The Battle of the Books: History and Literature in the Augustan Age 9781501727641

Joseph M. Levine provides a witty and erudite account of one of the most celebrated chapters in English cultural history

118 40 49MB

English Pages 448 [447] Year 2018

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE. LITERATURE
1. Wotton vs. Temple
2. Bentley vs. Christ Church
3. Stroke and Counterstroke
4. The Querelle
5. Ancient Greece and Modern Scholarship
6. Pope's Iliad
7. Pope and the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns
8. Bentley's Milton
PART TWO. HISTORY
9. History and Theory
10. Ancients
11. Moderns
12. Ancients and Moderns
Conclusion
Index

Recommend Papers

The Alternative Augustan Age [Illustrated] 9780190901424, 019090142X

116 65 6MB Read more

The Battle of Leipzig: The History and Legacy of the Biggest Battle of the Napoleonic Wars

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Though Napoleon Bonaparte

174 103 2MB Read more

The Battle of the Somme: The History and Legacy of World War I’s Biggest Battle

*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of soldiers' accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for furth

157 72 4MB Read more

The Battle of Brandy Station: The History of the Biggest Cavalry Battle of the Civil War

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for fu

154 48 1MB Read more

The Battle of New Orleans: The History and Legacy of the Last Major Battle of the War of 1812

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting written by participants on both sides *Includes a bibliography for

146 55 1MB Read more

Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon 9780300147681

What was it like to be a soldier on a Napoleonic battlefield? What happened when cavalry regiments charged directly at o

167 31 1MB Read more

The Call of Classical Literature in the Romantic Age 9781474429665

Re-establishes the enduring presence and value of classical literature in the Romantic era The Call of Classical Litera

110 67 3MB Read more

The Siege of Bastogne: The History of the Turning Point in the Battle of the Bulge

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting written by generals and soldiers on both sides *Includes online re

238 49 2MB Read more

The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age 9780300245295

The untold story of how the Dutch conquered the European book market and became the World's greatest bibliophiles

172 32 16MB Read more

The Battle of Austerlitz: The Battle that Changed the Map of Europe (History) 9782806275233, 9782806276643

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the events of the Battle of Austerlitz in next to no time with this c

101 68 1MB Read more

The Battle of the Books: History and Literature in the Augustan Age
9781501727641

Author / Uploaded
Joseph M. Levine

0 0 0
Like this paper and download? You can publish your own PDF file online for free in a few minutes! Sign Up

File loading please wait...

Citation preview

The Battle of the Books

The frontispiece to Swift's Battle of the Books (1710), reproduced by permission of Cornell University Libraries

Joseph M. Levine

THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS History and Literature in the Augustan Age

Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON

PUBLICATION OF THIS BOOK WAS ASSISTED BY A GRANT FROM THE PUBLICATIONS PROGRAM OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, AN INDEPENDENT FEDERAL AGENCY.

Copyright© 1991 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1991 by Cornell University Press. First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1994.

International Standard Book Number o-8014-2537-9 (cloth) International Standard Book Number o-8014-8199-6 (paper) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 9Q-55735 Printed in the United States of America Librarians: Library of Con~ress catalo.~in.~ information appears on the last pa.~e of the book.

§ The paper in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

FOR

Ollie A. Learnard

Contents

Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction

XI Xlll I

PART ONE. LITERATURE Wotton vs. Temple

13

(I) Temple's career; (2) Temple's Essay; (3) Burnet's Sacred Theory

and Fontenelle's Digression; (4) Temple's reply; (5) Preliminary skirmishes and Wotton's Reflections; (6) Temple vs. Wotton: The argument over history; (7) Wotton vs. Temple: The argument over philology 2

Bentley vs. Christ Church

47

(I) Bentley vs. Joshua Barnes; (2) Bentley and Wotton; (3) The

Christ Church wits; (4) Boyle against Bentley; (5) Wits and learned men; (6) Bentley replies: The Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris; (7) Bentley's argument continued; the first exchange ends in a draw

3

Stroke and Counterstroke (I) Philosophers look on: Locke and Leibniz; (2) Chronologists join the fray: William Lloyd and (3) Henry Dodwell; (4) William King joins the wits; (5) Christ Church strikes back; (6) Swift's Tale of a Tub and (7) Battle of the Books

4

The Querelle

121

(I) A lull in the battle; (2) Charles Perrault and the quarrel over

Homer; (3) Boileau leads the defense of antiquity; (4) Satire: Fran