a different way about the Garden of Adonis The answer to her arguments is a cyclical answer There are two kinds of change 1. mutability––her power. She mistakes the essence of all things by simply dynamism. Almost the evolutionary doctrine of decay and growth

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2. change that eliminates the dynamic and cyclical procession. Is ultimate transformation, after which all things will be permanent. Revises everything in the poem so far. Raises it to another level by imposing on it a Christian doctrine of the end of the world. Hymn to the God in the conclusion (that’s what the Sabbath, God, is). An apocalyptic statement which is concerned also with beginnings and endings. Apr. 1. Book III ––series of episodes ––tangle which expresses misconceptions of love ––turns his back upon nature ––parallel nature of the narrative ––all themes developing at once ––meet at critical points ––Marinell’s character is incomplete in Book III ––Florinell pursues object of desire ––each time Britomart removes her armour is like the unveiling of the deity ––she is in phases as she moves ––what she does in one phase is different from what she does in another, but she’s always the same creation Don’t think of The Faerie Queene all in terms of an allegorical scheme, nor as a narrative. It’s pictorial Renwick––reminds us of a tapestry.95 Resembles masques, shows, triumphs, etc. If Spenser thinks of his poems as a tapestry, that explains the extraordinary lack of depth in the landscape of The Faerie Queene. Lacks perspective. Therefore, the time scheme simply doesn’t exist. There’s a linear time in each group. No sense of historical past except when set in chronicle material. Therefore, Spenser resembles romance but very different from Virgil. Lineage of his heroes is often described ––inset. Not continuous feeling of past and present bearing on future Not landscape with distances set off. ––manifestation of that world seen in sequence rather Sort of tripartite division in the Spenserian scene ––Jove––Nature. God and goddess figures

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Una ľ

Realm of conflict Duessa

Gloriana ľ Series of opposites

Acrasia underworld of night, Hecate, Discord, Mutability All the heroines are in a way manifestations of one heroine Aspects of Duessa. Two-faced [?] Acrasia the lost i.e. all evil heroines ––good and evil, virtue and vice in all their aspects ––up and down Spenser repeats with variations a series of stock scenes 1. scene of castles 2. approach to each [?] place 3. approach to cave 4. encounter––joust––overthrow––pursuit Repeats motifs of the romantic narrative over and over again, with different meanings Sameness and variation some of the time Spenser is the master of the narrative refrain. characters [step? stop?] his books, chronicles Book II. Poem stops because another dimension is being added to it in order to narrate other things (while chronicles are related, it stops) All varieties begin to be compounded in the poem between nature and mutability. [Here Margaret Virany draws a diamond-shaped diagram with “NATURE” at the top and “MUTABILITY” at the bottom] The scene of this assumes simplicity ––incredible variety within self which can be reduced under a few headings Only about the places which are of mythical significance and they are repeated over and over. castle garden (island or mountains) cave (dark place, hole in the earth) These all are representative of a great number of things. In a way, all are images of man’s body

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––all aspects of the body as a hierarchy of reason, passions––symbols of contrast between man fallen and unfallen The Faerie Queene can be thought of as a great psychological poem of the evils and passions that lie in the breast of man Mammon and Despair are particularly good psychologists ––both casuists All three symbols are biblical castle––holy city garden––Eden cave––mouth of dragon (Circe’s isle of enchantment) Gigantic myth repeated over and over again e.g. in the Arthurian legend itself, can see castle, garden, cave pictorial cf. tapestry where each picture shows possibilities of human experience Same pattern in Hamlet––castle, graveyard, sea Book II, canto 4, stanza 14. Places of crisis: fall or healing. At castle, you are restored or you overthrow it Garden is a place of temptation or generation Cave––a place of temptation. Place where evil forces issue. Turning point will take place, therefore, when they approach the castle, etc. Spenser transforms the continuity of the romantic tradition in a series of set pieces. In a way, this is epic. Even when he overlays with descriptions of local colour, they’re ultimately only forest, sea, etc. Thinks of things merely as places between other settings and places of encounters. Just as we can reduce multitude of personages, we can reduce the landscape of The Faerie Queene to little round shell sitting on the sea. Fairyland: An enclosed picture. Sometimes seems very, very small. Wonder that the knights don’t run into each other more often and wonder where Cleopolis is in the landscape and how Spenser would describe it. Cleopolis is probably much like what we met all along: a city or castle [?] a garden. Gloriana as Isis is the castle Gloriana as Venus is the garden Gloriana as Queen Elizabeth is the sea Therefore, most of these three in Cleopolis This setting is ultimately Queen Elizabeth’s realm, ultimately England, i.e. one of its primary aspects ––sea is sea of the voyager ––garden is England itself

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Earthly paradise ––perhaps Spenser meant to teach, as Queen Elizabeth the great ruler is a just, great woman, chaste, those about her are temp. [temperate], courteous. She is holy and so is her kingdom. All these things are sustained as pillars of eternity. What’s done in time must also be done in the sight of eternity. To warn us this is his intention he set an image of the holy city and the vision of St. George in Book I. Subject of mutability. Perhaps wants to show the relation of the two realms at the end. Any piece of the poem is a whole Faerie Queene in miniature. Essential pattern can be found in each book of it, sometimes in one canto, or even in one stanza e.g. where it meditates on the nature of nobility, or the relations of grace in human life. Spenser has no sense of change of pace or real change in scene. He couldn’t write an adventure story or a novel. In his story heroes are nearly all in the same place. Always poised in the same situation. The adventure is always an affair of the decision. The situation always involves the nature of magnificence. Arthur always represents something. A hero never really moves. Always in the same place; therefore, extraordinary sameness but variety Spenser always imitates our feelings when we get up every morning. Always the same yet always different. So subtle we can’t see the difference. Intuitively, we know they’re there, though in a sense his heroes are always in this situation. In a sense, he’s written a psychological poem of day and night.

CHAPTER EIGHT ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500–1660 (ENGLISH 2I) (1952–1953) NOTES BY PETER EVANS

At the top of page 50 of Evans’s notes is the name “Allen.” Evans’s note to me: “The may mean Allen Bentley took the lecture and I copied, but more likely that I took it and he borrowed the notes.” We can infer from the four sets of notes that are dated (lectures 31–34) that the course met on Mondays and Wednesdays. The topic for the students’ course essay is sketched at the beginning of lecture 25. I received these notes from Evans in 1994 and transcribed them in 2010. The topics and writers covered in the lectures are listed below. Lecture no. 1 Historical background, printing press, humanism 2 English poetic metre, sonnet, Skelton, Hawes, Wyatt, Surrey 3–4 Courtly love convention, Wyatt, Surrey 5 Background to Spenser; his hymns 6 Spenser’s cosmology; the elements; the humours 7 Minerals; English emergence from insularity (commerce) 8 Geoffrey of Monmouth, William Warner, Spenser 9 Bibliography; Sidney 10 Sonnets (Sidney and Shakespeare); Marlowe 11 Mythological poem (Marlowe, Shakespeare, Drayton 12 Revolt against courtly love: The Metaphysical poets 13–14 Metaphysical poetry (Donne, Marvell); satire (Gascoigne, Spenser, Jonson) 15 Jonson 16 Tradition of Jonson: Herrick 17 Herbert, Crashaw 18 Crashaw, Vaughan 19 Traherne, Marvell

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20 Marvell, Waller, Denham, Butler 21 Butler, Cowley 22–25 More’s Utopia and its tradition 26 Asham and Machiavelli 27 Elyot, Ascham, and educational theory 28 The rise of the vernacular; Bacon 29–31 Bacon, Hooker 32–35 Browne 36 Burton 37 Sidney 38 Sidney, Deloney 39 Deloney, Greene 40 Greene, Lyly 41 Nashe 42 Walton, Fuller, Hall Lecture 1. This course covers the English period of culture known as the Renaissance. The English Renaissance had been delayed, not beginning until the last decade of the 15th century. Printing press first used at this time, having profound and immediate importance to literature in England. Effects on culture, literary tradition. Growth in importance of secondary education. 15th century. War of Roses. Baronial War, killing off many of the barons. Growth at this time of new middle class, which by the end of the 15th century was the effective power in England. Henry VII, first of the Tudors (1485), realized that he must get rid of the rest of the feudal barons and get middle-class support. The Tudor dynasty still had a great deal of personal power. In culture, there was a centralization of authority at the king’s court in London. The invention of gunpowder helped the king get rid of the barons. The invention of the compass helped develop a colonial outlook for the Atlantic seaboard countries. Increase in prestige and importance of the modern languages. Middle Age works had been written in Latin, but now English began to be used to an increased literary importance. Middle English was written in a number of dialects during Chaucer’s period, because there was not much exchange, transportation. In the Renaissance a standard form of English began to be accepted. The strong middle class played a strong role here. In the Middle Ages there were five important dialects (one in the north, two in central England, and two in the south). When the standard dialect

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arose, there was no question but that it would come from London, and in London the East Midland dialect rose to become our standard English. This had been the language of Chaucer. The introduction of the printing press was at the opening of the period. Caxton opened the first in England in about 1476, and for the next twenty-five years about three operated in England. With the printing press it was possible to reproduce books exactly, without reliance on a scribe, where small mistakes build up. An accurately established text could now be produced. It stimulated scholars to dig out manuscripts to put out scholarly editions. The printing press brought about great controversies. War of pamphlets during Reformation. By Elizabethan period an idea of journalism began to build up. Fashionable poets (Wyatt, Surrey, e.g.) tended to avoid the printing press. They wrote their poems in manuscripts and passed them among friends. After 1450 humanism was of importance. Humanism––the revival and editing of Classical Greek and Latin works. In Italy a great interest arose in the study of Greek. Now scholars began researching monasteries throughout Europe, searching for old manuscripts. The number they found was surprising. Aldine editions––under patronage of Venetian gentlemen. Books printed before 1500 were “incunabula” editions. A great popularization of culture in England in this Renaissance period. Read Wyatt, Surrey, Skelton. Lecture 2. English as a poetic language is terrifically thumpy and frumpy. English has two main sources: Latin and native stock of words. The entire native stock was of monosyllables. This accounts for the bumpiness. In Chaucer the technique of writing was based on a different language. Anglo-Saxon was inflected. In Chaucer’s day all the inflections had boiled down to the pronunciation of the soft “e” at the end of many words. This meant a smoothness impossible to attain in modern English. Middle English had a lightness of touch and of sound unobtainable in modern English. In the century following Chaucer great changes took place in the pronunciation of English Two rhythms seem to be embedded in English poetry since early medieval times:

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(1) iambic pentameter. English has too many bumps for a longer line to be feasible. (2) a line of four beats or stresses, rather than four feet. Any number of syllables can be used within the four stresses, as in music. The first three beats began on the same letter (alliteration). This was the metre of Beowulf. In spite of the iambic pentameter of Chaucer or Shakespeare, there were still four heavy beats to a line. The best poetry of the 15th century was the ballad, and it went back to the four-beat line. John Skelton (1460?–1529). A clergyman and satirist. A bit unconventional as a churchman. A learned man. Translated Greek to English. Last poet of Middle Ages, and he followed the uncertainty following Chaucer. He, too, fell back on the four-beat line. He employed a “Skeltonic” metre. Stephen Hawes (ca. 1475–1530) is proof that Old English is worn out. In poetry it does not fit the metre. Something has to be done. Petrarch (1306–74) and Boccaccio greatly influenced Chaucer. Now at the time of Wyatt and Surrey, many Englishmen travelled on the continent. Wyatt and Surrey consciously attempted to reform English poetry. They studied Petrarch carefully. Wyatt and Surrey used his themes. Wyatt seems to have introduced the sonnet to English. The sonnet vogue lasted until the beginning of the 17th century. It was a good practice form for conciseness. Wyatt and Surrey also used lyric forms “Of the Mean and Sure Estate” [Wyatt]––a satire. Adaptation of Horace’s tale of town and country mores––interlocking rhymes––three-line stanzas––“terza rima”––Dante’s metre. Shelley used it in “Ode to the West Wind,” but it is not good for English metre. See lines 52–54––lack of rhyming words in English [“The fare she had, for, as she look askance, / Under a stool she spied two steaming eyes / In a round head with sharp ears. In France”] The Petrarchan sonnet has the octave and sestet. No rhyming couplet (abba abba cde cde). But Shakespearean sonnet, as introduced by Surrey, has three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet. It was more suitable for English. Surrey introduced blank version in his translation from the Aeneid. It is now a most important poetic form. Surrey tried other ideas––“Complaint of the Absence of Her Lover, Being upon the Sea”––Alternation from twelve to fourteen syllables in

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alternate lines (hexameter, then septameter). The poulter’s measure––an early Tudor period form. Wyatt was the subtler of the two. Surrey is a gentle, smooth, even-flowing poetry. Thus Surrey became more fashionable in the Elizabethan times. It was not until ten years after Surrey’s death that the poems got into print (1557) in a book––Tottel’s Miscellany, the first English anthology. Tottel tried to improve Surrey’s poetry, smoothing it, and for a long time Wyatt was considered inept. Lecture 3. The social position of the prince and the courtier had been well established under Henry VIII. Wyatt and Surrey took their roles a courtiers. They trained themselves for their position. They became men of action. Educated courtiers. The ideal of Renaissance education was a broad secularism, founded on humanism. An ability to master the Greek and Latin classics. Versatility was possible. Classical authors were regarded as authorities–– medicine, architecture, prose or poetic style, farming, etc. Humanism was basically a cult of authority. The influence of humanism on literature was good, while on science it was pernicious. Since improvement of art forms, classical forms, is impossible, the setting up of such models is right. We can’t beat Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, or Milton. But such models in science are wrong. Humanism was primarily a literary development, but science had to make its own way in the 16th century, to some extent in defiance of humanism. The poetry of Wyatt and Surrey was amateur, and was more conventionalized than that of professionals. Writing is highly conventionalized. The convention is the postulate agreed on between the writer and the reader. A different convention would exist in Alice in Wonderland than in Mickey Spillane, and there is no point in arguing against such conventions. The first great movement in medieval poetry was that taking place in Provençal. The troubadour in southern France developed a type of theme– –that of devotion to a lady. The poet devotes himself to the service of his lady. This began the convention of courtly love. This convention spread southward over Italy and northward over France, where it soon became merged with chivalry, the upper-class feudal method of behaviour. The ideal of chivalry was the acceptance of their position in the upper class of protecting the weak, especially women. Dante and Petrarch in Italy picked up the courtly love theme. The woman is in a sense the inspirer of man. Beatrice, a girl whom Dante was

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inspired by, in the Divine Comedy, leads Dante up from the Inferno to Paradise. This type of love was practiced as a discipline of one’s own perfection. Petrarch was high brow––the first humanist. He was proud of having written a great Latin epic. But he also wrote Italian sonnets, on the theme of his lady love, who, however, had no effect on his marriage. When she dies, this courtly love continues. Petrarch set the convention for the next three centuries. Wyatt and Surrey pick up his theme constantly. Petrarch’s code was adopted as the code of living, continued for a long time. Seeing a girl at a party, you had to fall immediately in love forever, not necessarily sexually so––not romantic. Then you went home and pulled down your blind. You were not able to sleep for weeks––constantly melancholy. During this period you wrote and wrote and wrote. The first part of the writing complains of the lady’s cruelty. Then on to the theme of her smile, etc. By the end of the 16th century the convention was still growing strong, but it was wearing a little thin. Shakespeare comments on it at the opening of Romeo and Juliet. His love affair with Rosaline is a take-off on the courtly love theme. In history some gigantic lovers went much further than the simple conventions of courtly love and went mad or died or killed themselves. These people were saints or martyrs. Don Quixote is a take-off on the courtly love theme. As You Like It brings out all of these conventions. This convention underlies the Elizabethan sonnet, and many of the poets and poems of this period. Lecture 4. A feature of the courtly love convention––it took a typical medieval flavour. The classic Cupid and Venus in love poetry of the classical period. The Christ-God image parallels this and carries down into medieval poetry. A language in the courtly love convention that parallels religion––e.g., Spenser’s Amoretti XXII––“holy season,” “saint,” “priest,” “altar,” “relic,” etc. A contemporary of Chaucer wrote the Confessio Amantis, in which a young man makes a confession to the priest of Venus. The parallel between courtly love and Christian love is a part of medieval poetry. For example, Donne’s “The Canonization”: resurrection symbolism applied to love. Donne’s atheist or heretic is one who isn’t in love or who doesn’t fall in love.

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Women who do not “come across” are warned that they are blaspheming the god of love. Wyatt’s “The Lover Compareth His State to a Perilous Storm Tossed on the Sea” is a translation from Petrarch. An example of the way convention can still bring good poetry. This shows part of the advantage of having a convention. We must distinguish between literary sincerity and personal sincerity. The courtly love convention expects you to make great protestations of love. It might be such a protestation to someone to get a job or a position. Surrey’s “Complaint of a Lover Rebuked” is a translation from Petrarch. Wyatt’s “The Lover for Shamefastness” is a translation of the same sonnet. Wyatt’s rhythm follows exactly what is being expressed. He has written the poem out in more dimensions than Surrey knew existed. N.B. Rhythm in verses 3 and 6 of “The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love.” Two strong beats in the middle of a line can have a wonderful effect if you know what to do with them. “A Renouncing of Love”––such a theme became important in the courtly love tradition later on. Sidney used it for a renunciation of religious love. [Wyatt’s] “Whoso List to Hunt.” Another translation from Petrarch. Surrey’s “Description and Praise” was written to a nine-year-old, typical of the courtly love tradition. By the end of the 16th century the convention was wearing then. Another convention in the courtly love theme is shown in Surrey’s “A Praise of His Love Wherein He Reproveth Them That Compare Their Ladies with His.” ––A popularized form of Plato. In Plato material things are the shadows of forms of ideas. The idea is preserved by the soul, and the body perceives the material things. The soul in the body sees the purpleness, depth of a thing, which the body sees as a faded carbon copy of it. (See Plato’s Symposium. If a man is attracted by a woman, the body is attracted by the material object, while the soul without man’s knowing it perceives the idea or form of beauty. Man must aspire to get above the body to this ideal level.) Surrey is having fun with convention. The Platonic streak in the courtly love theme. Love in Plato does not refer to women or sexual love.

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N.B. Love of men or boys. Love in the military aristocracy. It is not homosexual love either in Plato’s Symposium. Read Spenser, “A Love of Beauty,” “A Love of Heavenly Beauty,” “A Hymn in Honour of Beauty,” “A Hymn of Heavenly Beauty” Read Sidney. Lecture 5. The first professional poet of the 16th century was Spenser. The Renaissance idea of a poet was of a man with importance in society. This implies a great responsibility to society. Spenser came from the middle class; he went to Cambridge. He met there quite a group of people interested in poetry. In 1597 he produced The Shepheardes Calender. He took every chance to make himself a new poet. He wrote the book anonymously, it being, in a sense, nature poetry. He used a modification of the courtly love convention, the pastoral convention. The pastoral theme has two origins, Classical and Biblical. Classical: Theocritus (who lived in Sicily) did not write in normal epic group [sic]. He wrote in the Doric dialect, that spoken by a minority of Greeks. His poems were “idylls.” He was followed and made popular in form by Virgil whose main works (except the Aeneid) were on rustic themes. The Eclogues of Virgil, copying Theocritus, popularized this pastoral convention. The Bible is full of pastoral symbolism: 23rd Psalm, “sheep” in the Gospels, Christ to Good Shepherd. This poetry is a good means for satire. Oversimplification of life vs. the court left behind. Also a vehicle for the courtly love convention. Certain forms developed: singing match, love song, panegyric (Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue), elegy (pastoral lament) (e.g., Milton’s “Lycidas,” Shelley’s “Adonais,” and Arnold’s “Thyrsis”). Spenser in his pastoral lament wrote twelve sections, one for each month of the year, using all these forms and more. In it he includes a satire on the condition of the church. Spenser decided to write this poem in a country dialect. Since the dialects were taken from all over England, he actually made up the dialect. He threw in some archaic words from Chaucer, some Elizabethan slang, foreign expressions, and some coinages of his own. It was difficult to read, but somewhat enjoyable. Spenser had a good ear for music. Pastoral form idealizes simple rural life. (Today it is the western tale.)

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Spenser wrote a total of four hymns, the first two dealing with the courtly love convention––Venus––and the other two concerning the Christian religion. “An Hymn in Honour of Beauty” is written to Venus. Lines 29–35––Platonic convention. Goes on talking about pattern of beauty, ideal form of beauty. The soul within you does not really see a pretty woman, but searches for a virtuous beauty, much deeper, ideal, aesthetic. Spenser insists that the process of falling in love is the start of the process of disciplining the mind, leaving the body in search of the soul Body = transient object. Soul = eternal form As marriage and love go on, it becomes not an attraction of the bodies but a union of souls. Lecture 6. Spenser’s four hymns are based on certain assumptions. You live simultaneously in two worlds––the sun rises and sets; also the earth moves round the sun. Poetry was based on the earth as the centre of the universe. Man will be the centre of reality. God conceived in man’s form. (People had always known the world was a sphere––as early as 300 B.C.). The universe to the medieval mind was a series of concentric spheres with earth at the centre. It was believed that the antipodes (the other half of the world) was either all water or at best certainly not inhabited. The cosmologists believed in four substances: earth, water, air, fire. Earth at the centre of the densest part, water lies all around on top of the earth, air lies around on top of water; therefore, fire must lie in the sphere beyond this. Belief that each of these four would seek its own sphere (air bubbles up through water, fire rises, water rises from ground). The four elements represented the world of decay, change, and corruption (sublunary). Then outside of this came the planets and stars––made of quintessence––not subject to change, decay, or corruption. Your soul was also made of this quintessence. Order of planets: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Then came the fixed stars. But scientists wondered what the stars did up there, and planetary influence came into vogue. (Science of astrology––the influence of the stars.) Above the sphere of fixed stars was a crystalline sphere, and around this was a vast shell of “primum mobile,” moving from east to west, completely in one day correcting the movement of the heavenly bodies from west to east. Reality was finite––closer to our present conception of the universe as presented by Einstein (idea of space as curved). The word “temperament” originally stemmed from “mixture.” Temperaments = various humours.

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Humours hot cold wet dry

Inorganic hot and dry hot and wet cold and wet cold & dry

Organic bile (choler) blood phlegm melancholy

Temperament choleric sanguine phlegmatic melancholic

This assumption rests on the identification of the mental with the physical. The four humours were not confined to the human body. All organic objects have humours. Lecture 7. Ancients believed that the influence of the planets caused the growth of metals in the rocks. Mercury produced mercury, Mars iron, Sun gold, Saturn lead, Jupiter tin, etc. Columbus discovered America trying to find a cheaper way of getting to the Orient, since the route by the east has been virtually severed. For 2000 years people had known the world was round. About 1500 feudal lords dispossessed tenants and turned large areas into sheep ranches. (The great grievance is what More refers to in his first book of Utopia.) Now England had to trade wool for silks and cotton–– and linen, Damask linen from Damascus. Earliest reference to America is in a play written in 1497. Timber, cotton, and fish are talked about, rather than gold and silver. Two attempts to get to Orient, one by north-east and one by north-west. However, in Elizabeth’s reign they found that the way by the north-west would be long and tedious, and so England found that it could do a lot better by turning buccaneers on the Spanish craft. Their galleons were unarmed, laden down with gold. The English easily raided these for about thirty years before the Spanish smartened up. The English first tried the north-east traffic route which didn’t work, but they began a roaring trade with Russia.—furs, timber, copper, etc. England also infiltrated Russia, and even India, so that by 1620 the East India Company was founded. Got cotton from India and silks from China. England had to import dyes to give their wool a bright colour. They found two good dyes in America. The English already had a red dye (“brasile”), and cochineal and saffron (yellow). The Elizabethan Englishman is emerging from a smug little world with the earth at the centre in to a vast new world, vast new ideas. Anything might turn out to be true. In the Middle Ages there wasn’t a very great knowledge of Greek. Consequently, the Greek poets were not studied in the original. However,

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they did know the fall of Troy from the Aeneid, but Virgil’s account is told from a Trojan point of view. Two poets in the fifth and sixth centuries wrote out a long Latin poem telling the whole story of Troy from beginning to end.96 They were the only sources, and this story got told in the Middle Ages. Thus medieval conventions got mixed up in the story. Any romantic references in Homer were added to and expanded to bring up romance all out of balance. The love story of Troilus and Cressida. Chaucer told it with a pro-Trojan slant; Shakespeare with a pro-Greek slant. In Stephen’s reign (1135–54) Geoffrey of Monmouth (a Welshman) came along. Monmouth was very important in English literature. He decided that it was time England had a history. He went to work to compose a history of England (slant on the Britons) and this was accepted still in the Elizabethan period. Lecture 8. Monmouth, Britannia––constructed Welsh myths into the history of England that were accepted down to 1600. Until then his account was believed and is therefore of great literary importance. It is through Monmouth’s history that we have Lear and Cymbeline in Shakespeare’s historical plays. King Cole also entered history from Monmouth’s account. The legend of the Welsh King Arthur, who stopped the Anglo-Saxons cold, and cleared them out of England. Monmouth introduced Arthur, and Merlin, who built Stonehenge by miraculously transporting stones from Ireland. Arthur is supposed to have gone on to conquer Europe. With this, Monmouth stops. There great names got into the English mind to the neglect of better histories. Monmouth was translated from Latin into English and Norman French, and the great legends spread through the 12th century. The stories were originally Celtic. Early stories dealt with Percival rather than the later goody-goody Galahad. In the 13th century a group of Cistercian monks gave the story of Arthur an allegorical significance––the holy grail, etc. Then the emphasis came to be on the knights. In the 16th century, Malory collected some of these later legends in his Morte d’Arthur. The Tudors (a Welsh house) relied on Arthur to give them a sort of moral right to the throne, and at this time serious doubts were being cast on the Arthurian legend. A foreign scholar had already called the legend a tissue of lies, and the idea still haunted English scholars. The Elizabethans were fond of history. With the Tudors had come a strong, steady centralized government. England was coming to the end of

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a period of historical growth. People were taking a pride in their country. Writing for historical purposes. p. 55. “Troy Nouvant” line 9. New Troy. From idea in Monmouth of England being founded as a New Troy by a grandson of Aeneas. William Warner (1558–1609) wrote a history of Albion’s England–– beginning with flood, up through Troy, etc. Calls the English “Britons,” after Brutus, the so-called founder of England after Troy. This poetry is in a very standard metre that is extremely boring, and goes on and on. A “nursery rhyme” verse. But this makes it easier history to remember. Spenser––his greatest work was The Faerie Queene––meant as an epic glorifying England. Each book is the quest of a knight, and each knight is a member of the court of the Faerie Queene. But the Faerie Queene never appears. He makes his poem allegorical, getting around historical difficulties. The queen represents (1) Queen Elizabeth (b) the glory of England. The hero is Arthur, who regales the knights whenever they get into trouble. The first book is about the Red Cross Knight (George) purifying the Church of England from Rome. Spenserian stanza––nine lines––septameter except for last line, which is hexameter. Byron used the Spenserian stanza (a very complicated one) in his Childe Harold. Keats used the Spenserian stanza for The Eve of St. Agnes––a very successful use. Also Shelley used it for something97 and Burns used it in “A Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The Spenserian stanza is highly wrought, full of rhyme and alliteration. It is no good for straight narration of simple, unadulterated stories. Chain of Being––all reality is on a scale or hierarchy of existence. God highest, then angels, man, animals, plants, inorganic matter, chaos, with hot, cold, wet, and dry. This chain of being runs all through English literature. The idea of form and matter runs through all English literature. Chaos is as close as you can get to pure matter without form, and God is pure form. Man is in the middle. (This theme is still going strong in Pope’s Essay on Man.) Strongly Aristotelian. In all classes of being there was the primate (the form best exhibited). Primate of flowers, the rose; of minerals, gold. “Hymn of Heavenly Beauty”––stanza beginning with line 29. Everything in the world is equally beautiful if you look at it for what it is supposed to be.

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Lecture 9. Bibliography General. Cambridge History (Tucker Brooke)98 and Oxford (Douglas Bush)99 History of English Literature Douglas Bush, Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry100 Douglas Bush, English Literature of the Early Seventeenth Century, 1600–1660101 Douglas Bush, Renaissance and English Humanism (Alexander Lectures)102 Hiram Haydn, The Counter-Renaissance103 [Lu Emily] Pearson, Elizabethan Love Conventions104 Hardin Craig, The Enchanted Glass: The Elizabethan Mind in Literature105 Esther Dunn, The Literature of Shakespeare’s England106 [William Lindsay] Renwick, The Works of Edmund Spenser107 Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture108 C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love109 p. 138. Spenser, “An Hymn of Heavenly Beauty”––The onion-shaped universe. His account of the spiritual world is largely of his own invention. Sidney. The Elizabethans were very proud of Sidney, trained in all the essential attributes of the perfect courtier. Popular. Others tried to imitate him. None of his works published in his short life-time. A learned man, interested in theology, philosophy, mathematics. Three particularly important works. (1) An Apology for Poetry––a formal speech in front of the court––a defense of poetry. (2) A long, prose pastoral romance, Arcadia. (3) His sonnet sequence, Astrophel and Stella, was the most popular. (The title seems to indicate a star and a lover of the star, indicating the courtly love convention.) The theme is of a courtly love pattern with much deep and personal love in it. The courtly distance is maintained because Sidney (Astrophel) is frustrated by Stella’s marriage. Sidney is a magnificent technician in poetry. His first sonnet in this series is written successfully in hexameter rather than pentameter. In Sonnet VII––hair black. Brunettes were out of style, as Elizabeth’s hair was red. Lecture 10. Astrophel and Stella––the sonnets interspersed with various songs and other types of poems. Typical Petrarchan love story. Gloomy story with a

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light tone. As story moves along, more passion, more frustration, the death of one, then followed by the theme of the eternity of love. Shakespeare’s sonnets. Existed quite early in Shakespeare’s career. Shakespeare himself remains a mystery. Inscrutable. Total of 154 sonnets, the majority addressed to a youth, a young man, with whom he is intensely in love, although not homosexually. His sonnets become philosophical, reflective, pessimistic. First sequence to the young man. Then there seems to be a break and another group, lighter in touch, addressed to a dark lady. Having some fun with the courtly love convention. A curious mixture of Shakespeare’s clairvoyant vision, along with a conscious attempt to be conventional. The first of the poems look like a great mind overlooking the universe, but he brings himself back with a jerk, and the last two lines are almost a jingle. [Edward] Hubler, The Sense of Shakespeare’s Sonnets110 Hero is love, villain is time as the sonnet sequence develops. (#64). Phrase “the fool of time” occurs all through the sonnets The illusion of things––art and love as disappearing in time. In reality, they have a permanence. Marlowe. (Ovid’s Metamorphoses contained many of the popular myths. Classical mythology was very popular in the Renaissance.) Hero and Leander––takes courtly love convention attached to classical myth, and develops that. The original story came from a late Greek Alexandrian poet. The poem was very popular, and Marlowe adapted and paraphrased the poem. Marlowe was trained at Cambridge and then went to London and wrote for the theatre. By far the best English dramatist before Shakespeare. He died when he was quite young. Marlowe’s plays were always a success. John Bakeless, Christopher Marlowe (1937)111 Four astonishing plays. (1) Tamburlaine. Given a curious perspective. An arrogant pride like Milton’s Satan. Marlowe given the name of an atheist. Followed it up with (2) Doctor Faustus, the text of which unfortunately has been ruined. The one great treatment of the story outside of Goethe. (3) The Jew of Malta (4) Edward II, great historical play. [Marlowe’s] “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”––a famous lyric of the period. A famous love song in the English language.

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Lecture 11. Mythological poem. Drowsy sensuous eroticism. Classical myth with heavy pictorial imagery. See Hero and Leander––Marlowe. Line 9, etc. description of Hero’s clothes. Line 135. Venus’ temple stands for the church in the courtly love convention. Lightness, lilt and continuity in Marlowe’s couplets. An extremely beautiful treatment of the mythological poem. Marlowe didn’t finish the poem, leaving it to be finished by Chapman. Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. Intensely pictorial, an early work (about the time of Titus Andronicus)––a curiously bloodless poem. An experiment in techniques of expression. Adonis. The god that around the Mediterranean was worshipped as bringing the crops. He died every fall. Everyone sought after Venus but Adonis, yet Adonis was the one Venus loved. Drayton. “Endimion and Phoebe.” Another mythological poem. Around 1600 there is a curious ambiguity in the treatment of courtly love and pastoral conventions. A lot of conventional writing, but in the poetry there was some lightness and parody. The conventions were wearing out. The easiest to parody was the pastoral. P. 184. Greene, another bright young man from Cambridge, like Marlowe. A good example of a new type of professional writer. He turned his hand to anything he thought might be popular. From [Robert Greene’s] Menaphon: “Doron’s Eclogues Joined with Carmela’s.” The Cockney’s revenge. A take-off on the pastoral convention. Drayton From Nymphidia: The Court of the Fairy. A take-off on the fairy idea. This rhyme scheme had been used as a parody of the medieval romance before (done by Chaucer, when he has to tell his story––a brilliant parody of the medieval romance in the medieval romance stanza). Drayton uses this jingle rhyme. For rhyme, you stick down just about any word that rhymes. Lecture 12. General shift in tone around 1600. 1590–1600, a great vogue for musical, lyrical poetry. Usually a pretty straightforward piece of poetry. From 1600, courtly poetry becomes more and more an expression of one class. The Cavalier period.

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Two main traditions in the 17th century (1) courtly love convention carried on, led by Ben Jonson (2) a more intellectualized type of poetry led by John Donne. Shakespeare did satirize the courtly love convention. Sonnet 130. Here he takes all the conventions of Petrarchan poetry and parodies them Donne also has a good bit of this. His secular love poetry was probably written before 1600, largely influenced by the 16th century. Restlessness with the repeated formulas of the courtly love convention and a tendency toward more intellectual poetry. See p. 214. Chapman Here he revolts against Petrarch while still sticking by the rules. Not a polished poet, but a high-brow intellectual. An age of political compromise, rather than intellectual study, philosophy. Anyone who sought intellectualism for its own sake was likely to be regarded as a free thinker. Donne, like Chapman, is an intellectual poet. Like Shakespeare in his attitude to courtly love. He ridicules the abstraction in the courtly love convention. Some straightforward courtly love poems. Some hid the Petrarchan conventions by exaggeration. Others in praise of promiscuity. Some domestic. Donne writes about all aspects of love. He realizes the complexity of love. Well-born people were to become either courtiers or go into the city and make [?]. Metaphysical Poetry (a poor appellation) Donne is supposed to have founded a school of metaphysical poetry that lasted throughout the first half of the 17th century. As jargon in English poetry, it refers to a certain type of poetry by Donne, Vaughan, Herbert, Crashaw, Cowley, Marvell, etc. It was a technique deliberately strained, far-fetched, unusual images. “Conceit”––a reference to an image that is ingeniously apt. You admire it, but there’s a lurking humour too. Wit is the faculty of making such conceits in metaphysical poetry. This poetry was in fashion until 1660. Then the French influence came in, and the Augustan age: Dryden, Pope, Johnson, etc. Metaphysical poetry went out of fashion. Johnson and Pope criticize this school for manipulating their own wit, trying too hard to do this.

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Even through the Romantic and Victorian periods, Donne and his school were still out of favour. Not until the 20th century has the interest revived, led by T.S. Eliot. These restless, agile poets seem to have more to say to the 20th century. H.J.C. Grierson, ed. Donne’s Poetical Works (Oxford) 127 Clifton Road. St. Clair Car. East from Yonge.112 Wed. 12th Lecture 13. Metaphysical poetry––an intellectual revolt against the conventions of the Elizabethan age. In Donne we have a technique developed in a deliberate, conscious aim to startle by use of a type of strained image. “Yoked by violence heterogeneous ideas”––Johnson.113 When this happens it usually points to some condition in the cultural background. In medieval times: their symbolic images and ideas, seven stars, planets, etc., provided a great one-to-one correspondence of ideas. All ideas linked naturally and systematically. The medieval system in the time of Donne was breaking up. Their ideas synthesized were falling away before the first discoveries of 17th-century science. This influenced Donne. The breaking world and the coming new world resulted in a sinewy leaning intellect, trying to unite a breaking system of ideas––metaphysical. As true of Eliot and the 20th century as it was for Donne in the 17th. Man occupying the central place in the chain of being from God to chaos. Possesses all the elements of the universe. Then Donne, a flat map, taking to him the character of the universe. Metaphysical poet demanded tact, but is never dull, like a dull pastoral. Lecture 14. Donne is known for unique association of ideas, and this type of poetry was popular until 1660. A break with old conventions. A systematic use of intellectual imagery. We have a feeling of a poetry being deliberately created to bring these images in. The use of abstract ideas does not seem poetic, for we think of poetry as depending on sense experience. We get references in his ideas to the thought of the medieval schoolman. (See “The Dream.”) Metaphysical poets enjoy using mathematical or geometrical images. Mathematical abstractions are not directly connected with sense experience, and so are of use to the metaphysical poets.

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Marvell in “The Definition of Love”––plane geometry involved in the definition. See Donne, Holy Sonnet VII––power packed. Donne, “Of the Progress of the Soul: Second Anniversary”––long, philosophical (on the anniversary of death of girl in the family). Shows in a meditation Donne’s outlook on the universe. The satire is an intellectual poetic form. Satire is the name of the form in this case. It began in Roman literature as a poetic form developed by Juvenal, Horace, Persius. This is taken up first in England by Wyatt in “Of the Mean and Sure Estate.” Gascoigne, “The Steel Glass.” Gascoigne wrote the first critical essay on the English poem. Translated Greek tragedy for the English stage. “The Steel Glass” was the first formal satire in English. He praises the old-fashioned virtue of using steel mirrors in England, against the import of glass from Italy. New-fangled ideas. [in left margin] The bestiary appears in late classical times. Describes habits of real and imaginary creatures. They were popular all over Europe. Its form is always the same. We learn their habits and then are given a moral from them. Spenser’s “Mother Hubbard’s Tale”––a satire but not a formal one. Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum {A Bundle of Rods}. A series of satires. He wrote two series. The example we have is a highbrow opinion of the stage. Doesn’t like the mixing of scenes & of classes in the play (Richelieu felt the same way), and this had a great effect on the French drama. Hall is right in thinking there is something socially subversive in the Elizabethan stage and drama. Elizabethan satire––follows Juvenal, Persius. Sometimes deliberately obscure. Donne writes in a couplet that is a take-off on the heroic couplet. The rhyme can hardly be noticed when it is read properly. In the 17th century there were three major schools: The Metaphysical; The Neo-Classical (Cavalier); The Allegorical (following Spenser) Ben Jonson. Born in London. Stepson of a bricklayer. Any reference to bricklaying in English drama is an attack on Jonson. In Shakespeare’s company he wrote his first great comedy, Every Man in His Humour. His type of comedy has never been touched. His tragedies are very learned & recondite, but don’t stage well.

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While Jonson was in charge of the Children’s Company he wrote his more involved plays. He became popular at court. Turned most of his efforts to writing masques. As a writer of lyric and light songs, he has had great influence. Lecture 15. Ben Jonson became poet laureate. He was a slow, careful writer––in contrast to Shakespeare. Wonderful, beautiful, polished little lyrics are the result. Jonson wrote six excellent comedies, but after that he became interested in masques & his later plays were flops. Jonson talks down to his less-educated public. Die-hard humanists insisted that all great works be written in Latin and Greek. They were forced to retreat from this position, but they still insisted that such devices as rhyme, alliteration, and other such devices not be used. So there was a prejudice against this. Lecture 16. In the Renaissance many distortions of English spelling by pedants who altered the spelling to bring out the Latin origin. This is why there are so many anonymous [anomalous?] spellings in the poetry of the period. Jonson’s verse is clear. Many of his lines show the influence of the Roman classics. Clarity and simplicity. A third tradition in Elizabethan poetry, and that was Spenser. Spenser and Milton were the top men. But also we have Giles and Phineas Fletcher. Giles is much the better of the two. The tradition of Ben Jonson. The greatest in this tradition was Robert Herrick. The first of the strictly 17th-century poets. Wrote epigrams on his parishioners in Devonshire, which he regarded as exiles. His poetry is purely lyrical. There are two volumes of his poems: Hesperides (secular poetry) and Noble Numbers (sacred poems) He was urbane, a classical scholar who studied Horace, Catullus, etc. He read a good deal of the classical religion and antiquities. He also studied the folk customs in Devonshire. Realized that their customs were from a pre-Christian religion, which closely resembled the classical religions. Various approaches to this by Puritan vs. Catholics–Anglicans. The latter group incorporated such things as the maypole and the Christmas feast into their religion. The Puritans wanted to root them out.

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Themes from classical writers: While you’re young, you might as well enjoy yourselves––one of Herrick’s favourite themes; e.g., “Corinna’s Gone A-Maying.” Lecture 17. George Herbert. Cambridge. The most articulate representative of a religious temperament contributed by the Church of England. Puritans were not liberals. They were revolutionaries. The most intolerant of any of the church bodies. The Church of England felt it was Aristotle’s “mean.” The middle way. An excellent solution. They emphasized the role of reason in religion. Herbert follows the courtly love convention, except that God has taken the place of the mistress. Typical of religious poets following Donne. (Donne in his later poems uses his same conceits, etc. as in his early poems with a religious [subject?].) Herbert’s poetry deals with the complaints of a lover rebuked, in a religious arena. Emotionally Herbert fluctuates from day to day. He covers the whole range of religious experience within his points of reference. Influenced by Donne but very different from him. Herbert was careful, humble. He worked and chiseled, carefully shaping and entirely reshaping his poems. Care in stanza form. Bibliography on metaphysical poets: H.C. White, The Metaphysical Poets114 Joan Bennett, Four Metaphysical Poets115 J.B. Leishman, The Metaphysical Poets116 H.J.C. Grierson––an anthology––Metaphysical Poetry from Donne to Butler––the introduction gives a good outline of metaphysical poetry.117 Seventeenth-Century Studies Presented to Sir Herbert Grierson.118 N.B. essay on Herbert White, Wallerstein, Quintana, Poetry and Prose of the Seventeenth Century119 Basil Willey, The Seventeenth-Century Background.120 The history of ideas approach. Useful for prose of Bacon and Browne. Richard Crashaw––another 17th-century Cambridge intellectual. Became a very high Anglican in his religious views. After the Civil War and the destruction of the Anglican Church as he saw it, he turned Catholic. He

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was sent by the wife of Charles I to the Pope, who didn’t want him and sent him elsewhere. His poetic technique is entirely unlike Herbert’s. An intensity and fierceness in his religious feeling, which marks the 17th-century Catholic. Read the first couple of pages of Pratt’s Brebeuf121 for the Catholic spirit. The Counter-Reformation brought about a militant mysticism. The Jesuits formed. Most intense crucible of mystical heat in Spain. Source of Jesuit poem. Crashaw is right in the thick of it. Some of the cult remains––League of Sacred Heart, etc. Crashaw is not a poet of the worked-out form. A big, free-flowing ode form he called anthem. Lecture 18. Crashaw largely influenced by the Counter-Reformation and is characterized by its spirit. Intensely spiritual, mystic. Like Loyola. St. Teresa is a mystic figure. Many four-beat lines in technically iambic pentameter verse. This is carried over without a break from Anglo-Saxon poetry. Crashaw, “St. Teresa”––Thematic words in the poem like a musical passage: “Love,” “soul,” “life,” “death” are key words in this theme. Sections of the poem close with this theme repeated. Life and death brought in at the end as resolution of the poem. “The Flaming Heart” has a really terrific conclusion, and it requires a 75-line build up at the end for it. An erotic nature in Crashaw’s imagery which he transfers to God. He turns the convention of love poetry into religion, but Crashaw’s imagery is more erotic and more obviously sexual in its symbolism than is Herbert’s. Henry Vaughan. (Read Blunden, “On the Poetry of Vaughan”)122 His twin brother was an occultist who wrote a great deal on magic, symbolism, etc. Henry Vaughan uses some of this occult, theosophical imagery in his poetic symbolism, but not very much. He is not an occult. He was Celtic––a lover of twilight. A type of literary intensity that has its own quality. Like Crashaw, he was influenced by Herbert. But he has not of Herbert’s carefully chiseled, precise quality. A visionary––one who tries to think in terms of images, symbols. Crashaw is more a mystic and so did not succeed in this. Vaughan felt there were two worlds, one of sense (that God built for man and wants him to live in it) and one not of sense, in which we actually live. For Vaughan this world of slums and wilderness forms a heavy curtain or veil hiding the real world and he hopes to snip the right branch and catch a glimpse of this

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world. For this reason the moments of dawn and twilight are important. A favourite word is “white.” Lecture 19. Vaughan. Moments of transition. Dawn and twilight. Birth and death. Traherne. Unknown as a poet until about 1890. Known in his day as an anti-Catholic controversialist. In many ways, like Vaughan. Sense of real world hidden behind time and space. Hidden by a curtain. A metaphysical. All these selections have the same point of view. He is better in his prose. He wrote a series of short meditative paragraphs, which he wrote in groups of 100, calling them “Centuries of Meditation.” Andrew Marvell. An elusive character, like Shakespeare. He was a Member of Parliament for Hull in Yorkshire, which was very strongly Puritan. He was in the Long Parliament. He was the only man in England who kept his seat and influence after the Restoration. He remained the lone critic of Charles II and his ministers. He wrote a series of satires which were hard-hitting. They tried to bribe him or shut him up in some way. Died in 1678, an honest and hard-hitting man. Poems published in 1681. They contain some of the most amazing poems in the English language. They have an elusive beauty. Seem to have been written during the early days of the Commonwealth. Some of his poems are straight metaphysical verse. Lecture 20. Marvell, “Horatian Ode”––Cromwell is neither a good man nor a bad man insofar as he is a strong man. It is not a case for moral justice––the Machiavellian principle. Cromwell as a force in nature. The portent as something very new. Never ends a poem as you would expect. Bermudas––One of his lovelier poems. About people going to the Bermudas to escape religious persecution. It is first pictured as a paradise, something like the islands in classical myth. He can here use his garden imagery. You can just reach out and eat. It is a real paradise. “The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn”––a poem about an intolerable, unbearable situation. The situation is too pathetic for Marvell and it turns away from its subject. Becomes too diffuse.

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“The Character of Holland”––Part of his satire. The poets had to be angry with the Dutch, since England and Holland were trade rivals Actually all Marvell does is spin conceits about what it’s like to live in a country below sea level. Edmund Waller There are four poets––Waller, Denham, Butler, and Cowley––who form a sort of transition from English 2i to 2j.123 Edmund Waller was a poet who survived both the Commonwealth and the Restoration. He wrote panegyrics on both Cromwell and Charles II. A sly chap, keeping on the good side of anyone in power. He uses the pentameter couplet that became popular from 1660 to 1760. The heavy couplet. No weak light endings, run-on lines. Always a pause in the rhythm at the end of a line. Heavy pause at the end of a couplet. Caesura in centre of line (like Pope and Dryden). Waller is better in his lighter lyrics. “Song: Go Lovely Rose”––is much like Spenser “Of the Last Verses in the Book.” Ends with a curious ambiguous overtone. Sir John Denham ––heavy, reflective poems. Climb a hill and describe what you see and then make reflections on everything you see. See these two poets in Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets. Both brought in the Augustan type of poetry. Samuel Butler After the Restoration he lets go a burlesque on English literature–– Hudibras. An immediate success. It is one of the great burlesques in English. Everyone got a laugh from it. What Butler discovered was that in English, where there are such heavy stresses on words, rhymes are too evident. Triple rhymes can belong only to comic verse. It is impossible to make unusual rhyme. Consequently, unusual rhymes in English belong to comic verse. Gilbert and Sullivan. Therefore Hudibras was written in intentional doggerel. The poem gives itself all the airs of a serious love poem. Lecture 21. Hudibras is also one of the most erudite poems in the English language. In many respects Butler is the forerunner of Swift. Both have a tendency to

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ridicule science and the new learning. Their reasons for doing so are somewhat important. The front line of defence was satire, which often tackles the social consequences of committing oneself to philosophy. Samuel Butler and Swift attack Cartesian philosophy & the Royal Society. Voltaire in Candide ridicules Leibnitz and Spinoza. The Samuel Butler of the Victorian period attacks Darwinian evolution by attacking its social consequences. Hudibras has been so greatly educated that he feels that intellectual formulae are adequate and valuable. [in left margin] onomatopoeia (imitative harmony). The reproduction of meaning by rhythm: “squeeze,” “explosion,” “whisper” Christmas traditions came from Romantic Germany in the time of Victoria Abraham Cowley. One of the most popular poets in his own day, but about 1700 his reputation collapsed. He falls in the metaphysical tradition. (See remarks on metaphysical poets in Johnson.) Cowley was interested in free verse––verse with great irregularity of rhyme and meter. From Cowley’s time to the eighteenth century there was a passion for the sublime ode, based on Pindar. It was a lyrical eulogy. Cowley developed a theory. If we wish to recapture the spirit of Pindar in English poetry, we have to write irregularly. A new type of Pindaric ode––“Hymn to the Royal Society” When you make rhythm irregular, you can pick up the rhythm of the meaning itself. Lecture 22. Thomas More. The beginnings of the 16th century. At Oxford he became interested in humanism, especially Greek. Direct knowledge of Greek became popular. Now the New Testament could be more critically studied. Plato now came to rival the supremacy of Aristotle. A literary development began at this time. Medieval philosophy, scholasticism had built up a technical language. For the next two-hundred years philosophy was in the hands of amateurs who emphasized style. Philosophy, especially in England, was in the hands of amateurs––Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume. Plato’s dialogue form especially appealed to the Renaissance. Plato was aware of the aesthetic as a factor in philosophy. His poetic, aesthetic awareness inspired Copernicus in astronomy.

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Also Plato brought forth a philosophy of love which was much in line with the courtly love convention. Therefore Oxford began to study Greek, and here Erasmus and More took up humanism. Both More and Erasmus represent the type of learning characteristic of early humanism. Both were cosmopolitan, citizens of the world. They wrote, spoke, and thought in Latin. Both were deeply Christian, and their culture was fundamentally Christian. At this time there was a growth of historical criticism. Skepticism on less fundamental issues. E.g., “The Donation of Constantine,” on which the Pope based his temporal power, was proved to be a forgery. More and Erasmus were reformers, but not sympathetic to the Reformation movement. However, there were some points on which they agreed. Tyndale made the first English translation of the Bible under Henry VIII. More and Tyndale were involved in a controversy. This brings out an important fact in the history of religion. It is impossible to impartially translate the Bible. It is translated into either a Catholic or a Protestant frame of reference. İțțȜȘıȓĮ [ecclesia] = church or congregation; presbys = priest or elder; metanoia = penance or repentance; episousion = supersubstantiation or daily bread (in the context of the Lord’s Prayer). More was very useful to Henry VIII. In London he became known as a fair and upright judge. He was made Lord Chancellor––popular, almost legendary. However, More was the only man who opposed Henry VIII when he went ahead with his divorce, so Henry felt he had to get rid of him. He could not through law get More’s head, so he passed a “Bill of Attainder.” More has been canonized. The Utopia was written early in the reign and before the rise of Luther. Therefore, there is a boldness and freedom in it. First book is a satire on England in More’s time. The second book was written first and describes Utopia. It imitates Plato’s dialogues & turns eventually into a monologue. The Republic influenced More. But it was from the Timaeus and Critias (immediately following the Republic) from which the legendary Atlantis arose, that we find More most strongly influenced. The first book is an economic, political, and social satire. The leading character’s name in Greek means “babbler.” ȅȣIJȠʌȓĮ [Utopia] means nowhere, no place. This indicates the fiction of the work.

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By writing in a dialogue form More ducks out of being entirely responsible for what he said. The dialogue between More and Hythloday shows the differences between Reformers and Revolutionaries. The great social evil of the time was the enclosure system. The capitalists took over the land as ranches to raise sheep. Therefore, the small land owner was displaced and had nowhere to go. There were capital offences for stealing as well as killing, and More points out that this had led to increased ferocity in crime. Hythloday says that the trouble is not love of money, but the ability to get hold of it. Private property must be abolished. (“Anarchy of private enterprise.”) What in Europe is called the Commonwealth government or state is really a conspiracy to defend the helpless. In the Utopia he goes on to explain what has happened as a result of the abolition of private property. Rank distinctions and class distinctions. Lecture 23. Hythloday’s indictment against 16th-century Europe is (1) economic (2) political. His attitude is that the root of these problems is the desire for the acquisition of private property. The only thing that could be done for Europe would be to sweep away the conception of private property. More uses a kind of sober mock-realism––dead-pan devices (as Defoe later). The use of some real characters. If you didn’t know the Greek meaning of Utopia and Hythloday, you could be taken in. More gets away from the wild traveller’s tales of the Middle Ages. Hythloday describes a conversation with Cardinal Morton in England. Morton was an important man, & Henry VIII had Morton collect money for him in the form of Benevolences. However, More makes Morton appear better than he actually was in history. Those at the table laugh when Morton laughs, agree when he agrees. There is a reactionary (a lawyer) present. More shows in his writing that he had a very civilized background. Uses a sober, deadpanned defence of the ideal state. He, in life, delighted in paradox and the defence of paradoxes. The “Utopia” is isolated in English. It develops and fosters a probing of enlightened isolation (England an island). More then describes the general set-up of the country: (1) no private property (2) everybody works. Work is not specialized (this is opposed to Plato’s Republic) except in the case of exceptional scholars. Consequently, all the Utopians had to work only six hours a day. In England workers actually had to work much more than that, but that is because the workers support so many parasites. The Utopians have much leisure but not diversions such as drinking and other synthetic pleasures. Their

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leisure is real, devoted to self-improvement. Utopia is a mixture of monastery and university. Communism was a feature of monastic institutions. The cities of Utopia are all alike. People change their houses every ten years, but they do not change around their furniture. There is nothing to steal: all property is common. They dressed in wool but did not go to the ends of the earth to find dyes. They do not dye the wool. All this equalizing is to keep down the tale’s ideas of inequality. There was no money in Utopia. The state keeps a stock of gold for trading with neighbors. The Utopians attach no value to gold. Use it in chamber pots, children’s toys, etc. Lots of competition in Utopia, but it is in intellect, not in expensive clothes, jewelry, drink, etc. (More generally leaves out the problems of technological development, which Francis Bacon takes a good account of in his New Atlantis.) Strict discipline. Criminals, occasional prisoners are given menial servants’ tasks. They are not treated harshly but live under a penal regime. Capital punishment is rarely resorted to. The motive for theft is abolished. False moral issues, which clutter up societies, are removed. There are fewer moral dilemmas in Utopia because they are unnecessary. No reason a man should have to choose between honesty and his stomach. More believes in the family as the stabilizing unit (unlike Plato). Deference of young to old. The older get deference because they earn it. In growing older they have grown wiser. Utopia is governed by reason. Reason is the standard for anything. Rigorous control of size of families and cities. However, they are threatened with increasing population and so buy waste lands from other countries, and if other countries will not sell to the Utopians, they just move in on them. They hired mercenaries whenever there was fighting to do. They saw no point in killing off their own men unless the war is very stubborn. Their main effort in such a total war is to assassinate the other country’s ruler. They form a fifth column by distributing leaflets offering rewards. They have a great reputation for keeping treaties, and so make as few as possible. Their reputation is a considerable military asset. (Contrast More’s concept of war with Plato’s.) Their religion is for the most part a religion of reason (like late Roman empire). They believe in a supreme being and in immortality. But variety of cults. Lecture 24.

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Utopia is an ideal state but not a Christian state. More carefully works out the Utopian religion––one of natural and reasoned religion. (Two kinds: revealed and natural) Natural religion is the kind that men immediately begin to form because of the constitution of their mind––the kind one gets by contemplating nature, such as in Plato and Aristotle. Much use of images for symbols of the Supreme Being. A great deal of tolerance in Utopia. But believed a man not competent for public office unless he believed in the immortality of the soul. Church and state thus close together. They are intolerant of intolerance. An over-energetic Christian is jailed. No man allowed to bother other people with his religion. Other things in Utopian religion that were not in keeping with the Catholic European societies. Their priests are very holy and therefore very few. They are married. The law of Utopia permits divorce for incompatibility. All this is compatible with natural religion, but not with our revealed religion. Many feature of Utopian religion are in keeping with the late Roman Empire. The first book gives us the key to the satiric intention of Utopia. Any Utopia is at least potentially a satire, by contrast with the existing state of society (Republic)––actually a satire––Gulliver’s Travels. Inverted Utopia––Orwell’s 1984, as the logical conclusion of the society in which we live (pure satire: Huxley, Orwell, London). But even the first book is a satire by contrast. Swift––the life of sense and reason (natural) is only for animals, for they are already adjusted to nature. It is not for man. The Yahoo is for Swift what man would be by his own destiny, if he were abandoned by God. [in left margin] Montaigne’s essay “On the Cannibals”––a great work in which he shows the cannibal as better in many respects than 16th-century Europeans. The Utopia has natural religion. 16th-century Europe had revealed religion. Utopia has a simpler, sensible, better way of life. 16th-century Europe should not necessarily follow suit. But 16th-century Europe should be warned by the fact that the simpler Utopia without Christian religion is better than 16th-century Europe with it. The Utopians are a reproach to our civilization in the same way that in Swift the horses are a reproach to human civilization.

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Lecture 25. Essay: A Comparison of More’s Utopia with Any Other Utopia” Plato, Republic (Timaeus, Critias––Atlantis) Bacon, New Atlantis Campanella, City of the Sun Rabelais, “Abbey of Thélème” 17th century Harrington, Oceana 19th century Bellamy, Looking Backward Morris, News from Nowhere H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (and others) Take offs Aristophanes, The Birds (satire on society) Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Book IV Butler, Erewhon A. Huxley, Brave New World Orwell, 1984 J. London, The Iron Heel Utopia. More can be admired either by very conservative people or very radical people. Marxists like and show a respect for More’s Utopia. The views of the evil societies produced by private property made at the end by Hythloday are especially admired by Marx and Engels. More’s purpose is serious, but More is a very different person from Hythloday. Utopia is a working, informing idea. It isn’t meant to be followed, nor yet to be ignored. It is an interesting eye-opener. The aspects of religion differing from Christianity keep the Utopians consistent in their own sphere. The Utopians are tolerant, and More responds to their toleration. We have a great deal to learn from them. Utopia––an idea that works from within to produce charity, tolerance, less bigotry, etc. Not an ideal society of the future to which we should go. Between Plato and More there comes a whole tradition of medieval thought. St. Augustine––about 450. Pagans said that if Roman Empire had not turned Christian, the fall of the Empire would never have occurred. Augustine thought that this was public opinion, so his City of God is partly an

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attempt to refute the argument that Christianity was the cause. This leads him to describe the ideal Christian state. Two cities: (1) Jerusalem, ideal city, eternal, cannot exist on earth, but it does exist in presence here in time and space. Yet you cannot make it coincide with earthly institution, the state. (2) City of Destruction––fallen away from God, corrupt. Between these two extremes come such states as our own empire kept together by natural law and justice. “If you took away from the Roman Empire the conception of justice you would have nothing but organized brigandage.”124 This leads to the conception of Jerusalem––City of God versus Babylon (City of the World, Destruction). In between is Rome. Insofar as it is an empire, it will be pulled down, but in the state is the Church which cannot fall, and if the state clings to it, it will be pulled up. Socrates admits the ideal state can never exist, but the wise man must live in it and carry on. This Socrates does. Lecture 26. Ascham. Humanism in action. Elizabethan educational basis. Renaissance culture, city-state culture came to Italy first because it had little feudalism. Machiavelli says there are two kinds of government––principalities (dictatorships) and republics, which were unstable and always broken down into dictatorships. Machiavelli decides that the solidarity of the state lies in the qualities of the leader. He decides that the qualities of a good leader are not moral: he must be forceful and cunning. His actions are to be expedient, not moral. The prince must know warfare. The Utopia takes a somewhat Machiavellian approach to warfare. Machiavelli is working out the structure of Renaissance government. He begins the tradition which is carried out in the next century by Hobbes and became the philosophy of the dictator. Machiavelli in his own limited way makes sense. What is the answer to his argument? In comparison with More, there is one thing he leaves out. The strongest states keep winning in warfare, get bigger and bigger, and then collapse. He does not control the size and extent of the state. He thinks entirely in terms of the ruler and his followers, but Hythloday remembers the conspiracy of rich men––a leader, no matter how great, is in some sense a stooge. A rich, privileged class gets the leader into office. Henry VIII carried along Machiavelli’s point of view. However, Bacon points out that the stability under the Tudors was caused by domestic balance. Against the realism of Machiavelli, Castiglione wrote an ideal book on education. It is a Platonic dialogue on a Platonic theme, looking for the

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Form of the courtier. A group of Florentines sit down to discuss what an ideal courtier is. They decided that he would be of good birth, because it would be much easier for him if he were. You need an absolute sense of comfort and security. Everything in Castiglione’s argument is for the appearance of the courtier––he must not be boorish or stupid. Must at least keep up an appearance of education. He must have grace and “recklessness” (a careless, graceful, easy quality). He ought to know all the arts and sciences of his country. He cannot know it as a scholar, but he should be a connoisseur. If not able to paint, he should know the difference between a good and a bad poem. His poetry should look as if he had just dashed it off. He must not appear to be working hard. He must not be a pedant either in culture or physical training. He should excel in things like tennis, but not wrestling because it is not graceful. The first book of The Courtier shows that he must be a cultivated, graceful amateur in all things important. In the second book we find that conversation is the proof of his education. Timing is important. The courtier should know how to tell a story. The rhythm of the cultured conversation is the indication of the level of the people involved. In the third book we see that we cannot assign culture to one sex alone. This book is devoted to the education of women, with the emphasis on the similarities with men. In the fourth book he eulogizes courtly love as the perfect expression of the courtier. It shows his courtesy, his inner power and passion. Ascham was somewhat influenced by Castiglione, but Ascham is far more middle class. He takes a more bourgeois line. He writes in a country where the middle class is coming to lay down the rules of conduct. These are more practical and more intimately connected with the education of the scholar. The Humanist––classical wisdom and culture being made a part of the way of life. It was possible in the 16th century to read just about everything written in Greek and Latin, because there was a limit to the number of books. Thus you were able to become knowledgeable on just about every subject. Ascham himself was the diplomatic correspondent of the country. The letters had to be written in Latin. The style was his own. He had been Elizabeth’s tutor and became a favourite at Elizabeth’s court. Ascham’s chief interests were education and archery. Englishmen should practice the long-bow much more. He thinks that people should learn more Latin, young men between 17 and 27 should be more carefully escorted; society is going to pot, etc. He is a bit of a bore, but still an enlightened and for-

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ward-looking educator. We can see the love of Latin at the basis of Elizabethan culture. Education associated with the vision of greatness. Lecture 27. First great educational treatise in English is Elyot’s The Governour, thinking of Henry VIII. The prince must be educated and secondarily the courtier. Ascham brings to bear upper middle-class ideas on this educational theory. Wrote during Elizabeth’s reign and places her as the educational ideal. Praised Castiglione and thought that the court had degenerated from the form of The Courtier. A growing insularity becoming a part of English culture. This is evident in his conception of the ideal student. The ideal student must have İȣijȣȓĮ––natural intelligence accompanying birth. Teachers take pride in quick wit and intelligence when these properties are not produced by the teacher but are explicitly the students’. Quick wits lack moral energy and perseverance. Hard wits are strong, worthwhile when intellectual development begins. The growing distrust of brilliance as something foreign is here reflected. This is the good old John Bull trust in the English stalwartness and heaviness—deep moral energy. This is insularity. Thinking is a product of long, ingrained habit––in every case. Ascham’s nationalism was limited. Had travelled in Germany and picked up the ideals of the German humanists. Other evidences of insularity are prevalent in the Elizabethan era. The retaliation to Machiavelli’s The Prince was a book in English by a man who had travelled extensively in France and encountered European interest in Machiavelli. His book exposed the Italian writer as cold, brutal, cynical, hard. Before this, The Prince was known only by hearsay in England. Stimulated by the book, the Machiavellian villain became a stock bogey of English drama. Hereafter Italy became a symbol of intrigue, assassination, etc. in English writing. England’s tendency to isolate itself. Lyly wrote a book in England called Euphues, or Anatomy of Wit. Ascham’s tastes are those of the middle Renaissance––revolted against dramatic styles, except Shakespeare. Wanted quantitative basis of poetry of classical times, like their drama. Revolted against all that smacked of Middle Ages., including germinal root of Arthurian legends and the two foci of philosophy of the Middle Ages (1) Thomism––13th-century realism (2) Franciscanism under Duns Scotus at Oxford. Early 16th-century revolt against scholasticism. Humanists insisted on strict logic of thought.

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Ascham’s purpose was not to ridicule the Italians or despise Middle Age culture. Ascham had definite views on education, particularly on corporal punishment, and he published his views, receiving encouragement, in a very humbly titled book––The Scholemaster (a schoolmaster at the time was a person of inferior class) Education of the day––grammar school and then to Oxford (theology) and Cambridge (law). Ascham deals with boys just beginning to read. Grammar based on Latin. One learned English grammar through Latin. There were no courses in English in Renaissance schools. To go to school meant to read and write Latin; reading and writing English were incidental. Therefore, Shakespeare knew Latin well, despite controversy over his education. Ascham’s system of learning Latin was direct comparison of a child’s work with Cicero. This system did not bring a heavy Latinized abstract style, which tendency is a product of one who is unacquainted with the manifold differences between the Latin and English languages, but it did create the distinct style native to Elizabethan English. The whole system of Elizabethan English is based on a Latin foundation. Lecture 28. Tremendous revival of sense of style under humanism. Aesthetic approach to classical literature. A conception of Latin as having achieved its peak in the Augustan age. In another century, it declined to the silver age. Then Latin kept getting more ornamented. With rise of church fathers Latin fell apart. Medieval Latin was the worst possible, according to the humanists– –low down, vulgar, slangish. Consequently, humanistic scholars said that if you’re going to learn Latin you must learn that of the writers of the Augustan age. Thus the humanists at the time of Erasmus killed Latin as a living language because they raised it as a dead language. It became a high-brow language of intellectuals. This is Ascham’s notion as well, as he points out in his second book. In Shakespeare’s time you still had to hesitate over whether to write in English or in Latin. Until 1600 much great English literature was written in Latin––Milton and Bacon, for example. If you wrote in English, your learned audience would be restricted. Bacon––The Advancement of Learning was written in English to attract the attention of James I because he was interested in science and Bacon knew that to advance science it would need royal patronage. He wrote another larger edition in Latin. Typical Renaissance scheming politician.

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Conscientiously & pedantically unscrupulous. Seems to have set his teeth to be ruthless, but he wasn’t the type. Bacon, after Elizabeth died, became a great favourite of James I. He was given the job of drawing up the act of union between the two countries. Under James he was advanced to the peerage. Attained good honours along with many other jobs. Obtained Sir Thomas More’s old job. Bacon was a great champion of the royal prerogative against Parliament (which he felt represented only the rich merchant class). The Parliament won the civil war later because they had money and the king hadn’t. Bacon successfully defended the king, but Parliament pounced on him afterwards. Bacon was exiled from London. He allowed people to bribe him, but he did not necessarily give decisions in favour of those who bribed him. In those days bribes were quite difficult to distinguish from presents. In his retirement he got some writing done. In his writing he was over-ambitious. A great planner and drafter of intellectual schemes and prospects, and he proposed more books than he ever disposed of. He spread propaganda for science and made it respectable, and thereby he set himself in opposition to the whole humanist tradition, which was pretty weak on the scientific side. A great deal of English scientific advance was done in the next three centuries by men of rank, working as amateurs. Charles II, later on, founded the Royal Society––amateurs of rank. Science was outside the universities until the late 19th century. A virtuoso in the 17th century was one who spent his time in science. Swift in particular ridiculed this science in the Third Voyage of Gulliver’s Travels. Bacon formed the plan of the Great Instauration––having six parts. Felt he would do the beginning of this and the rest be done by posterity. He set down the axioms and principles of the scientific method. His big jobs were The Advancement of Learning and The New Organum. Aristotle wrote the first treatise on logic, but Bacon wrote a second, different kind that was more applicable to the scientific method. Aristotle’s logic was deductive, in which you reason from premises to a conclusion. The typical form is the syllogism. All through the Middle Ages this formal logic was elaborated and developed. The Schoolmen knew how to argue deductively according to formal logic. This logic was especially good for mathematics. Bacon says that this logic tells you nothing new. The syllogism never leads to new knowledge and so we must have a different kind of logic, which is inductive. We go from particulars (body of facts, data) to a general principle.

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The Novum Organum was an attempt to work out the inductive system. The early method had been one good for argument, for you didn’t need to know anything to argue in syllogisms. Lecture 29. The Elizabethan period was not a great one for speculative literature except for Bacon and Hooker. The intellectuals included a minority in the court. Bacon is rather outside the general tradition. He is expounding the new science and the new method. The deductive method is handy in mathematics and theology. From premises of faith you proceed to draw conclusions. From the Church doctrines the medieval scholars drew conclusions. And these conclusions came more and more to deal with natural problems––philosophy. And from philosophy to science. Biological, chemical, social sciences remained quite undeveloped in the Middle Ages. For the inductive method we must turn this inside out. We begin with scientific facts and work to philosophy. The 16th century began the break-up of this system of knowledge, both through the rise of the inductive method & the rise of Protestantism, which believed less in reason than in revelation. Bacon solves the problem of science and religion by saying that they run on different planes. Religion will never conflict with science nor science with religion so long as each sticks to its own job. Science leads to rationality, purpose, and design in the universe. We will get the hunch through a careful study of science that there is an intelligence or purpose behind the workings of the universe. (The Puritans chopped off religion and science and let science go ahead on its own, whereas Catholicism suppressed it. The Puritans were extremely practical in their views of the world, believing that science and religion do not clash.) The effects of the medieval structure of thought are still with us. The sciences have developed according to their closeness to mathematics. Astronomy and physics assumed their modern form in the 16th century. Chemistry gets its start around the time of the Restoration with Robert Boyle, but took another century to develop into a modern form. The biological sciences did not get established until the 19th century. The social sciences, a 20th-century development, are not fully established yet. Bacon was not really a spokesman for the science of his own time. He distrusted mathematics. He was a prophet of later sciences. Bacon goes out of his way to attack the “spectator” theory of man. Man cannot stand back and regard nature, but is an active participant. In this Bacon foresees the human sciences (biological, social).

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In the Novum Organum he says there are four great fallacies––idols of the tribe, which are errors that we have from birth, what people tell us. We accept these, instead of trying to find out for ourselves; idols of the cave–– subjective fallacy; idols of the marketplace––the influence of public opinion; the belief that words can replace things as the object of thought (defend McCarthy and the Dixiecrats, while still hanging on to the definition of democracy); idols of the theatre––the Galileo belief that man can look at nature as a theatrical show. This state of mind leads us to draw pictures rather than studying science. “Mental-doodling.” This attitude of mind led Bacon to be out of touch with the science of his time and in this way he was wrong. Bacon calls Copernicus’ view an idol of the theatre––an attempt to paint a more symmetrical, ordered pattern of the universe. In Bacon’s time lived a great scientist, [William] Gilbert. Studied magnetism. Wrote a book saying the earth was a great magnet, having a pole at either end. He proposed a theory of attraction, an opening for the theory of gravitation. His work was an idol of the theatre. From a few observations he drew a vast conclusion. Bacon was right that hundreds of scientists working in different places separately would have to pool observations for large inductions. In the scientist we need humility. He must be content with making a small contribution. Philosophers make the error of attempting to expand whole theories, structures, on a small discovery. Plato and Aristotle both fell into this error. They forgot the work of the other great scientists, like Democritus. Plato was too eager to talk and not eager enough to work. Refutes the point of view of the humanists who believed the older it was the better it was authoritatively. Bacon conceives science as slowly advancing anonymously over the ages. Nothing is there because anyone says so, but because it is true by experiment. Arts are different––they do not improve. The work of great men is a cult of authority. Shakespeare is the last word in play-writing. Nobody gets to be a great poet by improving on a predecessor. Shakespeare not built on Marlowe, for example. Lecture 30. Feb. 2 Bacon’s philosophic importance is as a propagandist for the new scientific method. Cowley in a poem calls Bacon the Moses of the new learning.125 He was considered for the next two centuries the great leader of the new science. He became more a symbolic figure than a real one. See. F.H. Anderson, The Philosophy of Francis Bacon.126

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The Advancement of Learning is addressed to James I and takes account of James I’s tastes. James didn’t catch on to all that Bacon proposed and did nothing to advance science, although he was quite a learned man (King Solomon of England). Bacon says that knowledge is power and was interested in the engineering and technical side of knowledge. This was mainly a selling point, for he makes two points quite clear: (1) Knowledge is useful, as pointed out above (2) Knowledge is of value for its own sake. According to Bacon there are three fallacies that obscure knowledge (of philosophy and science: he does not make a distinction between the two). He divides learn-ing into three fields––history, poetry, and philosophy. According to Plato there were three forms of good: Plato just (will)

beautiful (feelings)

true (reason)

Bacon history

art

science

(Art is between the active and the contemplative, and we meet this again in Sidney.) Bacon in The Advancement of Learning makes his general distinction between history, poetry, and philosophy. He tells us that poetry is doing all right, so no detailed study here is necessary. In Book I he surveys the state of scientific and philosophical learning in his day.) The fallacies are: (1) fantastical learning (occultism, magic, alchemy, astrology, etc.). Plato seems to have been the god-father of this; we don’t know why. Possibly from his Timaeus. At any rate, in the Middle Ages the occult angle was built up through the neo-Platonists and mystics, such as Plotinus. This fantastical learning was revived in the Renaissance. Astrology was the greatest to be rooted in scientific foundations, for astrologers did take accurate measurements of the heavens which were later used in astronomy. Alchemy sought two things: principle of transmutation and the elixir of life. Elizabeth kept a couple of tame alchemists around the court just in case they did find anything. Alchemists did not have a high standing, but their principle of transmutation was attached to religion, and many of them were rather holy. Magic was the attempt to the human mind to control nature. The cause-effect relationship is by analogy. Black magic was trafficking with

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the devil. White magic was like science or medicine. In Bacon’s day natural magic was more in vogue. (2) contentious learning, the second fallacy: scholasticism or medieval philosophy. Bacon attacks scholasticism as having been concerned with spinning rational structures out of logic but not with collecting new facts. He planned on putting so many new facts in that scholasticism would be obsolete. Medieval philosophy was largely cobweb spinning, but it did set up a technical philosophical vocabulary that is of great value. Catholic philosophers today have begun a great return to scholasticism––especially St. Thomas Aquinas. Bacon says that as long as you do not collect new facts, you will have all sorts of contending schools. Men have too much propensity for talking and not enough for doing. (Fact collecting is actually an irrational activity––an irrational exposure to nature. Reason can block the advance of knowledge because you have a pre-fabricated theory of what you are going to find.) Rational activity is the establishment of relations between facts. (3) the third fallacy, delicate learning––humanism. Ascham’s saying that Cicero was the perfect style was opposed to reason. The idea that it doesn’t matter what you say as long as you say it with sufficient eloquence. The cult of style as an end in itself. Aestheticism. The desire to talk learnedly and eloquently without doing any work. Hooker adopts a Ciceronian style, but in the 17th century a reaction set in, taking Seneca for its model. A conversational free-style See [George] Williamson, The Senecan Amble127 Willey, The Seventeenth-Century Background[: A Study in Prose Form from Bacon to Collier]128 (first two chapters especially) Seventeenth-Century Prose and Verse White, Wallerstein, Quintana. More useful than Coffin and Witherspoon.129 Less bull. For Wed. Finish [Bacon?] Lecture 31. Feb. 4 In The Advancement of Learning Bacon expresses the idea that the world is getting older and better. For Bacon Aristotle’s philosophy was a premature attempt to found a whole philosophy on the syllogism. The Neo-Platonists got lost in a maze of mathematics. Both held back the advance of science. He touches on the relations of science and religion, saying that the two are on different planes and so never can conflict. Nature is a second Word of God.

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The style of the book is to attract King James. As James was a scholar, the Latin quotations were left in the original. The Essays––the centre of Bacon’s literary reputation, much to his disgust. The first edition, containing ten, was so popular that he put out two later editions, much expanded, with longer essays. The earliest essays are a series of aphorisms (and were written one sentence to a paragraph). Disjointed statements. He took the name “Essay” from Montaigne, but that was all he did take from him. They have virtually nothing in common. Montaigne believed the essays should be discursive. Bacon never even bordered on a discursive style. In the Latin version of The Advancement of Learning, he discusses rhetoric, and it is thus that the essay came about. Rhetoric was for ornament and for use. The Renaissance courtier required rhetoric and used if for both ornament and use. [in left margin] Read Cicero, On Rhetoric, Book I Rhetoric, the science of effective speech, required also by the poet, became a central subject in Elizabethan England. Hundreds of figures of speech. Bacon stresses the importance of rhetorical exercise. He gives examples from his earlier essays; so the Essays stem from Bacon’s interest in rhetoric and rhetoric as knowledge. He picks up a theme and then puts down a list of aphorisms, supplemented by examples––more aphorisms from the classics, biblical authority, anecdotes, etc. Bacon has a tremendous respect for aphorisms. His Novum Organum is a series of aphorisms. An aphorism is not a platitude. A profound observation rather than a superficial one. To estimate the quality of Bacon’s essays we must observe the quality of his wit. For he is witty––aphorisms, not platitudes. He always manages to turn the platitude, common statement, into an image-filled aphorism or paradox. Concentrates them. Each part of a sentence contains a whole milieu of life. There is a quality of wit, more so than wisdom, in the essays. The essays are sort of a handbook for the English courtier. He tells how to behave in the unusual life of the Elizabethan–Jacobean court. He tells us how to get around people. Machiavelli’s insistence on what happens rather than on what is supposed to happen is right up Bacon’s alley. Bacon gives us a picture of practical wisdom (how to get things done; do the things that

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have been tried and found to work). A 16th-century Benjamin Franklin. Practically no subject on which Bacon does not have something to say, and something both wise and witty. (Compare Bacon’s “On Gardens” with Nashe later on––nature as contrasted with childish taste.) Sums up complex matter in simple terms. His attitude to life as a whole is characterized by what we read here. A respect for clear intelligence, focused directly on its object. Truth comes better from error than from confusion (a mixture of the two). If Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays, then Shakespeare wrote Bacon’s essays. The two writers are totally incompatible. The difference between a Lord Chancellor and a middle-class artisan. Hooker The Anglicans and Puritans during Elizabethan times were both in the Church of England. There was little logical difference. The 39 Articles on the whole were acceptable to the Puritans. Oxford and Cambridge excluded Catholics, but not Puritans. The two differed more on church organization than in belief. It was not until the 17th century that the Puritans broke away. In Elizabethan times the Puritans were a pressure group within the church crying for a different kind of church organization than Episcopal. They wanted either Presbyterian (ruled by minister and elders) or congregational. Hooker set himself to try to define the outlook of the Church of England in regard to tradition and the Reformation. He had a great respect for St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. Tried to steer a middle course between Catholics and extreme Protestants. One problem was the source of authority, the Calvinists believing in the authority of the Bible. Hooker tries to make the Bible’s authority prior to the Church, but make the Church the interpreter, etc. Lecture 32. Feb. 9 Hooker sets himself primarily to study law and authority. So he primarily searches for (1) the sources of authority and (2) the method of transmittance to man. Catholics and Puritans differed in their outlook. 1. The Catholics believed in God’s will conditioned by reason. Thomism is greatly impressed by the sense of order in nature, and by the Church, also ordered. Therefore, God is rational, and he reveals himself

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through reason. A higher place is given in Thomist thought to the God of natural religion. According to the Puritans God’s will in unconditioned. He is arbitrary in our eyes. This shows the split in Puritan thought between the laws of society and the laws of nature. 2. Means of Communication. The Catholics believe that the Bible is interpreted through the Church. The Church teaches Christianity but the Bible doesn’t. The Bible is to be read only in the light of Church doctrine. In the Protestant position the Church is a human institution and subject to error in its interpretation of Scripture. The Bible is the final word of authority. (We can see how the Protestants feel that the Bible is the direct word of God by the arbitrary nature they assign to Him.) Hooker, like the Protestants, puts the Bible above the Church, but, like the Catholics, feels that the Church is the word of God interpreted in history. To the Protestants the Bible is chronologically and theologically prior. Hooker works out his concept of law as being inherent in God. He interprets law in (1) terms of power (will) (2) terms of equity, reasonableness (reason). The laws may move from one extreme to the other–– arbitrary or reasonable. But in Hooker both will and reason are potentially present; and both are present in the nature of God. Hooker says that each of these divisions has a law of its own. [in left margin] Great Chain of Being: God / angels / man / organic world / inorganic world / chaos In the inorganic world we have automatism––a regular and predictable type of behaviour. In the organic world we have an obedience to law, which may be called instinctive. The angels stand in the presence of God; therefore, the action of God is reasonable to them by direct apprehension. Therefore, their law is intuitive. (He then has difficulty explaining the fall of the angels.) God contains law within his own nature––essential. In the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Hooker explains the operation of law in each of these spheres. Man does not apprehend the will of God clearly, but he doesn’t run on instinct either. In man’s natural state the law of God appears mysterious, yet tolerable. He apprehends it in terms of fate, fortune. Interprets it like

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machinery––a mixture of power and reason. Therefore, the laws of man are moral laws. God––essential angels––intuitive man––moral organic––instinctual inorganic––automatic Man in the middle of the chain of being and has some of the qualities of those above and below. Moral = natural or rational. Below these rational laws we find also expedient, sub-reasonable laws––laws present in society. We begin with arbitrary commands and gradually begin to see the reason behind the law; but if the arbitrary command has no sense, it is revocable, as being only a law presented by human nature in its relationship with social beings. Above these are laws which aid men in forming churches. The first religious laws will appear to be divine commands which at first do not appear reasonable. They are laid down for us to obey. Laws positive, which relate to man’s religious destiny, at first have a kind of arbitrariness about them. As man goes on in his existence, he may understand them better, but to his reason these will always appear incomprehensible. We can understand them only through revelation. The laws positive develop a ritual, acts which cannot be explained wholly on rational terms.—the development of the habit of doing the will of God. Here is where the Church comes in, training man in these habits preparing him for the upper chain of being. Lecture 33. Feb. 11 Spirit of toleration rampant in the 17th-century Church of England. The split with the Puritans came in the reign of James I. Browne. Doctors had the reputation of being skeptical, materialistic. In Browne’s time the body and mind were considered a unit. In the 17th century man still lives in a world where the state of melancholy is both of the mind and the body. Hooker wrote in a stiff, balanced, Ciceronian style. Sir Thomas Browne is quite the opposite––colloquial, free and easy style in his Religio Medici. “Attic prose.” He was a doctor, equally interested in the ancient and the modern: Galen and Paracelsus. Galen, the classical authority, believed that there were opposites, antipathies, which extend through the whole of nature. When sick, you take something opposed to the ailment to drive it out.

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In the Renaissance there came a new school of medicine headed by Paracelsus. He was a curious mixture of genius and sharpness. He was largely occult. His great medieval principle was homeopathy––searching for a like principle (yellow for jaundice). A great believer in minerals, while Galen believed in herbs. Paracelsus discovered mercury was a good remedy for syphilis, a new disease just introduced from America. Galen regarded it as a highly improper disease, for it was not treated in Galen’s works & they refused to treat it. Browne is a unique mixture of the two schools, but he seems more of the occult, speculative. Browne was a man of his own time. He was interested in modern science. Bacon mentioned in his Advancement of Learning that someone ought to write out a list of commonly accepted beliefs that are actually erroneous. Browne proceeded to do that in his ambitious Pseudodoxia Epidemica––“Vulgar Errors.” He examines the crazy natural history. Quotes all the classical “authorities” on a particular question, and then rationalizes to a general conclusion that such a thing is probably wrong. He uses a rational approach, not an experimental approach. He is characteristically speculative, a sharp insight. Searches for the elementary principles of design in nature. He was the opposite of the Royal Society, which demanded dry-bone facts, not the high degree of speculation in Browne. Swift’s projected essay “A Panegyric on the Number Three” is a direct swing at Browne and his Quincunx. Browne is interested in a comprehensive viewpoint and synthesis. Of the four causes of Aristotle, Browne thinks that the question of purpose, of final cause, of why? is the most important question. Lecture 34. In Browne there is no limitation of objectives. He permits many subjects to enter as he writes. Paradoxical humour. Surveys the panorama of knowledge, but feels the limitation of human knowledge, feels we cannot hope to uncover it all. He takes a skeptical attitude to knowledge. Much of the deep faith of the 17th century was founded on intellectual skepticism. Belief in revealed religion through a distrust of the human mind to know what it thinks it knows––Browne, Pascal, Dryden. There are no questions that can be answered without another why? This goes on ad infinitum. Three levels in the human mind: (1) reason. (Makes a monkey out of sense experience. As far as reason is concerned, we live on a flat world, an order and design which isn’t there. Belief in the power of human design,

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architecture. A paradoxical, ironical relationship between reason and sense experience teaches us to distrust the adequacy of our senses.) (2) sense (3) faith––a religious conception. The quality of paradoxical irony is carried into the third level. The first function of faith is to make a monkey out of reason. In a properly religious frame of mind, your mind is thoroughly flexible. If you accept only the first two levels of mind, you are addicted to mental stodginess––just faith in reason instead of faith beyond reason. When you turn to the Bible you leave reason and sense experience behind. The quality of the divine revelation to man takes the form of stories that are largely absurd. Browne’s only criticism of the Bible was that it was too sober. Browne distinguishes real belief (flexibility of mind) from persuasion (belief in something you can’t help believing in). This latter is response, not an expression of an active, energetic mind, but only a response to sense experience. Faith for Browne is the highest part of his mind. In the realm of religion the human mind can stretch itself as ease. His faith is founded on the distrust of reason––content to understand the mystery without a definition. (1) Sense––physical(2) Reason––logical(3) Faith––operates in Scriptures, Church (a series of rituals). Hooker: three laws in mankind: (1) expedient, paralleling Browne’s “sense.” (2) rational, paralleling Browne’s “reason.” (3) sacramental, paralleling Browne’s “faith.” Browne can be relaxed in both his attitude toward philosophy and toward science. He does not dismiss things simply because they are unreasonable. His validity is based on how things balance our life. Soundness of faith and flexibility toward science. He was a philosophical skeptic, but not a skeptic in the field of faith. He tries to unite the human with what is above the human (spiritual and angelic) world in the scale of creation. The order of creation rises with proportion. Lecture 35. Looking at the world at each of the three levels, each by itself is self-consistent, but when we leap from one to another we are involved in contradiction. We cannot build up a perfect synthesis at one level because we have to look out to make our leap. ȥȣȤȒ [psyche] = soul, butterfly––concept of resurrection for Browne. Looks at the visible world for symbols and signs of divine presence and the invisible world. The insect turning from a worm to a butterfly was an

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example of an appearing self-sufficient natural world of a metamorphosis indicating a jump from one level to another. This was symbolic of the resurrection. The leap of man from body to soul in death. In rituals of the Church physical actions are symbolic of affecting spiritual life in one way or another. There are many people searching the physical world for symbols and indications of the invisible world, especially Catholics and Anglicans. Browne is a very high church Anglican. Sympathetic with Catholic Church. He shows some of the tendencies of Protestant thinking––the primacy of the Word of God. However, he gives as much authority to the Church as possible. In the created world, Browne believes that nature does everything for a purpose. The philosopher finds nothing irrational on the level of reason. Similarly, on the level of faith, the world is clear. Everything has its own beauty, value, etc. General attitude of tolerance to the whole created world is part of the tolerant acceptance of the world as it is, which is a necessary part of faith. Book I of Religio Medici is on faith. Book II is on charity––the practice of religion. In opening Book II, he congratulates himself on his tolerance––a natural tendency to take things easily. A general indifference toward the conditions of life. Emancipates the imagination in the realm of spiritual beings. Interest in the chain of being. He has to drag fallen angels (evil spirits), witches in by the heels, as such an idea is antithetical to the concept. Sounds off about witches––indicates the power of such a train of thought in the 17th century “World soul”––in Plato’s Timaeus. This concept recurs in later thought. Bergson brings it in as élan vital. Shaw calls it the “life force.” Browne also makes use of the conception. God in three persons, one of which is the Holy Spirit––fusing spirit in nature––“anima mundi.” Different conception of God appears at different levels. Angels’ perception of God is direct; therefore, they understand God intuitively. But on different levels you get different responses to the idea of God. God angels––intuitive man––reasonable (mysticism) animals / plants––instinct inorganic world––automatic chaos––luck or chance We can see a certain amount of predictability in the universe. Wed. Feb 25, Mon, Mar. 2. Classes cancelled.130

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Lecture 36. (next. Sidney’s Apology, and prose fiction) Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. Burton was a clergyman––a don of Christ’s Church, Oxford. Spent all of his time reading, especially medical texts. His work is technically a medical treatment. Melancholy in Burton’s time was a simultaneous disease of body and mind. An extremely long book: his only work. It is suffused with all his learning, and a pervasive, ambling sense of humour, which makes him a leading satirist. His satire is based on books rather than observation. One of the most vigorously written books in the world. He treats his subject by quoting everything he has read on the subject, and comes to no general conclusion. The most important instruments in Elizabethan medicine are blood-letting and purgation by heavy laxatives, the greatest of which was white hellebore. He asks whether hellebore is good for melancholy. He then devotes fifty pages for medical evidence against it as a poison and fifty pages to its value. A rhythmic prose style, an exhaustive knowledge. His book was so popular that he kept expanding it. He expanded to the greatest extent the question of love melancholy. Comes finally to the conclusion that young people should do as they like. Fond of maxims: “Love is blind.” Continues bird-shot style––mixture of English and Latin, throwing it at you as fast as he can. Many authors since have cribbed from Burton (Sterne, Tristram Shandy). High regard for beer as a cure for melancholy & a low regard for salads. Calls himself Democritus Junior––laughing at the humour. His favourite word is “whether.” Gives us both sides of a question. Seldom comes to any conclusions himself. A fascinating period in history when we are unable to know anything for certain. His digressions are perhaps the most interesting part of his book. Lecture 37. Sidney’s Apology for Poetry––typical formal apology. A set form of rhetoric. Every part of Sidney’s Apology follows this rhetorical pattern. His Apology is partly an answer to Gosson, a Puritan who attacked the study of literature. Poetry is to be studied in light of certain postulates. The poet never affirms (e.g., we do not read Hamlet and say, “Well, this isn’t true. I don’t

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believe in ghosts.”) The poet’s statement is hypothetical. There is no truth or falsehood in it.

Beside these ideal forms they also have their actualities law and history

art science and philosophy

The world of law and the world of reason both assert; both are impersonal and impartial. In the realm of art there are truths, but these are flexible. There is a wide range of truth. You must enter into it and discover by your own experience. There must be a personal absorption to find truth. The world of art is not one of impersonal assertion. The world of history produces the example. (history affords many examples of history), and the world of philosophy (letters) produces the precept (of the hero, the ideal perfect hero. The pattern, form, Platonic ideal). The precepts of philosophy are once removed from ordinary life. The examples of history are once removed from the ideal. Poetry brings the two together in an image so that we can see both the example and the precept at once. Sidney is working from Aristotle’s principle that poetry synthesizes history and philosophy, with philosophy predominating. Aristotle said that poetry is an imitation of nature. By that is meant that a work of art is a thing of human form––a tool, instrument shaped out of nature. That means that a work of art is not a natural object but it grows naturally out of nature. (This is what ȝȓȝȘıȚȢ [mimesis] in Greek implies. Imitation is not a copy, but grows out of nature. Art is a human creation of nature.) Hence the poet is a maker or shaper. Sidney does not like the idea at God created something out of nothing. A poet sits down in an order of nature and an order of words, and out of these two things poetry is produced. A human world of conscious meaning, founded on nature. Therefore, poetry is not supernatural but out of nature. Sidney thinks of poetry as a form of rhetoric––close to oratory. He thinks poetry is integral to the whole of society. He says that in the time of Moses the poets were the law-givers. Shelley later said that the poet was the unacknowledged legislator of the world. Sidney is closely attached to

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Castiglione’s conception of the courtier. Poet, courtier, orator, server of the prince––all tied closely together. Sidney is commenting on drama that to us would appear pretty bad–– the early plays that Shakespeare made fun of. Sidney is speaking of drama that came before the great Elizabethan works. He takes a high-brow Elizabethan attitude. Tragedy should deal with upper-class figures, comedy with low-brows. Low clowns should not appear in tragedy & steal the show. Everything must be appropriate to the central conception. Observe decorum. Decorum is much more objective than today’s conception of personal style. Shakespeare has no style––pure decorum. Every character in Shakespeare speaks exactly as he should. A certain unity of mood preserved. Lecture 38. Sidney, Apology for Poetry Awareness of the relation of poetry to the other arts. Much of the relation of poetry to the lyre and to painting. Distinguishes the inferior from the great painter. Imitation of nature means for him the re-creation of nature in human form. Uses the great classical authorities in poetry as his criterion for judgement of poetry. Distinguishes between Theocritus, who wrote in a genuine dialect like Burns, from Spenser, who did not. In drama, Sidney demands unity of action, but leaves it rather vague. Other critics of Sidney’s time called this unity of time and unity of place, calling on the classical drama as authority. Action of the play should take place within twenty-four hours. It should all take place in one setting. The high-brows also demanded the unity of classes. A tragedy should contain only the higher classes; comedy, on the lower. Shakespeare disregarded all unities of time and place, appearing almost to flout the highbrows. However, Sidney was passing judgement on poor theatre, one that had not achieved unity of action. The high-brows like Sidney demanded all three unities to keep up an illusion. Samuel Johnson later states that the spectator is prepared for illusion when he enter the theatre. Therefore, if you can make the spectator think a scene is Rome, you can easily switch it to Athens or Alexandria. High-brows thought that mixing of the classes was socially subversive. A clown must not steal the show from a prince. Mixture of classes would break up the unity of mood. A tragedy should be a tragedy all the way through. Shakespeare uses contrasting scenes all the way through most effectively.

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The Shorter Novels: two by Deloney, one by Greene, one by Nashe. Deloney––a literary tendency of little importance in the Elizabethan period. Wrote for the lower and middle classes and was despised by the high-brows. But he appealed to a class that later came to power. He was of the school of Defoe and Richardson. The novel is a particularly cultural form peculiar to a class that later came to power in the 18th century in England. As it rose, the drama went down. In the Elizabethan age music & drama were in the ascendancy; fiction and the essay remained comparatively undeveloped. The court was at Westminster, which was at some little distance from London proper. The city was all middle-class people; the court, all High Church and Tory. Elizabeth would never look at anyone who did not have a title. As a poor boy starting out in life, your ambition was not to live at court, but to become Lord Mayor of London. This is your dream of the highest class if you are of the middle class. Dick Whittington.131 In Deloney we get a plug for the enclosure movement. He is not a proletarian writer; he was an exponent of free enterprise, the entrepreneur in the woolen trade. Jack of Newberry is the story of the woolen trade and a man who made good in it. Deloney dedicates the book to all famous cloth makers. His other book, Thomas of Reading, which is laid in the 12th century, has much the same theme. The people that Deloney deals with are the same as those in Richardson––hardworking middle-class people. Independence is the core of their life. The Domestic System in economics––big wool merchants had wool spun in private homes and sent their journeymen to collect it. No factories. The whole system still rooted in the home, some of which became quite prosperous. Deloney’s theme is always how much good these entrepreneurs are doing for the country, promoting business, employment. Opposition to foreign entanglements, which kill free trade, etc. Jack of Newberry––laid in Henry VIII’s time. Dislike of Catholicism because Pope symbolizes entanglements with continental powers. Lecture 39. Deloney––a sharp eye for small, concrete details. His psychology devoted to middle-class independence––financial independence. The foreigner ridiculed. Middle-class attitude to monarchy––several chapters devoted to the king’s trying to get the favour of the clothiers. Praise of woolen industry. His sources are the sources of popular literature. His slapstick is from the folklore that has been attached to different periods of English history.

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Broadside Ballad––Ballad, a traditional narrative poem, handed down orally. Broadside ballads made possible by the printing press. Doggerel poems dealing with some item of current news (the ancestor of the tabloid). Elizabethan England is on the verge of journalism, which was delayed with this form of popular literature. Bride in the summertime weaving “finest worsted”––the woollen trade again. Full of people who have grown rich with nothing to start with. The stories in Thomas of Reading are older than those in Jack of Newberry. The old murder story, “The Terribly Strange Bed,” is wonderfully told. ––The horror story Emphasis on dialogue. Technique of control of horror scenes with comic scenes Insight into human nature. Greene. A complicated story. One of the best of the early Elizabethan dramatists before Shakespeare. Greene was a shiftless character and was a journalistic type. He would write anything which was popular in London at this time (population between 100,000 and 200,000) Lecture 40. Greene’s book132 is a copy of the style of Euphues, which has such a new style that it was called euphuism. His style is much like rhetoric and uses all sorts of poetic figures of speech and rhetorical devices. Euphuism is an attempt to incorporate all these devices in prose. Modern prose turns entirely away from this. [in left margin] Lyly’s Works, ed. Bond. Edition of Euphues, ed. Croll and Clemens. In Croll and Clemens we have a good discussion of euphuism.133 In Greene, and endless sing-song balance, metrical, assonance, alliteration. Such a style is bound to bear traces of its rhetorical origin. Greene’s telling of the story leads to long laments, long moral reflections, endless letters, etc., but not much story except in a very staggered way. The story is carried from harangue to harangue. Long formal diatribes, soliloquies, laments, etc. We get our plot in chunks between these rhetorical passages. Euphuism is easy to parody (Falstaff in Henry IV, Pt. I). Both Lyly and Greene are fond of proverbs. Also, many examples–– parallels or illustrations from natural history.

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(Curious mixture of fable, legend, and biology.) Many of these have medical reference (medical information that there is always something that is good for an animal when it is sick, for a lion, a she-wolf, etc.). Euphuism used chiefly in the monasteries, and was popular among women. Required great care, as much as for poetry, to write. Lecture 41. Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller––a tendency to more realistic fiction. Most fiction of that time was romantic, courtly love, or euphuistic. It was through drama that most realism came. Nashe came from the Cambridge school of wit––Lyly, Greene, Marvell, Nashe. He was also a bit of a playwright. He was a satirist primarily. Nashe got his start as a satirist by writing a series of abusive pamphlets during the Anglican–Puritan controversy. Invective––a most interesting, entertaining type of writing. (Panegyric is rather boring.) Gabriel Harvey was a great scholar, but a pedant and Nashe liked to attack him. The controversy of pamphlets between these two lasted several years. The picking out of someone to hurl invective at was quite popular generally in London at this time. The Unfortunate Traveller––most serious incursion of Nashe into literature. Told in first person. Jack Wilton, a bit of a blackguard, not particularly well educated. Slangy, journalese style of speaking. Punctuates his sentences with drinks. He tells a type of story that became quite popular in English––a picaresque novel––the account of the adventures of a scoundrel or rogue. Always getting away with small crimes. (For picaresque novels, see also Huckleberry Finn, Defoe’s Moll Flanders.) The Unfortunate Traveller is to some extent an historical novel––time of Henry VIII. The time of Nashe’s story is almost the same as Deloney’s first novel. Deloney hardly ever mentions historical characters. He feels that people are all the same in every period of history. Nashe is more of a historical writer. He lugs in all the historical stuff possible. Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 and almost immediately plunged into war with France. Scotland entered and was defeated at Flanders. Jack Wilton was on the French expedition. Therefore the date is about 1513. The story carries on for a few years. Nashe brings in More writing his Utopia. Erasmus popular at this time. Luther after 1517 comes into Nashe’s story. Surrey gets into Nashe’s story. Jack Wilton travels for a time as Surrey’s servant. Before Luther got going in Germany there was a group, the Anabaptists, already regarded as heretical. Anarchists in religion and politics. One group that was perfectly harmless, peaceful (descendants of the Mennonites). Another group that were terrorists––cruel uprisings. Jack Wilton tells

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us all about their uprising and their execution. Wittenberg (Luther’s university) the best known of the period. University training in disputation. Public disputes of theses. Jack Wilton records being at some of these. Another big thing they did in universities was to stage plays. In Latin, by Plautus and Terrence. Modern plays written in Latin by their masters––usually a Biblical theme, sometimes morality plays. Universities were an important source for dramatic activities. From universities in England you often went to Inns of Court to learn law. Here, many more sophisticated plays were written. Jack Wilton also mentions Cornelius Agrippa, the philosopher. Agrippa had a great reputation as a magician. A legendary figure like Faust. Supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. Nashe also pays a long tribute to an Italian Pope––Aretine. ––Typical of lampoon and satire in Renaissance literature. A particularly mean, vicious satirist, who was paid money by Italian nobility so he wouldn’t write poems about them. Lecture 42. Isaak Walton A careful, calculating writer. Attempted to appear artless. A type of deliberate naivety. The conception of fishing as an expression of an attitude to life. Leaves the city behind but not the culture behind. Fishing affords him an opportunity for meditation. Walton is a nostalgic figure. Belief in spontaneous generation, which was current at the time. Pickerel came from eating pickerel weed. No science in him. He likes to feel that nature is a careful, cunning artist. He brings to imaginative life a world of colours and sounds. His mind is focused on a subject in its tiniest details His Lives. To some extent, hagiography. (Lives of saints.) Out to show that the Church of England turns out the same lives of saintliness as other churches. Thus, unfortunately he glosses over some of these lives (e.g., Donne). Treats Donne as if he had not had doubts and fears. Oversimplifies the life of Herbert as a country parson. In his Hooker he goes in for another stock saintly type, the absent-minded type. His biographies are most interesting and informative, though. Every once in a while his attitude shows between the lines. A master of the polite style. He has to deal in his biographies with some first-class heels, and he treats these with a great deal of urbanity. We have to read carefully to discover who is a villain (like in Henry James).

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Tom Fuller––17th-century clergyman––good-humoured, tolerant. Royalist all through the Civil War. Wrote a series of brief prose meditations. Chiefly, a historian, antiquarian. Interested in a wide variety of historical studies. A Church History of England, which was very good. Pepys was a great admirer of Fuller. Listened to him preach whenever he could. An antiquarian of prodigious learning and industry. [Fuller’s] “Worthies of England”––valuable biographical notes. Fuller’s most important book is Holy State and Profane State–– character books of famous Anglican clergymen and others. Joseph Hall, Theophrastus. Imaginary characters based on Aristotle’s Ethics. This book had great influence in both France and England at this time. The idiom and general style recaptured. Ease of moving from historical fact to his reflections on the fact. An aggressive pro-Protestant stance, partly because he knows it aids his style.

CHAPTER NINE ENGLISH POETRY AND PROSE, 1500–1660 (ENGLISH 2I) (1951) NOTES BY MARGARET VIRANY

In transcribing these notes I have followed Virany’s page-numbering sequence, which doesn’t always follow chronological order. There appear to have been twenty class sessions. The page numbers are to volume 1 of Representative Poetry, the University of Toronto anthology that Frye had a hand in editing in 1935, having assisted Norman J. Endicott in preparing the notes for the first volume. Editorial additions are in square brackets. Writers examined in the course: Skelton Wyatt Surrey Spenser Campion Daniel Drayton Marlowe Shakespeare Donne Fletcher Chapman Hall Marston Jonson Herbert Castiglione Machiavelli Some of the other topics Frye discusses:

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metrics courtly love Petrarchan conventions verse satire Elizabethan music Renaissance social and political movements and ideas Humanism Translations of the Bible Representative Poetry I––first term (Utopia) Sept. 26. 1500–1660 ––England becoming nationally conscious ––Norman Conquest ’til 1485––Middle Ages, 1066–1485, feudal, Eng [?] ––Renaissance 1485–1610 Middle Ages in England ––Roman Catholicism. monks––trend in literature ––language––teaching to poorer people ––development of national consciousness with literature ––Chaucer––Petrarch (keeping pace) ––his death––slump in literature 15th century period of dull literature. Reflects politics, social life of the time 1450 (end of 100 years’ war) War of Roses (ended 1485) ––new king––Henry VIII Tudor––marks new complexion for political and social life ––Landed aristocracy with great power ––Henry VIII grasped new social situation ––growing wealth in new middle class ––with this new class behind him, Henry consolidated his power ––method: taxed aristocrats out of existence N.B. centralized power of England in London therefore, English literature becomes of London [sic] & remains so for centuries. A new aristocracy New Literature ––2 centres––court (royalty)––city (drama) ––change in literature parallels change from feudalism to nation with monarchy & strongly centralized authority. i.e.: change from Middle Ages to Renaissance

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Money is power in change of social systems i.e. power to produce.—in this case (1450–1500) new inventions (printing press came to England in 1476; gunpowder––wars quicker, decisive; compass––changed European balance of power through discoveries Advantages of centralization––capital at London ––decreased number of English dialects bred through decentralization (more moving around––same associations) ––new standard of speech ––Middle Ages––northern dialect in Scotland ––central dialect in West Midlands and East Midlands ––southern dialect in southwest and Kentish ––variations in spelling, pronunciation Standard English––able to impose its standard on the whole educated class regardless of dialect. This grew up in the central district, inevitably at London (junction of three dialects). The East Midland dialect (London) was imposed upon the country. Chaucer’s writing: East Midland. ––dialects other than East Midland disappeared ––by Shakespeare’s time, only East Midland ––northern dialect preserved independently in Scotland (cf. Scottish independence) e.g. in Burns Skelton (pp. 74, 77, 572) The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe Prayer to preserve Phyllyp’s soul Her [Jane Scroop’s] grief at Gib’s murder of Phyllyp [Gib the cat killed the bird] An example of grief to others Prayer to keep Phyllyp free from death’s mythical horrors. She needs some wise doctrine to help her control her sorrow Happy memories of the lively Phyllyp. She will indeed miss him. Allusions: mythical, religious, literary Humour in hyperbole Contemporary language Irregular rhyme––short, quaint rhythm First person Parallel structure, imagery Reflects monastic atmosphere Romanticism (?)

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Character Actually a classical poem Has to be read as a continuous four-beat line. Rests at first The Tunnying of Elynour Rummyng, p. 61. Skeltonic meter ––belongs to Mother Goose stratum of popular poetry. Changes in society & changes in language had effect on the poetry of this period ––15th century changes marked the break in literature (cf. Chaucer, Shakespeare, us) ––change in the accentuation of English (few inflections––cf. Latin endings––in English––influence on meter––word order: in English word order is very strict & therefore difficult for poets) ––Chaucer’s day––most inflections of Old English had been leveled down ––see final “e’s” in prologue, p. 18 ––number of little light syllables not found in modern English. Lilt which can’t be recaptured today. ––English became a “thumpier” language ––becoming more monosyllabic ––long words make poetry lighter––“omnipotent” ––structure of the English line has changed little since Chaucer’s time. i.e. the metrical basis ––iambic pentameter standard meter ––anapestic, trochaic, and dactylic pentameter not effective in English ––French influence established the iambic pentameter in English ––coming in around Chaucer’s time (1340–1400) ––Chaucer’s writing is very smooth (a court poet) ––Sir Patrick Spens, p. 70––four-foot line followed by three beats & a rest ––much closer to music ––Langland, p. 6––rhythmical though not metrical ––late medieval development of Anglo-Saxon poetry ––rather irregular ––based on four-beat line––alliteration (original Teutonic beat) ––English poetry a struggle between this old musical rhythm & the more sophisticated French iambic meter

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––Chaucer likely aware of the changes to come to the language (see p. 16) ––Lygate (p. 42)––Chaucer’s disciple ––not so many “e’s” ––much looser meter ––confusion coming in writing the language ––reaching out for new kind of meter ––by end of 15th century had changed over to its new form. Skelton ––poet of Henry VIII’s court. His tutor for a while ––his poetry took advantage of confusion ––lapsed into Mother Goose rhythm ––a scholar. First English translations of Greek ––because of his poetry he was portrayed as a comic character ––satires on Cardinal Wolsey ––native idiom Wyatt and Surrey begin the Renaissance period in English poetry Skelton really the last of the medieval poets ––established new pentameter line ––especially Surrey worked hard for accuracy and consistency Courtly Love Convention ––Sonnet brought into English literature for the first time ––aristocratic ––subject matter ––love poetry of a rigid, conventionalized type (cf. modern commercial love theme in movies). All literature is convention in one way or another. Conventions such as love interest have a definite beginning. ––love theme began in Provence (southern France) 1000–1100 ––troubadours popularized certain kind of love poem ––lady of castle as centre. That clan of people supported poetry. The lords were often away so cultural life focused on lady in medieval period ––therefore convention of courtly love ––began basis of poetry in Renaissance and Middle Ages Oct. 3rd ––left important influence on literature and our social conventions ––artificial quality in love poetry (flattery of lady), love at first sight. Smitten. She indifferent. He sick of melancholy. Passionate protestations, etc.

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––marriage a contract. Wife subservient to husband, i.e., reversing the relationship of courtly love (an affair outside marriage) in medieval society. This love didn’t end in marriage. Convention of courtly love spread north into France, south into Italy ––developed loftiness in Italy e.g., Dante (1265–1321). Fourteen-year-old Beatrice. His love for her a kind of self-education in love, leading to a divine experience, vision ––Petrarch (1304–89)––sonnet became almost invariable form for convention of courtly love ––great scholar. Ambitious to be known ––Laura (married woman). Series of sonnets describing all the stages of his love for Laura. Second group of sonnets showing his devotion after her death ––love assimilated somewhat to a religious experience ––love also used by Petrarch as self-education, leading in a religious direction Northern Development ––became mingled with conventions of chivalry ––knight inspired by her to his brave deeds ––courtly love again a kind of discipline or education ––this convention goes out for a while coming back with Wyatt and Surrey ––made courtly love one of the staple forms in sixteenth century The novel made fun of courtly love, chivalry, etc. ––e.g., Don Quixote followed convention with ridiculous rigidity Sixteenth-century England ––convention largely popularized by noblemen ––amateurs as poets ––took convention with complete seriousness Shakespeare––slightly ironic treatment ––Romeo falls in love strictly according to convention i.e., in seventeenth century cavaliers carried on tradition, but the middle class was changing line [sic] ––Hamlet pretends madness. Polonius explains it by courtly love tradition. Therefore, unreality of convention is assumed by both Shakespeare & his audience Middle Ages was an intensely religious period. The secular literature which grew up used many of the forms and terms of religious poetry

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––courtly love took on mock religious quality e.g., mistress often called a saint; the lover, the clerk; older man (perhaps her husband) the priest. God of Love––Eros or Cupid (Venus’s son); Venus the Goddess. ––idea that people who went mad or died for love were martyrs, saints ––Chaucer (after Petrarch). Legend of Good Woman Cleopatra included because she gave up everything for love ––Confessio Amantis-––confession first to the priest of Venus ––Troilus (Chaucer)––unfaithful woman Criseyde ––older man priest Wyatt (1503–1542) p. 77 ––sonnet of Petrarch (translation) ––courtly tradition ––accentuation of words, e.g., comfort not so firmly fixed ––“lord”––God of Love ––“enemy”––God of love. He has fallen in love involuntarily ––compared to a ship in a storm ––controlled by someone else ––doesn’t want to go but his love steers him on ––storm––passions of his mind Wyatt brought new tone (as well as Petrarchan sonnet) into English poetry ––human, personal tone p. 79. A Renouncing of Love ––great colloquial speaking power. Takes liberties “lever” “rotten boughs to climb”134 still personal ––passing from age of passion to age of intellectual development. Seneca, Plato Oct. 15 Hard to write terza rima poems in English because of the difficulty to find rhymes. Such poems are therefore usually short. See Wyatt’s attempt on p. 83.135 This form of rhythm was a very good practice because of its disciplining of thought & rhythm Sonnet ––definitely the vogue until 1600 ––very few in seventeenth century, Milton being the exception

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––1600–1790 it dropped out ––came back with the Romantic movement & has more or less stuck ––a “fitful” history p. 89 Complaint of the Absence ––poulter’s measure six feet in first line––alternation of six- and seven-foot line ––twelve & fourteen syllables when written in iambic metre ––compare the term to a “baker’s dozen” i.e., throwing an extra egg in to round off the dozen ––in such a long line there are too many beats in English ––“clattery” rhythm ––this experiment used in early Tudor period––didn’t last long in vogue p. 92. Surrey––translation of Virgil Blank Verse ––here introduced ––grew up in Elizabethan times as standard metre for drama ––for a while Milton alone used it ––went out in the eighteenth century ––came back with Romantic movement ––hard to beat this form in English because of iambic pentameter & lack of rhyme These experiments & introductions woke up the literary scene a great deal ––products of an age of experiment Surrey survived more by his lyrical tone & by his love songs p. 85 Note how the poems of Surrey represent an easily marked episode in the convention of courtly love ––theme of pathetic fallacy writing love poem to nine-year-old girl Spenser p. 111 ––his sonnets show that poetry & the convention is becoming increasingly middle class “Amoretti” XXII elaborate use of mock religious language ––Spenser carefully makes it known that his God here is love (a Protestant)

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LXVIII––written Easter Sunday ––a quite deftly religious sonnet ––courtly love tradition builds up a language which can be taken over at almost any time by religion -–can direct itself to secular sexual ? matters, tragedy etc. or go straight into religious exhortations Possibilities of development or sublimation in courtly love convention––passing from sex into religion Influence of another tradition: Plato ––in Plato a conception of love existing entirely among men. Not a sexual thing ––directed from older men to younger men, boys ––an educational love gradually taking the younger men into the community of Platonic society ––place for love away from sex & marriage or homosexuality, perversion This idea was picked up in Middle Ages, partly by Petrarch ––again becomes sexual love ––woman the object ––love an ennobling & educational sort of thing; the principles Eros Venus love beauty active contemplative energy form subject object heat light Plato––reality consists of universal forms of which universal substances represent a kind of shadow or reflection. If the soul were released from the body it could perceive the form. Love & beauty are forms. Educational part of love––disentangling of material element & emancipation of spiritual element ––John incorporates self in universal principle of love so that he may contemplate Mary in the universal principle of beauty October 17. BODY desire (physical love) –––– beautiful object ––applied at different levels to appropriate objects. Can reach a level–– MIND––where there is a more solid, permanent connection––something within the subject

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––finally the subject is united with the universal principle of love–– SOUL––which is immortal universal love –––– universal beauty ––the form of love perceiving the form of beauty Not a process which contains sex, marriage ––education p. 89 Surrey––A Praise ––Platonic conception included in poem ––perfect form of beauty––Plato’s mistress ––upon her death nature has lost the pattern ––can make no more beautiful women Courtly love never celebrates love as such ––maintains this is the starting point for a much greater development (Spenser) A. most common development is towards marriage ––an eternal one because holy (Sidney) B. another development towards an unhappy sublimation of a secret love (Petrarchan) (Shakespeare) C. may pass through intellectual development ––more the purely Platonic conception Sidney page 171 Astrophel & Stella ––courtesy––model of aristocratic idea of his time Oct. 10th English 2i 16th century ––body of amateur verse produced by members of upper class Relation of Literature to Society in 16th century ––influence of printing press ––scholarship could get reliable, accurate texts of the classics and the Bible ––Reformation and revival of classics therefore made possible by printing press ––created new interest in writing & literature. Allowed professional class of writers to appear ––as yet, no body of middle-class educated people ––many of the nobility thought it beneath them to be able to read and write ––“lewd”––then meaning ignorant. Connected with word “laity.” ––monopoly of learning of clergy

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––connection between spoken & written word very close ––rise in conditions of middle class. Higher standard of living for them in Tudor times ––not only a popular theatre but a reading class ––stimulated a great deal of what we call journalism ––pamphlets––stimulated Reformation movement ––didn’t instantly stimulate a new kind of literature ––gradually build up a middle class market for readers ––people like Wyatt & Surrey wrote poems not to be published. Handed them around to friends ––wanted them to be read by their equals ––printer found this profitable investment so would try to get hold of manuscripts ––some writers wanted publication. Looked down upon, though, with some social disapproval ––courting the commoners ––however, ways of getting poems printed with honour ––entrust manuscript to someone else ––go away ––return indignant ––2nd edition to redeem self 1557––Tottell’s Miscellany (publisher)––gave long titles to works of Wyatt & Surrey ––first in a long list of anthologies ––made Surrey & Wyatt popular ––brought them into the mainstream of literature ––Wyatt’s poetry––subtle, variety in rhythm ––Surrey’s poetry––even, easily scanned, fluent ––therefore old-fashioned estimate that Wyatt couldn’t write properly Why did the gentry want to write poetry? ––educational standards for upper class had changed ––people quickly learn what is accepted in their community (i.e. perhaps their circle of Friends) ––in Renaissance gentleman was expected to have complete cultural education ––must have faultless taste in all the arts (through practicing all or one of the arts) ––being trained for life as courtier ––must be versatile––do everything well

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––gentry approved of poetry but attitude toward writing it was the condescending one of an amateur ––professional art for middle class ––amateur art must be conventional to be successful ––therefore, abundance of very conventional love poetry written by the gentry Weight of a convention (no matter how foolish) often adds great weight to the poetry ––poetry never a direct comment on the poet’s emotional experience ––convention keeps poet from becoming too involved in the emotions of poetry ––all emotions concentrated on the work of writing ––possible to write one of the great poems & not mean a word of it Thomas Campion (P. 248) e.g. When Thou Must Home ––lover killed by cruelty of his mistress ––passionate power but can’t be correlated with any type of personal experience ––perfect pattern of words has caught & held an experience of universal significance ––reached this universal experience simply by doing what the convention tells him Wyatt (p. 79) Whoso List to Hunt “noli me tangere”––cf. words of Christ after resurrection “for Caesar’s I am”––perhaps Anne Boylen––pursued by Henry VIII ––similar to a sonnet of Petrarch The Lover for Shamefastness (p. 78) ––same sonnet by Petrarch (p. 86) by Surrey Surrey’s scans more smoothly ––finish Wyatt’s––completely different technique––more concise, clear & effective than Surrey. Surrey drags more, giving the grave tone of grief ––variety of rhythm based partly on imitative harmony ––rhythm describes the event ––rhyme extremely subtle ––shows metrical audacity in suffix rhyme ––“hideth” rhythm stops significantly on this word

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Both Wyatt & Surrey were courtiers ––amateurs ––Wyatt ambassador––diplomatic enemies ––Surrey belonged to old family (Howards of Norfolk) which represented sort of focus of opposition to new religion––Henry VIII ––seemed born to be a tragic hero ––beheaded by king. False charge of treason ––this romantic, tragic life won him popularity ––very good friends ––historically important for importing sonnet ––Wyatt also wrote beautiful lyrics ––these men were experimenters in meter ––see p. 81 Of the Mean and Sure Estate ––terza rima metre (that used in the Divine Comedy) October 22. Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) ––poor(ish) family—richer relatives ––born in London ––went to Cambridge ––made acquaintance of members’ intellectual society there ––Cambridge was centre of Protestant intellectuals––essentially Puritan ––Gabriel Harvey ––formed a great deal of Spenser’s tastes ––came into contact with Sidney (centre of Protestants at court) ––under patronage of these two men Spenser began ––keen on becoming well known ––regarded his genius highly ––published Shepheardes Calendar anonymously ––dedicated to Sidney ––beginner of a new professional writing class ––wrote satire Mother Hubbard’s Tale ––beast fable in style of Chaucer ––Queen Elizabeth––stupid lion ––heir apparent to French throne––fox ––dealt with contemporary situation ––written pro Sidney & Harvey who however took offence at Spenser’s lack of diplomacy. Dropped their connection with Spenser. ––Spenser went to Ireland as civil servant ––stayed there except for periodic visits to England (London)

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––Lord Grey (Ireland)––identified his power (keeping of order) with extermination ––Spenser––pro-government ––castle (large estate acquired by Spenser) burned during Irish uprising ––landed back in London with his wife ––died 1599 (soon after) ––complete education, both intellectual and physical ––one of the finest poets of his age ––“sinewy” element ––author of Arcadia––pastoral romance ––theology (Protestant) & math his chief intellectual interests ––one of the most popular men in England ––not too popular with Queen Elizabeth because of counterforce for popularity. Protestant ––opposed to French nationalists ––war between Spain and Holland (Spain trying to make Holland Catholic) ––Sidney in command of expeditionary force ––killed in act of almost exotic courage ––sealed his popularity Astrophel and Stella ––“star lover” ––Sidney a marvelous technician I––all conventions ––feeling miserable––complaint ––typical words––“grace” ––protest of sincerity XV––attacks three kinds of bad poetry 1. Those who take over classical Greek words 2. alliteration unfashionable in Elizabethan times. No classical precedent 3. attack on school of courtly love writers who do nothing but print from Petrarch ––artificiality. Write so because fashionable LXXXIV speaks of wordy ambiguity p. 176––climax CX ––makes complete leap from frustration of desire to Christian love ––extremely profound spiritual experience

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The convention maintains within itself the potentialities of a great variety of expressions ESSAY ASSIGNMENT Convention & Originality in the poetry of (one of): Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne Sidney marks climax of convention of writing for aristocracy. Considerable original changes ––epic The Faerie Queene ––romantic, allegorical p. 103 Shepheardes Calender––pastoral convention ––new convention, i.e., pastoral ––about rural life ––pretends the characters involved are shepherds. This convention began with Greek poet (Sicily) Theocritus who wrote a series of Idyls, most of which adapt this pastoral guise––idealized poets pretending to be shepherds ––shepherd represented as elegant man of letters, lover ––becomes a kind of escapist literature ––strong atmosphere of retreat Theocritus wrote in Doric dialect. His writing & its relationship to Greek literature might be compared to the relation between Burns’s writing & English literature Virgil in his eclogues represents his speakers as shepherds The Convention 1. love song where shepherd shows himself to be a lover 2. elegy––lament 3. contest or singing match ––poem takes on structure of duet in which poets (rivals) sing against each other for a prize 4. panegyric––praise of country 5. satire on town life which has been left behind ––popularized by Virgil during Renaissance ––very good medium for courtly love convention ––pastoral convention not confined to poetry. Even spread to painting and music (in music, simplified harmony founded upon a recurrent base, e.g. sonatas of Beethoven. Imitation of drone of instrument such as bagpipe used by rustics) ––one of leading conventions at end of 15th & in 16th centuries

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––brittle convention––artificial ––offshoots in religious & philosophical direction ––Bible idealizes pastoral life ––Cain a shepherd––prototype ––23rd Psalm. This theme of Good Shepherd is found in the Gospels ––This permitted a religious development of the pastoral ––4th Eclogue of Virgil established connection between Classical ideal of pastoral life & the Petrarchan tradition of love convention ––this eclogue regarded as one of the unconscious heathen testimonies to coming of the Messiah Spenser wrote series of eclogues––one for each month of the year ––followed plan of elegy, love song, etc. ––Colin Clout––Rosalynde (rustic names) suited to the time of year ––e.g. November––lament for a dead friend April––panegyric (addressed to Queen Elizabeth) Pastoral Elegies ––Lycidas––Milton ––Adonais––Shelley ––Thyrsis[—Arnold] Adonais goes back to god Adonis Shepheardes Calender ––Hobbinoll––rustic name for Harvey ––written in curious synthetic language ––attempt to imitate practice of Theocritus in writing in a rural dialect ––used dialect forms from all over England quite impartially (majority of northern forms) ––“yeorne” (middle English past participle) ––survives in German “ge” ––line 2––southern dialect form ––line 1––northern dialect form ––Spenser’s language shows poetic individuality ––queer effect ––two forms of love boy–boy boy–girl i.e. both Classical and Petrarchan forms of love ––panegyric for Elizabeth ––vitality, looseness

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––meaning of poem ––proclaims truth that a new poet is arriving October 24th ––both a courtly poem (for the Queen) and a pastoral poem because of the convention passing all the way through it ––compares Queen to a pastoral goddess ––rustic attributes ––red rose––white yfere [together]––union of Lancasterian & York ––compliment to Elizabeth’s complexion ––refers to union of symbols ––Phoebe––Diana ––Cynthia or Phoebe or Luna in heavens ––Artemis or Diana (virgin huntress) on earth ––Hecate in Hell ––virgin––compliment to Elizabeth ––this allusion very common in courtier’s poetry ––Latona––brought forth twins, Apollo & Diana i.e., “seede” = Diana ––shows storehouse of Classical mythology found in Metamorphoses of Ovid which was studied by all Elizabethan children ––speaks of Elizabeth as the fourth grace ––“graces” pop up in literature of this time ––“tawdrie” line 135 ––St. Etheldryth evolved into St. Audrey ––fair grew up around shrine of this Saint due to numbers of pilgrims ––type of lace popularized at this fair Spenser & courtly love––related to Christianity p. 129. An Hymn in Honour of Beauty—Love An Hymn of Heavenly Beauty ––the first hymn works out elaborate cosmology connected with love and beauty (line 29) ––begins with Platonic idea––world made by pattern or forms l. 43––every beautiful thing a reflection of the form insofar as it is permitted by the material for the pure form to emerge ––at this time fairly true conception of planets in relation to each other in geocentric system ––medieval mind tidy––planets must be doing something l. 44––concluded they were pouring down something to the individuals born under them

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e.g. Mars martial Saturn saturnine Jupiter jovial Mercury mercurial (emotionally changeable––good talker) Venus venereal (at that time being beautiful;) Moon lunatic ––England was connected with the moon. Therefore, the joke in Hamlet about going to England mad [5.1.158 ff.] ––p. 487 attitude of Dryden Belief that temperament also influenced character ––“temperament” means “mixing together” ––importance of complexion (temperament) & blood, i.e. mixture of humours ––by appearance doctor would determine whether person is sanguine, choleric, etc., then trace result back to person’s star These words have survived because they do define definite & easily recognizable types ––theory that there were 28 possible types––7 planets & 4 humours (Chaucer planned his pilgrimage with 29––perhaps to leave one for narrator) l. 50. infusion = influence ––goes on to express theory of form in materials l. 65––Beauty more than skin deep ––universal immortal idea ––beauty you see in an object will not change with the change in the object ––this vision of beauty is the important thing ––attempts to prove this ––goes on linking beauty, because it is a form of goodness, with goodness in general ––person who possesses beauty has a chance of affinity with goodness l. 142––this does not always work out however because of chance, inaptness (complexion crosses it up) ––fact of combination of beauty & wickedness or beauty & dumbness must not be taken to mean that beauty itself is not good ––possibility of education till a person merges his own faculties for love in universal love ––permanent love higher than wandering lust ––nearer to union of perfection, i.e., of love and beauty l. 190––as permanent love grows out of desire it is based on some sort of affinity between the lover & the loved ––perception of this is part of love as education ll. 200–3––idea of immortal soul & body in every soul ––if soul has no end in time it had one beginning in time

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––soul fell in from a previous immortal world to which it later returns ––in this world the lover first meets the loved, then re–meets her October 29. Hymn in Honour of Beauty Spenser ––leads up to development of two duties frequently found in the courtly love convention ––Spenser wrote two poems in the courtly convention. Then swung over to Christian convention in two more poems ––certain Platonic ideas in this poem ––perception of beauty by love should move from one plane (A) to another (B) (A) body material transient desire particular

(B) soul formal (ideal) immortal vision universal

Spenser is thinking in general of division between two kinds of beauty & therefore of knowledge ––revealed religion (can’t be acquired––in doctrines of Church) ––natural religion (kind you get in Plato and Aristotle) (Poem of Heavenly Love & Beauty is the one dealing with revealed religion) Hymn of Heavenly Beauty ––Spenser picks up this point and develops it farther ––conception of analogy or correspondence is one of the elements of Christian symbolism ––hard to teach Christian truth directly ––large analogy between the physical & spiritual universes is worked out here ––physical universe in Spenser’s day ––large onion shape ––earth at centre of concentric spheres ––heavenly bodies (e.g. sun and moon) were around it ––four elements of the material world earth water air

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fire ––sublunary world (mortal, perishable). Soul rises to heaven as bubble of air rises to surface of water ––above this, the seven planets ––above Saturn––one single sphere of fixed stars thought of as being on one plane ––watery sphere––crystalline sphere ––huge shell above this of the “primum mobile” These were immortal, so were made of a fifth element––quintessence, which was not corruptible Doctrine of circular motion. Crystalline & primum mobile sphere were created to correct the irregularities they noticed in circular movement of other bodies Generally Ptolemaic idea N.B. medieval scientists realized physical universe was finite ––quite mathematical. Accounted for movement of bodies (Copernicus only went so far to say it would be easier to explain universe with sun as centre ––this conception of elements made it unnecessary for middle ages to have theory of gravitation. Principle of everything seeking its own sphere. How then did people get to here? (explains why fire went up, why water moved, etc.) ––reference to theory of sphere of fire about sphere of air in Don Quixote136 ––further you get from earth, the purer they were ––more likely to have influence, power into things underneath them. p. 138 ––note lines 43–50 Angelology ––orders: Seraphim-–heat & love Cherubim––light & contemplation Corresponded roughly to difference between light & beauty in Platonic philosophy Series of names: thrones, virtues, powers, dominations, principalities. Below these orders were archangels and then the mere angels The centre of analogy between physical & spiritual universe is that the principle of light in the physical world is the sun. In the spiritual world it is God. See l. 139, p. 140, line 162, p. 144

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Sapience––beauty to be identified with wisdom rather than pagan goddess Venus. See l. 211. p. 113. Epithalamion ––comes at the end of the sonnet sequence ––one of the developments in the courtly love convention ––i.e. that leading to marriage ––kind of incorporation of physical love into the spiritual order ––two strands of symbolism interwoven 1. pagan symbolism of Hymn in Honour of Beauty 2. lurking strain of Christian symbolism in [many?] ––one of the great poems in our language ––classical idea ––coming largely from Catullus (lyrical) ––imagery––mostly classical October 31.––cf. the psalms ––mixture of Christian and the classical ––further symbolism of native British folk-lore ––much older than Christianity ––some pagan festivals were absorbed by Church ––Puritans, on the other hand, wanted to abolish such non-Christian symbols as maypole, etc. cf. the pagan-Christian metamorphosis of Hallowe’en ––Epithalamion––wedding song ––intricate paragraph structure ––extraordinary, rich, sonorous phrases ––canzone––echoing Medieval form Prothalamion ––beautifully written, lovely refrain ––courtier’s poem p. 145 The Faerie Queene ––epic ––each book story of a knight errant’s quest ––knights are virtues: temperance, chastity, etc. ––all of these virtues combined make up the perfect knight ––two rulers––Arthur & Elizabeth ––collection of romances

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Book I––St. George––knight of holiness ––allegory of fight of Church of England vs. that of Rome ––diagnose all that oppresses Church of England ––Spenser invented own stanza ––nine lines ––AB AB BC BCC ––iambic pentameter––last line hexameter ––long, free, rich stanza coming to dead stop ––Queene doesn’t actually appear ––fay an evil spirit throughout Middle Ages ––with Spenser & Shakespeare––beginning of transforming of faeries from evil spirit to harmless winged creatures ––landmark in English literature. What was once preserved for terror is now preserved in children’s stories Legendary version of English history––influenced two Shakespeare plays––gave us legend of Sir Arthur ––Arthur––some historical reference ––Welshman in time of King Stephen (1135–1154)––decided England must be supplied with a Trojan origin like that of Rome. Prejudice proceeding from their limited knowledge of classical literature ––legend of Brutus killing the giants in England & founding a Trojan settlement ––thence follows long history for England. Reliability is questionable. Geoffrey’s imagination and Welsh folklore ––eventually, Roman invasion ––finally, Arthur, great English leader, swept them out of England altogether ––proceeded to far conquests As far as we know, no historical basis for Arthur. England did however make a last stand, doubtlessly under a capable leader. ––eventually evolved into legends of Sir Arthur’s knights Nov. 5. p. 54––Dunbar speaks of “Troy Novaunt” ––reference to Geoffrey’s desire to provide England with a virgin like that of Troy ––attempt to prove Britain was derived from Troy ––Warner [William Warner, Albion’s England] shows learnedness by referring to “Brutains” (Brutus) (at p. 195) ––Tudor popularized fable that Arthur had not died but was sleeping. Would return to lead country ––symbol of unity

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––Prince of Wales was called Arthur ––people who used legend for propaganda purposes wanted to make it as historical as possible In the Faerie Queene Arthur the hero is partly legendary & partly historical Milton wrote a history that incorporated the Arthur legend. Geoffrey claimed authority from book given to him by an archdeacon (probably false). First doubts sown by Italian. Educated disbelieved by end of 16th century. His history finally weeded out, but, as we have seen, was used in English literature p. 196 Daniel Sonnets ––type of poetry popular in Elizabethan times ––sonnet sequence (done to promote himself socially) ––conventional themes ––insomnia plaint ––appeal to love while there is time ––these are embodied in the larger tradition of courtly love ––appeal that the lady would live in his poetry (give her immortality) The Civil Wars ––people liked reading about these (in Elizabethan times) ––great contrast between poor prince & the present centralized government. Feeling of difficulty overcome ––find this 15th century period background for Shakespearian plays ––same political moral Musophilus [by Samuel Daniel] ––a philosophical poem ––means lover of learning culture ––one of rare flashes of realization of importance of the new discoveries, developments of the time ––idea that you produce your best culture when you are least self-conscious about what you are doing ––Queen Elizabeth’s town of London ––theatres, knightly figures, middle class (patrons of the arts), mob ––reached a higher kid of human vitality than we have reached ––seemed touched by some kind of insight, revelation which only rarely comes

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p. 206 Drayton Idea ––continues his version of the courtly love tradition ––mistress = idea ––other sonnets more or less parody on this title ––begins in Platonic fashion LXI––octave love dead ––leads to personification––Goddess ––passion Dramatic situation caught. Given just right balance and ambiguity p. 208 Ballade of Agincourt ––popular ode––deals with victory ––dactylic rhythm (influence on Charge of the Light Brigade) ––brilliant victory Nymphidia: The Court of Fairy ––note how fairies are becoming domesticated ––no longer same source of real terror, fear ––influence of Shakespeare (Midsummer Night’s Dream) ––animals and plants endowed with lunar characteristics, moods, temperaments at this time. Through an excess of melancholy among them practically all evil arose ––ballade meter ––A A A B C C B ––Chaucer first to ridicule old medieval romance ([compared?] style ––Drayton ridiculing tendencies of old romances written in this meter by throwing in any word just because it rhymes ––Oberon ––Ariosto (Italian poet) Orlando Furioso ––Roland the Mad (for love––natch!)––“Angelus” Idea that all things which are lost on earth (including Orlando’s wits) go to the moon ––Ariosto, Drayton, etc. show a certain restlessness with the old conventions ––in Spain, romances lasted longest, were most popular ––Don Quixote made clean sweep of them ––perhaps a unique case of the tremendous effect of a work of literature ––reference to “Don Quishott”137 FOR NEXT DAY––SELECTIONS BY MARLOWE, SHAKESPEARE Several subsidiary conventions to that of courtly love

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Nov. 7. Elizabethans lived in an atmosphere of public symbolism ––immediate, visible symbols such as royalty ––aristocracy (symbol of nobility) ––made possible a kind of public imaginative life ––public arts––group performances for a public (music, architecture, art) ––private arts––individualized––novel, etc. ––private arts found much more in the highly individualized Elizabethan society ––development of novel, etc. ––music & drama the two most popular arts ––prose fiction pretty well undeveloped ––allusions made possible by standardization of education ––the reading public generally knew what the poet knew, in the way Elizabethans not omnivorous readers. ––possessed certain standard books. Knew them largely by heart. ––Erasmus put books together with proverbs or tags from the classics ––Ovid: Metamorphoses––great storehouse of classical mythology Modern poets are still making the same kind of allusions but the reader has not had the same education. Christopher Marlowe ––greatest dramatist before Shakespeare ––Cambridge lecturer ––came to London ––smashing success in various fields of art ––Tamburlaine––his first play. Smashing popular success ––Mongol conqueror. Built up huge empire in East ––Elizabethan “Napoleon.” Great titanic figure (overweening ambition) according to Marlowe ––daring. Many shocked. Marlowe gained dubious reputation as atheist ––Dr. Faustus––smashing popular success ––acted by greatest tragic actor of the day ––someone hired to set in a few comic scenes ––began degradation of legend ––Edmund II

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––many respects his greatest, most careful work ––stabbed to death. Why? ––perhaps involved in some sort of government spy work ––no government prosecution of his murderers p. 157. Come Live with Me ––pastoral love poem ––one of the most popular in the play. Especially when set to music ––much parodied in its day p. 158 Hero and Leander ––started a vogue for the mythological poem ––based on well-known classical legend (usually love) ––atmosphere intensely ironic ––pictorial ––kind of luxurious reverie ––mixture of classical mythology & the courtly love story ––based on the poem by Musaeus. Late, sophisticated poem–– made far more so by Marlowe ––Elizabethan appetite for lustrious [sic] imagery, gusto ––in legend: one lived in Europe, one in Asia ––lover must swim across Hellespont to meet her ––finally drowned (the poet Byron also swam the Hellespont) ––intensely elaborate pictures ––not in any hurry to get on with the story ––stop & examine as you go ––never finished, though quite an early poem ––shoved away. Finished by Chapman ––written in very lovely couplets ––run on ––Marlowe one of Keats’s models Became famous poem. Others imitated it, including Shakespeare Shakespeare Venus and Adonis ––written in stanzas rather than couplets ––Shakespeare doesn’t seem to have taken any trouble at all with his plays ––never read proofs of any of them ––nothing to do with their publication ––however, did seem to care about publication of minor, rather disappointing poems. Marked exception to the general rule of writing

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––seems to be supreme example of poet who completely lost himself in his poetry This poem almost incredibly removed & unemotional ––emotions frittered away into enormous number of conceits, witty epigrams, etc. ––interested in construction of pattern of words rather than any thought p. 223 eyes ––dissection of general human scene in ingenious images p. 203 Drayton Endimion and Phoebe ––a third mythological poem ––elaborate pictorial atmosphere ––sense of luxuriousness ironic ––Same meter as Hero & Leander READ PEARSON ELIZABETHAN LOVE CONVENTIONS138 BUSH MYTHOLOGY & RENAISSANCE TRADITION IN ENGLISH POETRY139 CAMBRIDGE SAINTSBURY RE ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE140 Nov. 12. p. 203 Drayton Endimion and Phoebe ––extremely lovely in its convention ––elaborate pictorial description ––use of mythology This type of poetry a kind of poetic commentary on the type of painting brought in by the Renaissance (interest in landscape background in study of person) ––note p. 204 ––drew pictorial tastes more from tapestries than from paintings (i.e. Elizabethan poets cf. these same influences––pictorial image, etc. in Spenser) p. 224. Shakespeare Sonnets ––seem to have been written 1590–1600 ––Shakespeare as careless with these as with his plays ––“swiped” by printer in 1689 [1609]––published (Thomas Thorpe) ––Thorpe dedicated these to W.H.—“the only begetter of these sonnets” ––majority of sonnets addressed to a man ––continue that particular theme of the convention

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––sonnets begin with pleading to youth to marry ––reproduce his own beauty ––extraordinary depth, profundity in expressing [?] ––curious references to differences in rank, social status, etc. ––bitter references to social situation ––extreme, subtle discussions re nature of time, history 2d SERIES OF SONNETS ––addressed to a brunette––feminine (then out of style) because Elizabeth was a redhead ––quite genuine affection. Handled with a detachment rare at this time ––clear that the convention is about to change to something else Sonnet which came from Petrarch ABBA ABBA (break) CDE CDE ––never ends with couplet Sonnet which came with Surrey (“Shakespearian”) ABAB CDCE EFEF GG ––epigrammatic punch in closing makes for entirely different kind of poem Several attempts in English literature to vary rhyme schemes in the sonnet ––e.g. Spenser in the Amoretti ABAB BCBC CDCD EE ––hard to write. Several couplets ––Keats later invented several elaborate rhyme schemes in the sonnet Sonnets of convention ––generally theme of eternal love and beauty ––soon becomes absorbed with Platonic theme of education of the soul in love ––logical culmination is triumph of love over death ––whole villain of sonnets is time ––theme of immortality of love despite all LX–LXIV––poetry only weapon with which poet can fight time art ––cannot improve e.g. Shakespeare ––never evolves has touched limit ––always on same level can touch not [?] ––progress in education of literature is in finding out that the writers who are said to be the best are in truth the best LXXIII ––wonderful simplicity in words

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––superficial meaning––meaning entirely inexhaustible ––real simplicity (as contrasted to mediocrity or the commonplace) RIDING & GRAVES A SURVEY OF MODERNIST POETRY141 ––see analysis of a Shakespearian sonnet p. 229 CXVI––Climax to sequence ––ultimate baffling of death Courtly Love Convention ––produces some lovely poetry (Petrarch himself) ––endless perfunctory, poor poetry ––endless references to woman, exaggerating her in conventional terms––goddess CXXX––easygoing confession of imperfection of mistress ––indicates higher type of affection i.e. new approach to courtly love conventions ––complete revolution in poetic tastes p. 269 John Donne (1573–1631) ––belongs pretty well to this period (1590–1600) in his secular poetry ––nearly all poetry published two years after his death––therefore in influence his general weight belongs to 17th century ––early poetry: Petrarchan ––became increasingly absorbed in religious questions ––later poetry entirely religious ––one of the great religious poets of the language ––secular poems grouped as Songs & Sonnets (i.e. short lyrical poems) ––on Petrarchan convention ––entirely new attitude to convention ––essential relation of love poetry is sexual, physical attraction ––for most part makes fun of other abstractions of love in convention ––exaggeration a natural mood of a love affair ––love as concrete basis has many moods ––despair, frustration, hatred––transient moods ––Petrarchan convention seeks to shape all of love into one or a small selected group of its moods Some of Donne’s poems in standard convention Some burlesque convention by outdoing Petrarch in convention Some poems about promiscuity Some natural marriage poems Some obscene, ribald

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Some cynical about fidelity However, never constantly in one mood because each mood parodies all the other moods ––shows no mood can be permanent ––his treatment removes whole subject of love from convention to a concrete, personal relationship ––greater variety ––destroys idea of regular sequence ––all through it runs theme that poet is dealing with reality––not mock rituals ––older type beginning to seem rather phony ––not the same searching for poetic expression of direct experience p. 269. Song ––inconstancy of woman ––not a conventional Petrarchan theme ––extraordinary power––lilt, energy to the meter ––new release after Elizabethan age ––rhythmically integrated form ––mandrake––plant with forked root ––vague resemblance to human figures ––fairy man ––legend that it shrieked when pulled ––he who heard shriek went mad The Indifferent ––praise of inconstancy in love ––“still”––always, constantly [“He who still weeps with spungie eyes,” l. 6] ––treatment of same courtly love convention ––“heretic”––constant lover (opposite meaning from convention) p. 270 The Canonization ––deadpan treatment of the convention ––deliberately outdoes all the Petrarchan poets ––saint in convention = one who has attained outstanding distinction in love ––sanctity of love ––union of lovers in one flesh ––phoenix––one every five years

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––makes fire––jumps into it––is burned to death ––rises up ––taken as allegory of resurrection of Christ In love the two are resurrected with a new soul (composed of the two souls of the lovers) ––eagle & dove––the two souls in love. Become the phoenix at the end––Platonic idea ––becomes a pattern of love verse 1 “real” ––refers to Spanish coin with picture of king on it ––refers to English imported words ––Norman form of Parisian “royal” ––both taken into English e.g. Montreal––Mount Royal p. 275 The Dream ––frequent theme in courtly love form ––lover awakens in the middle of a dream of his lady ––here, the dream. Then actual presence = woman there ––contrast between the woman & the angel ––delicately uses an ancient scholastic quibble. Can angels read the thoughts of man? ––contrast between dreaming of actual lover, a contrast between the world of conventional love and that of true love ––“profane”––outside convention i.e. to prefer an angel to a woman in love ––poem ridiculing convention ––last stanza––a thing by itself ––A very lovely poem within limits of very physical & sexual love convention p. 274 The Bait ––parody on Marlowe’s famous lyric (see also p. 180––sympathetic, wistful very reflective comment on Marlowe’s poem. Idea of old age becoming more realistic. Profound comment not only on Marlowe but on the whole convention.) ––take off on Petrarchan convention because exaggerating what it says ––outrageous hyperboles ––in last three verses lets bottom fall out of it ––realistic description of physical discomforts of fishing ––builds up theme of poor fish

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When parody appears in poetry it is usually a sign that a convention is being outworn. ––new cult ready for more realistic form of literature p. 184—Robert Greene ––one of best before Shakespeare ––cf. modern free-lance journalist ––wrote to get money. Took to drink. Died in poverty ––bitter, unhappy life ––tough professional attitude of writing ––apt to take off on conventions ––Menaphon: Doron ––talks of rustic yokels rather than court––thus dressed up as shepherds––a dialogue Hard to kill one pastoral convention. Regularly came back. ––18th century––Ambrose Philips parodies ––WWI––group of Georgian poets ––20th century––still some parodies being written Conventions in literature harder to kill than one would think p. 552––pastoral convention ridiculed by putting lovers in a totally rustic surrounding ––a little coarse [?] [?]. Equally funny. November 19. Donne ––considerable amount of parody. Similar reason for it ––his poems require a good deal of knowledge of details of courtly love convention p. 274. Love’s Deity ––little boy grown to be the most powerful of the gods –-“rebel” “atheist”––technical religious words ––Platonic theme––doctrine of correspondence ––attraction of man for woman is part of general recognition of beauty by love Donne’s early poetry introduced quite a new type of poetry ––started quite a vogue ––revived in 20th century––important influence on modern writers (Eliot, Yeats) ––Donne founded own school of writing

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––most fashionable until Restoration time––influences from France put it out of style ––Romantic movement brought appreciation of the prose of Donne’s period but not the poetry ––according to Dryden, “Donne affects the metaphysics”142 ––shows he was going out of style ––Coleridge criticized him ––Johnson called Donne’s school the “metaphysical school” of poets (i.e., making poetical images out of ideas of philosophy, theology & science). p. 276 A Lecture upon the Shadow theme: love moves up to a climax (then may move away from it) ––elaborate comparison––intensity of love––length of shadow ––typical example of a metaphysical image ––a conceit––conception or idea formed by wit ––wit––intelligence Donne takes essentially abstract ideas & takes them into poetry p. 277. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning ––people more concerned with earthly things ––courtly love words e.g. laity ––last four verses ––two very unusual comparisons of the two minds of the lovers ––united at top as compasses are ––metaphysical image––deliberately ingenious Metaphysical poetry ––intensity with which it forms a unity by bringing in images from most unexpected quarters ––poet likes to be original about his images. Deliberate, far-fetched quality in it ––intense, agile mind ––kind of lurking humour ––rather strained image 286. Hymn to God the Father ––elaborate pun on his name “done” ––still an extremely serious poem Varying tastes in Donne’s reputation ––for Pope––his genius in giving supreme expression of the commonplace ––in our own day poets again want to use abstract ideas as poetical images

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(A bad metaphysical poet is at least funny. Redeeming feature lacking in other conventions) Baroque: description of 17th-century culture 287. Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness ––compares self to a Mercator projection map (just becoming popular) ––west––Death (strange, unknown) ––however––in reality no west & east. Human life not a progress from life to death ––touches a resurrection ––importance of word “straits” (double meaning) ––just as death & resurrection are same point, so locates point of Adam & crucifixion at Jerusalem p. 298 Fletcher Purple Island ––mouth, tongue, teeth elaborately portrayed ––therefore, the purple island the body of man ––purple because Adam = “red mud” ––island––each man isolated ––an extensive allegory ––shows love of ingenuity at that time Fletcher (1582–1650) p. 275 The Funeral ––combination of images throw unexpected lights on poem ––courtly love––“love’s martyr” ––“wreath of hair” ––thought of almost magically ––compared to filigree of nerves which holds the body together ––unifying circle. Mystical circle––viceroy of soul. Donne ––all through Elizabethan period had been tread [sic] to more intellectual poetry (e.g. Chapman translated all of Homer, p. 213––goes out to be intellectual, obscure, highbrow). Nov. 21. Chapman ––one of group of self-conscious artists––highbrows––isolated group ––atmosphere of Elizabethan age not favourable to intellectual speculation ––Sir Walter Raleigh leader of group ––Marlowe a member ––mathematicians––people of free inquiry. Gained reputations as atheists ––wrote deliberately highbrow, self-consciously obscure poetry

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p. 213. Shadow of Night––dark, obscure, intellectualized ––in conflict with general poetry of the age ––see notes for analysis of obscurities p. 214. Ovid’s Banquet of Sense ––revolt against sensuousness of courtly love convention & use of mythological images (both ruling passions of Elizabethan age) ––Elizabethan public has had about enough of conventions & mythological ironicisms Chapman a precursor of Raleigh to some extent BRADBROOK, SCHOOL OF NIGHT (Raleigh)143 Development of Verse Satire ––another Elizabethan tendency leading to a change in taste ––satire––certain kind of form especially in Roman days––certain tone or mood which can be found in any kind of art (today’s meaning) ––Elizabethan––long poem dealing with customs and manners ––can be found all through this period (e.g. Wyatt––from Horace, Gascoigne––The Steel Glass––symbol of old looking glass. Therefore satire in praise of old, fashionable virtues & against new introductions of Spenser’s satire in Mother Hubbard’s Tale p. 108––following Chaucer. Follows medieval theme––beast epic) Joseph Hall p. 256 ––account of trip to moon––opportunities for satire. Mundus Alter et Idem––i.e. another world and the same ––attacks high-flown tragedy in general & Marlowe’s Tamburlaine in particular ––objects to mingling of comedy and tragedy in same play ––objected socially (clowns, princes. Vulgar, breeds disrespect on part of audience) as well as from literary viewpoint ––read [Joseph Hall’s] Virgidemiarum ––deliberate coarseness of imagery ––considerable roughness & tangled obscurity in his language ––these features come from classical novels, Juvenal & Persius respectively ––believed he was the first English satirist (4th or 5th) ––followed by Marston Marston ––takes high moral tone from Juvenal ––thick, rather heavy style. Coarse (at beginning of his writing)

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Donne absorbed a good deal of this highbrow tradition Satire IV ––follows Horace, Persius & tradition of Elizabethan satirists ––writes in a way which is almost a takeoff on heroic couplet (used by satirists) ––bad lining & rhyming quite deliberate ––coarseness 17th century influenced by two schools 1. Metaphysicals (Donne) 2. Neo–Classical (Jonson) Ben Jonson ––greatest English dramatist outside Shakespeare ––lyrical poet, critic ––bricklayer’s stepson (father died). Victim, target of Elizabethan snobbery ––some education. Fighting in army ––drifted into playwriting companies on return ––duel: killed man ––sentenced to be hanged (Elizabeth had passed a law against dueling) ––sentence commuted to branding ––his knowledge of Latin proved self as member of clergy & had therefore been tried by wrong kind of court ––catch: branded with cold iron ––restless––one company to another ––finally in the Queen’s Chapel––plays acted by choir boys ––some of his longest, most difficult plays made for them ––settled in the court ––first English poet laureate ––kept up his interest in the legitimate stage ––greatest period––five or six excellent comedies ––followed by a series of inferior comedies ––drew around him a school of poets, later known as Cavalier poets ––at his time regarded as much greater than Shakespeare p. 259 Epitaph on S.P.144 Song to Celia ––almost literal translation from letters of a late Greek writer ––incidental sonnets in his plays

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p. 258 Cynthia’s Revels ––title indicates association with some festivity of Queen Elizabeth’s court ––double allusion: moon and Queen Elizabeth ––refers to other aspect as Diana, the huntress second part ––adagio ––slow, heavy beat ––“salt tears”––forces a stop. Also “withered daffodil” ––OK when very slow movement in intended p. 259. Epicoene ––one of the perennial themes of poetry ––overdose of cosmetics on women p. 260 Triumph of Charis ––triumph––subsidiary convention of courtly love, introduced by Petrarch ––found in the pictorial arts as well as poetry. The procession of the gods or of virtue p. 261 (17th-century literature: 1. metaphysical school 2. neo-classical school Nov. 26. H.C. White, Leishman, Bennett, Metaphysical Poets145 Grierson, anthology146 Williamson, The Donne Tradition147 T. Spencer, A Garland for John Donne148 D. Bush, History of English Literature in the Seventeenth Century149 261 Jonson To the Memory of My Beloved the Author ––exceptionally good criticism of a contemporary ––Jonson preserves the detachment of a man who is a great dramatist & critic without any enmity or condescension ––“small Latin & less Greek”150––perhaps a sort of good-natured joke between Jonson & Shakespeare (Jonson used great display of such Greek & Latin literature in his writing). Good natured ––Elizabethan scholarship was very much a parade of names ––Jonson and Shakespeare thought of as forming a kind of antithesis in the 17th century ––speaks of Shakespeare essentially as a person with inborn genius (spent very little time polishing his works) ––see l. 55151

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––many lines have become proverbial, e.g. line 43152 (here a reference to Shakespeare’s popularity at court) ––an extraordinarily fine poem ––only really informed & judicial criticism of Shakespeare in his own age ––people at this time liked art, polish Jonson ––knew & cared more about the structure of his plays ––five or six excellent comedies. No rivalry to them anywhere in English ––other writers follow solidly in his tradition p. 263 The New Inn ––one of Jonson’s comedies ––l. 22––Pericles––a play of Jonson’s. Shakespeare likely had a hand in p. 264 Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme ––humanist high brows––all for classics ––by end of 17th century diehard humanist in a losing position ––change came with Ariosto. From his time cause of humanists in writing in Latin & Greek was pretty well doomed ––then began writing in own language. But felt that structure must follow that of Latin & Greek, i.e. no rhyme, quantitative meters. English language not [?] enough for these experiments to be very successful p. 108. Iambicum Trimetrum ––Spenser shows he doesn’t like this kind of writing ––didn’t like it & says so in this poem to Harvey p. 248 Campion Rose-Cheeked Laura ––meter imitative of Horace ––lovely little poem ––adaptive, moderated Latin verse Collins 18th century ––example of unrhymed meter Development of blank verse in drama took the edge off humanist criticism In Fit of Rhyme Jonson speaks of his dislike of these troubled rhymes

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Why wasn’t classical poetry rhymed? ––already a great many rhymes because of inflectional endings ––all they want of rhyme is in the structure of the language Pindar great Greek lyric poet ––wrote odes on winners of Olympic games ––meant to be set to music ––would be sung by two choruses: first sing the strophes, second sing the antistrophes, both sing the epode ––all the strophe, antistrophes, and epodes are metrically alike but differ from each other Pindaric Ode 265 ––lovely poem on death of two young men (Anglo-Saxon poetry is quantitative) Metaphysical Tradition ––seems to be a strong Celtic tradition George Herbert p. 315 ––Donne’s first disciple ––Welsh family {Herbert p. 296 Lord Herbert of Cherbury ––George Herbert’s brother ––Platonic tradition in his writing ––De Veritate––first statement of what is later known as Deism. A treatise B. WILLEY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY153 ––slightly amazed at his own audacity and originality} George Herbert designed for the church partly through the piety of his mother ––Herbert had previously thought in terms of a more worldly career. However, many of his patrons died (e.g. his father and James I) ––went into the church ––remarkable conversion ––extraordinary insight, power in his religious poetry Hard to write good religious poetry ––hard to avoid the ready-made cliché & work out your own theme

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––going to adapt the whole courtly love convention to its proper purpose, which he considered to be religion. Lover now addressed God rather than a mistress ––settled in quiet little parish church in Salisbury ––extraordinarily quiet life. Would be humdrum for anyone but a genius ––quiet, serenity, sense of reasonableness ––sense of serener aspect of charity (not ferocious like the great Roman Catholic writers of his time) Nov. 28. Music of Elizabethan Age ––charming, delicate, subtle, intimate ––much music in Elizabethan plays ––trumpet call ––flourishes, etc. ––exit to dead march ––chamber music ––songs have survived best ––lute accompanied the songs ––keyboard instruments ––organ for church ––spinet ––virginal (tinkly delicate instrument) ––good for ornate music ––can be played rapidly, made to do tricks ––dulcimer ––intolerably crude, complicated version of the piano ––song involves the certainness of a poet ––vogue for setting words to extremely involved, complicated rhythms ––madrigal ––elaborate setting ––singer. No instrumental accompaniment ––songs to piano ––air setting rather than metrical setting Come Live with Me and Be My Love Marlowe p. 94––attempted to by sung by the gravedigger in Hamlet The Aged Lover ––tune would be extremely harsh if sung off key Tune sung by Ophelia––intensely delicate. Good for pathos Campion pp. 248–9 ––also disliked the madrigal

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––his words are fitted very closely to the tune ––frequent chromatic scales ––settings for lute, not keyboard instrument When Thou Must Home to Shades of Underground––lovely, subtle tune Poetry between 1660–1900 more conventionalized than either before or since Different modes––octave on the white modes ––provides strange, subtle harmonies ––freedom in moving from one mode to another Broader conception of music in Elizabethan times. 17th century tendency to conventionalize things, regularized music Dec. 3. Renaissance ––culture of the city-state ––differed from the medieval feudal economy ––influence of Italy started a cultural Renaissance in England as early as Chaucer’s time (14th century) ––England relapsed from this in getting itself established socially (e.g. getting rid of barons) By the time our course starts, the barons are courtiers. ––two main political factors: the prince and the courtier ––Tudors brought this in ––monarchy was absolute ––they set up a city-state structure which had been in Italy It is not surprising that two important books of this period, supplementary to each other, are: The Prince––Machiavelli The Courtier—Castiglione The Prince 1. All governments are either republics or dictatorships (principality). A principality is a country under a strong leader (no matter how he got to be so) 2. Governments are either unstable or not unstable 3. Republics are always unstable 4. Principalities may be unstable ––depends on the abilities of their leaders

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History was on Machiavelli’s side. No successful republic had yet existed (Rome and Florence had fallen). He claimed the principle of all good government was certain qualities in the leader. ––claimed qualities of good leadership are not moral qualities but are primarily strength and cunning. Machiavelli is original in that he is empirical in his study & goes only by the facts. Therefore, since men are evil his claims are true. ––only the appearance of virtue is necessary for the prince ––good deeds not publicized are wasted ––everything the prince does must be based on expediency ––takes Renaissance city-state as his political fact. Therefore, no federations, always war & negotiations (cold war) ––naturally wouldn’t work in this age Results ––by trying to discuss politics without hypocrisy & false idealism, Machiavelli shocked the Anglo-Saxon world of that time ––got a bad reputation in England, but the English only knew Machiavelli through an attack made on him (by Gentillet) ––figure of Machiavelli got blended in with the skulking Catholic spy. Finally turned into an incarnation of all that is against honour & virtue. Had an influence on stage villains (e.g. Edmund in King Lear) ––claimed that Christianity teaching peace might injure a country at war ––it had to be kept perhaps, but it had to be subordinated Limitations Machiavelli overlooks the extent to which the prince is dependent on a ruling class and its ascendency. In this respect More’s Utopia is superior The limits to his arguments were realized even in his own time. Machiavelli & the Tudors ––Henry VIII has often been described as Machiavelli’s prince in action ––unscrupulous but had the people behind him ––maybe Machiavelli put into theory what the Tudors put into practice ––reminds one of Elizabeth, too, to a certain degree ––appearance of virtue more important than the reality––chastity, etc. Castiglione The Courtier ––deals with an ideal particular education ––Renaissance one of the great ages of educational theory because they knew whom they were educating and what for

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––though only in terms of educating for social responsibility (not mass education) ––advantage of their education was that liberal education was the vocational education of the ruling class (no distinction such as we have) ––function of an aristocracy wasn’t only military and political but to put on a good show (be cultured––must know these things as a patron) ––had to know all about what was going on in society Dec. 5. Machiavelli The Elizabethans were probably––actually––very much agreeable with Machiavelli’s ideas about leadership, lack of morality, etc. e.g. in Shakespeare ––principles of stability & government in a king are what keeps the country together, makes a strong king. These are not moral qualities. Renaissance a great period for theories of education. ––most important person to be educated was a prince because of association with politics ––his education––sort of a type for others ––social reference of education for Elizabethans very different from ours liberal education and professional education of the upper class were for them the same thing ––modern education turns on the distinction of these two ––people at this time were being trained for specific social responsibilities ––realized source of stability in a prince was connected with sort of morale he could instill in & through the people ––harder to maintain in war than peace ––can’t always plunge into wars for this ––must have intervals of peace (mostly for financial reasons)–– his biggest problem ––prince dramatized to the people as a whole certain standards of culture & pleasure ––Elizabethans addressed their theory of education only to those who would be in position of social responsibility. Appearance is the important fact (indeed, it is reality) Education books of the Renaissance 1. Sit Thomas Elyot The Governour ––treatise on education for person going to assume position of social responsibility

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2. Castiglione Courtier ––translated into English, becoming an influential book of Elizabethan culture ––function of courtier ultimately to serve prince. Therefore, his form of education must be similar Keynote of Elizabethan education is versatility ––a person must know everything that is going on in his society ––military, economic (& other arts of peace), practical arts, physical, music, literature, architecture, etc., theology, philosophy ––Leonardo da Vinci is the Renaissance example of versatility. Castiglione gives a relaxed, graceful picture of the ideals of Renaissance education ––came from small town in mountains ––drifted to Florence. Associated with a group of famous people Courtier a Platonic dialogue ––group of people gather. Discuss what is the idea of or form of the perfect courtier ––some of those discussing it are well known historically ––others have very black records historically ––odd mixture ––Castiglione weeds out the brigandage ––however, peculiar combination of highest civilized morals & ferocity ––indication of the paradoxes of Renaissance morality Always content that the whole morale of society depends on the qualities of the courtier’s leadership. ––Book I ––discusses qualities ideal courtier would need ––should be well-born ––no general reason why he should be well-born but will find it easier to get along if he is ––must be educated equally in body and mind ––Book II Theme further elaborated ––courtier must never forget he’s on parade ––must cultivate those sports in which he can appear to best advantage (e.g. tennis, not boxing, wrestling) Castiglione’s great principle of grace ––whatever the courtier does, he must do it with a grace ––must appear to be doing whatever he is doing easily

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e.g. to be a patron of poetry, must know a lot of it, be able to write it (must look as though written easily ––never appear rushed, busy. Talk of another work he has done ––always give an impression of ease, relaxation ––always preserve a sense of social reason wherever he is ––conception of education as being concerned with somehow solving the problem of time ––easy relaxed control of timing is really what Castiglione is talking about ––“recklessness”––detached, easy apparent carelessness ––ability to achieve without the appearance of strain, perspiring effort ––discussion turns to question of conversation ––the educated man will be known by his conversation ––conversation: act of creating or building set of standards of education for society ––courtier never harangues, interrupts ––constant respect of other people’s personalities as well as selfrespect ––supplies a certain number of stories it might be good to tell ––must be delivered clearly, briefly with the appearance of spontaneity All this is education in the consciousness of society, not merely education in hypocrisy ––grounded in social contacts always (Plato is overwhelmingly most influential factor in Renaissance culture. Social atmosphere here referred to might well be compared to that of Periclean Age. Essential thing is the revival of Greek ideas, e.g. whole, complete man, is the revival of Plato). Book III ––completes general structure of education by dealing with question of education of women (Platonic: completely masculine) ––civilization, society still essentially a barbaric one if only the men in it are educated ––ruling class (courtiers) has to act as a unit ––men shouldn’t have to go off by themselves before cultured conversation can take place Book IV ––glorification of love & discipline of the soul through Platonic love (the climax of the courtier’s education) Very satisfying book

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Dec. 10. Courtier ––this climax in love is modification of classical ideas made in the Renaissance ––book moves upwards towards theme of triumph of love ––test of value of your education is in the amount of courtesy of which you are capable ––Renaissance society––certain social, cultural, religious ideals & also certain number of symbols which pointed to these e.g. represented by noble class & the court (examples of social ideas) ––their job to live up to these ideals ––much of one’s education is formed by social ideals ––great deal of best 16th century poetry was produced by members of upper class ––tradition carried on by Cavalier poets in 17th century (swamped by bourgeois later) ––can see that this was encouraged by the Courtier ––poetry as a byproduct of courtesy was a very real social idea ––at centre of Renaissance educational theory stood the courtier ––able to draw on all sources of culture in order to apply them to the society in which he moved (i.e. narrows down whole focus of Renaissance education to one man) ––conception of eloquence ––part of two great professions––clergy & law ––counsel as a matter of eloquence very important for courtier–– advising prince What made the ideal possible? 1. The turn in education which had led to the revival of the Classics ––general expansion of them ––revival of Greek literature, language ––middle of 14th century––desire of Italian scholars for Greek led to inviting over of scholars from Constantinople to Florence ––therefore flourishing school of Greek studies grew up (political movement in church, fall of Constantinople (15th century), etc. also contributed to establishment of this school. Plato central) ––philosophy of Aristotle (Macedonian imperialism, etc.) became extremely congenial to medieval philosophy. Now tiring of domination of Aristotle. Note how Francis Bacon is critical of Aristotle (Aristotle gaining

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authority, however, in field of literature. Revived by humanists). ––Plato more congenial to Renaissance mind ––had a style. Used a literary form ––this conception of versatility in Plato is what the Renaissance wanted ––philosophy of love very important for Renaissance culture ––kind of symmetry about his ideas ––Plato more mechanistic, symmetrical in his conceptions than Aristotle ––modern science has emerged in order of its closeness to mathematics ––partly this quality in Plato which was encouraging to this quality in the new scientists (e.g. Copernicus influenced by Platonism & symmetry Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science154 ––in Florence Plato was translated, etc. e.g. Ficino translated most of Plato into Latin ––from here Greek & Plato spread over most of world ––Oxford Reform in England because of association with education at Florence ––Colet, Erasmus, More ––first great movement of humanism in England ––development of Greek studies at Oxford was foundation of humanism in England (some prejudices: Greek as against anything new, e.g. More speaks against it) 1. Taylor, Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century155 2. Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers156 ––provides background for More 3. Preserved Smith, Erasmus157 4. [Sir E.K.] Chambers Renaissance still a predominantly Latin civilization ––still, small minority in 16th century who knew Greek ––everybody (who knew anything) knew Latin (Revival of classical literature did in a few exceptional circumstances encourage paganism in Britain) ––centre of gravity for Renaissance scholars still in the writings of Christian fathers Invention of printing press very important

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––gave direction & aim to humanists ––gave them something specific to do ––accurate texts (incunabla––book before 1500––show descent of books from old medieval manuscripts) ––scholars made pilgrimages all over to find old manuscripts ––hundreds raked out, deciphered, edited, printed ––by 1500 a respectable library of classical texts in the world This movement brought with it great respect for the authority of classical writers. Efforts at writing in same kind of language as classicists resulted. Imitation. ––shift ––classical writers were read more & more for style, form ––conception of style becomes a new standard ––conception of what constituted good Latin changed considerably in medieval Latin verse ––stressed rhythm, rhyme ––this intolerable to humanists. Went back to the Golden Age of Latin ––Cicero, Julius Caesar, Augustus, etc. Virgil, Horace ––shouldn’t write rhymed, alliterated Latin verses, or write in a Latin that had been corrupted ––by these ideas humanists started to keep Latin as a living, growing & developing tongue ––[?] it as an artificial language. Humanism brought in with it a sort of expanded conception of authority ––rather encyclopaedic library e.g. Virgil for poetry, [farming?] (also Varro, etc.) ––Hippocrates, Galen––medicine ––encouraged study of best writings & so fitted into the cult of the humanists Dec. 12. —conception of oratorical, eloquent man centre of education theory. Humanism, therefore, a cult of authority ––its values depended on fields it was applied to ––started education on Greek & Latin basis ––never quite free of certain class orientation (courtier, squirearchy, magistrate, etc.). Therefore, partly done for when class hierarchy began to disappear

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Humanism 1. revival of Greek and Latin in 16th century (15th?) 2. more general movements ––limits in art––can’t improve ––characteristic of artist to get things right the first time ––greatest artists forever models, objects of study & imitation ––certain technical value in having them from different countries (different languages, etc.) Humanism––literary training was therefore unsurpassed in method & culture BUT: Science ––whole body of knowledge is your authority ––great scientist empties his contribution into a larger form which evolves, progresses from age to age Humanism useless, even a positive hindrance to the New Science ––mostly astronomy in the 16th century (Galileo etc.) ––had to meet Humanist opposition ––doctors who actually trusted to experimentation, realizing how little they knew about the human skeleton, etc., were likely to be rival class —experiments carried out despite highbrows ––same true of Galileo ––found many laws of motion in Aristotle to be quite wrong. Lost job. Humanists found unpleasant theological associations in what he said ––science partly conditioned by Humanism e.g. by the revival of Platonism Religion––Humanism––quite separate movements ––here Humanism particularly important. Got mixed in with Protestant Reformation ––setting of Bible against the Church meant it was spiritually dangerous to be illiterate ––printing press to play great part in scholarship of Humanism & also of Bible ––St. Jerome translated Bible into Latin about 5th century ––long time for authority ––Humanists anxious to get new translation of the Bible ––revival of Hebrew studies ––idea of translating Bible into modern languages conflicted with policy of Church ––Church felt Vulgate (St. Jerome) was the only authorized version of the Bible ––any new translation must be authorized by the Vatican

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––many were against idea of new translations ––Erasmus made first critical edition (version) of the New Testament ––showed courage, honesty in face of tremendous bigotry & opposition ––accompanied his version with a Latin translation ––collided with prejudices & superstition of people of his day e.g. “in principio erat Verbum” often worn around the neck as a talisman. Magical power, according to Erasmus: “in principio erat sermo.”158 Shook up prejudices of his day. ––Reformation got mixed up with questions of translation of Bible ––cause of translation of the Bible was taken up by the Protestants ––many back-traded [sic] ––14th century translation of the Vulgate Bible associated with Wycliffe ––this translation forbidden all through the 14th century ––possession of it was a sign of heretical tendencies ––no translation of whole Bible which Church approved of ––16th century William Tyndale began first real translation of the Vulgate, from original tongues ––followed Wycliffe’s version fairly closely ––in time of Henry VIII demand for official Bible ––in Elizabeth’s reign two Bibles commonly employed ––one by Anglicans––“Bishop’s (breeches) Bible” ––one by Puritans––Geneva ––little difference in text ––Geneva differed enormously in its marginal texts. Therefore profoundly disapproved of in Elizabeth’s reign James I––strong episcopal policy ––encouraged Anglicans in Church ––quite a genuine peacemaker. Tried to heal Anglican–Puritan breech ––called conference for that purpose ––broke up ––first decided to combine their labours in translation of Bible to be authorized by Church of England as a whole

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––landmark in English literature and history of Church Roman Catholics meanwhile realized value of authorized Bible ––Vulgate had been proclaimed basis of all translations into modern languages ––Catholic Vulgate came out in France––“Douai” (all these versions remarkably close together. Differences are small but significant) ––tide of Reformation turned with coming of Luther ––German translation of the Bible comparable to James’s authorized version ––translations made possible direct appeal to the Bible over authority of Church on part of individual believer if need be ––Catholics didn’t allow this so not so important for Roman Catholics to have Bible in their possession ––successful translation of the Bible most likely to be made within well-made framework of theology ––17th century translations important as translations into 17th century Anglicanism as well as into English language (Is it possible to translate the Bible without reference to opinions already held?) e.g. “ecclesia”––for Anglican “church” ––for Congregationalist “congregation” ––More and Tyndale argued over conception of this “metanoia”––literally, a change of mind ––Roman Catholics––sacrament of penance ––Protestants––repentance ––no impartial authority to decide issue––just one’s own belief “arton epiousion”(from the Lord’s Prayer)––on top of being ––Protestants––give us our habitual bread, i.e. daily bread ––Roman Catholics––mystical bread of sacrament ––no dictionary to appeal to This whole movement was accompanied by Growth of Historical Sense ––increasing ability to date things from their [?] ––in the arts, great authority applied to age ––in the Church, great authority placed on document of Constantine which willed his temporal powers to the Church

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––document was proved a forgery by a Protestant scholar (never doubted the document before). Such incidents bore influence of their life. FINIS

CHAPTER TEN THE NOVEL (ENGLISH 3L) (1952) MARGARET KELL VIRANY’S NOTES

This truncated set of notes covers only six class lectures during the fall term of 1952. It was during November of that year that Margaret Kell dropped out of Victoria College. In her words, “I quit school and worked as secretary/receptionist for the editor emeritus, editorial writers and librarian of The Toronto Telegram. This suited me perfectly: the office was not busy so he suggested I learn Pitman shorthand so I would look occupied. The reason I quit was to get on top of the reading for my course. By earning money, I could afford to stretch my undergraduate life out for one more year.” She resumed her studies in the fall of 1953, and the notes for her classes following that make use of the Pitman shorthand she had learned. Virany retook the course when she returned to college the next year. See her notes for the course she took in 1953–54––the notes that follow these (no. 11). Sept. 30 The Novel ––events and people moving through them––a tale ––the relation to truth is irrelevant. A created tale. i.e., psychological truth ––beginning––middle––end A sizeable story––of a certain magnitude and complexity ––novel must live within enclosing atmosphere of an idea i.e., slice of life is not enough The author’s assumptions, criticisms of life come into his selection of material. Hit the reader. ––reader should look for this total effect Unique aspect of novel: What is its criticism of life?

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––grew out of other forms of writing––development ––increasing flexibility ––many variations ––particular vehicle for ideas. Particular attack on life. Both the vehicle and the idea are interesting, enriching, absorbing Pilgrim’s Progress ––great work of religious nature ––supreme, graceful expression of Calvinism ––Bunyan was a Puritan––relatively uneducated ––holds some qualities of greatness of any imaginative writing ––moving. Agony of a soul in a struggle ––not wholly dependent on its theology for its effect ––the artistic transcends the intellection ––a wonderfully told tale Bunyan: 1628–1698 ––Troubled period ––Elizabethan period was over ––Puritan revolution on its way ––lived through Cromwell’s Republic, Restoration, civil wars ––one of the persecuted Puritans ––two periods in jail because of his dissenting opinions (1) 1660. Coventicle Act.159 Declaration of Independence (1672) (2) 1675. Began Pilgrim’s Progress. Published 1678 ––other works: Grace Abounding ––story of his conversion ––account of religious agony and ecstasy ––allegorical form. Beautifully written, moving but unimaginative, straightforward The Life and Death of Mr. Badman ––counterpart of Grace Abounding ––full of interest because of description of men and letters of the time ––describes evil ––not so successful as Pilgrim’s Progress ––not the same visual power The Holy War ––“Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Man-Soul” ––less successful allegory for religious purposes ––imaginative quality is submerged All were well known in the seventeenth century. All have a simplicity of writing that derives from Bunyan’s biblical reading

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READ J.L. Lowes, On Reading Books160––“Pilgrim’s Progress” Term Catalogues i.e., list of books published in any given year ––successor of the Stationer’s Register, in which printers stated what they, with legal permission, would print [The notes for several classes are missing here. The notes pick up in the middle of lectures on Defoe] Oct. 21. Defoe attacks certain social evils ––neglect (beginning of Moll Flanders’ life) ––drunkenness ––the double standard The piling up of events to an extent that is monotonous is like pouring salt on the wound of evil. Conversion ––perhaps a concession to his Puritan readers ––throughout book Defoe pauses to moralize, then eagerly hurries back to tell his tale of wickedness Technique of realism is to let incidents roll along naturally––not appear too polished For any novel there must be some sort of conflict or fight––at least two forces. Drama = conflict If story is about one character, the conflict must be found elsewhere, e.g. society. Robinson Crusoe versus the elements Society is important in Moll Flanders. ––must put on appearance of virtue to succeed ––society is opposed to her ––strong sense of class conflict ––Moll wanted to be a gentlewoman, not a tradeswoman ––Defoe came out of tradesman class and was conscious of class strife cf. Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair––idea of false gentility Great deal of the sardonic and sarcastic in Moll Flanders These are part of the realistic traditions of the novel.

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Oct. 28. Virginia Woolf “On Defoe” in the Common Reader ––Defoe has a concentration on fact which is almost anti-imaginative ––concrete––specific––the object e.g. in Moll Flanders––contents of pocket ––specific small incidents which happen in house while Moll is in disguise upstairs ––almost preternatural clarity of a nineteenth-century Dutch painting Richardson (1699–1761) ––short––tremors––cane––eye for women ––printer––became prosperous ––born in London––Fleet Street ––son of a carpenter ––absolutely inveterate letter-writer ––precise, slightly laborious ––didn’t move among elegant writers of the period with elegant, stylish grace ––first half of the eighteenth century {1737––Licensing Act––only two theatres licensed––Coventry Garden and Drury Lane. All others shut down, including where Fielding’s plays were being put on ––gave impetus to novel ––affected Richardson and Fielding by censorship ––early eighteenth century an interesting, lively period, full of minor excitements. Read some diaries of this period––those of Pope, Twickenham. Be aware of sort of social life they had in general} ––writing appeared to Richardson as commercially sound (In some of Fielding’s plays the royal family was attacked, Walpole attacked even more fiercely than Swift did in Gulliver’s Travels) ––because of the Licensing Act, writers encouraged to write for private consumption ––sermons, etc. new substitute for theatre Pamela 1740 (1) Origin––as pattern of society changed, country reader at loss as to how to act. Wanted some sort of guidance ––Richardson’s company saw this need and hence Richardson’s letters arose––Familiar Letters ––it was a very congenial task to him ––some of these letters have a direct relation to Pamela––138, 62

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––sort of Dorothy Dix ––Richardson enjoys the dangers he is warning against ––cautioning girls a favourite theme ––Pamela––compounded of Familiar Letters––snares for a young girl. Richardson played with many variations on the theme in the great expanse of his novel Pamela (2) Publication––terrific success when launched ––heroine egocentric in the particularity she shows about certain details of her life, just as Richardson himself was ––first draft gave rise to some parodies immediately e.g., (1) Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews ––many believe this was undoubtedly written by Henry Fielding (2) Joseph Andrews ––a shorter but better known parody ––laughable ––a satire, but has an independent vitality and vigour of its own ––Richardson threatened by Fielding’s success and jealous of it Richardson adopted threatening, virtuous tone Fielding adopted satirical tone Lively rivalry Is Pamela realistic or sentimental? Nov. 4. A Sentimental or Realistic Novel? [essay topic for the class] (try to be provocative in essay) Pamela Richardson ––more attention to subject than form (epistolary) ––too much detail ––interminable––sometimes same incident repeated by six witnesses ––theme––ethical––advice to domestic servant saturated with morality ––first psychological novel ––personal, intimate feeling Pamela ––masterpiece of characterization ––coolly calculating ––typical seventeenth-century servant ––utilitarian, Puritan ––not as perfect as Richardson would make out

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––class consciousness throughout book ––characters have individuality––are realistic ––depend on their actions, not outward appearances (questionable): Richardson more interested in soul than material things ––motives not always religious and virtuous ––usually a strong secondary motive ––Richardson inclined to exaggerate (typical of sentimentalists) ––realized and wrote for the instincts of the masses ––original in being able to see these ––some realistic aspects Sentimental ––virtues idealized––not tied down to real experience The whole concept of Pamela is sentimental ––not a realistic basis ––sentiment for virtue––it is rewarded ––joining of virtue and reward a sentimental idea Something basically false, unreal in sentimental concept Sentimentality––sentiment in excess, therefore falsified, distorted ––deals with the more tender, softer, righteous emotions ––perhaps results from personal preoccupation with these emotions e.g., Pamela, in midst of problem, has no thought for outside duty of any kind (even to her parents) ––undue emphasis on actual emotion, trivial things because of the form (no perspective, detachment). Perhaps this is Richardson’s reason for using the letter form––extract maximum emotion, give photographic account of Pamela’s mental state. This is part of both the realism and the sentimentality of the novel. Extreme concentration on one aspect of morality. One poor struggling heroine retains virtue against all odds. At the same time this virtue is rewarded. Pamela is not entirely innocent of the reward all along. Illusion of virtue is destroyed by the reward and its importance. Pamela becomes a “calculating little baggage”––suspicion that she is this is never very far from the reader’s mind. Hard to know what Richardson’s intent was. Narrow conception of virtue leads to a sentiment which becomes sentimental. Leads to its own destruction in the end. The sentimental isn’t completely separated from the realistic.

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cf. the person who does charity work from the tremendous desire to push others around and have power over them, though she herself doesn’t realize it. Perhaps Richardson was being true to life. Is Pamela a convincing realistic character? ––overemphasis on virtue in a fifteen-year-old, yet people matured earlier in those days. Educated to be articulate, frank in statements on morals; therefore, this is partly accounted for by period differences. If Pamela isn’t convincing, is it because of sentimentalism or because of the technique of Pamela? Letter form ––eyewitness account ––natural means of getting right into the mind of the character ––eliminates problem of the omniscient author but creates problem of omniscient Pamela ––Richardson quite successful in overcoming such problems ––one-sidedness––monotony––we become bored with Pamela’s mind and person ––excuses for letter-writing are a bit thin ––gives impression of egocentric character ––emphasizes the sentimentalism (Richardson wants us to think Pamela is good. Pamela herself must convince us.) Class distinction in Pamela. Nov. 18. ––Fielding is writing in an impersonal tradition ––he is presenting an epic spectacle ––certain amount of sentiment in the treatment of Mr. Allworthy ––Fielding’s conversation with Nightingale near the end of the book gives the whole moral conflict in miniature ––shall he do the decent and conventional thing about marrying the girl he has made pregnant? ––Fielding implies that the society that forces him to act decently in this case is a wicked society ––real sin of Blifil is that he is wicked, cold, has no humanity ––Fielding’s moral was that you must develop your humanity ––must see Tom Jones as a history––not a drama of conflict

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––a sequence of events in which suspense is built up (1) mystery of Tom Jones’s birth. Sets plot going and must unveil it before it ends. This fact in itself is an insult to conventional social morality. (2) The love story These elements are all tangled up together satisfactorily. It is a sort of epic history that it unfolds ––examine the first three or four chapters carefully after finishing the book Everything is accounted for very carefully. Three sets of actions go on: Blifil and his actions Tom and his actions Sophia and her actions Complicated plot next day: characterization realism introductory chapters Nov. 25. Comparison between Tom Jones and Shakespeare is a profitable one Tom Jones––Prince Hal Mrs. Honour––nurse in Romeo and Juliet Squire Western––Falstaff Sophia A sentimental heroine? ––doesn’t let her feelings swamp her. Can act when it’s necessary ––has her own doubts ––conversations between Tom and Sophia are trite, idiotic and conventional ––assertions of character, naturalness do break through in places e.g., Sophia being coy The love conventions aren’t Shakespearean nor is the villain Hero not so witty ––low characters best

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This novel is unsurpassed in its slice of life quality. Rich and racy humanity The money preoccupation is fundamental ––the motive is a practical one––for existence itself. This is an eighteenth-century mode of thinking rather than an Elizabethan one. Fielding asserts a natural ethic as over against the didactic morality of Richardson ––young man must be allowed to sow his wild oats ––response to life. Enter into stream of it. ––various characters in Tom Jones shut off e.g., Blifil, by his evil, coldness Square, Thwackum by narrow beliefs ––spontaneous, positive, outgoing attitude to life. Red-blooded, vigorous ––pedantry, selfishness are bad because negative. Fielding’s prose style ––tremendous variety: mock heroic satire humour ––terse, strong, vigorous. Capable of packing a heavy wallop. Sharp, biting ––type of eighteenth-century wit found in Dryden and Pope ––can be much like Oscar Wilde in his epigrammatic point at times read Sterne––criticize.

CHAPTER ELEVEN THE NOVEL (ENGLISH 3L) (1953–54) NOTES BY MARGARET KELL VIRANY

See the previous set of sketchy notes for English 3l, which Virany took in 1952. The present set of more expansive notes records Frye’s lectures on Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Richardson’s Pamela, Fielding’s Tom Jones, Smollett’s Humphry Clinker, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Eliot’s Middlemarch, Dickens’s Great Expectations, and Meredith’s The Egoist. These notes were recorded partially in Pitman shorthand. Sept. 28, 1953 The Novel ––late form to emerge yet almost completely dominates literature today ––not an important force until the beginning of the eighteenth century ––product of a certain kind of class ––middle class that came up with Whigs of the seventeenth century rose and declined with them ––today’s novel of a different kind ––study of character closely related to comedy of manners ––primary emphasis on character ––more like comedy than tragedy ––effect dependent on recognition mainly ––realistic––associated with satire ––allegorical writers––Bunyan at one end, Joyce and Woolf at the other ––most serious fiction today tends to be allegorical in the same way Bunyan was, though the detail is very different ––eighteenth century motivated by tale to tell ––twentieth century motivated by a theme to work out ––1930’s––proletarian novel ––characters define types

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––a kind of social allegory ––thriller––allegorical structure––hero––heroine––villain ––deliberate playing down of a character shifts emphasis from character to––? ––end of seventeenth century ––novel of the middle class ––writers seem to line up pro and con prose fiction according to political ideas ––e.g., Addison––Whig––study of character for its own sake ––Defoe––Whig ––music and drama seem to thrive where social consciousness is strong. Novel, essays thrive where society is individualistic (e.g., Victorian England) ––fate of drama bound up in fate of court in Elizabethan England ––in Julius Caesar––portrait of Cassius is that of Puritan revolutionary. “He likes not plays.”161 i.e., fear that drama would disappear with the revolution Deloney ––precursor of the novel –others followed his pattern ––success story (cf. modern soap opera) Fiction lines up with: (1) pattern of the industrious apprentice (2) pattern of the idle apprentice e.g., Pamela Bunyan G.B. Shaw, Dramatic Opinions and Essays “Better than Shakespeare?”162 ––hasn’t had his Shaw and literary criticism ––study of everyman––achieves realism because the pilgrim is a typical; ordinary human being. We can feel kinship with him ––Grace Abounding––a grim, terrifying book of desperation ––terrible intensity ––tone of Pilgrim’s Progress is considerably softened ––Life and Death of Mr. Badman

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––Badman a feasible Restoration character ––Bunyan shows contempt for nearly [all?] moral standards ––success story of a perfectly poisonous scoundrel ––sort of irony, pungency shown by Bunyan ––Holy War ––assault of devil on man’s castle ––concreteness of Bunyan’s vision of life as a conflict ––incredible resemblances between The Faerie Queene and parts of Pilgrim’s Progress and Holy War Pilgrim’s Progress ––life is a journey and a conflict ––all the romantic apparatus ––hero with a quest ––obstacles, adventures ––setting: England in Bunyan’s time ––straight and narrow road quite recognizably a road of seventeenth-century England ––dirt, mires, bogs, quicksands, i.e., only differ from real roads in being straight ––allegory wooden in places ––distinction between Christian and Faithful versus Talkative in theological discussion is the same distinction as that made in Restoration comedy between Wit and other characters––same suggestive naming of characters also ––simplicity, yet great variety in Bunyan’s writing ––ability to come right down on the simple and inevitable expressions his characters would use ––narrative holds reader despite digressions ––irresistible ferocity comes through Pilgrim’s Progress ––Bunyan had sense of the civilian soldiers ––spirit makes up for bodily frailty ––Christian has spiritual courage and a good deal of physical courage too Sept. 29. Social and political change and growth in seventeenth-century England (1668 on) brought its own literary change. Religious aspect had something to do with the literary aspect as well.

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Pilgrim’s Progress ––ironic that Bunyan belonged to the most unallegorical type of Christianity imaginable Bunyan ––in civil war ––Baptist (seventeenth-century sense) {Puritans, Baptists} ––on his right: established church––sacrament, primacy of church ––on his left: doctrines of light (Quakers, Anabaptists, inner light) ––King Charles restored in 1660 ––Bunyan began a twelve-year jail term the following November ––unbearable separation from young family described in Grace Abounding ––prisons extremely foul in those days ––released from prison as a result of secret political maneuverings on the part of Charles ––in lib. [sic] about three years (Charles realized he had to play ball with the Anglican Parliament) ––by 1678, free for the rest of his life (Reason for emancipating dissenters was primarily to restore Protestantism) ––died just before revolution of 1688 which would have restored him once and for all ––strict Lutheran in his theology ––i.e., anti-allegorical anti-mystical ––Anglicans and Quakers actually had a great deal in common ––those in middle (Puritans and Baptists) quite different ––literal ––realistic ––hell must be a place ––go in corporeal form after you die–– worse than anything you can conceive of in life ––Christian’s experiences in Pilgrim’s Progress are recreation of spiritual stages in everyday experience. The very substance of life itself takes on this religious stage. Religion is identified with the whole of your life. Religion focused on concrete actuality of life. This makes Bunyan’s book so powerful ––sense of tremendous significance of ordinary life ––without this sense you can’t have a realistic novel; therefore, this sense gave Bunyan his place in literature

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––drama can’t give a real sense of inner psychological life. Lyric can’t give a real sense of the action of society. Prose fiction unites these by portraying both equally well ––no room for the individual in drama ––author not an important part of the movie ––never hear Shakespeare’s authentic voice speaking in his plays ––for people with strong social consciousness ––Bunyan has extraordinary capacity for reducing the whole world to one vast wilderness in which there is only one person––himself ––ice-cold sentences dropped into Pilgrim’s Progress ––“Let us leave him”163––hopeless person left to suffer in eternity ––this sense of individuality extremely rare in literature before Bunyan. Marks new literary genre––marks a more individualistic and aggressive society. Everyone is out for himself. Each must go through his own pilgrimage before there’s any reality in his life. Bunyan is a preacher ––most effective rhetoric that is utter and absolute simplicity ––because of his simplicity, Bunyan will always be read ––sense of heroism in simple, direct sentences ––Bunyan moves from grim scene of fight with Apollyon to a scene with Talkative (comparable to Restoration comedy) in a short space. Talkative is the false wit. Dimly like the clown of Shakespeare’s comedy ––satire in Vanity Fair founded on Bunyan’s own experience––tries again and again. Described plainly, simply––no bitterness ––Pick-Thank = informer––spy who pretended to be a nonconformist in order to catch people like Bunyan ––satire on contemporary judges ––Vanity Fair described just like a contemporary English fair ––significant that all Bunyan is left with to go to the eternal city is Hope, after Faith is burned to death ––everything Christian comes to is something in the Bible, and yet the whole story has the shape of a romance (The Faerie Queene, Book I, combines the allegorical structure of the Bible with the allegorical structure of romance). ––brings out latent romance shape in the Bible itself

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Romance ––rose in feudalism ––Aristotelian chivalry ––latent melancholy (Aristocratic) ––therefore, romance an aristocratic form––one of the first middle-class literary forms was mock romance ––person who is a rogue wanders around living by his wits–– picaresque novel (picaro = scoundrel, rogue, rascal) ––Moll Flanders solidly in the picaresque tradition ––Pilgrim’s Progress follows the same convention ––Christian begins as a rascal in the sight of God (differs from others by knowing he’s a rascal) ––lowly, wandering, condemned hero ––contains double-edged satire (1) on the folly of man when looked at from God’s viewpoint (2) on society for refusing to accept the kind of thing Christian stands for ––Christian has a sense of antagonism in both directions: New Jerusalem and City of Destruction, Vanity Fair ––satire on Christian––i.e., on human life ––reaches height when Christian spends four days in Castle of Despair before discovering he has the key in his own pocket Oct. 5. ––study of character central in the novel ––telling a story is also important ––manner of adapting central story theme to context ––in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, themes of seventeenth-century romance became matter of fact––no longer extraordinary ––e.g., Pamela––illustrates how central story theme is adapted ––theme is identical to that used in thousands of soap operas–– essentially, Cinderella theme ––can’t have fairy godmother in the setting Richardson’s age demands, but cruel housekeeper appears ––in Defoe––adaptation of certain large themes to a more realistic setting ––e.g., Robinson Crusoe––allegory of the British empire ––Bunyan writes a series of three stories about spiritual confirmation ––tendency to move toward social level––happy ending ––Grace Abounding––least ironical

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––lies just over the boundary of fiction ––Pilgrim’s Progress, Part I––something of the beginning of social interest needed for the novel––King’s highway, people. However, realities are isolated––Christian stands alone––others are dreams Part II––much greater social interest e.g., more insistence on achievements won for the church pioneers ––Christian regarded as a pioneer in Part II ––sense of awfulness of Christian’s life decreases. Mr. Fearing represents threatening aspects of religion–– something in Bunyan himself which gradually lessened as he grew older ––imagery in Part II is closer to fictional interest ––drawn more on ethical and moral implications in society than in individual —Greatheart finds straight and narrow path Christian followed is simpler in the feeling that some of the darkness and terror would be overcome ––great deal of music, sensuous pleasure Bunyan not a trivial Puritan ––emphasis on the tenderness implicit in Christianity itself ––central figures: woman and child ––interest in concrete things ––told Christians and children dressed in fine clothes, etc. ––marks typical tendency of the novel Can’t write a novel on purely fatalistic basis or complete freedom of the will––cf. T. and C. [Troilus and Cressida?] ––Hardy came as close to a fatalistic novel as he could ––if the individual is wholly responsible, you have no sense of social importance or working on the individual In Bunyan, you get a considerable increase in ferocity with regard to crime and punishment Part I––what Christian does is most important Part II––more insistence on the exemplary, not on punishing others Many of our greatest novelists were conservative, conventional people because the novel needs the framework of a stable society ––Henry James––powerful sense of society ––many of his novels based on tragical marriage ––as society changes, sense of fiction must change

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––sense of inflexible social order is what makes story great ––in the romance there was no sense of society ––picaresque hero went through all types of society ––comparatively slight tradition of society in present-day novel ––Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II––growing sense of group life–– road getting easier––framework of society begins to take shape ––in Part I––soul crossing river of death, etc. Only bad men die. Those who know who death is suffer ––in Part II, whole group of characters die at once. This is the famous literary form in which death summons one after another––danse macabre ––in Pilgrim’s Progress they are summoned to eternal life. Some are weaklings (shows tenderness of Christianity). Everyone ends on a note of ringing triumph (sign of Bunyan’s triumph as an artist. Here is his best writing). Bunyan saw there was a definite limit through which tragedy could be sustained. Novels in this course (except Wuthering Heights) show more tendency to the comic than the tragic. Today’s novels are shorter, more like tragedy. Oct. 6. Plot Patterns Pilgrim’s Progress ––a framework within which you get the development of the novel from Defoe’s time on ––theological framework for society ––in Defoe and Richardson there’s a structure of society in which it is possible for characters to go up or down i.e., success story ––may be told sardonically or seriously ––Pamela––naïve, serious––female equivalent of Horatio Alger novels––goes up in society ––success and failure have origin in the success or failure of the industrious apprentice ––Richardson’s Clarissa––female tragedy story ––sexual interest ––these stories can be told in naïve or sophisticated manner ––Moll Flanders ––incisive, biting study of psychology and society ––sharply etched, brought to life ––well within seventeenth-century convention of the female failure story ––told in a sophisticated manner

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––made up of traditional fictional elements (1) picaresque (2) gull’s hornbook––suckers ABC (Book to tell newcomer’s how to behave in London, especially in the latter part of Moll Flanders) (3) confession ––general tone of the story is far more sophisticated than the usual for (1), (2), or (3) ––Moll tells her own story ––emerges as quite a good-natured character ––Defoe takes for granted that she is a sinful woman but doesn’t make this his main point Novel needs solid framework of society ––society must be tough––reader understanding ––Moll Flanders is a lesson in charity ––can’t read it without gaining understanding and tolerance. This is the real meaning of Moll Flanders ––Defoe doesn’t slobber (unlike Whitman) or get sentimental ––fallen woman becomes scapegoat of society (This condition doesn’t exist anymore) ––novels make out that things were tougher than they really were. ––feeling of crisis given well ––one false step and society is down on you ––in Bunyan, the crisis is the theological one within the soul ––Defoe’s interest is moral, not theological. Sort of moral allegory of the religious drama ––society itself is an allegory of the degeneration of the soul ––illegitimate pregnancy exciting theme––gift the novelist and the reader assume a certain social fact ––Defoe assumes that such a woman must live by her wits if she is to live at all. Given the situation, what would you do? ––impossible to think of Moll as a sinful woman; impossible to think of Moll as more sinned against than sinning. She is a perfectly normal woman, striving to keep alive ––eighteenth-century morality at every turn. Iron law ––her conscience reproached her, but she had to look ahead, not back, to avoid poverty, starvation

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––mercenary qualities of heart are connected with self-preservation and natural instinct ––most important paragraph is when Moll is older, luck runs out and she is faced with stealing. Direct opportunity to steal seems sort of diabolical providence to her. “When I went away I had no heart to run.” ––trap partly set by society and partly by her own actions ––caught in an unpleasant world ––wishes people dead so she’ll be safe Defoe etches each detail sharply in his writing. ––society anxious to find scapegoats ––if Moll confesses to stealing one thing she’ll be held guilty for stealing many other articles. ––Moll never loses her dignity as a human being and yet truth is not sentimentalized. Irony. ––analyzes the situation she’s in ––counterfeiting is the worst crime ––Moll decides it’s not a good idea ––ferocity of the penalty wouldn’t stop her if her circumstances were sufficiently desperate This shows that the ferocity of the penalty doesn’t stop crime (obvious now, but not then) ––Moll can’t afford to live up to her ethical code ––absolutely no security Moll lives in essentially the same way as mistresses of Charles II, e.g., Nell Gwyn ––infidelity in upper classes taken as a joke in Restoration comedy. Moll shows what happens when it occurs in a lower social rank––ceases to be amusing Eighteenth-century prisons were as nearly like hell as human mind can devise (cf. Pilgrim’s Progress) ––can get used to anything, even hell. Can stop thinking. ––Defoe emphasizes intelligence “He that is restored to his thinking is restored to himself.”164 Final pages of Moll Flanders ––Moll manages to find her feet ––recovers her own nature with her prosperity ––good-natured, means harm to no one ––repentance is not the point––part of her terror cf. Moll and Nell Gwyn

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––capacity to attach self to either sin or virtue ––clear of sentimentality in either direction ––sort of maturity, detachment Emphasis on verisimilitude ––eye for concreteness, detail, credibility Moll Flanders has a good deal from the woman’s point of view ––woman’s sense of actuality Oct. 13. Moll Flanders and Pamela represent between them the entire range of the adult reading public ––Pamela exactly in the soap opera idiom ––treatment of sex naïve, oppressive; therefore, strangely erotic ––outwardly prudish ––Richardson had no notion of the kind of atmosphere his book produces ––subtitle of Pamela: “Virtue Rewarded” ––Defoe too intelligent to be satisfied with such a moral ––life is more complicated in Moll Flanders than naïve, immature people would like it to be ––eighteenth century: never will have virtue unless it coincides with self-interest ––the whole scheme of virtue and reward doesn’t come into Defoe’s novel at all ––sympathy, not sentimental idealizing ––gives Moll the kind of commendation she needs ––sees that a vicious life is vicious ––common-sense treatment of society ––send people to prison and they become worse criminals ––can’t be reformed ––therefore, must create conditions under which they can be acceptable to society ––element of optimism regarding colonies runs through a great number of novels e.g., Moll transported ––same optimism in Dickens ––Defoe handles whole moral situation with great accuracy, delicacy ––Moll recovers her own real nature at the end of the story, simply because she is in a situation where she can afford to be virtuous. Cinderella with the wrong kind of prince

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––Moll judges all of her activities in terms of “keeping going” ––old plot device of marrying brother or sister by mistake turns up in Moll Flanders. In Part IV (Mrs. Waters) ––Moll troubled––half-moral, half-criminal feeling––no good luck can come of this Violent things happen to her that would preoccupy anyone from a moral perspective. Not kidding around like Pamela. “lived with greatest pressure imaginable”165 ––guilt of one person is the responsibility of every other person ––elastic conscience. cf. Highwayman ––steals watch––uses it in kindly act ––doesn’t commit serious crimes once she no longer needs to ––capacity of being bored with her own vice Defoe turned to fiction after a long and tough life as a journalist. He had been in jail. ––a professional writer ––had rich experience to write from Richardson married boss’s daughter––for money ––wrote success stories ––writes completely without irony ––intricacy of detail ––confidant of servant girls––wrote their love letters ––therefore, got practice in feminine psychology ––the most feminine of male novelists. His male characters seem unreal ––epistolary device––somewhat laborious ––first person narrative Defoe gives Moll Flanders immediacy of first-person narration Pamela partly in the form of a diary ––part of the plot is her effort to secrete her writing ––diary form is a good device––mechanics become obvious though ––heroine kept miserable ––no one understands her––complete opposite of Moll ––write as much as possible––advance plot as little as possible––laws of soap opera technique ––cumulative power is built up by sheer pressure of words Oct. 19. English novel faithfully reflects the society it was established in ––Protestant, middle class

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(therefore, the villains are upper class, Catholic) Pamela intended for the reader without much sophistication Epistolary Device (1) only records immediate mood therefore, end of story doesn’t leak out ––begins in a leisurely fashion ––then Pamela takes over correspondence on her own ––then journal (2) becomes closely involved in plot because so much of the journal hidden on her ––near climax: scrubbings and jottings every few hours ––straight narrative at end ––directly on scene of incident itself (3) i.e., none of the manufactured neatness of a synthetic plot (4) very few anticipations of plot ––Henry James technique––repeating same dialogue over in different contexts ––very elaborate ––painfully uniform thinking at first Mr. B––you will Pamela––I won’t––going on and on in slightly different contexts Very much like Henry James (5) letter can’t record change of mood therefore, unity of mood carried out in one letter after another ––elephantine patience. Very different from Moll ––consider every aspect of the situation no matter how much space it takes ––found in James ––an emotionally exhausting story ––this exhaustion due to a very real power in Richardson––not from boredom (6) directness, sincerity in the writing (Samuel Johnson: “If you read much Richardson you’d hang yourself”)166 ––as Pamela almost did (7) first person ––vividness ––impact ––Richardson pretends to be an editor of the letters ––must tell story through character’s eye & yet not spoil her character

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(8) must get things across of which narrator herself is unconscious (Huckleberry Finn––masterpiece of narration––ironic overtones of which he is unaware) ––Pamela––shrewd, intelligent, perfectly sincere ––Richardson must keep decorum ––servant girl wouldn’t read and write much ––doesn’t really adopt servant girl’s lingo though Easy to parody Pamela because so naïve Fielding, Joseph Andrews Shamela All naïve stories are fairy tales ––Pamela is Cinderella ––feelings of class resentment are quietly underlined ––considerable social education for Mr. B ––conversion Richardson calculates this effect with great skill ––dream atmosphere first half––anxiety dream second half––wish-fulfilment dream ––Mr. B first half––villain––keeps getting worse second half––Prince Charming––beloved master to beloved husband Complete change in Mr. B makes Pamela look like a shrewd bargain ––many readers of Pamela stop at this point ––Mr. B behaves wrongly when he steps outside his social decorum ––not a bad man––spoiled ––the evil is the power and privilege he represents ––at one point, has to debase Pamela to fortify his self-respect ––baffled––attaches emotional importance to get his own way–– no longer a game––his honour bound up with Pamela’s dishonor ––dragged through a pretty profound and searching experience Pamela also educated ––fairy tale of Griselda––the wife bullied by her husband who wants her less virtuous and patient. He finally gives up. This is a naïve story told by the most sophisticated of Chaucer’s pilgrims. ––Pamela goes through the Griselda experience ––her marriage involves social promotion ––handles her new position with extraordinary courtesy ––soap opera scene with Lady Davers

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––quiet courteous repudiation of insult Story becomes parable of British social history ––British class distinctions are sufficiently flexible for them to move from one to another throughout centuries without social upheaval ––resembles Pygmalion––extremely explicit, deliberate social analysis Sex War ––Richardson unhesitatingly takes woman’s side ––woman’s revenge on man ––delicately done in Pride and Prejudice ?––more obvious in George Eliot’s Rosamond in Middlemarch ––prudery with eroticism ––teasing, titillation of Pamela The novel as a textbook of etiquette ––person in Pamela’s situation can learn how to comport herself––firm in demands ––puts on no airs, etc. ––in eighteenth-century novel a democratization of the courtesy book (of which Castiglione’s The Courtier is the greatest) ––many writings on the brutality of the gentry in the eighteenth century ––Squire Western––Tom Jones ––incidental characters in Humphry Clinker Queen Victoria was fighting the whole social system ––to civilize, soften, refine the class represented by Mr. B Powerful Dialogue ––two or three dozen sentences in a single paragraph ––plenty of wit ––snap and crackle dialogue Crisis of story is where Pamela contemplates suicide ––her self-respect dearer than her life Oct. 20. Fielding felt novel gave scope to his talent denied in the theatre

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––first deliberately self-conscious, theoretical, critically minded novelist ––first to think of the novel and its place in the critical field ––made bigger splash than Richardson in the history of the novel ––essentially, a stage plot, such as practiced by Ben Jonson–– comedy of manners type ––hero––bastard ––know parents will be produced at the end ––know he’ll grow up misunderstood, adversities to fight, fall in love with heroine, have parents to withstand, get his own way and girl in the end Obstacles in these plots usually parental in origin. Some trick in the plot enables the happy ending ––e.g., either hero or heroine is better bred and richer than previously thought This plot persists without change for a century ––began with Plautus and Terence ––manipulated with great skill by Fielding ––story has traditional weight and power ––Fielding thinks of his story as following an essentially literary form. Comic epic––feels novel form is the comic epic; therefore, it should be written with that decorum i.e., write in the way that is appropriate to write at that point ––deals with ordinary people ––ought to be in a familiar style––prose In comedy hero and heroine are not great character studies––mutually interesting. Real character interest is in minor characters. Contrast with Thackeray––different type of comedy. ––hero and heroine must be neutral, if not dull ––“Tom Jones” is the most neutral, conventional, colourless name possible ––Fielding must make him as likeable as possible, yet keep him neutral ––succeeds by the formula of satire Satire attacks the grotesque, ridiculous, absurd. Assumes very ordinary, commonplace attitude which contrasts and therefore satirizes. Therefore, the ordinary person is the one hardest to satirize and made like a fool

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––Thwackum, Square––ridiculous extremes ––other people look nonsensical beside Tom Jones because he’s an ordinary likeable fellow ––other people have a theory to justify their fears ––Tom Jones has no theories––just instincts ––morality largely a matter of theory. That’s what makes Pamela tedious and erotic ––Tom Jones is very practical ––violates conventional, rational, moral standards of the time ––impulsive decency and kindness. Instincts are solid, though at times indiscreet ––doesn’t will anyone any harm A great number of eighteenth-century contrasts between crafty, calculating person and the person who is natural, reckless, good-natured. Background of Moll Flanders. She is different. She is a mixture of the two. ––don’t trust the first ––Blifil––Tom Jones (“homme moyen sensuel”) ––acceptable form (no female equivalents of Tom Jones––impossible in the structure of eighteenth-century society) Fielding’s own prejudices perfectly clear all through his writings ––Church of England––contemptuous of Calvinism and Puritanism

Paradox is that if you don’t have works you don’t have faith either ––Thwackum––incapable of having any real faith ––Square––incapable of doing any really good works Fielding’s attitude toward politics is much the same as that toward religion Squire Western––Tory his sister––Whig ––neither know what they’re talking about

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Middle of the road policy is generally the one Fielding adopts ––neutral characters win out in the long run Oct. 26. Tom Jones is a more or less deliberate imitation of Don Quixote ––in tradition of Swift, Rabelais, etc.—comedy ––Tom Jones––definitive eighteenth-century novel. Written 1749 1745 ––revolution––civil war in England ––Bonnie Prince Charlie––young pretender Fought battle in England ––design––to restore the Stuarts ––Tories split––those loyal to the Hanoverian Whigs and those loyal to the Jacobites Partridge––Jacobite––Catholic Scott’s Waverley deals with this uprising ––Handel––greatest musician in England ––Messiah composed about 1749 ––Hogarth––greatest painter ––series of essentially literary subjects ––certain characters in Tom Jones are said to be painted according to life by Hogarth ––whole of eighteenth-century culture reflected in Tom Jones ––drama: tribute to Garrick at the end ––manners, customs, theatre ––social system of the times ––characters reflect political situation ––squires expected to judge cases of poaching, vagrancy ––Squire Western––a frantic Tory, yet he hates the nobility. Tough. Irresistibly attractive though. John Bull come to life ––Allworthy is a more respectable aspect of the squirearchy ––something in between the gentleman and the commoner ––social distinctions all very carefully marked in Tom Jones––speech, accents ––religious situation ––parsons get living from squires ––Parson Supple eats at Western’s

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––a flunkey, slightly pedantic. Formal manner ––an encyclopedic novel ––Every aspect of life in Tom’s time is caught up in it Novelist’s problem is to handle social and philosophic ideas and digest them in the story at the same time ––must introduce certain general problems if he is really going to write about the people of a certain time. Fielding succeeds in this. ––dialogue remains funny ––ideas that are worked in advance the story Aristotle

mythos (plot)

ethe (character, setting)

dianoia (theme)

––different novelists select different elements as primary ––large number of novelists in this course take plot as primary e.g., Tom Jones and Moll Flanders have plot titles (“A History,” “The Fortunes and Misfortunes”) Egoist––characters primary Wuthering Heights––setting title––unity of mood Pride and Prejudice––theme title ––all three aspects are very clearly marked in Fielding ––epic pattern––begins with action advanced ––setting will be unified––two main foci ––theme: decent Englishman ––some unforgettable characters ––vigorous story ––main weight of Fielding’s emphasis is on the story ––emphasis on minor characters ––Fielding is a deliberate, self-conscious novelist ––number of literary allusions ––takes lively theoretical interest in his own story ––prefaces are critical essays Thackeray has the same technique ––the great stories are leisurely––spaciousness you can put down at any time. Stop at any time with full confidence in the author to carry you

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on from there. In bad mystery can’t get too far from clue dropped. Important for reading habits to find out when you’re bored ––length, size of Tom Jones is part of its quality ––Fielding may be too conscious about the plot. Ties every end up. The novel doesn’t turn on the device of Tom’s unknown origin ––subsidiary story––Man on the Hill. This wouldn’t be possible in a tightly constructed thematic novel (e.g., Pride and Prejudice) ––dramatic shape of the story ––Fielding observes unity of time fairly astutely. Entire time of story is a little over a month ––At the end of the story everything is skillfully brought to one point– –London. Very well focused. (1) well-constructed stage play (2) adventurous picaresque novel i.e., a circular form and an endless form He is both Olympian and witty Oct. 27. ––the novelist is concerned with human nature Fielding like Pope: “the proper study of mankind is man”167 ––religion itself is not the subject of the novel ––its social effects are ––no place for the occult, supernatural, faeries, etc. in the novel It’s part of the contract the author makes with the reader not to inject these into his novel ––Fielding conceives nature as a kind of reasonable order ––a way of looking at things ––uses many structural devices of the romance e.g., Sophia turned out of the house––cf. Juliet Structures inherent in the romance are rooted in nature, reason ––if we meet something occult, mysterious, it turns up again in daylight ––Fielding has a historian’s relation to fact ––basis of truth, nature, fidelity to fact therefore, his book is a history ––the real creative faculty is a faculty of the word “invention” Capacity to invent, by the novelist, is a capacity to select what is there. Insight into reality. The rhythm of a work of art is the rhythm of nature ––the fantastic writer is taking the easy way out ––Fielding considered fantasy to be too easy to be worth his bother

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––Fielding created Allworthy to pay tribute to a couple of friends. In so doing he transgresses his own theory of fidelity to nature. Also, plot demands that Allworthy be something of a fool. He is a waxwork––a hunk of cellulose. Allworthy allows Tom Jones to be brought up by Square and Thwackum and considered it a good thing. The art of characterization consists in making characters both individual and typical. In Tom Jones ––every landlady has a slightly different rhythm of speech and a slightly different temperament ––could never mistake them for anything but landladies Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors are almost invariably people of obvious moral preferences ––try to avoid taking sides within a character. They must have both sympathy and irony Fielding expert in attracting readers ––sharply focuses on characters e.g. mixture of emotions in Dr. Blifil when attracted to Bridget. “purity of passion”168 ––moral compulsions––desire for her money inextricably intertwined. This doesn’t make the doctor a good or a bad man. It makes him a human being. In all human action there are complex motives ––characters are portrayed with such power that Fielding is dealing with three-dimensional art. Occasional remarks give flash of insight into characters ––Fielding makes characters true to self. With great skill gets remarks across to the reader which character himself isn’t aware of ––Chaucer makes the story the product of the character who tells it ––Fielding not interested in sentimental comedies ––good deal of satire on word “low.” Often used to describe reality when seen face to face. Touch of ridicule. Nov. 2. There is a stock comic story used by all comic writers of the time ––in Tom Jones we have a treatment of this kind of story. Fielding makes incidents follow a comedy pattern–– i.e., (1) hero in love with the heroine ––opposition set up (one with the fathers)

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––father stands for money, settled income, family ––rivals of less youth, less charm but more money than hero (2) isolating of the hero ––opposition set up––couple separated or estranged ––hero reaches crisis in rhythm of misfortune ––author tries to bring the story to as close to a tragic end as possible e.g. Tom ruined with Sophia, in bad with Allworthy, in jail ––accuses self of incest (3) writer’s ingenuity gets out of this scene in the reversal ––hero at the centre of a new society ––largely same people crystallize around him––he’s the centre––gets heroine ––either the hero or the heroine is identified. Recognition scene. ––sense of social position usually has kept them apart ––this is handled with great skill at the end of Tom Jones Bit of this plot in Moll Flanders ––near tragedy at end ––reversal in repentance ––social changes in hero into a more virtuous attitude. Sort of parody of that––Sense of insecurity and therefore social position has kept her from this sort of life (Frye’s view) Difficult to make reversal of hero’s fortunes plausible. Fielding felt that means must be plausible, credible, natural. Coincidences such as happen in everyday life wouldn’t be believed in a story ––number of incidents happen very opportunely if not coincidentally ––make reversal sudden but plausible and then stop yourself as soon as you can Richardson’s view is quite different ––reverses Pamela’s fortune with great plausibility ––writing for a different audience ––one-half of the book given over to Pamela’s success In Fielding it’s much more a matter of machinery––not naïve In Moll Flanders the isolation is dwelt on ––has to go to Virginia to get a new society ––treatment of reversal is more leisurely than that of Tom Jones but not as lengthy as that of Pamela Wonderful London scenes at end of Tom Jones

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––several themes introduced at the end ––show much deeper, searching irony than you’d expect ––sets over against one another ideals of conduct of moral society––the sort of thing you have to do to get along. Church law versus customs of the world e.g., fighting duels ––curiously bitter, accurate love affair near end with Lady Bellaston ––weird sense of honour holds Tom in the affair. Must fight duel and responds. Lady’s lover doesn’t give an opinion, he just puts the situation before us. Can’t live in the real world as in an ideal world As the plot becomes more intricate so do the characters. Motives are subtle e.g., makes it clear Squire Western is not a coward. Doesn’t like lords. Won’t have anything to do with them ––motivations so underlined that reversal of fortunes at the end is plausible. Western’s motivation all through is to see to it that Sophia marries someone who’ll provide for her well Smollett ––plot materials of Tom Jones essentially in Humphry Clinker ––recognition scene is elaborate––more perfunctory than Fielding’s ––hero kept right out of the story at the first ––small part at end ––heroine is a minor character ––great skill exerted in the manner of telling the story ––tells connected story ––series of letters by different people ––avoids repetition, overlapping ––letters reveal characters with their tellers ––Smollett has extraordinary dexterity ––materials stockest of stock both in plot and character 1. Matthew and Tabitha––stock characters 2. anything lower classes do is amusing 3. same plot repeated as an episode within the novel (recognition) 4. youthful heroine––pure as mud water and even more insipid Smollett working within a rigidly formalized tradition ––does the accepted thing Prof Frye fond of Smollett because he responds to the convention. Things are as they [are?]. No surprise, subtlety. Nice to hear that again

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In eighteenth-century, novels are a world of their own. Defoe, Fielding, Smollett wrote novels as a by-product of a very busy life. Three great novels each. Fielding––a magistrate Smollett––a doctor Defoe––a journalist ––great deal of life poured into the novels. Distilled essence of life. In Humphry Clinker, especially Bramble to some extent, is an idealized portrait of Smollett himself. Humphry Clinker written after Tom Jones. ––deals with the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion Nov. 3. ––Smollett more conservative in his general political and social attitudes than Fielding ––plot proceeds on fairly clear lines ––an encyclopedia––takes reader all over ––Bath is the centre of the fashion culture. Lively account of eighteenth-century life ––long account of writers ––characters––Welsh, Irish, Scotch ––Matthew Bramble has conventional characteristics of a Welshman ––goes into eighteenth-century characteristics of the Irish ––rapacious people––marrying for money ––beggar aristocracy ––fuller treatment of Scotland (Smollett was Scotch) ––novel turns into a kind of guidebook ––flourishing period in Scottish culture ––good deal said about the economic situation ––Act of Union between England and Scotland 1707 ––reflects some dissatisfaction ––references to America. Still possible to be captured and tortured to death by Indians ––political situation––assemblies, intrigues, cabals ––highway––stable of eighteenth-century life ––insufficiently patrolled ––picaresque person who robs with good manners

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Characterization ––Smollett’s main interest ––letters written with great skill for good characterization ––Tabitha and Winfred both illiterate ––makes their letters extraordinarily funny ––throws light on what was considered good pronunciation in the eighteenth century ––puns are a possible influence on Finnegans Wake ––number of indecent expressions is extraordinary. Very ingenious. ––Humphry Clinker writes no letters himself ––Winfred is naïve. Build quite an affection for her Smollett always seems just about ready to caricature his characters e.g., Tabitha––little is said for her, yet Smollett keeps to the general principle that people as unattractive as she are pathetic and if people have pathos they have dignity ––shows that Matthew and Tabitha are really fond of each other ––people who are unattractive becomes much more ill-tempered than they have been (do this to show they aren’t trying to curry favour). This is the kind of thing that compels Tabitha to go into tantrums and gives us a wrong view of her ––number of shrewd medical observations ––influence of the imagination on one’s health ––Matthew is a hypochondriac largely ––admits that if anything goes wrong with his temper, his gout is worse ––knows what dreams are about Subtleties in Smollett’s writing remind reader of twentieth-century psychology. Smollett’s discoveries about human nature are a little bit like Sterne’s Same scene described from different points of view (e.g., Bath, London). The different views are equally true Matthew is the most interesting character in the book ––Smollett very sensitive to smells of all kinds “Smelfungus” of Sterne’s Sentimental Journey i.e., many of the same sensitive qualities as Matthew (cf. Swift) ––able to study this characteristic objectively and describe it with humour in the character Matthew

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––repulsive imagery is in the result. Not a sort of perversion––just higher sensitivity ––(Our century will probably pass into history as a century of hideous sound rather than that of foul smell. Swift likewise could be interpreted as having a greater sensitivity to his civilization as well as being perverted. If you are sensitive to such things in your own civilization, you probably aren’t too well adjusted to it.) ––sense of eavesdropping on history; e.g., new game: golf. Caddies put visitors in touch with prostitutes ––some real people introduced ––Smollett himself appears unobtrusively as “A” ––a number of hosts are real people The story is anchored in much reality ––builds a picture of colonial policy from real incidents; e.g., march to Cape Breton Island ––tell king it is an island ––conclude army was relatively inefficient ––buy commissions ––wore bright red coats in the woods to fight Indians Lismahago––memorable character ––eighteenth-century free thinker ––Rousseau’s conception of the noble savage comes into his views ––extremely argumentative (typically Scotch) ––Smollett makes his theses interesting Very different temperament from Matthew. They have much in common and have an odd liking for each other Methodism comes into Humphry Clinker (also in Tom Jones) ––Matthew takes quite a tolerant attitude. Asks Humphry Clinker to stop when he becomes a Methodist preacher ––Smollett neither sympathizes with that nor caricatures it ––three of the characters are caught up in an evangelical mood ––in each case a religion reinforces a character already there Distrust of enthusiasm in eighteenth century––it tends to make religion unnatural and unreasonable Smollett the last of the eighteenth-century school of reason and nature After him, a different type of novel, a little more like Richardson Two different spirits in the eighteenth century (1) Neoclassicism (Smollett is in that tradition)

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(2) Age of Sensibility––emphasis on release of emotional power, etc. (Cooper, Sterne, Boswell) ––Sterne is the master Boswell’s Life of Johnson is half of the eighteenth century looking at the other ––Boswell and Johnson had contrasting temperaments. Nov. 9. In Defoe, Fielding, and Smollett (and, in a rather different way, Richardson) the novel is defined as a study of character ––realism is a relative term ––Fielding and Smollett: general approach is external ––just enough of thoughts to give you the idea of how they come out as characters ––on the whole, present people dramatically, and as they appear to others This is the general position followed by Jane Austen Two conceptions of the novel (1) form that allowed the author to tell the whole truth about characters (2) relation of characters to each other and to their society Arnold Bennett––documentary approach to characters. Later novelists, e.g., Virginia Woolf, felt that he left out far too much of human life. Whole stream of consciousness which came out of gestures––don’t realize what you’re doing––give good idea of what people are like. Novelist ought to try to capture some more subtle truths about people. Otherwise, he is dodging the hardest part of his work Later eighteenth century––there’s a rise of new emphases ––sensibility, subtleties ––interest in emotional delicacy Smollett, Richardson, Fielding content with older neoclassical field Sterne––sensibility––also Boswell ––yields extraordinary writing. Author must be very sympathetic. Easiest to write about yourself Tristram Shandy by Sterne ––greatest English novel. Exquisite book (according to Frye) ––never misses a trick ––qualities of satire

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To the romantic writer everything appears as it should appear. Everything works out properly. e.g., In Mallory, flies don’t get caught inside your helmet Satire has a kind of offstage interest in human life Romance is aristocratic. Realism and satire bring us down to the basis of life. Therefore, great satire is also ribald––what the world calls obscene. Can’t have a satirist if the morals of society have too big a grip on him. In Sterne is almost the last of the great satiric tradition. Well over one hundred years before anything like it started again Satire––concentrated ––contains a parody of form e.g., Rabelais writes a story that pretends to be a romance tale. Never gets around to telling it. Tristram Shandy illustrates that just because satire is a mixed dish it can become not just one book by its author but it is the author’s book e.g. Gargantua––the book by Rabelais Don Quixote––the book by Cervantes This same principle is working in Tristram Shandy Sentimental Journey got separated from Sterne’s masterpiece more or less by mistake Sentimental Journey ––title indicates tone and mood ––humorous in that Sterne ducks out of every one of the traveller’s responsibilities ––deliberately avoids guidebook attractions ––doesn’t say a thing that will help anyone else travel there ––Henry James’s novels are full of this kind of travel ––Sterne, as he goes through France is one of those people on whom nothing is lost ––avoids systematic, documentary guidebook approach as he builds up his narrative ––begins his story with quite a sketchy outline ––leaves out all the padding, insulation ––just becomes bones, skeleton ––bypasses all the heavy apparatus ––Sterne carries on with his own mental life, ignoring the stage coach e.g., broods over law that gives all property of unidentified dead to the king of France ––Sterne’s thoughts are complacent, serene, peaceful after he has drunk his wine

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––monk turns up––this is not the sort of thing that should have happened. Wanted to feel, not to be generous Later feels sorry he has been mean to the monk. This is the way one’s mind goes up and down. Little threads of feeling come out. ––tell much about the author ––in the long run, tell much about the country––thoroughgoing analysis, e.g., Catholic religion, good wines ––most important––the effect of the country on the wide-eyed sensitive traveler ––steady stream of ideas running through. Very perfection of technique later called “stream of consciousness” ––constantly fed by tributary streams from the outside world Really isn’t any end to Tristram Shandy––it just stops. Sentimental Journey stops in a very calculated place––but it isn’t the end of the journey–– not back in England. No intention of making a neat finish Object of Sentimental Journey is the desire of the author to present himself as a typical human being. Not trying to present any individual character. Portrays things appropriate to the sentimental person without describing himself This type of writing had quite a vogue in German literature e.g., Thurber169––central writer remains quite elusive Not a self-analytical form. The author looks in his mind as if it were someone else’s cf. Pepys diary––an almost inhumanly introverted book. Describes his own thoughts and emotions as if he were someone else. Sterne has quite a different quality from this of listening to his own mind splashing around. Long series of flirtations (what an English traveler would expect to find in France) ––concentration on physical trivia ––interested solely in little gestures, half-apologetic, broken-off moods, etc. ––explains why they never get further than flirtations A quality in Sterne that seems to go over the heads of the next generation. Not until the twentieth century was there any renewed appreciation of this type ––e.g., Jane Austen infinitely prefers sense to sensibility

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––people of sensibility haven’t enough respect in the social mechanism. Fielding considered the mechanism what Richardson took seriously though (a reversal) Parasite. This cult of the individual does to some extent disintegrate society (i.e., tradition from Boswell, Sterne) ––difficult for the novelist who is stuck with society and has to deal with the impact of one person upon another There is something in Sterne that begins to disintegrate the novel as a form. With the twentieth century, Freudian discoveries about this level of sensibility helped to revitalize it as a form ––Sentimental Journey not really a novel in form Sterne preoccupied with play and erotic energy in the personality ––the basis of physical nature in man is erotic ––Sterne has a consistently analytic approach to the subject Nov. 10. ––cult of sensibility in later eighteenth century ––emphasizes possibility of explaining emotional relationships between people Tom Jones is something with an affinity of the emotional delicacy of Sterne i.e., decent instincts preferable to education, learning, etc. of someone with less scrupulous instincts This attitude fundamentally consistent with Sterne’s. A different method. ––“good natured man” in the fullest sense in Fielding. Reason and nature of man are bound together ––Sterne not fundamentally different in meaning and nature ––arranges same set of values in a little different order ––observation of nature Jane Austen comes later in the same tradition ––sensibility has been subordinated to sense ––sensible: aware of surroundings and what is happening to themselves. No irony in these characters. ––sense and tact ––awareness ––people opposed to this are insensible ––a kind of sensibility that would discipline the sense is the kind of thing that makes for a great difference of level between Austen’s characters

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––note how rigorous her dialectic is ––characters must rank with one group or the other ––this suggests Austen has rigorous social standards (supremacy of social over moral standards is a fundamental principle of 436, 445, ) ––can’t divorce novel from implied standards or canons of behaviour (Pamela is an obvious example) At times Austen writes almost like a female Castiglione ––in Sense and Sensibility uses words “liberality” (to describe the difference between people of sense and those of sensibility) and “candour” (her sensible people are always sincere. Insensible people give themselves away all the time but have no frankness) frequently Pride and Prejudice ––three levels of awareness ––reader’s level ––“sensible level”––Elizabeth, Jane ––“insensible level”––Mrs. Bennett, Collins, Lydia ––on the sensible level you have the pride of D’Arcy and the prejudice of Elizabeth ––they lose these and move up to the reader’s level ––enables irony i.e., reader knows more about what’s going on than the characters in the story know. e.g., the relation of the reader to Elizabeth and D’Arcy. At times Elizabeth is confused by her prejudice and D’Arcy by his pride This irony is resolved at the end of the book ––the irony of the third level, however (that of Collins) remains ––Mrs. Bennett––happy, smug ––Elizabeth, Jane see all sorts of things the reader knows about. Can tell that all is not well. ––device of using naïve unsuspecting character to say things set out bluntly. This is part of the function of the people on the third level ––Austen writes almost completely from a woman’s point of view. Sees features of society as affecting woman ––education launches them out in the world at 17 or 18 where they must sink or swim––find themselves a husband or else Bennetts have no independent property of their own Old maids would be completely dependent

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Mrs. Bennett knows this (part of her function) Collins simply recognizes the same realities that Elizabeth in a sense is trying not to notice Girls have six or seven years to parade themselves–– exhibit their charms and accomplishments ––lead hothouse existence. Always conscious of the ticking of the clock ––reader isn’t surprised when Elizabeth refuses Collins ––Collins has merely accepted the economic facts in front of him ––Charlotte Lucas accepts him immediately out of “pure” disinterested desire of the establishment. Social facts of the situation are on her side ––Elizabeth still young. Can afford to wait (Charles is twenty-seven) Note how tight the social order is. Otherwise these decisions wouldn’t be fateful ––hardly possible for us to perceive the profound human issues involved in what seems like trifles. How long would Collins continue to be funny if the title of the novel was “married life” of Collins and Charlotte Lucas? Austen doesn’t take a clear-cut stand ––just presents world she knows, its standards, etc. ––mistaken to think her intention is realistic Realistic only if you compare In itself it is highly selective ––follows conventions very clearly Austen completely accepts the values of the world she knew ––no destructive irony that begins to corrode the essential standards that she holds ––Collins presented as too naïve not to give away the secret of the standards of his society ––certain educational standards are implicit in what Jane Austen writes about Hers are not environmental standards Mr. Bennett isolated in the library Mrs. Bennett in the drawing room They have exactly opposite standards Daughters’ loyalties divided

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The sensible girl makes sure she gets the education she needs (Elizabeth and Jane) Kitty and Lydia pass their lives entirely in reading the various ironic symbols e.g., the officer’s red uniform, new hats in the window Mary has no notion of the social reference of her education Elizabeth plays the piano acceptably. Completely the mistress of herself. Not afraid to do as well as she can Mary is halfway on the piano stool before the invitation is quite out. Audience bored. i.e., rigorous social reference of accomplishments ––Austen not interested in who wrote the concerto, etc. In Henry James, attitude “What’s the use of writing about people who are not interesting?” ––the less interesting the characters, the more violent the action Hemingway occasionally creates a deliberately inarticulate character Impossible for a detective story to have no interest in character ––in order to work out the plot, must eliminate no real character [sic] ––the more intelligent the character the less active the plot ––interest in conversations One reason for such rigorous control of mood in Austen ––interested in preserving this consistent unity ––one of the polite novelists. Postulates, conditions of her novels demand this kind of character ––never has a scene without women in it ––dramatic manner of handling people in terms of their onstage masks. However, hardly miss anything because characters are completely absorbed in the story. Austen sticks to the dramatic aspect of her characters’ behaviour ––lots of conversation because of intelligence of characters. Nov. 16. Pride and Prejudice ––conventionalized, artificial account of comedy ––technique of getting all characters on stage at the end ––same sort of story as Pamela––girl gets her man ––more like Shakespeare’s comedies than what we have now as realism ––stock materials managed with exquisite artifice ––Austen: Mozartian artist within rigid formula

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––tells Cinderella story in most exquisite way ––child prodigy ––lyrical quality which great art produced by relatively young people almost invariably has Austen’s general works illustrate that real originality is hard to assess when it first appears. To us she seems like an almost inevitable kind of novelist. Not the case at all. She took a long time to be recognized. Great genius meets with lots of hostility but never meets with real appreciation. To almost everyone at the time it seemed impossible that she’d ever have a reputation anything like Scott’s. Her originality was right at the centre of the genre ––nothing in this book to destroy the integrity of the novel form. We today would think anybody could see that ––not quite such a social promotion involved here as in Pamela ––in both, certain cutting under of the main male figure. Loom up huge and frowning. Female gradually cuts him down to size i.e., also a sort of “Jack the Giant Killer” story ––D’Arcy and Elizabeth––sincere, intelligent ––in some sense their intelligence gets in their way ––something of the misanthrope in D’Arcy ––everything Mrs. Bennett says builds up pride in him. Little hard for him to see real quality of Elizabeth through the haze of pride Honour built up in Mr. Bennett ––Elizabeth is young enough to be extremely self-conscious socially ––like Pamela. Makes her more moral. ––assumes kind of defensiveness. Makes it hard for her to discern the real character of D’Arcy In comedy, regularly get type of characterization connected with Ben Jonson’s comedy of humours ––basic characters obsessed by a single passion that accounts for everything they do; e.g., the miser as humour. Molière’s comedies have a central character who’s humorous in Jonson’s sense. As comedy nears its closing, some of the characters are removed from their obsessions (e.g., The Taming of the Shrew) ––chief characters in Pride and Prejudice are humours in the sense of being completely obsessed by certain characteristics e.g., make fun of D’Arcy because of his pride make fun of Elizabeth because of her prejudice ––e.g., Elizabeth swallows Wickham’s story about D’Arcy hook, line, and sinker

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At the end the humours are released. The characterization does a great deal towards defining the comic structure Realism should be distinguished from naturalism ––naturalism is a consistent theory of art ––arises in relation to social conscience (doesn’t often produce a great novel) ––realism relates to no such body of doctrine ––asks for logical credibility in the novel ––Lydia––the character of broad farce. Rabelaisian ––as in Dickens, the realism comes from the heightening of caricature. This makes you think they’re realistic, but they’re highly conventionalized This touch of caricature is what comes from Austen’s treatment of the comic character. The sense of the life-like is given through this and through a concentration on certain aspects of the character Mr. Bennett is a stock character ––fully rounded personality with deft touches that give him a third dimension ––his natural reaction is inertia (“solid phalanx sticks with him”) ––if they were indicated any more, Austen would be making a moral point Part of the genius of the form is the way Austen does all this while seeming to do something else. She realizes you can’t make sense by describing but rather by selecting. Only way Elizabeth is described is in hostile description. D’Arcy washes this down by saying she’s handsome. The notion of her appearance gets across without actual description The quality and intensity of experience, not the quantity, makes the novelist. Difficulties––five girls in one family––don’t become monotonous ––must balance so there not too much of anyone Henry James––wants characters sufficiently intelligent to provide intricate patterns of behaviour Some suggestion of self-identification between Elizabeth and Austen. Elizabeth has some of the qualities of the novelist. ––part of Elizabeth’s character is the ability to see a bit more than D’Arcy. But she can never be sure how much he sees. Novel is a good genre for women to use ––sharp concrete realization of what constitutes the usual female world

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Advantages of the woman’s eye is seen in Elizabeth in contrast with D’Arcy’s vague generalizations, preconceived ideas; e.g., take the opening ball Austen––has a mind so shrewd that no idea could violate it.170 Requires a great deal of patience As you read her novels, clear consistent attitude to life builds up It fascinates Austen to notice how little her minor characters see what goes on about them ––major source of her irony e.g., Lydia and Elizabeth are simply on two different planets. Austen is easy to read. Flatters the intelligence ––see strength of social prejudice; e.g., scene with Lady Kathleen ––in a few quick remarks it’s all over (contrast of Pamela). Takes a more agile reader to follow Austen’s kind of construction Pride and Prejudice: contrast of two attitudes to human beings Nov. 17. Scott ––belongs to that group of writers which foreigners can see more in than the English can ––resembles Burns in many respects ––patriotic symbol as well as a writer ––hard to disentangle the two ––people take a defensive attitude towards him ––enormous weight of novels ––Frye: Scott’s novels should be read with complete receptivity ––descriptions build up in your mind ––take on precision in detail ––nevertheless there is a kind of chilling distance between Scott and his characters ––frequently in Scott the whole of the scene doesn’t come to life––he is working for a certain effect and concentrates on that––doesn’t involve everyone in it equally ––comedy of humours (1) pedantic lawyer (2) Laird of Dumbiedikes [in The Heart of Midlothian]––does best with his own terms of reference (3) brilliantly written death scene of Laird’s father, still within the tradition of the comedy

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––mind lapses from one thing to another ––concern for estate, etc. Nov. 23. Scott’s normal prose style is extraordinarily cumbersome His plots: ––usually have some mysterious person ––simpler, more genuinely effective theme in The Heart of Midlothian––Jeanie going for pardon ––Scottish law unusually tough regarding illegitimacy ––conflict between Jeanie and father ––faithful to the letter of the law ––Jeanie––extraordinarily attractive figure ––precise ––unaffected ––her walk has something of the Alice in Wonderland effect. Simply, placidly walks through all types of eighteenth-century places and characters ––good scene where she gets pardon ––plot less manipulated than Scott’s plots usually seem ––clear, firm characterization, though pretty predictable ––subordinate characters in Scott––almost always these are comedy of humours ––Madge Wildfire––capable and cunning but no intelligence, but by no means locked away from the world as a real lunatic. Close to the boundary between sanity and insanity. Loose association of ideas. Her death scene well managed. ––kind of public the writer has in mind conditions his subject ––best possible contact with Scott is that made before critical faculties are fully formed ––heaviness of treatment, clumsiness ––in writing fiction, two languages: ––standard English––author’s comment ––colloquial speech––dialogue ––usually almost mutually unintelligible ––if we want all dialogue, must write in first person (e.g., Huckleberry Finn) ––strain in assigning two speech rhythms to two groups of characters ––this speech difference is a fact in English life ––northern dialect of Scottish people ––graceful, easy, pointed writing, full of wit

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––Scott’s own language, in which he is a poet (Trace Scott’s handling of dialect as he moves from Midlothian down to London) ––standard English creeps in as she gets further south, and the language gets more and more stilted. Scott uses all the resources of the of the northern poetic language ––helps make characterization in the book lively ––novelist’s job of making us see people simply as a result of the way they talk is quite tricky (Prejudice in Canada today that a person who learns how to talk better is something between a pickpurse and a homosexual). Hemingway trying to recapture the rhythm of the typewriter rap in modern speech Duke of Argyle––quintessential of what a well-bred aristocrat should be ––his speech almost a total failure ––talks like the oily politician who’s just been defeated in a by-election ––Scott intended him to be a great. Source of failure is in his speech Scott less of a historical novelist than you might think. Don’t want the novel so much in the past that you can feel its history closing around you ––most of Scott’s great novels are eighteenth-century studies i.e., the century before Scott’s birth ––using language customs of his own to a certain extent ––can still write about them as though they were present ––considerable contrast between these and those novels set in the sixteenth century ––results in extraordinarily synthetic language e.g., made-up lingo of Ivanhoe ––difficulty of getting dialogue in the right place ––the Scott tradition in language is another literary convention e.g., Thomas B. Costain follows in it ––Scott the man of honour first ––Scott the man of genius second ––three-decker novel getting established in his day; i.e., being read in families, households ––a regular form of fiction in three volumes ––Scott and his followers believed four volumes would be better Are the last one hundred pages of The Heart of Midlothian as “stuck on” as they actually were? ––proved he was a man of honour by writing for money

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––defeating his own literary purpose. Accounts for the number of Waverley novels and why so many of them are extremely bad. Too often got into jigsaw puzzles of plot ––in Jeanie’s father, Scott succeeded in the difficult task ––made the exasperating person respectable without either caricaturing or sentimentalizing Scott spent a great deal of his imaginative life sitting in the branches of his family tree ––interest in the phase of society he was not bred into ––attitude of condescension to characters who were not on the social level on which he imagined himself ––moral energy is a quality of the writer who commands energy and respect. Defoe has his. Fielding and Smollett had more of it than Scott had. ––Scott means well. Makes effort for you to feel much pathos for Madge Wildfire ––convention of the long historical romance. Elaborate plot ––historical pageant: murder of Porteous. Well described. Gone into thoroughly. Novel built around this, which is put into the middle ––well-chosen event because it catches the history of Scotland at a very effective time ––Act of Union did much to destroy goodwill of Scotland. Great deal of smouldering disaffection in the eighteenth century. Exploded in the 1745 rebellion ––1736: Jeanie’s walk ––Scott gives the feeling of a sullen, smouldering discontent against the English very well Vanity Fair ––purely Victorian novel. 1847. Theme is just before the actual time. ––things still most vivid in the English mind but not feeling they are closed in by history, ––title, from Bunyan, indicates general ironic point of view new in history of fiction ––-constant reference to characters as puppets indicates condescension on Thackeray’s part ––irony in Defoe is based on realistic sense of the situation Moll is in. Irony is in the situation, not in the author’s moral attitude to his character. This makes Defoe different from Thackeray ––Bunyan and Defoe are profoundly religious; therefore, not particularly moral (accustomed to deeper thinking)

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––Fielding preserves atmosphere of the “Symposium.” So far, no author we’ve discussed has preached about the moral attitudes of the characters. ––Thackeray’s moral attitude not completely consistent ––mocking irony one page. Tearful sentimentality the next ––both attitudes directed to same characters. ––book turns on contrast between two women: Becky and Amelia ––Amelia represents domestic pole. Becky is other pole—adventuress ––Thackeray not completely taken in by her. Realizes she is fundamentally uninteresting. Becky ––Cinderella theme treated ironically ––Thackeray turns her into something of a villainess ––confusing treatment ––not a character with great appeal for modern reader ––French mother, “reputed to be an actor, or worse”171 ––artist father — bohemian, longhair ––Thackeray takes a precaution in giving these details of un-English behaviour ––wants to show why Becky is on her own, on the make ––Vanity Fair written with the cruelty of the readers in mind How would Thackeray have written if he felt he had greater freedom? Construction ––shows relatively new factor in fiction ––Vanity Fair first appeared as serial in Punch. Natural influence on plot construction 1. Each installment self-contained 2. Each installment ends at exciting point 3. Long, drawn-out plot 4. Works it out as he goes along 5. A character can change 6. Novelist has mystery in mind as only plot device. Can see from this how technique of the mystery developed Becky ––at first lively, amusing, handled with respect ––husband not a bad catch. Presented first as a boob but becomes more and more of a good creature under Thackeray’s handling, as Becky be-

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comes more and more hard, and unscrupulous––a fallen woman of melodrama. ––corruption sets in as Becky becomes successful ––Providence out to take care people like her don’t do too well ––time of Battle of Waterloo. Becky a bit of a battling, domestic Napoleon. ––Thackeray writing about a society full of competition and ambition. Napoleon is one symbol of it. ––Becky’s career is hypocritical in that she makes no straightforward break with society. She is a parasite rather than a law breaker. Doesn’t steal, but forgets to pay bills. ––in scene with Lord Steyne she keeps saying, “I’m innocent” ––means she has been the perfect, gold-digger. Hasn’t given the marquis anything in return for his gifts Two main centres of action, ––due to serial structure ––alternate between the two ––work up one centre to exciting point, then switch the other ––Becky and Amelia start out together. Have contrasting careers, then end at the same level of society. Aspect repeated by Amelia and Dobbin. ––glanced at in subtitle, “A novel without a hero” ––parody of convention of romance of Victorian age ––Thackeray always emphasizing his realism ––often have two main, central characters who are essentially dull. Character interest is in minor ones. Amelia ––deliberate portrayal as “sweet little rosebud” ––dull but respectable ––somebody reader can identify self with ––suffers from defective intelligence ––Thackeray emphasises her foolishness Dobbin ––solemn, sterling, good soldier. Faithful. G. [George] Osbourne ––dashing and colourful but no basis of character. These two are suitors for Amelia. She is immediately captivated by the dashing, shallow man but it takes her l,000 pages to see merit in Dobbin.

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Eventually Dobbin’s lifetime of fidelity is rewarded. Amelia has become a symbol of Dobbin’s will to live. Subconsciously he may realize he has thrown away his life on an insipid little girl. Image of the puppet––dehumanized person with no soul or basis of character. Puppets make up society of Vanity Fair where all merchandise is displayed and all standards are false. Thackeray attaches a feeling of emptiness to the ends of desire. The standards of Vanity Fair are false. Therefore the desires are false. What Dobbin desired was empty. He grasped at fulfillment of desire, but didn’t get it. Nov. 24. Becky knows what she wants and has a more cynical view about its values. ––typical product of her society, rather than fundamentally opposed to it ––feel Thackeray has started something here he couldn’t quite finish Victorian novels aren’t chiefly moral in purpose, but Thackeray moralizes on his story. Because Vanity Fair is a world of puppets, there is no standard character with which others can be compared. There is no character outside Vanity Fair who can be considered ideal. Modern reader may be more attracted to Becky than Thackeray desired. Presents her as fundamentally likeable, but her way of life was detrimental to society. Part of Thackeray’s ironic pattern. 30 Nov. Action of the novel is about twenty-five years before Thackeray’s time. ––can see some of the meaning of the underlying social and economic developments and phenomena of that time. ––Thackeray a Tory examining a regency ––period of brutality in English society––e.g. corporal punishment in schools. Produces people such as G. Osbourne Sr. ––this is Thackeray’s retrospective judgement on a phase of English culture ––feeling of great expansiveness. Cf. battle of Waterloo, growth on continent ––especially with Osbourne Sr. working out of certain cultural patterns is seen

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––George Jr. not a gentleman because of “philistine” nature of his upbringing. Combination of determination to buy self into higher social class and respect for class system itself. George Sr. always assumed he was absolutely right. Thackeray gives incisive analysis of his character. Thackeray shows dislike for eighteenth-century rationalists. Crawley family represents three generations ––Miss Crawley––eighteenth-century rationalist ––Sir Pitt––new moral, typically prissy gentleman ––Rawdon––typical product of regency era gentleman Thackeray as a Novelist ––groups characters well ––good story teller, but still in a sense possibly doesn’t fully understand his story Amelia’s passion for her dead husband is centred around a hard core of possessiveness. i.e. there is something egocentric about idolization ––consistent with her role. Kind of parody on conventions of romantic love ––Dobbin the one person she feels she can dominate. Sends him off when defied ––Dobbin finally realizes his horselike fidelity has been wasted on someone pretty stupid. The one person in the book at the moment who sees the truth Two endings 1. ironic, honest 2. conventionally happy, sentimental. Combined very plausibly. Thackeray preaches about what a foolish place Vanity Fair is ––would not be necessary if he had a clear-sighted character ––Thackeray hangs around but doesn’t really get into the story In comedy: moral and social values. In tragedy: whatever you think, this happened In Madame Bovary tragedy of conclusion is that it’s a parody of a comic ending.

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Same quality in King Lear. Vicious twist at end. This was acted as a comedy for over 100 years. A bit of the Madame Bovary treatment in Becky. ––parody of conventional, romantic heroine ––romance idealizes life ––Becky puts on the act of a romantic heroine when trying to entangle some man. Person who gets through life by putting on one act after another. Dramatizes tragedy of the forsaken woman; i.e., capitalizes on romantic dreams (opposite to Emma Bovary) The novel is a comic, realistic form. Romance is anti-realistic. Therefore, parody turns up frequently in novel tradition. Vanity Fair at times parodies the owlish portentousness fundamental to ghost story form. However, scene where Rawdon breaks in on Becky and Steyne is stock melodrama. Thackeray is meeting self coming around the corner. Double-edged irony. A parody of the convention and at the same time a poker-faced use of it to parody the life behind it. Dec. 1. 1750–1850 “Northumbrian Renaissance” ––industrial development in England ––emotional reaction to it ––Burns, Scott––revival of lowland poetry. Scott’s collection of ballads ––romantic movement of Wordsworth imaginatively located close to Scottish border to a great extent In Wuthering Heights––sense of gloom, deeply rooted in its own surroundings Brontë family ––Charlotte––major talents ––Anne––minor talents ––boy––wasted talents ––Emily––genius ––all died young. Small Yorkshire parsonage. Atmosphere which breeds disease. Living in the rain. ––one basis of her imagination ––feeling of individual liberty

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––stifled and insulted by the way they had to earn their living ––cf. writers unwanted and rejected ––a social basis of her imagination Role of governess who tells story reflects this ––half-way between family and servants. Her level partly dependent on cultural development of the family Wuthering Heights connected with tragedy ––efforts to make characters of more than human sizes ––story of Heathcliff ––novel built entirely around this character (one of the most extraordinary of fiction) ––demonic. Could call his power evil. Such a tremendous superhuman force behind it, it seems almost irrelevant to call it evil ––everything attached to him in some way ––charm. Ability to frighten ––his charm attracts people automatically ––Nellie uses words like “villain,” “scoundrel” once she is out of his power. They are justified, but Heathcliff is bigger than they. Heathcliff can throw his power even over the narrator of the story ––can be compared to an elemental power of nature let loose ––intense fascination in the very evil itself ––everyone feels some lust for aggressiveness; therefore, some release of our own power in Heathcliff ––relaxations of evil in a tyrant stand out as great concessions. They would be taken for granted in someone else ––the other characters in the story tend to fall into the roles Heathcliff intends them to fall into e.g., Edgar Linton falls into a weakling role in front of Heathcliff ––extraordinary capacity of making cowards of everyone else ––study of the psychology of tyranny. Nineteenth-century novelists fascinated by Napoleon ––studies of evil by Balzac etc. ––mystery of power of evil even though corrupt. How it’s more powerful because corrupt ––can’t define Heathcliff. Not just a stage villain Romance, ballad––put basics of human conflict on its simplest possible basis e.g., knights in Malory

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In Wuthering Heights we’re always aware of this primitive, elemental basis of conflict ––unconsciously estimating the other man’s weight and height ––Emily Brontë has turned her back on all complex social rituals, etc. This play of bodies replaces it. She actually achieved what D.H. Lawrence tried for a longer time to do, with less success in the end ––subtle play of physical, erotic side of human energy. Not snowed under by more complicated movements of society ––characters all die young (Heathcliff the oldest––38 at death) ––Emily Brontë emphasizes the terrific willfulness of her characters ––son of Heathcliff, dying of consumption, has strong parasitic will but no physical strength ––characters rendered as exasperating as possible. At the same time they are horribly credible Heathcliff’s son completely absorbed in his own hypochondria. How can they make Cathy fall in love with him? ––confine her ––when she’s allowed out, fascinated by him ––live doll to play with ––the more selfish he shows himself to be, the more attractive he is ––will of Heathcliff behind them Heathcliff is a gypsy ––helps define him as outside ordinary human beings ––only one name: cliff––dashing to pieces; Heath––heat ––consistent symbolism throughout the novel ––carried to the grave plots of Heathcliff, Cathy, etc. ––narration moves from winter to spring ––man (tenant) to whom story is told arrives in winter when Heathcliff’s tyranny is complete. Has everything he wants. ––tenant confined through the winter. Next spring Heathcliff dies ––the two lovers are left ––hint of supernatural about Heathcliff. Would have been easy to fake this, turn it into a ghost story, but Brontë doesn’t General rule of novel is that the supernatural doesn’t fit. Made plausible in Wuthering Heights. Ghost is always a neurotic

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––stuck at one point in his development ––keeps going over and over it Heathcliff is a person of insensate will ––subordinate motive––make self master of all he surveys ––real motive––passion for Catherine ––restless, driving hunger he feels for Catherine begins to create her as a ghost. Can trace the subtle developments of this impression in his mind. When he sees her as a ghost, he is ready to die and go with her. Says, “I have attained my heaven.” ––feeling of identity animates both Catherine and Heathcliff ––tremendous power of vitality in them makes them create their own laws ––moral sympathies are with Edgar ––another set of sympathies ––aware of impersonal power of Heathcliff’s ruthlessness ––can see Heathcliff as the unselfish character and Edgar as selfish if you look at them this way. Catherine and Heathcliff can’t be judged on the moral standards of ordinary people ––Heathcliff himself is completely unconcerned. Claims he has done no injustice and we feel he is perfectly sincere when he says so ––simple feeling that there is no right except in the direction in which his will moves ––because it is a passion bred by pride, it leaves [leads?] to death Curious irony––he is achieving his own being. Quite content to attain his heaven and save his own soul in his own way. Dec. 7. Wuthering Heights stands out from general novel tradition ––comedy a more popular form of fiction than tragedy ––Wuthering Heights is one of the few genuinely tragic novels ––difficult to spin it out full length as a novel and still make it come off as a tragedy ––narrator steps up pace of the narrative ––emphasizes linear progress of events ––more emphasis on the sequence of things happening ––tragedy sees the simplified environment (comedy deals with highly artificial society) ––seeks out lonely, isolated communities (e.g., Shakespeare)

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––setting of Wuthering Heights out of the way––Yorkshire moors ––country similar to that of the Icelandic sagas ––nurse tells the story ––stock figure of Greek tragedy ––tragedy lays more stress on the inner unity of nature because it is not so dependent on social reference as comic characters are ––unfolding of the inevitable logic of inner nature. External of the unfolding of generations. ––As a mechanism, just as neat as Pride and Prejudice ––different social setting though e.g., Heathcliff’s entry has something symbolic about it ––integral part of the action at the same time. Foster father pets Heathcliff. Lays foundation of arrogance. Heathcliff perfectly logical and intelligible at every stage ––Heathcliff’s son––all the viciousness of his father and all the weakness of his mother ––no melodramatic characters or caricatures ––laws of tragic construction ––sense of the working out of the law ––that which is ––Aristotle: essential means by which poetry becomes a way of expressing reality ––sometimes simply takes the form of revenge ––sometimes revenge through supernatural means ––more subtle, far-reaching kind of law ––order of things must right itself. Nemesis ––religious tragedy interprets that as the workings of the order (e.g., Samson Agonistes, Athalie); i.e., return of the Greek sense of order, law, decay ––Marlowe’s Tamburlaine closest to Heathcliff Is it necessary to assume that nature is an order? Isn’t it just as true to assume it is disorder? ––Heathcliff is nature tooth and claw. Represents non-philosophical, non-Aristotelian aspects ––conveys terror of the dark––feeling of something savage, untamed, undeveloped in nature ––“fierce, pitiless, wolfish man”172

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––sense that once you have identified yourself with these powers you go on and on Catherine dies in childbirth (true to Victorian fashion) ––release ––buried with lock of her husband Heathcliff’s hair ––Heathcliff pulls her back from her release relentlessly until she becomes a ghost with him ––the two ghosts become master and mistress ––characters motivated by their own visions of paradise (even Job) ––curious argument between the younger Heathcliff and the younger Catherine as of their ideal worlds ––mutually incompatible paradises (therefore, couldn’t live together on earth either) Get different kind of tragedy when nature is conceived as power over death and hell as well as life No doubt that Wuthering Heights was written in a Darwinian century. Cruelty, self-seeking not far off. Human values transient and accidental. ––Heathcliff dies but there’s no sense of a judgment passed on him Two aspects of a ghost ––sense that you can’t keep a good vampire down ––things end in curious serenity ––seems to be a double kind of conclusion ––Heathcliff has attained his own heaven. Who knows enough to say it is wrong? Shakespeare is almost entirely without this sense of the unquenchable demonic. Wuthering Heights ends with serenity. Still feeling we’re caught in a cycle. What will happen next winter? Dec. 8. Wuthering Heights is actually a romance Heathcliff is the tragic character contained within the romance Conclusion of the story is very essential to it ––quality of rain, storm etc. turning to spring is essential in the romance i.e., positive containing form––the continuity of life. Final sense of the unreality of the passion of Heathcliff

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Middlemarch ––deliberate provincialism in English novel, especially in subject matter ––title indicates small provincial town inhabited by middle class ––characters––set about twenty-five years in past so author can give book finality ––many English novels also provincial in action ––far greater than her other novels. ––depth, power, energy sustained all through ––Eliot a person of ideas ––major interests are philosophical ––in novel, ideas must be digested into concrete personal relationships Casaubon: represents intellectual problem of his century, but people were not aware of it Bulstrode: inner conflicts. Essay on casuistry. He is not completely dramatized, compared to others. ––great triumph of Middlemarch is Eliot. Stands at just the right distance from her characters. ––minor characters flatter, as they should be ––proportion, balance in major characters ––kind of realistic portrait painting ––characters have independence. Can argue about them. Leading Theme Story of Dorothea. Healthy, beautiful young woman with religious aspirations. ––looking for a father. Someone to look up to, respect. ––sees possibility of doing a great work in marrying Casaubon. Casaubon ––knew Latin and Greek well ––no sense of etymology ––plunged into teasing manuscript of analogies. No way out. No possibility of writing a key to mythologies in this form ––his work of scholarship is a fraud ––hasn’t married. Hasn’t any real affection. Terror of being pitied. His affection not saved up— dried up. Dorothea misguided, exuberant, well-meaning, self-hypnosis Casaubon fundamentally stupid and sterile. Resents that other scholars haven’t given him recognition. ––extraordinarily powerful portrayal of human being in a fairly common situation which is seldom dealt with.

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Eliot contains deep, searching irony. ––Dorothea made hideous mistake in marrying Casaubon. ––Casaubon killed by heart attack––would have lasted longer in naturalistic novel ––sense of 1ooking down on something, seeing people in bondage ––how ironic is Eliot’s conclusion? Depends on reader. Eliot follows comic convention of getting all couples who are headed for each other married before the end of the book. They will be very happy. ––general idea of conclusion is they will get along .somehow. ––at the end we feel Dorothea’s life hasn’t materialized. Lydgate ––as baffled in ambitions as Casaubon, but by exterior circumstances. ––makes considerable mistake in marriage. Quixotic like Dorothea ––can’t see the actual human character because head full of massive ego. Idea of adoring, understanding wife. ––Rosamond extremely self-centred. Lydgate interpreted this in terms of his own dream. ––becomes successful, fashionable, but doesn’t fulfil what he promised to be ––he and his wife don’t love each other but live together. Dec. 14. Panoramic novel common in nineteenth century. ––real interest of plot is in alternating groups of characters. ––traditional plot in finding out mysterious origin of Ladislaw–– flashback ––central character in book is society ––individual character is referred to the social frame in a way which accounts for extraordinary moral paradox at bottom of life ––in long run ego springs out of society and is a reflection of social opinions Ordinary marriage joins two egos. ––rubs, knocks, when they become aware of each other’s existence Dorothea building up life of saintly absorption out of her own self-absorption ––enormous self-centredness of which she is unaware. ––giving up her jewels is really pure arrogance ––her plain dress extraordinarily dramatic amid colour and splendor ––builds up in her mind a spectacle of her own marriage

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––her future husband in real life turns out to be very egoistic Eliot swings round and works it out from Casaubon’s point of view. He too has built up a dream. Hardest part of marriage is to discover the other is a separate human being. Casaubon not unhappy before Dorothea came into his life. Often to finish a project is to destroy the legend it has become in people’s minds. —Dorothea comes into Casaubon’s cocoon demanding that he play the role. Brings in criticism of outside world. Become self-doubt and selfcriticism for Casaubon. Eliot works out desires of Lydgate and Rosamond both very accurately. ––their dreams are interrupted ––characters suffer torment in trying to displace centre of reality from themselves ––this situation is so frequent we don’t think of it as tragic ––of all four, Rosamond comes out on top because she is the only one with no ideals whatsoever. She is pure ego and has great strength as a result. She can’t be reached. Lydgate discovers the mystery of the inscrutable person. Rosamond is locked away. Rosamond never tries to cope with anything. People are supposed to look after her Compare Queen Victoria who always sat down when she felt like it, trusting someone would provide a chair. ––eventually Rosamond got what she wanted ––sheltered quality of all characters. None defied conventions so much as Eliot did herself. ––Eliot seems to assume common ground with the reader. Does this for literary, not personal reasons ––characters appear in book as they appear to others ––much reticence in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels ––no detailed description of sexuality ––no exploring of their undressed lives ––action takes place in scenes that could be put on stage. Characters loom larger in a reticent novel than in an extremely frank one Fred Vincy and Mary Garth

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Mary is a kind of moral norm. Fred is more on an ego. His optimistic hopefulness results from the assumption that he’s a pretty notable person. Mary has a sense of reality. Knows she’s not getting any tremendous prize. A great number of what we call moral issues are really conventional, social ones. In Middlemarch three characters have standards not derived from society Dorothea revolts from all standards about her. Lydgate set up standards derived from his idea of science Bulstrode has theoretical religious views he fails to live up to in a crisis Certain amount of fun poked at Dorothea and Lydgate for their quixotic qualities ––there is also another structure derived from a sense of superiority to the society they live in, creating a double-edged irony ––Middlemarch is tried and found wanting ––irony because society doesn’t provide a field for operation for its greatest individuals. Ladislaw ––many strikes against him from Middlemarch point of view Dec. 15. Ladislaw is likeable enough but rather superficial. There is no creature whose inner being is so strong that he is greatly affected by what lies outside of him Middlemarch gives a new perspective ––not one of heroic size as in Vanity Fair or Pride and Prejudice ––can’t put a heroic character in a modern society without making him look quixotic ––great intensification of the psychological analysis of the individual in the social criticism of the group e.g., “vague exactingness of egoism”173 is a contrast in method with the frankness of Austen who says “when she was discontented she fancied herself nervous”174 Bulstrode ––extremely dramatic view of the nature and destiny of man theoretically ––in practice, he feels he is of the elect but most of Middlemarch is not, i.e., superiority

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––finally realizes that the only man he approves of fundamentally is himself. Very different from his theory ––insufferable sense of virtue. Pure hypocrisy. ––much money––made by dubious means ––legally he doesn’t commit the murder, but he wants to ––hounded out of Middlemarch because of accusations of what he wanted in fact to do ––Irony––one’s belief in one’s immediate fortunes, beliefs, etc. is infinitely stronger than one’s belief in God ––the great mistake Bulstrode made was in making himself an unlikeable character. He is a readymade scapegoat ––Double-edged irony. It is impossible to sympathize with Bulstrode because he’s guilty. Impossible to sympathize with the people of Middlemarch because they’re just getting their own back. Transferring their sins to a scapegoat. here is almost no one, accused of a crime, who does not gain in dignity from being accused and from being compared morally with the group that condemns him. Self-righteousness is one of the most evil feelings man has. e.g., Shylock gains dignity. Venice loses it. “pleasureless yielding to the small solicitations of circumstance”175 Eliot’s moral if she has one. ––idea of exchanging soul for pleasure (e.g., Faustus) does not come in the yielding of natural, reasonable circumstance. Jan. 4. Great Expectations ––last complete novel before Our Mutual Friend ––one of the most successful ––clicked with a publisher on the first try ––enjoyed a career of absolutely unbroken success ––good fortune still held until his death ––sentimentality––ready to compromise with debased public taste. Has faults that are obvious and has virtues so tremendous it is impossible to ignore them. Passages of bad taste, blemishes. They are so obvious one takes them for granted as part of a huge, solidly constructed, ornate piece of Victorian material written in the first person ––to some extent repeats David Copperfield in a slightly different formula

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––power of David Copperfield is that which it shares with all great popular literature. Stereotype of the parents who were always wrong–– mother sort of inept fool ––Great Expectations begins with small boys ––things they can do are extraordinarily good ––world full of floundering, lumbering people, irrational, fits of temper ––writing takes on a fairytale quality ––elder sister––stepmother ––giant––husband ––confused impression child gets of the world beautifully done ––a more thoughtful, introspective novel than David Copperfield ––opening scene––Christmas––solstice. Very well done. Quality of writing which is almost unique in the history of fiction. In reading, we move in close to the characters ––immediate bodily discomforts of the child. Small physical impressions of life. Discomforts of weather. Give novel physical intensity which is considerably lacking in most of the others ––stereotype of the uppity youth ––can’t equate popularity with merit either one way or the other. Tolstoy assumes this. Popular books are a special kind of book that range from good to bad––from popularity of Dickens alone nothing can be inferred about his merits. Tells us something about his characterization and general philosophy of life though. If Dickens is ironical about one of his characters, he expects the reader to be too ––one mark of the popular writer ––Miss Havisham ––quality of the fairy tale––house where time is stopped. Small child can conceive such a mammoth sulk. A fairy tale method of responding to shock Unquenchable curiosity––quality of boyhood ––speculates about people. Thirst to know about them No real violation of credulity despite the fairy tale atmosphere. Faced with the question of the extent to which people create their own fairy tales. Adults apt to carry on the child’s imagination. No one except Dickens seems really interested in this aspect of life Dickens is a revolutionary writer His people almost invariably are middle class

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The gentry class are those who’ve abandoned all spontaneity. Stuffed shirts. Dickens does an expert job of showing the blatant sterility of life on this level––e.g., Bleak House. Gentry are the deadlocked class Pip moves in the society of radically false standards when he inherits money Two poles of society are established early in the book. Joe and the girl her marries represent a kind of human norm One more time Dickens rounds out her character by making her a complete failure at her own game ––brought in to break hearts ––not successful. Simply makes a miserably stupid marriage Would have been far more malignant to be successful. Something much more true of Becky Sharp. Kind of reassuring human frailty about her. Estella [Havisham] not done with the same skill by Dickens. Outline of a rather ridiculous little girl emerges Jan. 5. ––product of Dickens’s more thoughtful period ––preoccupied with social questions, analysis of the bourgeoisie Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class176 ––gentleman = the person who is not obliged to work Joe presented as a man ––sentimentalized. Symbol of something very fine ––idiot in intelligence Dickens is combining a social point with caricature in building up a character ––great expectations are those of Pip ––great expectations doomed to disappointment by those of his benefactor, Magwich. Obsessed with the idea of making his boy a gentleman. Never discovers that what he’s actually done is to spoil a good blacksmith. Pip would have been perfectly happy there ––life of the young man about town is portrayed in simple terms. Extent of that life of a gentleman depends very much on the economy of waste. Caricature figure of Pumblechook on other side––a snob Pip quarrels with Biddy. Comes to think Pumblechook is a sensible fellow. All false values summed up in heroine. Estella––snobbish, malicious, insolent, haughty, beautiful. Her arrogance is fascinating. Dickens obeys the demands of convention nearly [alone?]

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––understood the horrors of loveless marriage ––two happy endings ––Estella married brutal fellow. Widowed. ––encounters Pip ––reader––marry them in the end if so inclined. Not very satisfactory. Pip is one person Estella tells the truth to. Companions. Contrast with shape of Pamela. ––Great Expectations is also a Cinderella story ––both Pip and Pamela get fortunes ––fullness of life of people in lower middle working class. Exuberance. Not predictable or ritual-ridden. Dickens hangs around Eastend. Dreary, boring look in the windows of the wealthy houses. Wants enchantment of the unpredictable Plot––intricate, neat. Dickens’s fascination with the detective story is growing Central intention is in the development of Pip’s character. Estella is a professional wax mannequin. Reader expected to attach no more significance to her, spectacular [sic] ––a real big shot can even keep his servants in idleness; i.e., greatness = the amount of idleness he creates ––Pip hires boy to wait on him. “The avenger.” He reminds Pip there is nothing for either of them to do. ––Pip spends time thinking up little jobs for him ––Pocket’s mother treated with caricature. Broods over the fact she isn’t a duchess. Magwich captured and tried as a convict ––everything explodes Pip goes back to work ––much better to be back where you were Something of the fairy tale here too Sense of the ridiculous doesn’t seem to carry on a corresponding sense of what is normal. Usually some standard of normalcy is implied. e.g., Vanity Fair is called such because characters aren’t a normality. Find self immersed in a world of food, drink, physical comfort. One feels a great deal of charity in Dickens. Can rescue a good person out of someone who is wholly lost––not only sentimentality. At times, goes overboard and is too conscious of his own gift. Charity = perverted Victorian sense of handouts. Great Expectations is clearly dissatisfied with this sort of thing. Pip wants a last look at the marshes before leaving for London ––wants to hurry this up

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Shows Dickens’s ability to reproduce those curious little acts of ritual that lurk in one’s mind. Great Expectations rises above other novels. Almost turns on Dickensianism. Pip wants to come back and give a big meal to everyone in the village. He isn’t mature and Dickens is no longer taken in by it, though it is a kind of charity exemplified by Scrooge. Suggests a higher sense of what’s admirable in human beings. Pip’s great expectations are outwardly disappointments, but what he does gain is release from his own selfishness. Loyalty of friends on decent human terms. Magwich gains the love of Pip. This is a very simple moral but it gives depth and dimension to the novel. Dickens capable of subtlety ––gives the effect of a very highly selected picture (a quality of caricature) ––gives impression of fantasy, almost peculiar to him ––descriptions are in terms that are true to life e.g., describes four-poster as though it were alive ––fantasy––conceit This is difficult to contain in a novel while retaining the general tone. Tone of the book is sufficiently heightened, intensified and simplified to make it fit. You don’t attain the effect of realism by describing something accurately. From the human situation, there is an emotional mood as well as and objective observation to consider. Cf. Pamela. A merely accurate description can be preposterously dull. A regular feature of Dickens’s description is an interchange of the animate and the inanimate. ––Dickens has subtlety and complication in tracing out human personality. He occasionally gives a character a serpentine twist; e.g., Pip hates his sister. She is paralyzed; feels he should have more feeling for her; violently angry at his sister’s assailant This follows accurately the line of the human subconscious. Interview with Biddy shows curious foolishness, perversity which comes over people who know they are wrong. At the end of a comedy a character is often released from the tyranny of his humour177 ––Pip is obsessed by his selfishness. His experiences end in a genuinely comic cadence. He is released from his selfishness and sees life differently. ––this suggests that all humours are a type of egoism Meredith studies a sort of clinical case history of egoism. Knows more than the psychologists do. The very intricate approach is an admirable

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contrast to Dickens, which is so much in terms of what happened outside. Meredith begins his story with an account of great courage and honesty. The reader is given fair warning that he will be stuck with this miserable shoddy snob. Abundantly clear there will be none of the relief (suspense, mystery, etc.) as in Dickens’s books. There’s only one kind of suspense in The Egoist. Character predominates over the story and the plot.

CHAPTER TWELVE MODERN POETRY (ENGLISH 4M) (1954) NOTES BY PETER EVANS

These class notes are from the first half of the course in Modern Poetry and Drama, 1954–55. This Honours course met for one hour each week. According to Evans, “Frye lectured on poetry only that year––and I doubt he taught this course very often. The English department was still ‘shuffling’ as a result of the loss of [John]Robins and [Joe] Fisher. Frye insisted on confining himself to Hopkins, Yeats & Eliot––he assumed we could get the others up for ourselves. . . . He mostly ‘chatted’ reflectively.” These notes might be compared with Margaret Virany’s notes for the same course (Chapter 13), which are somewhat more expansive. Sept. 24 In poetry (per line) ––“running” rhythm (e.g., standard iambic) ––semantic rhythm (the rhythm of sense, natural emphasis) ––lyrical rhythm (rhythmic differences imposed by the nature of each individual line, e.g., by internal rhymes) ––accentual rhythm (four-beat line is basic to all English poetry, with various syllable patterns––from Beowulf) G.M. Hopkins––“sprung” rhythm Experiments in poetry largely confined to sixteenth century. De La Mare, Housman, Hardy have poetry founded on stock patterns in the English poetic tradition. Housman’s rhythm is a standard song-lyric rhythm. A delightful lilt all through, and yet it is always predictable. Satisfaction is often found in reading a predictable poet. We enjoy watching a predictable pattern fulfilling itself. Vachel Lindsay was an American camp-meeting lecturer. He writes an accentual, jazzy rhythm (cf. Sweeney Agonistes) And then there is the kind of free verse we find in Walt Whitman. Built more on semantic rhythm.

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e.e. cummings––an irregular lyrical rhythm which must be seen as well as heard. He exploits every trick in sound. He brings out the irregular pattern of assonance in his manner of writing. Oct. 1. British and American poetry are as different in expression and intonation as English and French. Walt Whitman sets out the American rhythms, intonation, etc.––a loose, straggly line––assimilation of poetic-prose utterance. (Lindsay, Sandburg, Jeffers carry this on––they don’t carry it on too well. Less weight, influence, precision, skill.) Those who went in for purity of diction in England were equally unsuccessful. Hence, an Atlantic poetry––compounded of British, American, Irish, and Welsh influences. This is why Eliot can be both American and British. In Hardy and Housman a concentration of grammatical techniques. Hardy and Hopkins are romantics. Hardy seems two-thirds Presbyterian, Housman one-third Presbyterian. In Hardy a confrontation of man with natural law. An irony in the indifference of nature to man. His philosophic attitude is derived from Darwin, and his rhetoric is Darwin’s. Religion is a major theme in today’s poetry. Positive––Hopkins (strong). Positive religious experience. Carried on by T.S. Eliot Negative––Hardy, Housman (Butler in prose), which treats the clichés of religion (especially evangelical Protestantism) ironically. The irony of Hardy and Housman is directed against the comfort of a reasonable religion.178 Thus they restate more profound and genuine Christian beliefs. We think of God as benevolent, sustaining nature. In viewing the geologic history of the world, if God’s mind is behind it he must have been awfully stupid. Nature is just a stupid brute, an irresistible will to survive. Housman says the same thing in an even crisper language (The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux). A post-Darwinian attitude. A continuous, relentless struggle to survive through force and cunning. In this view, Napoleon would be a great man. In Schopenhauer, the world as will is below consciousness, intelligence, morality. Below man but vastly more powerful. Cares for the species, not the individual. Nothing but Will and Idea. If man creates God, he usually does it as a Will. He deifies the world as Will.

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Hardy in his poetry and novels believes in the great power of this will. See The Return of the Native. Hardy and Housman seem to be stoics, but stoicism implies an unfallen order of nature. For Hardy, the sinking of the Titanic is caused through a remorseless, unconscious Will. It is not designed by the gods of fates, as in [E.J.] Pratt. Hardy is the more moral poet. Feels society can do much by helping each other. Jeffers has no use for society. Hardy’s avenue is not as intensely individualized as Housman’s. In Terence This Is Stupid Stuff he answers the critics who would say he should not write about life as tragic. It is bad enough. The only kind of art that depressed is bad art. If writing is good, there is always exhilaration (William Blake). Housman says if you want false entertainment, get drunk. It is more effective if you want to delude yourself. Oct. 8. In the lyric the poet turns his back on the reader––the reader overhears.179 Direct address in poetry puts it under a strain. In the nineteenth century there is a lot of talking poetry––a certain strain of impatience in this. Poetry that is pure direct address is doggerel––prose that is metred out. Our first reaction to poetry is one of sense experience. It is not at first a conceptual reaction, not intellectualized. Hence poetry is more susceptible to imagery than to idea. Ideas must be contained by imagery. Hopkins is a theoretical and conceptual person, yet his poetry is a poetry of images. His poetry for that reason is more difficult. We find the semantic rhythm of prose easy to read. In fact, we may fail in the poems to capture the poem at all, just the meaning. We clutch the meaning and carry it off. Talking poems are flat and neutrally toned in diction. Poetry has an affinity with short, sharp words, but has a struggle to absorb long Latin words, which are prose words. Long-tailed words do not have a precise meaning. Long abstract words taken over from Latin have lost their vividness and concreteness. They at one time had a visual image, sharp and concrete. Colloquial speech tries to bring vividness back to language. Hopkins goes back to the freedom the language had before these great free-flowing words. The devices of Old English added a kind of intensity––alliterative with a beat. Rhyme can become very mechanical––typewriter bell at end of line. Hopkins uses all types of rhetorical devices. The English language is

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basically monosyllables. In Hopkins use of this in The Caged Skylark we see more accents as a natural consequence. Browning made English poetry much less formal, racy. Makes more use of double-syllable rhymes––giving English poetry a kick, trying to make it do a few things. Oct. 15. In Hopkins we find the use of slam-banging Anglo-Saxon rhythms. Images, internal rhyme, coined words all clash together in a dissonance of sound. Brings out the percussive power of English. This type of poetry has its vices, but still it gives us something strong and new in nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry. Philosophical or conceptual projection of technical problems into literature. Different writers come off better in certain styles (e.g., Shaw comes off in comedy). Doctrines of fate, fortune, etc. are philosophical problems of something necessary in writing. A reflection of the fact that tragedies must end gloomily. The writer chooses this form because it comes off, not because of his view of life necessarily. The devices a comedy uses are manipulated––the projection of the problem of grace, good fortune. He projects his technique as a writer into other views. G.B. Shaw rationalizes the projections necessary to him as a comic writer. Similarly for Hardy and his philosophy of fate. These are actually illusions born of projection of the form the writer’s work takes. Much literature in the twentieth century is written by men who have become converted either to Roman Catholicism or Anglo-Catholicism. It might be easiest to see this as a projection of literary phenomena. The philosophic origin of this movement in Catholic thought reaches back to the eighteenth century and turns on the word “sacramental.” The classic is Butler’s Analogy of Religion, addressed to the Deists. There are two realms of reality: (1) the spiritual world (2) the physical, visual world. In the latter world there are things that are analogues to things in the spiritual, invisible world. Central to these are the acts of religious ritual, e.g., the Eucharist. The physical form of a spiritual truth. This is sacramental, but illustrates that it is itself the counterpart of the spiritual, invisible world. Insights of religion into the world of the spirit are had through the sacraments of the church through their analogous character. Insights are not had through morality and theology. This is a fundamental theme of Hopkins’s poetry. The whole visible world is sacramental––physical manifestations of divine power. Here we

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have the immediacy of divine presence––the central theme of Hopkins’s poetry. A certain animism––emphasis on the wild, wonderful, unrefined–– the free hand of God, God in original creation. Inversnaid––emphasis on greatness, prolixity of creative power. God is not economic but exuberant in his creation. The sacramental view of the universe is a product of the medieval schoolmen. In Aquinas and Duns Scotus––largely Aristotelian influence––the principle of individuation––problem of form and matter are the central problems. The writer who most consciously used the views of art of St. Thomas is James Joyce (see the end of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) and the man who follows Duns Scotus is Hopkins. Both of course hold the sacramental view of the world in common. In the words of Dedalus in A Portrait beauty is composed of integritas (capturing the sense of the whole), consonantia (belonging in perspective), and claritas (radiance, the form shining forth, the residue of beauty that cannot be talked about; it is immediately sensitive) Epiphany––“the appearance of the God.” Joyce uses epiphany, but not in reference to God in a religious sense. He is using epiphany in a sacramental sense––the poem is the analogy of reality. In Duns Scotus we have “haecceitas” = thisness. In Hopkins, who loved Scotus, we find the “thisness” of the thing as a revelation of the form. That which makes a thing itself and not another is the clue–– individuality in the form. Hopkins uses “inscape” to express “thisness.” Here we have poets speaking in terms of specific literary problems solved by a projection of the sacramental (medieval philosophy) into the universe and into his poetry. Joyce did not project his theory into his life but held it down to literature. Hopkins did not. The Windhover––follows the flight of the bird through the sky. A sense of mathematical precision. Phoenix sonnet. Oct. 22. Built on the falcon’s flight––suggests image of Christ the night-rider, dragon slayer. Image of power, monarchy. “Brute beauty” builds up image of valour, courage. In sestet, this is mixed with the phoenix. Recovers some of the splendour of primitive religious song, e.g., 19th Psalm.

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W.B. Yeats There are artists who find their style immediately and develop its complexity and possibility, like Mozart. Becomes more subtle and complex, but still essentially the same. Also Shakespeare, Raphael. Milton and Beethoven are of a type who grow and change through a series of metamorphoses. Become quite different in different stages of their work. This is more common today, as we see in Picasso. Yeats grows through a series of metamorphoses. He sums up the whole development of poetry in his age. In the Romantic movement the main problem was evocation––to give a mysterious power of magic. Shelley preoccupied with glancing light and shadows, mystery, etc. What emerges is a sense of an unseen world and a mysterious power underlying the ordinary world. Shelley’s world is like Plato’s and yet so greatly different. The texture of the poetry matches it. Goes into sheer abstraction of colour and form. The projection of this into the everyday world gives us the transcendental writing of Coleridge and De Quincey. Wordsworth’s natural pantheism. In Yeats and some of his early associates in Ireland we get some remarkable interests (with A.E. [George William Russell])––e.g., occultism. At the end of his life he was interested in “spooks”––the drudgery of occultism. The curious inappropriateness of this for Yeats, who was aristocratic, proudly aloof, favourite image of the swan. Yet captures lower middle-class occultism. A paradox. Ireland and faeries (unknown powers)––an association which still remains, and this may have influenced Yeats. Suggestion of Ireland as the place of uncontrolled speculation. So this is traditional for Yeats. Becomes interested too at an early age in Irish mythology. Celtic literature has an exuberant, humorous quality controlled by a tough realism. But Yeats and A.E. do not make this out of it. “Celtic Twilight”––a nostalgia. A wistful, narcotic atmosphere. A sense of nature pantheism. (cf. Marjorie Pickthall and D.C. Scott. “The Piper of Arll.”) The fairy tale is a late romantic sort of thing. Not properly folktale. English country tales have mysterious beings––and the transference of these into household pets is a literary invention. There are a lot of avenues that open up in discovering Yeats’s poetry. {All thinking is essentially mythical, and the kind of philosophy depends on the kind of myth.} In nineteenth-century poetry the poet must have a grasp of symbols and imagery. If you haven’t that, you are reduced to talking about poetry.

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Wordsworth and Hardy are great talkers. Shelley and Keats and Blake are different––they create their own mythological structure. In the later nineteenth century poets look for a grammar of mythical metaphor––some of them turn to science, “life force,” “ether,” etc. But this turned out barren. So, many turned back to the classics. And for others, with the rise of nationalism, we see them going back into their own country’s myth––e.g., Wagner. The poet who turned Catholic was given a large structure of symbolism. Yeats could not accept this sacramental structure of Christianity. He turned rather to the national storehouse of folktales. Twentieth century concerned with demonology––tries to recapture some of the superstition of the past to see what it means. What it means often has a far-reaching effect. This attracts Yeats. Herbert Read, The True Voice of Feeling180––comes back to the sense of the poet as [?]––the sense of a reality behind the world of appearance. Yeats got tied up in nationalism––saw British fascism in Ireland and always felt fascism was a British invention. Oct. 29. Yeats and his collaborators were British writing in Ireland and could not write Irish poetry; yet he wanted to develop an Irish literature. Tries to take primitive Irish themes and develop them in terms of British romanticism; as a consequence, many things happened. In his social and political poetry the struggle revolved around great leaders like Parnell. The democratic never appealed to him; he is essentially aristocratic. Irish contributors to English literature have been rather specialized. They have contributed all the great comedy since Ben Jonson, and it all has a special atmosphere. Occupies itself with a ridicule of middle-class values. A courtly spirit. Even Bernard Shaw is not democratic, but a frustrated royalist–– admiration of a strong leader. Yeats has a courtly, aristocratic charm too. Nineteenth-century society has become impossibly vulgar except for king and court at one end and paupers and beggars at the other. Finds it hard to come to terms with middle-class values. Revolution is merely transference of power from one class to another and only takes place when a strong group is ready to take over. A small esoteric group. Yeats always had a fascination for this type of group. Then came occultism––small cells of initiates. Felt poetry to be the product of a small, erudite, select class or group. In ancient Gaelic-Celtic times this was the same attitude regarding bards—a primitive new present in Yeats’s view.

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Music and drama cannot exist without an audience; this is removed from a capitalistic society based on the acquisition books, etc. Isolates it to the individual. In Elizabethan England, drama and music rose. In capitalistic nineteenth-century society, the novel and the essay are in the ascendancy. Yeats was interested in the restoration of direct public contact for his poetry; however, not coming to terms with the hoi polloi. His idea of a national literature was to form an Irish national theatre. 1900––Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Brought Synge back to Ireland. His occultism and awareness of mounting Irish politics and social crisis both continued to rise. By 1919 he was in the thick of the new poetry. A conversion in middle life to a new attitude in poetry. Ends as a contemporary of Pound and Eliot after beginning as a romantic of the Celtic Twilight. Awareness of the “world soul”––and appendages this to his idea of drama. A drama was a small intimate performance with no scenery and theatre. The audience was as intimately prepared for the drama as the actor. The play becomes a sort of religious communion––all communicated within a single mind. Poetry of a ritualism demands a chant rather than speakers. (Singing and chanting are opposite methods of relating music and poetry. In music, the tune takes the lead; in chanting, the poetry.) In A Vision––an astrological theory of history––cycles lasted 2000 years. The cycles are antithetical to one another. The values of the classical cycle are opposed to the Christian. At the close of the second cycle, the values will change back to classical. Classical “antithetical” heroic aristocratic self-realizing

Christian “primary” saint-like democratic altruistic

Brings himself into line with Nietzsche. Symbols Classic Oedipal (antagonism; killed father; possessed mother) Leda and the swan (proud beauty)

Christian Christ (peace; other altruistic virtues; exalts his mother to heaven; does the will of his father) Virgin and the Dove

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The symbolism of Yeats’s later work centres on the return of neoclassicism. Birth of a new world. A civilization at the height of its own power is closest to the values of the other. His favourite historical period is 1000 A.D. and afterwards. So he fastens on the symbol as the ripest fruit of the civilization as well as coming closest to the other––Byzantium. This is a leading symbolism. His favourite period of the West is when the Byzantine influence is felt around 1500; e.g., the time of Castiglione’s The Courtier. Nov. 5. See Sailing to Byzantium Yeats––the opposition of two principles interpenetrating––the cone of gyre, a spiral cone. [Here Evans reproduces the diagram of the interpenetrating gyres from A Vision that Frye drew on the blackboard.]

Grinding [Gyring?] into each other––a favourite symbol, particularly in Yeats’s later poetry. Opposites interpenetrating (Hegelian) cf. Dante––imagery of double gyre––one good and the other evil. Throughout literature: cornucopia––good; maelstrom––evil Ego Dominus Tuus ––turns away from direct speech. Overheard rather than listened to, avoids rhetoric Hic––a commonplace critic, full of clichés Ille––a poet, writing from experience Theme of poet behind a mask, doesn’t reveal himself cf. The Circus Animals Desertion

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Nov. 12. Yeats––Among School Children ––Opening in schoolroom––confronts the contrast between age and youth. The old “scarecrow” kind of dried-up body. A child is not innocent because it does well, but because it takes its world for granted. A sense of the universal potentiality in the child, but gradually this fades out as the child begins to define himself as he grows ––Full of Platonic and neo-Platonic at this time. Vaughan’s Retreat and Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode––also Platonic regarding childhood, the child’s unfallen world. Wordsworth models his poem after Vaughan. (Cf. Samuel Butler for a more ironic treatment.) Stanza 5––drug and recollection––child’s soul is unfallen, but drugged at birth to make it forget the world from which it comes. Stanza 7. Mothers are always doomed to some disappointment in their children, whereas nuns fix their affection in God, statues––that which is stable and permanent. Stanza 8. Vision not of immortality, but of the complete integration of life. Final triumph of labour is only in what is spontaneous, quivering, alive. The Tower––the actual place Yeats lived in. A tower with an unfinished roof. Image of human life, dead at the top. The tower is the retreat of wisdom (cf. Milton’s Il Penseroso). A favourite image of Yeats. Looks down both in time and in space. Begins with the complaint of the absurdity of the old body. Now time for his poetry to become more philosophical and intellectual, less of a romantic lushness, sensuality he feels. This he does actually do. A man should become wiser, because he must grow older. In Part III––poetical legacy he leaves to others begins to be summed up. A poetic statement of life and policy. N.B. Images of heroic pride. Sun, swan. Feeling that man has invented death. Life, death, everything in the world, in literature is man’s invention. Like Blake who feels man is fallen, but from his real self. Real man created the universe. To establish communion with the kind of immortality expressed here is to give more and more to the real part of the self and the artist more and more to his art––turn from the sensual and give more to intellectual pursuits. His basic philosophy is much like Berkeley’s esse est percipi.

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Joseph Hone––a biography of Yeats181 Richard Ellmann––Yeats: The Man and the Masks182 Louis MacNeice––The Poetry of W. B. Yeats183 Virginia Moore––The Unicorn: William Butler Yeats’ Search for Reality184 (studies of occult sources––rough) James Hall and Martin Steinmann, ed. The Permanence of Yeats: Selected Criticism185 (essays on Yeats––two or three worth reading, one by Auden) .

Nov. 19. T.S. Eliot––anti-romantic, classic––clearly defined form. Disapproved of muddy, vague pantheism in poetry Penetrative Eliot’s tastes intellectualized––age of Donne and Metaphysical poets. Also late Shakespearean dramatists influenced him. French influence of late romantics––Baudelaire, Mallarmé––distinctive subject matter (city) and attitude is ironic. Notably Baudelaire. Eliot takes up the spirit of modern man in the big metropolis––queasy, nostalgic, loneliness, vulgarization, etc. Sweeney among the Nightingales. Sweeney runs through Eliot–– animality, vitality, a coarse vigour Introduced to Sweeney by ape, gorilla images. (Also stripes and spots– –zebra and giraffe––ironic, because last two are graceful.) Sweeney is in a brothel, with a drunken prostitute on his knees. Another pair described as well. Death cry of Agamemnon. Here he is murdered in a wood. Metaphor in poetry is the juxtaposition of A and B. The poet needs grasp of metaphor above all, according to Aristotle. This radical metaphor (throwing images together without continuous associations among them) is a characteristic of Eliot. Something is all wrong in this brothel, something worse than being rolled. A deal is proposed off stage, but the confidants don’t trust each other. Not specific, but presumably a plot to murder Sweeney. Foreboding, menacing atmosphere. Agamemnon––high tragedy is opposed to Sweeney, the ape with a couple of prostitutes. A theme of Agamemnon reappears here––prostitute keeping his attention. Complex symbolism from Frazer’s Golden Bough Sweeney is guard of gate between God and men, but a human being too. Unconscious of blocking this passageway.

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Gerontion––sense of loneliness, nostalgic quality of a big city. Image of waste land––the infertility of modern life. Contrasted with rain, fertility. Heroism courage, etc. are all suggested simply because they are denied. They are built up into the images of the poem. Gerontion is old, but not really old. Just withered up––he has never been young. Sense of accumulated weight of years in terms of dignity–– none of these present here. A dramatic monologue––but not much like Browning in techniques. The Hollow Men––Scarecrow. A figure neither alive nor dead. Neither good nor bad, but automata of modern civilization Dec. 3. The Waste Land––a dehydrated epic. A process of condensation merely alluding to certain elements in literature. [here the notes end]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN MODERN POETRY (ENGLISH 4M) (1954) NOTES BY MARGARET KELL VIRANY

At the end of the note-taking for Nov. 12, Margaret Virany indicates that the second half of the course will be taught by Christopher Love, Frye’s colleague in the English department at Victoria College. Material in square brackets is an editorial addition. Sept. 24 Sanders and Nelson, Chief Modern Poets of England and America186 Pocket Book of Modern Verse, ed. Oscar Williams187 ––contains no T.S. Eliot at all—get Penguin if possible Untermeyer188 Mentor edition One Hundred Modern Poems189 ––emphasis of lectures on Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, who are superficially most difficult ––Eliot, Pound, Auden are modern to us Hopkins 1. “running rhythm” e.g., “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where.”190 There’s more than rhythm, but it is all iambic pentameter at the same time. The latter is what Hopkins calls “running rhythm” 2. semantic rhythm––the rhythm of sense, i.e., emphasize the words as you would in ordinary prose. Meter. 3. another rhythm is imposed by the internal pattern of sound; e.g., the rhyming of “ay” and “die,” “go” and “know.” This is the lyrical rhythm. In Tennyson this internal assonance is very important. 4. in music you may have four beats to a line, but the number of syllables within the beats may vary. Even Pope and Dryden have an extraordinary tendency to lapse into the four strong beats. ––Anglo–Saxon, if read naturally. This is the rhythm of accent, or beat. Accentual rhythm.

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Gerard Manley Hopkins also refers to “sprung rhythm.” Syncopated. It has characteristics of the other three. Most nineteenth-century poetry is in running rhythm. Some Victorian poets, e.g., Swinburne, “ran” very fast. Swinburne experimented–– essentially he proved there were no rhythms in English other than the running rhythm which had already proved useful. Blank verse established in the sixteenth century. In Housman––lyrical poetry founded on the stock lyrical patterns which had been established in English poetry ever since the Middle Ages. Stable rhythm. Housman was a Cambridge don––extraordinary he should use the sort of rhythm [that he did]. Lindsay: sort of camp meeting lecturer ––founded on an accentual rhythm. Also true of Eliot’s Sweeney Agonistes In modern poetry there is also found the kind of rhythm associated with Walt Whitman ––influenced from the childhood memories of the Bible ––regular lines organized on a pattern of rhythm which is to a great extent the semantic rhythm ––length of line varies ––lyrical rhythm––organized on internal assonance ––extremely irregular length of line ––calls attention to any little incidentals ––brings out an inner irregular pattern of assonance e.g., “Sunset” Can see influence of other arts e.g., subtitle of [Thomas Hardy’s] Under the Greenwood Tree is “a Dutch painting.” ––values of literature and the other arts are completely esoteric. You can be certain of them, discuss them, etc., but never prove them Oct. 1 Certain experiments are characteristic of the twentieth century in forms, rhythms, etc. Rhythms of the British and American speech are very different ––methods of intonation, pronunciation are as different as English and French ––would expect more difference than there actually is in the rhythms of their poetry

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Walt Whitman is the most different. Set out to create an American poetry. Reflects a kind of assimilation of poetry and prose. ––group of four––Lindsay, Sandburg haven’t stood up.191 Don’t have the wit, strength and skill of some of their contemporaries. Those who went in for pure diction were just as unsuccessful What we see rising is a sort of Atlantic compression of diction ––enables both Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot to be both equally American and British––also D.H. Lawrence. In the poetry of Hardy and Housman: ––considerable concentration of Romantic techniques (essentially Romantic poets) ––Hardy about two-thirds of a Presbyterian––seems to be his whole attitude. Conception of the confrontation of man with natural law. Irony results from a sense of the indifference of nature. This general philosophical attitude is largely derived from Darwin. Religion one of the major themes of contemporary poetry 1. Positive Religious Poetry ––Hopkins, T.S. Eliot, and others 2. Negative Religious Poetry ––Hardy ––Housman ––Butler and others. Emily Dickinson ––treats the clichés of religion, especially evangelical Protestantism, ironically ––the irony of Hardy and Housman is directed against “the comfort of a reasonable religion”192––“safe in the arms of Jesus”193 type of religion; therefore, in a negative way they restate some of the more profound, genuine Christian doctrines. ––p. 10 Sanders and Nelson––[Hardy’s] By the Earth’s Corpse ––comment on some verses in Genesis by someone who had read Darwin and thought about evolution ––Shaw––“What would God say now?” ––dialogue between God and time at the end of time The natural tendency of people living in a smoothly running society is to think of God as a benevolent father seeing the little sparrow fall. God must be extraordinarily stupid to create such a world as that of nature–– complete, brute stupidity. No moral sense––cunning, force, will to survive. God will have a great deal of explaining to do at the Last Judgment.

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[Housman’s] The Chestnut Casts Its Flambeaux ––in another poem [The Laws of God] he speaks of being a “stranger and afraid in a world I never made” This is a post-Darwinian attitude. The great man from nature’s point of view would be someone like Napoleon ––an agent of nature. Called self “the man of destiny” Schopenhauer 1) world of idea ––conscious, intelligible. Found only in the mind of man 2) world of will ––relentless life force which animates the whole world. The world as will is an impersonal force that cares for species, but not individuals. Vastly more powerful than the world of ideas, though inferior to man in mind. In Housman: ––human beings hang on to tiny possessions of mind, culture against this brutal (i.e., powerful) world ––there is plenty of evidence in the world for the existence of idea and will but no evidence of anything else. Therefore, when man turns to an all-powerful God, he is likely to create Him in the image of the world as will. There is a constant tendency on the part of man to deify the God of will, just because it has such tremendous power. If you want to deify the world as will, Hardy says, that’s all right––but you certainly have no right to ascribe benevolence to it. Hardy thinks of human life as being animated by an “Immanent Will,” operating mechanically, unconsciously, & having tremendous power. “If Eustacia were suddenly given the power of God, things would go on much as ever.” Return of the Native ––she’s a beautiful woman––so selfish she doesn’t realize it ––Hardy thinks a great many gods have been created in the image of the Immanent Will, which he thinks is productive of evil, remorseless, ruthless. He is merely repeating the Christian orthodox belief that God is not nature. Many of the Romantic writers sentimentalized nature––e.g., Emerson. It’s possible only to have a highly civilized society in the north temperate zone––selection. The general ethical attitude of Hardy and Housman is closer to Stoicism than anything else. ––yet Stoicism implies an order that didn’t believe in [God?]

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––Loss of the Titanic, Hardy ––part of a pattern unconsciously woven by the fates. His conception of fate is the unconsciousness of powerful will. Accident is quite as significant in the world as causation. ––of the two poets, Hardy is much more moral, and his attitude is much more intensely individualized than Housman’s ––Housman writes a significant poem in his own defense ––sets himself difficult questions to answer Terence This Is Stupid Stuff ––an objection based on the assumption that people write tragedy when they feel dismal. There is no such thing as depressing art, except bad art. Blake––“Exuberance is beauty.” Whenever there is good writing there is always exhilaration. General attitude of Hardy and Housman was continued and in a sense caricatured by Robinson Jeffers, who set out to be the most depressing writer who ever lived Apology for Bad Dreams is his most important poem. ––lived in California ––exaggerates the Stoicism of Hardy and Housman. Turns it into something more like nihilism ––has the Darwin–H.G. Wells perspective. Human life as a painful interlude in the progression of nature which makes no particular sense. Oct. 8 ––all talking poets ––all use a kind of ordinary prose syntax ––follow generally Wordsworth’s dictum that there’s no essential difference between poetry and prose except in the meter There’s really no such thing as direct speech in poetry ––can’t really talk––can only pretend to talk ––it’s like painting, sculpture in that it shows forth. Music can’t speak to people except indirectly. When a picture speaks, that value in the painting is not a pictorial value ––in poetry you have a disinterested use of words. It doesn’t speak directly. Theoretically, in a play the characters are talking to each other, not to the people in the audience. We are eavesdropping. This is equally true of the lyric. John Stuart Mill––what the reader does is not to hear but to overhear.194

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Some forms of poetry do imitate direct address. These forms put particular strain on poetry. A lot of such direct poetry in the nineteenth century. Through the nineteenth century there’s a growing impatience with such poetry. ––Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn ––seems to address audience in the last line. This seems to cause an emotional sag in the poem ––poetry which is pure talk, pure direct address is dogma. Prose metered up, so to speak. Whitman an intensely didactic poet. Wanted very much to talk to people. As poetry is one of the arts, its appeal is sensational and not conceptual. Your first reaction to a poem is one of sense experience. Not a conceptual reaction. A direct sensation of colour or of heat or cold. Emily Dickinson––If I feel as though the top of my head were taken off, I know it’s poetry.195 Therefore, the actual centre of poetry is imagery. Ideas are contained by imagery and not the other way around. Hopkins ––much more intensely theoretical person by training than either Housman or Hardy, yet his is a poetry of images. Therefore, his poetry is more difficult. (Easy poetry for most people is that which has a large element of talk––closely assimilated to the semantic rhythms of prose––constructed out of the same words. This is superficially very easy to grasp. Danger of grasping the meaning in the poem and not what the poet is saying.) Modern poets and painters have to protest against people seeking for a meaning they can grasp and carry away. You get its real meaning when you take it as a purely sense experience. Kipling’s If ––very closely assimilated to prose ––can approach it with very conceptual habits in tact ––but the serious reader of poetry tends more and more to the poems which communicate /something rather than those which merely talk about communicating something Problem of Diction ––talking poems use a flat tone in their vocabulary and diction ––poetry has a great affinity for short, sharp, concrete words because it deals with imagery

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––long, prose words are hard for a poet to absorb. Often have no precise meaning attached, so it’s difficult to pack them into poetry ––a number of Latin words into English ––injured English language’s capacity to form its own compounds e.g., oral. Latin word is oralis––the mouthy. English colloquial. As a result, our Latin words have lost the vividness they had in the original. Often the Latin words are vivid, concrete metaphors in their own language. e.g., “preponderate”––something hanging. Milton uses the words in their vivid metaphorical sense e.g., “endorsed”––having something on its back Great deal of the effort of colloquial speech is to bring concrete vividness into language ––“supercilious” ––“cilia”––eyebrows i.e., means highbrows “highbrow” is a colloquial word brought in to give to English a vivid metaphor which has lost its vividness in the Latin The language of prose will always be more neutral-toned than that of poetry Hopkins in his vocabulary goes back to something of the freedom the language had before it got a cargo-load of long, dull words from other languages. ––e.g., he used kennings Look at experiments in vocabulary by William Barnes, etc. ––artificial ––theory rather than sensitivity to language There’s a worldwide movement to go back to the natural, native inheritance of language. There’s also a poetic need for it. Alliterative line ––has great intensity ––goes with a certain beat ––gets tired of a rhyme at the end of a line Hopkins not content. Has all kinds of inner rhymes as well. Uses alliterative couplets and triplets. Native inheritance of English words consists almost entirely of monosyllables and their compounds ––these require an accent––separate beat

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See Caged Skylark “As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage / Man’s mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells—” ––practically every syllable has some kind of accent ––monosyllables ––alliteration, repetition ––“bone-house” is an Anglo-Saxon kenning Beowulf A kenning is a description of an object in terms of its function––part of tendency of poetry to turn its back on direct speech. This is very important in the theory of much nineteenth-century poetry. ––don’t name a thing directly but create an image of it Hopkins is making English have a facility for compound epithets. Gives the language a compression it ordinarily doesn’t possess. In prose you would use a number of prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions to express the idea of “dare-gale.” This is a word of his own invention. [Hopkins] The Leaden Echo and The Golden Echo ––note how the golden echo is caught with “despair” ––rhythm follows an emotional rhythm, not a conceptual one. A rhythm of thinking, not a metrical one. We get used to putting our thoughts into words. Regard verbal translations of thinking as thinking, which they are not. Thought is a psychological, emotional process. You repeat words in your mind endlessly, if you are obsessed by them. It’s part of the business of poetry to catch this rhythm God’s Grandeur ––a sonnet ––normal rhythm of ordinary sonnet is gingered up here though ––“the soil / Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.” ––cuts out the definite article ––part of Hopkins’s general desire to clear away clutter of rubble from English speech ––don’t need the definite article in front of “foot” Browning is underestimated by the people who write about Hopkins as an innovator. Double rhymes are hard to use in serious poetry. ––usually a sign of comic verse in English. Browning made English writing more colloquial, racy, and informal. Makes use of double rhyme as

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part of his scheme of getting English poetry to move a little faster and do more things. [In Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves] Hopkins starts off with “stupendous” for a double rhyme. “Fire-féaturing heaven. For earth ' her being has unbound, her dapple is at an end, as- / tray or aswarm.” ––i.e., Hopkins gets his rhyme by breaking a word in two. Would hardly realize it was a rhyme [“stupendous,” “end as-”] if you heard it read aloud. This breaking up is quite a feature of twentieth-century poetry. * see Marianne Moore ––chops up the sound patterns of a poem as a whole in very new and unexpected ways ––the lines have one effect on the ear and another effect on the eye. Makes the poetry intense enough that the poetry still has its place Hopkins breaks down the barrier between sound verse and serious verse. Bridges gap between a Tennyson elegy and Gilbert and Sullivan. ––notice considerable stepping up of technique when Hopkins is compared with his contemporaries ––piano treated as sort of mechanized harp in tradition of Romantic music ––in nineteenth century people realized piano was primarily a percussion instrument. Get more pounding accents in music. Also increase in amount of discord the ear will tolerate. ––superficially placid religiosity in such as [Mendelssohn’s] Song without Words ––sliding in and out of discords Similarly with turning from technique of Tennyson, etc. to Hopkins ––use of inner rhyme. Twisted by words jammed together ––tremendous banging in Hopkins’s rhythm because of the number of monosyllables Romantic sweetness in music is founded on a few conventions. Hopkins shows there’s much more percussive power in English than was realized. This had its own vices, of course. Poet can’t choose the way he’s going to write. Can only write the way that comes off for him. ––philosophical projection of technical principles into writing is one type of criticism. ––Hardy found, with his philosophy, that he came off best in tragedy

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––Shaw found he came off best in comedy These are really philosophical projections of what is a technical part of writing. ––fate, fortune, accident, chance come off best in tragedy. Reflect the fact that tragedies have to end gloomily. Sense of futility of effort. ––this doesn’t mean that an author felt futility. Comedy is just as apt to project a belief in providence, miracles because it’s normal for comedy to end happily. A comic writer often tries to bring comedy to the near-tragic conclusion. Then uses devices for happiness. These are often manipulated devices which project an idea of providence, etc. Expected to assume a suddenly changed miser will remain that way until the end of his life. Author’s belief in what amounts to providence is best taken as a philosophical rationalization of the fact he is a comic writer. Hardy’s philosophy is a rationalization of the fact that he was best when he wrote tragedy. If a poet concentrates on writing a certain kind of tragedy, he will begin to think there’s something in it. Similarly, a comic writer will rationalize his art into the working of emergent evolution or grace, etc. Schopenhauer etc. build up the structures of thought. A great amount of modern literature has been written by [convention?] to Roman Catholic or Anglo-Catholic faiths. All this can be seen as a projection of certain literary origins. (Frye determined to see it this way.) ––origins reach back to the eighteenth century. Newman movement. “sacramental” Butler, Analogy of Religion ––orthodox Anglicanism addressing Deism (eighteenth century) ––his argument turns on the meaning of the word “analogy” ––two realms of reality: spiritual (invisible), physical (visible) ––in the physical and visible are certain images which are the analogs of what’s spiritual and invisible ––conceived religion as the performance of certain acts which made visible and physical certain spiritual and invisible truths. Were the analogies of invisible realities. Oct. 15 ––Lord’s Supper––visible and physical form of fact we’re all members of the body of Christ. Therefore, this act is sacramental in the proper sense of the term. ––sacramental act is the physical and visible counterpart of the spiritual and invisible life

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––conception that physical things are the embodiment of the invisible world. If you see this analogy in the world about you, you are seeing the world sacramentally. This is one of the fundamental conceptions of Hopkins. The universe is the outward physical, visible form of God’s presence. Manifest divine power. Sense of immediacy of God––central religious theme of Hopkins. Also get a kind of animism––all nature reflecting God. Praise of wild, irregular, powerful, untamed in nature. If you think of the world as created, you are bound to think of an exuberant creator. This sacramental view of the world is philosophically a product of the medieval school ––St. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus were the greatest of this school ––both have a metaphysics which is fundamentally Aristotelian ––speculation regarding relation of form and matter ––question of what makes a thing individual. Is it the form or the matter? ––Jesuits distinguished by ability to deal with all the schoolmen. The writer who has most conspicuously used the theories of Aquinas is Joyce Hopkins also uses Scotus most conspicuously Portrait of the Artist. One of the characters says there are three qualities of beauty: integritas, consonantia, and claritas, i.e., unity, consistency and harmony, and radiance. Clarity goes back to the medieval school, which defined radiance as the shining of form on matter. i.e., get the whole poem in your mind first ––become aware of parts within the poem. Know that the part of the poem belongs where it is. Poet’s only intention is toward achieving a work of art ––sense of residue of beauty. Something you can’t explain to anyone else––radiance. More in the emotional impact than you can communicate. Joyce came to use the word “epiphany” to indicate the power of a work of art ––technical term for the appearance of a god. Not speaking of god in a religious sense. Simply announcing the sacramental view in literature. The work of art is the epiphany of literature. In Scotus, strong emphasis on the individuality of the individual thing. Thisness (a word we don’t have––only quality, which means whatness).

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Hopkins plunges [sic] on this idea that the individuality of anything is in the form of the thing itself. Hopkins invented the word “inscape” for it, i.e., mental landscape, the vision in the mind. Individual form. Uses it all the time in his critical writing. Poets thinking in terms of specific literary problems. How to render sense of the universal significance of particular thing. Joyce is unique in that he does hold it down to literature. Trained in the Jesuit school. The Windhover ––a perfectly accurate sonnet ––subtitle indicates a religious poem ––contrast of spiritual and physical world ––looks as if poet is watching the flight of a bird ––sense of mathematical precision, control of power Phoenix associated with Christ. References to embers, ashes here may refer to the phoenix, not just autumnal colours. Pattern of death and resurrection. Oct. 22 Yeats Some artists seem to simply unfold. ––do essentially same kind of thing all along, but with more and more subtlety and complexity Other artists seem to grow by a series of metamorphoses. —Yeats one of these —the ways in which he changed are profoundly significant —his literary career a kind of summing-up of the whole history of his age —well-marked interests in Yeats—e.g., occultism —a man of a kind of inverted humour—deadpan, solemn mask —interested in spooks near the end of his life and all the drudgery of occultism —yet there was a peculiar inappropriateness of this sort of interest in him. His favourite images are the swan, proud horseman. How did he get mixed up in an interest that suggests shabby street activities behind lowered blinds, etc.? —association between Ireland and mysterious beings —also something of the romanticist technique in Yeats

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—poetry has incantation, charm —calls up a world animated by mysterious and largely unknown forces —Yeats became interested in Irish fairy lore and mythology very early —difficult to determine where myth leaves off and fairy tale, etc., begins —genuine folk tales were almost never fairy tales —folklore about English country—many mysterious beings, sinister, frightening in general —transformation of them into household pets was a literary invention, particularly in Midsummer Night’s Dream —ballades are closer to the folk-tale atmosphere According to Professor Frye, all thinking of any type is essentially mythical thinking —necessary for poet to use some grammar of symbols and imagery —in the nineteenth century people were turning to various sources, looking for a grammar of myths, etc. —some turned to the mythologizings of science, which is based on mythological conceptions —some turn back to classical mythology —turn to sacramental Catholicism —good number of symbols they could use; e.g., T.S. Eliot —Yeats couldn’t accept this sacramental structure of the Catholic community At beginning of his career, Yeats writes poems about natural pantheism with an Indian setting. Movements of thought in twentieth century have been very largely concerned with demonology —trying to recapture some of the superstitions of the past in an effort to see just what they belonged to, meant e.g., psychology —person today lives in fairyland of ego, libido, id —defined but unseen forces Yeats involved with Irish nationalism —belonged to Protestant group which has produced most of the culture of Ireland —preoccupied with the phenomena of fascism

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—Wagner (Germany) attempted to create new gods out of the old mythology. Similar movement bound up with Yeats’s interest in Irish folklore Yeats didn’t want to write with English influence, yet couldn’t write Irish. —combining Irish folklore with late romantic English idiom ––belief in Irish nationalism took a particular form in him —admirer of heroic, aristocratic values —struggle of Ireland to him revolved about a few great leaders —i.e., combination of Irishness and aristocratic tendencies English comedy since Jonson’s time written by Irishmen —peculiar atmosphere to it —general spirit courtly, ridicule middle class values —feeling that nineteenth-century society has become very vulgar except for the extreme aristocracy and the extremely poor —question of revolutionary action, i.e., transferring power from one class to another —need well-organized class to take over —esoteric group, inner council at centre Yeats fascinated by idea of the small, close, esoteric circle —tended to think of poetry as the activity of a small group of initiates. There is some evidence that this is also the primitive conception of the poet. —values Yeats adopts are those of the praise of the aristocratic and heroic virtues Yeats interested in restoring the popular contact of music and drama to poetry —direct, personal contact with a group who want to listen —he led group to establish an Irish national theatre —interest in occultism developed as Yeats went on, as did sense of the political and social crisis in Ireland ––conversion in middle life from one kind of poet to another ––his studies in occultism brought him in contact with doctrine of the single mind in all things ––function of poet to be a kind of magician—reveal function of the great mind

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––a play becomes a sort of religious community. All are communicating within one mind. Such drama is necessarily poetic, as prose addresses someone on the outside. Oct. 29 —a ritualistic poetry which demands being chanted ––Yeats spent some time working out a chant ––married late in life. His wife an automatic writer. ––resulted in extraordinary volume: A Vision ––most intelligible part is theory that history goes through a series of cycles that last about 2000 years. The cycles are antithetical to one another. e.g., Christianity has values opposed to the classical era Classical “antithetical” heroic aristocratic self-realizing

Christian “primary” saint-like democratic altruistic

––Yeats picked Oedipus as symbol of central classical figure ––antagonistic figure who sums up self-realization ––symbols we meet at the beginning of classical mythology are those of Leda and the swan ––dove and virgin correspond in Christianity ––great deal of Yeats’s later work centres on return to these Christian symbols ––sees blood path of birth of the new world in fascism of his time When a civilization is half way through it is nearest to the other aspect ––therefore Yeats’s favourite era in history in the Christian era would be 1000 A.D. and the next few centuries ––city of Byzantium symbol of the ripest fruit of the civilization ––handles it as a kind of fairyland, never-never land Byzantium influence was made manifest in the west in about fifteenth century Sailing to Byzantium ––later poetry ––feels withdrawn from world of youth and beauty ––makes his way to another goal, world ––holy city of Byzantium is a palace of art, not just a fairy city

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––the world of poetry ––affirms that poetry can only be made out of other forms ––poet has to be erudite because he carries on poetry—reshapes the order of words, doesn’t create anything new —thinking of the peculiar quality of Byzantine art ––mosaic. Gives impression of art bursting in fire ––Venice, Ravenna, San Vitale. Angular figures of saints. Brilliant gold sheen of mosaic. —image of bird in tree ––the artifice of eternity ––salvation of poet is in his artistry ––deliberately artificial, almost trivial image ––real source is Anderson’s fairy tales—the mechanical bird ––twentieth-century phrase—the golden bough ––the mechanical is usually associated with death ––mingling of two civilizations ––each of the greatest is half through ––finds interpenetration of opposed symbols all through life ––uses image of the cone whenever there is an opposition ––Dante’s hell is in form of spherical cone ––mountain of purgatory is another cone ––good spiral and bad spiral ––feeling of life that raises him from scarecrow to man alive—sexual and spiritual ––kindling of fire—sexual image First stanza —old poet looking at world preoccupied with the erotic Second stanza ––aged man only scarecrow unless he can catch energy and sexuality of youth ––wants to enter new world, but not leave anything behind Poet has become a bird. Can look down on world of time, of which he is no longer part. Prophet doesn’t exist in time. Characteristic of life in time is that there is no present time. As soon as you touch it, it is becoming part of the past. Eternity is a pure present. All time is now.

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Ego Dominus Tuum ––dialogue within poet’s own mind ––Michael Robarts is one of the mythical characters Yeats created as an aspect of his mind ––arguing about one of Yeats’s favourite ideas: relation of poetry to personality ––poetry can’t be direct expression of poet. If so, it is rhetoric. ––poet to some extent turns his back on the audience ––make poetry out of quarrels of ourselves; i.e. to find oneself lacking in certain things leads Yeats to view of mask in poetry ––says personality revealed in poem is often direct opposite of personality of man who wrote it. Made Yeats feel poetry is a disguise to cover up defects. ––Hic represents commonplace critic full of clichés ––Ille speaks out of wisdom and experience of the poet ––artist with real skill writes with assurance that this is not his real personality, but the opposite of it ––sharpening of issue between man and mask becomes more acute as life goes on ––as he went on, more and more of Yeats’s life went into poetry and less was left for his own life. Eventually the mask takes over. The richer the mask, the more poverty in his life. Among School Children ––contrast between age and youth haunts all Yeats’s later poetry ––feeling of physical grotesqueness ––image of scarecrow Nov. 12 ––children staring at a complete unreality: the successful public man ––goes back to an incident ––woman he had been in love with for so many years ––implies most adults forget their childhood. Thinks children have no very complicated problems ––general irony of what happens to a human life as it grows older and older ––“state of innocence” not innocent because of behaviour, but because he takes the world as he sees it ––we instinctively smile at children ––see sense of universal potentiality in them

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––adult is in a lower state of experience than innocence because only the predictable is ahead of him ––what mother would think of bringing a child into existence if it were never a child—if she could see it in fifty or sixty years ––anti-climax in human life. Every human being is a disappointment to his mother simply by growing up ––image of egg—Aristophanes in the Symposium. Given twist of the yolk and the white here. Yeats full of Platonic philosophy when he wrote this poem ––idea of the fall of the soul in literature. Soul drinks a potion––Honey of generation. ––vision of three old men 1. Plato––view of transcendence of reality 2. Aristotle––teaching Alexander Greek 3. Pythagoras––occult theory of numbers ––symbols of wisdom in terms of actual theory of birth. No point of contact with the children right in front of him. ––great vision of the integrity of life. Beauty, vitality, energy, spiritual wisdom ––greater than the bronze image because alive ––greater than the son and mother because perfect sense of the complete integration of life ––stanza begins with word “labour” ––work of the old man is result of intensive, hard work ––yet, you see the triumph of work only in what is spontaneous, e.g., tree, activity of dancer. The Tower ––title poem of his late book of poems ––the actual place he lived in. Tower with unfinished roof ––becomes an image of human life. Dead at the top. Retreat of the old man. Pensive, studying, solitary. ––favourite image of Yeats. Picked up from Shelley. ––sits and looks down both in time and in place. Retrospective and circumspective. Begins with same complaint you see in so many of his poems. ––getting older. Should study philosophy. Make poetry more intellectual and less sensual. Took on less of the romantic lushness and more hardness, toughness in his poetry.

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––a man ought to grow wiser, because he must grow older. ––way to handle age is to increase in wisdom Third part ––his poetic testimony is beginning to be summed up ––as he grew older his poetry took on more and more of an Irish cast. Looked more and more on great Irish men as his own ancestors. Kind of Toryism. ––all his favourite images of heroic pride here ––he is opposed to all the philosophers of transcendence who say our world is established for us by some other kind of intelligence. The universe as we see it now is man’s own invention. Life and death are also man’s own invention. Men we see are parts of an eternal and infinite man who made the world in the first place. Comparable to Blake—man fell, but fell from his own nature. ––conception of immortality which is humanistic. Not a God who is separate from man. Almost a heathenistic immortality. ––thought immortality was a fact ––give everything you’ve got to the immortal side of yourself. ––for the poet, this is his poetry. ––idea of the shell. Smiling, public man hidden inside it. ––Berkeley: to be is to be perceived. Jump from mind of man to mind of God. ––Yeats felt this jump wasn’t necessary. Can continue to exist in mind of man. ––imagery of heroic pride ––all his favourite ones here ––sun, swan *J. Hone. Yeats196 R.E. Ellmann197 ed. Hall––collection of essays on Yeats198 *essay on poet or dramatist who interests you ––this term Frye––next term Christopher Love199 Nov. 19 T.S. Eliot ––great deal of his poetry reflects the intellectual atmosphere of Harvard while he was there ––admiration of Dante

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––high church, dogmatic view of religion ––went to England in the First World War ––studied at Oxford ––poor time to go to England ––his Oxford career didn’t last long ––became member of the publishing firm of Faber and Faber ––by this time some of his poems, e.g., Prufrock, and the quality of his verse made him famous very quickly Quality of penetration distinguishes Eliot from thousands of other poets who are almost like him i.e., in first contact with it, it becomes unforgettable Pure sensational impact of poetry as such ––his taste in poetry was typical of his own time ––anti-Romantic point of view ––pro precision versus vagueness ––preferred the classic in the sense of the fine line, clearly defined form ––liked ideas to be clear and distinct too ––versus Romantic pantheism The Romantic poet is continuous. One great pantheistic unity. Therefore, doesn’t see form and clarity (grabs his nose––dives into infinity). Eliot’s idea is discontinuous. Needs the clarity, shape, form of a dogmatic idea. Therefore, his tastes were much more intellectualized. Shared general admiration for intellectual poetry coming in in his time, and especially for the age of Donne and the metaphysical poetry, and for the successors of Shakespeare in drama ––French influence ––post-Romantic. Baudelaire––late nineteenth century ––clarity, precision of mind ––a distinctive quality of matter––city ––a distinctive emotional attitude to it––ironic This sums up the emotional experience of modern man in a big metropolis. ––loneliness, sense of innocence––rubble and trash. Wheezy nostalgic emotion one feels. Universal vulgarization of values. Sweeney among the Nightingales ––Sweeney an Irish name. A character who runs through a great deal of Eliot’s poetry ––great animal vitality, certain coarseness ––introduced to Sweeney in terms of three animals at once

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––ape, gorilla, zebra, a striped and spotted animal Both the zebra and the giraffe are used ironically, not for their shape. Their shape is the gorilla one ––Sweeney is laughing ––begins to be a little clearer where Sweeney is. Sitting in a brothel. Girl on his knee––drunken prostitute ––the silent man is someone else ––an equally unpleasant male ––man with heavy eyes. Is he the same one? ––sun shining on his face. Don’t get idea he is particularly attractive. ––someone else again. Host. ––reference to Agamemnon takes you to the core of the poem. Agamemnon’s death cry ––general atmosphere of the sinister, foreboding ––nightingales ––many references to astronomy This is typical of this technique of poetry. Aristotle says the essential thing for the poet to know is how to handle metaphor ––a metaphor is a statement of identity ––a metaphor is always illogical: A is B, Not A is A ––a metaphor is an assertion, predicate. Predicates or assertions haven’t really any place in poetry because poetry is hypothetical, not assertive. Consequently, the real form of metaphor is A;B. Juxtaposition––A and B A famous poem of Ezra Pound (two lines) called In a Station of the Metro (Paris subway): “The apparition of these faces in a crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.” ––has made a metaphor ––all he does is compare faces in a crowd with wet petals against a tree ––something Oriental about this ––Pound’s version of a Japanese form ––no predicate whatsoever ––doesn’t say anything; just puts the two together: A;B This is radical metaphor ––put together, but no continuous relations made among them

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Sweeney among the Nightingales ––Agamemnon. Wife the lover while he was away at war. They plotted and murdered him on his return. Actually murdered in the bath. Here in the wood. ––something is all wrong about the place where Sweeney is ––looks like something worse than being wrong is going to happen ––two women ––all these unknown men ––deal accepted offstage. Can’t trust each other Get impression there is a plot to murder Sweeney ––sense of sinister, foreboding, menacing atmosphere ––violent disproportion of the two elements Agamemnon poor old Sweeney Once you feel the brooding atmosphere, you start to pick out overtones e.g., sacred heart, dishonour The theme of Agamemnon reappears in the relations of the victim, the prostitute and the sinister man around the edges who has other designs ––Pattern of contrast is established at once ––image of Sweeney comes on you ––poet draws back. All peaceful, somber night spreading all over. ––two gates of Homer: gold, ivory (horn). Sweeney is the guardian of a gate between the voice of God and the voices of man, just as much as Agamemnon is Gate of horn something like Jacob’s ladder. Sweeney sitting in a doorway, blocking the passage, not conscious of the connection. Whispers of Immortality Astute criticism thrown in ––talks about two of his favourite dramatists of seventeenth-century England Webster––combination of the macabre and intellectual Donne––the same is true of him ––the most vivid experiences are sense experiences. Struggled to give the same vividness to the mind that the sense experience gives to the body. Need for immediacy of impact. ––experience beyond sense that sense cannot satisfy Lovers truly desire to be each other, but knowing they can’t, proceed without the possibility of this satisfaction. This is the kind of thing Donne has in mind. ––proceeds to Grishkin

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What is the connection with Webster and Donne? ––she’s a Russian prostitute ––Webster and Donne concerned with consequences, contacts following on afterward of sense experience. ––Grishkin is sense as an end in itself. She is all sense. Has the hypnotic power of a beast of prey ––perfumed. Great deal of perfume is made out of the glands of certain animals. In some forms perfume is a subtle effluence of cat Tendency of human life to feel something essential has been lost when you move away from the body. ––still want the physical, sensual Grishkin represents this. She’s an unanswerable argument for the senses. ––see Yeats’s poem Politics ––cuts Thomas Mann down to size ––unanswerable human physical feeling Nov. 26 Eliot ––technique of juxtaposing two types of imagery sordid epic, heroic One sheds an ironic light on the other At least four poems of Eliot have completely changed the whole structure of poetry in English literature The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock The Waste Land Gerontion The Hollow Men Gerontion ––atmosphere characteristic of Eliot ––loneliness, nostalgia of an urban civilization ––imagery which runs all through Eliot ––waste land––symbol of contemporary life and sterility ––rain––life and fertility ––extraordinary power of description ––basement, deserted lots ––sense of meanness in the context There is no such thing as depressing writing which is any good

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––still, a splendid irony in Eliot. Intense, almost unbearable beauty behind the dinginess, shabbiness of what he’s describing ––the title means an old man ––Thermopylae––hot gates i.e., the heroic has no part in Gerontion’s life. Not the type to be found fighting at Thermopylae ––old trick of rhetoric to suggest something by negating it. References build them into the poem One of the differences between poetry and logic is that in poetry you can sum up an idea while negating it e.g., it was a hot day because no cool breezes were blowing200 ––poetically––cool ––logically––hot ––references from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: “Thou has not youth nor age” [3.1.33]. Gerontion is old but not really––can’t have anything positive, even age; i.e., the impressiveness, respect due old age ––image of the old man ––sterility, barrenness, decay ––builds up image of growing year ––begins with winter solstice ––passing of spring into summer ––beginning of death ––reference to dogwood ––wood the cross was said to have been made of. Flower is white with red marks on it ––fits with the reference to Judas ––continuous life of Christ. Sense of dragging Christianity down into the same kind of sterility ––international set of people ––remembers them as they float through his life as parts of a single instinct in his mind Feel that all you want to know about these people is just what Eliot has told you––completely defined so far as your memories are concerned These are the people Christ died for ––made no contact with Him or each other ––whole symbol of communion seems to have completely run into the sand ––Christ a tiger––usually a lion ––actually a conventional symbol of Anti-Christ

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––degeneration ––also feeling that whatever Christ is he is anti-Gerontion. Relation of wrath ––summons up his memories ––gives his philosophy of life ––wrath-bearing tree. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil––not separable Virtue is the cause of vice and vice versa ––has gained insight from having lived a long time ––history an eternal and unending liar ––theme of frustration builds up after Eve plucks the apple ––sexual relations––lust––want something infinite to gratify it As Gerontion talks about history, it gradually builds up the feeling of a tantalizing fruit ––what he has, after a lifetime, is forbidden knowledge ––talks directly to one member who has meant something to him ––love might have saved his life ––the one contact with some real experience is lost ––constant analytic dissection of his mind sets to work––loses terror. He has an analytic mind because it’s the only way to kill things. Nothing alive can really come near him. ––image of two mirrors facing each other. Look into a series of unending reflections ––prophecy of our death. Dries up completely in the wind. Moral fluff. People he’s with also become atoms, etc.—reabsorbed into matter Ibsen’s Peer Gynt ––makes little of his life ––told that people are mixed up and melted down again ––this is the one thing Peer can’t stand. Conception of a death which doesn’t place a person anywhere ––Gerontion has never really come alive; therefore, he doesn’t really die (“mixed up and melted down again”) ––no youth and no age. Only a dream of both. ––a dramatic monologue ––comparable to the late Jacobean dramatists ––Gerontion meets death with the resigned calm of a philosopher ––on the other hand, Job puts up a great struggle, which is partly the reason for his salvation. Can’t kill a man who is as much alive as this.

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The Hollow Men ––a mottos for the poem: ––“Mistah Kurtz––he dead” Heart of Darkness (Conrad) ––scarecrow image (same as Yeats) ––“A penny for old Guy” ––i.e., Guy Fawkes ––conception of person who’s neither alive nor dead. Neither good nor bad because they have no idea of such realities. Automatons, robots of modern civilization ––the rat as a sure-fire image. The one animal with no friends whatever ––inhabitant of the desert ––primarily the human parasite. Kind of life the human polluted life produces ––prayer put up by someone afraid of facing any ultimate judgment, reality. Another Gerontion. Wants to be a scarecrow agitated only by the wind ––someone losing beauty and terror again ––image of the desert ––cacti, blind stone images ––inability of the hollow men to meet any direct experience is symbolized by the watching eyes, stars. Unbearable to the hollow men to be looked at. ––hollow valley––valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel ––broken jaw––reference to Samson ––groping people at river––reference to the Inferno * next time, bring copy of The Waste Land Dec. 3 “What do you wish, Sibylla. I want to die.”201 ––image of spiritual life reduced to cremated ashes, hanging half-way between heaven and earth, with nothing in it but the wish to die. ––dedicated to Ezra Pound in modest but bad piece of criticism–– “clever artist” The Waste Land ––dehydrated epic ––essentially epic proportions reduced to about 400 lines by a process of condensation. Alluding to certain elements in literary tradition ––cut by Ezra Pound ––technique of ending line with present participle

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––lines pushed on. Suggests unwilling inertia ––reference to April––as if Eliot writing last great poem in English literature ––Chaucer begins with April making people want to do things ––other side of April here ––scenes succeed each other like dream sequences ––effect of April. Application of spring image of youth ––picks up scene at random ––year turns ––someone protesting he’s not a Russian at all. Comes from Latvia––a real German ––insisting on roots a point of pride with some people In a nomadic country like ours, though people make themselves silly by talking about such things ––mixed up identity ––aristocracy carries on tradition of blood, soil, etc.––aristocracy is also uprooted ––has vague memory of going down mountain in sleigh ––association of freedom with the mountains––the one thing which has remained in here ––goes south in the winter––another nomadic movement ––image of someone moving on ––image of uprooted civilization ––introduced to myth ––fertility-god myth is important ––from the myth in literature we move on to the romance ––old king, dragon, hero, country restored with fertility. Goes back to the time when the king was divine and also bound up with the fortunes of his tribe The myth underlies the ritual connected with the divine king. If you kill the king carelessly [. . .] Therefore, kill him carefully, eat his body, and drink his blood ––sacred cannibal rite. Kill king as his body begins to fail. By eating and drinking of him you partake of his divinity. Body and blood become identified with harvest and bread and wine. ––introduced to waste land here. Atmosphere of rock, no water, desert, dry tree, dust (haven’t met divine king yet) ––echo from Wagner’s youthful, vigorous hero Tristram. ––call to the young new hero to turn up. Has been delay. ––suddenly contrasting this image with breath of spring imagery–– childhood

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––section ends with another Wagner quotation ––hollow, groaning answer to the question asked earlier ––no Moses in this civilization. Just the red rock, which equals dead man because Adam is the red earth ––hyacinth the flower associated with a dying and rising god ––hyacinth garden––garden of Adonis in Spenser ––sordid, fear and superstition ––failure of religion leads to consulting of fortune tellers ––Equitone––phony name ––going to consult fortune teller at end (forbidden by law in England) ––Tarot pack––original pack of cards ––four suits: wands, cups, coins, pentacles ––ancestor of the present cards ––spade actually a sword ––club actually a dish or group of dishes ––heart actually a cup shape ––diamond actually the head of a lance ––lance thrust into Jesus’ side, cup offered him, dish of the communion, sword These are the Christian forms of these very old symbols ––two masculine, two feminine Tarot pack has an extra face card––knights. Also a series of greater trumps (22 of them––22nd is actually numbered zero––the fool). ––13th––image of the hanged god. Man upside down. Eliot picked up this Tarot symbolism ––first greater trump––the drowned sailor Theme of death by water all through poem ––next greater trump––femme fatale, Belladonna (lady of rocks) name of a drug, Mona Lisa (lady of situations) ––man with three staves ––wheel ––blank card––corresponds to the fool, numbered zero ––hanged man is the last, which is what she doesn’t find ––in the myth Eliot is using the old impotent king is sometimes described as a fisher king. Man who tries to remove the evil of impotence from the country but can’t do it. Overtones of Christianity. He is human nature which cannot redeem itself ––final stanza of first section

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––Eliot’s London pretty intensely real. Starts on south side of the Thames––crosses to the north bank––thousands of people scurrying past, going home to south bank. Thinks of Dante’s bridge. ––feeling that no one sees anyone else, as in a modern metropolis. Everyman blind. Stops. Ages of history linked together. Corpse planted in garden (fear of coming up from comfortable winter bed to spring). This time something more dreadful is buried. Ends with quotation from Baudelaire ––St. Mary Woolnoth––clock stops at nine. In central part of London ––Christ is going to rise to the great dismay of everyone who’s trying to keep him planted. ––second section ––begins with gorgeous description of a modern Cleopatra ––at the beginning, allusion to Shakespeare, describing Cleopatra ––strange synthetic perfumes––links her at once with Belladonna ––overtones of Marlowe’s Hero and Leander ––suggestion of Queen Dido––feminine passion and seduction ––Philomela––changed into a nightingale ––persecuted by a barbarous king ––dirty ears can only hear “Jug Jug” ––electric sparks off her ears give her an eerie, sinister glow ––cf. Charles Adams’s cartoons ––incoherent words “think”––as if through a closed door ––overtones of The Tempest––playing game of chess ––Ferdinand and Miranda. Miranda not a virgin here though and Ferdinand not a youthful hero. Belong in the kind of world where they can’t stand rain ––in the first scene of The Tempest Gonzolo doesn’t think one man is going to be drowned because he’s going to be hanged. ––shift to pub scene ––have to close at 10:00 ––“antique”––picked up from “antique mantel” of previous section ––repetition “HURRY UP PLEASE”––suggest it’s later than you think ––ends with Shakespearian echo ––Ophelia––death by water Dec. 10 Set-up of symbolism––cyclical movement of nature

Modern Poetry (English 4m) (1954) Solar morning noon evening

seasonal spring summer autumn

water rain fountain river

life youth maturity age

night

winter

sea

death

521 civilization Middle Ages Renaissance 17th–18th centuries 20th century

––valley of bones in Ezekiel ––Marvell’s poem––irresistible passing of time––“at my back I hear . . .” [To His Coy Mistress, l. 21] ––“I”––overtones of The Tempest and the fisher-king ––sequence of Divine Kings––line of descent from father to son. One dies, next succeeds. ––king of Naples in The Tempest ––scene is changed ––ritual overtone––choir of boys singing at time of ceremony of washing the feet in the church ––ballade from Australia picked up as a parody ––echo of nightingale’s song comes back ––one-eyed merchant––a figure on pack of cards ––means well-born ––irony of the collapse of the aristocracy at the first ––pun on currants––selling them ––connected with sailor’s drowning in currents of sea ––mixture of mechanical rhythm and classical rhythm ––echo of Sappho ––Tiresias––the universally detached observer ––has been both man and woman ––quotation from Ovid (three elements of serpent, fall of man) ––“divan”––overtones of Oriental luxury, & piece of cheap furniture also ––violent juxtaposition of sordid contemporary scene with great rhythms. Reference to Agamemnon. ––almost an echo of The Lady of Shalott ––tinny, jangling noise floating out over the river ––line from The Tempest ––reference to the fisherman ––busy, cheerful noon. Contrast to the squalid evening ––splendour of the church breaks on you ––sailing down Thames, past dock of east London ––towns of Kew, etc. Overtones of British navy ––rippling sound––Wagner

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––water nymphs (opening remark of this section refers to nymphs) In years past, the Thames flowed into the Rhine ––three Thames maidens ––Margate Sands––northeast part of river––almost at the sea. Famous resort centre ––three sisters have all been seduced, cast aside. Disembodied. ––Carthage––reference to Dido––beginning of Aeneid St. Augustine also refers to Carthage as city of unholy love ––death by water––a spiritual death. Sinking into passion. Finally washed up on shores of Carthage––dead end, dead city ––supreme monastic, ascetic reaction provoked by this kind of fleshly indulgence. Fire of asceticism ––Pyrocles––ironic counterpart of same thing. Also in Faerie Queene––wall of fire surrounds Castle of Indulgence ––theme of death by water is picked up and isolated in part 4 ––little poem in Greek tradition––epitaph for the dead ––commercial civilization carried out into the sea––drowned Fifth section ––thunder ––final judgment on this civilization ––prophecy of returning rain, spring ––torches, etc. ––reference to capturing of Jesus in the garden ––Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane ––stony places––Golgotha ––pure desert––wandering Israelites––no Moses ––paralysis of life––Ancient Mariner situation ––what’s that on the other side of you? ––the risen Christ ––lament for the dying god ––empty cistern, exhausted well––Jeremiah––John the Baptist–– prophetic voice ––images of no rain, desert waste land ––bats crawling down from belfry. World turned upside down ––woman ––opposite of the Madonna chapel––deserted place where knight errant must stay overnight to prove his heroism

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––in middle of cemetery––bones as in Ezekiel ––cock crows––denial of Christ. Morning. ––oriental, Hindu setting. Three Sanskrit words ––translated as give, sympathize, control ––mean, cautious, [?] prudence There is a greater wisdom––surrender. Person who hasn’t died in atmosphere of wills and obituaries ––horror of spiritual solitude. Line from Dante. ––prism of the ego ––Coriolanus––statesman who couldn’t make contact with people. Lack of sympathy. ––impotent fisherman ––echoes––fragments, bits of rubble. Things salvaged from the earlier traditions of Western culture ––Provençal ––poem of The Night Watch of Venus––swan song of the classical world Nerval––nineteenth-century French poet. Mysterious sonnet about ridiculous person. Quixote ––Spanish Tragedy––revenge. Play within a play like play in Hamlet. “Ile fit you.” ––Christian mass. Ties up east and west.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN NINETEENTH-CENTURY THOUGHT (ENGLISH 4K) (1954–55) NOTES BY MARGARET KELL VIRANY

The notes are undated, but as this was a fourth-year Honour course, they are almost certainly from 1954–55 (Margaret Virany graduated from Victoria College in 1955). On some of the pages the last line is missing on the photocopy Virany sent me. Most of the notes are holograph but those on Mill, most of Newman, and Arnold are typed. The holograph notes rely on a good measure of Pitman shorthand, for which Virany provided me a decodimg key. Words I could not decipher are indicated by a question mark within square brackets. Other material in square brackets is an editorial addition. The lectures are wide ranging but they focus on the writings of: Edmund Burke John Stuart Mill Thomas Carlyle John Henry Newman Matthew Arnold John Ruskin William Morris Thomas Huxley Samuel Butler Sept. 22 The twentieth century has produced no political philosophy of its own. Its philosophy is rooted in nineteenth-century preconceptions, e.g., Marx–– Communism. Fascism––Romanticism. Democracy––Mill. Become aware of the assumptions that lie under what questions you ask.

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The Stone Age and the eighteenth century; the two great periods of technological advance. There are still people in the world closer to the Stone Age. The writers in this course were all very aware of the technological advance. Become aware of the novelty of our situation e.g. the USA is the oldest nation in the world. Developed to its modern form in 1776. No major shift since. ––France––Revolution ––Germany––Italy––1870 ––Asia––taking shape in its modern form in our own day USA is the cradle of our civilization today. Department of English is now what departments of classics used to be, i.e., general clearinghouses for all kinds of humanistic knowledge Prose dialogue––the writers in this course ––fundamentally literature ––yet Carlyle seems to be writing philosophy––yet it is something other than English or philosophy ––laboratory example of humanism at work, i.e., people with humanistic background turning it to other walks of life. Making their knowledge of literature etc. the basis for other fields of human life ––some of them are considered so conservative they are reactionary Political, economic life ––moving towards greater centralization in our day & towards greater & greater uniformity (All big cities look alike also) Cultural life & arts ––extremely localized developments. Dependent on restrictive localization. Every English writer who has ever amounted to anything has been a little England. Kipling tried to write for the empire & produced trash, because it is the wrong sort of unit––any international language will have to be a jargon language. Entirely technical, not literary. These writers looked on technological progress with jaundiced eye because they realized result it would have on culture, which depends on something very different.

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That is, there are two movements, rhythms in human life, especially contemporary. Canada is a good place to watch the two develop. Burke & Mill ––transitional figures ––roots in the eighteenth century Most of the course falls in the Victorian Age (though there are two Victorian Ages) ––second begins with Arnold & runs through Ruskin & Morris ––central fact of the earlier is the shape & alignment of the political forces involved about Victoria ––eighteenth-century Tories hardly survived ––the aristocracy was almost eliminated as a cultural force ––after Reform Bill (1832), find uniform middle-class culture ––assumptions: writers in this course are middle class ––second Reform Bill (1969) is main occasion for writing Culture and Anarchy Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs ––reactions of an English mind to the politically revolutionary developments in France & America ––statement of the English idea of compromise––NB to the whole period Sept. 28 English Political Parties in the Nineteenth Century ––transition from eighteenth-century Whiggery to nineteenth-century Conservatism illustrated by Burke ––He stood for many liberal attitudes though supported Americans during the Revolution. In fact, most of the middle class favoured the Americans. Burke felt “no taxation without representation” was justified. Defended it publicly. ––Burke always stood up for those who were victims of British imperialism ––swung into opposition against the French Revolution & so alienated many of his liberal friends. Accused of being a renegade to the liberal cause. ––Appeal of the Old to the New Whigs is to vindicate self against charge of being inconsistent, & a renegade regards his own attitude to France as being directly in the tradition of the Old Whigs ––he regards the New Whigs (e.g. James Fox) as radicals. Dangerous to the social order.

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––thinks problems posed by the French Revolution are very different from those posed by the American Revolution and the Revolution of 1688 Two strains in Burke 1) peevish, reactionary, haranguing 2) theoretical abstract argument, which is very important. His argument is valid today as pure theory. This is a paradox because Burke feels all political questions are practical ones & can’t be theoretical ––he played a large part in propelling England into a war with France ––on the theoretical level almost all English politics since Burke has been Burkean in general attitude Three categories in nineteenth-century thought 1) deductive, a priori, syllogism, mathematics, dependent on reason, logical, rational 2) inductive, generalizing from data, science, “empiric,” “pragmatic,” dependent on sense experience, can never be pure logic ––inductive method very important in English thought ––fact-hunting is not rational, it is sensational ––need facts first to develop a rational synthesis from ––according to Burke, all political thinking is inductive ––Thomas Jefferson––eighteenth century––logical, syllogistic mind ––“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Take major premises and conclude concrete conclusions ––French Revolution started by major premises, then drew up constitution to found society on this ––according to Burke, you can’t withdraw from society and then seek to rebuild it. You start with existing human societies. Pragmatic. ––90% of what we do in life is decided for us by our birth. Society has been here ahead of us. The radical fallacy is to start with the individual conception of man ––society forms continually, just as the individual does ––every society is conditioned in the same way an individual is by an act of will to transform society into another type of society. All political changes therefore must be practical, piecemeal, pragmatic (Just as an English professor can’t turn to heavyweight wrestling). {Historical importance of this argument: ––eighteenth century––age of enlightenment ––human consciousness primarily rational. “I think, therefore I am.” Where does the therefore come from: Antecedent belief in the primacy of reason} ––you can’t direct the situation towards a rational goal

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––logic is a smaller part of life. The lesser can never equal the greater. This theme runs all through the course. Thinking is one of the things man does. This is a powerful argument against a certain type of revolutionary intelligence & therefore is of very great importance. 3) organic mechanical (especially in the thought of Goethe) ––society is alive, an organism––can kill it but not transform it into another kind. Just like planting an acorn & getting an oak, i.e., organic continuity ––machinery can be constructed from logical principles, blueprints, diagrams ––All Romantic criticism is shot through with the distinction between poetry which is alive and that which is mechanical ––Burke would say in Russian civilization today we have again the workings of this metaphysical fallacy. Marxists would say they are cultivating society towards its own inevitable growth. ––according to Burke, you can’t see your own society, just as you can’t see your own backbone ––Burke has supplied a useful thought in a period that was getting too individualistic in a lot of its thought ––we tend to think of society as a product of a group of individuals, but it is entirely impossible to draw a sharp line around the individual ––Burke says that society presents an organic continuum which can’t be violently interfered with at any point ––since Plato etc. we have thought of the will as the servant of the reason. Burke says the will is nothing of the kind. ––Burke insists on the importance of historical tradition ––only sources of knowledge of what kind of a society you are propelled into. Give insight into what you can do. ––when king is too strong––royal tyranny ––when baron is too strong, baronical tyranny ––one is as bad as the other ––group of professional revolutionaries can’t call themselves “the people.” They represent at best a small part of the country. Therefore, France is now in the state England was in under King John. It is just as tyrannical when the will of the people is carried out without reference to the needs of society as a whole This principle of the inner balance of society has been central in English freedom ––must look into a society for the sources of freedom it offers.

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––any tension or conflict in society results in either 1) civil war 2) compromise––each gives up a little and enters into a larger compact to preserve society as a whole English history is remarkable for its series of class conflicts ending in compromise. That is the true legal constitution of Britain––true heritage of freedom––e.g. barons weren’t actuated by purely unselfish motives in forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta. Nevertheless, because they wanted to curb the power of the king, they entered into the English tradition of freedom. ––in the seventeenth century the permanent results of the conflict between king and parliament were the habeas corpus, Bill of Rights, etc. According to Burke, the Revolution of 1688 is what brought Whigs into being. ––civil war was a waste of time ––tends to vanquish and defeat but not exterminate the enemy; it was therefore useless ––the king was of use to what became a corpus of law to guard the rights of everyone in the country King James II took too much power on himself ––a threat to the body politic, so removed ––difference between the removal of a dangerous & incompetent king and the removal of the institution of monarchy ––latter always wrong; the first is sometimes right––in fact it might strengthen the idea of monarchy “The legislation for the dead, the living and the unborn”202 ––binds our ancestors to us and to our descendants––unites all in a steadily growing legal contract Two conceptions of law 1. inductive (British), totality of legal guarantees 2. radical, a priori ––difference seen in the dialogue in the introduction to More’s Utopia. In Burke’s conception of liberty you have the beginning of what is called the Whig interpretation of history Short-sightedness is actually a virtue in a leader

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––you can’t pursue either the radical or the conservative path completely. Therefore, it’s necessary for Burke to have some place for a deductive principle, though a subordinate one Sept. 29 A prejudice is a submerged major premise of the mind ––one acts deductively ––the prejudice always takes the role of the major premise ––determines what the framework of your mind is going to be. You seek to perceive the original framework of your mind. e.g., a democrat arguing against Communism has to have certain prejudices or he’d simply disintegrate. Your prejudices concerning knowledge, history, tradition, society, according to Burke, should be rooted as much as possible in what you’re used to. They should be deductive [?] as much as possible. Burke’s Conception of Nature ––Burke’s conception of natural society is major in eighteenth-century thought ––accompanies conception known as “Theory of Contract” (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau). Fairytales, but treated as political theory The real argument is an analysis of social structure of the writer’s own time. ––e.g. Hobbes says people got together and gave power to a supreme absolute ruler. Parable to illustrate his analysis of the seventeenth century. ––Locke wrote at the time of the 1688 Revolution. Saw it as a delegation of people to the rulers which could be taken back if the rulers were not worthy. ––Bolingbroke also an exponent of national society. Burke’s first work was a satire on this. Bolingbroke was an English forerunner of Rousseau. ––central conception of Rousseau: as man has a nature and has his origin in nature, there must be an equilibrium somewhere between man and nature, i.e., there must be a society in which it is natural for man to live. Everywhere in human society you see a violation of nature. Man is the only animal this is true of. The two ideas of nature and reason can’t be divorced for Rousseau. The natural society must be a reasonable society and vice versa. Whatever it is like, it is obviously simpler than the existing society. Perplexity is a sign of some kind of failure to adapt. In human society are two natural longings––for freedom and equality. Both of these can be easily perverted. Man is in the grip of the machine he invented–– civilization, in which he sought to overreach the natural way to live. The

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natural society now lies buried beneath these other societies, but they could be torn off and reveal the natural reasonable society. This was the central idea of the French Revolution. A form of the sleeping beauty myth. This collides with the Christian teaching about the nature of man, which differs from animal nature because it is a fallen nature. Swift in Book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels is against Rousseau and Bolingbroke. He thinks like a Christian bishop. ––a race of gifted animals––conceivably live a rational natural life ––man can’t because he’s fallen ––myth of Adam & Eve is unobtrusively brought in ––the Yahoo is what man would be if he lived in a completely natural society Oct. 5 Burke says whole association of nature and reason is fallacious. To better a situation is not to change it radically. ––Utopian society takes a false view of nature. It represents human nature with the rest of nature According to Burke, man is by nature reasonable and is never in his natural state unless he is placed in that position to use his nature (aristocracy). Art is man’s nature. ––baby––not adjusted to nature but to society ––develops step by step. Societies do also. Inequality in society is that which man inherits by his own nature ––conception of rights is a fallacious abstraction. Men have no rights, but duties ––right––abstract idea ––duty––immediate Thoreau: asked himself what he needed––food, shelter ––radical simplification of society ––question of human rights led down the path of renunciation ––man’s itch to get more than he actually needed ––dream of America closer to eighteenth-century dream ––begin to wonder if Thoreau wasn’t an abstract man ––he was being carried along by a social structure. Underwritten by a society he intended to repudiate. ––man––born hopeless. Stability comes through integration with his society. Society an artificial thing, constructed unconsciously and consciously. Therefore, according to Burke, art is what is natural to man. It

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conserves what is essential to man’s nature. The arts are a natural excretion. For Burke, the real structure which man should build is a concrete society in which all the elements which are already there are guaranteed their own place. ––human body exemplifies a certain division of labour ––health preserved when different organs do their different work–– mutual cooperation ––disease occurs when mutual cooperation breaks down. Analogy of useful thing. In a state of health there’s a sense of total good. If sick, anarchy in one of organisms. To Burke all forms of tyranny are essentially cancerous. Warns all people forming the social thinking not to refer to the will (instrumental to reason––preservation of cooperation or passion [?]. Dangerous to talk about will as a sanction to social action. Is the popular will in the service of social reason or social passion? Burke asks, are people electing a representative or a delegate? A representative has some will. It’s up to him to use it to act in the service of social reason. Duty to guide well. The popular will can be tyranny. In Burke the conception of natural society is part of his conception of natural law. Communist and socialist conception of strike. Burke says (in class conflict) if reason is in charge, you get some legal change which is consistent with progressive improvement in society. Social contract––relationships among elements of society. None of the British documents deprives any set of fundamental rights– –rather defines these rights in a way that decides their continued existence. Application of argument to contemporary France is ridiculous but Burke defines for us the characteristics of the revolutionary mind. Will––can be servant of passion––mark of tyranny or dictatorship ––reason seeks freedom through reasonable cooperation Simple desire––passion. Cannot want freedom, only mastery

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Oct. 6 All social and political questions are empiric or pragmatic. Oversimplified intellectualism, useful in math, etc., cannot be applied to human affairs. The latter depend on things that are not at all reasonable or logical. In nineteenth-century thinking the empiric, pragmatic view is the conservative one ––the moral of short-run change ––all continuity must be preserved Much in Burke’s argument impresses the reader as a half-truth. Burke did swing over to a reactionary view with all the emotional zeal & much of the instability of a convert. He was attacked as openly and bluntly as the censorship would permit. ––Tom Paine was his main adversary Paine was a deist in religion The Age of Reason––cursed for the next one hundred years as a wicked book. Criticism of the Bible. The Rights of Man––a very ably written piece ––best piece of defence of the revolutionary principles of that time there is. Burke says he won’t attempt to refute Paine. Just says the sales people should be rounded up by the police. Have to consider Burke’s argument apart from the context of the situation, his attackers. ––points out the irrationality of any theory of government that says what was done in the past binds people to go on doing the same things always. (See argument for this view in notes on Burke.) ––He says because of the 1688 Revolution England is bound to monarchy forever ––doesn’t really mean this ––simply an emotional italicizing of his argument that we legislate for the past, present, and future ––tradition of English writing flows through some of the Utilitarians ––one feels Burke’s arguments are very logical, but are an ingenious rationality of what’s already there e.g., hereditary property

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––(if you throw all rewards of society open to ability alone, it becomes cutthroat, swarming Qualities that get you ahead in life are fundamentally those of force and cunning. You would be promoting a society of force and unscrupulousness. Great deal of English wealth and property is tied up automatically. Brings a passive element into the greed, viciousness. Acts as an excelsior. Society is not logical. Nature is not logical. By throwing things open to ability you are acting logically––it throws things into sheer tyranny There’s great force in certain aspects of this argument. ––honour of wearing crown is too great to be won ––can only get it by accident. The highest power is out of reach of ambition. ––there’s a great deal of wisdom and insight to this ––it is a difficult matter when you take into consideration the abuse of the aristocracy in Burke’s day. Makes him too smug. Perhaps something can be said for the deductive, a priori method ––much to be gained by stepping back from your society and regarding it reasonably. Every experience is between an inductive experience and a deductive principle. This was later the argument of John Stuart Mill who was on the opposite side from Burke. ––nevertheless he fully understood the force of Burke’s and Coleridge’s arguments. Tried to make a place for them. Therefore, worked out a principle. J.S. Mill ––conservative and liberal camps actually complementary. Needed both points of view in any healthy, balanced society ––takes Mill as the supreme example of the liberal, a priori, deductive, rational type of mind ––takes Coleridge as the conservative, empiric, inductive practical (existential) point of view Jeremy Bentham ––judged all existing phenomena in terms of this rational point of view

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Mill: These two types of mind are habituated to ask typical questions about any given institution Liberal: What use or value is it? This camp became the Utilitarians. Conservative: Why is it there? The answer to them would be historical Motivation of the Liberal’s question is a broad and general conception of reason. Conservatives question is why in our society is . . . etc. Bentham trained as a lawyer ––came into practical direct contact with the great evolving body of freedom Burke was talking about and found it a mass of obsolete laws, absurdities, situations demanding law, etc. Certain classes were using the law to conceal their own doings––to sell it to the people at large. What Burke had studied was the codification of English law made by certain lawyers ––e.g. Blackstone ––prejudiced against women ––many of the legal disabilities of Victorian women were not so much a result of the law as of Blackstone’s interpretation of the law. Bentham established himself as a critic of English law ––this meant he was a pioneer in the field of semantics or semasiology (i.e., question what words mean) ––found many, such as “natural law” for which he could assign no positive meaning ––many learned words often used simply for emotional reason. Discovered how many of these smoke-screen terms were actually emotional ammunition ––urged complete reform of the English constitution along more French lines ––legal code to be founded on some kind of rational principle. This was the catch ––looked for a principle big enough and solidly enough established to serve for his major premise ––didn’t find such a principle ––had a shrewd mind as a critic ––naïve mind as a systematic thinker

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––his major premise was almost as vague as those it was to supersede Decided on “All men by nature seek pleasure & avoid pain.” All notions connected with God, natural law, promptings of the conscience should be associated with the idea of pleasure. “All”: if a number of men are all seeking the same pleasure, there is going to be conflict. ––conception of happiness has to be accompanied by the conception of number. The ideal society would be that in which all men are happy. This is impossible. The best society is that in which the greatest number are happy. This led him to “the greatest happiness for the greatest number.” “greatest” ––very ambiguous. Can relate either to quantity or quality. ––first one––either quantity or quality ––second one––quantity Deductive sciences are those of weighing and measuring. ––can only do this with quantities. Therefore, Bentham saw he’d have to make his phrase quantitative. ––doesn’t consider it a question of qualitative difference in happiness at all. Means the greatest quantity of happiness. This gives him a means of working out a logical, utilitarian view of society. ––as long as you talk about something that can be calculated, you have a basis. Known as “hedonistic calculus” Oct. 12 John Stuart Mill Contrast of Inductive and Deductive Thinkers ––conservatives think of social and political behaviour as an art. ––Burke is thinking of the ability of the statesman to develop certain intuitive skills ––Utilitarians discuss what are now the basis of the social sciences ––there can be no science of qualities ––primary and secondary qualities / Renaissance distinction, basic to Locke, etc. ––primary, such as volume, mass, weight, can be weighed, measured ––secondary, such as form, colour, belong to sense experience of a different kind

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––artist, above all, is concerned with secondary ––same is true of statesman as artist. Realises human acts can’t be reduced to quantitative measurements Bentham conceives of happiness as dealt with in terms of quantity. This somewhat vulgar conception worried Mill. Mill: “It is better to be a philosopher dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”203 Bentham––if dealing with quantity of people, can also talk about quantitative happiness. ––same argument is that behaviour of mass on stock exchange is statistically predictable. — a certain number of people will commit suicide this year, yet no given individual is obliged to commit it. These quantitative certainties of human behaviour are basis of the social sciences. Conviction of value remains incommunicable. Mill set himself task to interpret Bentham’s “greatest happiness of greatest number” ––-democracy in crudest from— mob rule ––a majority a) is always right b) is always wrong ––the farsighted group is always a small minority -–the king in Huck Finn: “Ain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” [Huckleberry Finn, chap. 26] ––Mill concludes that two elements must be held in balance ––essential stabilizing principle of government is democracy in sense of majority rule ––other element is minority right. Any attempt at minority rule leads to an unstable principle of government. ––once you start attaching value to the opinions of the majority you have given up the only really progressive element in society. ––these two elements become part of the pattern Mill sees everywhere in political arrangements. Not every minority is right. Two elements of human behaviour: l. world of social action

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2. world of thought and discussion. ––thought and discussion considers infinite possibilities, only a few of which can be acted on. Therefore a larger world than world of social action. ––to permit freedom of thought is also to circumscribe freedom of action, according to Mill. ––if you permit majority rule, you don’t impede minority right ––majority rule is concerned with social action. ––minority right is concerned primarily with thought and discussion. U.S. Jews a minority right. ––represent standing criticisms of claims of Christianity to be infallible U.S. Negroes a majority problem. ––form a group by themselves only under a social pressure they represent. Jews a natural minority. Negroes an artificial one. Social action as carried out by majority rule in elections, etc., is the conservative voice of society. ––what society has been ready to accept The thing that is the minority right is possibility of contributing to the area of thought and discussion. i.e. Liberal Every person in society is a member of the majority and the minority simultaneously. How can you organise these two attitudes of mind so they are parties of almost equal strength and can take turns in power? ––Mill suggests educated people get a plurality of votes Disadvantages of majority rule don’t outweigh its advantages as a political and social civilisation. Oct. 13 Conservative ––Burke, Coleridge ––most closely attached to romantic movement. Feelings over logic. ––the intuitive. Flair, skill in political questions.

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Liberal. ––more rational, deductive. Child of the enlightenment — tries to use canons of predictability in behaviour Revo1utionary ––not too much in England. Dialectic view of moving toward a final showdown between two groups. Conservatives often have more concrete sense of human, personal problems. Less apt to think in terms of diagrams and laws. Advocacy of reform based on immediate, concrete needs. Unrest and dislocation in early nineteenth century Period of far-reaching reforms. ––old, inherited powers of aristocracy and also new moneyed class severely limited. ––i.e. can get a Toryism which is pretty radical in actual effects. ––insists on a sense of responsibility Among the Utilitarians, get number of people who are reactionary in that they make it a philosophy of the moneyed class. Much writing on the Mill side of the fence reflects self-satisfaction. Economic system was laissez-faire in ascendancy. —vast producing machine absorbing more and more people gradually. ––human relations tended to become depersonalized ––feeling of anonymity is a new thing. Causes great deal of concern to many writers, particularly conservatives. ––developing conception of free trade, export of goods. ––all this built up concept of imperialism at same time it was sucking vitality from the country as a self-contained, political unit. ––central issue of nineteenth-century thought is really relation of industry to government. Most writers were sharply critical of laissez-faire. ––tended to build political anarchy by destroying sense of responsibility ––tended to make society a general scramble In this period began to get concept of the abstract, economic man, i.e. an acquisitive being.

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Conservative doesn’t want far-reaching changes. Doesn’t want individual sacrificed to vast, vague scheme of general improvement. Utilitarian would treat this as a rationalization of things as they are. Nineteenth-century socialists acted against what they felt was the inhuman treachery of laissez-faire. Every new movement also forms a new kind of power in its turn. Laissezfaire began as a liberalizing movement but tended to develop a new kind of oligarchy. English social history always represents a struggle between an upper class and an upper middle class. e.g., laissez-faire oligarchy and organized labor. Principles of organized labor are now in ascendancy because accepted by both Conservative and Labor parties in England. Utilitarianism would have to come to terms with the problem of laissezfaire. ––reactionary elements of laissez-faire were perceived early by some critics —possibilities of latent anarchy in laissez–faire made idea of government control extremely attractive. [James Mill’s] Essay on Government ––government is to help equalize the distribution of goods; i.e., social umpire Why Was Style of Utilitarian Writers so Poor? ––Mill appeals to rational intellect alone. Haywire prose that does not appeal to emotions at all ––three reasons for bad writing among intelligent people 1. necessity of using technical terms 2. jargon which is expression of some kind of unbalance in author’s mind 3. jargon which is evil. Results from a passion for lying. Found in propaganda. Mill was a liberal who thoroughly understood conservative point of view. Eventually reached a uniformly balanced position.

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––avoided pitfall of getting into a panic [John Stuart Mill’s] Essay on Utilitarianism ––attacks notion that holding traditional sanctions of religion or morality necessarily gives firmer grasp of ethical principles. ––if you approach things from Utilitarian point of view you can often get a better idea of justice, fairness ––immoral to talk about necessarily suffering ––his conception of liberty, freedom is founded on very definite conceptions of certain right. This is the English doctrine of freedom. Essay on Liberty ––nineteenth-century attempt on part of intelligent people to find a source of authority. 1. temporal 2. spiritual Mill ––source of temporal power in the state must be will of majority ––final veto not from sovereign, but from majority in popular election ––spiritual authority depends quality and not quantity Temporal Authority ––will of majority ––quantitative standard ––majority has a sense of the immediate situation Spiritual Authority ––minority vision of ends ––qualitative standard Question of the amount of pleasure is not the point. The sense of happiness is a simultaneous and synthetic apprehension Oct. 20 It is obvious that those who are pursuing happiness are not free. ––happiness is a kind of emotional criticism of an act; e.g., one mentality: “I’m going to enjoy this or bust” ––conception of freedom must be bound up with a sense of the detachment from that kind of pursuit ––radical intellectually detached view is to step out of society and contemplate it. These are the minority.

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––the minority has the right to think and see, but not to act as a minority. Can act only with the majority. The essential characteristic of spiritual authority is freedom of thought and discussion, i.e., the disinterested discussion of possibilities. Freedom of thought eliminates stampeding, spasmodic, unheeding action. Mill doesn’t mean he likes free thought as long as it doesn’t do anything, but that action should have direction. ––the will of the majority expresses itself in instrumentality of action. Society is actively free to the extent it is implementing the freedom of thought and discussion which are the conception of the ends of society. ––parliament represents an area of free discussion ––parliamentary government provides the working model in a free society. ––only societies which permit much freedom of thought show directed action. ––only the people with closed minds dither. Freedom of thought for Mill is unlimited. Freedom of action is limited by self-preservation. ––seldom get tyranny of the majority. ––tyranny of the minority must be feared. ––majority bamboozled by a very astute, unscrupulous minority. Mill seems to spend disproportionate amount of time explaining that personal eccentricities must be tolerated in society. ––of solidity of English democracy with dither in America. ––can’t have democracy along with a desire for uniformity. ––this desire is liable to produce a tyrannical minority. ––immature to worry about unconventional behaviour. ––immature society can’t tolerate superficial divergencies. This fear is part of a lust for uniformity. The mark of the witch-hunter is a malignant vicious form of cruelty which begins in a resentment of harmless eccentricities. ––Mill is advocating a kind of maturity in society. In Great Britain have a central democratic structure and it doesn’t matter if there is a change in the form of government. It is based on toleration of individual behaviour. Unanswerable development of maturity.

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Mill emphasizes tolerance of individual eccentricities because realizes people want to interfere in affairs of others because they want mastery. ––attacking the real, most pervasive enemy of liberty. ––self preservation is the only principle on which society can protect itself against assertion of individual and tyranny of majority. Radical imperialism in Mill’s day, i.e., mastery disguised as liberty. Community as a whole has a right to its own existence first. Mill says right to liberty exists just as much for one generation as next Conception of Liberty of Discussion ––no theory is alive unless it is an argued theory. ––a thesis ceases to be true when no longer opposed. ––lust of interfering with others frequently takes form of forcing assent to doctrines. But once they accept what you believe it ceases to be true. ––two people can’t believe exactly the same doctrine in exactly the same way. ––axioms rooted in practice are different from doctrines demanding assent. ––the profound statement is the one with the cutting edge. ––beliefs must be used. Should mould, be worked out in, your practical life. ––psychological fact that it is precisely what you are least secure about that you yell loudest about. Oct. 26 Liberty of thought and discussion is therefore a discussion of the principle of academic freedom. It follows that academic freedom is the only really important one––central in society. Mill doesn’t have a distinction such as Milton’s (i.e. regenerate man versus natural man) yet realizes freedom is founded on something intangible––people don’t have any desire for it. Three distortions of the desire for freedom

––mastery: you do it as I say––dictatorial Natural man’s freedom

{ ––individualism: leave me alone––bourgeois ––slavery: hurray for leader––proletarian

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These forms of society are projections of popular will. (This is by implication the potentiality of Mill’s argument.) Mill’s argument is a present challenge. Takes courage to defend it. Notion that truth always rises to the top is not borne out by records of history. Once an idea has been passed up by the human race, it passes up for good. Mill’s theory of thought and discussion is really the theory of the function of a university in a large sense. (Will return to this conception with Newman and Arnold.) Idea of a university or a church can’t be confined to the buildings and social institution * read Sartor Resartus Nov. 2 Carlyle ––conservative tradition ––imported ideas from German Romanticism––stress on intuition rather than logical reasoning. Reason is dealt with on two levels: 1. logical 2. intuitive Coleridge distinguished reason and understanding comprehending psychological fact A explaining B understanding Do you understand? is a higher reason Final understanding––incommunicable, psychological, overall Step-by-step understanding––logic Certain German Romantic Thinkers ––limits of reason. Take things on trust. ––Hamilton––understanding more profound than reason. J.S. Mill wrote on him––destructive criticism. Mill saw it as a danger. He could see Coleridge’s view, though. ––Kant Critique of Pure Reason 1781 i.e., reason of eighteenth-century Enlightenment is used by Voltaire and Hume to destroy superstitions of the past. ––Kant tried to put reason in its proper perspective. It is just one faculty of the mind. Problems of philosophy––matter of grammar 1. a house––general, already seen the house––particular, something new 2. Reason is a function of the mind.

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––“the” essence. Take it away and nothing is left. Exclusive. Tiny point of grammar, yet distinction of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophy. 3. Art is expression––art expresses Art is communication––art communicates Both are true––a fight for essence––one or the other 4. Cartesians––Man is thinking man––struggle for possession of an essence Kant––man thinks 5. This is a work of art––artist always works in terms of indefinite article. This is art. This type of value eliminates all others ––plurality of entities Do not mix––epiphany (James Joyce)––temporal, momentary ––essence––eternal The world of sensations is real. A reality––difficult to refute or The reality––vulnerable Kant chose “a reality” Knowledge is based on sense experience––even knowledge of self. But there is something in a person that is not knowledge––a sense of “I.” If it’s true for myself, it must not be denied for each of you. The desk I am sitting at. I and the desk exist. It does not follow that I and it are the same. The desk will always be as looked at, or impression of senses. Noumenon––Ding an sich––thing as it is. World of inner existence. Phenomenon––thing perceived. Belongs in world of knowledge. Kant. The philosophy affected religion. You cannot prove God. Because God exists, it does not follow that God is an object of knowledge. Plato ––knowledge of appearances ––knowledge of forms The body sees objects The pure, immortal soul comprehends forms, ideas Kant ĺ Goethe ĺ biological and psychological aspects of man Platonism––up to the time of Kant Christianity––distinguishes reason and faith. In St. Thomas Aquinas, Luther, or Calvin, faith is not thought of in any psychological sense Quantitative sciences preceded qualitative

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Middle Ages––mathematics ––sciences develop in their closeness to mathematics ––astronomy, chemistry, biological (Darwin), social (now) ––new qualitative science hang on to quantitative for some time; e.g. statistical surveys of to-day German idealistic philosophers ––Goethe, Fichte ––noumenon and phenomenon picked up by Carlyle ––world of naked bodies and world of clothes Nov. 3 noumenal––thing in itself phenomenal––things as experienced and known 1. “existential ego” What do I do? 2. “intellectual ego” What do I know? Fichte’s The Vocation of Man influenced Carlyle the most ––trying to shift the main emphasis from the structural to the functional ––part I doubt significant progression ––part II knowledge serious study of philosophy––comes with the awareness of intellectual limitations ––part III faith ––next stage is to fill up the area within the limits of knowledge ––put it in its context ––faith: the grounding of knowledge in the active, total existence ––beginning of genetic, almost biological conception of knowledge ––seen in Samuel Butler ––faith is not only what you believe stated in doctrinal, dogmatic terms ––we are all Don Quixotes, i.e. can’t distinguish between what we believe and what we think we believe. The latter belongs to the restricted world of unfunctional intellect ––middle section Sartor Resartus ––this part of Fichte reappears ––extraordinary piece of prose planning ––originality of form ––striking prose fiction

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––middle section is a fictional autobiography of a German philosopher ––three marked stages in his life 1) Everlasting No ––doubt, complete despair 2) indifference––state of pure knowledge 3) [missing line on photocopy] . . . his actual manhood, his total humanity The ideas of Fichte reappear in Carlyle. Extending of the area of psychology from the individual to society at large Fichte ––world of things that are mind ––world to which I have to attribute an independent existence ––the world I experience is the awareness of the non-ego ––child––everything there is extension of his own life ––as he grows older, realizes it’s a world which is independent ––two elements of the ego: active & thinking. Those two aspects deal with different parts of a world outside us ––thinking ego deals with the phenomenal world ––active ego deals (or at least becomes one with) the world of things in themselves The first fact presented to the thinking ego is an independence of the outside world. The first fact presented to the active ego is a unification. If you are studying the relation of water to ice, you are a thinking ego. If you are trying to learn how to swim or skate, it’s a process of learning to adjust yourself to the nature of ice and water. Unite yourself with it by your behaviour. Philosopher who must get away when it is quiet is the purest example of the thinking ego Leader is purest example of active ego ––function is to unify society. Bring it together If unifying process is greater than the differentiating one, the two egos must come together in a unity––God, or absolute ego Can’t prove existence of God because you can’t differentiate him from the deeper parts of yourself. Fichte’s philosophy gives a deeper place to action than thinking ––also a mystical philosophy

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Carlyle believed the word “king” derived from the word “cunning.” The knowing man. Character of the hero is that the highest knowledge is active, or the idea of energy without visibility World of forces is the world of the naked body. World of symbols is the world of clothes. The world of experience is the clothing of God Relation of clothes to nakedness is double, paradoxical ––disguise the appearance ––reveal the clothed world ––reveals the naked work as fact (appearance) ––hides the naked world as symbol e.g., desk ––the desk I see and touch is a clothed desk. It is a fact of appearance in the outside world ––inner hidden reality I am now leaning on is the real desk. The clothed desk is a symbol of this. You are a symbol of yourself and to yourself insofar as you know yourself. The naked world is invisible. Whenever you are in a relationship of differentiation you are in a world of appearance. If subject and object are in a relationship of unification, you are in a world of reality. Explains why, in human life, such importance is attached to the appearances, which are symbols e.g., the Crown––something deliberately constructed primarily as a symbol of something not itself ––anything, when regarded as a symbol, is a symbol not only of itself but of the total unity of all things Cross, crown, etc. have a certain unifying social function. As long as the social unification they express is an actual existing fact, the clothing is appropriate to the reality under it. When this relation is not appropriate [line missing from photocopy] . . . thrown away. Carlyle sees a great deal of the old clothes of tradition in the nineteenth century. Humanity in the process of getting a new wardrobe. George Fox one of the heroes

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––made self own suit out of leather ––man of the new age. Constructs his own clothing in a more appropriate form. Knowledge is based on sense experience. If we knew the naked body it would be appearance If man couldn’t think, he would be living a purely functional existence. A lot of these paradoxes are verbal paradoxes. No words to describe the actual functional relationship with objects. ––if a plant or animal does something with great accuracy & complexity, it’s hard to describe it without using words which relate to processes of knowledge in man. The world of plants is a real world (e.g. tulips don’t bloom in October) but the unifications that go on are hidden. Carlyle ––the existence of human consciousness is both an advantage and a disadvantage to man ––gives him something nothing else has ––loses capacity of instinct Nov. 9 ––difficult to classify all the material that turns up in literature ––philosophical categories used as a basis for literary symbolism Swift, Tale of a Tub [line missing in photocopy] . . . symbol of something. ––worn-out clothes quite often used to represent appearance of things which have got out of touch with reality. Conception of history based on analogy of Western life to that of the individual. Middle Ages youth & health Renaissance middle age 17th & 18th centuries old age 19th century senility future rebirth ––Admiration for things medieval started in the eighteenth century. Great deal of it since. Started with the Gothic revivalists.

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––ultimate pitch of degradation is always the critic’s immediate time ––runs into the Romantics ––Burke––chivalry is dead ––Coleridge––admiration for medieval philosophy ––with Ruskin, enters art criticism ––Neo-Catholic School It is a cliché––not to be taken too seriously. It is also an ideal which underlies Sartor Resartus and Past and Present. ––various stages of the professor’s career are a kind of allegory of Carlyle’s time and the culture of the time ––Teufelsdröckh ––educated in the atmosphere of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment i.e., rational skepticism ––felt the emotional rigidity of it and revolted against it Goethe––Sorrows of Young Werther ––early novel of Goethe ––tremendous hold in Europe. Caught the mood of the time––that of a strong reaction against enlightened skepticism ––pro emotion ––produced Sturm und Drang epoch in German literature ––pre–Romantic ––1780s (represented in England by such things as the poetry of Ossian) Werther and Teufelsdrökh both unhappy because of love affairs ––takes Carlyle through period of the Everlasting No i.e., Romantic pessimism ––Byron––went through Europe exhibiting “Pageant of the bleeding heart”204 (Matthew Arnold). Wrote of self as an outcast. ––period of the Everlasting Yea i.e., Romantic heroism (Mature Goethe) “Organic Filaments”205 heroism (slender threadlike bodies) ––future ––tendencies reaching out for the sake of a new coherence in society ––conception of unity in action ––sort of mystical or hidden unity.

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––for Carlyle the supreme test of any society is the amount of loyalty in it (Loyalty not to any ideal in the society but to the society itself. ––Carlyle condemns splitting up of society into a pile of individual atoms in his own day ––doctrine of laissez-faire––every man for himself (the individual is the only reality in human life). ––felt Voltaire etc. had actually weakened men’s belief in the coherence of society. Therefore made such an inhumane thing as the French Revolution possible ––followed by Utilitarianism (the pig philosophers, according to Carlyle) and the doctrine of laissez-faire. 1) laissez-faire––everyone in society directed outward. No one really in touch with anyone else at all. 2) if attentions are turned inwards you develop some sense of social reality––society as a real thing. e.g. Queen Elizabeth has an unparalleled ability to draw crowds. ––they are not looking at her but at each other ––centralizing agent This society recognizes that other people are individuals too. Recognize hidden reality, unity. Lose the cut-throat sense. Always two aspects of the leading or central figure ––ruler de jure––exists as a focus [line missing from photocopy] ––admits that the book had “excited us to self-activity which is the best effect of any book”206 ––refers to “inferior Intelligences, like men”207 Middle Ages in Europe to the end of the seventeenth century––“true era of extravagance in costumes”208 “The Present is not needlessly trammeled with the Past”209 ––position is illogical, unfair ––there are certain things which are out of reach of ambition––no one can scramble for them. Too great to be deserved, won. In contemplating such a person society becomes not aware of the person but of itself as a unity. Can also do this by symbols, but in general it works better with a person ––ruler de facto––compared with an army. A leader with follower For Carlyle, ought to be a working partnership between the two [de jure and de facto]

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––society unhealthy when too much out of alignment In any given society there’s usually a group of people who have de jure rule ––in nineteenth-century England––aristocracy ––according to Carlyle people don’t have rights, just duties ––Aristocrat’s duty is expressed in fact that he’s automatically a member of the House of Lords ––they are parasites, though. Doing what the spirit of the times prompts them to do Carlyle wanted the French Revolution to stand as a warning to the English aristocracy ––when the ruler de jure abdicates his rights, he becomes a species of traitor ruler de facto ––ruler of laissez-faire––big business––boss, corporation head, etc. Captains of industry ––great strength of the captain of industry is that he does work ––great weakness of the captain of industry is that he has no tradition ––employees relation to him is not that of loyalty or of coherence but of every man for himself ruler de jure––Aristocracy––politics without energy ruler de facto––captains of industry––economics without responsibility One gives us vestigial power and one gives us laissez-faire. Neither is healthy. Past and Present i.e. Middle Ages and nineteenth-century Utilitarianism & laissez-faire ––conceptions of personal contact as necessary ––device for making government anonymous––Parliament ––expresses that the relations of men are impersonal ––the population will become a fact only when there is a leader in the centre to give expression to it This represents a criticism of English life, which is pretty cogent Past (Middle Ages = personalized society, stable, combination of de facto and de jure Present (nineteenth century) = anonymous society; de facto Utilitarianism; retired aristocracy; leaders without responsibility Chronicler––Jocelinde Brakelond––actual––paraphrased in Carlyle210 ––impersonalized society of the nineteenth century––missing: leadership, sympathy or charity, compassion because of laissez-faire policy

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Reason ––being stops with body Compassion non-reason. Putting oneself in the place of others. Society should be one body. It’s a larger human being (paradox). ––proof of everyone’s kinship to society example of the woman who, left without charity in society, dies of communicable disease which brings death to others ––nineteenth century condemned. None are their brothers’ keepers. People are misled by propaganda of Carlyle and Marx for nineteenth century ––The century had child labour, but also passed laws against it. Christianity––reverence for life––everyone a child of God [missing line on photocopy] Nov. 10 When everyone is sensitive of human greatness, then human greatness will make itself manifest. Weak point in Carlyle’s Past and Present––arguing from monastery & trying to apply same things to larger society. In monastery everyone knows everyone else. Therefore, choice of [Abbot] Samson is a wise one. In society a prospective leader has to appeal through publicity, not personal contact. Points to decentralization of society into smaller parts. Otherwise, society is a dinosaur––too big, little brain. Diogenes Teufelsdrökh God-born: hidden element, immortal Everyman. The essence of

}

every human nature.

Devil’s dung: more obvious, material Swift’s Yahoo ––stage of despair ĺ suicide ĺ Everlasting No ––Becomes conscious of self, ego, and becomes imprisoned in it. From this he comes to see kinship with every other individuality. ––“production” or work ––the man who is really alive is the outgoing man. The man who is wrapped up in himself is dying. Death is a triumph of the locked-up ego

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––the man who is living is the man with contacts with fellow man. The working man with a social function. ––discovery of function = completion of the individual ––difficulties of discovery not examined by Carlyle. Ruskin and Morris examine them ––society consists of workers or producers––the individuals with a social function. Without the social function they would cease to be individuals. ––drudges or exploited workers––social function without individuality. Drudges are slaves, not [missing line on photocopy] The Dandy or Idler ––individuals without a social function ––aristocracy ignoring duties is an example ––a burden to society ––the more of these the more drudges to keep the dandies in the position to which they are accustomed, i.e., privilege Imagery ––worn-out clothes––hangovers from the past ––tenacious clothes––“Dandiacal Body”211––unworking class ––self-made clothes––George Fox’s suit of leather ––ragged clothes––drudges (“sans culottes”) without pants––used in French Revolution. ––no clothes––Adamitism––Rousseau’s natural society ––revolutions do not bring in change of clothes. Imagery based on fact to some extent. You can tell the way a society feels by its dress. Revolutions tend to wipe out the first two in the list above, e.g., French Revolution wiped away “Dandiacal Body.” The newly established body then develops its own clothing. ––Other things change––art, thought. Carlyle selected clothes. ––Reality––hidden world not an object of knowledge (sense, reason) but can be understood intuitively ––Appearance––disguised world You probe beneath the second to know the first.

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Nov. 16 ––tendency of Romantic philosophy to become conservative and nationalistic ––Wordsworth and Coleridge ––outburst of enthusiasm at the French Revolution soon diverted itself ––even noticeable in Byron and Shelley Carlyle’s conception of symbolism ––nature the garment of God two kinds of symbols 1) extrinsic ––without value in itself, but acts as a kind of indication of the unity of society. e.g., flag 2) intrinsic ––value in itself ––may be studied for its own sake e.g., the work of art Chapter on social servitude––“Helotage”212 ––usual romantic view of the peasant. Honours him. ––also honours the artist. Creative worker ––his whole conception of society is based on work ––creative life as a life of production This extrinsic symbol is the focus of unity for society conceived as manual workers. The work of art is the typical intellectual symbol for those who work with their brains and minds. Ultimately the silent symbol doesn’t have the unifying power of the personality. Extrinsic––the king or the professional leader ––visible leader Artist, prophet, saint (imaginative leader) ––intrinsic The two uniting forces in the society are the individual and the hero, who, in a sense, is the incarnation of social unity. Greatest hero is Christ. For Carlyle, it is his personality [line missing from photocopy]. Hero is imperfect unless he combines both imaginative leadership and social prestige One consequence of Carlyle’s argument is that the great artist could and should be used for social purposes as well.

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––his great example was Goethe —“Essay on Shakespeare” in Heroes and Hero-Worship (purest piece of rhetorical baloney because his whole theory demands that he make Shakespeare a hero. He inflates his hero with his rhetoric.) ––“If you’ve got your great artist for governor you’ve got everything.”213 ––Carlyle’s admiration for Goethe is not because he is a great artist but because he did so many other things too ––conception of a general or transferable greatness Have to be careful about calling Carlyle a sort of primeval Fascist. ––the Fascists always cynical ––Carlyle is not cynical. His views on leadership & heroism are based on something like sincerity, concern, and charity. Ultimately, a reverence paid to human society itself and the human beings composing it. Past and Present ––curious use of Middle Ages as period of leadership But it was not an age of heroes. ––Carlyle’s real period is that of Luther (one of his great leaders). Sixteenth to eighteenth centuries––Milton, Goethe, Cromwell. ––selects medieval period because he says every society is ultimately a church (Sartor Resartus). Every society is an invisible unity. ––not conceived as an aggregate of individual unities Nov. 17 Newman ––many words relating to the inner, personal life came into the language at this time ––romantic criticism is psychological in emphasis ––interest in seeing how ideas develop in the mind ––great age of imaginative autobiography There is a cultural break at end of Victorian period ––considerable revolt against their culture at beginning of twentieth century ––with Newman we are introduced to a new aspect of nineteenth-century thought

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Life ––went to Oxford ––became centre of Oxford Movement––High Church within Church of England ––included Keble, Pusey, Hurrell Froude ––his history is closely bound up with history of Oxford Movement ––started with a Tractarian Movement to awaken the Church to a new sense of its importance, importance of dogma, etc. ––broke into two parts: one seceded to the Church of Rome (Newman at the centre of it) and the other went to Church of England–– Anglo-Catholic ––third part remained a High Church element within the Church of England ––Newman never anything a Protestant would call protestant. ––question in his mind was whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome was the real Catholic Church. ––at no time in sympathy with principles of the reformation ––went to Rome ––his views on education are bound up with his conversion to the Church of Rome. Lectures on University Education ––given in Dublin in connection with attempt to establish a Catholic university there. The attempt didn’t come to much. ––lays down certain general principles about education which still remain as almost definitive statements on the theory of education despite their Catholic content. ––thinks of his Catholic university as closely modelled on Oxford and Cambridge ––strongly opposed to idea of an unchurched university The Idea of the University ––more or less Platonic sense of “idea,” i.e., form ––not a subjective idea ––what the university attempts to make manifest in the world University is in the first place a social community engaged in education, study. ––possible to have nothing in it except scholars; i.e., a university without students is possible ––must have a centre. This conception of the universality of know-

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ledge is implied in the name. ––exists to supplement what the individual does not know ––everybody’s ignorance is made up for by somebody else’s knowledge. ––nobody can possibly stand right at the centre of a university ––everyone has his own corner, and a vast sphere where he doesn’t have knowledge. Nobody knows everything. ––knowledge is not simply a loose pile of separate disciplines. All knowledge integrates and overlaps; e.g., student of physics must study chemistry ––no bounds to a field except purely arbitrary ones. ––the more a student knows, the closer he gets to the centre Objective Centre ––conception that total knowledge makes total sense ––the more one studies, the more he feels he is being drawn closer to the objective centre. ––the actual process of education has no boundaries any more than the subject of education has ––the student’s brain is continually forming part of a more total process of education ––the university aims as far as possible at the total education of the student. Therefore, not just an intellectual community ––tends to break down the half-baked systems of education: finishing school––social without intellectual training pedantry––intellectual without social. Kind of knowledge which is not assimilated to life. ––process of studying law to become a lawyer, etc., goes on simultaneously with the university education but is different in kind. You can reach the goal. Goal of university is infinite though. ––goal of the university is not good for anything. It is simply a good in itself. This is the distinction between a liberal education and technical, vocational training, which is useful and trains you for something. The utilitarian conception of education doesn’t recognize a liberal education at all. The subjects may overlap. Study of theology may be part of a liberal education, but not for a theologian. Your whole central attitude is different if it is part of your vocational training.

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––for Newman, vocational schools are not part of the idea of a university Distinction between dialectical and technical knowledge ––two kinds of advance:––technical ––linear, gets you there in time growth of the whole human personality ––no limit, can’t be hurried ––different motivation, rhythm, concepts of time Nov. 23 Vocational education is set up for specific, limited objectives. Liberal education is for the free search of knowledge. The only kind of learning appropriate to the free man as such. If the only education in the country is vocational, you have a conception of society where every individual is conceived as fitting into a certain society. ––the other gives a conception of knowledge as an end in itself. ––Aristotle: “All men by nature desire to know.”214 ––knowledge is gratification of a normal urge. 1) liberal education 2) “servile” education––designed to earn you a living. Labour––work which may or may not fulfill your deeper needs. You are lucky if it does. Newman trying to get away from idea of liberal education being for a certain class. ––assumes those going to his university will be middle class ––ought theoretically to be the right of everyone ––the Utilitarians who undervalue the principles of liberal education work in a direction contrary to their professed liberal aims. When someone says, “What use is it?” the assumption is that their lives are moulded by what they must do. This mental attitude has it the wrong way round. Educator must have positive, not negative attitude. e.g., keep French in high school in case anyone wants it. ––takes people a long time to figure out what they want to do, so their education is tentative up to a certain point. ––citizens of a free country have privilege of coming in contact with

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certain subjects Distraction is result of spare time—synthetic and deliberate waste of time which is product of a life which is simply divided into hours of work and hours of nothing to do. Leisure is the unhurried growth or expansion of the mind into the fulfillment of its own nature. Basis of all culture, creative and free living. ––for Newman all free life begins in something like remembering the Sabbath—a day when the mind is expanded. ––university is built on the idea of leisure, which is the opposite of idleness. Means being withdrawn from actual producing in the economy. ––aim of university is social training in the broad sense, which includes the intellectual. ––not ideas themselves, but the communication of ideas is important ––in the idea or form of leisured society you see what the actual function of the intellect is in human life. Hence, the product of the university is a social one. Not the scholar but the gentleman. i.e., citizen of actual society who has some vision of ideal society The gentleman has seen what the ideal society is like and then carries on for the rest of his life as though that society existed. Similar to Plato’s Republic. Work is not the only way to overcome wasting time. The highest mysteries of knowledge are things you can’t acquire on schedule. You know the quality of a man’s education not by what he does, but by what he is. ––supreme gift the university bestows on an individual is “conversation,” i.e., communicated at the most precise and disciplined level of intellect and emotion. For Newman, dogma is an axiom of knowledge and the axioms are the axioms of faith. Your knowledge is based on your faith, whatever your faith is. Part of Newman’s objection to the Utilitarians is that liberal education doesn’t necessarily depend on a class, though in fact at the moment it does.

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If any subject is not recognized by the university, it creates a vacuum, and all the other subjects move in. e.g., if philosophy were left out, all the subjects near it would start philosophizing. This is the inevitable result of leaving out of the university structure knowledge which actually belongs there. Before sociology came in it was a branch of philosophy called moral philosophy. At earlier times the natural sciences were branches of philosophy. Medieval Universities ––a university is a medieval idea ––grew up when thinkers were obsessed with the catholic idea ––therefore have a theological faculty at centre ––theological professor is concerned with proclaiming all knowledge is a unity in the mind of God ––from that came the medieval philosophy ––from that developed the sciences ––working deductively, from first principles to conclusions ––the deductive sciences were developed first Twentieth Century ––different perspective ––sciences most highly organized, best established, most authoritative ––philosophy not simply intellectual, but a kind of philosophy of life ––i.e., philosophy is built up from the sciences ––vague haze of a theological centre Medieval university got vaguer as it went further out. Modern university gets vaguer as it goes in. Newman says reason for this is the Protestant destruction of the connection between philosophy and theology. Nov. 24 Newman says the idea of the university still exists, but the Protestants don’t know it. ––logical extreme is to leave out theology, which the Utilitarians do ––university has to be in the long run a function of the Church if it is to be a university in its pure form Medieval philosophy was primarily a commentary on the Bible ––God had made a rational universe in which 2 and 2 is 4 and isn’t going to go back on it

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––the Church is prior in authority and in knowledge to the word of God In Protestantism, ––word of God and a number of separate churches each trying to find out what it means in its own way. Intellectual magazines are always dissatisfied ––object of a liberal education is to turn a man into a sort of querulous neurotic ––end of education is to achieve a kind of higher maladjustment ––if you fail in achieving it, you have simply idolized the existing form of society ––if your education is slanted toward a certain society, you are assuming the permanence of that social structure ––liberal education gives a much higher, more valid principle for distinguishing between a Churchill and a Hitler than the principle of leadership University’s prime aim, as such, is to provide a community in which the intellect has its proper place ––no practical aim except that of training good members of society. ––a social aim. Fitness for the world ––provides the student with a vision of society he keeps for the rest of his life ––given a responsibility for rest of lives to manifest the social (not class) standards of the university ––these are the standards of the good life. Respect for others The acquiring of knowledge is a practice dependent on habit. ––purpose of university is to recreate society by means of the students it sends out into it ––integration of the social and the intellectual People often think of culture, the arts, as being intellectual ––English professors would be better described as emotionals than intellectuals ––emotion can be just as precise in its placing of things, accurately, as the intellect

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Moral Training ––personal relations with the instructors, other students, etc., in the community is a central part of whole liberal training ––sense of delicacy, accuracy with regard to other peoples’ existence “Liberal Knowledge in Relation to Religion”215 ––if knowledge is a unity, there must be something analogous to a centre ––university is made up of recognized areas of studies, each of which also seems to have something analogous to a centre ––test of a fine mind, is ability to find centre of a subject ––once you have this, you have a framework into which everything you know fits, and everything you don’t know could fit ––poor student tends to learn one fact after another without building up a framework to which these facts attach themselves and make sense ––great intellect takes a collected view of past and present knowledge, not merely considered as acquired, but as philosophy ––method of study proceeds by trying to find out what the essential things are ––this must also be true of all knowledge. The big centre in middle of everything is the mind of God ––facts lead to principles ––knowledge of facts is the scientific knowledge ––knowledge of principles is predominantly the philosophical ––knowledge of structure is knowledge of how the whole thing hangs together ––if this is true in the university as a whole there must be three layers of knowledge. ––the upper knowledge is, in a way, theological knowledge. ––theoretically possible for someone to know the whole of physics, but that someone could only be God ––theology does not tell about things, but about God ––therefore it indicates what the actual centre of all knowledge is ––if the university does not have some connection with the Church, the theological view, it denies the possibility of there being an Idea of a University. Would just be an aggregate. This is the conception of the university as literally a universitas. ––conception of total coherence of knowledge and wisdom ––in philosophical conception of knowledge for its own sake ––in science: knowledge, knowing

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Knowledge as good liberal Knowledge as power utilitarian

philosophical scientific

The closer you come to the centre of the university, the more aspects of your nature are involved. ––invisible community of the true university continues after graduation Nov. 30 ––high, refined kind of self-culture is ultimate aim of university ––liberal education has all the virtues of civilization ––Newman. says program of perfecting a civilization doesn’t recognize the two selves: natural and regenerate i.e., the vices eradicated are not the only ones human nature is capable of. There is also refined vice, liberal education cannot, by itself, eradicate vice from society ––for Newman, highest kind of education recognizes Church at the centre and the mind of God at the centre of the Church ––student is no longer an individual when he comes in contact with these ––in long run, the university, to fulfil its function properly, must be a function of the Church ––Newman sees the same kind of Renaissance humanism which is essentially pagan in its sense of individuality, in the England about him ––both humanistic self-culture and Protestant individualism destroy communication on the highest level ––confession impossible to the educated Protestant ––in the gentleman as such, the highest any sense of evil can get is in the sense of remorse ––worst of all sins for a gentleman is one against his self-respect ––remorse entirely sterile in that it doesn’t leave room for actual transformation ––refinement of manners cannot itself transform personality ––there is a point where liberality has to give way to charity—a much more energetic and dynamic conception of virtue [Margaret Virany’s note: “I can’t find any bridge between these typed notes [above] and what follows.” What follows is dated Nov. 30] . . . of the Catholic faith and had to be interpreted in the Catholic sense. (They are explicitly Protestant) ––produced by a great scandal

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––Church of England said this showed the Tractarian Movement a specious conspiracy Nevertheless, the Tractarians were pretty successful. ––widespread dissatisfaction with the kind of leadership the Church was giving at this time ––according to Peacock, hardly ever meet a sober clergyman. Must have been some basis for this caricature ––terrific snob appeal in Oxford Movement ––respectable people puling away from lower classes’ vulgarity ––see Butler’s The Way of All Flesh ––Newman largely unaware of this ––Newman went into a phase which was first Anglo-Catholic and then Roman Catholic Dec. 1 Catholic conception of the Church is a very exalted one. ––Protestant thinks of it as inferior to the Word of God. ––individual has an appeal over the Church to the Word of God. ––for a Catholic, the Word of God is contained in the Church. Therefore, the existence of a large number of Churches is not scandalous in Protestant terms as it would be in Catholic terms This is an antithesis Newman himself accepted. His objections against the Church of England ––didn’t think the Pope was head of the Church ––Henry VIII meant Church has no spiritual head except Christ ––he was the temporal head of the Church. Therefore, he kept the title the Pope had given him ––but, it’s difficult to separate the temporal and the spiritual ––Newman bothered by the corruption of the spiritual by the temporal e.g., Parliament the body to approve Anglican Prayer Book ––Newman felt Church must have its own temporal and spiritual head––a place for both in the Catholic Church [line from photocopy missing] ––Church a self-contained autonomous organization in the world but not of it. Owes no primary authority to anything in the world around it ––attempt to work out the via media, i.e., find a place in an Anglo-Catholic to say the Church of England was the Catholic Church in its doctrine, in rite, and in ceremony. Nothing except will of Rome stopping it. Only difference that Anglo-Catholics felt their position more Catholic

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than the Roman Catholics. (Not unlike the Greek Orthodox view, which is also Catholic in its doctrine.) Newman left the Anglo-Catholic position because he felt it existed on paper only––was a theory ––Greek Monophysite view: (heretical) ––Christ is God on earth. Only divine nature. ––Newman held Western view––both human and divine ––Catholic view of Church as continuing body of Christ ––must continue as a wealthy, populated, earthly Church ––argument that Christ came to the world to found Church ––Catholic Church the only likely candidate, if we look around, to have been entrusted the keys Newman saw Catholic Church not just on paper––had a healthy human nature and was therefore the most likely to partake of the divine nature also. Creed says: “I believe in one Apostolic and Catholic Church.” ––Newman finally won over by arguments devised from the very intellectual world he was inclined to repudiate ––“evolution” ––theory of human society––Burke ––theory of biological society The first is the older of the two. The two theories are entirely distinct. ––phenomena of human history ––millions of years––many species Nevertheless they were confused ––Darwinian theory can’t be attached directly to human history. A belief in progress is a fundamentally conservative view because it’s the only way of accounting for change, which eliminates the radical revolutionary. Burke’s conception of law. ––evolves out of a series of tensions––certain compromises are reached which attach selves to ideas already there (precedents), take in more and more eventualities, etc. ––legal form by which compromise is reached is permanent ––continuing growth, evolution Newman applies same argument to doctrine.

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––Bible not theological, doctrinal. ––while in the narrative form, it does not explicitly teach theology. Has no theological position ––story of the Gospel contains many implications of ideas and doctrines Newman can’t use Word of God in any context unless you imply some theological system in your use of it. ––Church represents the gospel carrying on in history ––in history certain conflicts arise; e.g., disputes over meaning of the Gospel story ––it is the function of the Church to carry on through these periods and, when the time comes, to define what the Church’s position is i.e., announces a dogma and the explicit presenting in rational form of something already implicit in the original revelation to man. The Bible contains the implication of many dogmas. As each dogma is enunciated, another part of the revelation becomes explicit. Covers more and more eventualities. e.g., because we have the doctrine of the Godhead of Christ, there is no need to fight that heresy all over again. At crucial stages the Church articulates dogma. The body of dogma is infallible The dogma may come upon the world as a new revelation, but is just a demonstration of what was there before the articulation was made. Catholic Church only one big enough to have kept modifying and expanding its dogmas throughout history (Newman uses this as an argument against Anglo-Catholics.) Such a system of dogma is: ––not making any serious appeal to human reason ––not making any serious intervention in human life ––not making any serious attack on human life The individual forms his conscience within the context of the Church. Luther’s conscience involves liberty in thought. Newman would say you are not free to think if you think nonsense ––accuracy involved with liberty.

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Dec. 7 Newman came to hold a view of Church dogma similar to Burke’s view of law. ––occasion for writing Apologia was controversy between Newman and Charles Kingsley, who thought Newman was advocating a position of mental reservation (whole truth might not be expedient) ––Newman angry ––the autobiography is a carefully selected group of facts ––written largely for propaganda purposes. Presents his changes of opinion as a series of irresistible arguments ––argues from the analogy of the Monophysite controversy ––still had a body of doctrine which existed on paper certainty––a quality of propositions––Objective––no relation to the state of mind of the person holding the view. (No such thing as a private [line missing from photocopy] . . . certitude––relates to psychological state––feeling of inner apprehension Your ability to see an argument in private. Inner feeling of certitude is more often than not founded on a very high degree of probability (not absolute certainty). State of inner certitude which hasn’t yet reached objective certainty = following a hunch based on high probability. inductive certitude = psychological conviction = high probability deductive certainty = objective quality of propositions = a priori Religion is based on faith. Faith is a matter of psychological conviction. Theology can never be completely intellectualized––takes in the whole personality. Same as university in the end. Distinction between inductive and deductive ––deductive is the radical, revolutionary one ––set aside tradition in favour of abstract ––Newman takes inductive conservative line of theology. Religion was for Newman what society was for Burke ––a continuum in society ––involves whole person

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The hunch, the high probability, is the guide to the Church and not the power of abstract intellectual reasoning. In a crisis you follow a hunch–– balance of probabilities. Communist action is deductive. Newman conceives the Church as a revolutionary thing. ––interruption in the continuity of time––Incarnation ––proceeds deductively in its dogma to consolidate that revolutionary aspect. Burke’s laws proceed out of a series of conflicts and tensions in time. Church having been established as a revolutionary act therefore preserves that essential turnover in human affairs, but individual [line missing from photocopy] . . . of tradition Burke social tension

} king––defines another aspect of the illegal barons law (Magna Carta) ––the consolidation of law as it goes on defines the illegal at each stage ––works dialectically ––enunciates a law and then defines the illegal Newman historical crisis

Greek

} dogma Roman ––defines by implication the heresy Legal tension says both sides have a right to live ––decides against one party and for another ––in the case of the Magna Carta, the arbitrary act of the king was defined as illegal

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For the Church, favour went in favour of Roman Church, thereby defining Greek point of view as a heresy. Newman converted himself by reading about controversies of the fourth century. Saw his own heresies and how they were enunciated by the Church at that time. Romanticism ––enthusiasm for the medieval ––conservative ––Carlyle and Coleridge––typical products Shelley and Byron––upper class––more detached view of society. Both died very young ––they seem more revolutionary. The neo-classical seems to be an element in the art of revolutionary governments. Little in it that is organic. Romanticism . . . [line missing from photocopy] Jan. 4 [Matthew Arnold] Culture and Anarchy —occupational disease of intellectuals to view with alarm —Matthew Arnold an intellectua —implies anarchy opposite of what he means by culture

JUST Right Conduct Law

GOOD BEAUTIF’UL Right Feeling Art

TRUE Right Thinking Reason

—law and reason are impersonal ––law is compulsion on will —reason is compulsion on reason––if you have any freedom of thought you haven’t learned how to think —the beautiful can only be described as a compulsion on taste. This is a whole area in which there are no standards. e.g., sugar in coffee —standards of value are hard to establish and incommunicable —compulsion on taste is a private compulsion —essential quality of judgment in the arts is feeling, emotion —there is a certain free play, in the emotions, but they are not chaotic

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—will and reason are easier, more predictable, and therefore have had much more prestige in human thought —by speaking in parables, Jesus kept art central —Arnold says this middle factor is in fact part of reality, though many people like to leave it out —pure intellect is always trying to take the clothes off the world —this has its own reality, but isn’t the whole reality —the sense that this is beautiful, or ugly, is always potentially there–– ought to be there —will and reason can work, but taste can only function in “wise passiveness”216 (Keats)217 —knowledge can be conquered aggressively by activity and work Two things opposed to work: idleness and leisure —the person who is incapable of leisure divides the world between the workers and the loafers Arnold: England has a middle class heritage —non-conformist —terrific energy —know how to work —cultural traditions that give a strong sense of propriety —hard work imposes its own morality —keep the law, good intelligence But, they fall down in this sense of “wise passiveness” —esoteric, illusive, yet fundamentally important sense of the beautiful —the essential thing the English public lacks Factors that go into judgment of the beautiful are precise —calls for relaxation, but not that of idleness, blurring of the faculties ––a judgment of proportion —sense of proportion is one of the characteristic factors of good taste —pedant is an intellectual who has lost his sense of proportion —sense of proportion is absolutely indispensable to any kind of freedom of thought —vision of things as absurd is an esthetic, not an intellectual one —without capacity to make this judgment your mind isn’t free i.e., ability to back away from a problem, judge with your taste whether the argument is silly —one is more and more struck with the solemnity of the middle class

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—sense of humour is largely a sense of proportion —for Arnold the law about not being allowed to marry your deceased wife’s sister218 was a typical example of action for action’s sake Culture —unification of morality, beauty, and truth —combination of everything of value in society —civilization is the extent to which it is actualized, i.e. it describes culture in practice. Culture is an ideal. ––culture includes religion, philosophy, arts, science, and everything else —civilization is healthiest when it is closest to culture —Arnold stresses unification of the three aspects of the Good —more they are separated and pursued as ends in themselves the further away is civilization from culture —Pharisee can’t see his morality has anything to do with beauty and action —Dilettante pursues beauty to exclusion of morality and truth —pedant pursues truth with no regard to its beauty or social function Anarchy —splitting apart of what should be kept in unity —the more you appreciate art and the more autonomy you give it, the more it insists on connecting itself with other functions —ultimate idea of culture is unification, community, individuality fulfilled —Arnold says it is a vulgar mistake to think of individual interests in opposition to society’s interests —society is the only milieu in which the individual can flourish —isolated individual––an idiot —completely isolated––a corpse —art shouldn’t be esoteric, but socially recognized as much as possible —an academy is an attempt at some integration between the art and literature society produces and society itself. —where there is an academy it is recognized there are degrees of excellence in the arts Two tendencies in nineteenth-century democracy: 1) drag up 2) level down Jan. 5 ––conception that any stumblebum can get to top is one version of an-

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archy ––right reason: pursuit of culture ––corrupt will: subject to anarchy ––doing as one likes is very often doing as the spirit of anarchy in you likes ––cultured man can do as he likes because he wouldn’t like to do anything wrong––question of what you like to do is already settled by your previous commitment Arnold feels nineteenth-century society is in spirit of anarchy ––revolutionary class tends to dissolve notion of the unity of society ––lacking in elements of justice, truth, and especially beauty ––spider image of anarchic individual. Bee image of cultural individual. Culture tries to obliterate class distinctions. ––things that make for supremacy of one class over another are barbaric ––things that tend to remove class distinctions contribute to culture ––disastrous for standards to disappear from society, but they shouldn’t be confined to one class ––nonsense to try to reach a classless society through supremacy of one class ––Arnold gives the three classes contemptuous names: Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace —use of Philistines in this sense became fairly widespread in Germany as descriptive of certain middle class attitudes of intolerance, etc. —Barbaric––antagonistic to art, etc. Arnold’s conception of spiritual authority is a little broader than Mill’s, which is almost entirely intellectual. —wants freedom of will and imagination, as well as freedom of thought and discussion Classes of society, insofar as they are classes, are anti–social.

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What the nineteenth century actually has is a middle class dictatorship. Therefore it is abominably Philistine. ––way out for Arnold is to minimize class division, ascendancy Arnold’s standard is liberal to the extent it stands outside society. —middle class has contributed to society as a whole the idea of liberty —lower class has contributed to society as a whole the idea of equality —these two conceptions must be preserved —fraternity—morale, maintaining standards. Upper class doesn’t dare fall below its own standards. —the classes use the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity to justify clinging to privilege, disturbing the peace, etc. Main weight of the book shows that doing what one likes is not the same as liberty. It depends whether the cultured or the anarchic self likes to do it. LIBERTY Religious Protestantism Dissent

Economic Capitalism Laissez-faire

Civil Democracy “out-running the constable”219

ANARCHY

Arnold attacks notion non-conformity is a virtue in itself. “Outrunning the constable” is social reform in the short run. —Arnold says to stop and think about what you want to do —piecemeal reforms often useless, especially if a more radical reform is in order. Some people find the Good in action; some in contemplation —for the latter, beauty and truth have a natural relation —according to Arnold beauty and truth have produced the great cultures of the ancient world: Hebraism and Hellenism —these two combined in Christianity, but not on equal terms

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—revival of Hellenism in the Renaissance would have given Christianity more respect for beauty as well as truth. But, the Renaissance immediately provoked a reaction: Puritanism, which made England one-sided. —Arnold advocates sweetness and light, the revival of the more contemplative, disinterested virtues GOOD Morality Hebraism Christianity Puritanism

Beauty and truth Hellenism Renaissance Sweetness and light

—active tradition is the popular one —contemplative tradition is always that of minority, but may be at the centre of society —the cultured few have, for Arnold, the spiritual authority of culture (no temporal power). —Arnold would like culture to be given as much social recognition as is consistent with its nature —believes safeguard of religion is recognition of its social importance —the state should encourage religion as such, but is not committed to support one against the others Jan. 12 —the virtues known as worldly virtues are essential religious virtues —two kinds of worldliness: 1) anarchical—materialistic 2) cultural––all good, religious things, urbanity —sectarians of the day full of the wrong kind of worldliness —Arnold insists on importance of the natural virtues —the more of the wrong kind of worldliness the church acquires, the more quickly it loses the right kind —in many cases, there is no real religion present in the nineteenth-century dissenter. Fortifies self with snobbery, disapproval of other behaviour —kind of inner paradox in sectarian approach to religion —always splitting —trying to get something closer and closer to own individuality —finally believes everybody damned except himself —actually losing his individuality —at the mercy of clichés

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—intensifying his ego —losing his culture Cultured Self: individual in a group. Anarchic Self: aggressive ego. —interprets the doctrine of perfection as meaning, among other things, completely rounded —respect for higher worldliness, natural virtues —Christianity founded on a basis of culture —part of his doctrine of Hellenism as something to complement the moral energy of Hebraism. These represent the flowering of the human spirit. Classical world brings a sense of the inner association of law and reason. —the more you study the Hebraic tradition, the more Hellenistic it seems, and vice versa —in order to make Hebraism the opposite of Hellenism you have to caricature both. Deprive Hebraism of sweetness and light and Hellenism of moral energy (which in fact it has). Arnold’s position seems to be bound up with German humanistic tradition. —humanism at time of Bacon essentially a cult of authority —this suits art well, because art doesn’t evolve —Picasso no better than people in Stone Age —no development in the sense of improvement. Only series of changes. Arnold stresses value of the classics —Greek literature is the world’s great literature —the classical cultures and languages are worth studying because they are dead. Study of an achieved culture a great advantage to those whose culture is still in a plastic state. Independence of thought comes out of the conflict. General drift of the argument very conservative. America a sort of parody of all Arnold disliked. [There is apparently a lacuna here in the notes, as what follows jumps to Ruskin in medias res.] [John Ruskin]

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Jan. 18 Ruskin completely ignores impressionists in Modern Painters ––curious irony in Ruskin’s phrasing ––about forty years ago another critic had described Turner as throwing paint at canvas. ––Therefore, Ruskin rose in his defense ––Whistler’s paintings are very close to late Turners’ ––Ruskin tore Whistler apart ––Whistler sued Ruskin ––Whistler awarded contemptuous damages; i.e., each paid his own side; jury did best they could for Ruskin, but Whistler won the case. Ruskin a manic-depressive ––insane in the last part of his life ––miserable life on the whole, despite respect and adulation ––two main periods 1. art criticism––Stones of Venice 2. keen interest in political economics––Unto This Last Philosophy of History derived from Renaissance Humanism

––Renaissance––a waking up from the sleep of the Middle Ages ––This conception underlies Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Even in his day it was giving way to its exact opposite, which is the more popular view today

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––more Romantic view ––to the people of Gibbon’s school “Gothic” means Barbaric ––in Ruskin’s Nature of Gothic it is shown to be the highest pinnacle of art ––extremely congenial to Catholics to see the height of civilization in the Middle Ages Both of these views are myths. Projections of one’s preferences due to one’s early background, etc. ––general practical result of this myth is always the same ––slight turn for the better is discernible in whatever cultural movements you are backing ––Pound, Yeats, reflections of it in Eliot History of Venice is a good framework to hang this conception on ––no Classical Venice ––rose out of the sea ––entered on period of unexampled prosperity after the Renaissance ––reaches height in sixteenth century Ruskin interested in interpreting history only by the signs of its art ––doesn’t allow you to admire anything done in a period of which you disapprove ––no true Gothic in Italy ––Gothic a feudal art ––feudalism never too much hold in Italy ––its art is in much closer touch with the late Classical Ruskin has great weaknesses, as well as great virtues, as critic of architecture. ––little idea of the relation of the shape of architecture to its structure e.g., doesn’t know much about tension and how certain forms arise out of construction needs. Therefore, passes over many things ––tends to think of architecture as a background for sculpture, stained glass, and painting

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––whatever isn’t sculpture and painting is just mere building ––ready to design building with enormous detail ––can bring tremendous significances out of a building because to him it is an encyclopaedia of various artistic motifs ––art is a revelation of the kind of life which produced it. If you look at a [?] art sympathetically you can also see in it the quality of life which it was e.g., the Pyramids––great work of art, but also a manifestation of a slave society ––no mortar, no squaring tools, yet the blocks fit together so accurately, they are there forever. ––pounded the sides down with stone hammers till they were perfectly smooth ––Pyramids are “slave art” Renaissance Art ––detail lavished on frescoes, public buildings ––show a civilization with far too much money ––minor arts, such as filigree, show money without taste ––revolutionary, i.e., revolt of a middle class, with its money, versus laws of taste ––art of Greece and Rome is servile. Between this art and the revolutionary art of the Renaissance you have just the right balance of freedom and authority ––Gothic cathedral––exact balance between the two Jan. 19 Ruskin conceived of the Middle Ages as the pinnacle of art servile art constitutional art revolutionary art ––partly bound up with conception of painting as polarized between design and facts ––two things can be said about a painting 1) it is a picture of something subject analogous to object in sense experience 2) every picture is pictorial in its essential structure

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way things are combined, i.e., subject to conventions which exist only in pictures ––in our day painters have experimented much further than in Ruskin’s with the extremes of painting

The whole art of painting finds its being somewhere between pure pictorial form and pure pictorial nature, i.e., some kind of combination of what Ruskin calls design and facts ––took a strong view of the importance of representation in art ––persuaded self that Turner’s designs were in fact facts because he was prejudiced against design Ruskin backed the Pre-Raphaelites largely because of what he called a respect for facts 1) servile art put in a subordinate place ––in art of Assyria and Egypt is an emphasis on design ––emphasis on stylization––figures looks as if they can’t move ––domination of representational form by design 2) revolutionary art ––have domination of facts by design, but for opposite reasons ––formal ornaments put in––highly conventionalized. For Ruskin these are meaningless and functional detail. Simply mechanically repeated design. Elaborateness, expressiveness. 3) constitutional Gothic––love of variety, love of representation. At same time keeps representation in keeping with unity of the structure as a whole. Balance. ––tends more and more as he goes on to judge a picture very largely in terms of its subject matter

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––intimate association of the true with the beautiful is almost an obsession in Ruskin ––a lay preacher ––lays down rules emphatically without having to keep within the restrictions of a theology This sort of thing is always pernicious in criticism. It can be brushed by in Ruskin ––highest kind of art is exact balance between design and fact. Four kinds of false art 1. design “despising” facts––Chinese conventionality 2. facts “despising” design––Dutch realism 3. design “envying” facts––plagiarizing conventionality 4. facts “envying” design––naïve realism 1. tends to simulate painters to inferior arts 2. technically expert but controlling idea is not [line missing in photocopy] 3. academicism which Pre-Raphaelites revolted against 4. simply the result of a lack of skill ––produces painting of the primitivists proper Ruskin particularly condemns the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (simplifies his view by not looking at the best pictures of the age) Too bad he didn’t use the tremendous iconographic knowledge he had for less naively moral writing. Proust owes tremendous debt to Ruskin. Read him with a very accurate, selective eye. Could extract Ruskin at his best. ––preoccupation with moral values and truth of representation in art

If you are going to use the word beautiful for judging art, it means good art. We also use it in a slangy way as an emotional reaction to some phase of experience which strikes us as attractive. Tends therefore to mean that

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which is attractive to the senses. Quality of loveliness––in Botticelli, greater moments of the Romantic poets. It expresses what is attractive. Two groups of critics 1) ignore word “beautiful” altogether. Distrust it because of its association with loveliness 2) simply assume the lovely is beautiful and make that their standard of judgment. Sentimental. Judge in terms of whether or not work of art appeals to them This is an impossible situation for a painter to struggle against. Word ugly 1. repellant subject matter 2. bad or incompetent art ––seldom used in second sense ––it’s easy for people to tumble into a sentimental, naïve view of art simply by a confusion of words ––much Victorian art is regarded by us now as intolerably sentimental ––It takes a dry impersonal discipline to make a disinterested response to a work of art ––hard to get precise technical skill of real critical judgments disentangled from moral and emotional associations. Ruskin never did so disentangle it ––insists on necessity of art to idealize certain aspects of nature All right to handle the terrible but not the mean ––doesn’t rule out the artist’s liberty to handle evil Jan. 25 ––art may also be judged for what it reveals of the life of the time that produced it ––unwillingness of the nineteenth century to come to terms with the new civilization which was in front of it e.g., Ruskin ridiculed the Crystal Palace ––his personal influence responsible for the National Historical Museum at Oxford ––ugly, grotesque, not a fitting design for a museum ––tendency to import to England the Italian scheme ––willingness to see everything associated with the new industrialism as ugly as possible. Turning to the past to find some feature which can be salvaged and used in the present

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––curious inability to recognize what was appropriate to its own time Ruskin tended to think of buildings in terms of facades ––quality of the life of this time is a sort of case of special pleading ––dice are loaded. Peculiar, unique, and brand new diffidence on the part of the people to the development of its own age. England dropped out of being a leader in the field of design Ruskin’s argument: in his own age no art expresses the kind of life of the time ––get a sort of architectural museum ––referring to past designs, not current needs Has tendency not to refer to buildings functionally, structurally but as objects d’art, stage props ––design façade first ––put up building behind the façade Casa Loma220 the most ridiculous and grotesquely absurd example of building by quotation ––general failure of nerve in the nineteenth century to develop a distinctive architecture. Ruskin and others failed to encourage it. William Morris The reaction to institute a change in the country’s taste culminated in him. ––social principle emerges from Stones in Venice ––still extremely valid Carlyle’s central conception is work, but he never defines it Ruskin develops principle that real work, as distinct from drudgery, is creative work Carlyle: dandyism (creative work) drudgery Ruskin points out that dandyism and drudgery have a natural affinity for the barbaric, uncultivated society ––will want something large, vulgar, and above all ornate ––need large quantities of labour to carry out vulgar, stupid, ornate patterns The Nature of the Gothic. Stupid & unmeaning art is invariably carried out by sweat of labour and exploitation

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––(ornate art is always connected with conspicuous consumption) Two main canons: beauty and function When they work in harmony you have one of the fundamental principles of good art: simplicity ––two general classes of artistic objects 1. those which are necessary 2. those which are beautiful. Worth looking at for their own sake Ruskin: the functional and the beautiful will never be quite the same thing. You cannot reduce what is important to what is necessary 1. never encourage the manufacture of any article which is necessary, the production of which includes no invention––would be completely mindless––not representing a single, distinctive act of the human intelligence 2. never demand an exact finish for its own sake. Execution must have a functional or inherently beautiful character 3. never encourage imitation of copying, except for the preservation of great works A thing which is neither necessary nor beautiful must be something fundamentally mindless. When you use human beings for this, you must treat them like robots. ––division of labour dehumanizes the worker ––just one job to do––does it all day long Laissez-faire an economy of automatic productivity. Unthinking. Ruskin advocates a much more active role on the part of government in distributing goods and maintaining standards of health or function. On the basis of those standards you could build up a feeling that nothing should be produced without regard for function or beauty or both ––no economy can function on the multiplication of junk (not altogether true––a form of waste economy which keeps the economy functioning) Ruskin wanted to make the whole economy less hierarchic Jan. 30 Unto This Last ––an important influence on Labour party at beginning of century ––Ruskin not a socialist ––Marxism has never made much appeal in Anglo-Saxon countries

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––English Labour party was recruited from lower middle class. Loyally evangelical Protestants ––much like Social Credit party ––strong evangelical influence of Ruskin’s argument ––four essays ––appeared in a magazine ––raised terrific hullaballoo. Had to be withdrawn ––reminds us how strong laissez-faire capitalism was at the time Ruskin keeps a conception of economy, derived largely from his study of the social consequences of art on the mind ––money: means of exchange between producer and consumer. Basis of money is ultimately the total productive power of society which issues the money a) natural resources b) amount of human energy available to work on them Any other basis of wealth is a legal fiction, an invention Therefore, to base money on a gold standard is a superstition ––real guarantee of bill is the wealth of the country as a whole, i.e., its resources and human energy ––wealth ––a counterpart of health ––well being (Ruskin fond of playing around with etymology) ––ultimate definition of word “wealth” is not economic but moral ––wealth of a country is the amount of life it has ––economy to be judged by the amount of free life it encourages ––brings him into a clash with theory of economics as expounded by Adam Smith, J.S. Mill, etc. ––work the whole problem out in a reduced category, i.e., in terms of certain abstractions ––idea of economic man. Human behaviour sufficiently stable to be statistically predictable Ruskin had two main objections to this view 1) by leaving out the moral element, the economist left out some of his own, essential data 2) the classical economist judging man in relation to an economic order which he has himself created. Doesn’t consider the question of how many other kinds of society man might live in ––not a purely speculative question. Nineteenth-century man living in at least two different societies

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1. economic situation––supply and demand 2. political world––utterly different psychologically, morally, etc. Hobbes––postulates a social contract. It makes man a legal, moral, social being; therefore, makes him an individual as well. Ruskin––every professional man has entered into a contract which creates moral obligations, legal obligations, and the highest degree of individuality. Because his nature is shaped, his individuality is created. ––the contract the professional man enters upon is one of life and death ––commercial man stays outside this conception altogether. He has signed no contract ––no reason why he should sell good bread rather than bad bread in the laws of classical economics ––not really in human society ––when the employer hires the employee, they are not in any sort of contractual association. There is no place for responsibility on the part of either ––lawyer and judge are under obligation to serve the ends of justice ––suggests that the government enter business to the extent of training people to pursuits within this sphere of responsibility; i.e., government entering business as a competitor ––wants to make a honest calling accessible to everyone in society ––advocates government schools, which should also function as employment centres ––for a healthy economy there should be a conception of the dignity of all labour ––all honest work should have the full dignity of honesty, necessity ––working in a social system which is altogether different 4th essay “profit or material gain is attainable only by construction or by discovery, not by exchange,”221 etc. ––ultimate source of wealth is productivity ––money emerges as a medium of exchange of products ––essence of such exchange is that the exchange should be equal Theory of value, which is very much like Marx’s. In social organization the profits have been extracted out of the pockets of those who are socially with the enterprise.

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It’s only possible for people to make a profit on the stock market if others are losing ––can’t democratize profit by exchange ––loss of sense of quality, the standard, is essential in Ruskin Feb. 1 Morris ––one long commentary on the passage “Nature of Gothic” in Stones of Venice ––strange, anonymous figure ––medievalist––yet not the remotest trace of any religious feeling. ––able to absorb medieval culture without the religion ––great deal in Communism, which is a kind of direct parody of Catholicism ––three great economic movements of modern times ––all of them evil ––all of them parodies of religion Fascism––parody of Judaism ––takes Germany away from the contract, chosen people Laissez-faire capitalism––parody of Protestantism Communism––parody of Roman Catholic Church in many respects ––inspired, infallible human institution Morris belonged to a more innocent age of social theory ––pre-Lenin ––only real Marxist in English culture News from Nowhere ––takes economic and political setup straight out of Marx and Carlyle ––stands in the general tradition of revolutionary thought (runs through Shelley, Swinburne, Shaw) ––seems a curious argument to argue from monastic setup to vast milling mass of people. Carlyle does this. Only way to get a leader recognized in modern societies is a lot of ballyhoo, etc. That is why Carlyle’s doctrine lends itself to modern society ––before recently the only successful republics were those in small towns ––general association of freedom with small social units ––referred to in the Preface to Prometheus Unbound222

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––eighteenth century: Communism and anarchism––radical. Morris belongs to the anarchist wing ––Communists and anarchists very largely agreed about the final end of society. Differ in the means of reaching it ––anarchism as a social movement is dead today ––very lively before 1917 ––two kinds 1. terroristic––believed in assassination ––always quite strong in Latin American countries 2. includes a great many Russians ––people who take a certain view of society ––the state is a crude, primitive form of social life. Body but no brain. ––the true form of human society is a small, local community Strong streak of this in American thought. Tradition that comes from Jefferson. Seen in Thoreau Morris would certainly today be violently anti-Communist ––opposed to the revolution through the control of industry ––opposed to the revolution through huge imperial masses (e.g., Russia, China) ––life in the immediate local community is fully and completely satisfying to people. No desire to worship Great Moloch of imperialism ––thinks of House of Parliament as a piece of bastard architecture ––claims to be a direct descendant of the Anglo-Saxon meeting ––liberal (Whig) interpretation of history is that the English have always fought for their liberties. This developed through Anglo-Saxons. For Morris, though, federal government opposed to the local government. Parliament federalizes. Not the genuine air of the meetings where people knew each other. Can’t get democracy where there are vast anonymous groups of people, according to Morris. ––based on curious unsolved problem in Past and Present ––gap between small community and vast nation Much from “Nature of the Gothic” ––connected with Morris’s conception of work ––in Ruskin work is only work when there is something creative about it ––Morris clarifies this concept

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––central problem of economics is to release as much creativity as possible ––drudge jobs are not employment, work. Just malignant form of dole, handout Ruskin. “Every article ought to answer one or two of the questions: Is it useful? Is it beautiful?”223 ––production of cumbersome unnecessary toys ––comes to a climax in the production of armaments Unto This Last: level of civilization to be tested by the amount of free light it admits ––an economy of armaments, useless gadgets are signs of the desperate social structure at bay ––this type of anarchism comes out very clearly in Walden. ––undertaken as an experiment in economy ––what is really necessary to a human being ––food, shelter ––the amount and quality are also involved in the argument of Walden. ––holds out vision of the possible simplification of life Thoreau: the only true America is the land where you don’t have to have tea and coffee for breakfast if you don’t want to ––this flies in the face of an America that lives by advertising, thinking up things which are not quite necessary and making them seem plausibly so ––the pursuit of the beautiful, etc. is set free by the simplified life Morris develops a similar argument ––finds mainspring of revolutionary action, social reform in that area of life we call the minor arts ––two kinds of art 1) music, painting, poetry 2) concerned with the conditions of life––interior decorations, furniture, weaving, etc. Morris. Who says these are minor? ––reverse the process. Think of primary and secondary arts Primary––ennoble and dignify ordinary life ––these are the necessary ones. Finds in these the key to the revolution of society Morris takes over the view of the importance of the esthetic criterion from Arnold and Ruskin ––if you suddenly woke up to the esthetic qualities of your surroundings, you would immediately become dissatisfied

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––enormous heightening of awareness, consciousness ––late nineteenth century: overwhelming amount of your esthetic judgments on your surroundings will be unfavourable ––takes over argument of the Dandies and Drudges ––vulgarity––heavy ornateness, on part of the upper classes when lower class has sweat of labour. If they produced something which wasn’t cumbersome, etc. it would be craftsmanship, not sweat of labour. ––revolution of the sense of beauty in life ––overturns contemporary meaning of “manufacture,” i.e., made by hand, i.e., made by the brain ––nucleus of free, creative work in society around which the whole of the new economy would gather e.g., Sweden––extraordinary good, disciplined taste in the modern arts; Czechoslovakia (before Communism) ––small countries with their own budgets usually give a great deal of their energies to manufacturing in Morris’s sense ––direct application of intelligence to production ––much of the sense of complicated machinery is really illusory ––News from Nowhere––struck by sudden elimination of clock-watching ––a deceptively simple book How much of what you think is necessary is actually a result of panic? e.g., trains must run on time ––great deal of this making of time vanishes simply because people are in physical contact with one another ––permeation of leisure ––not saying, Can this be done? Will it work? Merely giving a picture, admittedly idealized, of England’s green and pleasant land. ––do you like it? ––the communities can be self-sufficient to an astonishing degree ––the Empire is the abstract antithesis of all Morris is talking about Morris: tendency to think in terms of decentralization of the local community rather than federalizing a state ––esthetic revolution ––ordinary man’s desire for reformation of his own environment ––no sympathy for the structure of the medieval age. But says, how did it hold together despite the amount of exploitation, tyranny, superstition, etc. in it?

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––worker’s joy in his work. Can’t happen unless work is creative––then he is fulfilling his own individuality and social function at the same time (Burke’s meaning of joy in work). ––if work is to be creative it must reflect something of the [?] of every normal person’s interests ––can’t happen in division of labour which brings feeling that specialization is a moral virtue ––reduces the variety and concreteness of human life to unity & abstraction ––society, like that of the fourteenth century, which permits productivity of human intelligence has produced a freedom which priesthoods, etc. cannot overthrow Morris: an isolated example of an agnostic medievalist More represents the variety of occupations in Utopia. ––according to Morris, in a really free society people will not only be interested in a number of things but able to do them as well. ––unhealthy amount of admiration for the major arts in comparison with the so-called minor arts ––technical specialization, etc. is a reflection of a certain kind of society ––major arts––associated with idea of luxury ––versatility of Morris: mastered a variety of crafts with apparent ease ––developed a flourishing, profitable business devoted to the lesser arts ––ran a manufacturing enterprise in his own sense ––enormous influence ––made a revolution in Victorian taste (others helped in this too) ––did a great deal of what he set out to do: i.e., woke people up so that they used their own eyes ––tried to drag nineteenth century back to something like a unity of culture as England had in the eighteenth century ––sense of living conditions as an esthetic unity is something he worked hard for ––Morris chairs News from Nowhere ––Utopia ––inhabited entirely by mimeographed copies of William Morris ––first impression: vast kindergarten––everybody in it is sprawled on their tummies adoring things ––thinks of society as simply a community of people

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––emphasizes things a normal person admits to be good ––the people are happy, lots of fresh air, outdoors Morris’s picture was promptly purged by those in whose cause it had been written ––editor of his anarchist magazine certainly did not recognize it for what they wanted In Morris’s day––tyranny of laissez-faire was the obvious thing Bellamy––Looking Backward ––impressed people at the time as a left-wing liberal book ––to us it is a sinister & a frightening book ––predicts the telephone––used as an instrument by government ––every citizen is conscripted in the industrial army. Victorians read it with an eye to the advantages. We react to it with an eye to its abuses. Morris thought it was an abominable book. Wrote News from Nowhere in answer to it. ––the more one thinks of Morris, the less he seems of the party of left-wing socialists and the more he seems to be a visionary in the Blake tradition ––product of the same tough, hard-headed radical London cockneyism which produced Blake’s “Songs of Experience” and the letters of Keats ––only society he can envisage as ideal is one full of William Morris ––some sinister qualities even in News from Nowhere ––endless routine of forms of extroverted cheer ––lack of privacy (the luxury of the antisocial) Morris: completely extroverted ––a man’s life full of his work ––two goals of education ––active––practical ––aim to liberate the mind (cf. Newman) ––in Newman and Arnold great stress is laid on the contemplative end of education Different view of education in Carlyle. Man a tool-using animal. Book a tool. Ruskin follows more or less in the same practical tradition ––more attention paid to the arts of craftsmanship

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Morris: what amounts to a progressive education ––has something like a contempt for the intellect ––tremendous amount of practical education going on ––people trained to do things with their hands ––languages conceived to be things they’ll pick up as they go along ––freedom, happiness found in this application ––other things picked up in the trend ––shows a society in which leisure and work is the same thing ––everybody busy, but no one in a hurry ––not panicky, anxious ––nobody loafs and nobody is obliged to work ––if you have private property, you have strong temptation to thieving (Utopia) ––if you abolish hurry and panic then you also abolish the psychological reactions to those things ––desire to be a parasite, inertia (News from Nowhere) Healthy environment in which such diseases do not occur Malthus––population advanced much faster than the means of subsistence ––will find more people in the world than food for them to eat ––this problem greatly ridiculed by Marx ––man now slave of arithmetical and geometrical progression ––influence on Darwin ––Morris doesn’t raise this question. It solves itself. Excessive breeding is also the result of panic and misery psychological balance established ––sex not a blind dictator. One of many normal functions. Therefore, population is automatically stabilized ––everywhere you turn in society, according to Morris, you have the metaphor of the machine ––vision of a blind, irresistible force ––notion of government as a vast machine we must keep running ––in Morris, the world as a machine just isn’t there ––all the nightmares (e.g., over-population) are simply projections of man’s tendency to get entangled with his own machinery ––mechanical iconoclasm ––has smashed machinery because there is none except what man is in control of

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Feb. 8 ––collapse of the machine over the war between them is what matters (reactionaries versus workers) “How the Change Came”224 ––course of revolution ––conception of revolution takes idea of more violence than the ordinary nineteenth-century socialist would allow ––Morris has a clear conception of Fascism ––ability to see it as an element in the revolutionary struggle ––kind of violence he envisages doesn’t take the form of any kind of imperialistic war ––workers––after socialist aims ––reactionaries––become nationalists or state socialists and fight the workers ––as a result of the struggle, the commercial machine is destroyed and the workers suddenly discover that what they are fighting for is in fact there ––don’t have to sacrifice themselves to an economic machine at all ––incessant references to the Middle Ages, fourteenth century ––fourteenth century––one of the great productive periods of English culture ––also the age of the Peasants’ Revolt ––only age in English history when the proletariat make any appearance ––doctrine of a free society founded on a state of innocence ––religious faith took two forms: 1) superstition 2) establishing God’s [missing line in photocopy] Morris gives us freshest and most attractive picture. ––people have all been born in the revolution itself, i.e., born within revolution ––the past to them is a meaningless [?] of folly, superstition and terror ––major arts to some extent assimilated to the minor ones ––sense that the great music of the past is an art founded on human misery ––the art in Nowhere owes very little to tradition, e.g., the art of carving

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––conception of genius as something rare is a myth for Morris––one of the essential reasons for the pathological art of the past ––once we make sure that everybody’s talents are developed, the question of genius will solve itself. ––heroine’s words at end put life into perspective ––not writing a definitive view ––a picture of what life might be like ––says people are too careless of the history of the past ––must know if attractive things we wish to catch at are just phases of what happened in the past ––going to grow up––gain experience without a second fall Society of future Morris dreams of can grow, mature, and progress, as well as come into being Marx is a dialectical materialist. ––life of working classes is based on materials ––fund of ideas which allow them to think it has another basis ––all privileged classes are unconsciously materialistic ––for Morris, revolution puts an end to this unreal antithesis between materialism and idealism ––people in Nowhere are free, equal, creative, productive, happy. Whole quarrel of ideas against substances is put to an end. Artist needs both at once. Rousseau’s idea that they are following the natural, reasonable society ––a sort of second childhood of man ––idea of a new birth is inseparable from all revolutionary doctrine ––art can only be produced out of the middle of society ––in practice this has meant out of the middle class Morris denies all states ––in the revolution the state is destroyed (i.e., British Empire) ––bring into being the real form of English society, which is really the people of England ––has restricted the scene to England, but wouldn’t deny that it could happen in other places ––simply a matter of the decentred community emerging everywhere ––sweeps away Romantic conception of genius as a sacred cow ––indoctrination = education induced by panic ––in Morris’s state––no panic

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––Morris’s education begins at birth––just a matter of living in a free and happy society. Morris believes the creative impulse is the essential human part of every man. (But would say it isn’t worth it to go back to the society of the Italian Renaissance to produce another Michelangelo) ––early nineteenth century––tremendous gap between the genius and everyone else ––object of creativity is not to produce a hierarchy of any kind. When there seems to be almost a racial difference between genius and the ordinary man, something is wrong ––remarks that in the nineteenth century science was merely one of the smoke screens of reactionaries. ––Morris profoundly unspeculative ––projects that on his society ––danger of idolatry Feb. 9 Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics ––introduces the element of the nineteenth century that’s expressed by the word “evolution” ––first apostle of Darwinism to the gentiles ––built up early career on reputation as a debater ––evangelical zeal for Darwinism ––feeling of an apocalyptic division between those who accepted it and the race who didn’t ––stressed moral paradoxes of Darwinism and the shock it had brought to Victorian ethics ––Victorian age liberal. Nation is profoundly illiberal ––fundamental in Darwinism is a knowledge of nature ––irresistible spirit of nature in human life ––has nothing to say to man’s moral, religious aspirations ––grew more mellow later on ––more aware of ethical elements involved in the conception of evolution ––was in fact a liberal himself ––became less of an evangelist and more of a thinker ––essays on ethics and evolution are late in his career ––incorporate more philosophical reflective aspects of doctrine of evolution ––Darwin ––complete abolition of doctrine of special creation

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––steady elimination of God as a scientific hypothesis Copernicus ĺ Darwin ––space made indefinite––constantly dissociated from idea of divinity ––time still bound up ––not indefinite as yet ––think of it with a beginning in the not too remote past. Therefore, need a beginner ––Deism––conception of creative power who winds up world and leaves it In Darwin, time becomes as indefinite as space had ––there may have been a creator, but the universe creates itself ––weakened the necessity of postulating a creative power outside nature ––whole realm of science has now become emancipated from metaphysical or theological presuppositions ––discovery of Copernican universe had greatly eliminated concept of man at centre ––shrank to size of a tiny speck on a spinning mud ball ––religion didn’t seem to have much alliance with scientific view of the universe Ptolemaic cosmos is a better poetic one ––Hardy writing poetry within the Copernican universe. Can still have design, wonder of God as a supreme craftsman, shaper, artist After 1859 this conception also began to disappear ––sense of creative design seems to be operating within, not outside of, organs Darwinian scheme seems to slow the opposition of a purpose in things ––extended record of time to billions of years in which nothing cheerful seemed to occur ––“evolution” = what has happened ––not necessarily the name of a shape, an intelligence, a purpose ––an organism, when it reproduces, varies indefinitely ––seeds of a plant will produce an enormous number of individuals, each of which will be slightly different from the others ––enormous mass of possibilities ––the direction is carried out only by those that satisfy the conditions of the environment ––total reproduction has infinite number of possibilities ––only the fittest survive

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e.g., insects among green leaves. Therefore, eventually the insect turns green The one that actually fits the conditions will survive ––blind ––Therefore, the creating force within nature (not an external power). What was formerly thought of as the creator is now the artist. It is not shaping consciously though. Product of giant roulette wheel in nature. Comes up with one or two answers. To say nature creates employs an external, mythological explanation ––by destroying the original separation of forms (e.g., a turtle always a turtle) Darwin also destroyed the old idea of a hierarchy. It is easiest to maintain this view if you think of the different forms of life as having been different from the beginning. All members of one big family ––twenty-second cousin once removed from the clam ––ceased to think of hierarchy as something inherent in the scheme of things ––got to top of heap only by aggressive will power. Can keep our place by this only ––force of cunning ––man’s place in nature is the basis of Huxley’s argument ––it’s in this competitive world ––it’s illiberal. Nature has no liberal principles whatever. Cares nothing for the individual, only for the species ––no sympathy for the weak ––doesn’t distinguish between voluntary and involuntary breaches in her law Yet that is the natural basis of existence. Almost all we are taught that is morally good runs in the opposite direction from the natural laws e.g., natural––only the best survive moral––every being should be carefully nurtured, fostered, given equal chance natural: strongest gets the best of everything moral: share and share alike

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––man defies nature to the extent of thinking that no other organism has the least importance compared to his own organism ––man is the one natural organism that has licked nature’s own restrictions on reproduction ––fosters own young with efficiency. Power of breeding without any noticeable restriction by nature. Hampers process of natural selection ––brings Malthusian problem in ––evil becomes once again a lair for the struggle for existence ––lose the struggle for existence when we live in society ––competitive aspect of human civilization is the characteristic of the struggle for enjoyment England enjoyed fact that the real workers were invisible––slave economy in the colonies ––warned them they would begin to sense the limitations of their Empire––living on spare capital ––moral things only relatively good ––limited in their goodness ––nature disapproves of them Society that devotes itself to raising idiots is morally good––but this good is not an unconditional one. Should be leery of identifying man’s moral standards with God ––He is sometimes on the side of nature as well as of morality Try to imitate in human life the natural process of selective breeding ––have no notion of what they want to reproduce ––we are still in the Darwin pattern of evolution where anything might be the law. Feb. 15 Paradise = balance between a state of nature and a state of art serpent – Malthus problem

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––man is the prisoner of nature regardless of how he fights against it ––evolution not the same as progress progress = a mutation of the arts across the centuries ––theory of progress was older than theory of biological evolution ––fitted the conditions of nineteenth-century life ––historical, scientific progress, etc. When Darwin’s book came out, they thought science had no progress (Doesn’t follow). In the foreground there is historical progress In the background enormous amount of eons struggling for survival. Huxley has nothing to say for those loose-jointed arguments which insist on applying biological metaphors to history ––see Shaw––Preface to Back to Methuselah ––Darwin’s theories applied by some to such things as the struggle of empire for colonies. ––his argument runs in a circle ––the fit survive ––fit for what? ––fit for survival ––survivors survive ––still, the phrase sank deeply into the general level of adult prejudice on which a great deal of speculation is done in human society ––nature seems to have a great deal of respect for force and cunning. None for morality ––like Machiavelli––not morality but force and cunning make a good ruler Huxley’s essay is an attempt to clear up the applying of metaphors of nature to the phenomena of human society ––accepts the Darwinian argument ––says in the state of nature, the fit are those who fit the environment ––in the ethical sphere the fit has more of the connotation of the best, i.e., does the most to promote the state of art ––behind all this morality lies the fact that man is among the competing organisms of nature –––morality is loyalty to the human corporation as compared to the animal and vegetable corporations Huxley’s metaphors––selected the ape and the tiger to compare to man ––symptomatic of the nineteenth-century mind

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––puts the emphasis on man’s ruthlessness & ferocious destructiveness when his anger is aroused by competition ––usually man is compared to sheep, not the tiger (always compared to the ape) ––when doctrine of evolution comes in you also get such notions as the myth of the cave man ––conception of cave man is ferocious. Creature of unmitigated and implacable ferocity––like a gorilla ––no evidence whatever for this ––what evidence there is seems to suggest the cave man was a peaceable creature. Preoccupied with trying to stay alive in cold weather. ––these animals fit a kind of loose, metaphorical structure in terms of which most of us think. In the early Huxley, you see the converted Calvinist at work. Has transferred the doctrine of original sin to the doctrine of evolution. ––no evidence the human being got its ferocity from its ancestors. ––perhaps acquired it from living with other men, not from his animal ancestry. This argument gives Huxley’s view of education a different slant ––a pioneer of adult education, especially of the working class. [Huxley’s] A Liberal Education ––takes issue with general Newman–Arnold position which sets up the humanist ideal of culture ––attack on the values of classical education (he himself had one) ––certainly not a prophet of the bumbling professional educators of today ––the great danger of the state of art is of becoming stuck with certain traditions, formulas ––nature changes ––a state of art which gets stuck at some point finds it had to adapt to the changes which nature forces upon it ––liberal education gives some capacity for recognizing the necessity of change ––classical education is focussed on a certain area in the past ––an education which has lost its resilience ––process of education should repeat the condition of man himself ––secondary education––an education in human art, achievements, obligations

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One of the difficulties with Darwinian philosophy is the mechanistic pattern of human behaviour it implies Any science founded on something mechanistic would be static. After 1900 science became increasingly the social dynamic. Dangers of reaction from science became more and more obvious. ––regards classical education as a kind of paleontology ––prepares us for a discovery of a law of progress which you also get in paleontology ––interpreting of evolution in biology as a guarantee of a progress in history ––must somehow be doing better than Plato because we are living later is apparently one of his assumptions in the essay ––conception of roots of liberal education as being a comprehension of the world around the student ––Huxley is still not talking about adjustment as the end of education, not talking of a revival to [fit?], as in Dewey ––society changes so rapidly that the educator’s society is not the student’s society ––education has to be at its basis a flexible, fluid thing ––function of classical education is to serve as a badge or insignia for a certain class ––Huxley is addressing himself to a working-class audience ––thinks of liberal education as something not class-bound ––stresses the importance of science in education ––not confusing science and technology ––thinking of science as an aspect of liberal education generally. ––man is born involuntarily into a knowledge of natural law ––ignorant society can produce a systematic violation of laws of nature, e.g., educating people to exploit resources ––nature knows nothing of intention ––reacts automatically Huxley’s nature acts in the same way as any other mid-Victorian mamma would. Only difference is that she is a deaf mute. Doesn’t scold. Just whacks. ––definition of liberal education––deliberately using metaphors to exasperate the sentimental ––intellect––cold and sober

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––emotions––warm and drunk (these are metaphors of rhetoric) Humanism as a cult of authority did much more for literature than for science ––science evolves, improves. Impersonal. ––art never evolves, improves. Bound up with personality Therefore, their values and standards are different. Huxley would say art grows out of nature as the other achievements of man. ––the great artist is just operating a skill––not searching for an absolute. Feb. 16 Butler ––slow start––strong finish Shaw: England didn’t deserve great men ––whereas his ideas have been attributed to Nietzsche, etc., they were from Butler Erewhon ––influential prose genre ––tend to stretch “novel” to include practically all prose writing admitted not to be wholly true ––Plato––Lucian (third century A.D.), Apuleius, Erasmus, Rabelais–– Peacock––Carlyle––Butler––Orwell ––prose satires ––tendency toward philosophical satire, i.e., need some philosophical technique e.g., Plato used philosophical form to satirize Sophists Lucian brought the genre to a high degree of perfection. ––attached Plato to early Christianity Candide––Leibnitzian optimism ––in each case it’s not so much the philosophical doctrine as the social influence of it which is attacked ––literature’s first line of defense against those who threatened it with morality and censorship ––Peacock. greatest in nineteenth-century England Erewhon directed against Darwinianism Sartor Resartus––directed against Utilitarianism

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Erewhon––one of the finest examples of the genre in English literature ––close to the mock Utopia––satiric Utopia (Has always run hand in hand with the satiric tradition.) ––private income ––variety of literary forms ––novel––The Way of All Flesh––much autobiographical ––intense dislike of both his parents ––brutality of well-meaning stupidity true of the father in Way of All Flesh ––Erewhon is one book which had even moderate success in his lifetime ––critic, scholar. Interested in biology ––Darwin, the ascendant biological view at the time ––replaced the older view of Darwin’s grandfather and Lamarck Lamarck: animals, vegetables had altered in response to a certain will to change on the part of the organism e.g., a giraffe liked acacia leaves ––attributes the change to an evolving, active will in the organism. This attracted Butler, ––involved in the-inheritance-of-acquired-characteristics thought. Long neck of giraffe is transmitted to its descendants Biologists couldn’t agree to this part of the thesis ––had at least one virtue Darwin didn’t have, i.e., accounting for a change by a force within the organism Butler ––every organism when it reproduces, reproduces organisms which vary from each other ––these are natural variations ––some fit the environment better; therefore, tend to be selective in the evolutionary process; therefore, evolution evolves through them ––replaces acquired characteristics with natural variation ––typical English theory in the gradualism with which it attributes change. No room for revolutionary change––yet many must have occurred in the course of time ––scientists can get variety of individuals among fruit flies, but have never produced anything that is not a fruit fly. From Darwin’s point of view, all the links in evolution were missing ––hadn’t explained the actual change itself

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––evolution of a warm-blooded animal from a cold-blooded animal is a fantastic revolutionary change ––must take in an enormous number of synchronised changes at once If you try to explain the process of evolution in Darwin you get something more grotesque than in Lamarck. primary school secondary school university

floundering flapping falling from tree

Doesn’t take into account leaps. Never catch organisms at a half stage. Whatever you do, there are gaps meeting. Butler’s point of view expressed in the title Luck or Cunning? ––expresses his disagreement with Darwin ––don’t change by the luck of fitting an environment but by an inner will ––founded on an old psychological law (Aristotle) ––principle of habit: Complete knowledge is unconscious knowledge ––can’t find the word to talk about what organisms are doing from the inside of the organism Can only talk about it in terms of metaphors derived from human consciousness (a linguistic law) ––plants show a remarkable response to the calendar ––accuracy which you can only speak of as knowledge ––rose comes when it is time to bloom. Word “know” in this respect is a metaphor derived from human consciousness. It’s doing it as though it did know. ––can never clarify your thinking about science until you say the plant is doing it, not that something is doing it to the plant ––no answer to say “God made them that way” as far as botany goes fifteenth-century mythical substitutes for God being invoked as explanations of plants ––Nature made it that way ––just a switch from a mythical father to a mythical mother ––there is no room for God in science ––there is in fact no such thing as nature

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––easy enough to console self with thoughts of a providential over-ruling design ––when you admit belief in Nature, you commit logical fallacy of misplaced concreteness ––environment never changes (Darwin’s answer) To Butler this answer is just as mythological as the other two ––environment consists of other organisms; therefore, no explanation Butler––let’s start with what we know Tulip blooms in spring Chrysanthemum blooms in fall e.g., Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin: “Who made you?” “I ’spect I growed.”225 Butler would agree ––piano playing ––conscious of every note you play when unfamiliar with it ––state of conscious decision is a mark of lack of knowledge ––unconscious knowledge is higher––no longer conscious of every individual note ––may rattle it off mechanically, but show you know it Unconscious knowledge is a sign of full, complete, and digested knowledge. Flower’s knowledge is, as far as we can see, unconscious knowledge. It is also extremely accurate (Within its limits, it’s far more accurate than any knowledge we have consciously.) Different levels: ––conscious knowledge––on top––studying ––what we already know is further down ––conscious memory ––involuntary procedures (healthy body functions as far as possible unconsciously) we come into the world bearing about us a great deal of unconscious knowledge ––howls to get air ––suck––vacuum suction principle Butler’s argument runs by analogy If a man can play a piece thoroughly, he must have known it before ––at some very remote past we must have learned consciously how to digest. Must have been deliberation, hesitation, over-mastering will to accomplish certain tasks––on some level analogous to consciousness. Topsy’s only answer would be “I made me.”226

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––getting born means you’ve already achieved a difficult, exacting learning process. Only difference is that the unconscious knowledge which the baby has is inherited. Habit or practice builds up this unconscious memory. Memory is the last step on the road to heredity Memory is only recent heredity, i.e., heredity the individual himself has acquired; heredity is the memory we brought with us into the world. Butler claims his guess is a better one than Darwin’s ––accounts for more of the facts Feb. 22 ––shift of perspective toward many of the actual phenomena in society ––what a person does with his life is so much less significant than what he has already done ––memory derived through his ancestors Wisdom––very largely unconscious ––acquired knowledge becomes fully digested knowledge of wisdom ––tried and tested way––the way that has always been right Society on the whole reflects the voice of nature and not the voice of intellect ––usually speaks with the voice of nature ––values youth, beauty, and good health ––the primary achievements of life ––triumph of nature ––distinct from the things that society says it values Way of All Flesh––hero goes through one evangelical stage after another. Earnest in name and nature ––the voice of nature in society speaks to him three [?] “Oh, my dear fellow.” Erewhon––the working out of this natural force in society ––like Victorian society ––approval of morality, virtue versus acquired knowledge––is most obvious in Erewhonian society ––greater respect for good luck than perseverance ––crimes to be treated as diseases and diseases as crimes

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––people who’ve had bad luck are also treated as criminals Butler––what determines a man’s career: 1. his physical acquirements 2. his mind 3. his religion ––straighteners––mixture of priest and psychiatrist ––nobody’s bad fortune is undeserved as long as it makes other people feel uncomfortable ––man accused of consumption ––judges attitude to him is exactly the same process of rationalization as in the daily newspaper regarding a case of theft ––people who represent new, unconsciously acquired abilities have to pay the penalty for novelty Butler a satirist ––a satirist is often a deeply conservative person ––the normally conventional, unobtrusive is hardest to satirize ––works with a sort of normal standard ––others become grotesque & absurd compared to it ––opposite to absurdity is normality Higgs227 represents a kind of low norm in society ––common-sense attitude to conventions If it’s done, that’s enough for the conventional person ––conventions in their present form are not logical ones ––the crank and bigot tries to organize his life on rational principles ––often succeeds in establishing a new convention An obsolete absurdity is far better than a logical innovation. Musical banks––the churches of England ––conventional people attended them ––eventually discovered they had another religion ––unofficial cult––frowned on––still, only effective religion ––worship of Ydgrun, i.e., anonymous voice of convention 1) ordinary, conventional people––do what others do without inquiring 2) high Ydgrunites ––best people he met in Erewhon

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––the church educates and the world educates, but the world does a better job of the two when it really does a good job Urbanity is the world’s education at its best ––high Ydgrunite knows exactly what he’s doing. His conservatism is the product of detachment ––does what other people do because he has no substitute belief in himself ––things in society become mellowed by time ––progress is slow Erewhon Revisited ––the one thing we don’t want is a new religion of science ––the golden mean is illogical, pragmatic; e.g., courage ––extremes are logical, dogmatic Laodiceanism ––luke warmness ––became vegetarians because of argument against cannibalism ––set by false moral standards, which all such extremes do ––reason uncorrected by instinct is as bad as instinct uncorrected by reason ––avoid idolatry ––if you go into worship according to reason you are actually worshipping a projection of your own mind ––the detachment of the High Ydgrunite preserves him from the idolatry of reason as well as from the idolatry of sense Feb. 23 Butler’s satire sometimes fails because of over-subtlety; e.g., argument against machines ––satire on Darwinian conception of evolution ––looks like he’s saying society may be dominated by machines The Fair Haven––account of evangelical conversion ––written in deadpan style ––so subtle a satire, it took in the whole general public ––even wrote satires so subtle they took in Samuel Butler himself ––attempt to reduce resurrection to natural [causes?] ––actually a funny parody of Victorian rationalism ––also Butler’s attempt to prove the Odyssey was written by a woman ––becomes a parody on certain types of criticism. Use of an uncanny gift for satire, which he himself mistook for scholarship

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––best a man can do in society is to achieve a kind of conservative detachment Butler––a conservative ––partly because of his conception of nature ––ancient institutions are of some value in themselves merely because they are here ––it’s the situation in life that comes first ––everything you do, including thinking, is part of that Evolutionary argument showed there’s no evidence that the world was created by an external power ––Darwinian theory merely replaced this theory with another though ––got rid of the conception that a watch implies a watch-maker (Paley– –referred to in Erewhon) Erewhonians won’t tolerate any machines “Book of the Machines” [from Erewhon] ––an argument by an analogy ––Darwinian view––evolution as a mechanical view: If organs evolve mechanically, then machine can evolve organically. Can be no difference between an organism and a machine. There’s only one term involved, not two. ––presents a frightening picture of machines evolving into beings One of earliest and best examples of science fiction––in fact, a formula for almost all science fiction ––only thing missing so far in machinery is the possession of an independent power of reproduction. ––so far, they need human intervention ––from the machine’s point of view man is nothing but a parasite on the machine “an affectionate, machine-tickling aphid”228 cf. bee––flowers ––machines are in the last stages of that evolution to an organism ––will be the dominant race of the future because they are adapted to their environment Butler works it out with great plausibility ––evolving at such a rate machines will bring whole of mankind under its environment As Butler understands Darwin, this argument is unanswerable.

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Butler’s argument that the machine is an organ, not an organism. A machine is an extension of an organism’s will. An organ for Butler is that which has existence apart from function. Before man invented a machine he invented his own hands. The hands are an organ of an organism. Butler has confused the unit (organism) with the thing that is instrumental to that unit (organ) It’s the grossest idolatry to think of fortune as a wheel because man made the wheel ––keeps using the word “fit” ––means that he has something to fit things to. There’s no numina in Darwin. Machines can develop will in the sense of the will to fit the environment The machine is still the organ of the human function. Can’t exist apart from the human creative will. Butler says there’s a difference in kind. In the Darwinian process there’s only a difference in degree. Butler regarded the argument of the “Book of Machines” as “a specious misuse of analogy.” ––yet his technique of satire all through Erewhon is to present the Erewhonians as doing something dissimilar to what is going on in Victorian society, yet in other respects very much like it. ––same motives ––Erewhonians for the most part don’t have a belief in the afterlife. ––general idea that those who are healthy and happy in this life will be so in the next. ––there is a plausible analogy between this and what was going on in Victorian England. ––believe in a previous existence, like Platonists. ––in this way they account for their own particular views. ––born as a result of obstinately persisting because of desire for existing in a lower world. ––ritual of baptism––sign a statement to absolve parents of any responsibility of his birth. ––responsible for all his own physical deficiencies first squawk––sign a baby is responsible for his misdeeds “Colleges of Unreason”229 ––education in Erewhon 1. study of hypothetical languages

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2. casuistry––branch of ethics designed to tell you what to do if you get into certain situations. Many of them never arise in an actual life. ––hypothetical languages––Erewhonian equivalent of Greek and Latin. Butler had utter contempt for classical education ––cf. Huxley ––training of student in ambiguity. ––carefully trained in the art of “double talk” ––have to be vague ––object is to train people in conventionality ––not committing yourself means you never disagree with anybody ––objects to progress ––justification for this is Butler’s central idea of objecting to reason when used as a guiding light instead of one of the tools. Don’t go to a rational extreme ––kind of parody of conservatism which points to reason as guarding against absurdity ––stresses the enormous importance of heredity ––stick-in-the-mud. Against any change at all. Can’t be sure of anything, so stick to what you have. This could be a parody of Butler’s own view, but he guards against it. Butler’s Contribution to Religion ––his ascent in the balloon taken as a starting point of the new religion ––garbled things he had said are made into the new gospel ––he is the sun child ––the new religion administered by two theologians––Profs. Hankie and Pankie See Erewhon Revisited––well-constructed ––idea of a Demiurge ––the total animal existence ––most of it consists of vegetables and animals Butler says he doesn’t know if it has a total unity, such as [we?] ascribe to God ––have to carry on as if there were no unitary personality in the world except your own. Law of life in the universe is toward the individual fulfillment of each organism “The World of the Unborn”

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(end of chapter 19) If you get a glimpse of the eternal world in this one, best thing to do is to turn your back on it, and rediscover it in your work here. cf. Carlyle––do job in front of you. Only hope of an eternal vision in that. Good deal of the nineteenth century is summed up in this passage. ––emphasis on the primacy of experience (“existentialism”) ––distrust of the contemplative way of life ––action This is a point at which the nineteenth century carries over into our own age All through the nineteenth century you get an image of defending castle against as vast, overwhelming, powerful enemy Darwin consciousness life

Schopenhauer idea will

Kierkegaard “aesthetic” angst

Nietzsche Apollonian Dionysiac (will to power)

Freud ego id

Marx capitalists proletariat

Extraordinarily consistent pattern in nineteenth-century thinking that is still with us ––the irresistible threatening the custodians of values Many of the stray ideas of the past float into Erewhon in some way of another ––straighteners––certain resemblances to psychoanalysts

CHAPTER FIFTEEN LITERARY CRITICISM (GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE) (1954) NOTES BY MARGARET KELL VIRANY

This course was devoted to the major critical figures (Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, and Quintilian) with glances at Aristophanes, Theophrastus, Isocrates, Terence, Laertius, Lucilius, Neoptolemus of Parium, Philodemus of Gedara, Aristarchus of Samothrace, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The notes were taken partly in Pitman shorthand. So far as I can determine, these notes are the only evidence we have that Frye taught a course in literary criticism. In fact, I think there are no references to such a course anywhere in the Frye canon—or elsewhere. Sept. 24. ––a new set of values came into the eighteenth century in relation to ancient criticism ––represents for the first time that basic underlying Greek and Roman art was examined. ––statements made by the Greeks and Romans were lifted from context. Taken as hard and fast rules. Literary Criticism ––Greek krinein––to judge ––the evaluation of literature ––what were the underlying principles of literature? This was the interpretation given it by Greek critics ––French––an attempt at imaginative interpretation of a piece of literature so that you miss nothing that is there. This is a poorer type of criticism. Literary criticism is one of the hardest types of all literary writing. The world has seen only a few good literary critics. A question of aesthetics.

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In ancient literature very few went to work as critics by profession. Diogenes Laertes left a list of critics, but if they ever existed, they have disappeared ––what we have are writers like Plato whose remarks on literature are angled in a particular direction ––the Greeks were always looking for rational explanations of things, so it is odd that we have no formal works of literary criticism Periods of Ancient Literature I––Attic––Athens cultural centre ––500–300 B.C. approximately II––Hellenistic––300–100 B.C. approximately III––Greco–Roman––100 B.C. –100 A.D. Greek period (before 6th century B.C.) ––Greek civilization thought it was eternal––city states represented final, ultimate last word. Therefore, they were very interested in social morality––ethics and politics. ––the Greeks didn’t have a full literature. Yet had no literature but their own, so comparative work was out of the question. ––made a vital mistake in failing to distinguish between literature (works with imaginative appeal that could be judged on aesthetic grounds) and poetry which took the place of prose, which hadn’t yet come into existence. This led them into countless difficulties. Does imaginative detail affect the verity of a historical poem? Does it matter whether there is no such thing as a “struggling moon”230 in astronomy? ––we have very, very little literature before the 6th century B.C. ––there is a reference to inspiration as a prerequisite for poetry ––i.e., in Homer and Hesiod; e.g., appeals to the gods for inspiration in the Iliad and the Odyssey ––there is some question as to the function of poetry Homer: enchantment, pleasure is chief function Hesiod: to teach is a chief function ––references to literary content. They must have had some rules but we don’t known what they were. Sixth Century B.C. ––unfortunate quarrel with wide ramifications ––Greeks began to look for rational explanation of the universe that works along well-ordered, predictable lines. Common belief was that it

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was tossed about by the Olympian gods, subject to practically every human defect i.e., conflict with Olympian mythology. Homer was rooted in it. Therefore, they were in conflict with Homer. If they had made a distinction between what was imaginative and what wasn’t, they would have avoided this ––pandemonium in Athens when they questioned whether Homer was their one great in literature. Therefore, everything they had was being questioned––he was their authority in every field. ––some condemned Homer outright. Others began to explain him by allegory––pushed that too far. Fifth Century B.C. ––great era of Athenian literature began ––Greek drama reached its climax ––Pindar: seemed to have some sort of priestly office. Gave advice freely ––first to question how much in a great work was due to art and how much to nature? How far is a poet born and how far can he make himself a poet? ––his own decision was that it was natural genius. Strangely, he shows a great deal of art in his works ––first to refer specifically to the illusion created by art. Poetry can make what’s incredible sound credible. ––the idea of inspiration at this time was a sort of frenzy. The gods passed on a special message. Olympian power took possession of a person, spoke through him ––in Pindar is the idea of inspiration as innate genius ––Simonides refers to poetry as vocal painting and painting as visual poetry i.e., the attempt to establish the common basis for all arts ––beginnings of a type of criticism: parody ––found in the play Aristophanes ––born 450 B.C., died 380 B.C. ––Greek comedy dealt with contemporary life and manners ––Greek writers of comedy took themselves very seriously ––shows a deep interest the average person must have had in literature ––The Frogs Setting––Athens 406. Euripides, the last great writer of tragedy, had died. Dionysius, patron of the theatre, was afraid it would disappear, so

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went underworld to bring Euripides back. Crossed Acasian lake on his way––the frogs were croaking there. Found a literary contest in Hades in the throne of tragedy. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Method: more important than what he specifically says about literary criticism. (1) Absence of vagueness. Quotes words of these men themselves. (2) Immediately a standard was set up. To be judged from two aspects––skill in art and the giving of good advice. *Poetics––Aristotle. Oct. 1. As a writer of comedy Aristophanes took himself very seriously. ––In his day it was becoming evident that all wasn’t well with Athens ––He was very patriotic. To him Euripides was the embodiment of everything that symbolized the downfall of Athens. Therefore, his attack on Euripides was an attack on everything we would call modern in those times. The Frogs ––set in the year Euripides died ––standard of literary criticism: (1) skill in art (2) giving good advice for citizenship ––Euripides blamed for his tedious political introductions before the play gets under way ––blamed for stage tricks, affectation, the love of ghastly stories. All these turned to in later criticism ––blamed for his stock characters; e.g., a blind beggar in every play ––Euripides praised for his clarity, realism, simplicity of language. Something was always put in to take away from the praise though. ––Aeschylus is blamed for his wild words and long digressions with only a tenuous connection. ––praised for maintaining the old heroic ideal ––Greek tragedy revolves around a few great houses––Thebes, etc.–– interspersed with gods, demi-gods ––grudgingly says Euripides developed minds, showed men to think freely, but goes on the show how this would degenerate into sophistry. ––blamed for his representation of morbid passion ––Aeschylus praised for maintaining loyalty, courage, and patriotism and the old heroic ideals. Therefore, he was a better citizen.

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––the throne of tragedy is given to Aeschylus ––the final decision was made on aesthetic grounds. One judged things without going through any process of reasoning ––Frogs––culmination of a long line of poets and critics in the 5th century Plato ––first to give a good deal of solid criticism ––428–348 B.C. Alexander, the man who brought an end to Greek supremacy, was eight years old when Plato died. ––hard to understand Socrates because everything written about him is deceptively simple. Must understand him in [?] ––doctrine of the psyche (soul) ––part of the air around him that man breathes ––Pythagoreans had the idea that the soul was something that was in man, a little piece of the exiled divinity. Strictly speaking, it was not absolutely essential to the concept of man; it was man with something added ––with Socrates we get the idea of the soul and body made for man, so that if you take away either you haven’t got man e.g., Pythagoras: soul is chlorine in water Socrates: soul is the hydrogen and oxygen that make water ––Socrates decided that the non-material in man was the big element, and wherever there was a clash between the two, the claims of the spiritual power would have to have prior recognition Either you had to accept or not accept this doctrine. Whichever you did would influence you. Who is higher––the great poet or the successful businessman? Who is the nobler? (You are answering the question before you ask it if you word it pragmatically.) ––Plato can see Athens was coming to the end. ––very few ever see the end coming ––vital interest in social morality ––had the courage to be relentlessly logical. Would go wherever the argument led. ––examined Athens (1) to see if he could establish what was wrong (2) to see if something could be salvaged and the state reorganized (3) the attempt to reorganize something in it meant that Athens was obviously gone, as far as he was concerned (1) examined these questions as rhetoric, oratory

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––oratory scared the Greeks. This was the first time it hit them they had no immunity to it, as we have developed it ––Ion––examining current literature ––Protagoras––deals with the Sophists (2) Republic––trying to dream up an ideal state (3) Laws ––ex professio Plato was a social moralist but literature came within the scope of what he was examining ––Plato was a genius and one of the very few who turned to social morality and died a natural death ––Inspiration ––sometimes has the same view as Pindar: innate genius: Phaedrus ––frenzy theory. Irrational. If Plato didn’t say this, he would have to accept at its face value what every poet said––it was a good opening for him ––believe that somewhere there existed a prototype. Theory of Ideas. Everything in this world is an imitation. Artist went still further and imitated this imitation ––Plato had a great interest in truth ––danger in the frenzy theory ––it was just that all artists were taking you a step further away. Having established this about poetry, Plato steps back to give various attacks on it ––it misrepresents gods and heroes The heroes of the Greeks were somewhere between gods and men (social morality angle) ––attacked imitative poetry ––it contained elements detrimental to the growth of moral character ––contained some sort of absorption of the personality of someone else who might be evil ––it depends for its effects on a certain amount of delusion ––it enticed people to indulge without any restraint of emotions, particularly those of pity and fear. Irrational. This is a perennial notion in literature about singers. Oct. 8. Defenders of poetry had no way of proving lack of knowledge by the poets was due to a misinterpretation of them. Plato argues on moral and intellectual grounds

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––poetry contained elements detrimental to the personality of the individual Forms of poetry in the classical tradition for a long time: narrative poetry––lyric imitative poetry––tragedy and comedy mixed poetry––epic This sums up all the types of poetry (1) Neither Plato nor Aristotle had much use for lyric poetry. Bad to have a person’s personality imitating someone else’s, particularly if he were bad. Eventually the actor would have to enter into a person and become bad. ––The Greeks were highly imitative ––in the Protagoras Plato said people in his day had become a nation of hypocrites; i.e., a general evil effect This problem was to turn up again and again in the world Today––because a person must play Lady Macbeth well, you must smoke the kind of cigarettes she does. This sort of thing was worrying Plato (2) His second objection was that it depends on a certain type of illusion ––brings a certain imbalance ––you forget things as they really are His final dictum: all poetry should be banished from the state, except hymns to the gods and panegyrics on great and good men. (At first he just set out to condemn the poetry of his own day.) There was a reaction against the misunderstanding of the ancient classics. Plato was not given to dogmatic utterances. He was inclined to admit tragedy and comedy certain restrictions. Sidney says Plato was attacking the defects of poetry in his own time and not poetry itself. This is true to what Plato says in one place but not what he says as a whole. Others say Plato was just talking from a particular time and a particular place. However, Plato never makes this qualification himself in all his writing. Plato was an advocate, a special pleader.

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––old dispute that began between the poets and the philosophers ––referred to in the Republic ––Plato felt the time had come for a showdown ––one or the other must go, at least as a guide to men’s lives ––he felt that philosophy must stay; therefore, poetry must go in the Republic. In the Laws he was a special pleader ––says everything he can that is derogatory to poetry. Doesn’t turn around and talk for the other side. Ends up with an extreme statement This explains inconsistencies in him e.g., two theories of imitation (1) removal away from real truth (2) brings us a little nearer to ideal forms. Attempt to get back to reality —in one place he is speaking as a moralist —in another place he is speaking for himself This explanation seems to cover most contradictions. Great deal of positive material in Plato also. (1) First one to put forth strongly imitation (mimesis) as the basis of all art (2) Has a theory of inspiration ––a divine release of the soul from the yoke of custom and convention (the Phaedrus). The kind of upward vision towards reality that this would give was possessed by the poet and, in varying degrees, by the prophetess and the lover. (Origin of the phrase “the lunatic, the lover, and the poet” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream [5.1.7–8]) (3) first one with a concept of poetry as art ––not something random. Need for care in the taking of thought on the poet’s part. This was a common doctrine in Rome––e.g., Horace (4) organic unity––especially in the Phaedrus. Every composition ought to be constructed with a body of its own––head and limbs, etc.—perfectly in keeping with one another, i.e., compactness, harmony, and unity of the human organism. Complete, vital unity. (5) Made tragedy (i.e., an imitation of the just and noblest life) inferior to the epic ––pity and fear. The two emotions more closely connected with tragedy ––How do you understand people, get pleasure from this? (6) Plato spoke of “mixed feelings” e.g., the emotion itself may not be pleasant but the act of indulging in emotion is.

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(7) Plato had little to say on comedy “malicious pleasure” that comes from the discomfiture of another ––gain self-complacent pleasure. The only laughter person can enjoy is at friends. (8) Rejects personal satire: malicious ridicule (9) Poetic justice first appears in the Republic and in the Laws i.e., ultimate equity between the good and the bad man where the bad will suffer and the good succeed (10) Eternizing function of poetry ––human nature shrinks from finality. Doesn’t like things to be brought to an irrevocable end e.g., Virgil’s sad cry in the Aeneid ––Virgil’s “tempus irreparabile fugit” [irrevocable time flies. Georgics, bk. 3, l. 284] ––no power whatsoever can get one back to yesterday. Plato felt that literature could give us a little piece of what was gone. Preserved. ––In Plato’s own works and those of the Greeks a great deal of antiquity has been preserved (11) Symposium ––saw that love was a prime underling motive in poetry––“agape” in a very wide sense ––Why? ––perhaps he felt that to write about something you must experience it widely, i.e., love it Plato as a Judicial Critic i.e. one who takes things as he sees them in his own day. See both the good and bad sides of them. ––the hoi polloi are not adequate judges of literature, according to Plato ––defects of poetry in his own time were due to the fact that the mob was the ultimate judge of it––subject to all their morbid inclinations. This is an eternally recurring problem in literature. A vicious circle. i.e., if the world at large is left as a judge of the work of art, either the audience or the artist becomes depraved. If it is the audience, the artist tries to please them and has to go a little lower than they in order to. Each pulls the other down ––people of more refinement and philosophical training should be judges. Plato wisely refrained from selecting judges. One of the most difficult questions in all literature. If a work is great, it will be great forever.

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––Plato said you need to know a man’s writings as a whole before you can understand one small section of them. In one place Plato says if poets have anything to say in their defence, let us hear them Aristotle ––born at Stagira in 384 B.C. Died 322 ––took up Plato’s challenge ––a biologist––always dissecting things ––came to Athens when 17 ––tutor for Alexander––one of his pupils ––set out to bring order to the existing sciences Plato wanted men to live right Aristotle wanted men to think straight ––divided sciences into three main classes (1) productive poetry, rhetoric (2) practical politics, ethics (3) theoretical mathematics, physics, metaphysics The productive and practical sciences dealt with the getting of knowledge and the application of knowledge to mutable, human, changeable things. All you can get from productive and practical sciences would be general. Might change. Theoretical sciences dealt with knowledge and the contemplation of knowledge in itself. From this you got universal, final principles. Aristotle wanted to bring logic into the sciences, which he felt were just a jumble of facts. He wanted to put some kind of order into poetry (all imaginative writing). All he hoped to get there were general, not final, principles. Yet later writers regarded everything Aristotle said as immutable as a dictum of Euclid. Oct. 15. Aristotle didn’t intend what he said about literature to be taken as absolute and final. Poetics ––short ––esoteric language ––text seems fragmentary. Perhaps the second book has been lost. Therefore, a difficult book.

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Widely divergent theories about its meaning ––introductory part––chapters 1–5 ––general remarks on imitation as basis of all art (1) the object of imitation what? (2) the means of imitation how? (3) the reason of imitation why? Summary of the growth of tragedy and comedy ––disputes regarding that (Aristotle always looking for the essence––more easily seen when a thing is in growth.) chapters 6–19 deal with tragedy ––definition: what are the parts of tragedy? (chapter 6) ––goes further into each of them ––deals with the epic and its relation to tragedy ––chapters after 19 of no particular use to us ––diction

} language very different from ours ––poetic diction ––chapters 23–24––epic ––chapter 25––objections brought against poetry and how they may be answered ––chapter 26––tries to resolve disputes about the relative merit of epic and tragedy (1) Aristotle accepted existing Greek literature as if it were final. Do tragedy and comedy mark the end of the line? (brought this question up and then discarded it) (2) Greek preoccupation with ethics ––goes through the whole thing. Teleology (3) Answering Plato, who had bitterly attacked drama (especially tragedy) (4) Current questions ––relative merits of art and genius, epic and tragedy; therefore, emphasizes the thing that tragedy has and the epic has not Imitation is the basis of all art

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––Plato gave imitation an unfavourable meaning. Aristotle wanted to rescue it. See in imitation the creation of something new. This means art imitates nature in the sense that both produce something new ––poetry––includes music and dancing as well as all imaginative writing. (Music = flute and lyre) ––typical exhaustive Aristotelian approach ––three things: rhythm, harmony, language ––if you imitate by rhythm alone––dancing ––if you imitate by harmony––music ––if you imitate by language––lyric poet (together and consistent) ––if you imitate by language––tragedy and comedy (varied) ––distinction between poetry strictly so-called and poetry that only did the work of prose What will a man imitate? ––can imitate things as they are, as they are said to be, as they ought to be. Can imitate men as good as ourselves, men better and men worse. If we imitate men better than ourselves, by and by you have tragedy. If you imitate men worse than ourselves, by and by you have comedy. (“worse” = of less consequence) Why do we have poetry, dancing, and music? ––traces it to the tendency to imitate that is deep in everybody ––man gets pleasure from imitation of others because of this tendency. Although the object itself may be repulsive, good imitation of it will give us pleasure ––everybody has an innate sense of rhythm. Literature is in contact with the universal. Cuts out the particular ––what should happen according to the law of probability and necessity Chapters VI–XIX Tragedy was the crowning glory of Greek literature Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is entire and that is serious and of a certain magnitude, in language made beautiful by different means in different parts, in dramatic not in narrative form, with incidents that arouse pity and fear so as to bring about a catharsis of these emotions. Aristotle’s words, in the definition, were chosen to distinguish tragedy from something else, in this case comedy ––“dramatic, not narrative form” distinguishes it from epic Katharsis

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––common Greek word––cleansing ––psychological. Release from pent up emotions which would cause some type of hysteria if restrained indefinitely ––moral. Purifying emotions Aristotle familiar with the theory of the origin of tragedy from cult worship of the god Dionysus. Therefore, he may have had the moral theory in mind (or both). Psychological one seems better, because that’s what he means in his Ethics. His meaning is much contested. These are two of the most common. Oedipus Rex––Sophocles ––difficult to see how catharsis fits, but it must have been in his mind ––it is doubtless that he thought catharsis was good for you Plot: synthesis of the individual acts Diction: synthesis, composition, of the verses Spectacle: stage appearances, costumes, scenery Character: anything in the play that left one in the position to make some conclusion about a type of individual Thought: that by which speakers sought to prove something Melody: no definition Three of these deal with the object you are imitating (plot, character, and thought) ––diction and melody deal with the means ––spectacle deals with the manner ––great part is given to dealing with plot ––Aristotle preoccupied with teleological ideas ––did or didn’t the Greeks believe in free will as we understand it? ––if not, they’d be more concerned with what a person does, not with why he did it Anything entire must have a beginning, middle, and end. The Greeks in their plays dealt with stories already known. Therefore, where you should begin became an important question. ––scene at the beginning would be something that didn’t of necessity follow from something before. Would point to something that was naturally coming later. Middle would follow of necessity from the beginning and point to something later. End would follow from the middle and be self-conclusive. (Greeks didn’t start with a corpse in a bag that followed of necessity from something.) Took it for granted the audience knew the story.

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Oct. 22. Aristotle––unity of action insisted upon. ––perfect cohesion of parts ––says in his day Greek tragedy tried to restrict itself to what would happen in one day or slightly more ––he mentioned this simply as current practice It wouldn’t apply to several of the Greek plays 16th century––Castelvetro ––Poetics of Aristotle popularized and explained ––turned Aristotle’s statement into a law of the unity of time ––if you have unity of time, must have unity of place This is responsible for the three unities. They do not go back to Aristotle. Aristotle didn’t say much about the unity as something received from one character ––everything should happen according to the law of probability and necessity, cause and effect This was his way of bringing tragedy into contact with the universal What plots should you use? ––in Greece they restricted their plots to a few noble houses. Aristotle saw no need for staying entirely with the traditional plots. ––simple and complex plots ––desis and lysis in each play (bind and loose) ––plot is complicated up to a certain stage and then begins to unravel. This brought about by the peripeteia and anagnorisis, i.e., the reversal of the intention. A deed done in all good faith which produces the opposite result of what was intended. Peripeteia––intention Anagnorisis––the recognition of what has happened All these things must come about through cause and effect, and not with the use of a deus ex machina. (such a device is used in Molière’s Tartuffe) ––Aristotle warns against certain plots––to be avoided ––keep away from plots that don’t excite pity and fear. Turn to those that will excite them.

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(1) bad man who comes to an evil end is poetic justice (2) bad man prospers––neither pity nor fear––disgust (3) can’t have a completely good man going from good fortune to bad fortune Tragic hero ––model of saintliness, never a bad man ––goes from good fortune to bad fortune because of some mistake What does he mean by a “mistake”? ––moral fault? error in judgment? ––hard to see a moral fault or an error in judgment in Oedipus Rex–– what brought his downfall happened in a way [right?] outside the play ––must keep it from being a case of justice––hero gets just what is coming to him. On the other hand must avoid case of martyrdom, with the hero in no way to blame The fault has to be something in a man which is very intelligible, very excusable, but yet not wholly justifiable. It is possible that the greatest dramatists hit upon this by instinct. No proof that Aristotle was able to see this. Perhaps he sensed it. Always a danger of reading into Aristotle things that have become articulated later. Another possibility would explain everything––Aristotle might have had in mind the famous Greek dictum “the doer must suffer.” Drasanti pathein. The one who does something must suffer, irrespective of his intention. Positive law, i.e., that made by a legislator is the kind of law that takes in cognizance of intention. Even here it is restricted. Aristotle on Character (above discussion is all included under plot) (1) A character should be good, i.e. in the sense of useful ––there’s goodness in everybody, even in a woman or a slave ––{Fontenelle, Réflexions sur la poétique There is a perfection even in vice. Cruelty, when carried to perfection, is good in tragedy. The stage is not opposed to what is vicious, but what is low and trivial.} (2) The character must be appropriate ––woman must not be represented as manly or brave or clever (3) Character should have resemblance i.e., like reality? like their mythical prototypes?

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in the same breath, he compares it to a painting; does he mean that a character is like the original but heightened somewhat? (4) Character should be consistent. If you introduced an inconsistent character, keep him inconsistent all through (5) Keep everything in the character according to the law of necessity and probability Poetics, chapter XVI ––advice to the writer ––use your imagination––picture yourself in the audience, writing your own play ––try to enter into the feelings. Act out the part of your characters, even with the proper gestures. Unless you are able to enter into the feelings of the person you are putting before people you will never be successful in it. ––make an outline. Fill in the details. Thought ––refers you to his account in the Rhetoric Spectacle ––very simple in these [itself?] ––not of much concern Didn’t have a great deal to say about Chorus and Melody ––important aids in tragedy ––must come under unity of action law ––chorus must sing something connected with the play to further the action in which they appear Diction ––recognized the distinction between prose and verse ––Greek and Latin are quantitative languages. Hard to compare with English Comedy ––says it wasn’t taken seriously in the beginning ––that which is painless to the victim, not harmful to others (Tractatus Coislinianus is given in places as if it were Aristotle’s ideas on comedy, but it is not) Epic––epic doesn’t have melody and spectacle. Can be as long as you want, different meter. Close connection to tragedy despite differences Tragedy ––superior to the epic ––more refined

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––epic can best be appreciated by being read, tragedy by being read and seen Chapter 25 ––very important from the point of view of ordinary criticism ––talks about errors that may appear in poetry (1) it is better if all error can be avoided (2) if errors do occur, they are not all of the same kind. Not every error is very serious. There are errors that touch the essence of poetry and there are errors that are only accidental ––poor imitation is the essential error The standard of correctness is the same in poetry as it is in the other arts (3) Do not be too hasty in postulating errors in great works. ––may have been a current belief in the time he wrote ––may be quoting something without vouching for its truth ––may be quoting things as they were said to be ––may be it serves an end (great thing through all Greek philosophy and literature, especially in Aristotle) Must consider: who said it? when? for what purpose? to whom? by what means? This chapter was hardly ever mentioned after the days of Aristotle. Yet it is one of the most important chapters in Aristotle from a practical point of view. Subsequent writers, e.g., Longinus and Horace, were to discover that all errors can’t be avoided. {Some reviewers go to great lengths to discuss trivial technical errors in a book; i.e., they don’t distinguish between types of errors.} When dealing with probabilities, remember that a great number of things happen contrary to probability ––i.e., don’t condemn a work of art because there is some improbability in it Did Aristotle regard aesthetic pleasure as the end, the purpose of poetry? ––spoke of “the proper pleasure of poetry” ––but preoccupied with ethics ––all ethical standards must be satisfied i.e., ago-old dispute between art and morality ––have to draw a line on morality somewhere Where should it be drawn? (from the point of view of art)

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Oct. 29. Inspiration in Aristotle ––believed poetry is inspired ––seemed to distinguish between poetic inspiration and frenzy ––the text contains trouble here though ––Dryden––preface to Troilus and Cressida––takes the text that says poetry is the “work of a great mind not a madman.” There is another text that reads “work of a great mind or a madman”231 Meter ––incidental to poetry ––Aristotle went too far in his reaction against classification of poets according to meter Aristotle becomes more lenient in his views as he goes on ––first he restricts poetry to the universal (he brings it close to Aristotelian philosophy) ––later he realized that what is poetic art can divert attention from improbabilities and other elements you couldn’t give a non-philosophical explanation for in a work The Poetics ––basis of so much ––so much in it Rhetoric (prose and prose styles in Greece) Problem of finding a satisfactory answer to the question, “What is poetry?” ––where is the dividing line between poetry and prose? ––Coleridge: “Poetry is the best words in the best order.”232 ––perhaps prose is words in their best order ––before he gets the best words from experience, he must have felt that experience in the highest degree ––“in the best order” explains why poets are so rare ––on the one hand, the highest possible experience or feeling of something combined with practically the best possible mental poise These two things fight against one another slightly ––came from Syracuse in 422

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––democracy manifested itself there with a wide period of litigation in the law courts. Began to realize the importance of putting the case well. ––began to work by rules of prose, to help put case convincingly before law courts ––techne––rules for prose ––427 B.C.—Gorgias––Leontine rhetorician233––came to Athens ––Athens became interested in its prose ––didn’t want to restrict it to the law courts. Idea of prose literature with something of the emotional appeal of poetry ––Plato attacked Gorgias on the grounds of his having no respect for truth. Then found fault with mechanical divisions. He himself laid down rules for what is necessary for good rhetoric (1) sound knowledge of the subject treated (2) some natural gift, knowledge of the technical rules and practice along with it (3) order and arrangement 1. clear about the subject 2. satisfactory plan 3. due disposition of parts (4) psychology ––covered the ground quite well, without great detail Isocrates 436–338 B.C. Great deal of what he wrote on literary prose criticism (1) has been lost. Claimed the poets had a better break than prose writers: ––greater freedom of diction ––greater freedom in handling the subject ––rhythm and meter to affect people (2) denounced eristic disputation (i.e. argument per se) (3) attacked notion that a set number of rules and devices would make a man an orator {the man’s style is his own} (4) denounced the ridiculous themes chosen for disputes, discussion (5) long praise of eloquence (“purple patch”)––turns up in various writers Nov. 5. Rhetoric––Aristotle

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––influenced by Plato’s attack on rhetoric and by Gorgias’ school of highly rhetorical prose ––not writing on prose in general, but on prose in the orator, i.e., to be spoken, not just read. Three things to consider (1) speaker (2) speech (3) audience ––used this division for his three books first draws line between rhetoric and other things e.g., rhetoric and logic ––both try to convince others of their conclusions, but logic is abstract, rhetoric is concrete. Different in method and proof. The purpose of rhetoric (1) to promote inquiry (2) to teach (3) to debate (4) to defend oneself ––must start from common ground in politics and ethics politics––everything to do with the organization of the state ethics––everything to do with man as an individual ––the basis would not be universals because it does not start with metaphysics––basis would be a generally accepted statement (probabilities) in which there is always the possibility of an exception Three Classes of Rhetoric (1) forensic––in the law courts (2) deliberative––in the assemblies (3) occasional––in speeches on great men, welcomes, funeral speeches Speaker must have three qualities (1) virtue––upright, decent man (2) wisdom––or at least the appearance of it (3) interest in audience An orator must understand character if he is to appear wise (ethos) ––must show some emotion in order to show interest; therefore, must know about pathos or emotion The audience is the final judge. It must therefore be considered. Various types––must mold speech to fit them Speech––as a philosopher, Aristotle thought men should work by reason. A strong argument should be enough. Yet he realizes that a good cause may have to be decked out to please the less intelligent audience ––two essential qualities of style: (1) clearness (2) propriety

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––audience must be able to understand what you are saying. Use ordinary words, clear metaphors, pure, idiomatic Greek. Avoid the abstract ––all classical prose contains propriety, i.e., suiting speech to theme and audience ––for all uses of ordinary words give talk a sort of dignity Division of speeches (1) finding the arguments (2) their arrangement (3) their delivery Supposed indifference to style taken by the Stoics as the basis of their own style––very correct but devoid of ornament Theophrastus 372–287 B.C. ––remembered mainly for his “Characters” ––nothing of his on criticism––just things attributed to him (1) definition of verbal beauty as that which gives pleasure to both eye and ear and as noble intent (2) two additional virtues of style––ornateness and correctness (besides clearness and propriety) (3) Advice that in writing you should not include every detail but leave something to the imagination of the audience (4) definition of (1) tragedy and (2) comedy (1) a reversal of fortunes of heroic characters (2) a bringing together of everyday events without danger ––became the accepted definitions This ends the Attic period of Greek literature Followed by the Hellenistic 300–100 B.C. Nov. 12. Roman Period (following the chronological order) ––146 B.C. ––fall of Corinth and Carthage ––Rome––master of the world ––Rome’s dominion was just territorial ––took everything else from Greece. Began way to take in by 300 B.C.—modeling from Greek culture. Became much more pronounced later. Didn’t start with the capture of Corinth or when Greece came to an end ––Greeks were practical ––Romans were speculative. Legal tendency. Imitators.

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––two literatures to work on––Greek, Roman ––foreign literature––satire and letter writing were new forms which had been added Terence ––192–159 B.C. ––one of the world’s great writers of comedy (1)––against the hackneyed conventions of his time ––question of the prologue What use could be made of it? ––Euripides, Plautus had used it to give an explanation of what the play was about, mostly ––repeat thing a number of times (2)––tried to get away from the idea of the prologue as inartistic ––used it for different reasons e.g., defending self against rivals ––left difficulty of incorporating an explanation of the play (3) contaminatio ––the using of two scenes from a Greek original to make a scene in the Roman play (Terence was the first to do it. Lucius had used the word before him, and Laertius had done it. Terence was more successful). Shakespeare uses a type of contaminatio (4) Terence––in dealing with subject matter wanted to keep very distinct the line between comedy and tragedy––everything in special circumstances made to fit the circumstances (almost a search for decorum) ––in comedy, plain style ––only admit the grand style for the mock heroic Lucilius 148–103 B.C. (1) advocate of the purism of language (2) famous definition of the mechanical style ––“artfully and intricately arranged” ––like blocks of pavement, mosaic (3) first big name in the trend toward urbanitas i.e., refined, politeness. Avoidance of anything rough, crude, vulgar Baroque influence in the Victorian age ––no matter how much a woman felt like Lady Macbeth, she would have never spoken that way

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––urbanitas had an influence in the Baroque period Have to have some urbanitas but hard to settle how much, how far it should go. Where to draw the line? Horace 65–8 B.C. ––first big name in Roman criticism ––lasting influence ––Augustan Age. Caesar Augustus wanted to get everything in Rome back to the simplicity of the Old Republic. Didn’t realize this couldn’t possibly be done. Wanted everything to contribute towards his reorganization of Rome. Horace was the least willing to cooperate. Virgil more willing to contribute. Unwillingness of Horace to become a state writer is reflected in his writings ––Ars Poetica ––close connection between literature and public political life in Greece ––with the conquests of Alexander, a decay in literature as far as originality went ––turned attention to existing literature ––classify, comment, interpret it ––Hellenistic period didn’t know Aristotle’s Poetics At Aristotle’s death, the Poetics passed into the possession of Meletus ––Italids (rulers) ––habit of getting hands on books and refusing to give them back ––to save it from Italids ––document found in ruins ––by Philodemus of Gedara ––knew nothing about literary criticism ––writing about a work produced by another man ––called About Poetry ––Neoptolemus of Parium was a good literary critic but his work is lost Queer irony ––Neoptolemus evidently made a division in dealing with literature that has lasted right down to English times (1) poiesis––deals with the subject (2) poema––deals with the form ––practically always the largest section (3) poeta––deals with the poet himself ––This affected Horace’s art, works of Quintilian in prose

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––Neoptolemus shows the old restriction of poetry to the universal was thrown out entirely ––claims about equal value for subject matter and form ––a compromiser. Would maintain a little of each needed ––demanded brevity and clearness ––question of what is the chief purpose of the poet? –seems to try to get away from the idea of the poet as a sort of professor of ethics. Willing to say either to teach or to give pleasure was a sufficient motive. In Horace in places through Neoptolemus [sic]. Aristarchus of Samothrace ––Hellenistic period ––commentator on [Virany didn’t complete this entry; she must have intended to write “commentator on Homer”] ––first to emphasize you must know the poet as a whole before trying to give an interpretation of his individual words and phrases. The poet is best interpreted by himself ––must understand the background of his writing and the period in which he wrote ––not fair to criticize as if the poet should know everything that’s known by the critic a hundred years later ––his defects turn up later, but not his virtues ––too affected by the conventions and fads of his own time Alexandrian Period ––first attempt to draw up a list of poets ––what is a classic? ––prepared the way for a comparison of poets ––this brought out the salient characteristics of each poet ––idea that you can put poets in an ascending or descending order of merit (can’t be done) Nov. 19. Horace, Satires ––defended satire as (1) successor of Old Greek Comedy (2) it attacked not men but the weakness of men ––wouldn’t say whether or not it was real poetry. Probably didn’t say so ––very hard to keep apart a person and his weakness, however ––Romans had no wit or humour and were always talking about it

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––their humour about the poorest imaginable in a great literature. A very little in Horace and Juvenal ––Cicero’s humour, largely puns, were very poor puns ––Horace: has restrained and refined irony––best possible wit ––there are no mediocre poets––either good or bad ––one of Horace’s main principles ––wanted careful diction and brevity Epistles ––type of literature that has little to do with real letters (only real ones existing are those of Cicero) ––became at this time a type used to give advice or to discuss moral or literary problems ––twenty in the first book of Horace––letter form is mere convention ––some of the later ones are like real letters ––Horace appears in the role of the adviser of people of his age ––thought a great need was to found a new school of poetry based on Greek originals. ––sees in Rome a lack of self-criticism ––blind idealization of the old Roman poets ––great fervour for writing at the time ––thought this was good but needed direction ––appealed to Augustus to give it his patronage and direction. This was irony, perhaps. Ars Poetica ––actually an epistle ––first given title by Quintilian ––Horace called it his “Epistle to the Pisones” ––“Epistula ad Pisones” ––his newer title caused much misreading ––gave meanings to it which are not there ––Horace actually discussing literature, with the needs of the Pisones specifically in his mind ––division of Neoptolemus more convenient poiesis 1–41 poema 42–294 poeta 294 to end Poiesis ––unity and harmony most important

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––asks people not to introduce purple patches, which lead readers to expect too much––anything following is anticlimax ––should not be preoccupied with one literary quality by overshadowing the others Poema ––arrangement ––choose how much of a subject you are able to treat. Remember you can’t deal with everything about a subject in one work ––poetic diction ––no difference between language of prose and poetry ––basis is by “usus”––i.e., usage––he meant language found in cultivated circles ––must have some kind of distinction, however. ––Horace suggested this be done by: (1) putting a familiar word in a new setting (2) a judicious use of rare words (3) rare use of coinages (word found once and once only is hapax legomenon) ––Horace would be opposed to eighteenth-century English literature Nov. 26. Aristotle had hinted at a possible distinction of literary kinds when he had talked of imitating different objects in a different manner Subsequent to that there came very rigid divisions between different literary types ––especially tragedy and comedy Horace kept them well separated ––very concerned with language. Saw that you might get the language appropriate to comedy in a tragedy and vice versa ––there were to be great controversies over this ––e.g., Addison’s time in England (post Renaissance) Not easy to know where the divisions between different types of poetry are, particularly in English. The question is a very old one. Horace ––literary style must be appropriate (1) to the type of literature (2) to the person speaking (3) to the passions holding sway at the moment ––Where do you get your characters?

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––invent them? or take something already there? ––in Horace’s age it would be difficult to have original characters ––difficult to give a personal touch to things already known (this is one translation of his statement). He may also mean that something unusual must happen, e.g., to make a comedy successful {(Not Horace)ĺtake stock characters, which have been there all the time ––juggle them, put them together differently This type depends on variety of plot, setting, so that monotony isn’t too noticeable} Concrete Application of His Theory (1) tragedy––person must study character ––repeats advice that one must give a different tone to characters that change with the years (2) action––men more impressed by what they see than by what they hear; therefore, report, don’t represent, murders, etc. ––There should be five acts––taken very literally (majority of plays after the Renaissance have five acts). Horace probably got this from Neoptolemus of Parium A five-act division was forced on the plays of Plautus and Terence after the time of Horace. (3) Deus ex machina is inartistic but necessary at times (4) Chorus shouldn’t sing songs that don’t promote the action (5) There should be three actors (Aristotle spoke of this as the number used by Sophocles in practice. By Horace’s time it had become a law (6) Chorus should comfort––do the work of good ––this goes back to the time when the chorus was a cult song, from the gods The Poet Himself (last section) ––native talent not enough by itself ––training (1) philosophical ––a study of philosophy, i.e., practical philosophy (2) sincerity. A practical experience of what you are trying to represent e.g., be patriotic before trying to represent a patriot

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––feel the pain if you wish others to shed tears ––aim (1) to profit (2) to please (3) a combination of both Horace felt the third was the best but the others were a sufficiently good motive ––be brief ––use a certain amount of restraint when bringing in fictions. Should have some resemblance to life ––question of perfection ––absolute perfection is impossible ––try for the greatest relative perfection we’re capable of ––an honest judge of what we do is necessary ––lapse of time also necessary ––keep manuscript nine years before publishing it (if it is still worth it) ––if you can’t get to a fair degree of perfection in poetry, keep away from it entirely. A mediocre poet is a contradiction in terms ––question of genius and labour ––neither is enough without the other ––poet must be rational. Some great poets would become very indifferent to a lot of social conventions. Some who weren’t great would set out to imitate these poets at least this much. Horace warns against this. Several times emphasizes need for sincerity of utterance ––first great name to assert the supremacy of classical Greek culture ––difficult to know exactly what he means in Ars Poetica. Dionysius of Halicarnassus ––from cities of Asia there came a type of oratory loaded with blaring ornament ––another oratory––neat, precise––claimed the old Attic orators for its origins ––both extremes were condemned e.g., by Cicero ––felt oratory was first and greatest ––tried to give a definition of comedy––the imitation of life––the mirror of habit––the representation of truth––i.e., reality

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This became current later ––also a few ideas on wit and humour ––deals with the thoughts: the irony, the over-simplicity ––the other caused by the use of ambiguous words, puns, taking literally what is meant metaphorically ––about the same time as Horace ––a Greek who learned Latin ––wanted to talk about the supremacy of classical Greek ––first to use the historic and comparative method; therefore, discusses literature in the concrete ––goes back to the analytic, observational method of Aristotle ––didn’t accept tradition blindly From now on nearly all the writers take certain things for granted e.g., clarity; therefore, don’t emphasize it ––use of idiomatic language Tendency to repeat clichés which nobody denies. Thus, make a name for themselves. Dionysius, On the Composition of Words ––written to a pupil of his ––in prose ––for writing you need (1) thoughts (2) words ––writing on part 2 [?] here ––first five chapters––nature of composition ––next twenty chapters––general theory and technique of composition ––remaining chapters––the three distinct modes of composition no class Dec. 3 *Longinus, On the Sublime Dec. 10. Longinus ––minister of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra in Africa––213–292 A.D. ––fragments only ––“Sublime”—this really means anything that can raise anything up ––written to Terentianus––to correct a lost work of Sicilius ––1–6 and 41–43––false sublimity ––7––grandeur of conception ––vehement, deep feeling

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––17–29––careful manipulation of figures ––30–38––nobility of phrase ––39–40––word order ––42–43 (with 1–6) ––44––decay of eloquence ––he gets at the heart of great writing Purpose of sublimity ––Not persuasion but transport. Appeal of writing is immediate, not reasoned out ––can it be used for teaching? ––non-committal ––need for some teaching ––missing section Defects of Style ––puerility––learned trifling, insipid ––parenthyrsus––uncalled for display of emotion ––more in speaking than writing ––comes from a craze for novelty Needed for the sublime ––lofty thought and lofty words ––submission to great predecessors Figures of Speech ––amplification ––rhetorical treatment of the commonplace ––images––writer has clear picture and gives it to readers ––no arbitrary devices ––artificial ring in figures––harmful e.g., from Demosthenes and others ––apostrophe––emotional appeal Periphrasis ––round about way of saying things e.g., death = destined path ––warned that it could fall flat ––Molière satirized this. Popular in the eighteenth century Diction ––lost section *beautiful words are the light of thought (not realized in England until Coleridge) ––cf. stained-glass window and light

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––words and thought must be correlated ––twenty metaphors could be good in a passage. One could spoil it; i.e., the number doesn’t matter Rhythm ––can be too pronounced Literary Criticism ––difficult. First to point this out “crowning fruit of long experience”––Can person get it by study? Thinking of criticism as judicial rather than historical. Fewer critics than creative artists. False sublimity ––the true lifts up ––two minds meet––creator and reader ––immediate response of the reader ––what appeals to all men at all places and times. Universal appeal “Men” = men of literary taste ––test––wanted to read it again ––suggestive powers ––test––lasting comparison with the recognized great ––e.g., Matthew Arnold’s “touchstones” Sublimity––words, thought, conception, imagination, feeling ––a rare combination ––prefers Iliad to Odyssey ––typical Greek fear of so much fantasy in the Odyssey Faultlessness ––greatness not to be confused with accuracy. The former appeals while the latter never can. A touch of genius can overcome defects. “Faultless mediocrity” versus “genuine greatness.” Perfection annoys us in life or literature. Great poet (1) ability––feel and experience (2) ability to communicate feeling (3) great soul––imagination. Faults come from within ––forms of government do not produce great literature. Longinus was far ahead of his time. Truly great himself––genius. Dec. 17. * Exam, Jan. 21, 10 to 11 Quintilian b. ca. 940 A.D. d. 118 A.D. ––Vespasian was the emperor ––new interest in education, oratory ––Quintilian was the first teacher paid by the state. Also a lawyer

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––a number of works: Causes of the Decay of Eloquence Institutio Oratoria––training of the orator. 93 A.D. ––improvement of oratory and prose style in general his main contemporary problem ––some attempts to get order into them, but little success. ––Quintilian trying to get some order in the conflicting opinions ––in 12 volumes 1 and 2: introductory ––preliminary study is necessary before study of oratory is begun ––nature and aims of oratory 3 to 6: the finding and the arrangement of arguments 8 to 10: style 11: memory and delivery 12: what is necessary in the perfect orator ––Hellenistic pattern 3–6 subject matter 8–12: form 12: orator Reasons for writing ––claim that he was persuaded by friends to bring work out in order to clarify the question regarding prose style ––defects of current oratory ––people going in for queer customs socially e.g., curling irons ––akin to that, in the literary order, were a number of defects springing from the same love of finery, overtone [overdone?] use of epigrams, etc. ––his pupils––taking notes in class and spreading queer theories about what he was teaching, so writing in self-defense ––choice of words ––use of suitable ornament ––results of artistic arrangement (1) Words ––must be based on speech of ordinary life, to give the impression of simplicity and reality ––current language, i.e., accepted and agreed practice of educated men. Agrees with Horace that this is not enough (fighting shy of ordinary words is in Thompson, Wordsworth)

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––ancients agreed speech should be raised a little but no one [knew?] just how to do it ––some words have greater value because of because of association with great writers ––coining words a bit risky. Has its value though ––suggested compromise ––the newest of the old and the oldest of the new i.e., great caution used regarding them & also words that are becoming obsolete. (2) Ornament (talking of prose, not poetry) (1) clearness––first requisite ––make it possible for the hearer to understand and impossible to misunderstand (lived in an age when they thought it was quite something to make language as obscure as possible) (2) Clearness not enough ––have to have some kind of ornament in addition ––seems this is represented in the Greek word meaning vision. Use of animated representation ––use of simile. Must be taken from something familiar. Must be clearer than the object it is trying to clarify. (In poetry, it is possible to use similes to a more remote beauty though, to produce some idea of strangeness, extremity.) Virgil––vast majority of similes put in for beauty. Harder to understand than what they represent (3) Sententaie (first one to mention this) ––small, epigrammatic expressions of an arresting kind. Their use in his time was fairly recent ––pointed out their short, jerky effect. Said their use could be overdone. ––saw their value––very easy to remember ––became popular ––marked feature of Chesterton, Shaw, Ibsen, Leacock ––frequently there is a strange pull on words. Close to meaning a twist e.g. (Chesterton). Women stood up and said, “We will not be dictated to!” and then became stenographers (4) Figures ––pays tribute to metaphor. Supreme ornament of style

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––help to style ––objected to stereotyping them and giving them Greek names (have retained this though) (5) Arrangement of words ––Latin had much flexibility here ––at this time, thought it was too disjointed to be any good ––avoid euphemism, avoid clashing sounds, especially hard consonants that are close. (Impossible to say a sentence with complete absence of euphony.) ––drop word to help rhythm, antithesis, balance wherever you want (6) Imitation ––necessary––in addition to art and practice ––must be imitation of the best writers and of their virtues, not their defects; therefore, we have to know what is good or bad in style, i.e., have a developed literary taste [Doesn’t?] produce a talent for you ––must try to improve on the originals The Three Styles: plain, grand, intermediate (1) Plain––main value in teaching (2) Grand––main value in appealing to the emotions (3) Intermediate ––delectatio––giving delight ––no cut and dried divisions between them ––can’t tag a writer with one of these styles Wit and Humour ––ancient and modern tastes entirely at variance here ––Greek and Latin humour made very little appeal to them ––great virtue to a Roman was gravitas Tended to fight shy at anything at variance with it; therefore, thought laughter a bit low (see effects of this in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century society) ––talks of the possibility of cultivating art and telling jokes ––talks about a type permissible in oratory ––idea of laughter is based on some sort of ugliness or deformity in a person ––saw it was by and large a product of natural gift though ––apparently spontaneous––should always tell a joke as if it were spontaneous ––best form of wit and humour depends on the element of surprise

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––possibility of a change in taste ––said it was too deep a problem to go into Aristotle’s Imitation ––first use of the term “art imitates nature” ––nature produces new things ––imitation in Aristotle was imitation of the natural order about him. Nearer to the word “creation” than anything else. Plato Aristotle others are connecting links Horace Longinus––terrific effect on English criticism Quintilian ––notice effect they had on literary criticism––background [Here Virany has a page and a half of her own reading notes on and summary of Aristotle’s Poetics]

NOTES 1

The source of the quoted phrase is uncertain. None of the seven instances of the word “originals” in Blake concerns Creation. It may have to do with the “original form” that Frye writes about in Fearful Symmetry: “Now when a germ of life grows it recreates its original form: if there were no original form of an oak tree the acorn would not know what to do. Similarly, the original form of the germ of life that grew out of the world long ago is most clearly indicated by the most mature and full-grown forms of life that now exist in the world, that is, human societies” (Collected Works of Northrop Frye 14: 253). Another possibility is that Frye is referring to this passage in the Descriptive Catalogue: “All had originally one language, and one religion, this was the religion of Jesus, the everlasting Gospel” (Blake, Complete Poetry and Prose, rev. ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 1982), 543. 2 The reference here is not to chapter 30, but to verses 30 and following of Judges 11, which have to do with Jephthah’s vow to sacrifice if he is given victory and with the account of his daughter’s weeping for her virginity. 3 That is, Isaiah 40–55 or Deutero-Isaiah. 4 The saying refers to the cheapest seats in the balcony. 5 “Here, what is this? Have you too come to be a spectator of my sufferings? How did you dare to leave the stream that bears your name, and your self-built, rockroofed cavern, and come to this land, the mother of iron? Have you come to see what has happened to me, and to share my distress? Behold the spectacle, then— me, the friend of Zeus, who helped establish his autocracy, what torments I am now racked with at his hands!” Aeschylus, Prometheus Unbound (Loeb 477). 6 A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy (1904). 7 The reference is to Robert Burns’s poem Holy Willie’s Prayer, which is about Willie Fisher, a hypocrite who spied on people and reported them to the pastor if he thought they were doing wrong. 8 See Michel de Montaigne, “To Philosophize Is To Learn How To Die,” Complete Essays, ed. M.A. Screech (London: Penguin, 1991), 89–108. 9 As in the Charles Wesley hymn “Jesus Comes with All His Grace,” stanza 2. 10 Rimbaud, Letter to Georges Izambard; Charleville, 13 May 1871. 11 In The Merchant of Venice Shylock calls Portia, “A Daniel come to judgment, yea, a Daniel!” (4.1.218). 12 “bid a bead” = “offer a prayer” 13 As opposed to the KJV: “who are ready to raise up their mourning.” 14 A reference apparently to the metamorphosis of Nebuchadnezzar into a beast. 15 “The most important Mithraic ceremony was the sacrifice of the bull. Opinion is divided as to whether this ceremony was pre-Zoroastrian or not. Zoroaster denounced the sacrifice of the bull, so it seems likely that the ceremony was a part of the old Iranian paganism. This inference is corroborated by an Indian text in which

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Mitra reluctantly participates in the sacrifice of a god named Soma, who often appears in the shape of a white bull or of the moon. On the Roman monuments, Mithra reluctantly sacrifices the white bull, who is then transformed into the moon. This detailed parallel seems to prove that the sacrifice must have been preZoroastrian. Contract and sacrifice are connected, since treaties in ancient times were sanctioned by a common meal” (Reinhold Merkelbach, “Mithraism, Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 14 March 2016. . 16 See James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1992), 161–2. 17 As Paul does not refer to the dragon, the meaning here in not clear. Perhaps Frye was referring to the dragon in the Book of Revelation or to the beast in Hebrews 12:20. 18 That is, the four rivers named in Genesis 2:11–14: Pison, Gihon, Hidde-kel (Tigris), and Euphrates. 19 El Shaddi = God Almighty (Hebrew). 20 Pachad = projected or imagined fear (Hebrew). 21 An apparent reference to Montaigne’s “On the Cannibals” (Complete Essays 228–41). 22 Blake abandoned The Four Zoas. The poem was never engraved. 23 Blake’s “Lake of Udan Adan” is first mentioned in The Four Zoas, bk. 5 (Complete Poetry and Prose 340. It refers to a vast sea of space. 24 A reference, no doubt, to Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality. 25 “Lilith is a night-monster probably of Sumerian origin mentioned in Isaiah 34:14. (She is called a ‘screech owl’ in the AV; one of the chief weaknesses of the AV is its overfondness for rationalized translations.) Lilith was said to have been the first wife of Adam, partly in an effort to reconcile the Priestly account of the creation of woman in Genesis 1:27 with the older Jahwist account which begins in Genesis 2:4 and tells of the creation of Eve from Adam’s body. Lilith was allegedly the mother of the demons or false spirits, and in consequence had a flourishing career in the Romantic period, appearing in Goethe’s Faust and as the heroine of a romance by George MacDonald” (Collected Works of Northrop Frye 19: 160). 26 “Whether Adam was an Hermaphrodite, as the Rabbines contend upon the letter of the Text; because it is contrary to reason, there should bee an Hermaphrodite before there was a woman, or a composition of two natures, before there was a second composed” (Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici [1643], sect. 21). 27 The Works of Edmund Spenser: A Variorum Edition, ed. Edwin Greenlaw, Charles G. Osgood, and Frederick M. Pedelford. 9 vols. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1932–1949). 28 W.L. Renwick, Edmund Spenser: An Essay on Renaissance Poetry (London: E. Arnold, 1925). 29 B.E.C. Davis, Edmund Spenser: A Critical Study (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1933). 30 Josephine Waters Bennett, The Evolution of “The Faerie Queene” (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1942).

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Leicester Bradner, Edmund Spenser and “The Fairie Queene” (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1948). 32 Edwin Greenlaw, Studies in Spenser's Historical Allegory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1932). 33 C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1938). 34 Alexander C. Judson, Notes on the Life of Edmund Spenser (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1949). 35 Douglas Bush, English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1945). 36 A.S.P. Woodhouse, “Nature and Grace in The Faerie Queene,” ELH 16 (1949): 194–228. 37 Ernest Sirluck, “The Faerie Queene, Book II, and the Nicomachean Ethics,” Modern Philology 49 (1951): 73–100. 38 “The brightest intellects of the day gathered in the Capitol of Rome to the coronation of their favourite. And Ariosto was a favourite. He preferred, as did the Florentine [Dante], to be a first rate Italian poet, rather than a second-rate writer of Latin verses.” Sir Wyke Bayliss, Seven Angels of the Renascence: The Story of Art, from Cimabue to Claude (London: Forgotten Books, 2013; orig. pub 1905), 212. 39 “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon. . . . And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12: 3, 9). 40 H.S.V. Jones, A Spenser Handbook (New York: S.F. Crofts, 1930). 41 “They also serve who only stand and wait,” the final line of Milton’s sonnet When I consider how my life is spent. 42 On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, st. 9, l. 7. These birds are the halcyons or kingfishers that Ovid describes in Metamorphoses 11.745–6 making love and nesting on the seas calmed especially for them. 43 “The Stars with deep amaze / Stand fix’d in steadfast gaze, / Bending one way their precious influence.” On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, st. 10, ll. 1–3. 44 W.P. Ker, Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature (London: Macmillan, 1922; orig. pub. 1896). 45 The title of a 1558 political tract by John Knox which attacks female monarchs, arguing that female rule is contrary to the Bible. 46 “Suddenly from the island of Paxi was heard the voice of someone loudly calling Thamus, so that all were amazed. Thamus was an Egyptian pilot, not known by name even to many on board. Twice he was called and made no reply, but the third time he answered; and the caller, raising his voice, said, ‘When you come opposite to Palodes, announce that Great Pan is dead.’” Plutarch, The Obsolescence of Oracles, in Moralia, vol. 5 (Loeb Classical Library), 402. 47 Enid Welsford, The Court Masque (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1927). 48 A.S.P. Woodhouse, “The Argument of Milton’s Comus,” University of Toronto Quarterly 11, no. 1 (1941): 46–71. Woodhouse, Frye’s friend and colleague, taught at University College, University of Toronto. 49 Attributed to William Burton, a Puritan divine and pamphleteer.

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The phrase comes from Coleridge’s Constancy to an Ideal Object, l. 19. A paraphrase of the famous passage in Areopagitica, beginning “I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister’d vertue, unexercis’d & unbreath’d, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat” (par. 23). 52 John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Y. Hughes (New York: Odyssey Press, 1957), 635. 53 The word appears in Of Reformation, a philosophical pamphlet published in 1641. Milton used it again in 1644 in Of Education, where, after discussing the place of rhetoric in the curriculum, he writes: “To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous and passionate.” Complete Poems and Major Prose, 637. 54 From the Hebrew kƟrnjbh. 55 Aeropagitica, par. 34. A similar formulation is in Paradise Lost, bk. 3, ll. 106–8: “what praise could they receive? / What pleasure I from such obedience paid, / When Will and Reason (Reason is also choice).” 56 John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose, 727. 57 In The Patristical Idea of Anti-Christ in Four Lectures. 58 “Thou art my Son; this day I have begotten thee” (Psalm 2:7). 59 James Holly Hanford, A Milton Handbook, 5th ed. (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970; Hanford, Milton: Man and Thinker (New York: Dial Press, 1925). 60 E.M.W. Tillyard, Milton (London: Chatto and Windus, 1930). 61 James Holly Hanford, John Milton: Englishman (New York: Crown Publishers, 1949). 62 Frank Allen Patterson, ed. The Student’s Milton, rev. ed. (New York: F.S. Crofts & Co., 1945). 63 The English Poems of Milton, ed. Walter William Skeat (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1940). 64 This is the anthology edited by Frye and published two years earlier. 65 Arthur Edward Barker, Milton and the Puritan Dilemma, 1641–1660 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1942). 66 A.S.P. Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1951). 67 Denis Saurat, Milton: Man and Thinker (New York: Dial Press, 1925). 68 At Cambridge Milton was known as “The Lady of Christ’s.” 69 Enid Welsford, The Court Masque (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1927). 70 So professed Milton, according to the London magazine Temple Bar 60 (1880): 113. 71 Anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts that circulated illegally in 1588–1589. 72 Thomas Gray, “Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,” Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard, l. 59. 73 John Milton, Aeropagatica in Complete Poems and Major Prose, 728. 74 “I am really sorry to see my Countrymen trouble themselves about Politics. If Men were Wise Princes could not hurt them If they are not Wise the Freest Government is compelld to be a Tyranny Princes appear to me to 51

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be Fools Houses of Commons & Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools they seem to me to be something Else besides Human Life” (William Blake, Public Address, Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims, in Complete Poetry and Prose 580). 75 Areopagitica in John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose, 744. 76 A Treatise of Civil Power, in Complete Poems and Major Prose, 843. 77 Of Education, in Complete Poems and Major Prose, 637. 78 Now modernized in most editions. 79 “And to the fierce contention brought along.” 80 “For man’s offense. O unexampl’d love.” 81 Sir Thomas Browne quotes the last half of the Tertullian principle in Religio Medici: “It is believable because it is absurd; it is certain because it is impossible.” Sir Thomas Browne: The Major Works, ed. C.A. Patrides (London: Penguin, 1977), 70 (pt. 1, sec. 9). 82 Areopagitica in The Complete Poems and Major Prose, 733. 83 “To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorr’st / That Son, who on the quiet state of men / Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue / Rational Liberty; yet know withal, / Since thy original lapse, true Liberty / Is lost, which always with right Reason dwells / Twinn’d, and from her hath no dividual being: / Reason in man obscur’d, or not obey’d, Immediately inordinate desires / And upstart Passions catch the Government / From Reason, and to servitude reduce / Man till then free. Therefore since he permits / Within himself unworthy Powers to reign / Over free Reason, God in Judgement just / Subjects him from without to violent Lords; / Who oft as undeservedly enthrall / His outward freedom: Tyranny must be, / Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse. / Yet sometimes Nations will decline so low / From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, / But Justice, and some fatal curse annext / Deprives them of thir outward liberty, / Thir inward lost” (bk. 1, ll. 79–101). 84 “Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit / Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste / Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, / With loss of Eden, till one greater Man / Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat” (bk. 1, ll. 1–5). 85 “For an historiographer discourseth of affayres orderly as they were donne, accounting as well the times as the actions; but a poet thrusteth into the middest, even where it most concerneth him, and there recoursing to the things forepaste, and divining of thinges to come, maketh a pleasing analysis of all.” From Spenser’s Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on The Faerie Queene, par. 1. 86 It seems likely that Margaret Virany misheard “rose” for “antique rolles,” which appears in the second stanza of the appeal to the muses prefatory to bk. 1, canto 1, of The Faerie Queene. 87 The reference is to Error’s young drinking her blood until they burst and die (canto 1). 88 The reason for the quotation marks here is uncertain. 89 The notes for this class and continuing through Mar. 18 are in another, unknown hand. 90 An apparent reference to the old nurse in Keats’s Isabella.

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Here the notes in Margaret Virany’s hand resume; the notes for the previous three classes, beginning Mar. 11, are in another hand. 92 New York: Columbia UP, 1937. 93 “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” T.S. Eliot, “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (London: Methuen, 1920). 94 Karl Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1951). 95 The reference is W.L. Renwick, Edmund Spenser: An Essay on Renaissance Poetry (E. Arnold and Co.: London, 1925). 96 Ephemeris Belli Troiani, by Dictys the Cretan and De Excidio Troiae Historia, by Dares the Phrygian. 97 Shelley used the Spenserian stanza for The Revolt of Islam and Adonais. 98 Tucker Brooke, The Renaissance (1500–1660), vol. 2 of Literary History of England (New York: Appleton-Century-Croft, 1948). 99 English Literature of the Early Seventeenth Century, 1600–1660. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945. 100 Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1932. 101 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945. Oxford History of English Literature, vol. 5. 102 Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1939. 103 New York: Scribner, 1950. 104 New York: Barnes and Noble, 1966; orig. pub. 1933. 105 New York, Oxford UP, 1936. 106 New York, Chicago: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1936. 107 Oxford: The Shakespeare Head Press, 1931. 108 New York: Vintage, 1941. 109 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936. 110 Princeton: Princeton UP, 1952. 111 New York: Morrow, 1937. 112 These directions to the Fryes’ home were almost certainly for a social occasion. Frye regularly invited students to his home. 113 “The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together.” From Samuel Johnson’s Life of Cowley in Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, familiarly known as The Lives of the Poets. 114 New York: Macmillan, 1936. 115 Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1934. 116 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934. 117 Oxford: Oxford UP, 1936. 118 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938. 119 Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose, ed. Helen White, Ruth Wallerstein, and Ricardo Quintana, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1952). 120 New York: Columbia UP, 1934. 121 E.J. (Ned) Pratt, the renowned Canadian poet, was a colleague of Frye’s at Victoria College. 122 Edmund Blunden was Frye’s tutor at Merton College, 1936–37 and 1938–39.

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Course numbers in English literature at Victoria College. 2i = English 2i: English Poetry and Prose, 1500–1660; 2j = English 2j: Restoration and Eighteenth Century. 124 “Without justice what is sovereignty but organized brigandage?” (Augustine, The City of God 4, 4). 125 “Bacon, like Moses, led us forth at last; / The barren wilderness he past.” Abraham Cowley, To the Royal Society, ll. 93–4. 126 Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1948. In the 1950s Anderson was head of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. 127 Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1951. 128 New York: Columbia UP, 1934. 129 Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Alexander M. Witherspoon, ed. Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946). 130 On 1 March Frye took the train to London, Ontario, to visit Victoria classmate George Birtch and his wife Mary and to give a talk on 2 March at a conference held in the Metropolitan Church in London, where Birtch was pastor. 131 The real-life Richard Whittington (ca. 1354–1423) was a wealthy merchant and later Lord Mayor of London. Dick Whittington and his Cat is a group of tales from folklore about how Whittington escaped from poverty because of the prowess of his cat in killing rats. 132 “Greene’s book” is Pandosto (1588), a prose romance. 133 John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit; Euphues and His England, ed. Morris William Croll and Harry Clemens (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1916). 134 “But scaped forth thence, since, liberty is lever: / Therefore, farewell, go trouble younger hearts, / And in me claim no more authority: / With idle youth go use thy property, / And thereon spend thy many brittle darts: / For, hitherto though I have lost my time, / Me list no longer rotten boughs to clime” (ll. 8–14). 135 Doubtless one of Wyatt’s penitential psalms or one of his three satires–– “On the Mean and Sure Estate,” “Of the Courtier’s Life,” and “How To Use the Court and Himself.” 136 “The truth is I felt that I was passing through the sphere of air and was verging on that of fire, but that we went any farther I cannot believe, for the sphere of fire lies between that of the moon and the farthest one of the air.” Cervantes, Don Quixote, bk. 2, chap. 42. 137 “Men talk of the adventures strange / Of Don Quishot, and of their change / Through which he armed oft did range / Of Sancha Pancha’s travel.” Michael Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 35, ll. 1–4. 138 Lu Emily Pearson, Elizabethan Love Conventions (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1966; orig. pub. 1933). 139 Douglas Bush, Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1932). 140 George Saintsbury, A History of Elizabethan Literature (London: Macmillan, 1902). 141 Laura Riding and Robert Graves, A Survey of Modernist Poetry (London: Heinemann, 1927).

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“He [Donne] affects the metaphysics, where nature only should reign.” John Dryden, A Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire (1693), in Of Dramatic Poesy and Other Critical Essays, ed. George Watson (London: Everyman's Library, 1962. 143 Muriel C. Bradbook, The School of Night: A Study in the Literary Relationships of Raleigh (Cambridge: At the UP, 1936). 144 S.P. = Salomon Pavy, one of the child actors in a troupe called the Children of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel. 145 Helen C. White, The Metaphysical Poets (New York: Macmillan, 1936); J.B. Leishman, The Metaphysical Poets (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934); Joan Bennett, Four Metaphysical Poets (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1934). 146 H.J.C. Grierson, ed. Metaphysical Poetry from Donne to Butler (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1936). 147 George Williamson, The Donne Tradition: A Study in English Poetry from Donne to the Death of Cowley (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1930). 148 Theodore Spencer, ed., A Garland for John Donne, 1631-1931 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1931). 149 Douglas Bush, English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1945). 150 “And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek.” Ben Jonson, To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare and What He Hath Left Us, l. 31. 151 “Yet must I not give Nature all!” 152 “He was not of an age, but for all time!” 153 Basil Willey, The Seventeenth-Century Background: A Study in Prose Form from Bacon to Collier (New York: Columbia UP, 1934). 154 E.A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science: A Historical and Critical Essay (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner; 1924). 155 Henry Osborn Taylor, Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Macmillan, 1920). 156 Frederic Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More. Being a History of Their Fellow-Work. 2nd ed. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1913). 157 Preserved Smith, Erasmus: A Study of His Life, Ideals, and Place in History (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1923). 158 sermo = speech, conversation. Frye later addressed the different meanings of “sermo.” See The Great Code 18; Collected Works, vol. 19, p. 316. 159 The Conventicle Act was actually passed by Parliament in 1664. The act forbade conventicles (religious assemblies of more than five people) outside the auspices of the Church of England. 160 John Livingston Lowes, On Reading Books: Four Essays (London: Constable, 1930). 161 “He loves no plays.” Julius Caesar 1.2.204. 162 Section title in the preface of Shaw’s Three Plays for Puritans.

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“Well, neighbor Faithful, said Christian, let us leave him [Pliable], and talk of things that more immediately concern ourselves.” John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, in The Entire Works of John Bunyan, vol. 2 (London: James S. Virtue, 1860), 37. 164 The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Thomas Tegg, 1840), 307. 165 Ibid., 91. 166 “Why, sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your patience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself.” James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (Boston: Carter, Hendee and Co., 1832), 292. 167 “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; /The proper study of mankind is man.” Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle 2, ll. 1–2. 168 “This was owing either to his religion, as is most probable, or to the purity of his passion, which was fixed on those things which matrimony only, and not criminal correspondence, could put him in possession of, or could give him any title to.” Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (London: CRW Library, 2007; orig. pub. 1749), 52. 169 It seems likely that Frye said “Herder” rather than Thurber, or perhaps “Goethe,” both of whom had read Sterne. See Harvey Waterman Thayer, Laurence Sterne in Germany (New York: Macmillan, 1905). 170 Which is similar to what T.S. Eliot said about Henry James: “He had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it.” “In Memory of Henry James,” The Egoist 5 (January 1918): 1–2. 171 “‘Her mother was an opera girl, and she has been on the stage or worse herself,’ said Mrs. Bute.” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, chap. 16. 172 Catherine’s description of Heathcliff. See Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1870), 85. 173 George Eliot, Middlemarch (Irving, TX: Sparklesoup Studios, 2004), 378 174 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, penultimate sentence of chap. 1. 175 Middlemarch 488. 176 Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class, ed. Martha Banta. Oxford World Classics (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007; orig. pub. 1899). 177 In September 1967 Frye brought together some of the ideas in this lecture in a paper he presented at the English Institute, published as “Dickens and the Comedy of Humours,” in Experience in the Novel, ed. Roy Harvey Pearce (New York: Columbia UP, 1968), 49–81. Rpt. in The Stubborn Structure, 218–40; in the Collected Works of Northrop Frye, vol. 17, 287–308; in The Victorian Novel: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. Ian Watt (New York: Oxford UP, 1971), 47–69; in Literary Criticism: Idea and Act: The English Institute, 1939–72: Selected Essays, ed. W.K. Wimsatt, Jr. (Berkeley: U of California P, 1974), 537–55; and in Charles Dickens, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House, 1987). 178 “. . . let thy Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness, all our days: that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable,

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religious, and holy hope” (“The Burial of the Dead: Rite 1,” from The Book of Common Prayer). 179 “Poetry and eloquence are both alike the expression or utterance of feeling: but, if we may be excused the antithesis, we should say that eloquence is heard; poetry is overheard.” John Stuart Mill, “Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties,” in Autobiography and Literary Essays, ed. John M. Robson and Jack Stillinger (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1981), 348. 180 The True Voice of Feeling: Studies in English Romantic Poetry (London: Faber & Faber, 1953). Some months prior to the teaching of the present course in modern poetry Frye had reviewed Read’s book for the Hudson Review 6 (Autumn 1953): 442–9. 181 W. B. Yeats, 1865–1939 (London: Macmillan, 1942). 182 New York: Norton, 1949. 183 Oxford: Oxford UP, 1941. 184 New York: Macmillan, 1954. 185 New York: Macmillan, 1950. 186 Gerald DeWitt Sanders, John Herbert Nelson, and M.L. Rosenthal, ed., Chief Modern Poets of England & America (New York: Macmillan, 1936). 187 Oscar Williams, ed., Pocket Book of Modern Verse: English and American Poetry of the Last Hundred Years from Walt Whitman to Dylan Thomas (New York: Pocket Books, 1954). 188 Louis Untermeyer, ed., Modern American Poetry and Modern British Poetry (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1942). 189 Ed. Selden Rodman (New York: Mentor, 1951). 190 Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 3.1.118. 191 The other two aren’t named but are apparently Hardy and Housman. 192 “ . . . let thy Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope” (“The Burial of the Dead: Rite 1,” from The Book of Common Prayer). 193 The words are the title line of an 1868 hymn by Fanny Crosby. 194 See n. 179, above. 195 “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?” The Letters of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson and Theodora Ward (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1958), letter 342a, 1870. 196 Joseph Hone, W. B. Yeats, 1865–1939 (New York: Macmillan, 1943). 197 Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks (New York: Norton, 1949). 198 James Hall and Martin Steinmann, ed., The Permanence of Yeats: Selected Criticism (New York: Macmillan, 1950). 199 Love was a member of the English department at Victoria College.

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“A contemporary poet who wished to describe a garden under an oppressive midday summer sun wrote the following: Et d’entre les rameaux que ne meurt nul essor D’ailes et que pas une brise ne balance, Dardent de grands rayons comme des glaives d’or . . . . These French lines are well calculated to give the impression of the beating of a bird’s wings or the swaying of the breeze, and the use of the negative in no way blots out this impression from the reader’s mind.” J. Vendryes, Language: A Linguistic Introduction to History (New York: Knopf, 1925), 134–5. 201 Part of the epigraph to The Waste Land about the Cumean Sybil: “I have seen with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked her ‘What do you want?’ She answered, ‘I want to die.’” From Petronius, Satyricon. 202 Burke said that society is “a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Reflections on the French Revolution, par. 165. 203 Mill writes, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinions, it is because they only know their side of the question.” John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, chap. 2, par. 8. 204 “Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not; / Love may sink by slow decay, / But by sudden wrench, believe not / Hearts can thus be torn away: / Still thine own its life retaineth, / Still must mine, though bleeding, beat.” George Gordon Lord Byron, Fare Thee Well, ll. 36–41. 205 The title of chap. 7, bk. 3 of Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus. 206 Sartor Resartus, chap. 4, par. 2. 207 Sartor Resartus, chap. 5, par. 2. 208 Sartor Resartus, chap. 7, par. 1. 209 Sartor Resartus, chap. 7, par. 2. 210 Brakelond was a monk whose portrait of Abbot Samson inspired Carlyle to write a chapter on Samson in Past and Present. 211 The title of chap. 10, bk. 3 of Sartor Resartus. 212 The title of chap. 4, bk. 3 of Sartor Resartus. “Helotage” = class of serfs in ancient Sparta, neither slave nor free citizen. 213 See “The Hero as Man of Letters,” chap. 5 of Carlyle’s On Heroes, HeroWorship and the Heroic in History. 214 Aristotle, opening par. of his Metaphysics (bk. 1, 980.a21). 215 “Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Religion,” discourse 8 of John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Idea of a University.” 216 Wordsworth wrote that in nature “there are powers, / Which of themselves our minds impress, / That we can feed this mind of ours, / In wise passiveness.” Expostulation and Reply ll.21–4. 217 Frye appears to be pointing to the theme of passiveness that is found also in Keats. 218 See the opening paragraphs of chap. 6 of Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy.

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Notes

“And if we are sometimes a little troubled by our multitude of poor men, yet we know the increase of manufactures and population to be such a salutary thing in itself, and our free-trade policy begets such an admirable movement, creating fresh centres of industry and fresh poor men here, while we were thinking about our poor men there, that we are quite dazzled and borne away, and more and more industrial movement is called for, and our social progress seems to become one triumphant and enjoyable course of what is sometimes called, vulgarly, outrunning the constable.” Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, chap. 6, par. 20. 220 A Gothic Revival house and gardens in midtown Toronto. 221 “Essay IV: Ad Valorem,” The Works of John Ruskin (New York: John B. Alden, 1885), 71. 222 “If England were divided into forty republics, each equal in population and extent to Athens, there is no reason to suppose but that, under institutions not more perfect than those of Athens, each would produce philosophers and poets equal to those who (if we except Shakespeare) have never been surpassed.” Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Preface,” /0 bmcn *555558*000Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems (London: C and J Ollier, 1829), xi. 223 “If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris, “The Beauty of Life,” a lecture before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 February 1880), later published in Hopes and Fears for Art: Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London, and Nottingham, 1878–1881 (1882). 224 A historical section of News from Nowhere, which gives a lengthy description of the civil war. 225 Topsy, a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), when asked about who made her, replied “I s’pect I growed. Don’t think nobody never made me.” 226 See n. 225. 227 The narrator of Erewhon. 228 “May not man himself become a sort of parasite upon the machines? An affectionate machine-tickling aphid?” Samuel Butler, Erewhon¸ chap. 24, par. 3. 229 Chaps. 21–22 of Erewhon. 230 “A brightening edge will indicate that soon / We shall behold the struggling Moon / Break forth,—again to walk the clear blue sky.” William Wordsworth, How Beautiful the Queen of Night, ll. 6–8. 231 For a discussion of the phrase, see Allan Gilbert, Literary Criticism: Plato to Dryden (Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1967), 117–18). 232 “Prose is words in the best order—poetry is the best words in the best order.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk (London: John Murray, 1837), July 12, 1827. 233 That is, a native of Leontini in Sicily.

INDEX

The page numbers citing chapters and verses of Biblical books follow the comma that comes after the chapter and/or verse. The chapter and verse numbers have been put in italics to more easily distinguish them from the page numbers. “Abbey of Thélème” (Rabelais) 321 Abbey Theatre 481 Abdiel 183, 189, 200, 240, 255, 258 Abel 14–15, 16, 20–1 Abraham (ca. 1800 B.C.E.) 15, 57, 58 Achilles 17, 26, 182, 183, 189, 240, 241 accidia 44 Achaeans 59 Adam 2, 5, 21, 25, 57, 66, 67, 96, 100, 112, 114, 115, 116, 131, 132, 160, 182, 185, 189, 190, 191, 193, 197, 199–200, 201, 253, 255 Adams, Jessie xiii Addison, Joseph (1672–1719) 417 Adonais (Shelley) 311, 371 Adonis 169, 170, 215, 318 Adorno, Theodor (1903–69) ix Advancement of Learning, The (Bacon) 336–7, 338, 339–40 A.E. (George William Russell) (1867–1935) 479 Aeneid (Virgil) 17, 102, 126, 515 Aeschylus (ca. 525–ca. 456 B.C.E.) 35, 610 Aesop (6th c. B.C.E.) 156 Age of Reason, The (Paine) 527 Aged Lover Renounceth Love, The (Vaux) 395

Ahab 21, 69 Ahaz 22 Ahasuerus 61 Albion 96, 100, 103, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 Albion’s England (Warner) 315, 377 Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.E.) 8–9, 61, 62, 109, 155, 503, 611, 616, 629 Alice in Wonderland (Carroll) 185, 244, 308, 452 allegory 8, 19, 50, 58, 80, 81, 82, 88, 97, 106, 122, 125, 126, 127, 156, 189, 211, 212, 246, 259, 260, 544, 609 in Spenser 124–6, 130, 131, 133, 134–5, 137–8, 139, 140–1, 154, 157, 160, 266, 272, 273, 276, 283, 284, 376 Allegory of Love, The (Lewis) 294, 316 All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare) 33 America (Blake) 85 Amoretti (Spenser) 363, 383 Among School Children (Yeats) 483, 502–3 Amos, Book of 13–14, 19, 21, 63, 66 Analogy of Religion (Butler) 495 Anatomy of Criticism (Frye) x Andromache 29

662 angelology 375 Anglicans 55, 119, 137, 163, 172, 322, 323, 342, 347, 353, 405, 406, 419, 495, 559 animism 61, 62, 478, 496 Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare) 37 apocalypse 2, 28, 49, 73, 75, 78, 83, 84, 90, 111, 113, 114, 141, 150, 162, 190, 206, 259, 273 apocalyptic mode 49–50, 74, 88, 119, 150, 158, 163, 296, 300, 589 Apocrypha 43, 56 Apology for Bad Dreams (Jeffers) 490 Apology for Poetry, An (Sidney) 316, 349–51 Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, An (Fielding) 411, 429 Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (Burke) 520 Aquinas, St. Thomas (1225–74) 164, 340, 343, 478, 496 Arcades (Milton) 212 Arcadia (Sidney) 316, 369 archetypes (and archetypal) 19, 26, 32, 82–3, 97, 98, 110, 104, 106, 116 Areopagitica (Milton) 103, 170, 176–7, 219, 228–32 Aristarchus of Samothrace (220– 143 B.C.E.) 629–30 Ariosto, Ludovico (1474–1533) 123–4, 128, 155–6, 379 Aristophanes (ca. 448–ca. 388 B.C.E.) 331, 609–11 Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) 34, 123, 133, 138, 140, 148, 155, 166, 181, 193, 195, 322, 330, 327, 337, 338, 345, 349, 355, 401, 404, 434, 463, 401, 484, 503, 506, 553 influence on Spenser 129, 13940, 155

Index as a literary critic 616–27 his view of character 621 Ark of God 18, 25 Arnold, Matthew (1822–88) 311, 371, 520, 538, 544, 564–70, 583, 586, 594, 637 Ars Poetica (Horace) 631–3 Arthur, King 17, 127–30, 138, 139, 144–6, 154–5, 157–8, 170, 218, 239, 258, 266–7, 274, 275, 287, 289–90, 293, 303, 314, 315, 376–8 Aryans 59 Ascham, Roger (1515–68) 305, 332, 334–5, 336 Assyria 8, 60, 68 Astrophel and Stella (Sidney) 316, 365, 369–70 Athalie (Racine) 463 Atlantis 105, 113, 328, 331 Auguries of Innocence (Blake) 98 Augustus (63 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) 403, 628, 631 Augustine, St. (C.E. 354–430) 31, 87, 332, 516 Austen, Jane (1775–1817) 444, 445–51, 468 Baal 62, 70 Babylon (and Babylonians) 8, 13, 17, 29, 50, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 73, 74, 78, 110, 112, 113, 159, 245, 260, 270, 332 captivity in 8, 9, 23 Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685– 1750) 34, 109 Back to Methuselah (Shaw) 87 Bacon, Sir Francis (1561–1626) 85, 104, 163, 305, 336–8, 339–40 Bait, The (Donne) 386 Bakeless, John (1894–1978) 317 Balaam 69 Balak 69 Ballade of Agincourt (Drayton) 379 bardo x, 108–9 Barker, Arthur Edward (1911–90) 202

Northrop Frye's Lectures Barnes, William (1801–86) 492 Baroque culture 86, 170, 215, 388, 628 Battle of Marathon 60 Baudelaire, Charles (1821–67) 44, 484 Beardsley, Barbara xiii Beelzebub, in Paradise Lost 186, 187, 188, 248 Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770– 1827) 121, 150, 153, 205, 371, 482 Beharriell, Ross (d. 1989) 80 Bellamy, Edward (1850–98) 331 Benedict, Ruth (1887–1948) 68 Bennettt, Joan (1896–1986) 323 Bennett, Josephine Waters (1899– 1974) 122 Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832) 428, 528–31 Bentley, Allen 53 Beowulf 102, 474, 493 Berkeley, George (1685–1753) 327, 483, 504 Bermudas (Marvell) 325 bestiary 156, 321 Beulah 95, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 109, 111, 115 Bewer, Julius A. (1877–1953) 56 Bible 1–53, 54–80 analytic approach to 2 Hebrew texts of 54 historical background of 74 kingship in the 17–20, 24, 34, 35, 41, 192, 234 literary forms in the 2, 63–4 Milton’s view of 223 reader of 6, 33, 38, 72 sacrifice in the 10, 12, 15–16, 22, 23, 34, 52, 74, 114 simplicity of 4, 6, 79 its symmetry 2 synthetic approach to 2 translations of 54–5 unity of 7

663

as Word of God 177, 178, 192, 221, 223, 231 Birds, The (Aristophanes) 331 Bishop’s Bible 55 Blake, William (1757–1827) 80– 117, 476, 483 his epic period 101–2 his view of poetry 97–8 imaginative desire in 93 on Locke 94–5 and Pre-Romanticism 107 his theory of imagination 94 Blavatsky, Madame Helena Petrovna (1831–91) 108 Bleak House (Dickens) 470 Blunden, Edmund (1896–1974) 324 Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313–75) 307 body 17 metaphor of the 19–20, 23 of God 17, 19, 26, 42, 50, 90, 96, 179, 234 and soul theory 92 versus soul in Blake 92, 109 Boehme, Jacob (1575–1624) 103 Boiardo, Matteo Maria (1434–94) 128 Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe, The (Skelton) 358–9 Bolingbroke, Henry St. John (1676– 1751) 524 Book of Thel (Blake) 109 Boos, Jodine xiii Botticelli, Sandro (1444–1510) 108 Bowler, Judy xiv Bowles, Newton Rowell (1916– 2012) xv Boyle, Robert (1627–91) 338 Bradbrook, Muriel (1909–93) 390 Bradley, A.C. (1851–1935) 36 Bradner, Leicester (1899–1988) 122 Brave New World (Huxley) 331 broadside ballads 352 Bronze Age 57, 150 Brooke, Tucker (1883–1946) 316

664 Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–82) 246, 323, 305, 345–8 Browning, Robert (1812–89) 477, 485, 493 Buccer, Martin (1491–1551) 227 Buddhism 24, 46, 74 Bunyan, Paul 9 Bunyan, John (1628–88) 159, 275, 277, 408, 417–20, 424, 454 Burke, Edmund (1729–97) 520–8, 561, 562, 563 Burns, Robert (1759–96) 315 Burnt Norton (Eliot) 206 Burton, Robert (1577–1640) 152, 348 Burtt, Edwin (1892–1989) 402 Bush, Douglas (1896–1983) 122, 315, 316, 382 Butler, Samuel (1612–80) 305, 326, 331, 495 Butler, Samuel (1835–1902) 596– 606 By the Earth’s Corpse (Hardy) 488 Byron, George Gordon, Baron (1788–1824) 315, 381 Byronic hero 107 Caesar, Gaius Julius (ca. 100–44 B.C.E.) 403 Caged Skylark, The (Hopkins) 477, 493 Caiaphas (d. 36 C.E.) 5, 52, 74 Cain 15, 16, 20–1, 58, 111, 371 Calvin, John (1509–64) 164, 343, 540 Calvinism 408, 432, 594 Calypso 103 Cambridge 163, 167 Campanella, Tommaso (1524–80) 321 Campion, Thomas (1567–1620) 367 Canonization, The (Donne) 385–6 Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) 90, 519, 538–50, 563, 576–7, 581, 586, 596, 606 Casa Loma 576

Index Castelvetro, Lodovico (1505–71) 620 Castiglione, Baldassare (1478– 1529) 129, 333, 334, 350, 396, 397–401, 430, 445, 482 Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) 128, 227 Catholicism 231, 270, 271, 338, 352, 357, 477, 498, 580 Catholic Church 133, 159, 160, 176, 198, 225, 226, 228, 232, 251, 347, 551, 559, 560, 580 Caxton, William (1422–91) 306 Cayley, David (b. 1947) xi Celtic Revival 104 Centuries of Meditation (Traherne) 324 Cervantes, Miguel de (1547–1616) 152, 156, 443 Cézanne, Paul (1839–1906) 156 City of God, The (Augustine) 31, 332 chain of being 90, 103, 107, 187, 188, 198, 247, 249, 252, 254, 315, 320, 343–4, 347 Chaldeans 8 Chambers, E.K., Sir (1866–1954) 402 chaos 11, 12, 27–8, 29, 30, 32, 73, 74, 90, 149, 158, 179, 182, 186– 8, 197, 198, 200, 206, 240, 246, 247, 248, 249–50, 252, 255, 278, 315, 320, 348 Chapman, George (1559–1634) 319, 389 Character of Holland, The (Marvell) 325 charity 133, 137, 174, 223, 271, 276, 332, 347, 395, 413, 424, 472, 547, 550, 558 Charlemagne (ca. 741–814) 128, 155 Charles I (1600–49) 171, 178, 232 Charles II (1630–85) 118, 220, 325, 419 restoration of 235

Northrop Frye's Lectures Charles V (1500–58) 227 Charles Diodati, To (Milton) 146 Chaucer, Geoffrey (1345–1400) 123–4, 155, 211, 218, 305–6, 307, 314, 318, 357, 358, 359– 60, 362, 373, 379, 429, 436, 511 Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux, The (Housman) 475, 489 Chief Modern Poets of England & America (ed. Sanders et al.) 486 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (Byron) 315 chosen people 17 Christ 4, 5, 15, 19, 26, 27, 32, 34, 52, 74, 75, 77, 90, 113, 131, 149, 150, 160, 162, 170, 175, 183, 190, 191, 192, 194–5, 196, 198, 200, 204, 206, 207, 230, 240, 251, 255, 258, 260, 261, 262, 311, 367, 478, 481, 509, 514, 559, 560 Christian Doctrine (Milton) 103 Christianity 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 16, 19, 23, 48, 52, 54, 61, 67, 70, 72, 75, 138, 139, 150, 159, 160, 174, 180, 187, 188, 205, 222, 236, 239, 247, 259, 332, 343, 372, 376, 397, 419, 422, 423, 480, 500, 509, 513, 532, 547, 568, 569, 596 Christopher Marlowe (Bakeless) 317 I Chronicles 63 21:1, 67 Church of England 121, 127, 137, 140, 172, 315, 322, 342, 3435, 354, 376–7, 405, 432, 551, 558– 9 Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 B.C.E.) 403 Circe 141, 169, 302 City of God (Augustine) 332 City of the Sun (Campanella) 321 Civil Wars, British 162–3, 172, 177, 178, 378 Clarissa (Richardson) 423

665

claritas 81, 478, 496 Cleopatra (d. 30 B.C.E.) 61 Code of Hammurabi 58 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772– 1934) 96, 99, 388, 479, 528, 544, 538, 549, 563, 624, 636 Coles, Donald (b. 1928) xiii Colet, John (ca. 1457–1519) 402 Collins, William (1721–59) 104 Come Live with Me and Be My Love (Marlowe) 395 comedy 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 41, 102, 153, 213, 321, 350, 391, 416, 418, 420, 425, 430, 433, 436, 445, 448, 450, 451, 452, 458, 462, 472, 477, 480, 495, 499, 609, 610, 612, 613, 614, 617, 618, 622, 627, 628, 630, 632 Companion to the Bible, A (Manson) 56 Complaint of a Lover Rebuked (Surrey) 310 Complaint of the Absence of Her Lover, Being upon the Sea (Surrey) 307, 363 Comus (Milton) 103, 166, 167, 168, 169, 183, 191, 194, 213–14, 294, 295 Confessio Amantis (Gower) 309 Congregationalist polity 171, 220– 21 consciousness 10, 12, 21, 22, 44, 46, 47, 90, 92, 94, 194, 198, 199, 253, 267, 281, 475, 543, 583, 598, 599, 606 stages of 82–3 consonantia 81, 478, 496 contaminatio 628 Convergence of the Twain: Lines on the Loss of the “Titanic,” The (Hardy) 490 Cook, Stanley (1873–1949) 54 Copernicus, Nicolas (1473–1542) 3, 186, 375 Corina’s Gone A-Maying (Herrick) 322

666 cosmology of Paradise Lost 186, 198, 245, 252 Spenser’s 304, 372 Costain, Thomas B. (1885–1965) 453 Cotter’s Saturday Night, A (Burns) 315 Counter-Renaissance, The (Haydn) 316 Course in General Linguistics (Saussure) ix Court Masque, The (Welsford) 168, 212 Courtier, The (Castiglione) 334, 396–7, 398–401, 430 courtier. See Renaissance courtier. courtly love conventions 304, 308– 10, 311, 316–19, 323, 334, 353, 357, 360–2, 364, 365, 369, 372, 374, 378–9, 384, 388, 390, 394 Coverdale, Miles (1488–1568) 55 covering cherub 42, 91 Cowley, Abraham (1618–67) 319, 325, 327, 339 Cowper, William (1731–1800) 104 Craig, Hardin (1875–1968) 316 Crashaw, Richard (1612–49) 304, 319, 323–4 Creation 4, 5, 11, 61, 66, 74, 75, 83, 94, 95–6, 99, 101, 105, 188–9, 248–9, 255, 281, 347, 640 myth of 2, 4 criticism 94, 153, 393, 494–5, 550, 570, 574, 602, 606–640 levels of 85–6, 88, 92 practice of 82 theory of 81, 87 Critique of Pure Reason (Kant) 530 Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) 106, 118, 172, 176, 178, 179, 180, 214, 219–20, 221, 225, 233, 235, 325, 408, 550 Cromwell, Richard (1626–1712) 235 Crucifixion 6, 8, 90, 194, 389

Index Culture and Anarchy (Arnold) 564– 5 cummings, e.e. (1894–1962) 475 Cupid and Psyche 207 cyclic repetition 13, 84–5, 87, 91, 99, 100, 102, 103, 108, 109, 111, 113, 142, 160, 183–4, 217, 292, 295–6, 299–300, 481, 500, 514, 516 Cynthia 142, 298, 372, 391 Cynthia’s Revels (Jonson) 392 Cyrus (ca. 600 or 576–530 B.C.E.) 8, 60 Dan, tribe of 65, 69 Daniel, Samuel (1563–1619) 167, 378 Daniel, Book of 49 3, 51 4, 73 Dante Aligheri (1265–1321) 3, 51, 85, 90, 92, 99, 102, 123, 124, 142, 157, 160, 185, 186, 244, 245, 259, 296, 307, 308, 361, 482, 501, 504, 513, 516 David Copperfield (Dickens) 469 Darius I (548–486 B.C.E.) 61 Darwin, Charles (1809–82) 3, 326, 464, 475, 488–9, 490, 540, 561, 586, 589–90, 591, 592–3, 595, 597, 598, 599, 600, 602, 603–4, 606 David, King (1040–970 B.C.E.) 8, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 57, 60, 61, 66, 67, 101 Davis, B.E.C. 122 death 5, 13, 25, 31, 32, 34, 44, 45, 47, 48, 52, 83–4, 91, 92–3, 96, 108, 159, 169–70, 188, 194, 200, 216, 248, 292, 296, 324, 389, 423, 514 Deborah 65 Decline of the West, The (Spengler) 109 decorum 123, 194, 350, 429, 431, 628 Dedalus, Stephen 81, 478

Northrop Frye's Lectures Defense of Rhyme (Daniel) 124 Definition of Love, The (Marvell) 320 Defoe, Daniel (1660–1731) 351, 409, 417, 423–6, 454 Deloney, Thomas (1550–1600) 305, 351–2, 417 Denham, Sir John (1615–69) 305, 326 Dent, Gloria xiii De Quincey, Thomas (1785–1856) 479 Descartes, René (1596–1650) 44, 92 Descriptive Catalogue (Blake) 108 Deuteronomy 56, 67, 68 5, 66 15, 66 20:14, 67 Diana 142, 291, 372, 392 Diaries of Northrop Frye, The ix Dickens, Charles (1812–70) 86, 426, 450, 469–73 Dickinson, Emily (1830–86) 488, 491 Dido 103 Digging Up the Past (Woolley) 57 Diodati, Charles (ca. 1608–1638) 146, 165, 208, 209 Dionysius of Halicarnassus (fl. 1st c. B.C.E.) 634–5 Dionysus 209, 618 Divine Comedy, The (Dante) 102, 294, 308, 368 divine man 17, 18, 20, 100 divorce, Milton on 175–6, 225 Doctor Faustus (Marlowe) 252, 317, 380, 469 Documentary hypothesis. See Wellhausen hypothesis. Don Quixote (Cervantes) 125, 309, 361, 375, 379, 432, 443, 517, 540 Donation of Constantine, The 327 Donne, John (1572–1631) 304, 309, 318, 319, 320, 321, 323,

667

355, 370, 384–6, 387–8, 389, 390, 391, 394, 484, 505, 507 Donne Tradition, The (Williamson) 392 Donne’s Poetical Works (Grierson) 319 Dorians 59 Douai Bible 55 doubt 98–9, 105, 110, 137, 160, 178, 231, 294, 355, 540, 541 dragon-killing myth x, 13, 28, 84, 241 “Dramatic Opinions and Essays” (Shaw) 417 Drayton, Michael (1563–1631) 304, 318, 378, 382 dread, existential 43–5, 46, 47, 114, 513 Dream, The (Donne) 386 Druid 96, 114, 116 Dryden, John (1631–1700) 373, 486, 623 Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste (1544–90) 148 Dunn, Esther 316 Duns Scotus (ca. 1265–1308) 164, 335, 478, 496 Dunbar, Helen (1902–59) 99 Dunbar, William (ca. 1456–ca. 1513) 377 Dying God, The (Frazer) 84 Earl of Leicester (Robert Dudley) (1532–88) 120, 139, 274, 290, Eclogues (Virgil) 311, 370 ecclesia 328, 406 Ecclesiastes, Book of 41, 43–5, 46– 7 3.8, 47 Ecclesiasticus, Book of 43, 56 Eden 57–8, 73, 78, 89, 90, 95, 101, 102, 103, 105, 131–2, 142, 190, 259, 260, 277, 284, 285, 296, 302 Edmund II (Marlowe) 380

668 Edmund Spenser: A Essay on Renaissance Poetry (Renwick) 300 education, Milton on 181–2, 236–9 Edward II (Marlowe) 317 Edward VI (1537–53) 121 ego 5, 41, 43, 51, 52, 104, 105, 110, 111, 134, 187, 209, 246–7, 248, 259, 465, 473, 540, 541, 547, 569 Ego Dominus Tuus (Yeats) 482, 501–2 Egoist, The (Meredith) 434, 473 Egypt 6, 7–8, 9, 20, 25, 31, 32, 43, 50, 59, 70, 191, 235, 244, 245, 260, 262, 574 Elder Edda 12–13 elegy(ies) 144, 146, 147, 371, 494, 311, 370, 371, 494 Milton’s 162, 164–5, 169, 206, 207–9, 215-6 Elihu 37, 39, 40, 41, 71 Elijah (9th c. B.C.E.) 39, 70, 75 Eliot, George (1819–80) 430, 464– 9 Eliot, T.S. (1888–1965) 208, 320, 387, 475, 481, 484–5, 486, 487, 488, 498, 504–17, 571 Elisha 69, 192 Elizabeth I (1533–1603) 121, 128, 155, 263, 267, 269, 281, 287, 288, 290, 297, 302–3, 313, 315, 316, 334, 341, 351 Elizabethan Love Conventions (Pearson) 316, 382 Elizabethan World Picture, The (Tillyard) 316 Ellmann, Richard (1918–87) 504 Elohim 66, 67–8, 100 Elyot, Sir Thomas (ca. 1490–1546) 129, 305, 334, 398 Emmanuel College x Enchanted Glass: The Elizabethan Mind in Literature, The (Craig) 316 Endymion (Keats) 170

Index Endimion and Phoebe (Drayton) 318, 382 English language, history of 305–6 English Literature of the Early Seventeenth Century (Bush) 316, 392 Enitharmon 105, 111, 114 Enoch, Book of 49 epic 63, 68, 86, 101–2, 103, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 127, 128, 144–6, 152, 153, 154, 155–6, 157, 165, 166, 170, 182, 183, 191, 202–303, 308, 311, 315, 370, 376, 390, 413, 414, 431, 434, 485, 508, 511, 613, 614, 617, 618, 622 brief 102, 103, 145, 170, 182, 218, 261 diffuse 103, 145, 146, 170, 182, 218 Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature (Ker): 156 epiphany 6, 200, 255, 478, 496, 539 Episcopalian polity 172, 220 episousion 328, 406 Epistles (Horace) 630–1 Epitaphium Damonis (Milton) 146, 165, 170, 208 Epithalamion (Spenser) 155, 376, Erasmus, Desiderius (ca. 1466– 1536) 327, 336, 354, 380, 402, 404, 596 Erasmus: A Study of His Life, Ideals, and Place in History (Smith) 402 Erewhon (Butler) 331, 596–7, 600 Erewhon Revisited (Butler) 602, 605 Fair Haven, The (Butler) 602 Eros 105, 116, 282, 292, 362, 364 Esdras, Book of 43, 49 Essay on Government (Mill) 534 eternity x, 3–4, 49, 114, 150, 199, 217, 255, 264–5, 267, 292, 297, 303, 316, 420, 501 Ethics (Aristotle) 618

Northrop Frye's Lectures Ethics of Psychoanalysis, The (Lacan) ix Eucharist 131, 132, 173, 175, 197, 221, 226, 227, 477 Euphues, or Anatomy of Wit (Lyly) 335 euphuism 136, 352–3 Euripides (ca. 480–406 B.C.E.) 609–10, 627 Europe (Blake) 85 Evans, Peter 53, 161, 304, 474 evil, Blake’s view of 92–3 Eve 2, 25, 57, in Paradise Lost 198–9, 253–4 Eve of St. Agnes, The (Keats) 315 Every Man in His Humour (Jonson) 321 Evolution of “The Faerie Queene,” The (Bennett) 122 existentialism 44, 45, 46, 175, 256, 528, 540, 606 Exodus, Book of 7–8, 25, 57, 58 15:1, 64 20, 75 21, 66 28:15, 78 34, 67 Ezekiel, Book of 19, 21, 50, 100, 516, 514 28:14, 58 29, 73 29:3–4, 5, 30, 42 32:2, 30 Fables (Aesop) 156 Faerie Queene, The (Spenser) 102, 120, 121–43, 154–60, 370, 418, 420, 516 alliteration and onomatopoeia in 136 its archaic language 268 Book I 131–7, 157–60, 263, 265–6, 267–77, 376–7 Book II 140–2, 160, 266–7, 277–87 Book III 287–95, 300 Book IV 135–6

669

Book VI 263 form of 127 historical allegory in 137–9 as historical poem 127–8, 262 as a medieval poem 153 moral allegory in 137–9, 157 rhetorical devices in 136–7 structured by private and public virtues 264 theme of 126–7 fairy tales 211, 429, 470, 490, 501 faith 6, 12, 130, 46, 133, 134, 137, 174, 222, 231, 271, 276, 337, 346, 347, 432, 540, 554, 562, 587, 620 Fall, myth of 2, 7, 8, 25, 30, 31, 35, 51, 83, 88, 92, 96, 98–9, 100–1, 112–3, 114 fall of Nineveh 8 farming community 15–16 Fearful Symmetry (Frye) x female spirit in Blake 85 fertile crescent 57 Fichte, Johann (1762–1814) 90, 538–40, 541 Fielding, Henry (1707–54) 410–13, 454–9 Finnegans Wake (Joyce) 50, 85, 99, 102, 440 Fisher, Douglas (1919–2009) xii Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme (Jonson), 393 Flaming Heart, The (Crashaw) 324 Flaubert, Gustave (1821-80) 458 Fletcher, Giles (1586–1623) 148, 322 Fletcher, Phineas (1582–1660) 148, 322 Foucault, Michel (1926–84) ix four-beat poetic line 243, 307, 486 four humours 108, 198, 312–13, 373 Four Metaphysical Poets (Bennett) 323, 392 Four Zoas, The (Blake) 100, 102, 104

670 Fox, George (1634–91) 548 Francis, Duke of Anjou (1555–84) 139 Frazer, Sir James (1854–1941) 84, 86, 169, 484 Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939) 86, 606 Frogs, The (Aristophanes) 610–11 Fuller, Thomas (1608–61) 305, 355 Funeral, The (Donne) 389 Galatians, Epistle to 4:2, 74 Galen (ca. C.E. 130–ca. 201) 345, 403 Galileo (1564–1642) 186, 201, 245, 338, 404 garden 7, 13, 25, 26, 27, 28, 48, 51, 76, 89, 90, 93, 114, 117, 131, 132, 142, 190, 194, 215, 259, 261, 291, 292, 293, 301, 302, 325, 342, 513, 516 Gardens of Adonis 103, 142, 169, 284, 290, 291, 292, 296, 299, 512 Gardner, Marie xiv–xv Garland for John Donne, A (Spencer) 392 Gascoigne, David (1534–77) 304, 321 Gayfer, Margaret (b. 1925) x, 1 Generation 95, 96, 101, 102, 104 Genesis, Book of 14, 63 1–2, 66 1–3, 75 1:1, 67 2:4, 67 3:24, 42 4, 64 4:2, 58 4:16, 58 4:17, 58 14, 58 22, 15 Geneva Bible 55 genius 2, 22, 51, 79, 107, 144, 153, 161, 184, 203, 205, 208, 210,

Index 345, 360, 388, 392, 448, 453, 459, 588, 589, 609, 612, 617, 634, 637 Geoffrey of Monmouth (ca. 1100– 54) 267, 281, 304, 314, 377 Georgics (Virgil) 615 German Romanticism 538 Gerontion (Eliot) 485, 508–10 Gilgamesh, epic of 68 god-man 12, 16, 26, 50, 84, 89 God’s Grandeur (Hopkins) 493 Gods of the Greeks, The (Kerényi) 297 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832) 549, 540 Golden Age myth 21, 25 Golden Bough, The (Frazer) 169, 484 Golden Echo, The (Hopkins) 493 Goliath 9 Goodspeed, Edgar J. (1871–1962) 55 Gorgias (Plato) 625 Gorgias (ca. 485–ca. 380 B.C.E.) 624 Gospel(s) 4, 5, 10, 28, 29, 30, 50, 74, 93, 97, 100, 113, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178, 182, 190, 191, 200, 221, 225, 226, 227, 228, 230–1, 236, 251, 259, 311, 371, 560, 605 Governour, The (Elyot) 129, 334, 398 Gower, John (ca. 1325–1408) 154 Grace Abounding (Bunyan) 408, 419, 421 Grand Remonstrance 171 Great Chain of Being, The (Lovejoy) 90 great chain of being. See chain of being. Great Code, The (Frye) x Great Expectations (Dickens) 469– 73 greatness in art 204–5 Greek comedy 609, 630

Northrop Frye's Lectures Greek drama 16, 170, 218, 609 Greek tragedy 16, 36, 70, 72, 197, 321, 462, 610, 619 Greene, Robert (1558–92) 305, 353, 387 Greenlaw, Edwin (1874–1931) 122 Grendel 85 Grierson, H.J.C. (1866–1960) 319, 323 Gulliver’s Travels (Swift) 330, 331, 410, 525 gunpowder, invention of 305, 358 Hadrian (76–138 C.E.) 9, 61 Hagar 74 Hall, Joseph, Bishop (1574–1656) 305, 315, 321, 355, 390 Hamlet (Shakespeare) 35, 37, 41, 149, 167, 206, 302, 349, 361, 373, 395, 517 Handel, Georg Friedrich (16851759) 433 Hanford, James Holly (1882–1969) 202 Hardy, Thomas (1840–1928) 46, 422, 474, 475, 476, 477, 480, 487, 488, 489, 491, 494, 590 Harrington, James (1611–77) 331 Harron, Don (1934–2015) xiii Harvey, Gabriel (ca. 1550–1630) 368 Hawes, Stephen (1475–1511) 304, 307 Hay, Catharine xiii Haydn, Hiram (d. 1973) 316 Heart of the Midlothian, The (Scott) 452–3 Hebrews, Epistle to the 2:7, 200 10:1, 74 Hecate 142, 264, 270, 297, 301 Henley, William Ernest (1849– 1903) 39 henotheism 62 Henry VII (1457–1509) 227, 305 Henry VIII (1491–1547) 54, 137, 220, 221, 327–8, 357, 559

671

Herbert, Edward (1583–1648) 394 Herbert, George (1593–1633) 319, 322–3, 394 hero(es) 13, 24, 26–31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 65, 72, 84, 100, 106, 107, 109, 150, 154, 157, 158, 182–3, 189, 191, 194, 194, 196– 7, 257–8, 261, 269, 280–1, 303, 315, 349, 378, 421, 423, 431, 436–7, 541, 544, 549–50, 437, 600, 610, 612, 620–1 Christian, in Milton 200, 240, 255, 61 Hero and Leander (Marlowe) 317, 381, 514 Herrick, Robert (1591–1674) 304, 322 Hesiod (8th c. B.C.E.) 63, 102 Hesperides (Herrick) 322 Hippocrates (469–380 B.C.E.) 403 Historia Brittonum (Geoffrey of Monmouth) 267 History of Christian Thought, A (Tillich) ix History of New Testament Times, A (Pfeiffer) 56 Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) 524, 579 Hollow Men, The (Eliot) 485, 51– 11 Holy Grail 128, 158, 285, 314 Holy Sonnet VII (Donne) 320 Holy State and Profane State (Fuller) 355 Holy War, The (Bunyan) 408, 418 Homer (8th c. B.C.E.) 61, 101, 103, 109, 124, 125, 126, 128, 141, 145, 154, 156, 170, 208–9, 218, 242, 308, 314, 389, 507, 608–9 Hone, Joseph (1882–1959) 504 Hooker, Richard (1553–1600) 296, 305, 342–4 Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844–89) 475, 476–7, 478, 486–7, 488, 491, 493–7

672 Horace (65–8 B.C.E.) 241, 307, 320, 322, 390, 393, 403, 614, 623, 628–9, 630–4, 638, 640 Horatian Ode on the Return of Cromwell, An (Marvell) 325 Hosea, Book of 13–14, 19, 21, 66 6, 23 Housman, A.E. (1859–1936) 474, 475, 476, 487, 488, 489 Hubler, Edward 316 Huckleberry Finn (Twain) 429 Hudibras (Butler) 326 humours, theory of 312–13. See also four humours. Humphry Clinker (Smollett) 438– 442 humanism 119, 164, 165, 166, 181, 209, 237, 306, 327, 332, 335, 340, 403–4, 519, 558, 570, 596 Huxley, Aldous (1894–1963) 331 Huxley, T.H. (1825–95) 589 Hymn, The (Milton) 162 Hymn in Honor of Beauty, A (Spenser) 310, 311, 372, 374 Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, A (Spenser) 310, 315, 316, 372, 374 Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness (Donne) 389 Hymn to God the Father, A (Donne) 388 Hymn to the Royal Society (Cowley) 327 Iambicum Trimetrum (Spenser) 393 Idea (Drayton) 378–9 Idea of the University, The (Newman) 551–2 If (Kipling) 491 Ikhnaton (d. 1336 B.C.E.) 62 Iliad (Homer) 102, 103, 126, 183, 242, 263, 608, 637 Il Penseroso (Milton) 119, 151, 165, 166, 167, 200, 210–12, 215, 244, 255, 483 imagination 9, 33, 77, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93-4, 95–6, 98–9, 103,

Index 104, 112, 116, 156, 161–2, 208, 269, 347, 377, 440, 459, 470, 567, 621, 627, 637, imitation (mimesis) 123–4 Aristotle’s view of 617–18 Plato’s view of 617 In a Station of the Metro (Pound) 506 Indifferent, The (Donne) 385 infinity x, 3–4, 49, 99 Innis, Harold (1894–1952) ix inspiration, Aristotle’s view of 623–4 integritas 81, 478, 496 Introduction to the Bible (Cook) 54 Introduction to the Old Testament (McFadyen) 56 Introduction to the Old Testament (Pfeiffer) 56 Inversnaid (Hopkins) 478 Invictus (Henley) 39 Ion (Plato) 612 Iron Heel, The (London) 331 Isaac 15, 58, 74 Isaiah, Book of 7, 14, 19, 72, 100 2, 22 2:54, 25 6:8, 22 7: 10–12, 22 27:1, 28, 30 41:18, 25 51:9–10, 28 53, 24 54:12, 25 Isaiah II (Deutro-Isaiah) 19 Isocrates (436–338 B.C.E.) 625 Israel 23 Northern Kingdom of 19, 68 twelve tribes of 50, 191 Israelites as bride 19, 112 Babylonian captivity of 8, 9, 24 Egyptian bondage of 6, 7, 23, 43, 60 Jack of Newberry (Deloney) 351–2

Northrop Frye's Lectures Jacob 20, 50, 58, 112, 115, 246, 508 James I (1566–1625) 55, 171, 336, 339, 341, 345, 394, 405 James II (1633–1701) 523 James, Henry (1843–1916) 355, 422, 428, 443, 448, 450 JEDP narratives 66, 68 Jeffers, Robinson (1887–1962) 475, 476, 490 Jehosaphat 69 Jephthah 12, 16 Jeremiah, Book of 14, 17, 19, 24, 50, 66 Jerome (C.E. ca. 342–420) 404 Jerusalem 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 31, 49, 50, 51, 60, 61, 67, 68, 74, 332 Jerusalem (Blake) 102, 104, 109 commentary on plates 4 to 38 110–17 Jerusalem Delivered (Tasso) 156, 182, 239 Jesus 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 21, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 39, 41, 49, 50, 51, 52, 70, 75, 76, 96, 99, 100, 101, 106, 113, 149, 154, 176, 178, 190, 191–2, 193, 205, 222, 225, 226, 232, 259, 260, 262, 513, 516, 564 Jew of Malta, The (Marlowe) 317 Job 25, 33–4, 63, 70–73, 102 3, 71 3:8, 72 7:8, 35, 35–43 7:12, 35 38:4, 40, 42 41:34, 5, 42 42:5, 42 John, Gospel of 1, 75 3:30, 162 John Milton: Englishman (Hanford) 202 John the Baptist 149, 162, 205, 516 Johnson, Samuel (1709–84) 320

673

Jonah (8th c. B.C.E.) 32, 48, 87, 131 Jonathan 16, 64 Jonson, Ben (1572–1637) 165, 213, 304, 321–2, 391, 431, 480 Joseph Andrews (Fielding) 411, 429 Joshua (1355–1245 B.C.E.) 8, 25 Joshua, Book of 10:12, 64 Josiah, King 68 Joyce, James (1882–1941) 101, 114, 416, 478, 496–7, 539 Judah (Southern Kingdom) 23 Judaism 2, 10, 14, 16, 17, 23–4, 43, 61, 72, 75, 173, 224, 580 Judas Maccabee (d. 167 B.C.E.) 9, 61 Judges, Book of 10, 69 4–5, 65 4:11, 65 4:1–24, 65 5:28, 65 5:23–31, 65 11:30, 12 Judith 56 Judson, Alexander C. 122 Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) 37 Jung, Carl (1975–1961) 82, 86 Jupiter 59, 143, 312, 313, 373 Juvenal (ca. 55–ca 140 B.C.E.) 320 Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804) 90, 104, 164, 538–9 katharsis (catharsis) 15, 34, 195, 618, 619 Keats, John (1795–1821) 104, 288, 381, 491 Ker, W.P. (1855–1923) 156 Kerényi, Karl (1897–1973) 297 Keynes, John Maynard (1883–1946) ix Keynes Lectures, 1932–35 ix Kierkegaard, Søren (1813–55) 46, 606 King, Edward (1612–37) 169, 170, 216 King James Bible (AV) 54, 55, 341

674 King Lear (Shakespeare) 32, 34, 37, 41, 72 King of Tyre 42 I Kings 63 18, 70 19:8, 39 19:11–13, 40 22, 69 22:15–16, 70 22:28, 69 28 II Kings 14 22, 68 kingship 15, 17, 20, 24 Kingsley, Charles (1819–75) 561 Kipling, Rudyard (1865–1936) 491, 519 Kleiman, Ed (b. 1932) xii Knight, Mary Louise (1924–2013) xii Knox, John (ca. 1513–72) 226 Koran 74 Lacan, Jacques (1901–81) ix Lady of Shalott, The (Tennyson) 515 L’Allegro (Milton) 150–1, 165, 166, 200, 210, 211, 215, 255 Lamentations, Book of 19, 17 Langland, William (ca. 1330–ca. 1400) 359 Last Judgment 2, 4, 28 Latin 335–6, 403 Laws (Plato) 612, 614 Laws of God, The (Housman) 489 Laws of the Bible 7, 28 Laud, Archbishop William (1573– 1645) 171 Lawrence, D.H. (1885–1930) 461, 488 Leaden Echo, The (Hopkins) 493 Lecture upon the Shadow, A (Donne) 388 Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1933 (Wittgenstein) ix

Index Lectures on Negative Dialectics (Adorno) ix Lectures on the Will To Know (Foucault) ix Lectures on University Education (Newman) 551 Lectures, 1926–1937 (Whitehead) ix Leishman, J.B. (1902–63) 323 Lerbinger, Beth xii Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh (Spenser) 126 levels of meaning 85, 87–88, 92, 96, 99, 157 Leviathan x, 5, 29–30, 31, 42, 48, 72–3, 84, 158 Leviticus, Book of 14–15, 74 Lewis, C.S. (1898–1963) 316 Liberal Education, A (Huxley) 594–5 liberty 30, 34, 38–9, 88, 220, 233, 459, 523, 535, 536–7, 560, 567, 575 Milton’s concept of 121, 171, 173–4, 175, 176–7, 179, 182, 190, 194, 195, 218, 221, 222, 224, 227, 228, 229, 230, 232, 257–8, 259 Licensing Act 410 Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The (Bunyan) 408, 417–18 Lilith 67, 114 Limbo of Vanities 198, 251 Lincoln, Abraham (1809–65) 9 Lindsay, Vachel (1879–1931) 474, 475, 487, 488 linguistic change 306, 358 literary criticism 85, 607–41 Literature of Shakespeare’s England, The (Dunn) 316 Literature of the New Testament, The (Scott) 56 Literature of the Old Testament, The (Bewer) 56 Lives (Walton) 354–5

Northrop Frye's Lectures Lives of the Poets (Johnson) 326 Locke, John (1632–1704) 104 London, Jack (1876–1916) 331 Long Parliament 171 Longinus (ca. 1st c. C.E.) 635–40 Looking Backward (Bellamy) 331 Los 91, 111, 112, 117 Loss of the Titanic. See The Convergence of the Twain (Hardy) 490 love 23, 47, 64, 76–7, 84–5, 95, 96, 98, 101, 102, 104, 105, 110, 116, 142, 149, 165, 174, 192, 197, 199, 209, 214, 222, 251, 254, 282, 284, 286, 289, 290–5, 308–10, 348, 364–5, 373–4, 381, 383–4, 385–6, 400, 510, 615 love, courtly. See courtly love. Love, Christopher (1911–98) 504 Love of Beauty, A (Spenser) 310 Lovejoy, Arthur O. (1873–1963) 90 Lover Compareth His State to a Perilous Storm Tossed on the Sea, The (Wyatt) 309–10 Lover for Shamefastness, The (Wyatt) 310, 367 Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love, The (Wyatt) 310 Love’s Deity (Donne) 387 Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare) 212 Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The (Eliot) 505 Lowes, John Livingston (1867– 1945) 408 Lucilius (148–103 B.C.E.) 628 Luck or Cunning? (Butler) 598 Luke, Gospel of 19:40, 51 Luther, Martin (1483–1546) 164 Luvah 105, 111, 113, 115, 116, 117 Lycidas (Milton) 92, 144–5, 146, 164, 169–70, 205, 215–17, 311, 371 Lydians 60

675

Lygate, John (ca. 1370–ca. 1451) 360 Lyly, John (1554–1606) 305, 335, 353 Macbeth (Shakespeare) 32, 34, 39 McFadyen, Edgar John (1870– 1933) 56 Maccabean rebellion 9, 17 Maccabees 56, 61 Macedonia 61 Machiavelli, Niccoló (1469–1527) 305, 325, 332–3, 335, 342, 396– 8, 593 MacNeice, Louis (1907–63) 484 Madame Bovary (Flaubert) 458 Magnificat, the 49 Malachi, Book of 57 Mallarmé, Stephané (1842–98) 484 Malory, Sir Thomas (ca. 1405– 1471) 108, 129, 158, 314 Mammon, in Paradise Lost 187–8 mana 62 manna 8, 192 Manicheanism 187 Manso, Giovanni Battista (1561– 1647) 145 Manson, T.W. (1893–1958) 56 Mantuan (1447–1516) 158 Marathon, Battle of 60 Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93) 252, 304, 317, 379, 463 Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The (Blake) 85, 87–8, 90 four levels of meaning in 87–8 Marston, John (1576–1634) 390 Marvell, Andrew (1621–78) 304, 325 Marx, Karl (1818–83) 606 Mary Queen of Scots (1542–87) 160, 226 Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) (1615– 58) 160, 173 Masolino (1383–1487) 108 Masoretic text 54 masque 167–8, 169, 212–13, 214, 268, 289, 294, 295, 321

676 Masson, David (1822–1907) 202 meaning levels of, in Blake 97. See also levels of meaning. types of 82 Meaning of Spenser’s Faerie Land (Rathborne) 295 Meaning of Treason, The (West) 52 Measure for Measure (Shakespeare) 509 Medes 8, 60 Medusa 29 melancholy 44, 46, 167, 199, 211, 254, 309, 312, 345, 348, 360, 379, 421 Menaphon: Doron’s Eclogue (Greene) 387 Mendelssohn, Felix (1809–47) 494 Merchant of Venice, The (Shakespeare) 56, 206 Mesopotamia 57, 58 Messiah 9, 12, 24, 25, 29, 49, 74, 75, 83, 88, 91, 114, 132, 192, 194, 195, 262, 371, Metamorphoses (Ovid) 317, 372, 380 metanoia 4, 55, 132–3, 328, 406 metaphor x, 156–7, 480, 484, 492, 506, 586, 593, 594, 595–6, 598, 616, 634, 636, 641 Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science, The (Burtt) 402 Metaphysical Poetry from Donne to Butler (ed. Grierson) 323, 392 metaphysical (intellectual) poetry 145, 166, 210, 304, 319, 320, 321, 323, 324, 325, 327, 388, 391, 392, 394, 484, 505 Metaphysical Poets, The (White) 323, 392 Metaphysical Poets, The (Leishman) 323, 392 Micah, Book of 14, 19 6:6–8, 23 Micaiah 69

Index Michael (archangel), his speech in Paradise Lost 184, 189, 190, 200, 242, 257, 258, 259, 261, 276 Michelangelo (1475–1564) 121, 153 Middle Ages 305–6, 307, 313–14, 329, 335, 337, 340, 357, 358, 360, 361–2, 364, 375, 377, 387, 514, 540, 543, 545, 546, 550, 571, 573, 587 Middlemarch (Eliot) 430, 464–73 Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (Shakespeare) 167, 282, 379, 498, 614 Mill, James (1773–1836) 534 Mill, John Stuart (1806–73) 490, 518, 520, 528, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536–7, 538, 567, 578 Milton (Blake) 102 Milton, John (1608–74) 5, 38, 118– 20, 121, 143–51, 153, 161–201, 202–62, 308 on Adam’s fall 250–1 biography of 203–4 his Cambridge training 119, 203 on education 181–2, 236–9 his elegies 146–7 on evil 247–8 his doctrine of creation 248–50 on freedom of the press 228 on heroism 240 his imagery 215 Latin poetry of 218 on marriage 224–7 on monarchy 236 his three stages of vision 259 Milton (Hanford) 202 Milton (Tillyard) 202 Milton and the Puritan Dilemma (Barker) 202 Milton: Man and Thinker (Saurat) 202 Mithraism 77

Northrop Frye's Lectures Moby Dick (Melville) 102 Modern Utopia, A (Wells) 331 Moffatt, James (1870–1944) 55 Mohammedism 74 Molière (1622–73) 449, 620, 636 Moll Flanders (Defoe) 409, 410, 421, 423–6, 434 monolatry 10 monotheism 10, 62 Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533–92) 43, 45, 101, 331, 341 Moore, Marianne (1887–1972) 494 Morgan, Eleanor xii More, Sir Thomas, St. (1478–1535) 305, 327–8, 331, 332, 402, 406, 523 Morris, William (1834–96) 107, 331, 518, 520, 547, 576, 580–9 Morte d’Arthur (Malory) 314 Moses (1393–1273 B.C.E.) 6, 7, 25, 58, 75 Mother Hubbard’s Tale (Spenser) 120, 129, 321, 368, 390 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756– 91) 121, 204 Mundus Alter et Idem (Hall) 390 Murray, Gilbert (1866–1957) 86 music 203, 205–6, 211, 212, 243, 285, 307, 311, 318, 324, 359, 370, 380, 381, 394, 398, 417, 422, 433, 481, 486, 490, 495, 499, 582, 587, 617–18 of the Elizabethan age 351, 395–6 Musophilus (Daniel) 378 Mutabilitie Cantos (Spenser) 143, 297–300 Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry (Bush) 315, 382 Naphtali 65 Napoleon I (1769–1821) 55, 380, 455, 460, 475, 489 narrative, U-shaped 190

677

Nashe, Thomas (1567–1601) 305, 353–4 Nativity Ode (Milton) 103, 111, 144, 146, 148–50, 161–2, 164, 165, 203,205, 208, 244 natural cycles 13, 31, 40 natural religion 4, 11, 31, 48 Naturam Non Pati Senium (Milton) 147 Nature of Gothic (Ruskin) 571, 577 Nazism 44, 45, 52 Nebuchadnezzar (634–562 B.C.E.) 73 Nehemiah 8 Neoptolemus of Parium (3rd c. B.C.E.) 629 New Atlantis (Bacon) 331 New Inn, The (Jonson) 393 New Testament 2, 5, 6, 8, 41, 48, 49, 50, 54, 56, 74, 75, 97, 172, 175, 178, 179, 220, 232, 247, 327, 404, 652 relation to Old Testament 2, 6, 74 Newman, Cardinal John Henry (1801–90) 193, 495, 538, 550– 63, 585, 594 News from Nowhere (Morris) 331, 581, 583 Newton, Sir Isaac (1642–1727) 104, 115 Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844–1900) 195, 481, 596, 606 Night Watch of Venus (Pervigilium Veneris) 517 Nimrod 241, 257, 259, 260 1984 (Orwell) 224, 331 Nineveh 8 Noble Numbers (Herrick) 322 Northrop Frye in Conversation (Cayley) xi Northumbrian Renaissance 459 Notes and Papers from Innis Seminar ix novel, characteristics of 416–17, 434

678 Novum Organum (Bacon) 337, 338 Numbers, Book of 21:14–15, 64 21:18, 64 21:27, 64 22–23, 69 Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn, The (Marvell) 325 Nymphidia: The Court of the Faery (Drayton) 318, 379 Oceana (Harrington) 331 Octavius (Augustus) (63 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) 9 Ode: Intimations of Immortality (Wordsworth) 483 Ode on a Grecian Urn (Keats) 491 Ode to the West Wind (Shelley) 209 Odysseus 271. See also Ulysses. Odyssey (Homer) 183, 241, 602, 608, 637 Oedipus at Colonus (Sophocles) 196 Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) 40, 208, 619 Of the Last Verses in the Book (Waller) 326 Of Education (Milton) 171, 181 Of Reformation Concerning Church Discipline (Milton) 173 Of the Mean and Sure Estate (Wyatt) 307, 320 Of the Progress of the Soul: Second Anniversary (Donne) 320 Old Testament 2, 6, 8, 9, 57, 74 On Death of University Beadle (Milton) 146 “On Defoe” (Woolf) 410 On Prelatical Episcopacy (Milton) 173 On Reading Books (Lowes) 408 “On the Cannibals” (Montaigne) 331 On the Death of a Fair Infant (Milton) 207

Index On the 5th of November (Milton) 165, 209 On the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Hooker) 296, 344 On the Platonic Idea as Understood by Aristotle (Milton) 210 “On the Poetry of Vaughan” (Blunden) 324 On the Sublime (Longinus) 630–5 One Hundred Modern Poems (ed. Rodman) 486 onomatopoeia 326 oppositional metaphors 31–2 oracle 16, 21, 64, 69, 150, 185, 207, 207 Orc 84, 85, 90, 91, 105, 111, 112 Orlando Furioso (Ariosto) 128, 155, 379 Orlando Innamorato (Boiardo) 128 Orpheus 154, 165, 170 Orwell, George (1903–50) 224, 331 Othello (Shakespeare) 35, 39 Ovid 142, 269, 317, 372 Ovid’s Banquet of Sense (Chapman) 390 Oxford 163 Oxford Movement 551 Oxford Reformers, The (Seebohm) 402 Paine, Thomas (Tom) (1737–1809) 527 Palamabron 107 Palestine 14, 16, 57 Pamela (Richardson) 410–13, 417, 423, 426, 429–30, 432, 437, 473 Paracelsus (1493–1541) 345 Paradise Lost (Milton) 90, 101, 121, 145, 146, 182–91, 239–43 cosmology of 186, 245 cyclic action of 241–2 dreams in 253 metre of 184 Michael’s speech in 184, 261 onomatopoeia in 185 sound patterns of 242–3

Northrop Frye's Lectures its theme of creation and destruction 260 three levels in 179, 182–3 threshold symbolism in 185 Paradise Regained (Milton) 52, 102, 121, 145, 191–4, 255, 261– 2 Parliament, 171 Long 171, 235, 325 Rump 172, 180, 219–20, 235 Parnell, Charles (1846–91) 480 Passionate Shepherd to His Love, The (“Come Live with Me”) (Marlowe) 317, 381 Past and Present (Carlyle) 546–7, 550 pastoral elegy (lament) 169, 311 Patterns of Culture (Benedict) 68 Patterson, Frank Allen (1878–1944) 202 Pearson, Lu Emily 316, 382 Peer Gynt (Ibsen) 510 Pericles (Jonson/Shakespeare) 393 Permanence of Yeats, The (ed. Hall and Steinmann) 484, 504 Persephone 13 Perseus 29 Persian empire 8, 60, 61 Persius (C.E. 34–62) 320, 390–1 I Peter 2:4, 5, 77 Petrarch, Francesco (1304–74) 123, 307, 361, 364, 367 Pfeiffer, R.H. (1892–1958) 56 Phaedrus (Plato) 614 Pharisaism 226 Pharisees 9 Pharaoh 20, 30, 42, 158, 159, 178 Philistines 8, 59, 62, 195, 196 Phoebe 318, 372, 382 Picasso, Pablo (1881–1973) 570 Pickering Manuscripts (Blake) 98 Pickthall, Marjorie (1883–1922) 479 Pilate, Pontius (d. 37 C.E.) 5, 38, 52, 74

679

Pilgrim’s Progress, The (Bunyan) 130, 408, 418–20, 421, 422–3, 425 Pindar (522–ca. 440 B.C.E.) 393–4 Piper of Arll (Scott) 479 Pitt, David 104 planes of existence 47–8 planets, influence on metals 313 Plato (ca. 428–ca. 348 B.C.E.) 175, 181, 224, 310, 327, 331, 332, 333, 364, 401–2, 503 as a literary critic 611–15 as a judicial critic 615 Plautus (ca. 250–ca. 184 B.C.E.) 431, 633 Pocket Book of Modern Verse (ed. Williams) 486 poet, Renaissance conception of 122–3 poetic diction 491–2 Poetics (Aristotle) xi, 616–24 Poetry and Prose of the Seventeenth Century (ed. White et al.) 323 Poetry of W.B. Yeats (MacNeice) 484 polytheism 10–11 Pompey (106–48 B.C.E.) 9 Pope, Alexander (1688–1744) 435, 486 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (Joyce) 81, 478, 496 Pound, Ezra (1885–1972) 481, 506, 571 Praise of His Love Wherein He Reproveth Them That Compare Their Ladies with His (Surrey) 310 Pre-Raphaelites 108, 573, 574 Pre-Romanticism 108 presbys 55, 328 Presbyterian polity 171, 172, 220, 342 Pride and Prejudice (Austen) 430, 434, 435, 446–51, 468 priests 13, 14, 18, 20, 27, 55, 62, 66, 68, 70, 169–70, 172, 216,

680 220, 222, 231, 309, 328, 330, 362, 600 Prince, The (Castiglione) 129, 335, 396–7 prince. See Renaissance prince. printing press, introduction of 306, 358, 365, 402 Prometheus 35, 159, 281, 297, 581 Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus) 35 Prometheus Unbound (Shelley) 581 Promised Land 6, 7, 8, 25, 28, 111, 191, 235, 245, 262 prophecy 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 32, 39, 67, 69, 70, 111, 147, 165, 189, 208, 230, 242, 257, 259, 260, 284, 288; 510, 516 prophet(s) 6, 7, 10, 11, 13–14, 16, 19, 20–2, 23, 24, 25–7, 29, 31, 39, 40, 43, 50, 62, 67, 69, 70, 75, 87, 106–7, 116, 145, 153, 165, 173–4, 177–8, 179, 183; 222, 226, 228, 230, 235, 255, 288, 338, 501, 516, 549, 594, 614 Protagoras (Plato) 613 Protestant(s) 6, 43, 55, 119–20, 121, 132, 137, 139, 145, 148, 159, 160, 163, 164, 166, 176, 180, 208, 210, 222, 226, 227, 228, 232, 236, 265, 267, 271, 276, 327–8, 337, 343, 347, 355, 363, 368, 369, 405, 406, 419, 427, 475, 488, 498, 551, 555, 558–9, 567, 578, 580 Protagoras (Plato) 613 Prothalamion (Spenser) 376 Proverbs 41 Psalms 2, 17 8:5, 201 9:1, 64 19, 479 23, 25 45, 18 74:13–14, 30 87, 31

Index 89, 73 89:10, 29 100, 49 110, 17 Ptolemy (90–168 C.E.) 9, 201 Puritanism and Liberty (Woodhouse) 202 Puritans 55, 107, 119, 121, 159, 163, 171, 172, 173, 202, 203, 214, 220, 221, 224, 226, 238, 265, 271, 322, 323, 324, 338, 343, 345, 354, 377, 406, 410, 411, 419, 421, 423, 434, 571 Purple Island (Phineas Fletcher) 389 Pythagoras (6th c. B.C.E.) 503, 611 Rachel 77 Racine, Jean (1639–99) 463 Rabelais, François (1494–1553) 152, 331, 432, 433, 449, 596 Rahab 28, 29–30, 73, 110 Raleigh, Sir Walter (ca. 1554–1618) 126, 127, 129, 140, 154, 287, 290, 389, 390 Ramses II (1303–1213 B.C.E.) 58 Raphael, archangel 242, 254, 256– 7, 280 Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483– 1520) 108, 204, 254, 479 Rathborne, Isabel (1901–99) 295 Read, Herbert (1893–1968) 480 reader 6, 33, 38, 72, 97, 125, 140, 154, 169, 194, 254, 261, 275, 308, 380, 407, 410, 412, 418, 424, 428, 429, 435, 436, 439, 441, 446, 451, 455, 456, 457, 465, 467, 470, 471, 473, 476, 490, 491, 527, 631, 636 Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, A (Milton) Reaney, James (1926–2008) 2 reason, in Milton 145, 173, 175, 186, 189, 221, 246, 258–9 Reason against Church Government (Milton) 145

Northrop Frye's Lectures redemption 4, 7, 41, 83, 93, 96, 100, 103, 105, 182, 192, 197, 206, 240, 259, 265, 266, 269, 276 Reformation 126, 158, 172–3, 221, 227, 231, 234, 237, 274, 306, 327, 342–3, 365, 366, 404–5, 551 Regicide Pamphlets (Milton) 171 Religio Medici (Browne) 345 Religious Knowledge, course in x, 1–52, 53–80 Remembering Northrop Frye (Denham) ix, xi Renaissance and English Humanism (Bush) 316 Renaissance, English 54, 120, 123, 124, 125, 128, 129, 140, 157, 161, 165, 170, 181, 182, 204, 209, 237, 239, 305, 306, 308, 335, 340, 341, 345, 357, 360, 396, 398 Renaissance conception of poet 122–3, 144, 153, 311 Renaissance courtier 129, 267, 308, 316, 319, 333–4, 341, 342, 350, 366, 396–402, 403, 430, 482 Renaissance prince 129, 140, 181, 237, 308, 333, 335, 350, 396–8, 401, Renouncing of Love, A (Wyatt) 310 Renwick, W.L. 122, 300, 316 Republic, The (Plato) 175, 181, 224, 328, 329, 331, 612, 613, 614 Restoration 170–1, 219, 234, 325, 326, 338, 387, 408, 418 Restoration comedy 418, 420, 425 Restoration tragedy 195 Retreat, The (Vaughan) 109 Return of the Native, The (Hardy) 476, 490 Revelation, Book of 26, 49, 76, 189 symbolism in 73 1:8, 75 1:16, 75

681

2, 50 2:6, 50 4:8, 75, 78 5:6, 78 10:7, 78 11, 31 11:3-4, 50 11: 7–8, 31 12, 73 21:1, 73 21:9–12, 77 22:10, 49–50 Revolution, American 84, 88, 520 Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–92) 106, 107 rhetoric, Aristotelian 624–6 rhythm, poetic 63, 146, 151, 162, 165, 184, 205, 208, 215, 243, 307–8, 310, 359–60, 362–3, 367, 395, 474–5, 486–7, 493 Richardson, Samuel (1689–1761) 351, 410, 423, 427, 429, 430, 437 Rights of Man, The (Paine) 527 Rimbaud, Arthur (1854–91) 51 Rintrah 106, 107 ritual x, 14, 16, 21–2, 26, 27, 28, 34, 52, 67, 68, 86, 97, 104–5, 113, 195, 217, 344, 346, 347, 460, 472, 477, 481, 499, 512 Robinson Crusoe (Bunyan) 421 Roman Catholic Church 159, 160, 231, 270, 357, 405, 406, 477, 495, 559, 580 Roman de la Rose 287, 294 romance (literary form) 33, 43, 101, 102, 128, 156, 157–8, 183, 185, 211, 218, 240, 244, 262, 264, 300, 314, 316, 318, 369, 376, 379, 420–1, 423, 435, 442, 443, 454, 456, 458, 460, 464, 512 Romanticism 480, 518, 538, 563 Rome 50, 61, 220 Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) 209, 414 rondo form 169

682 Rose-Cheeked Laura (Campion) 393 Rosetta Stone 55 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78) 100, 441, 524, 525, 548, 588 Rump Parliament. See Parliament, Rump. Ruskin, John (1819–1900) 570–80 sacrifice 15, 16, 22 Sailing to Byzantium (Yeats) 482, 500 Saintsbury, George (1845–1933) 382 Samson 69 Samson Agonistes (Milton) 121, 145, 195–7, 218, 463 I Samuel 3:1, 69 10, 69 19–20, 69 II Samuel 1:19, 64 6, 18 21, 16 24:1, 67 Sandburg, Carl (1878–1967) 475, 488 Sartor Resartus (Carlyle) 538 Sarah 74 Satan 38, 84 in Paradise Lost 183–4, 193–4, 197–8, 242, 246–7 Satire IV (Marston) 390–1 Satires (Horace) 630 Saul (11th c. B.C.E.) 16, 21 Saurat, Denis (1890–1958) 202 Saussure, Ferdinand de (1857– 1913) ix science 11, 13, 84, 85, 94–5, 147, 238, 308, 320, 326, 336–9, 340, 341, 345, 346, 349, 402, 403, 404, 467, 480, 521, 530, 540, 555, 589, 591, 593, 595, 596, 598–9, 602, 616 Schliemann, Heinrich (1822–90) 55

Index School of Night: A Study in the Literary Relationships of Raleigh, The (Bradbrook) 390 Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788–1828) 43–4, 475, 489, 606 Scott, Duncan Campbell (1862– 1947) 479 Scott, Ernest Findlay (1868–1954) 56 Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832) 451– 4 sea shanty 63 Seebohm, Frederic (1833–1912) 402 Selecus (359–281 B.C.E.) 9 Semaine, La (Du Bartas) 158 Senecan Amble, The (Williamson) 341 Sense and Sensibility (Austen) 446 Sense of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Hubler) 317 Sentimental Journey, A (Sterne) 443–5 Septuagint 54 Sermon on the Mount 6, 225 Seventeenth-Century Background (Willey) 323 341, 394 Seventeenth-Century Prose and Verse (ed. White, et al.) 323, 341 Seventeenth-Century Studies Presented to Sir Herbert Grierson 323 Shadow of Night (Chapman) 389 Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 56, 72, 101, 123, 128, 141, 153, 165, 184, 185, 204, 208, 210, 218, 244, 267, 277, 282, 304, 307, 308, 309, 314, 316–17, 318, 319, 321, 325, 335, 339, 342, 350, 351, 361, 365, 377, 381, 382, 392, 393, 414, 420, 448, 464, 479, 509, 549, 628 Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950) 34, 417, 477, 494

Northrop Frye's Lectures Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792–1822) 104, 209, 307, 311, 371 Shepheardes Calender (Spenser) 120, 153, 268, 311, 368, 370 Sidney, Sir Philip (1554–86) 124– 5, 304, 305, 316, 349–51, 365, 613 Simon Maccabee (d. 135 B.C.E.) 9 Sirluck, Ernest (1918–2013) 122 Sir Patrick Spens 359 Sisera 65–6 Skelton, John (1460–1529) 304, 307, 358–60 Skeltonic metre 307 sky god 111 Smart, Christopher (1722–71) 104 Smith, Preserved (1880–1941) 402 Smollett, Tobias (1721–71) 438– 42, 454 Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.) 175, 207, 332, 611 Sodom 50 Solomon (990–931 B.C.E.) 8, 60, 66, 113, 339 temple of 16 Son of God 18, 75, 162, 191, 192, 200 bodily form 18, 48 Song: Go and Catch a Falling Star (Donne) 385 Song: Go Lovely Rose (Waller) 326 Song at Sunset (Whitman) 487 Song of Solomon 41, 102 4, 19 6:18–19, 18 6: 20–22, 18 Song to Celia (Jonson) 391 Song without Words (Mendelssohn) 494 Songs of Innocence and Experience (Blake) 98, 106, 107 sonnet, the 166, 268, 304, 307, 308, 309, 310, 316–17, 318, 360, 361–2, 363–4, 367, 378, 382–3, 478, 493, 497, 517 Petrarchan 307

683

Shakespearean 307, 316–7, 382, 383–4 Sophocles (ca. 496–405 B.C.E.) 610, 619, 633 Sorrows of Young Werther (Goethe) 544 space 3–4, 40, 48–9, 51, 78, 84, 91, 99, 111–12, 114, 160, 324, 332, 483, 590 Spanish Tragedy, The (Kyd) 517 Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves (Hopkins) 494 Spencer, Theodore (1902–49) 392 Spengler, Oswald (1880–1936) 86, 109 Spenser, Edmund (ca. 1552–99) 102, 262–303, 304, 321, 363, 368–77, 383. See also The Faerie Queene allegory in 124–6, 130, 131, 135 Ariosto as a model for 128 and Aristotle’s virtues 129 and the Arthurian legend 128–9 Christian symbolism in 131–2 and epic tradition 123 first 16th c. professional poet 311 greatness of 204 his hymns 304, 311 in Ireland 120–1 reputation as a poet 122 Spenserian stanza 124, 268, 315 Spillane, Mickey 308 spiritual body 5, 51, 52, 92, 250 spiritual form of nature 90 spiritual perception of time and space 91 sprung rhythm 487 St. Augustine (C.E. 354–430) 31, 332, 516 St. George 29, 128, 130, 134, 157 and the dragon 127, 131, 132, 138, 158 St. Jerome 43 St. Joan (Shaw) 34

684 St. Matthew Passion (Bach) 34 St. Teresa (Crashaw) 324 Steel Glass, The (Gascoigne) 321 Stein, Gertrude (1874–1946) 50 Stephen, King of England (1135– 54) 314, 377 Sterne, Laurence (1715–68) 348, 440, 441, 442–5 Stingle, Richard (1925–2014) xiv, 1–53 Stones of Venice (Ruskin) 580 Student’s Milton, The (Paterson) 202 style, Renaissance conception of 123 sublimity 635–40 subject–object reality 11 suffering 13, 18, 24, 26, 32, 33, 34, 41, 72, 182, 194, 240, 271, 534 Surrey, Henry Howard (1517–47) 304, 306, 307, 308, 310, 354, 360, 361, 363, 365, 367 Survey of Modernist Poetry, A (Riding and Graves) 384 Susanna 56 Sweeney Agonistes (Eliot) 474, 487 Sweeney among the Nightingales (Eliot) 484, 505, 506 Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745) 330– 1, 410, 543 Swinburne, Algernon Charles (1837–1909) 487 Sylvester, Joshua (1563–1618) 148 symbol 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 39, 41, 47, 48, 51, 52, 70, 73, 74, 76–7, 80–1, 82, 84, 86, 90, 95, 98, 104–5, 106, 109–10, 112, 113, 116, 148, 158–60, 168, 185, 217, 234, 244, 269, 288, 292, 302, 347, 380, 447, 461, 481–2, 500, 542, 549 symbolism 18, 19, 24, 26, 30, 31, 75, 80–1, 82, 102, 107, 127, 132, 134, 135, 147, 149, 158, 159, 160, 162, 169, 192, 205–6,

Index 207, 216, 261, 285, 289, 311, 324, 374, 376, 480, 513, 514, Symposium (Plato) 310, 454, 615 Synge, John Millington (1871– 1909) 481 Tale of a Tub (Swift) 543 Taming of the Shrew, The (Shakespeare) 449 Tamburlaine (Marlowe) 317, 379 Tartuffe (Molière) 620 Tasso, Torquato (1544–95) 182, 239 Taylor, Henry Osborn (1856–1941) 402 tehom (deep) 28 Tempest, The (Shakespeare) 32, 167, 212, 213, 515, 514 Ten Commandments 6, 67, 225 Terence (ca. 190–159 B.C.E.) 431, 627–8, 633 Terence This Is Stupid Stuff (Housman) 476, 490 terza rima 307 Tetrachordon (Milton) 194 Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811–63) 431, 434, 454–7, 458, 459 Tharmas, Spectre of 105 Theocritus (fl. 270 B.C.E.) 217, 311, 370 Theogony (Hesiod) 63 Theophrastus (372–287 B.C.E.) 626–7 Theophrastus (Hall) 355 theory of history, Yeats’s 481 Thomas of Reading (Richardson) 351 Thompson, Phyllis xii Thomson, James (1700–48) 104 Thoreau, Henry David (1817–62) 525 Thyrsis (Arnold) 371 Tibetan Book of the Dead, The x Tillich Paul (1886–1965) ix Tillyard, E.M.W. (1889–1962) 103, 202, 316

Northrop Frye's Lectures time 2, 3–4, 5, 10, 24, 40, 48–9, 51–2, 78, 84, 91, 99, 114, 199– 200, 255, 292, 324, 501 Timaeus (Plato) 331 Titus, Emperor (39–81 C.E.) 9, 61 Tobit 56 Tom Jones (Fielding) 413–15, 431, 433, 434, 435–7, 445 Torah 7 To His Coy Mistress (Marvell) 515 To the Memory of My Beloved the Author (Jonson) 292 Tottel’s Miscellany 308, 366 Tower, The (Yeats) 483, 503–4 Toynbee, Arnold (1889–1975) 86 Tractatus Coislinianus 622 tragedy 15, 16, 32, 33–6, 37, 39, 40, 41, 71, 72, 145–6, 153, 170, 195–7, 350, 462, 495, 609–10, 616–22 Traherne, Thomas (1637–74) 30-4, 324 transport (ekstasis) 635 Treatise of Civil Power, A (Milton) 236 tree of life 25, 26, 31, 51, 77, 90, 93, 103, 131–2, 177, 190, 199, 200, 228, 254, 277, 289 Tristram Shandy (Sterne) 443, 444 Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer) 102, 362 Troilus and Cressida (Dryden) 623 True Voice of Feeling, The (Read) 480 Tudor dynasty 305 Tunnying of Elynour Rummyng, The (Skelton) 359 Twelfth Night (Shakespeare) 217 Tyndale, William (ca. 1495–1536) 54, 327, 405, 406 Tyre 50 Ulro 95, 102, 104, 105 Ulysses 102, 241 Under the Greenwood Tree (Hardy) 487

685

Unfortunate Traveller, The (Nashe) 353 Unto This Last (Ruskin) 578, 582 Ur 58 Urizen 84–5, 90, 98, 105, 111, 116, 117 Urthona 105, 111, 113, 115, 117 Utilitarianism 527, 528, 530, 533– 4, 545, 546, 552, 553, 554, 555, 557, 597 Utopia (More) 305, 328–31, 332, 523 Vala 105, 111, 113, 115, 116 Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, A (Donne) 388 vanity (emptiness) 46 Vanity Fair (Thackeray) 409, 420, 454–9, 468 Varro, Marcus Terentius (116–27 B.C.E.) 403 Vaughan, Henry (1621–95) 109, 304, 319, 324 Vaux, Thomas, Baron (1509–56) 395 Veblen, Thorstein (1857–1929) 470 Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare) 318, 381 Veritate, De (Edward Herbert) 394 Vickery, John B. (1925–2013) xv Victoria, Queen (1819–1901) 467 Victoria College 80, 118, 152, 407, 486, 518 Victorian Age 456, 520, 589, 628 View of the Present State of Ireland, A (Spenser) 120 Virany, Margaret Kell (b. 1933) xi, 118, 202, 356, 407, 416, 486, 518, 607 Virgidemiarum (Hall) 321, 390 Virgil (70–19 B.C.E.) 128, 308, 311, 370, 403, 615 Vision, A (Yeats) 481, 500 Vizinczey, Gloria xiii Volga Boat Song 63 Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de (1694–1778) 326, 538, 544

686 voyages of discovery and trade 313 Vulgate, the 54, 55, 404 Wagner, Richard (1813–83) 498 Walker, Belva (1922–2012) xiv Waller, Edmund (1606–87) 305, 325–6 Walton, Izaak (1598–1683) 305, 354–5 War of the Roses 118, 129, 162, 305, 357 Warner, William (1558–1609) 304, 377 Warton, Joseph (1722–1800) 104 Washington, George (1732–99) 9 Waste Land, The (Eliot) 101, 208, 485, 508, 511–17 water of life 8, 25, 31, 51, 79, 132, 190, 217 Waverley (Scott) 433 Way of All Flesh, The (Butler) 600 Weinart, Don xiv Wellhausen hypothesis x, 66, 68 Wells, H.G. (1866–1946) 331 Welsford, Enid (1892–1981) 168, 212 West, Dame Rebecca (1892–1983) 52 Wharton, Lord Philip (1613–1696) 106 When Thou Must Home (Campion) 367, 395 Whispers of Immortality (Eliot) 507–8 White, Helen C. (1896–1967) 323, 341, 392 Whitehead, Alfred North (1861– 1947) ix Whitman, Walt (1819–92) 424, 474, 475, 487 Whoso List to Hunt (Wyatt) 310, 367 wilderness, the 177, 191, 192, 228, 260, 262, 324, 421 Willey, Basil (1897–1978) 323, 341, 394

Index Williamson, George (1898–1968) 341, 392 Windhover, The (Hopkins) 478–9 Winter’s Tale, The (Shakespeare) 32 wisdom 39, 40, 41, 43, 46, 47, 48, 105, 133, 154, 192, 193, 233, 262, 268, 334, 342, 375, 483, 502, 503, 557, 600, 626 wisdom literature 4, 43, 46, 47 wisdom of simplicity 4, 6, 49, 79, 383, 420, 577 Wisdom of Solomon 43, 56, 66 Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889–1951) ix W.B. Yeats (Hone) 483 Wood, Gordon (1921–2001) 152 Woodhouse, A.S.P. (1895–1964) 169, 202 Woodman, Ross (1922–2014) xiv, 102 Woolf, Virginia (1882–1941) 410 Woolley, Sir Leonard (1880–1960) 57 Word of God 5, 6 Words with Power (Frye) x Wordsworth, William (1770–1850) 483, 549 Works and Days (Hesiod) 63 Works of Edmund Spenser, The (ed. Renwick) 316 Worthies of England (Fuller) 355 Wuthering Heights (Brontë) 423, 434, 459–65 Wyatt, Henry Howard (1503–42) 304, 307, 308, 309–10, 320, 360, 362,364, 367–8 Wycliffe, John (ca. 1329–84) 54, 405 Xerxes 8, 60–1 Yahweh 14, 62, 67 Yeats, William Butler (1865–1939) 108, 479–84, 497–504, 571 Yeats: The Man and the Masks (Ellmann) 484 Young, Edward (1683–1765) 104

Northrop Frye's Lectures Zebulun 65 Zechariah 19, 50, 78 4, 50

687

4:16, 19 Zoroaster (Zarathustra ) (ca. 630–ca. 553 B.C.E.) 14, 62