Age of Chaucer

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LESSON 1 GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES Contents 1.0 Aims and Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Chaucers life 1.3 His works 1.4 Translation of the prologue to the Canterbury 1.5 English social life as reflected in the prologue 1.6 style and technique in Chaucers prologue to the Canterbury tales 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 lessons end activities 1.9 References 1.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The present lesson presents the following aspects of Geoffrey Chaucer in detail 1) Chaucers life 2) His works 3) Translation of the prologue to the Canterbury. After reading this lesson you can understand the English social life as reflected in the prologue, style and technique in Chaucers prologue.
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1.1 Introduction The Age of Chaucer is one of the most active, complicated, vexed and entangled transitional periods in the history of England. This age was a meeting ground of the two divergent and incongruous periodsthe old and the new, the Medieval and the Renaissance. The leaven of the Renaissance or the modern spirit was discernible on the horizon but the Medieval Age by no means had completely passed away. The Medieval and the Renaissance stood side by side. The distinctive feature of the Medieval mind is its belief in spirituality and abstract ideas, whereas the Reniassance lays emphasis on the sensuous and the concrete. In the attitude towards society the Medieval mind supports communism ; the Renaissance advocates individualism. The Medieval mind does not tolerate free thought, speculation and reason. "The right of private judgment, which lies at the very foundation of Protestantism is nothing but a corollary of the individualism of the Renaissance." (R. K. Root)
1.2 CHAUCER'S LIFE Geoffrey Chaucer the Father of English poetry and who is so much the greatest figure in the English literature of the fourteenth century that he has thrown all his contemporaries completely into the shade, was born about 1340 in London. His father did a flourishing business as a merchant vintner. No information is available about his childhood. But it is evident from the wide and varied scholarship which characterises his writings that he must have enjoyed the advantages of the liberal education. At seventeen he received a court appointment as page to the wife of the Duke of Clarence, Edward Ill's third son. In 1359 he was with the English army in France, where he was taken prisoner; but he was soon ransomed, and returned to England. Some time after this he married, and became valet of the king's chamber. From that time onward he was for many years closely connected with the court. He was often entrusted with diplomatic missions on the continent, two of them being to Italy. He was thus brought into direct touch with Italian culture in the days of the early Renaissance and may even have met Petrarch and Boccaccio, to the former of whom he makes pointed
reference in the prologue to the 'Clerkes Tale'. During these years he received many marks of royal favour, and for a time, sat in Parliament as knight of the shire of Kent. But after the overthrow of the Lancastrian party and the banishment of his special patron, John of Gaunt, he fell on evil days and with approaching age felt the actual pinch of poverty. Fortunately, on the accession of John of Gaunt's son, Henry IV, things mended with him, and the grant of a royal pension at once placed him beyond want and anxiety. At Christmas, 1399, he took a long lease of a house at Westminster, which suggests that he still looked forward to many years of life. But he died before the next year was out, and was buried in that part of Westminster Abbey which afterwards came to be known as the Poets' Corner. In studying Chaucer's work it is important to remember that his education as a poet was two- fold. Part of it came from literature; but part of it came from life. He was a thorough student, and in one of his autobiographical passages (in The House of Fame) he tells us how after a long day over his accounts, he would go home at night and there pore over his beloved volumes till he was completely dazed. But he was not a mere bookman, nor was he in the least a visionary. Like Shakespeare and Milton he was, on the contrary, a man of the world and of affairs. He had travelled much; he had seen life; his business at home and abroad brought him into intimate relations with people of all sorts; and with his quick insight into character and his keen eye for everything dramatic and picturesque and humorous, he was precisely the king of poet to profit by such varied experiences. There is much that is purely bookish in his writings; but in the best of them we are always aware that he is not merely drawing upon what he has read, but that his genius is being fed by his wide and deep knowledge of life itself.
1.3 HIS WORKS : It is usual and convenient to divide Chaucer's literary career into three periods, which are called his French, his Italian and his English period, respectively. His genius was nourished, to begin with, on the French poetry and romance which formed the
favourite reading of the court and cultivated society during the time of his youth. Naturally he followed the fashion, and his early work was done on French models. Thus, besides translating portions at least of the then popular Roman de la Rose, he wrote, among other quite imitative things, an allegory on the death of Blanche, John of Gaunt's wife, which he called 'The Boke of the Duchesse' (1369), and which is wholly in the manner of the reigning French school. Then, almost certainly as a direct result of his visits to Italy French influences disappear, and Italian influences take their place. In this second period (1370-84), Chaucer is the disciple of the great Italian masters, for 'The House of Fame' clearly owes much to Dante while 'Troylus and Cryseyde', by far his longest single poem, is based upon, and in part translated from, Boccaccio's 'Filostrato'. To the close of this period the unfinished 'Legende of Good Women' may also be referred. Finally, he ceases to be Italian as he had ceased to be French, and becomes English. This does not mean that he no longer draws freely upon French and Italian material. He continues to do this to the end. It simply means that, instead of being merely imitative, he becomes independent, relying upon himself entirely even for the use to which he puts his borrowed themes. To this last period belong, together with sundry minor poems, the 'Canterbury Tales', in which we have Chaucer's most famous and most characteristic work. 1.4 TRANSLATION OF THE PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY: When the sweet showers of April have pierced the dry soil of March down to the roots, and bathed every vein in moisture so that from its vital power the flowers are born. When the West wind has also breathed upon the tender shoots in every glade and field with its sweet breath or the spring sun has completed half of its course through the sign of the Rain and little birds that sleep all night with eyes open (for the dawn) make their music because their hearts are so thrilled by nature - then people become anxious to go on pilgrimage and palmers to seek strange shores (visiting the shrines) of distant saints famous in many lands and above all from the ends of every
county in England, they proceed to Canterburry to seek the holy blessed martyr (St. Thomas) who has helped them when they were sick. One day in that season, as I stayed at the Tabard Inn in Southwak ready to go with devout heart on my pilgrimage to Canterburry, there happened to come to the inn in the evening as many as twenty nine in a party, a mixed company whom chance had brought together and they were all pilgrims who planned to ride to Canterbury. Rooms and stable were ample and we were entertained comfortably in the best manner. And to be brief, by sunset I had spoken with everyone of them so that from thereon I became one of their party and we agreed to rise early to start our journey to Canterbury, as I describe it to you. But nevertheless, while I still have the time and space (and) before I continue this tale, I think it is reasonable to tell you all of the condition of each of them as it appeared to me and who they were and of what station and also the manner in which they were dressed; and I will begin with a Knight.
THE KNIGHT (Lines 43 - 78) There was a Knight who was an honourable man. From the time that he had first begun to go on compaigns he had loved chivalry, truth, honour, generosity and courtesy. He had been very brave in the war of his feudal superior ; Moreover while no man had ridden further than he in Christendom and heathen countries and he had always been acclaimed for his bravery. He had been at Alexandria when it was captured. On many occasions he had sat at the head of the table as the most honoured guest in company with the Teutonic Knights. In Lithuania and Russia had no Christian man of his rank so often gone on military expedition. In Granada he had been present at the siege of Algeeria and had ridden in Benmarin. He was present'at Layas and Attaila when they were captured and in the Medittareanean he had been a member of many noble expeditions./ He had partaken in fifteen mortal battles and had fought for our faith at Tremsen in three tournaments, always killing his foe. This same brave Knight had also at one time been with the Lord of Palathia against another heathen in Turkey, since which he had a great reputation. And although he was brave, he was also wise, and his bearing was as meek as a girl's.
He had never spoken in a manner unworthy of a gentleman to any sort of1 person in all his life. He was a true perfect and noble Knight. But now to tell you of his attire, his horses were good but he was not gaudily dressed. He wore a gypon (a short vest-like coat worn under armour) of stout cotton cloth, which was soiled with his coat of mail, for he had recently returned from his expedition, and was on his way to do his pilgrimage. THE YOUNG SQUIRE (Lines 79-100) With him there was his son, a young squire - a lover and a gay'probationer with hair curled as if it had been laid in a press. I think he was twenty years old. He was of moderate height and very active and very strong and once only he had been on a military expedition in Flanders, Artois and Picardy, where he had distinguished himself, considering his lack of opportunity, as he wished to stand in his lady's favour. His coat was embroidered all full of fresh white and red flowers, like a meadow. He sang and played the flute all day and was as fresh as the month of May. His gown was short, with long wide sleeves. He knew how to sit his horse well and how to ride excellently. He could compose songs and verses, joust, draw well, write and also dance. He was so passionate that at night time he slept no more than a nightingale does. He was courteous, modest and ready to serve and carved for his father at table. THE YEOMAN (lines 101 - 117) With him was a Yeoman but no other servant, for it was his pleasure' to ride in that manner. The Yeoman wore a coat and hood of green and very carefully carried a sheaf of shiny sharp arrows fitted with peacock feathers under his pouch. In true Yeoman fashion he took great care over his equipment and his arrows never fell short because of faulty feathers. He carried a long bow in his hand, his head was closely shaven and his face was brown. He knew all the techniques of carpentry and carried a fine guard on his arm, a sword and shield on one side, and a finely decorated spearshaped dagger on the other side. He wore a shining silver picture of St. Christopher on his breast. He also carried a horn which had a green baldric. 1 feel certain that he was a true Woodsman.
THE PRIORESS (lines 118-164)
There was also a Nun, a Prioress, who smiled very naturally and coyly. The strongest oath was shown only by St. Loy and she was called Madame Eglentyne. She sang the divine service fluently, nasalizing her singing in a fitting manner and she spoke French very well and elegantly, according to the school of Stratford-by-Bow, because she was not familiar with Parisian French, Moreover she had been taught well how to behave at table. She allowed no morsel to fall from her lips nor wet her tongue deeply in the gravy. She could pick up and keep a morsel well so that no food dropped nor fell upon her breast. 2' She set great store by good manners. She wiped her mouth so clean that no small particle of grease was to be seen in her cup. When she had finished her drink she reached out very daintily for her food and she certainly was very mirthful while her behaviour was very pleasant and amiable. She took pains to imitate court manners and to be of stately deportment so as to be regarded worthy of reverence. But now to mention her sensitiveness, she was so charitable and so merciful that she would weep if she saw a dead or bleeding mouse caught in a trap. She had some small dogs which she fed on raost-meat or milk and bread made of fine white flour. But she would weep piteously if one of them died or if somebody hit one sharply with a stick and she was all sensibility and tenderness of heart. Her wimple was attractively pleated ; her nose was long and well formed, her eyes were as grey as glass ; her mouth was very small and in addition soft and red but certainly she had a noble forehead. I believe it was almost a span broad ; certainly she was not below average height. I was aware that her cloak was very neat around her arm, she wore a small rosary made with coral gauded with green beads and on it hung a beautiful gold broach on which was written first a capital " A " and after ' Love conquers all things'. Riding with her were another Nun who served as her assistant and three priests, THE MONK (lines 165 - 207) There was a Monk, a good one above all others, who had been appointed to visit the various properties owned by the monastery and who loved hunting. He was an upright person and well fitted to be an abbot. He had many valuable horses in his stable and when he rode one could hear his bridle clearly jingling in a whistling wind as the loud as the chapel bell of the small monastery where this lord was head. Because the rule of St. Maurers or of St. Benedict was old and some-what strict, this same Monk ignored the seold things and held his course in conformity with the new order of things. The Monk did not care for the value of a hen that had lost its
feathers for the text that says that hunters are not holy men, and that a monk out of the cloister is as a fish out of the water. But that same text he regarded as not worth an oyster and I said he had good opinions. Why should he study and make himself mad by studying a book in the cloister, or work and labour with his hands as Augustine bids? How will this benefit the world? Let Augustine have his work reserved for himself. Thus he was a hard rider in the hunt all right, and he had grey hounds who were as swift as birds on the wing, tracking and hunting the hare by its footmarks was his only pleasure, for which he would spare no cost. I saw that his sleeves were fringed at the wrist with expensive grey fur the finest in the land for fastening his hood under his chin he had a curiously shaped brooch wrought in gold, while there was a love knot in the bigger end. This bald head and his face shone like glass as if he had been anointed. He was a very fat lord and in good condition. His eyes were bright and rolled in his head, which shone like a cauldron furnace. His boots were supple and his horses in fine condition; without a doubt he was a good prelate, He was not pale like a tormented and wasted ghost and his favourite roast was a fat swan. His palfrey was as brown as a berry. THE FRANKLIN (lines 331 360) His companion (i.e. the Sergeant) was a Franklin, with a beard as white as a daisy; he was of sanguine temperament, and liked to have wine, with pieces of bread or cake dipped into it, in the morning. His desire was always to live in pleasure for he was a true son of Epicurus, who held the opinion that great pleasure was in reality perfect happiness. He was a great householder, being a veritable St. Julian in his district and his bread cellar was known nowhere else. His house was never without pies of fish and meat and those in such plenty that in house it snowed food and drink and all the delicacies that one could think of; he varied his food or supper according to the seasons of the year. He had very many fat partridges in a coop and great numbers of beams and pikes in his fish pond. Woe betide his cook if his sauce was not pungent and sharp and with food all the day long. At county meetings of the Assizes he was representative and Chairman, and on many occasions, he had been Knight of the Shire. A dagger and a hawking pouch hung at his girdle, which was as white as morning milk. He had been a Sheriff and a legal auditor; nowhere was there such a distinguished landowner.
THE FIVE GILDSMEN AND THEIR COOK (lines 361 387)

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There were also a Haberdasher, a Carpenter, a cloth weaver, a Dyer and an upholsterer and they were all dressed in the livery uniforms of a powerful and important craft guild. Their apparel was fresh and newly trimmed, while their knives were not fashioned from brass but had sheaths with silver caps, and their belts and purses were beautifully wrought after the same manner. Each one of them seemed a burgess worthy to sit on the dais in a gild hall. Their knowledge, wealth, and income would have justified their position had they been elected as aldermen. Their wives would have surely been at fault not to have consented to do this for it is pleasant to be called Madam and good to lead this procession into church and have ones mantle carried in royal fashion. For this occasion they had brought a cook with them, to boil chickens with marrow-bones, sharp flavoured powder and galingale spice. He could recognize the flavour of London ale, and could roast, steam, boil and fry, make stew and bake a pie well. But I felt it was a great pity that he had gangrene on his skin. His masterpiece was minced chicken in white sauce.
THE SHIPMAN (lines 388 411) There was a shipman who lived far away to the west country for ought I know, he came from Dartmouth. He rode upon a farm nag as well as he could, in a gown of course woollen cloth, (stretching) to the knee. He had a dagger hanging on a cord about his neck which passed down under his arm. The hot summer sun had made his complexion quite brown, and undoubtedly he was a rascal. He had stolen very many mouthfuls of wine on the journey home from Bordeaux while the merchant slept. He was not troubled by a scrupulous conscience for if he fought and gained the upper hand, he threw his prisoners into the sea; with regard to his profession there was no one from Hull to Carthagena as good as (he) at calculating the tides, the currents and the dangers that beset him, the harbours and (the phases of) the moon and the art of piloting a ship. He was bold and prudent in his undertaking and his beard had been shaken by many a tempest. He knew well the havens as they lay from Gottland to
Cape Finisterre, and every creek in Brittany and in Spain. His vessel was named the Magdalene. THE DOCTOR OF PHYSIC (lines 412 414) With us there was a doctor of medicine; there was no one like him in all the world in the sphere of medicine and surgery, for he was well versed in astrology; he took very great care of his patients at the critical hours by means of astrology. He was skilful in choosing a favourite time for making astrological figures for his patients when the influence of the planets would make these most effective. He knew the cause fo every disease; whether it came from excess of hot, cold, moist or dry and where they had originated and in what humour : he was a very perfect practitioner. Once the cause and origin of the malady was known, he at once gave the sick man his remedy. He had his chemists always prepared to send him drugs and medicinal
powders, as each of them brought profit to the other; their friendship was no new thing. He was familiar with the old Aesculapius, with Dioscorides, and also Rufus. Old Hippocrates, Hali and Galen, Serapion, Rhazes and Avicenna, Avenoes, John of Damascus, Constantine, Bernard, Gaddesden and Gilbertine. In his diet he was temperate, as it was very nourishing and easily digestible and contained no excesses. He very seldom studied the Bible. He was dressed in red and blue- grey lined with taffeta, and thin silk and yet his expenditure was moderate; he saved what he earned during times of plague. Since Gold is the heart stimulant in medicine, he thus especially loved it. THE WIFE OF BATH (lines 445 476) There was a good wife from near Bath, but she was somewhat deaf, and this was a pity. She was so skilful at cloth- making that she surpassed those of Ypres and Ghent. Of all the parish wives there was none who had the right to go to the offering (i.e. bread and wine offered at the altar for consecration) before her, and if one did, she became so angry that she showed no charity. Her head coverings were very finely woven and I can swear that the ones she wore on Sunday weighed ten pounds. Her stockings were of the finest scarlet and very tightly laced, while her shoes were very soft and new. She had a bold fair face, with red complexion She had been a wealthy woman all her life and had been married legally on five occasions besides having other lover in her youth, but for the present there is no need to speak about that. She
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had thrice been to Jerusalem and had crossed many a foreign river. She had been to Rome, Boulogne, Cologne, and to the shrine of St. James in Galicia ; she knew a great deal about traveling along the roads. To tell the truth she was gap-toothed. She sat easily upon her ambling horse, well provided with a wimple and with a hat as large as a small round shield. She had a large foot-cloth about her hips and on her feet a pair of sharp spurs. In company she knew well how to laugh and chatter; perhaps she knew (Ovids) Remedia amoris for she was well versed in all the approved devices of love-making. THE POOR PARSON (lines 477 528) There was a good religious man, a poor town parson, who (nevertheless) was rich in pious thoughts and deeds. He was also an educated man, a scholar, who genuinely preached Christs Gospel and devoutly taught his parishioners. He was gentle, extremely hard working and had proved himself on numerous occasions to be very patient in adversity. He was extremely reluctant to demand his tithes, and undoubtedly would give his poor parishioners in the neighbourhood his Easter money and also his own property. His material needs were easily satisfied. Those who were in sickness or in adversity were visited by the Parson, who trudged staff in hand to the farthest reaches of his wide parish, with houses far asunder, in all weathers and at all times. The shepherd set a noble example to his flock, which he had learnt from the Gospel. He first practised good works and then taught them. If a priest be ungodly in whom congregants place their trust then the sinful man will quickly degenerate for should gold rust what can be expected of iron? But it is an even greater shame to have a sinful shepherd and pure sheep. By his clean living, a priest should set an example to his parishioners. The Parson did not hire out his services leaving his congregants without leadership, nor did he run to St. Pauls in London to answer the advertisement of some craft gild for a chaplain to be retained by that body, instead he stayed at home to guard his flock from mischief; he was a true parson, not a mercenary. And although he was a virtuous and holy person, he did not despise sinful men, nor was gentle and discreet. His task was to save souls by setting a good example. But should a person prove obstinate, then the parson should sharply reprove the erring parishioner, no matter what his station was in life, I believe that a better priest is to be found nowhere else. He did not seek honour or respect, nor was he so
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over concerned with fine points that he lost sight of the lessons of Christ and his twelve Apostles, which he taught though first followed them himself. THE PLOWMAN (lines 528 541) With him (i.e. the Parson) was his brother, a Plowman, who in his time, had pulled many a cart- load of manure, for he was a good, honest worker who lived peacefully and was charitable to all. Whether it caused him pleasure or pain, he loved God with his whole heart at all times and (next to God) he loved his neighbours as himself. To please God, he was prepared to thresh, dig ditches, and lay water channels for all poor folk without charge if he possibly could. He paid the tithes derived from his own labour and those derived from the profits on his stock fully and regularly. He wore a sleeveless oat and rode a mare. THE MILLER (Lines 542 566) Except for a Reeve a Miller, a Summoner, a Pardoner, a Manciple and myself (i.e. Chaucer) there were no other pilgrims. The Miller was an exceedingly stout fellow, with very big muscles and bones; these served him well, for everywhere he went he always won the wrestling contests. He was a short-shouldered, broad thick set fellow and there was no door that he could not heave off its hinge, or break open by running at it with his head. He had a broad, spade-like beard, which was as red as a sow or a fox. He had a mark on the tip of his nose, which was surmounted by a tuft of red hair, which resembled the bristles in a sows ear; he had flaring black nostrils. A sword and a small round shield hung at his side; his mouth was a wide as a great furnace. He was an idle talker and a teller of indecent stories of sin and harlotries. He well knew how to steal corn and take his toll three times, and yet, by God, he had a thumb of gold (in other words he illustrated the old proverb, An honest miller has a golden thumb i.e. he was as honest as millers go, which implies that he was not honest at all). He wore a white coat and a blue hood. He could blow and play a bagpipe well, and with it he piped us. (i.e. the pilgrim party) out of town. THE MANCIPLE (lines 567 586)
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There was a noble Manciple who served a College for lawyers, from whom buyers of victuals take an example on how prudently to purchase for, whether he bought for cash or on credit he always came out well and ahead of everyone else. Now, is not God good to allow an ignorant fellow to surpass the learned in sharp wits? He had ore than thirty masters who were expert and skilled lawyers of which there were a dozen in that college capable of being stewards of income and property for any lord in England not only could they have seen to it that such a lord lived honourably on his own income or as economically as he pleased unless he was mad but they were able to help a whole country in any legal dispute that might arise and yet, in spite of all this, the Manciple made fools of them all. THE REEVE (lines 587 622) The Reeve was slightly-built, bad tempered man, whose beard was shaven closely to the skin, while his hair was cut around his ears and tonsured shortly at the front of his head in priestly fashion; his legs were as long and thin as walking sticks, and his calves could not be seen. He well knew how to keep a granary and a bin and no auditor could detect mistake in his accounts, while by observing the dry and rainy seasons of the year, he knew exactly when to sow and when to reap. This Reeve was in complete charge of his lords sheep, cattle, dairy, swine, horses, stock and poultry. Ever since his lord was twenty years old he had been under contract to render the estate accounts and no one could ever discover him to be in arrears. There was no bailiff, herdman or farm labuorer who was in any way cunning or deceitful that he did not know about and they were as fearful of him as of the plague. His pleasant home upon the heath was shaded with green trees. He could make purchases more
advantageously than his lord could and he had secretly enriched his own barns through craftily pleasing his lord by giving and lending him even from his own property and being rewarded with the lords thanks and gifts of a gown and hood. In his youth he had learnt a useful trade and could work competently as a carpenter. This Reeve sat upon a low-bred, undersized horse of dapple grey which was called Scot; he wore a long overcoat of bluish grey carried a rusty sword by his side. This Reeve of whom I am speaking came from Norfolk and lived near a town called Baldewelle. His long coat was tucked into his girdle in friar-like fashion and he always rode at the rear of the company.
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THE SUMMONER (lines 623 668) With us in that place was a Summoner (i.e. one paid to summon serves to trial before an ecclesiastical Court) who had a fiery red cherubic face covered with pimples. His eyes were small and he was as lustful and lecherous as a sparrow, while his eye brows were scably and black and his beard scanty children were afraid of his appearance. There was no quicksilver lead-ointment sulphur, borax, white lead, cream of tartar, or any other ointment which could cleanse and cauterize his skin, rid him of his white pimples and cure the boils, which disfigured his cheeks. He was passionately fond of garlic, onions and leeks and loved strong blood red wine, and, under its influence, he would shout and loved strong blood red wine, and under its influence, he would shout and cry out as if he had taken leave of his senses (in fact) when he was well he was well sodden with wine he would only speak Latin. He knew two or three legal phrases which he had learnt from some document, which was no wonder since he heard such terms all day long and it is well known that the parrot can call out Walter as well as the Pope. But if any one questioned him on something else, it would soon be found that he had exhausted all his knowledge and would cry out What section of the law applies to this case? Although he was a good-natured, gentle rogue and one would not find a better fellow, yet, in return for a quarter of wine, he would turn a blind eye on a friends immorality for 12 months. He well knew how to plunder a foolish fellow and if he encountered some doubtful rascal, he would put his mind at rest and teach him not to be afraid of the Archdeacons powers of excommunication unless his soul lay in his purse (i.e. he was a miser) for it was only in the purse that punishment need take place purse is the Archadeaons hell he declared. For my part I know quite well that he lied since every guilty man should fear excommunication in which lies the path of death just as absolution will save the soul so one should certainly be wary of excommunication (significant was the first word in the writ authorising the seizure of the goods of an excommunicated person). According to his own way, he had all the young people of the diocese in his power, since he knew all their secrets and acted as their adviser. He wore on his forehead a garland which was large enough to have served as an inn-sign, while he had made a small shield for himself and of a loaf of bread. THE PARDONER (lines 669 714)
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Alongside the Summoner there rode a noble Pardoner from the Priory of Rouncivale, his friend and his companion, who had recently come from the (Papal) Court of Rome, and who loudly sage the song Come hither, love, to me! while the Summoner accompanied him in such a deep bass that a trumpet could never make half as much din. This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax which hung smoothly like a bundle of flax, his lacks hung in narrow strands and covered his shoulders. Out of jolliness he wore no hood, which was packed in his bag, for to him it seemed more festive to ride bareheaded, except for a cap on his disheveled locks, on which he had embroidered a copy of St. Veronicas handkerchief. He had hare-like, staring eyes, a voice as thin as a goat and wore no beard-nor was he likely to have one, as his chin was as smooth as if just recently shaved. His bag lay on his lap before him brimful of pardons, hot from Rome, and with regard to his profession, there was never such a pardoner from Berwick down to Ware. In his bag he had a pillow case which he claimed was our Ladys Veil; he said he had a piece of the sail belonging to St. Peter when the latter walked upon the sea until Jesus Christ saved him; he had a cross of brass studded with stones, and the bones of a pig in a glass. By means of these relics he made more money in a day than a poor county parson can make in two months. And thus with feigned flattery and tricks he made fools of the person and his congregants. But in conclusion he was a noble preacher in church; he could read well a lesson or a story, but best of all he sang the Mass anthem for he knew full well that, when that song was sung, he might preach and polish his tongue to gain silver; and as he could do this excellently, so he sang even more cheerfully and loudly. AUTHORS PLAN OF REPORTING (lines 715 746) Now in a few words I have accurately told you the condition, the attire, the number and also the purpose of this company assembling in Southwark at this excellent hostelry called the Tabard, close beside this excellent hostelry called the Tabard, close beside the Bell. But now it is true to tell you how we spent that evening after arriving at the inn, thereafter I will recount our journey and all the rest of our pilgrimage. But first of all, I beg your courtesy not to think me ill-bred, if I speak plainly about this matter, telling you of their words and there actions, though I report their speech accurately. For you know as well as I do that anyone who wishes to repeat a
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tale he had heard from another, must repeat if possible, every phrase as faithfully as he can, eventhough these be rough and rude; otherwise, if it is recast into refined works and fresh phrases, the story will no longer be genuine. The story-teller must not filnch, eventhough it were his brothers word he is repeating for, having spoken one word, he might as well complete the tale. Christ himself spoke quite openly in the Holy Scriptures, and you are well aware that there is nothing unseemly therein. And Plato also says, for those able to read him that The words must be closely related to the facts. I also beg of you to forgive me if I have not placed the people of the story in their proper places according to their rank in life, since you will realize that my knowledge (about these matters) is limited. THE HOST AND HIS PROPOSALS (lines 747 84) Our Host provided good fare for everyone of us, set us down to supper without more ado, and served as with an excellent meal, during which we were glad to drink the strong wine. Our Host was a striking person, fit to be master of ceremonies in a guild hall. He was a well-built man, with bright eyes-there was certainly no more prosperous citizen in Cheapside; although outspoken in his speech, he was both prudent and tactful and lacked none of the manly qualities. In addition, he was an extremely cheerful fellow, and after supper began to play music, while among other things, when we had paid our accounts, he spoke as follows : Now my masters, you are truly and heartily welcome : by my troth I am not lying when I declare that I have not seen this year such a cheerful company in this tavern as is now gathered all together. I am anxious to entertain you to the best of my ability and a thought has just struck me of some fun to put you at your ease, which will cost you nothing at all. You are going to Canterbury May God speed you on your way and the blessed martyr grant you your reward. And I have no doubt, that you go along the way you intend to tell stories and entertain ourselves, since it is neither pleasure nor fun to ride along the road in stony silence. Consequently, as I said just now, I shall provide some fun for you and see that you are cheerful. If you are all in unanimous agreement to stand by my decision and do what I tell you as you ride along the way tomorrow, then, by the soul of my late father, you can have my head if I dont succeed in cheering you up. Without further ado let us have a show of hands.
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We were not long about making up our minds as it was not worthwhile making it a subject for serious discussion. We granted his request at once and asked him to announce his plans whenever he pleased. Masters, he said, Listen to me carefully, but I pray you, do not be disdainful of what I have to say. To cut a long story short, the point is this: to shorten the journey each member of his pilgrimage shall tell two tales. I mean, two on the way to Centerbury, and a further two on the homeward trip, of adventures that once actually happened. And that one who acquits himself best of all, that is to say, the one who relates stories of the highest moral teaching and edification on this occasion, shall be given a supper in this very tavern at the expenses of all of us when we return from Canterbury. And, to cheer you up all the more, I shall gladly accompany you on your trip. Pay my own expense and serve you as your guide, And if any one disputes my decision he shall pay all our traveling expenses. If you agree that this plan should be carried out tell me immediately without any further discussion and I will straightway prepare myself. The promise was made and we swore our oaths with glad hearts, requesting him to carry on as he planned, and asking him to serve as our leader, so that he could judge and comment on our tales and we would abide by all his decisions. We also asked him to prepare a (return) supper at a quoted price. Thus we unanimously set him up in judgment over us and wine was served at once. After drinking it, everyone retired without further delay.
THE PILGRIMAGE BEGINS (lines 822 858) With the coming of dawn next morning our host was up first and awoke us all like a cock. He gathered us all together in a company and we rode forth at little more than a walking pace to St. Thomass Well. There our host reined in his horse and said, Gentleman, listen if you please although you probably recall our plan, I shall remind you about it. If you are still in agreement with what we arranged last evening, let us now see who shall tell the first story. As I hope to go on drinking good wine and ale, whoever opposes my decision will pay for all our traveling expenses. Now let us draw lots before we go any further, and he who draws the shortest straw will make a start. Sir Knight, he went on, my lord and master, draw your straw, for that is
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my decision. come nearer he said my lady Prioress, and you Sir Clerk, dont be shy and come out of your day-dream; let every one show a hand. Immediately everyone came forward for the draw, and, to be brief. whether it was by luck, fate or chance, the truth is that the draw fell to the Knight. This pleased everyone tremendously, for he now had to tell his story as was only right, according to our arrangement, as you have heard. What more need I add? When this good man saw what had happened, he said, like one who is prudent to his freely given promise, Since I must begin the entertainment, in Gods name let the draw be welcome! Let us continue our journey, and listen to what I have to say. And with these words we rode forth on our pilgrimage; and in right cheerful mood, be began to tell his tale forthwith relating it as follows : 1.5 ENGLISH SOCIAL LIFE AS REFLECTED IN THE PROLOGUE In the Prologue to the canterbury Tales the members of the English society pause before us long enough for us to identify each one. Each has his own life and an identity which is for all time, yet together they sum up a society. All the writers of the fourteenth century reveal some aspect of contemporary life and of prevailing feeling and thought. In poets like Wychiff Gower and hangland, and the unknown poet of Pearl, we get a partial view of life and society in which they lived. But Chaucers work reflects his century not in fragments, but completely. More than this, he is often able to discern permanent feathers beneath the garments of a day, to penetrate to the everlasting springs of human action. His truthful pictures of his age and country contain a truth which is of all time and all countries. He portrays the social and literary tendencies of the eighteenth century in his poems in the most faithful way, and voices forth its ideals, hopes and aspirations. Chaucer, can very well be considered they representative of the world of fourteenth century England. There are thirty of the pilgrims, following the most diverse trades. The knight with his son, the squire, and the Yeoman who bore the Squires arms, represent the fighting class. A Doctor of Physic, a Man of Law, a Clerk of Oxford, and the poet himself, give a glimpse of the liberal profession. The land is represented by a Ploughman, a Miller, a Reeve and a Franklin; trade by a Merchant and a shipman; the crafts by a Wife of Bath, a Haberdasher, a Carpenter a Wabbe or Weaves, a Dyer, and
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a Tapicer; the victuallars by a Municipal, a cook, and the Host of the Tabard. The secular clergy provide the good Parson, and the odios summoner of an ecclesiastical court, who are joined on the road by a Canon addicted to alchnecy. The monastic orders supply a full contingent a rich Benedicture. Monk, a Prioress with her chaplin Nun, a mendicant Frias; and not far from these religious lurks a doubtfully accredited Pardones. Chaucers knight is a personification of the lofty ideals of medieval chivalry keenly sensitive to human values. He deftly uses swift and light language consistent with the sprightliness of the youthful squire in contrast to the stately measures used to describe the courtly dignity of his father the Knight. His flair for music and dance he shared with ladies and gentlemen of his class. Following the conventions of his society he was proficient in drawing, horsemanship and jousting. The type of the clergy abounding in worldliness that the Monk represents becomes the subject of Chaucers satire. There is no evidence to establish the individual identity of the mark. He is a composite portrait serving as a comment on the general deterioration in monasteries and the need for reforms in the functioning of the church. Though the portrait of the clerk recalls many of the trades of a philosopher there is an undercurrent of irony in Chaucers pun on the meaning of philosophers. Chaucer reports inoutward praise and inward condemnation of the characteristic of his Sergeant and renders him a man of purely material success. His profession combined with his legal skills gives him ample scope for acquiring wealth either by honest means of by deception. Chaucer comments on his greed to purchase enormous landed property. The Franklin appears to be a man of substance who is an extremely hospitable and a loyal servant of the king who discharges the duties of his office efficiently. However, Chaucer does not totally exempt him from a few lapses that flesh is heir to. The one weakness of the Franklin is a large capacity and desire for self- indulgence. Gilds were either socio-religious or trade organizations. The five gildsmen obviously pursue different trades but belong to the same socio-religious fraternity. Social life is largely governed and regulated by these gilds. The portraits of the five guildsmen and their cook gives us more or less a thumb nail sketch of English social ife and the role of the gilds in the growth and development of society. The cook is the
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most disreputable among the pilgrims. All these characters represents the secular interests. Medicine as a science was still in its infancy when Chaucer wrote. The influence of the stars on mans behaviour fortune and health is deeply believed by the people. The doctor also shares this faith. The position of women in the medieval church differed essentially from that of men. Chaucers Madame Eglentine suits the world of the elegant country club in every respect. In this she was typical of the common patterns of nuns who ought normally to have remained unseen and in seclusion. She is simple and coy, given to affection. For example, she sings the service divine in a nasal voice. She does not know the French of Paris, but can speak French of the school of Straford Att Bowe very well. She has fine table manners, and lets no morsel fall on her dress. She is refined and delicate and does not soil her fingers in the sauce. The wife of Bath has evoked diverse comments. Some consider her coarse and dissolute, while others consider her to be a refreshing extrovert. But her good humour, warmth and outspokenness are seldom lost on the readers. Next to her love affairs, what she relish most if traveling in gay company. Love of travel rather than religious zeal is what prompts her to undertake a pilgrimage. The prologue to her tale is vivid account of her varied married life. Chaucer endows the Prioress with physical charms normally associated with the ladies of romance and of the court. Her habits too are more those of a secular heroine than of an officer in a convent. He remarks that the Prioress is charitable and piteous, that is she has the virtue of charity and mercy, to be expected of someone dedicated to a religious life. The illustration he then gives of her charity and pity concern not other people, but her pets. The smale houndes get the roasted meat, milk and finest bread that were regarded as delicacies in a society, in which, a good many people never had enough to eat. It seems a misdirected kind of charity and pity. This good lady is sometimes condemned outright as worldly, ambitious, and insensitive to the sufferings of others. What he does note is the Prioress concern with good manners and courtly etiquette. In the fifty lines that he devotes to the Prioress, he has shown with gentle irony his estimation of the lady and his amusement in catching her aping of courtly manners, showing a good secular taste in clothes and
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jewellery and harbouring a love of pets rather than human beings of the less attractive sort. Chaucer emphasizes the prioress basic feminity, rather than her spiritual qualities, But sikerly she hadde a fair forehead (The Prologue, 11.154). He not only draws attention to the ladys beauty but also reminds that as a religious her forehead should not have been thus visible. Chaucers characterization of the prioress is extremely subtle, and his satire if it can be called satire at all is of the gentlest and more sympathetic sort. The closing remark about her brooch and motto has often been misunderstood, and the whole spirit of the passage consequently misrepresented. Chaucers Monk show as a great scorn for such an old- fashioned practice as working with his hands he is a modern! In Chaucers representation of the Monk there is the same element of irony as in that of the Prioress. The Monk is also depicted as something of a worldling. Two fundamental rules for the conduct of monks in the Middle Ages were the obligations to work and to remain within their cloister. For Chaucers Monk hunting is the favourite pastime and he indicates his irritation with those who objected to hunting clergy in a homely and vividly phrase: It is significant that the aristocratic sport of hunting, to which he was so addicted, was forbidden to all monks. He might only fish in preparation for the days of abstinence when meat was forbidden. The Friar had little interest in penitence; his purpose was to gain a good pittance. Chaucer acidly describe the Friars view that all the sinner needs to do is
to give money to a poor order to obtain divine forgiveness. The Friar knows the taverns and barmaids of every town far better than the lepers or beggers: The foibles of the Prioress are also treated with amused indulgences. But for the two clerics the Summoner and the Pardoner hold offices which lend themselves to abuse, and of this they take full advantage. The Pardoner, the Friar and the Summoner are his interest in rogues, ecclesiastics and preachership. For the Friar and the Summoner he has
created a comody of contempt, bordering in the case of the Summoner on hatred. His full comedy of hatred is reserved for the Pardoner, who is the centre of the ironic rather than a satiric vision. Both men are shown as a sick men, hysterical and a little mad, and this should be interpreted in both the spiritual and physical senses. Had they been healthy they
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might have been included earlier in the list of ecclesiastics and their power is literary creations might have been diminished. Like many of Chaucers creation they stem from the popular evaluation of living men. That there were many abuses in the life and work of the Church in the later fourteenth century is also evident from the prologue. They took many forms, but underlying them all was a desire for personal gain, whether in the shape of wealth, or personal honour, or greater material comfort. Chaucers Monk enjoyed hunting a great deal more than the studious seclusion of his cloister, and a prioress is as aware of worldly esteem as the very worldly wife of Bath or the equally aspiring tradesmans wives mentioned in the lines 376 78. And as for the desire for gain, it is obvious from the clothes worn by pilgrims pledged to simple and austere living and the unscrupulous dealings to others, whether men of the church like the Friar and the Pardoner or the Shipman or the Miller. There were quite a few among Chaucers twenty nine pilgrims who were ready to ignore both the teaching and the warnings of their church for the sake of personal profit. One can be sure that Chaucer was not exaggerating the evils of the society of his time. On the other hand, there were those who took their faith and observances more seriously, like the knight ho hastened to Canterbury to give thanks after his latest campaign, or the Parson whom Chaucer singles out as a model of righteous unselfish living. Chaucer is always ready to give praise when he finds to do so. It so happens that the result in both cases is the same, for whether Chaucer is criticizing or commending peoples conduct he is drawing attention to their relationship with the Church and stressing the latters importance in his time. It is because the Church was still so much the centre of the medieval society that Chaucer includes nines ecclesiastical pilgrims among his company and devotes more than three hundred lines of The Prologue to the description of the seven of them. As professional churchmen and women they would attract attention not only as individuals, but as representatives of the Church, and Chaucer packs a good deal of criticism in to these seven portraits. Although he makes allowances, he speaks out
boldly against corrupt institutions like the selling of pardons, for which the church itself was primarily to blame. The contrast with the lay pilgrims is obvious, for they are not representatives in the same way: the Miller may not be scrupulously honest,
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but there is nothing wrong with milling as a trade, and similarly with the other crafts and professions. This is not to say, of course, that the church pilgrims are somehow types and others not; far from it; Chaucer does seem to suggest that while an irresponsible or corrupt churchman does harm to the whole church a dishonest trader does not in the same way harm the whole of his profession. The Parson, self-effacing, dutiful and altruistic, is a positive and unpretentious man, presented by the poet entirely without irony, He needed the tithes, the tax of one-tenth upon the produce of the faithful in the parish. The sketch of the parson is an ideal portrait of a good p1arish priest. The Parsons portrait in comparison with those of the Monk and Friar, is like a drink of cold water after being excited and fuddled by wine; satiric ambiguities and ironic tones vanish in favour of a simple purity. And with the exception of the Parson, and perhaps his brother the ploughman, all pilgrims, especially the churchmen, have their eyes very much on things of this world. In an age when so many members of the clergy were lax and selfish and neglectful of their duties, he stands out as almost unbelievably righteous and conscientious. Indeed, the only fault is his lack of patience with obstinate sinners. Chaucer was not content to make his pilgrims typical only of their several callings. Sometimes a classification of another kind crosses with that by traders and enriches it. Thus the squire stands for youth and the Ploughman for the perfect charity stands for the humble, while in the Wife of Bath there is the essence of satire against women. Nor is this all. Chaucer, by details he was observed for himself, puts life into conventional descriptions and generalizations made by others. He adds individual to generic features; even when he paints a type he gives the impression that he is painting some one person whom he hyappens to have met. He mixes these two elements in varying proportions and with great although imperceptible skill. His figures, a little more generated would be frozen into symbolism, mere cold abstractions, while a few more purely individual features would cause confusion, destroying landmarks and leading attention astray. Chaucer does not only draw frank or delicately traced portraits which give to his character the immobility to permanence. He also makes each pilgrim step out the frame in which he first placed him.
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Thus English society, which to the visionary England seemed a swarming and confused mass, a mob of men stumbling against each other in the semi-darkness of a nightmare, was distributed by Chaucer among a group which is clearly seen, restricted in size, and representative. Its members pause before us long enough for us to identity each one. Each has his own life and an identity which is for all time, yet together they sum up a society. 1.6 STYLE AND TECHNIQUE IN CHAUCERS PROLOGUE TO THE CANTEBURY TALES: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales has, ever since Drydens day, been recognized as one of Chaucers sure master-pieces. The Prologue contains pictures from the fourteen century England which no Medieval writer had ever attempted. They are full of direct and personal touches. Chaucer with a universal artful talent makes the speaker unconsciously a self satirist. The extraordinary vividness and precision of the presentment of images, whether complicated or simple, is remarkable. His astonishing command of rhetoric, his gold dewdrops of speech is wonderful. The inexhaustible freshness and propriety of his phrase deserve all praise and appreciation. Chaucer is the earliest English poet who can, without reservations and allowances, be called great and what is more, one of the greatest even to the present day. The Prologue describes the cavalcade of the pilgrims to the shrine of Becket and depicts each in a series of wonderful vignettes. His catalogue opens with the prioress and the Monk, who were fairly high in the scale; continues with the Friar and Nuns priest or Chaplain; turns next to the Person and the Clerk, and ends with the Summoner and the Pardoner who are left at the tail of the list because they were in a literal sense the dregs, and brought disgrace to the Church by their malpractices. Had the prioress been less worldly she should have been excluded from the list, but since she is the unique Madame Eglentine she is out in the world, and demands inclusion. The Monk from his monastery; the prioress from her convent, her attendant priest, the village parson, and the roaming Friar, sufficiently covered the more usual religious categories. The courtly pretensions of the prioress and the humble origins of the parson, the brother of Pluoghman, showed the comparative unimportance of personal rank in the religious life. At an infinite moral and social depth below all
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these came the pardoner and the summoner. Chaucer, looking about him, sees fit to define a large proportion of his character by where they stand with regard to the church. The simplicity of Chaucers method, its complete lack of any artifice, the sure hand with which he traced portraits to form the prologue of his Tales, are surprising. He made is group of pilgrims into a picture of the society of his time of which the like is not to be found elsewhere. Except for royalty and the nobles one the one hand, and the drugs of the people on the others, two classes whom probability excluded from sharing a pilgrimage, he painted, in brief, almost the whole English nation. Chaucer has collected the descriptions of the pilgrims in his general prologue, which is a true picture gallery. His twenty nine traveling companions make almost as many portraits, hung from its walls. They face us, in equidistant frames, on the same plane, all hanging on the line. Chaucer is a primitive, aiming at exactness of feature and correctness of emblem. He is primitive also a by a certain honest awkwardness, the unskilled stiffness of some of his outlines, and such an insistence one minute point as at first provokes a smile. He seems to a mass details haphazard, alternates the particular of a costume with the points of a character, drops the one for the other, picks either up again. Sometimes he interrupts the painting of a pilgrims character to put colour on him face or his tunic. It is an endearing carelessness, which hides his art and heightens the impression he makes of veracity. Whoever enters this gallery is first struck by some patches of brilliant colour, dominating one or other of the portraits, the squires gown : Embrowded was he, as it wear a mede, Al full of fresshe Houres, white and reede, and near him the Yeoman who serves him in coote and hood of grene. How the Prioresss rosary, of small coral, with its decades, guaded al with grene, and it handing brooch of gold ful scheme, stands out against her dress! There are faces as strongly coloured as any of the fabrics or accessories the pustulous countenance of the sompnour, a tyr-reed cherubynes face, With skalled browes blak, and piled berd, and the Miller, whose beard as any sowe or fox was reed with his ward whence sprouts a tuft of red hairs, his wide and
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black nostrils, and his mouth as wyde as was a great forneys. There are also duller colours to rest the sight, and to make the cruder hues more brilliant by contrast. The pious and modest knight was nought gay. Of fustian he werede a gepoun, All bysmotered with his habergeoun. The poor Clerk was ful threadbare, the Man of Law rood but hoomly in a medled coote, the Reeve wore a long surcote of pers, or blue, and the good Parson is drawn without line or colour, so that we are free to imagine him lit only by the light of the Gospel shining from his eyes. Essential moral characteristics are thrown into relief with the same apparent simplicity and the same real command of means as the colours and the significant articles of clothing. Mere statements of fact, suggestive anecdotes, particulars relating to calling and individual traits, lines of summing up a character all these make up a whole which stands out upon its canvas. The outline is strong and clear, although sometimes a little stiff, in the steady light which is shed on it, and it is unforgettable. A distinctive feature of the General Prologue is its method of characterization. Each of the pilgrims who is described is revealed in such sharp and clear detail that we feel personally acquainted with him or her as an individual, and at the same time we recognize him as representative, not only of a social class, but of a type of character which may be recognized in any country and in any age. Nothing like this series of portraits had ever appeared in literature. It is the main reason for the perennial appeal of the General Prologue. Any analysis of these portraits must be inadequate to account for their extra ordinary charm. Chaucer represents his times completely, not in fragments : there is also a universal element in his poetry. He is the creator of the modern English versification. He imported the heroic couplet from France and used it with great ease and fluency. He experimented with a number of metres and stanza patterns. He invented the Rhyma Royal or the Chaucerian stanza (ab a b b c c). "He found English a dialect and left it a language." Except for Blank Verse, he left English poetry fully equipped. He also used Terza Rhyma for his 'A Complaint unto His Lady'. He inculcated into the East Midland dialect the refinement and courtliness of France. He imparted to his own tongue the grace and
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refinement he found in French poetry. "A Frenchman may enter Chaucer's country and be conscious of no change" (Legouis). Chaucer modernised grammar and vocabulary of his tongue. He coined many new words, and imported many others. In this way, he enriched his tongue. He imparted to English verse a rare music and melody which is learnt from France. "His claim on our gratitude is two-fold," says Long, "first for discovering the music that is in our English speech and second for his influence in fixing the Midland Dialect as the literary language of England." He changed the very nature, syntax and grammar of the English tongue. Chaucers poetry is characterised by clarity in expression zest for life, the enjoyment of nature and restraint in the expression of emotion, feeling whether pathetic or ironic. He provokes smiles rather than loud laughter. His humour is rich and varied. In this respect, he is second only to Shakespeare. He added realism to English poetry. The prologue to the Canterbury Tales gives us a realistic picture of the social life of the times. He used, a stronger and richer poetical language and similies and metaphors such as were used by the classical authors. This was mainly due to the Italian influence. Chaucer is the supreme story teller in verse. He has greater sense of narrative unities and can be more precise and to the point, when he likes, than any of his contemporaries. His mastery of the art of narration has led many to call Chaucer, the father of the English novel. His Canterbury Tales are so many novels in miniature. They are only to be translated into prose to become so many modern novels. That is why 'Long' has called his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales as "the Prologue to the modern fiction." Chaucer has his own limitations. According to Matthew Arnold, he does not have that sublimity and high seriousness which is the sign of great poetry. He represents the growth of intelligence and the consequent weakening of passion and imagination. Since a lyric is a compound of imagination and passion there is lack of lyricism in his poetry. He cannot, therefore, be regarded as great as the great classics. Limitations of his narrative art have already been noted above. Chaucer, however, is capable of pathos and irony which sometimes blend as tragedy. Sometimes as melodrama. As one reads Chaucer, the inescapable
conclusion comes again that the great poet was forever concerned with the essential
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irony of human existence, with the rather ludicrous mockery arising from joy and ambition dashed unexpectedly by frustration and despair. Chaucers style is characterized chiefly by simplicity. Except in those cases where the author uses archaic form to preserve the rhyme effect, his words are commonplaces of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. His sentences are simple in form and structure and noticeably free of studied balance. Indeed his writing is singularly free of the far- fetched puns and metaphors which characterize Shakespeare. To read Chaucer, then, is much like listening to a cultured and accomplished story teller. The tales tell themselves without effort or delay. The device of a springtime pilgrimage, the diverse group of persons making up the company, and the adventures one can reasonably except on such a journey, provided Chaucer with a wide range of characters and experiences. The setting does not permit boredom. We are told in the Prologue that each member of the company was to tell two stories. This would have amounted to sixty tales, plus the authors account of the stay in Canterbury. Chaucer, who had composed on of the great classics of English literature in a largely playful mood, embracing and enjoying all the foibles of human nature, closes his great work with a grim supplication for heavenly forbearance. 1.7 LET US SUM UP The study of prologue to Canterbury tales no doubt, proves father of Chaucer's place as the father of English poetry. We get from him a lot of zest for life and a refreshing enjoyment of all that is beautiful in nature and life. He is certainly among the few greatest poets of the world. 1.8 LESSON END ACTIVITIES: 1. Consider the prologue to the Canterbury Tales as a portrait gallery. 2. Discuss Chaucer as a satirist. 3. What are the significant aspects of Chaucers style in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
1.9 REFERENCES
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Burrow, J.A., Coghill. Noville Daiches, David Howard. J. Edwin
Geoffrey Chaucer. England : Penguin Books Ltd., 1969 The Poet Chaucer. 1949 ; rpt. London : Home University Library, 1964. A Critical History of English Lift. 1960 ; rpt. London: Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd., 1968. I. Geoffrey Chaucer. London : The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1976.
Hussey, Maurice et al., An Introduction to Chaucer. 1965 : rpt. London : Cambridge University Press, 1968. Lamb, Sidney. Skeat, W. Walter Wyatt, A.J. Cd. Chaucers Canterbury Tales The Prologue. London : Coles Publishing Company Ltd., 1967. ed. Chaucer : The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 3rd ed. Rev. London: Oxford University Press. 1967. Chaucer : The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. 1960 : rpt. London : University Tutorial Press Ltd., 1968.
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LESSON - 2 OLIVER GOLDSMITH THE DESERTED VILLAGE Contents 2.0 Aims and Objectives 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Goldsmiths life & works. 2.3 Outline of the Poem the Deserted Village 2.4 STYLE & TECHNIQUE 2.5 Pathos in the Deserted Village 2.6 Goldsmiths use of contrasts
2.7 Nature descriptions in the poem 2.8 The character of the village preacher 2.9 Let us Sum Up 2.10 Lesson End Activities 2.11 References 2.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson is devoted for making you know about the Oliver Goldsmiths poem entitled The Deserted Village. After going through this lesson you will have clear understanding of The Deserted
Village. 2.1 Introduction. In a dedication of this poem to Sir Joshua Reynolds Dr.
Goldsmith says, 'I know you will object and indeed several of our best and wisest friends concur in the opinion that the depopulation it deplores is no where to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination. To this I can scarce make any other answer than that I sincerely believe what I have written; that I have taken all possible pains, in my country
excursions, for these four or five years past, to be certain of what I alledge, and that all my views and enquiries have led me to believe those miseries real, which I here attempt to display.' In the Deserted Village, the poet a son of the village, who remembers it in its prosperous days, and who amid all his many
wanderings, hopes to return home at last, is represented as coming back only to find sweet Auburn deserted and in ruins. simple merry rustic life, the celergyman, the He recalls the
school-master, the
30
village inn.
He pictures the villages suffering the woes of exile in
an unkindly land; and he curses trade as causing the luxury that produced this depopulation. The population of England was indeed The economic aspect of
shifting at this time, but it was increasing. the poem, however, does not concern us. locality of Auburn matter much. others in Ireland.
Nor yet does the precise
Some maintain that it is England,
According to Macaulay, the picture in the poem is made up of incongruous parts. village. The The village in its happy days is a true English in its decay is an Irish Village. This
village
incongruity, if incongruity it be, was just reversed in Goldsmiths own mind. He distinctly says that the saw the depopulation in
England and maintains this in spite of contradiction.
The Village in
its prosperity was in Ireland : it was lissoy, seen through the medium of years of exile, and naturally appearing in a rosy light. But it is not the topography of the poem that is important : it is the melody of the verse, the simplicity, the natural scene-painting, the sympathy with suffering men and women.
Goldsmiths impersonal moralizing
was in much of its
substance as conservative as his manner. His didactic generalities were enclosed in regular couplets, and, without being told. Goldsmiths dislike of commercialism is more
central in the Deserted Village. However nostalgic fancy may have operated, his instinctive sympathy and sentiment not philosophic sentimentalism- gave the picture a warmth lasting and charm that won it immediate and In this poem the metrical
popularity.
movement and the manner have exchanged much of their gnomic stiffness and generality for a more natural and varied ease, more concrete detail, and simpler language.
The Deserted Village laments the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution the village. With mills and factories arising on its farms and fields/the natives are quitting it to seek fresh woods and
pastures. The poet cannot but protest against a state of things
31
where wealth accumulates, and men decay As the Village that met this fate was the poets birth-place Lissoy in Ireland, called Auburn in the poem, a note of melancholy homesickness runs throughout. Gating features of the poem is its portraits of the prominent figures of the village.
2.2 Goldsmiths life & works.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) was the son of an Irish clergyman. After a desultory course of studies at home and in a number of
schools, he joined Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar in 1774 and graduated in 1749. In 1751 he presented himself for ordination as a priest, but was rejected. He then studied medicine at Edinburgh and at Leyden, and during 1755-56 wandered about France, Switzerland and Italy, more or less in the manner of the Philosophic Vagabond,
described in The ViAcar of Wakefield. He returned to England in 1756, completely destitute and started practice as a doctor in South wark, London. Goldsmith was an usher for a time at a scholl in Peckham, and
soon drifted into the occupation of a hack-writer. The first book which brought him recognition was his Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning, which was published in 1759. In the same year he published his little periodical, The Bee, which contained the well-
known descriptive essay A City Night-Piece. He contributed to various magazines. His Chinese letters, later published as The Citizen of the World in 1762, were originally written for The Public Ledger, published by John Newbery. He made the acquaintance of Dr.Johnson in 1761 and one of the original members of 'The Club'. His great novel The Vicar of Wakefield was published in 1766, though the manuscript of the book was sold by Dr.Johnson for Goldsmith in 1762 for 60. His poem The Traveller appeared in 1764 and was welcomed by the public. He continued to do a lot of hack-work for book-sellers, writing histories and biographies. His first corned The Good natured Man was produced at Covent Garden Theatre in 1768 and achieved a moderate success. His second comedy She stoops to Conquer was played at Covent Garden in 1773 and was tremendous success. In 1770 appeared The Deserted Village. Retaliation was the last effort of his muse, a masterpiece of with and humour. Because of his improvidence and unthinking generosity he remained in
32
poverty and want. He died in 1744. On the monument erected to his memory in Westminister Abbey is engraved a Latin epitaph written by Dr.Johnson stating that he adorned whatever he touched. It is a proof of the high respect which the Doctor had for his worth and literary abilities.
Goldsmith made a name in all that he attempted poetry, novel, drama essay. In poetry his two principal works are The Traveler and The Deserted Village but the wrote shorter poems too, which include a series of mock-epitaphs called Retaliation: a light satirical:
epistle. The Haunch of Venison, occasioned by Lord Glares Present of venison to the poet: two mock-eleies, On that Glory of her Sex Mr. Mary Blaize and On the Death of a Mad Dog: and the song When lovely woman stoops to folly. Last two poems are contained in his novel, The Vicar of Wakefield. The Traveller, Which grew out of his
wanderings on the Continent, gives an account of life in the happiest spot on earth he comes to the conclusion that though the sum of human bliss (is) so small, an equal portion (is) dealt to: all mankind. The poem is written in easy graceful heroic couple.
2.3 Outline of the Poem the Deserted Village The Author writes in the character of a native of a country village, to which he gives the name of Auburn, and which he thus pathetically addresses: as reflected in the opening stanzas. (Lines 1-56) Sweet Auburn i s t h e loveliest village of the plain. Where
health and plenty cheerd the labouring swain, where spring paid its earliest visit, and parting summers lingering blooms delayd. It is exquisitely charming. The Auburn, Poem opens with an apostrophe of the to its subject: where Sweet and
i s t h e loveliest
village
plain,
health
plenty cheer d t h e labouring swain; here
smiling
spring paid its
earliest visit, and parting summers lingering blooms delayed. This place is the lovely bowers of innocence and ease, Seats of my
youth, when every sport could please; The Poet had often
loitered
in the green, Where humble happiness endeard each scene. Many times he had paused on every charm, such as the sheltered cot, the the busy mill, The
cultivated farm
The never-failing brook,
33
decent church, that topt the neighbring hill. The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, was suitable, for the whispering lovers. How often have I blest the coming day,
All the village when free from labour led up their sports beneath the spreading tree; While many a pastime circled in the shad,, The young contended while the old surveyed; And many a gambol frolicked oer the ground, There were scenes of strength. inspired the As e a c h mirthful flights of art and feats of
repeated pleasure tired, band. The dancing
succeeding sports
pair, that simply sought
renown by holding out to tire each other down; The swain mistrust less of his smutted face. While secret laughter tittered glance reproved These were thy The bashful round the place; The matrons
virgins
side-long looks of love,
charms sweet village; sports like these with sweet
succession taught een toil to please; These ro u n d t h y bowers thy cheerful influence shed, These were thy charmsBut all these charms are fled. The village diversions are insisted on with too much
prolixity. They are described first with a generality and redundance, they are sports, and pastimes, and gambols, and flights of art, and feats of strength; and they are represented sometimes as passive, the sports are led up; sometimes as active, the pastimes circle, and the gambols frolick, and the flights and feats go round. But we are perhaps fully recom-pensed for this, by the classical and
beautiful particularity and con-ciseness of the context, the dancing pair, the swain mistmstless of his smutted face, the bashful
virgins looks. In the Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, The sports are fled, and all its charms are with-drawn; Amidst the beowers the tyrants hand is seen, And desolation saddens all thy green; One only master grasps the whole domain, And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain; The glassy brook no more reflects the day, but is choked with
sedges and works its weedy way. Along the glades a solitary guest, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies, and tires their echoes with repeated cries. Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all, And the long grass oer tops the mouldring wall, And trembling, shrinking, from the spoilers
34
hand, Far, far away thy children leave the land. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a hold
peasantry, their countrys pride, When once destroyd can never be supplyd. A time there was, ere Englands griefs began, When every rood of ground maintaind its man; For him light labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life requird but gave no more: His best companions innocence and health, And his best riches ignorance of wealth. The first of these paragraphs, III fares the land, with all its merit, which is great, for the sentiment is noble. The affair of depopulation had been more fully described, and is followed by a
concluding reflection. The second asserts what has been repeatedly denied, that there was a time in England, when every rood of ground maintained its man. If however such a time ever was, it could not be so recent as when the Deserted Village was flourishing, a
circumstance supposed to exist within the remembrance of the poet; But now times had changed and Usurped the land, and
dispossessed the swain; Along the lawn, where t h e r e w e r e scatterd hamlets Unwieldy
wealth, and clumbrous pomp rested; And every want to opulence allied, And every pang that folly pays to pride. Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom, Those calm desires that askd but little room, Those healthful sports that gracd the peaceful scene, Livd in each look, and brighten d all the green; These far-departing, seek a kinder shore, And rural mirth and manners are no more.
35
The
forlorn glades confess the tyrants power. In the poets thy tangling walks, and ruind grounds,
solitary rounds, amidst his after
many years he returns to view, where once the cottage stood traces
the hawthorn grew,With doubtful, pensive steps he wanders and every scene, and wonders at the change.
The Matron gathering water-cresses, is a fine picture; Sudden calamity occasions violent emotions, but habitual hardship does not produce incessant sorrow; as t i m e r e c o n c i l e s her to the most
disagreeable situations. After mentioning the general privation of the bloomy flush of life, the exceptionary, all but, includes, as part of that bloomy flush, an aged decrepid matron; that is to
say, in plain prose, the bloomy flush of life is all fled but one old woman. The Poet now recurs again to the past. When Auburn is
described as flourishing, its Clergyman as a principal inhabitant, is very properly introduced. This supposed Village Pastor, is
characterized in a manner which seems almost unexceptionable, both for sentiment and expres-sion. His contentment, hospitality, and
piety, are pointed out with sufficient particularity The village preacher was, to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year; Remote from towns he ran his godly race, never had changd, nor wishd to change his place. T h e
benevolent mind cannot but yield its hearty assent to this beautiful oblique reprehension of that avarice which makes the crimes and
errors of the poor, a pretence to justify the indulgence of its own parsimony. A t church with meek and unaffected grace, His looks
adorned the venerable place; Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools who came to scoff, remained to pray . . . Poetry attains its full purpose, when it sets its subjects strongly and distinctly in our view. The good old man attended by his venerating parishioners, and with a kind of dignified complacence, even permits the familiarities of their children. As every parish has its Clergyman, almost every parish has its School-master. T h i s
secondary character is here described with great force and precision. The Muse, in part of her description, has descended to convey village ideas, in village language, but has contrived to give just so much dignity to the familiar. The portraits of the village preacher and the village master
36
have
become memorable pieces and are remembered for their simplicity
and sympathy. The village preacher was dear to all the country, and passing rich with forty pounds a year. Remote from towns he ran his godly race. He did not fawn, or seek for power. In arguing too, the
parson owned his skill. For even though Vanquished, he could argue still. While words of learned length and thundering sound. Amazd the gazing rustics rangd around. And still they gazd and still wonder grew. That are small head could carry all he knew. The rest of the poem consists of the character of the village schoolmaster, and a description of the village alehouse, both drawn with admirable propriety and force; a descant on the mischiefs of luxury and wealth, the variety of artificial pleasures, the miseries of those, who, for want of employment at home, are driven to settle new colonies abroad, and the following beautiful apostrophe to the
Poetry. Having enumerated the domestic virtues which are leaving the country with the inhabitants of his deserted village. Beside blossomed yon straggling fence gay, that There, skirts in his the way, With
furze
unprofitably
noisy
mansion,
skill'd to rule, The village master taught his little school; A man severe he was, and stern to view, The Poet knew him well, and every truant knew; in the his boding tremblers morning face; learned Full well to trace th e d a y ' s
disasters
they
lau g h ' d w i t h
counterfeited glee, at all his jokes, for he had many a joke. The busy whisper went circling round, conveying the dismal tidings when
he frown'd; Yet he was kind, or if severe in anything, The love he bore to learning was in fault; The village all declared how much he knew; it was certain that he could write and cypher too; Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, And even the story ran that he could gauge . . .1 This is a very elegant poem, written with great pains, yet bearing every possible mark of facility; the description of a country school-master, and a village alehouse is particularly picturesque. This is followed by description of the Village Alehouse. Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye; Low lies that house, where nut-brown draughts inspired, Where grey-beard mirth, and smiling toil retired . . . Words like Thither no more, adds a kind of pleasing regretful pathos:
37
Vain
transitory
splendors
could
not
all
Reprieve
the
tottering mansion from its fall ! Obscure it sinks, nor shall it more impart an hours importance to the poor mans heart . . . His is not poetical fiction, but historical truth. The real country, with the men who actually drive the plough, or wield the scythe, the sickle, the hammer, or the hedging bill are presented. The Deserted Village, as has been hinted, is, on the whole, a
performance of great merits which has numerous excellencies.
2.4 STYLE & TECHNIQUE Goldsmith's Deserted Village, is a performance of
distinguished merit. The general idea it inculcates is this; that commerce, by an enormous introduction of wealth, has augmented the number of the rich. The picturesque in imagery, and and the interesting measured
sentiment, language.
are conveyed
melodious
regularly
In this extract there is a strain of poetry very different from the quaint phrase, and forced construction, into which our
fashionable bards are distorting prose; yet it may be remarked, that our pity is here principally excited for what cannot suffer, for a brook that is choked with sedges, a glade that is become the solitary haunt of the bitter, a walk deserted to the lapwing, and a wall that is half hidden by grass. As the poet contemplates the ruins of the village magnificent or beautiful ins series highlights the tender and mournful pleasure from this fanciful association of ideas. He proceeds to contrast the
innocence and happiness of a simple and natural state, with the miseries and vices that have been introduced by lines 57-74. This is fine painting and fine poetry. Commenting on repetition the word bowers, occurs twice, the word sweet, thrice, and charms, and sport, singular or plural, four times. We have also toil remitting, and toil taught to polished life in
please, There is
succeeding a
sports, and sports with sweet succes-sion. which is a indicates repetition intention, which and maintains either
repetition and there
regularity;
discovers
carelessness, or poverty of language. Auburn had before, been termed sweet, and The loveliest village of the plain- it is now termed
38
sweet and smiling, and the loveliest of the lawn. We had been told, in line 34. that all its charms were fled and we are now told
that its sports are fled, and its charms withdrawn. The tyrants hand, seems mentioned rather too abruptly; and desolation saddening the green is common place phraseology. The eight lines, No more the glassy brook are natural and beautiful; but the next two, And
trembling, shrinking, introduce the subject of emigration. The adjective sweet, is frequently repeated. The obscure and indefinite idea of a Tyrant, also recurs. There is pathos in the
lines, And many a year, we wish to hear more of the Village in its prosperity, before we hear so much of its desolation. It abounds
with precepts of the soundest policy, the shrewdest remarks on human character, descriptions of local scenery as rich and as appropriate as any thing that ever came from the pen of Shakespeare or the pencil of Claude; and, for plaintive melody of versification, and pathetic appeals to the heart, It stands perhaps unrivalled. It overflows with charms for every laudable variety of taste, and for each degree of understanding. To its matter, and the
harmonious numbers in which it is conveyed, there exists something responsive in every bosom: no preparative erudition is required to make it intelligible, nor any comment wanting to indicate their
beauties; The construction of which, however beautiful, is scarcely ever adverted to by the multitudes who are enraptured with the images which they present to the mind. Nothing of its kind can be more finished than the picture of the village-clergyman: but the simile employed to illustrate the
poets account of his strict performance of the pastoral office, the affection he feels for his people, and the persevering piety by which he wins them to paths of holiness and peace, if not matchless, has never been excelled: In support of this remark, the following few passages are
cited from the Deserted Village; And as a bird each fond endearment tries. To tempt its newfledgd offspring to the skies, he tryd each art, reprovd each
dull delay, Allurd to brighter worlds, and led the way. If this idea can be equalled by another, in any language, ancient or modern, it is by that with which the portrait concludes: To them his heart, his love, his griefs were givn; But all his serious thoughts had
39
rest in heavn. As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and mid-way leaves the storm, Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head. The lofty idea of the function of poetry, sweet poetry, that loveliest mind makes us ask where another poem comparable to it in exquisitely chiseled magery, in white-heat elegance in elegance of diction, and struck out of phrases, numbers. in We
softness
reluctantly leave a poem which is so arrayed in natures simplest charms as to stir the fountains of those early, deep remembrances that turn all pur past to pain. The amotional technique of the whole poem is explained by this couplet: The Deserted Village ends with an address to Poetry, not only affecting for the solemnity of its personal allusion, and pleasing to the reader for the smooth current of its versification, but
remarkable as displaying the virtuous enthusiasm of Goldsmith, and a generous declaration of what was his notion concerning a poets duty, and the influence of his art on mankind: . . . Goldsmiths Deserted Village necessarily delighted every one at that grade of cultivation, in that sphere of thought. Not as living and active, but as a departed, vanished existence was described, all that one so readily in the looked upon, that one loved, prized, sought
passionately
present, t here is a peculiar charm about the
poetry of Goldsmith. It is due not a little to the personal quality of his writing. With perfect justice he is described as one of the most subjective of English writers.
2.5 Pathos in the Deserted Village
Goldsmith was always a champion of the poor and the downtrodden. His heart overflowed with pity for There is nothing for which he
suffering humanity.
cursed himself so much as for his inability to help the miserable people around him. In The Deserted
Village we find him in numerous places referring to the woes that poor people have to suffer at the hands of the woes that poor people have to suffer at the
40
hands of the callous rich. wanted in the country.
The poor are no longer The humble peasants are
driven away from the soil which has sustained them for generations, to face the horrors of a new
country.
The
Deserted
Village
given
us
also
glimpse
into the poets heart, revealing to us his intense passion for poetry. At the end of the poem, in a
voice quivering with emotion, he confesses that it is poetry that has sustained him through a life of care. More than the normal share of sorrows has fallen to his lot. If he has not been crushed by their weight, With the
he owes it only to his love of the Muse.
solace that poetry can offer him, he knows he need never despair.
Some
may
be
tempted
to
judge
of
Goldsmiths
character rather harshly because, in hid eagerness to defend the poor, he is too stern in his condemnation of the rich. Thoroughly ignorant of the economic
conditions of the times, he ascribes the depopulation of the village, to the accumulation of wealth and the baneful passion for luxury among the rich. It has
been pointed out that the misery and depopulation he laments are more imaginary than real. Goldsmith,
however, should not be misunderstood on this point. He sincerely believed in what he wrote and was quite convinced that the reasons for the misery of the
people were what he represented them to be.
41
Whatever his faults, Goldsmith is seen in this poem as an extraordinarily lovable character. him here in all the pathos of his life. We see His
sufferings have lent a sweetness and grandeur to his personality. His infinite love for humanity
enshrines him in the hearts of all readers. No one can read through the poem without knowing the author and loving him.
2.6 Goldsmiths
use of contrasts
It is well recognized that an effective us of contrast always contributes to the fascination of a poem. Goldsmith realised this very well, and has
abundantly used this device in many of his poems. That Deserted Village stands out prominently among his works in this respect because Goldsmith has
exploited to the fullest extent all the beauty that the use of contrasts can confer on a poem.
Though the main contract in the poem is between Anburn in the days of its glory and Anburn in
desolation there are a number of other picturesque and beautifully contrasted details. Goldsmith speaks
of a time in England when every man in the land had a small estate which he could cultivate for his own sustenance. Those times are gone and the rich
landlords with the passion for grabbing everything they can lay their hands on, buy up all the land in
42
order to convert it into a beautiful park or pleasure garden.
Another interesting contrast which is suggested and maintained throughout the poem, is the
conventional antithesis between city and rural life. In the case of Goldsmith, this was not a mere poetic convention. The earlier years of his life had been
spent in a beautiful little village, and long absence from it had idealised it and enshrined it in his heart. From personal experience in later life, he
knew the misery and the sickening horrors of city life.
The
contrast
therefore
is
remarkably
vivid.
Goldsmith paints all the charms of rural life and contrasts these with the loathsomeness and ugliness of existence in a city. In a passage which burns
with earnestness and overflows with the very essence of poetry, he tells us that many of the adventurers from the village would have been far more happy, if they had never left their homes in search of fortunes in the city. He speaks of the misery of young women,
who were tempted out of their homes to enter the wickedness of life in a city. He pictures their
misery after they have been betrayed, and contrasts this with the joyous and beautiful life they might have led, if they had stayed on in their own homes.
Many
more
instances
of
the
effective
use
of
contrasts can be cited, for the poem is filled to
43
repletion with them. These, however, are the more important of the contrasted pictures, and they can serve to illustrate the excellent use to which the poet has put them.
2.7 Nature descriptions in the poem The eighteenth century in English poetry has
acquired a sort of notoriety for the poverty of its Nature description. No neo-classic poet seemed
capable of drinking in the pure and fresh joy of Nature. All the poets of the time contented
themselves with descriptions of urban beauties and amenities. Poetry seened to have left the meadows and the hills and taken shelter in the stuffy atmosphere of a drawing room or coffee house. Where Nature
poetry was attempted on rare occasions, it was an extremely conventional kind. There was no joyous
impulse emanating from a genuine passion for what is beautiful and fascinating a Nature. The greatest
poets of the time were content to sing the pleasures of city life. If Nature description became necessary, they just employed a few conventional poetic phrases to picture a lovely but artificial Arcadia, entirely remote from ordinary life.
Goldsmith, though he belongs to this school of poets, often strikes out a new path for himself. In the main his Nature descriptions one may be too inclined are to
conventional.
Oftentimes,
accuse him of employing cold and conventional phrases
44
to describe the ever-changing beauty of Nature. In The Deserted Village, however, the poet has largely succeeded in giving us pictures which are real and living. The rural paradise that he portrays in sweet Auburn, is not at all like the conventional Arcadia described by the poets of the time. It is a picture of a real village, though it has been considerably idealized. For purposes of poetic effect, the beauty has been willfully exaggerated, but there is nothing fundamentally false about it. In spite of the
exaggerations, it rings true.
The
descriptions
of
Nature
in
this
poem,
though
conventional in the main are oftentimes remarkably beautiful. Goldsmith felt all that he said, and if
sometimes he is wrong, he has at least the excuse that he is never insincere. Nature of course is not presented on its awful and impressive moods. Nature, as it might be seen in a real village, is described vividly enough. Goldsmith must have been a shrewd observer, for he is often able to give a beautiful and complete picture. In may be said that no other poem of the age, with the exception of Grays Elegy in a County Churchyard, has given such a lovely and realistic account of Nature in the countryside.
2.8 The character of the village preacher The description of the parish priest would have done honour to any poet of any age: . [lines 137-92]. The preacher is a composite
portrait based on the poets father brother Henry Uncle. The death of Goldsmiths beloved brother stirring him to the depths of his being, urged him to compose the poem. The village preacher is a compound of manifold virtues. The
45
preacher makes Christian virtue appear worth striving for. He is a portrait of complete humanitarianism. He was dear to all the country and reasonably well -off by contemporary standards his life style was austere. Remote from towns he ran his godly race and never had
changed nor wished to change his place. He was not used to fawn or seek power . His doctrines were most suitable for his time. The preachers teachings goers by were so shaped as not to to the offend abuses
influential church-
drawing
attention
prevailing among them. He held other aims as precious and skilled to raise the wretched. His house was known to all the vagrant train the endless procession of beggars whom he checked from aimless
wanderings and relieved their pain the long remembered beggar was is guest. The ruined spendthrift now no long a proud was one among his kindred. The broken soldier disabled by wounds and therefore
condemned to penury, was bid to stay and sit by his fire and talk all through the night about his wounds are tales of sorrow, and the battles that were won. The village preacher was pleased thrilled listening indulgently to them. with his guests and was
He quite forgot their vices in their woe, Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pitty gave ere charity began
The parsons heart went out to the poor man at once and then his hand went into his pocket, thus to relieve the wretched was his pride . By helping all indiscriminately he may have been unwittingly encouraging laziness, imposture. This would be a defect Another would be his conniving at the spendthrifts lie and his giving away more than his income. But these foibles were misguided virtue and hardly blameworthy. The parson is compared to a knight fighting stoutly on the
dying mans side. When the church service was over. The villagers eagerly danced attendance on him. The children used to pluck his sleeve to make him turn round and to catch his eye. The parson was not so occupied with spiritual contemplation as to forget the earthly needs and hardships of men; nor was he worldly and forgetful of ultimate spiritual ends. His feet were firmly planted firmly amongpractical concerns, while he was basking in the sunshine and serenity of celestial visions. The broad-based mountain is so high that the
46
rough winds of the upper atmosphere sweep round the middle of it and the parsons piety was equally lofty. Trembling pupils filled with anticipations of punishment, when they did something wrong from his cheerful or sullen look when school assembled, the pupils could
predict whether the day would be full of misfortunes or without them a very natural touch like the others in this portrait. A
schoolmasters jokes are often dull, but his pupils laugh just to please him. His warning was slyly and quickly circulated. The simile of the bird teaching her young to fly, and of the mountain that rises above the storm, of are not easily is not to be paralleled, the and yet the
construction
the
last
perfect. As, in
first verse,
requires so, in the third, either expressed or implied: at present the construction is, 'As some cliff swells from, the vale, sunshine settles upon its head, though clouds obscure its breast.'
2.9
Let us Sum Up The objects of a village-evening, which affect the mind of a
susceptible observer, are very warmly and beautifully described. The character of the worthy parish priest of the village is a masterpiece; it makes a sacred and most forcible appeal to the best
feelings of the human heart. Goldsmith deserves the highest applause for employing his poetical talents in the support of humanity and virtue, in an age when sentimental instruction will have more
powerful influence upon our conduct than any other; when abstruse systems of morality, and dry exhortations from the pulpit, if
attended to for a while, make no durable impression. 2.10 Lesson End Activities:1. Comment on the style and technique of the Deserted Village. 2. What is the role of the Villages School Master? 3. What are the memorable features of the Auburn Village? 2.11 References Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England Vol. II. London : Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1967. Legouis, Emile et. al., A History of English London : J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1926 rpt., 1965. Literature.
Hudson, William Henry Outline History of English Literature. 1961 : rpt. Bell & Hyman Ltd., 1988.
47
Saintsbury, George A short History of English Literature. 1898; rpt. London : Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1960.
Rpissaeau, G.S. Goldsmith: The Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974. Critical Heritage London,
48
LESSON 3 JOHN MILTON PARADISE LOST Contents 3.0 Aims and Objectives 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Miltons life and works 3.3 The theme of paradise lost 3.4 out line of paradise lost 3.5 general characteristics of miltons poetry 3.6 style and versification 3.7 Characteristic features of an epic 3.8 Paradises lost as an epic 3.9 Character of satan 3.10 Let us sum up 3.11 Lesson end activities
3.12 References
3.0 Aims and Objectives

This lesson will through a light on John Miltons Paradise Lost besides explaining the life and various works of Milton. You will acquire, after reading this lesson the theme and outline of Paradise Lost, General Characteristics, Style and Verification of Milton
Poetry.
3.1 Introduction. The England of Milton and Bunyan was born on December 9, 1608, at Black Spread Eagle Court, in Bread Street. Thus was Puritanism nourished in the very bosom of the Renaissance. Puritanism began with Ben Johnson, though it found its greatest poetical
49
exponent in Milton, its greatest; prose exponent in Bunyan. Two influences contributed especially to the
moulding of the England now under consideration. The first is the influence of the great dramatists and the second influence is that of the Bible. The
Scriptures, hitherto reserved for the select few, are now spread broadcast for men and women to con-sider _and expound for themselves. Anyone who wished to purify the usages of the church was called a
Puritan. Puritanism turned Mil-tons thoughts from such subjects as the Arthurian Legend. His epic genius found perfect expression in the Biblical story of the Fall of Man. Nothing is more char-acteristic of the poet than the arduous mental development he
deliberately set before himself in order to grapple with his task. The earlier years of his life were spent in hard study and preparation ; then for a while he plunged into fierce political con-troversy in the cause of civil and religious liberty ;
finally, in the last years of his life he gave us, as the fruit of his mature genius, Paradise Lost,
Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Possessing less a sense than of beauty, that as keen though by the
unrestrained
possessed
Elizabethans, Miltons devotion to form and coherence separates him from the great Romantics, and gives to the beauty of his verse a delicacy and gravity all its own. Nowhere is this quality of beauty better
50
displayed Penseroso,
than
in
the and
early
poems, They
in
LAllegro, all the
Comus,
Lycidas.
have
freshness and charm of youth, and exhibit tho lighter and more fanciful side of Miltons genius. With this sense of beauty is combined a
stateliness of manner which gives a high dignity to Miltons poetry, that has never been surpassed, and rarely equalled in our literature.Milton strengthens blank verse without cramping it; he gives it grace, and rounds off with finished care the single line without ever sacrificing the organic unity of the entire poem. He is like a great organist who, while never losing sight of the original melody, adorns it with every conceivable variation which serves to
exhibit, in place of obscuring, the freshness and sweetness of the simple theme. 3.2 Miltons Life and Works Milton was born on December 9, 1608 at Black spread Eagle Court, in the Bread Street. In 1641
Milton married Mary Powell, the seven-teen-year-old daughter of a Cavalier gentleman residing in
Oxford shire. from the first ; gaiety
This marriage was not a happy one the change from a life of youthful the companionship of an austero not
to that of
Puritan student so many years her senior was congenial to this young girl, and on shortly her
visiting her
fathers house refused to
after their marriage she husband. Milton, was
rejoin
pursuing divorce took place, and
however, in 1645 a reconciliation, seven years later his wife died,
51
leaving him with three small daughters. In he married Katharine His Woodcock, third
1656
who died the Elizabeth
following
year.
wife,
Minshull, chosen for him by his friend Dr. Paget, was but twenty-five when she linked her life with that of the blind poet in 1663, and lived for fifty-three years after his death. In 1645 Milton found a more spacious dwelling in Barbican, which two years later he leaves for a small house in High Holborn, near Lincolns Inn Fields. During the whole of tho period from 1639 to 1649 he devoted himself almost entirely to politics, and what he believed to be the call of duty to his country. Then, in 1649, came the offer of the Latin
Secretaryship. Miltons chief duty was to translate foreign despatches into dignified Latin. At first
he had rooms in Whitehall, but subsequently moved to another pretty garden house in West-minster. This house became No. 19 York Street, and is associated also with the names of Bentham, , James Hazlitt. demolished It in no longer 1877. Blindness Mill, and
exists, having been made his duties
difficult, and rendered assistance imperative. Among those who helped him in the discharge of his duties was Andrew Marvell. Milton served through the
Protectorate. At the Restoration released on he was paying arrested, his fees. but He
subse-quently
lived quietly and frugally at Artillery Walk, Bunhill
52
Fieldsblind,
infirm,
and
weary,
but
unchanged
in
resolution formed years before. The resolution found expression in Paradise. Lost, begun in 1638, finished in 1604, and published three years later. Milton was
offered by his publisher the munificent sum of five pounds down, five pounds more upon the sale of each of the first three editions. came death into the the poets hands was in Ten 1669. by pounds in all After his
copyright
sold
his, widow
for about eight pounds more. Paradise Regained was published also the same
year. Among his many other works may be mentioned those relating to The Doctrine and Discipline of
Divorce, 1643 ; The Four Chief Places of Scripture which treat of Marriage, 1645 ; in 1644, his great prose work, A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Print-ing : previous to this, while living at Horton, near Windsor, he wrote LAllegro and II Penseroso, 1632; Arcades, 1633; Comus, 1634; and Lycidas, 1637. In addition to hia blindness he suffered from chronic gout. After months of ill-health, the gout struck in. He died on November 8, 1674, and lies buried in St. Giles, Cripplegate, beside his father. 3.3 THE THEME OF PARADISE LOST The problem of Evil is handled in Paradise Lost in traditional Christian terms. God has created some
men and angles free to choose or not to choose his service. When they do choose, they choose what is not they
also their own highest good; when they do
choose something less and anything less is evil.
53
For
evil
in
Christian
thought
lacks
positive
existence; it is simply a falling below the highest good. This is what Miltons Satan and other rebels They to turn away from Gods will, their
have done.
highest good, to seek their own will, a lesser good. Satan theyre and his followers and have forgotten to rule that they
only
creatures
aspiring
tried to become like God.
Inevitably they land up in
hell because what they have done is precisely, in a spiritual sense, the Christian definition of hell. The preference of ones own will to Gods.
Inevitably, too, their own will does not prevail. The only change is that now they serve Gods purposes involuntary instead of freely. One thing, however they can do, and that is to seduce some other creature who enjoys the liberty of choosing between Gods will and his own to choose the latter and join them in their ruin. to work on man. Even here the triumph is short lived, for Hence they set
though they can make man fall, God, to defeat and disappoint the frustrates them by Himself becoming a man who does not fall but rise. The sin of Adam,
with the inheritance of evil is made good by Christ, who, though he is tempted like Adam, resists and
though he dies like Adam is resurrected. Paradise Lost proves that inspite of Adams
fall man can still be saved by Christ. The original temptation in the Garden to includes the whole of human history till the day of Judgement.
54
3.4 OUT LINE OF PARADISE LOST Milton subject, is conscious of to his God, more and important his more
mans
disobedience
noble purpose, to justify the ways of God to man. The subject of Paradise Lost is announced at the
beginning of Book I; it is Mans first disobedience and the consequent loss of Paradise. In the first twenty-six lines Milton states his whole subject
matter and asks the aid of the heavenly Muse, who gave Moses the Ten Commandments and inspired him, Milton thought, to write part of the Old Testament. Miltons subject is mans disobedience to God and the consequent loss of Eden. It is mans first
disobedience, implying that others are to come, and it is a serious wrong, because it is disobedience to Gods command. Milton invokes his heavenly Muse, the same Holy Spirit that gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, to help him rise above pagan epic poets of the past and justify the ways of God to man. prime cause of mans fall is Satan, formerly The an
angel, whose pride caused him to war against god and to be thrown out of Heaven and whose envy of man and desire for revenge on God caused him to deceive Eve and help bring about the fall of Adam and Eve. Having Milton follows the stated his subject epic quickly, of
classical
formula
beginning in what he calls the midst of things and turns our attention immediately
55
to
Satan,
who
is
pictured soon after he has been thrown out of Heaven with the other rebel angels because of his revolt against God. Milton knows that evil is attractive
and, Satan the fallen angel, still has some of the qualities and virtues of Heaven, except that they have all been perverted. lies, a fact era which should a be the Most of what he says are good Christian known, reader. reader but of
Miltons frequently
have modern
which
deceives
God h a s
created Satan, but Satan has revolted against his creator, and hence cut himself off from God; before he revolted he exercised free will; now he acts only by Gods permission (210 220) Satan is seen just after he his fellow rebel angels have been hurled down into Hell, a place of fiery torment but no light. Chained on the
burning lake, he speaks to his next highest comrade, Beelzebub, lying beside him. Satan is struck by the horrible changes is Beelzebubs appearance caused by the Fall, but he still repent. defies God and refuses to
He even claims to have shaken the throne of (I, 105; VI,
God, which we find out later is a lie. 834; VII, 585-586). calls a tyrant. poet says, he
He refuses to serve God, whom he
But while he boasts in this way, the is inwardly tortured by his own
despair. Beelzebub asks Satan what they should do against Gods all-powerful force, and Satan
answers proudly that they should be do everything within their ability to pervert Gods will. Having been permitted by God to Heap on himself damnation,
56
and having been allowed to move, Satan flies by means of his wings from the burning lake to plain,
believing he is doing so on his own power.
Surveying
the doleful surroundings, Satan decides it is Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Although the on
other fallen angels lie groveling and prostrate the lake of fire, Satan calls them to
arms,
addressing them by their angelic titles.
They come,
looking like the biblical plague of locusts. Among them are Moloch, who later became a pagan god to whom children were sacrificed, and other heathen gods and goddesses such as Astarte, Orus, Dagon, Isis and Osiris. Belial, a lewd and Satan
grossly sensual devil, is last among them.
rallies them with high sounding words and they appear to be a large and glorious army. Satan feels a huge
pride in his troops of demons, which makes him forget for the moment them to of despair, if not he addresses, God, them, then
calling
war,
against,
against Gods new creation, man. A council of war should be called, he says. They respond with a shout of defiance against God. Mammon then leads a group of fallen angels to dig into a volcanic hill for molten metal and erect
suddenly and by magic what looks like a temple, but is really Pandemonium, the capitol of Hell, designed by the demonic architect, Mulciber. With their
rustling wings the devils appear from a distance to be like a swarm of bees as they go into Pandemonium to consult over the method of war against God.
57
3.5 General Characteristics of Miltons Poetry The sublimity supreme which is His quality of Miltons by poetry is and
characterised poetry
dignity an
stateliness.
exercises
elevating
influence on the mind of the reader.
The subject
matter is sublime dealing with God, Satan and other serious themes. In Comus he presents sublime
thoughts concerning virtue.
In Paradise Lost and
Paradise Regained he has dealt with sublime themes on God and religion. The chief characteristic features
of Miltons poetry is his profound love of beauty. He is deeply sensitive to the beauty of eternal
nature.
With this sense of beauty, is combined a
stateliness of manner which gives a high dignity to his poetry. The poet never stoops down at any stage public.
just to satisfy the tastes of the lower
The subject that he chooses for his composition are stately. The treatment that he gives them equally in conformity with the subject matter common objects doubt form the subject matter common objects do not form the subject of his poetry. His themes are far The problems
removed from the trivialities of life.
are of external interest and his genius can find full scope in dealing with grand themes, such as the
problem of man, the redemption of humanity by Christ and of the way of God to man. M i l t o n w r ites as a conscientious artist.
Poetry has been by far are the greatest artistic achievement and Milton is by far the greatest poetic artist.
58
Miltons imagination is noteworthy. Only a man of Miltons imagination create could have a world of heaven and hell which could be been possibly only by his imagination. He soars above time and space.
Miltons poetry proves his suggestive power. Lander is of the opinion that Milton is the noblest specimen in the world of eloquence, harmony, and genius. Arnold thinks that Miltons blank verse diction.
is the flawless perfection of rhythm and
In loftiness of thought, splendour and dignity of expression and rhythmic felicities, Milton has peers but no superior.
3.6 Style and Versification Paradise Lost is a poetic rendering of the
story of the fall of man of such a variety of
No epic poet was a master styles as Milton, and the
variety with which he could use the English heroic verse without rhyme. steady persistent The variety controlled by the momentum of his paragraph, the
means of sound, and the refines of temper above all, that sense of fidelity, to an immediate experience which occasionally springs to action in scientific things are done so effortlessly and aptly. Clarity,
force, and simplicity are some of the characteristics of his poetry. The diction, the prosody and the
syntax, the subtle cooperation of the meaning and music are all The it, of them of tokens the there of an underlying as C.S.
permanence. Lewis puts
seven of
grand is
style
Great
no where better
59
momentum which is no were better displayed than in the stately progress of Miltons more immemorable
similies. Paradise Lost says Dr. Johnson is a poem when considered with respect to design, may cla i m t h e
first place, and with respect to performance, the second among the productions of the human mind.
These characteristic features raise Miltonts great height. The use of Rhythm visual imagination and form, are three note effort worthy at the characteristics sublime, the Miltons
continuous
exceptional
vivid pictures
fill his poetry.
The placing of the pauses, the rise and fall of the emotion, the high emotional charge in which the poets sense of dedication great biblical figures of and of communion with the the old testament is
communicated, the supplecatory
cadence of the appeal
to have his darkness illumined and his mind elevated and the fine, powerful simplicity of the concluding statement of his purpose all these represent poetic art of high order. The the flow devices of his which great Milton opening begins uses for sustaining are worth with
passage
careful
examination.
It
emphatically
simplicity, and amplitude of mans to I disobedience. Which is developed, extended, modified, qualified, reconsidered subordination in of a great clauses, variety and of ways, adroit by use the of him
the
conjunctions, prepositions and relative pronouns
60
to place the object of this opening sentence, the theme of the poem, which most at the beginning, the main verb does not come until the sixth line and when it does come it rings out the tremendous emphasis. Sing, heavenly music. Miltons similies are heroic. He uses them to
illustrate a familiar, universally accepted system of facts which external and prior to the mode of
presentation.
The thing said is not changed by the
way of saying it, though when Milton has said what he intends to say, it is difficult to think of its being said better. Miltons similies are sometimes digressive.
This device, characteristically Homeric is used very specifically by Milton. Moreover when he introduces
such similies, they usually serve to accentuate by contrast the superhuman grandeur of the events. The simile of the Angels thick as autumnal
leaves follows an epic description of Satans spear and shield. When the audience at the infernal
council are compared to elves, the reader is better convinced of the stature of the great seraphic lords and cherubim themselves. of the huge in their own dimensions like This tendency to heroic aggrandizement angels is further straightened by
fallen
Miltons spacing the use of Lowely imaging and by the comparative form of many of his similies. What
of was thought but never so well expressed perhaps the nine words that can be said of paradise lost. Paradise lost is a rich, profound and matured
61
epic.
It
is
rendering
of
the
story
of
fall
illuminating some of the central paradoxes of the human situation and the tragic ambiguity of man as a moral being. variety which rhyme. Paradise humanist using lost all shows the Milton as of a the Christian European of No epic poet was a master of such a as Milton English and the variety verse with
styles could
he
use
heroic
without
resources
literary tradition, that came down to him Biblical, classical, medival, Renaissance, pagan, jewish and Christian. medieval Imagery from classical to myths, fable, legends and and
Romance,
allusion
stories of all kinds, geographical imagery and ideas from Miltons own fascination with books of travel and echoes of the Elizabethan excitement. discoveries Biblical, history and The new and
doctrinal,
Rabbinical and patristic learning are found in this great synthesis of all that the western mind was
stored with by the middle of the 1700.
3.7 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF AN EPIC This narrative actions poem and involves characters heroic, sustained even by
supernatural
tradition, implicated in the life and ways of people and enveloped in the aura of the unusual, the awful and the sublime, characters poem it in narrates a great in great way. dignified actions It and is a
depicts
dispassionate
recited
rhythmic
62
narrative of a momentous theme or action of fulfilled by heroic characters and supernatural agencies under the control of a sovereign destiny. T h e e pic as a narrative poem organic in
structure, dealing with great characters and great actions in a style commensurate with the Lordliness of the theme which tends to idealize these characters and actions and to sustain and embellish its subject by means of episode in amplification. The epic celebrates in the form of a continuous narrative, the achievements of one or more passages of history or tradition. The subject matter is
generously derived from the deeds of captains and kings and of fearful wards According to Horace it
is mainly concerned with the achievements of heroes. Sometimes as in the case of Milton, the epic poet concentrates on the edification of the readers.
Milton considers olidictism as part of epic theme and so his epic poems convey ethical truths and exalts moral purpose. Milton is paradise lost justifies the
ways of God to men. High seriousness is a part of the epic poem. Milton was always conscious of himself
as a chosen one destined to produce a mighty work which future generations would not willingly let die. The action of an epic is usually spacious and is worked out into majestic proportions. plot is characterized by greatness of The epic scope and
majesty of incident. Because the epic is long, there is room for very great variety, the tragic, the
instructive, the descriptive touches of humanity. It has plenty of time for digressions and descriptions.
63
Miltons description of the appearance and the shield and spear of Satan can be cited as an example. Unity is another feature of an epic. There There
must be organic action in epic as in tragedy.
is always a single action in the epic poem though the poet is allowed to introduce innumerable episodes. Epic poetry in a sense is public poetry because of the choice of quality. to express his own The poet is not only writing and some feelings large but group the or
thought of
thoughts community.
and
feelings
The theme of the epic is stated in the first few lines and followed by a prayer to the muse.
Miltons paradise lost begins with a clearly defined propositions and an invocation. W.J. Long remarks
It will be seen that this is classic epic not of a man or a hero but the whole race of man. According to Raliegh Paradice Lost concerns
itself with the fortunes, not of a city, or an expire but of the whole human race, is with that particular
event in the history of the race which has moulded all its destinies. by Milton This in a epic theme has been The
presented
stately
manner.
splendors of heaven, the horrors of hell, the serve beauty of Paradise, the sun and planets suspended between celestial light and gross darkness are
pictured with a lofty imagination. The poem rings with echoes from the memorable passages of the Bible, traverses the secret places of Heaven and Hell, and ransacks marvelous abstractions
64
like sin and death. in prose or rhyme.
It attempts things unattempted
It is the grand style that Milton uses in the epic elaborated and the language of all of the best poem words, is of the all
outcome
the
antecedent poetry, the language of ode which lives in the companionship of the great and wise of all ages. The Homeric similie is used by, all epic poets and especially Milton. Satans comparison to a
Leviathan can be quoted as an example. As an epic, Paradise Lost contains a number of thrilling
episodes such as the mustering of troops, battles, devils, wanderings and ordeals. Like any other epic
the poem is divided into many books. In every epic, a long and dangerous journey is made by the hero. Satans journey through the space As an epic story, it An epic poem
(in Book II) is recalled here.
begins in the middle of the action.
devotes much space to the discussion of probability. Like a drama it should have probability, and within its larger bounds, things less probable can be made to appear probable. impossibilities possibilities. C.M . Bowra remarks that Milton made his epic theological. According to Herbet the story of the fall is merely the kernel around which Milton Thus in epic, we have probable rather than improbable
elaborates.
This Paradise Lost, proves to be a great
epic poem because it develops in artistic unity one great conception and abounds through out its course
65
in daring flights of fancy into unknown regions. proves the statement of Dryden that epic
He is
undoubtedly the greatest work which the soul of man is capable to perform. 3.8 PARADISE LOST AS AN EPIC Paradise Lost is by common consent an epic poem. The
beginning of the epic shows the fallen angels in Hell beginning to recover from their defeat and
prostration.
Satan had tried to be like the most
High because of which he was brought down to Hell. The speeches of Satan and his followers are
magnificent in their way, Miltonic in the popular sense of the word; and they represent the
attractiveness of plausible
evil.
If evil was never The is a
attractive there would be no problem for man. descriptions of Satans regal state Book I
magnificent evocation of all the barbaric splendour. As for the supposed nobility of Satan, it does not take a very close reading of his speeches to see that a self frustrating spite is his dominant
emotion. in him.
Of course there are traces of true heroism Milton is trying to point out that the best
when corrupted, becomes the worst. Though, until very recently, critics have paid scant attention to the motivation of Satans
rebellion, it must be clear that this motivation is of cardinal importance to Paradise Lost . A proper
understanding of the rebellion of Satan is likewise essential to the whole philosophic meaning of the
66
epic. When Satan summons his followers to council in the North, evil enters the cosmos. Satans action
initiates the whole sequence of the expulsion of the rebel angels, the creation of man to take their
place, the temptation and fall of man, and finally his regeneration by grace. So much depends on the
motivation of Satans rebellion. After his expulsion from Heaven his sense of injured pride turns into hatred for those who, as he thinks, have humbled him and for all connected with him. It becomes his driving motive and takes on
heroic air when it strengthens his will in defeat and makes him insist on carrying on the war. for the corruption and this of grows man rises from he His plan his deep the
malice,
greater
when
sees
happiness of Adam and Eve and finds in it a sight hateful, sight tormenting. Satan knows that revenge His
recoils on him, but he is prepared to face it.
heroic spirit has finally disappeared and never again shows itself. Just as his appearance decays, so does
his character, until he becomes wholly loathsome and even contemptible. The character of Satan is pride and sensual
indulgence and also exhibits all the restlessness, temerity and cunning. Milton has carefully marked in
his Satan the intense selfishness, the alcohol of egotism, which would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. To place this lust of self in opposition
to denial of self or duty, and to show what exertions it would make, and what pains endure to accomplish its end, is Miltons particular
67
object
in
the
character of Satan. Around this character he has thrown a
singularity of daring, a grandeur
of sufferance and
a ruined splendour, which constitute the very height of poetic sublimity.
3.9 CHARACTER OF SATAN Satan is, of course, an important character in the epic. Sir Walter Raleigh, remarked that
Satans very situation as the fearless antagonist of Omnipotence makes him either a fool or a hero, and Milton is far indeed from permitting us to think him a fool. Satan was the first of created beings, who for
endeavouring to be equal with the highest, and to divide the empire of heaven with the Almighty, was hurdled down to hell. His aim was no less than the
throne of the universe; his means, myriads of angelic armies bright, the third part of the heavens, whom he lured after him with his countenance, and who durst defy the omnipotent in arms. The ambition of Satan was the greatest and his punishment was the greatest; but not so his despair, for his fortitude was a great as his sufferings. His
strength of mind was matchless as his strength of body; the vastness of his designs did not pass the firm, inflexible determination with which he
submitted to his irreversible doom, and final loss of all good.
68
Milton
stresses
his
enormous
stature,
his
courage in defeat, his panoply and armaments and the music of his defeat, of his army. In this company When he
Satan is a commanding and eminent figure.
holds his great consult, he sits like an oriental potentate on his royal throne and controls the
proceedings with masterful ability.
Milton admits
that he deserves his position; Satan exalted sat, by merit raised to that bad eminence (Book II, II 5-6) He is huge in size his other parts besides Prone on the Flood, extended long and large Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the Fables name of monsterous size (Book I, II 194 7) The shield of Satan is as big as the largest round object imaginable like the moon, seen through
the clarity of an Italian night-sky, and enlarged by a telescope. Elsewhere in Book I Satan is described With this
as being like a Tower and like the Sun.
last image, we can see the process of deterioration; He still carries traces of his former glories. . nor appeared Less than Arch-angel ruined, and th excess of glory obscured. (Book I, 11 592-4) He is still like the Sun seen through morning mist Shorn of his Beams.
69
In the first two books as a war monger and and a
Milton presents Satan His be spacious and
politician. urges to
arguments
diabolical
active
militant rouse the fallen angels from their stupor. Awake, arise or be forever fallen, the terrific war cry of Satan goes like a clarion call to the benumbed angels and stirs them to action. In a clever and strategic manner he whips
Beelzebub into rage telling him that is miserable/ Doing or suffering 58).
. to be weak
(Book I 11 157-
Emphatically he utters that their mission is to He has a mind not to be When he says The mind is
create evil out of good. changed by place or Time.
its own place, and in itself, / can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. him. One is tempted to agree with
When Satan says Better to reign in Hell than (Book I 11263) one is forced and When Satan says Better (Book I
serve in Heaven
tempted to agree with him.
to reign in hell than serve in Heaven
11263) one is forced to admire the love of liberty in him. his Though Satan may be vaunting aloud fiery utterance what though the in pain, .
field/
courage never to submit or yield (Book I 11105 8) has often been equated with heroic temper and is oft quoted with characteristic admiration of him. Milton portrays Satan as a ruined Cathedral or a tower that still retains about it certain signs of past glory. ruins. departed. The He These may look imposing even in their glory is is obscured, the Sun not altogether arisen not
like
new
possessing all that radiance, or like the sun in an

70
eclipse. in the
The archangel shines above all others even fallen state. He is full of dauntless
courage.
He is like the forest oaks and mountain The picture passage is a
tope stately but with their tops burnt. t h a t M i l t o n gives of Satan in this
mixture of brightness and darkness. One can find miss his intellect, reason and
even sympathetic imagination,
Satan confesses that
God upbraided none; nor was his service hard but the disdained subjection and wanted to be rid of the burden of serving God. The obligation of being
grateful to God was burdensome; He did not realize at that time that a grateful mind by owing did not owe anything at all. Very soon the realization comes to Satan that there is no redemption for him and that he is Hell. Hell
is within him, around him and everywhere he goes. There is no escape from it. He bids farewell to the So farewell Hope,
little good still lurking in him.
and with Hope farewell Fear / Farewell remorse all good to me is lost. 3.10 LET US SUM UP You have so far understood John Miltons life and works, the Gest style of and Paradise Lost, of general Milton
characteristics,
verification
poetry, features of an epic and paradise lost as an epic. 3.11 LESSON END ACTIVITIES 1. Write an essay on the Paradise Lost as an Epic
71
2. Comment on the style and versification of Milton 3. Sketch the character of Satire
72
3.12 REFERENCES
Milton John Milton Poetical Works, ed. Doughlas Bush. Oxford University Press, 1966 London:
Barker, E. Arthur Ed. Milton : Modern Essays in Criticism 1965; rpt London : Oxford University Press, 1968. Blamires, Harry Miltons Creation: A guide through Paradise Lost London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1971. Milton. London : Hutchinson University, 1957. A Preface to Paradise Lost. Oxford University Press, 1975. 1942, rpt London:
Daiches, David Lewis, C.S.
Rudrwn Alan
A Critical Commentary on Miltons Paradise Lost London : Mac Milan, 1966.
Thorpe, James Ed. Milton Criticism: Selections from four centuries. London: Routledge & Keganpaul Ltd. ,1965
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UNIT II LESSON 4 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE DR. FAUSTUS Contents 4.0 Aims and Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Out Line of the Play 4.3 Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance Play 4.4 Dr. Faustus as Tragedy 4.5 Mephistophilis 4.6 The Comic Episodes In Faustus 4.7 Let Us Sum Up 4.8 Lesson End Activities: 4.9 References
4.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The main aim of this lesson is to introduce the Christopher Maslowes play Dr. Faustus with its outline and to project this play as a renaissance play, and as tragedy play besides explaining the comic episodes found in Dr. Faustus. 4.1 INTRODUCTION: Marlowe is the father of the English drama, for he was the first to perceive the capacities for noble art inherent in Drama and he adapted it to high purpose by his practice. He saw that the drama, of the people, had a great future before it, and so devoted h i s energies to its perfection. Drama resulted from the fusion of most
diverse elements. It was often confused and incoherent. He used the blank verse suggested to him by the classical drama, and by his practice of it made it a suitable medium for dramatic expression. He thus transfigured the form of the English drama. He was the first to
74
construct a coherent plot. In Marlowe we find for the first time character-development. Faustus is a one-man play, in Edward II we find interplay of
character. Under his touch dialogue moved with spirit; men and women spoke and acted with the energy and spontaneity of nature. He, for the first time gave, life-like characters who are not mere puppets, but who live their own lives., Marlowe He provided raised the subject matter he drama to a higher level. big subjects that appealed to the imagination. The
insatiable spirit of adventure
ideals of beauty; the .greatness and
littleness of human life : were his subjects. Marlowe took the blank verse of the Classical School, hard and unflinching as a rock, and struck forth. it with his rod till the waters of human emotion gushed
He gave a unity to the drama, hitherto lacking. Plays before
had been formless : a succession, of isolated scenes often with no proper connecting link. He glorified the matter of the drama, by his sweep of imagination. He vitalised the manner and matter of the drama, by his to energising the power. He clarified and gave
coherence
drama.
4.2 OUT LINE OF THE PLAY Doctor Faustus story is a dramatized story of the life and
death of a medieval scholar, who sells his soul to the devil, in return for a life of, power and pleasure. The condition is that he should get sovereign power and sovereign knowledge by binding himself to the Devil, and thus be able to satisfy his appetites for twentyfour years. This power and knowledge are used by Faustus in playing practical jokes on the great ones of his day, the pope and the cardinals, and to make poor wretches the butt of his magic. But the twenty-four years come to an end and Faustus has to keep his bargain with Lucifer. He tremblingly awaits death and hell. Till now Faustus has never called upon God, inspite of being begged over and over again by the good angel. But now in his last days, he^remembers God and cries in wail. It is too late now and Faustus' soul is taken away by the devils to hell. This is the tragical history of Dr. Faustus! Faustus, in his lust for power and knowledge, aspires to He
become a magician who would have everything
at his command.
hires the services of Mephistophills, who is an agent of the devil, and is prepared to part with his soul to the devil, if and only if he
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will be the supreme one no this earth, if and only if he will be the supreme one on this earth and the sole possessor of all knowledge. He undertakes the most dangerous step of signing the bond with the evil powers for the supreme knowledge and sovereign power by which he could satisfy his appetites for the period of twenty four years. He
knows fully well that eternal damnation will fall on him, but he cares only for the present life and does not even believe about the life hereafter. Faustus' extent, reflect manner his and use of the magical power, to a great
transformed
attitude
toward
power itself. He
never gets the power he had ventured for. He deals with the "shadows, not substantial" things, to use his own description of the feat he performs. Faustus does not and cannot forget that he has no "real power", only shadow power. He does not "wall Germany with brass" or c l o t h e s c h o o l boys in "silk". T h e p l a y comic scenes further
reinforces and proves his knowledge that the Devil,
will not impart
'omnipotence' to man. He will be damned without having gained even as much power as the Devil's. The certainty and imminence of approaching death is known to remove its fear from such suffering souls. The tragic fall of Faustus gains more intensity with the close of the twenty-four years contract with the devil, each time he
remembers God or thinks of repentance the devil threatens him with dire consequences. As eleventh hour of the last day strikes, he is He pleads with Christ to have mercy
in a state of extreme horror.
on him and wash him with at least half a drop of His precious blood shed on Calvary cross. But his heart is too hard to sincerely repent
because he had deliberately sold his soul to the devil; it is mere remorse or sorrow for sin in view of the impending punishment. He
regrets but does not repent. He is finally dragged away from this world in a state of deep anguish. Only the mangled remains of his
body are gathered by a few young scholars of Wittenberg. For him, as for Marlowe, lowly birth is no bar to a university education, and as he sits alone in his study reading from the Latin text books he is linked in a common language with scholars from Oxford, Cambridge and all over the civilized world. Rhetoric,
jurisprudence and medicine have trained a mind apt for questioning eager for learning, and reluctant to take on trust even the most elementary facts, let alone those hypothesis incapable of empirical proof. Faustus who refuses to accept from Mephistopheles the
76
evidence
for
hells existence is true to type.
His pitiful short
sightedness is all too evident, but there is also a determination to believe only what he himself can prove. Marlowes hero Dr. Faustus is a man of humble birth who, has already established himself in the world of learning through his
native abilities.
This opening chorus is a cunningly contrived piece
of stagecraft for it not only gives us in a nut shell the form of Faustus fortune good or bad but with that that freedom of movement through space and time which was second nature to the Elizabethan dramatist, concludes by zooming down on Faustus, at this moment, with the fateful choice still before him And this the man who in his study sits. gives some This shuffling together of past, present and future sense of the inevitability of Faustus progress to
damnation while preserving inviolate the heros capacity to choose. By signing the bond with its ominous first clause Faustus is not all off from forgiveness. Yet the effects of sin in turning away
from God, make it virtually impossible for him to accept the offered mercy. Repentance is all that is needed, yet to his dismay, he finds My threats so hardened I cannot repeat [II, ii, 18) The devils are adept at picking the bubbles of human selfglorification, and Faustus pride is punctuated in his first
encounter with Mephistopheles.
Soaring, as he thinks, to the height
of his power as conjurer laureate, he is jolted shapely back to earth by the friends casual admission that the conjuring was of no real import. I came now hither of mine own accord. [I, iii, 44]
Repeated questioning of Mephistopheles brings no satisfaction. The devil can tell him only what he already know and, forbidden to speak the praise of God, cannot give him the answer he wants to hear. Faustus : Now tell me who made the world? Mephistophiles : I will not [II, ii, 67-8]
His pride dashed, Faustus becomes increasingly aware of the emptiness of his bargain and the reality of damnation. The pride
corned his human nature and aspired to become a mighty god leads inevitably to its opposite despair.
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The play ends where it began, in the solitude of Faustus study. It is here that Faustus damns himself finally and
irrevocably.
He is never closer to repentance than in the moments The man who has
after the Old Mans speech with its renaissance.
adjuced the scriptures, forsaken God, trafficked with the devil can still call for mercy, and avoid despair [v,i, 61] But hells present physical tortures and terrify of him more than the the thought momentary of future he
damnation,
instead
withstanding
agony
requests, instead the comfort of That heavenly Helen which I saw of late, Whose sweet embracings may extinguish clean Those thoughts that do dissuade me from my vow [v,I, 90-92] Helen of Troy, twice passing over the stage, pausing for one brief moment yet speaking nothing, is the key figure in Dr. Faustus. For this Faustus has sold his soul. All the glory that was Greece,
was embodied, for the Renaissance, in this woman; her story was the story in brief of another world, superhuman and immoral. Faustus, Marlowe combines medieval and Renaissance thoughts. The dramatist believes with Dante that the pursuit life has a
bearing because it determines what eternal life will be. possesses a robust and experience personality.
Faustus
Marlowe builds the
main tension of the play from the clash between Faustus Renaissance desire for the acquisition of unlimited knowledge and power one and who
medieval dogma of the retribution which is inevitable to adopt evil means to gain such ends. Self-confidence is another trait in Dr. Faustus,
as he has
confidence in himself that he has the ability to master necromancy and achieve his goal. Once he has started, there is no coming back, The others characters
only going forward to achieve his ambition.
such as Valdes and Cornelius only strengthen Faustus confidence. Marlow has pictured Fausutus impatience with earthly
limitations in the first soliloquy.
Dr. Fausutus is impatient with
the limitations of the branches of his study and this leads him to the study of magic and ultimately to his contract with the unearthly Mephistophilis. The spirit of adventure both psychological and physiological
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led the inquiring mind of Faustus to the distant corners of the earth with the aid of Mephistophilis. Throughout the play the characters
focus on the importance they attached to the worldly life. Faustuss zest for life is brought out by Marlowe by his last minute acceptance of God in the face of damnation. . A world of profit and to him, a sound
delight, of power, of honour, of omnipotence and magician in a mighty God
And it was this element of Romanticism
that.. a word derived from the word Rome which meant newness of ideas -that enkindled curiosity, traveling, adventures and
exploration in the age.
These elements moulded themselves into a
dominant passion in the character of Faustus. To sum up, it can be said that as the whole play has its axis, the figure of Faustus, it is through him that in the play was
introduced the Renaissance element.
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4.3 DR. FAUSTUS AS A RENAISSANCE PLAY The Renaissance heralded the birth of a new age in Europe. It
tolled the death knell of the middle ages and unheard in a new era of bright hopes and rosy aspiration. The faint flickering rays of the
Renaissance became visible in Europe quite early in the sixteenth century. It took time for the Renaissance spirit to reach England.
But when the new light came, it cleared off the old colowels of ignorance and superstition and made the way clear for the diffusion of new thoughts and new ideals. Although the great Renaissance
period, of ten somewhat inexactly called the Elizabethan age, came to be markedly original, its literature of ancient and foreign influences. The Renaissance writers portrayed in their work all that was atheistically Machiavelli. immoral and corrupt under the influence of had its raise among a multitude
They persecuted man as being divine to find free and
feel expansion of his thoughts. Marlowes heroes are after power that knows no limits and they seek it in different ways. Tamberline
resorts to conquests, Faustus to black magic. Barabas to power that money can give, and Edward II to unhealthy pattern. Boundless in its aspirations, increasing in its complexions, the Renaissance mind is the theme of all Malows plays. Dr. Faustus although he is the first figure on the English stage who deserves to be called a character, is still less an individual than the epitome of renaissance aspiration. He has all the divine discontent the
unwearied and unsatisfied striving after knowledge that marked the age in which Marlowe wrote. An age of exploration, its adventurers
were not only the merchants and sea-men who sailed around the world, but also the scientists, astronomers, who surveyed the leavers with their optic glass and those scholars who traveled in the realism of gold to bring back tales of a mighty race of gods and heroes in ancient Greece and Rome. The diverse Renaissance elements that Dr. Faustus is filled in are individualism, self confidence, impatience with earthly
limitations, a spirit of revolt, a love of beauty, enjoyment the object of life, the spirit of adventure both mental and physical, humanism, freedom, patriotism, zest for awakening of peoples mind i.e. the spirit measure of of
life,
romanticism,
reformation,
blankverse,
and above all the longing for power and knowledge that
may be considered the principle element.
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When knowledge.
the
play
opens
Faustus
stands
at
the
frontiers
of
The whole of Renaissance learning is within his grasp,
but on closer scrutiny of the parts the whole crumbles away and he is left with nothing but a handful of dust. Faustus takes his first step along the primrose path when he s e t s m a t e r i a l benefits magic, anticipating its before spiritual with blessings. and Contemplating Cornelius, he
rewards
Valdes
promises himself all the glory and riches of the Renaissance world. From Mephistopheles he demands to live in all voluptuousness even before succumbs to the line of magic, his mind has been tempted by thoughts of wealth. Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold [I, ii, 14]. Yet although this obsession with luxury is a flaw in the nature of one
dedicated to the search for knowledge, its seriousness must not be magnified until it obscures the real issues. In the first soliloquy
Faustus rejects the study of law, leaning it to the .. mercenary drudge who aims at nothing but eternal trash doctor can heap [I, i, All the gold that the
34 5] up will not reconcile him to the
limitations of medical skill, through whose aid he can restore only health, not life. And when, in an early agony of indecision, he
weighs the profit and the loss, it is not riches that he puts into the opposite scale : Have not I made blind Homer sing to me Of Alexanders love, and Demons dealth? And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes With ravishing sound of his melodious harp, Made music with my Mephistophilis? With the help of magic, he has gained entry into another world, a world, later to be incarnate in Helen of Troy, which for exceeds the riches of all the Venetian argosies, Indian gold and Orient pearl. If the Renaissance mind was a flame with thoughts of the
splendor of life and of the knowledge and power which were the means to its realization, it was also imbued with the knowledge that there flames were the flames of hell and that Faustus would have done better merely to wonder at unlawful things as the epilogue says, than
81
to be enticed, To practice magic and concealed acts What is certainly far from easy but [I, I, 103] what can atleast be
pointed to are the range and immediacy, the complexity and precision, of the local habitation. This tendency to identify the prophecies of astrology with astronomy, the realization of the pagan and sensuous delights of Helen and cussida with the empirical methods of
investigating the natural world, was common enough in the Renaissance world. Renaissance was leased on the principle of emancipation from the bondage of theology also. And Dr. Faustus in the play
voluntarily frees himself from the heavenly matters of theology, says, Divinity adieu and turns his attention to the metaphysics of magicians. The Renaissance ideal dominated all the form plays of Marlowe. He presented ordinary men, whom he endowed with prodigious desires, almost impossible and the to achieve. They were up dominated a by a single
passion,
Marlowian
heroes
put
tremendous
struggle
against adverse forces and fell fighting alone. And Marlowes Dr. Faustus is a typical Marlowian hero who stands alone. Another Renaissance element is portrayed through Dr. Faustus character as he, towards the end of the play requests Mephistophilis that he should see, the heavenly Helen. with wonder. He remarks, The sight of her fills him
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless the towers of Ilium? The very act or his wish to see, the face of Helen of Troy brings out the Renaissance love of beauty. Enjoyment is considered
to be the object of life as Faustus himself uses the twenty four year span of his life, with the help of necromancy to enjoy his life to the full. All his actions were based upon this principle. Even the
minor characters seemed to be intent upon enjoyment of life (e.g. Ralph and Robin) There is no moral code that governs them. Another features of Renaissance is the spirit of freedom, and as a result the writers of the age took liberties with grammar and syntax. And Marlowes plays are examples of the blank verse, a
82
speech rhythm, the mighty line of Marlowe, which was perfected him. Moreoever the play is
by
persecuted directly in soliloquy , a A feature of the Renaissance can
Renaissance theatrical convention.
also be seen in not introducing women characters. Faustus has the genuine Renaissance passion for knowledge infinite. Faustus is completely devoured by the desire to enlarge his knowledge and go beyond the limits of the human mind and thus also exercise his power and authority everywhere. He desires for something greater than mortal knowledge and power and these cravings could only be satisfied through Black magic. With the newly He has a passion for omnipotence.
acquired power of the magical art and with the
devils agent waiting for him to obey his commands, helping him to meet his doom, much earlier, he assumes complete power over the world and its Common people. of the Earth with his This sort of strong contempt for the man limited abilities was one of the main
characteristics of the Renaissance man. he also means to raise himself in
Faustus is of humble birth, life by sheer power of his
knowledge.
He craves for supreme knowledge and in order to gain it,
he sells his soul to the devil for twenty four years of absolute power on this earth. heavenly power permits. His main aim is to practise more than what He aspires to become higher than anyone else He is so obsessed
and to gain complete mastery over Gods universe.
with the thought of grasping knowledge which is above human limits that it drives him to a sort of madness urging him to commit the grave error of signing the bond with the devil. Love blessings. for power makes him set material before spiritual
Besides his maddening passion for knowledge infinite, He wants
there is in him, a lust for riches and pleasure and power. to live luxuriously, lavishly, grandly and splendidly.
With the help
of the spirit he says: Ill have them fly to India for gold, Ransck the ocean for Orient Peal, and search all corners of the newfound world, For pleasant fruits and princely delicacies. He has in him, the Renaissance love of beauty too. He is not satisfied with any Helen is
ordinary woman but Helen is the one he would like to have.
to him, a paragon of perfection and excellence, whose face had launched a thousand ships. He pays a glowing tribute to her beauty He finds her form perfect
when her apparition rises before his eyes. and flawless.
He wishes to gain a vision of this perfect face and
83
pleads the vision to make him immortal with a kiss. Like the typical Renaissance man, Faustus has the intense
awareness of the splendour of power, knowledge and sensation, and lives in a world, as did the Renaissance man, in which it was not possible to remain for ever unaware of the fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than what philosophy dreams of. Faustus
was so intensely in love with the things of the world that he was willing to sacrifice his immortal soul to devil fully realizing that he was incurring eternal damnation upon himself. The first soliloquy is no man reckoning of accounts but an inventory of the Renaissance mind Faustus figures of the Renaissance ideals. is one of the new Marlowe
His heroes are attached to beauty
and unlimited power and knowledge. They appear brave and boastful endowed with aspiring power for good or evil. They are great rebels His heroes are
in their own right, as their creator himself was.
after power that knows no limit and they week it in different ways. Under the impact of Renaissance enthusiasm, Marlowe chooses imperial conquest as the most striking theme.
4.4 DR. FAUSTUS AS TRAGEDY

Marlowe character, unending had thus endowed .tragedy with a conception of
and,
in a more general way,, with the of achievement. His
suggestion of of tragedy
possibilities
conception
lies in this; his heroes-fight on to reach their goal of success : but in their attempt they fail and though they are killed, the main interest of the plays lies in watching them fight heroically. His conception of tragedy can be best found in his prol o g u e t o
'Tamburlaine' : The character and personality of Dr. Faustus, his struggle to escape from damnation which he incurs as the price for his quest of knowledge, power, pleasure, and beauty which begins to acquire a
tremendous interest of its own as the play advances, give a singular unity to the play. Faustus quest of his life is knowledge and power that knowledge gives. But he is not satisfied with all that he has won. He is now attracted to necromancy. He assets that this will give him power he aspires and mastery over all forces, material and spiritual. It is a damnable practice. And he is well aware of the risk he runs. But he
84
desires mastery of the world above everything else, whatever the cost. This recklessness of spirit cannot but command admiration. It is the result of his liberated will and intelligence. The last scene is the most poignant scene in any drama. There is no escape for him now. He is frantic with despair. The first scene and the last scene are equally effectiveand the last scene is most impressive. And there is nothing preposterous about the conclusion. The despair and final surrender of a human soul that defies sin in its quest of knowledge and power could not have been more tragically painted. The final solution is reached on the line of Christian
theology. Marlowe has been true to the age in which he lived. Faustus explains the contract to the scholars. He passes his last night on earth alone, and goes to hell at midnight Frightened and regretful', Faustus greets his friends the scholars, explaining that he must shortly go to hell. He rejects their suggestions that he should repent, claiming that invisible devils hold his tongue and hands. The scholars withdraw to the next room to pray for him through the night. Faustus's long closing monologue concludes the scene,
acting out the intense emotions of the last hour of his life in an anguished sequence of emotions and thoughts. These include: a desire for time to stand still; plans to call on God, frustrated by
Lucifer's attacks; a fruitless desire to hide from divine anger and a list of places to hide; and a wish that he had not been born with a soul. In a paroxysm of fear in the face of the doubled vision of God's rejection and Lucifer's ferocious welcome, Faustus is escorted to hell. The hesitations about belief that have dominated the rest of the play are now completely cleared, and Faustus is well aware of the consequences of his contract. He no longer holds that 'hell's a fable' (Scene 5, line 127), or that only a comfortable pagan
afterlife awaits him ('This word damnation terrifies not him, / For he confounds hell in Elysium' Scene 3, lines 59-60). The pre-
Christian thinkers whose words he earlier trusted are now seen as inaccurate: 'Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis - were that true, / This soul should fly from me' (Scene 13, lines 99-100). Extraordinarily, he is still divided over whether to repent or to follow Lucifer. Yet should there hover in their restless heads One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least, Which into words, no vertue can digest. This love of beauty is also a Renaissance feature. So we find
85
this first tragedy by Marlowe, saturated with the spirit of the Renaissance, 4.5 MEPHISTOPHILIS acts as the agent of Satan. Faustus has direct dealings with Mephistophilis. When he signs away his soul to Satan, Mephistophilis is entirely-at the service of Faustus. All the wonderful things that are wrought by Faunus, are due to the help of Mephistophilis. The development of the action then partly depends on
Mephistophilis. After Faustus has signed the defend the interests of his master. and executes all his orders. ways. by virtue power bond Mephistophilis He serves Faustus Now the bond has got to all right
Faustus has signed,
cuts both and that
Faustus commands the services of Mephistophilis, of the " pact; but the pact also gives
Mephistophilis
over Faustus.
Wherever
Faustus rebels against
Satan, Mephistophilis becomes his master at once and chains him down at once to obedience to Satan. 4.6 THE COMIC EPISODES IN FAUSTUS The comic episodes in no way detract from the theme of the play Dr. Faustus Nor do they demean or damage Faustus as the
protagonist of the play. The problems they cause are technical and artistic "middle and need of closer the examination. "We play lack tragic have and to agree that the
scenes
poetic intensity."
However, they are part of the convention which mixed kings and clowns and sought to provide comic relief. In this play, the comic episodes do not relate to the design of the play and are definitely a concession to the populist sentiment of the groundlings. The attention. the play, comic The is where scenes of 'Dr. Faustus' deserve particular in The
first comic scene which we come across with Wagner, Faustus's servant, meets a Clown
clown in the
scene puns on
words. The humorous element here is tries to fly are from the the best
also supplied by the o f t h e cl o w n w h e n he devils critics reeardthe scene as an
interpolation
evidence that Marlowe had to consider the groundlings, whose palates had to be pleased in this manner. The appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins-in Scene is also relief. The scene all along is in a
meant to serve as a comic serious tone. element by
But Marlowe was keen on deversifying the serious
bringing in comic scenes.
86
Such as the one where he where he expresses his contempt for the papal dignitaries and the churchmen. He makes Faustus play
tricks on them and tries to evoke amusement. This scene is rather an expression of the satirical vein in Marlowe's mind. Such a spirit of satire was fostered by the Renaissance, which had liberated the minds of people, exposed the shams and hypocrisy of the priests, and
enabled them to attack them. The portrayal of the realistic characters in Ralph and Robin is, however, significant. Another comic scene; where Faustus tracts the horse-courser. The pulling off of the leg of Faustus and other such incidents supply very cheap jokes. They can only please the groundlings. Robert Ornstein provides an insight into the synthesis of the comic and the tragic in Doctor Faustus : "Here is travesty of a high order ! ...the mighty Faustus parodies his own highvaulting thoughts and ambitions as Wagner and the Clown had parodied them earlier. Or more correctly, as Faustus changes shape the tragic-comic contrast begins to coalesce. Scene by scene the opposing images approach one another until at last we discover beneath the exalted appearance of the fearless rebel the figure of the fool. When, Faustus steals the Pope's cup and Robin steals the Vintner's goblet the tragic and comic images nearly merge. The difference between hero and clown is one of degree, not of kind." However, to equate the Clown's mocking about selling his soul for a "mutton roast" with Faustus' epicureanism would be stretching the point too far even though Faustus does spend, his last days in "belly-cheer" carousing with his students. What .integrates the comic scenes depicting Faustus' buffoonery with the tragic parts ultimately, I believe, is Faustus' own "'consciousness" that he has been cheated of a great time of his life by the Devil; that he had sought to be a superman overreaching the Devil but he has been befooled. Faustus does not find these flaws beyond defence and traces the degeneration and drooping of spirits that sets in, within the comic section also. He is aware of his tragic dimension as well as comic or foolish aspects of his-failed venture. According to Steane, these middle scenes, "illustrate the growing emptiness of the way of life Faustus has chosen." The wonder in Faustus' European travel, his enjoyment in the Vatican at the cost of the Pope "degeneiate" in the scenes with the Emperor, the fun being at its. lowest with the Horsecourser and without life in the Vanholt scenes.
87
The play would have stopped at this point, so far as the tragic part is concerned, had Faustus, the Good Angel, and Marlowe himself shared Lucifers opinion as to the irrevocability of the compact. But there is still hope in the Good Angels comforting.
Fastus repent, yet God will pity thee. [II, ii, 12] The appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins-in Scene is also relief. The scene all along is in a
meant to serve as a comic serious tone. element by
But Marlowe was keen on deversifying the serious
bringing in comic scenes.
Such as the one where he where he expresses his contempt for the papal dignitaries and the churchmen. He makes Faustus play
tricks on them and tries to evoke amusement. This scene is rather an expression of the satirical vein in Marlowe's mind. Such a spirit of satire was fostered by the Renaissance, which had liberated the minds of people, exposed the shams and hypocrisy of the priests, and
enabled them to attack them. The portrayal of the realistic characters in Ralph and Robin is, however, significant. Another comic scene; where Faustus tracts the horse-courser. The pulling off of the leg of Faustus and other such incidents supply very cheap jokes. They can only please the groundlings. 4.7 LET US SUM UP Marlowe has been justly called, the father of The.. English Drama, The Morning star...of the English Drama, for he marks the
end of the first period in the history of drama, and the beginning of the second over which he presides. His advent marks the end of
medieval drama and the birth of the great Renaissance plays. He did a wonderful job for the development of English Drama. No wonder his contributions were great. 4.8 LESSON END ACTIVITIES: 1. Write an essay on Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance Play. 2. What is the significance of the Comic episodes in Dr. Faustus? 3. Comment on the last scene of Dr. Faustus.
88
4.9 REFERENCES Marlowe, Christopher Doctor Faustus. Ed. Roma Gill et al., London : Ernest Benn Ltd., 1965 rpt., 1967
Baugh, Albert C.
ed. A Literary History of England Vol. II. London : Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1967. Doctor
Farnham, Willard. ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Faustus. London: Prentice Hall, 1969. Jump, John D. ed. Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. : B.I. Publications. 1975.
New Delhi
Gill, Roma Legouis, Emile
Doctor Faustus, London Ernest Bean Limited, 1965. et. al., A History of English Literature. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1926 rpt., 1965. London :
Sharma, J.K.
Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus : A Criticism. New Delhi: Sterling Publications Private Ltd., 1985.
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LESSON - 5 JOHN DRYDEN All FOR LOVE Contents 5.0 Aims and Objectives 5.1 5.2 5.3 Introduction Drydens Life & Works. Plot-Construction In All For Love
5.4 Theme 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 Mark Antony Cleopatra Octavia Ventidius Dolabella Alexas Style And Technique
5.12
5.13 5.14
Features of Heroic Play

All For Love as a Herioc Play High Tragedy
5.15 Shakespeare and Dryden 5.16 Let Us Sum Up 5.17 Lesson-End Activities 5.18 References 5.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This lesson is devoted for detailing all things about the All for Love; a classical work of John Dryden. 5.1 Introduction The change from the romantic to the classical manner was
already in evidence before Dryden was born.
Dryden saw which way in the
the literary wind was blowing, and set his craft cheerfully same direction. things. He
gauged its possibilities and did brilliant
He saw what kind of verse the people of his day wanted, and It is quite clear from a study
made it his business to give it them.
of his plays, how surely he was developing the qualities of ease, flexibility, particularly and the lucidity satire. that Then, he at brought the age into of English fifty, verse, after a
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prosperous career as a serious poet, and a dramatist, he suddenly became famous in the direction, where, claim on future generations, after all, lies his especial
the field of satire.
5.2
Drydens Life & Works. Born in 1631, in the little village of Aldwinkle in
Northamptonshire, John was the son of its rector, the Rev. Erasmus Dryden, and Mary Pickering his wife, both of whom belonged to old county families with strong Puritan tendencies. There is
scant record of his boyhood ;
his early schooling appears to have
been more solid than that usually imparted in country villages, for in writing to a friend a few years before his death he speaks of the pleasure with which he had read an English translation of the works of the Greek historian Polybius before he was ten years of age, and that even then he had some dark notions of the prudence with which he wrote. Essay on Dramatic Poetry.
Trinity College, Cambridge, has the honour of being his Alma Mater, which he entered in 1650, but two years later came into
conflict with the Vice-Master for disobedience and contumacy in taking his punishment of the form of punishment we are left in ignorance. At Cambridge he also wrote some not very memorable verse. On leaving Cambridge in 1657, he came to London as secretary to Sir Gilbert Pickering, a kinsman of his mothers and chamberlain to Oliver Cromwell, and we may imagine the young man was glad of the opportunity of adding somewhat to the small in-come of 40 a year which came to him on the death of his father three years before. His marriage in 1664 to Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, brought another 100 a year to the family exchequer, but not a corresponding amount of happiness, the Lady Elizabeth lacking that strong and purposeful character so character-istic of her
husband. Up to this time Dryden had done little to establish the great reputation that was subsequently to be bis. He had written some purely official verses in 1659, on the death of the Protector, which contrast oddly with his eulogy of Charles the Second on his
coronation, in Astrcea Redux, the following year. His best efforts are shown unmistakably in hia early verses addressed to Dr. Charlton in 1663.
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The
Wild
Gallant
(1663),
The
Rival
Ladies
(1664)
Mac-
Flecknoe, 1682 and
Absalom and Achitophel are some of his works.
Drydens literary significance is threefold, and is expressed in his prose, his dramas, and his verse. In this section we are dealing exclusively with Dryden the poet.
5.3
PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN ALL FOR LOVE In All for Love the scene is laid in Alexandria and does not
shift elsewhere ; the action does not go beyond a single day. Within such limits he has to develop the theme of the play. The theme is a contest between love and honour in Antony. The preliminary talk of Serapion and Alexas in the opening scene forms the exposition. Antony is the theme of the conversation in the opening scene. The portents and prodigies to which Serapion refers seem to
foreshadow the future developments which can only be disastrous to Antony. The Roman army is stationed in Alexandria, to be in action at any moment. It is a threat to Egypt. Antony has betaken, himself to the temple of Isis, and is a prey to black despair, and seems t o b e shunning Cleopatra. With the presence of the Roman army in Alexandria and the seeming concurrence of Antony in the situation, since there is no activity on his part, there is immediate danger to Egyptit may be converted into a Roman province any day. Octavia, Antonys wife, is trying to seek revenge, and Dolabella, once his friend, bent on accomplishing Antonys ruin. Alexas asserts that Cleopatra still dotes on Antony, when she could saved herself and her kingdom by discarding Antony, and seems to be very much worried about the state of things. It appears as though nothing could be done to shape the destiny of Egypt. So, all the information that is needed to follow the action of the play is supplied in the opening dialogues. Ventidius is introduced as the man who has a strong hold upon Antony. Though Antony will receive no visitor, Ventidius presents
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himself before him. Ventidius proceed very cautiously and tactfully, reproaching him for his passive submission and indolence. He offers him the services of twelve legions so that he may fight again to recover his position. None but Ventidius could have handled him. Antony realizes that he has degraded himself by his sensual love for Cleopatra, and Ventidius is pleased to hear that he is even willing to leave Cleopatra. The sooner he does it the better. It is not yet too late to retrieve the position. The first Act opens with the dialogue between Serapion and
Alexas, who prepare the audience for the future action of the play. The action of the play is confined to a single day and focuses on Antony who has sunk into despair, to rouse himself and fight his enemy at the door. Ventidius, Antonys general, is brought in without delay into the presence of Antony; it is now only Ventidius who can draw him out of his inaction, and rescue him from his enslavement to dishonourable love. Alexas informs Cleopatra that Antony will have nothing more to do with her, but is going to fight and not even see her again. She is naturally upset. Losing Antony and i s t h e greatest calamity to her. She is reproached by Alexas for her weak passion which is unbecoming of a queen. And she replies that she is no queen when she is besieged by the Roman Army, and when her country may be reduced to slavery at any moment. Absents weighs most heavily upon her. She is most unhappy because Antony would not see her again. Charmion whom she sends to Antony, returns to tell her that Antony is in the midst of his soldiers, and that he received her though Ventidius frowned at it, and that Antony would not rather see her if he could, and sends his respects to her. Alexas, Cleopatras adviser, Alexas next brings Antony a message from Cleopatra. It is an appeal to Antonys men to stand by him and
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protect him from all dangers ; and with the message comes the gift of a bracelet for Antony. Ventidius is unable to check Antony. Alexas now sends an attendant to bring in Cleopatra. Antony when he sees Cleopatra again, remarks that hard fates are separating them. He charges her with having been obsessed with Caesar, while she was in love with him ; and reproaches himself for having wasted his time in lascivious love for her, for his infatuation for the raising of war by his wife, Fulvia, in Italy, and her subsequent death. He regrets his marrying Octavia to gain the friendship of Octavius and his repudiation of her for the sake of Cleopatra, his defeat at the battle of Actium at sea, for which he holds her mainly responsible, as she advised him to fight at sea while he wanted to fight by land. In fact, Antony blames Cleopatra for all that has happened in his life since his association with her Cleopatra replies to all these charges in effective and unambiguous, and at last produces a letter from Octavius, in which she is offered Egypt as well as Syria if she supports him. She has refused a kingdom for him; but that is not much. She will readily part with her life for him. Antony makes a complete surrender to Cleopatra: Give, your gods, Give to your boy, your Caesar, This rattle of a globe to play, withal, This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off. Ill not be pleased with less than Cleopatra. In the contest between love and honour, love routs honour. In the first Act when Ventidius argues with Antony, honour prevailes against love. To quote : Our men armed: Unbar the gate that looks to Caesars camp: I would revenge the treachery he meant me. At this stage, in him there is a conflict between l o v e a n d
honour. He explores if he can uphold his honour and redeem himself
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from
degradation
to
which
he
has
sunk
by
his
infatuated
and
illegitimatelove for Cleopatra. The third Act introduces the celebration of Antonys victory over the forces of Octavius. He is aware of the fact that Octavious will try his best to bring about his ruin and destruction. Ventidius is sure that Antony cannot redeem so he his position in until he extricates still
himself
from
Cleopatra,
brings
Dolabella.
Antony
remembers Dolabella as estranged from him because he has betrayed his passion for Cleopatro. But he esteems him as his friend. Ventidius firmly believes that with the help of Dolabella he will be able to wean Antony away from the sinister influence of Cleopatra. Ventidius conceives, that there is no other way of saving Antony and restoring his honour which he has so miserably jeopardized by his surrender to the voluptuous love of Cleopatra. According to Dolabella, Antony betrays his sense of shame at his self-degradation, but he would deprecate any charge being made
against the Queen (Cleopatra). One of the charges being that she had anything to do with the death of Dolabellas brother. Antony refers to Dolabella being smitten with love for Cleopatra. Dclabella
reiterates that Antonys infatuation has cost him his legions, his honour and half the world he once ruled. He hints also that
honourable terms have been settled for him with Octavius. This is f o l l o w e d b y Ventidius bringing daughters. So it is Octavia who has settled honourable terms to restore the honour of Antony. She convinces Antony that by the terms agreed upon, his honour remains unimpeached and his freedom remains unconditional, that he is even free to abandon his wedded wife Octavia. Octavia tells him that all that her brother seeks is Antonys friendship, and .that if he likes, he may discard her, and she will not complain. in Octavia and her two little
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Antony has no scruples about accepting that offer, when it seems to be dictated by Octavias duty, and not love as she does not mind being dropped by Antony if he is so inclined. to be obliged to Octavia who does not love him. Octavia offers, her duty inspite of being injured and denied love. She says, Antony is not willing
Therefore, my lord, I should not love you, and adds, And therefore I should leave you, if I could. As result of a conflict in Antony, he is more than half inclined to yield to Octavia. He is torn between Cleopatra and Octavia. For
his heart is overwhelmed with pity for both of them. Antony has a sorely distracted mind. At last, he cries out: I am vanquished: take me, Olivia, take me, children: share me well. Ive been a thriftless debtor to your loves, And run out much, in riot, from your stock: But all shall be amended.
This leads to the climax of the play. In the following interview between Cleopatra and Octavia in Act three, Cleopatra claims that her beauty attracted Antony who must have come to her after having grown weary of dull, tame domesticity. Octavia asserts that she is model of a virtuous modest wife set against the lasciviousness of a mistress. Cleopatra replies that she has no reason to be ashamed of charms that may please the bravest man, and claims that she loves Antony better, and deserves him more. And Octavia censures her for having been his ruin, and made him
scorned abroad, and betrayed him at Actium. Cleopatras reply is: Yet she, who loves him best, is Cleopatra. If you have suffered, I have suffered more. And she has lost her honour, degraded her royal houseall to bear the branded name of
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mistress. Cleopatra puts up her ptea as strongly as Octavia. In the fourth Act Antony, instead of making his farewell to Cleopatra personally, sends Dolabella to do it for him. Alexas who bears a hand in all the affairs of Cleopatra, now sees that Cleopatra is going to lose Antony, suggests a plan to her. While Dolabella comes to say farewell to her on behalf of Antony, she should rekindle love in him who has a weakness for her, and thus she can win back Antony by rousing his jealousy. To this plan, Cleopatra agrees rather reluctantly. With a hint of encouragement from Cleopatra, Dolabella pours out his passion for her, and rather overdoes his part in
misreporting Antonys callous cruelty to her, and Cleopatra is very much upset. Then Dolabella goes down on his knees and recants, and speaks fairly of Antony and his attitude to her. He confesses: I, traitor as I was, for love of you. (But what can you not do, who made me false ?) I forged that lie, for whose forgiveness kneels This self-accused, self-punished criminal.
Then he takes her handand it is all the reward he claims for the service he is going to render her. The scene is watched by Ventidius and Octavia. Ventidius misinterprets it to Octavia, as an exchange of love between Dolabella and Cleopatra. This is reported to Antony who will not at first believe it. When Alexas turns up, Ventidius catches hold of him, and tells him that he overheard Cleopatra making love to Dolabella and demands of him
Alexas that he must not conceal the truth. Alexass confession is rather ambiguous. He first defends Cleopatras love for Antony, for when her beauty has attracted kings from far and near, she had chosen a Roman forher love, and that Roman is Antony. Then he points out that due regard of honour now disposes her to renounce her claim for Octavia, though her heart may not have wholly altered. Then he
defends his mistress if she were to turn her love to Dolabella.
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Antony bursts out in his passion when he hears this, and Octavia chafes within for this extreme concernment for an abandoned,
faithless prostitute. Antony bids Octavia to leave him. Octavia retorts: Wherein have I offended you, my lord, That I am bid to leave you ? Am I false, Or infamous ? Am I a Cleopatra ? Were I she, Base as she is, you would not bid me leave you: But hang upon my neck, take slight excuses, And fawn upon my falsehood.
Now it appears that Octavia grows as
jealous
of
Cleopatra
as
Antony of Dolabella. This is followed by the final break-off between Octavia and Antony. She leaves him never to return. She refuses to have a share in him with Cleopatra. Her last words are: So, take my last farwell, for I despair To have you whole, and scorn to take your half.
This is again the end of Ventidiuss hope ever to rescue Antony from his enslavement to Cleopatra. And this works the anticlimax. Antony seems to be bemused by jealousy. The frankness and
sincerity of both Dolabella and Cleopatra has no effect on Antony. Dolabella confesses that to his loving Cleopatra is a sin in him, but avows Cleopatras innocence, and Cleopatra confesses her inciting in Dolabella to win back Antonys love. It is for Antony a farewell to love and friendship, and he cannot forgive them while he can forgive a foe. In this scene in which Antony dismisses his mistress and his friend, he shows himself at his worst, while Cleopatra shows herself at her best. Antony feels like relenting for a moment, but honour, he thinks now, triumphs: I have
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a fool within me takes my part; But honour stops my e a r s . I t i s jealousy that blinds him, when honour is out of question. The fifth Act, o p e n s w i t h Cleopatra, Charmion and Iras, soon
joined by Alexas. Cleopatra curses herself, for doting on him, Antony which she cannot rid herself of even now. She brings out her dagger to kill herself but she is restrained. But she can, as she tells them, die inward, and her soul seems to struggle with all the agonies of love and rage. Then seeing Alexas she vents her wrath upon him. He diverted her from the path of plain and open loveand the result is her banishment and the removal of Octavia. She makes Alexas
responsible for the calamity that has come upon her. Alexas still flatters her with hopes of winning back Antonys love when Octavia is gone and Dolabella is banished, for jealousy with which he is now visited is the secret nourisher of love. He reports an engagement between the Egyptian fleet and Octaviuss which Antony has been
watching at the moment. Serapion now enters and delivers the news that the Egyptian fleet has gone over to the enemy, and that Antony cannot but think that he has been betrayed, and warns Cleopatra to keep out of his way. Alexas offers to go to Caesar, and negotiate her safety. Clelopatra spurns this offer for it would be but betraying Antony. She would now listen to Serapion and not to Alexas. They leave Alexas, and he is anxious now to save his own life, and to think no more of Cleopatra or Egypt. Antony questions Alexas who tells him that Cleopatra had nothing to do with the desertion of the Egyptian fleet and that she had retired to her monument, and killed herself. Now, Antony fully
believes in her innocence. Ventidius again urging him to fight, is of no avail. Antony
replies that when his queen is dead and that he has valued his power and empire for her. Now that she is dead, let Octavius take the
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world. Rather than be captured by Octavius. Antony desires to die like a Roman, ie., kill himself. Ventidius offers to follow him to death. Antony desires him to live after him, and report him fairly, and then suggests that he would better kill him and recommend himself to Octavius by the merit of this act. Ventidius is hurt by this proposal At last the pact is made that he should kill Antony first and then himself. But Ventidius plunges the sword into himself. He prefers to die perjured rather than kill his friend. Antony next throws himself upon his sword, but it misses his heart. Fortune seems to have let him down. At this moment Cleopatra enters, followed by Charmion and Iras. There is a mutual understanding now. The dying Antony is placed in a chair ; he has but few moments to live, and he is comforted when she tells him that her fleet betrayed him and her; and that she is going to die with him. He seals his love for her with a dying kiss. Now she claims to be his wife, and she loved a Roman, and she is going to die like the wife of a Roman. She will not submit to Octavius to grace his triumph in Rome. She first crowns Antonys head with a laurel wreath and then she decks herself in her jewels like a bride, and sits beside him ; then she puts the asp on her arm, and death slowly creeps upon her. Next it is the turn for Iras and Charmion to die by the bite of the asp. Then enter Serapion, two priests, Alexas in chains and
Egyptians, and they behold the tragic scenethe lovers sitting in state together, a smile still flickering on the lips of Cleopatra. Serapion pays them this tribute: And fame to late posterity shall tell, No lovers lived so great, or died so well. The last line of the play is: No lovers lived so great, or died so well.
5.4 THEME
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In the opinion of Dr. Johnson All for Love has one fault equal to many . . . that, by admitting the romantic omnipotence of love, Dryden has recommended, as laudable and worthy of Imitation that conduct, which, through all ages, the good have censured as vicious, and the bad despised as foolish. Dryden declared in his preface to the tragedy that he was
attracted to the subject-by the excellency of the moral; that the chief persons represented were famous patterns of unlawful love; and their end accordingly was unfortunate. For Dryden the love affair
of Antony and Cleopatra contained good potentials for tragedy because it ex-emplified punishment for a love founded upon vice; it made virtue attractive and vice repellent, and therefore met the
requirement for poetic justice. Dryden believed that the lovers do not demand full tragic pity because the crimes of love, which they both committed, but were were not wholly occasioned voluntary; by any necessity, passions or fatal or
ignorance,
since-our
are,
ought to be, within our power (Essays, ed. Ker, 1900 I, 191-192). The inevitability of tragedy is lacking, according to Dryden, since the lovers are not forced into their actions. But if we look closely at the play, we find that it does not present a picture of the crimes of love and of unlaw-ful lovers- being punished for their voluntary transgressions. Instead, it gives us almost the opposite: a love that is inevitable, an uncontrollable force; and the lovers
vindicated because of their passion. Our sympathies are drawn to the lovers and held there because their passions are not within their power. The theme of All for Love is the conflict of reason and honor
with passion in the form of illicit love. From the preface it seems That Dryden wished to show how Antony, torn between these two,
chooses unreasonable, passionate love and is consequently punished for his denial of reason.!
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The play begins with a struggle. Antony, Unbent, unsinewd, made a Womans Toy / Shrunk from the vast extent of all his honours, hopes to cure his mind of Love. Ventidius, the old true-stampt Roman, sides with the world of reason, of plainness, fierceness, rugged virtue, by cursing the joy and revelry of the Egyp-; tians, and by deriding Alexas, the eunuch the unmanned as Antonys other fate (Works, ed. Summers, 1932, IV, 192, 194-196). Aware of his degradation, Antony admits the truth of Ventidiuss charges: I have lost my reason, have disgraced. The name of Soldier, with
inglorious ease. In the full Vintage of my flowing honors, Sate still, and saw it prest by other hands, (p. 199) When Antony resolves to kill himself because the world is not worth keeping, Ventidius offers to die with him. Thus, early in the play some of the contradictions are evident. This desperate, illicit love of Antony, a world-weary. Roman, and the beautiful, sensual, and cunning Cleopatra has so enmeshed them that they are unable to control themselves, although, both are well aware of what they are doing. In Act V Dryden seems to have been faced once and for all withtin, choice of punishing his lovers and proving the excellency of the moral or closing the play with the victory over reason and honor which has been inevitable first act. Antonys closing lines indicate that Dryden since the
abandoned
altogether his ideal of poetic justice: Ten years love, And not a moment lost, but all improyd, To th utmost joys: (What Ages have we livd? And now to die each others; and, so dying,
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While hand in hand we walk in Gfoyes below, Whole -Troops of Lovers Ghosts shall flock about us, And all the Train be ours. No speech after this suggests a moral condemnation of the lovers. Rather the play ends on quite another note: I And Fame, to late Posterity, shall tell, / No lovers livd so
great or dyd so well. (p. 261) Faced with the opposing viewpoints of Drydens preface on the one hand and the play itself with its sub-title on the other, we had best take Ttie World Well Lost as the more accurate statement of Drydens intention. Dryden believed that Antony and Cleopatra should be pun-ished since they violated one of the basic strictures of his age, but yet, as we have seen, he could not regard his tragic hero and heroine as illustrations world was of a neo-classical The moral was maximfor a his lovers, the to which the
well
lost.
result
conflict,
central weak-nesses in All for Love may be attributed. A theme not pursued in Shakespeare so baldly is the insistence that .Antony, like Samson, chose an alien woman, a recurrent motif in Samson. Octavia: I need not ask if you are Cleopatra; Your haughty carriage Cleopatra: Shows I am a queen: Nor need I ask you, who you are. Octavia: A Roman: A name that makes and can unmake a queen. Cleopatra: Your lord, the man who serves me, is a Roman. Octavia: He was a Roman, till he lost that name, To be a slave in Egypt; but I come To free him thence. (Ill, i)
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The critical link between All for Love and Samson is perhaps more interesting even than the thematic and verbal similarities.
Dryden commenting on Antony remarks, The death of Antony and Cleopatra is a subject which has been treated by the greatest wits of our nation, after Shakespeare. The excellency of the moral is to be noted. For the chief persons represented are famous patterns of
unlawful love; and their end accordingly is unfortunate. 5.5 MARK ANTONY
Antony, too, is willing to sacrifice all for love, and in him the accent on suffering and compassion is even more marked. Not
altogether wicked, because he could not then be pitied, he is as different; from the heroical hero of Drydens earlier plays as he is from Shakespeares hero. he Indecisive, is thrown and and by the the constant prey pleas of of
conflicting Ventidius,
sentiments, Octavia,
successive into
Dollabella,
Cleopatra
alternating
postures of grief and hope; and his ability to assume such postures with extravagance and he becomes the final measure of his heroism. Early in the play Ventidious accords Antony the credentials of the earlier heroes: a vast soul Herculean divinity: Methinks you breath Another Soul: Your looks are more Divine; You speak a Heroe, and you move a God. (V, 347, 359) But the context of Ventidius praise is a scene which exploits precisely those qualities in Antony which make him less than a god: his compassionate sensibilities, and his tender heart.
Antony gives in Ventidius in this scene and agrees to resume the duties of his empireless to assert his glory than to demonstrate his affection for his frieni, He hugs Ventidius and weeps with him: Sure
theres contagion in the tears of Friends: See, I have caught it, too. Believe me, tis not For my own griefs, but thine. (V, 353). His
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relationship with Cleopatra, though more complicated, is similarly sentimental. Antony claims often that Cleopatra deserves / More
Worlds than I can lose (V, 357), but when the play begins he has already effectively lost the world and we see him walking with a
disturbd Motion, and shortly afterwards, lying prostrate upon the stage. Antony proves his worth as a lover much as Cleopatra does, not by giving away worlds which are no longer in his power to give, but by showing his capacity for sympathy and suffering. He can almost always be reduced to tears by his friends and by her One look of hers, would thaw me into tears, he tells Dollabella, And I should melt until I were lost again. (V, 395) and in virtually every situation in which we see him on stage, his grandeur is shown by the enormity of his distress. No longer a conqueror, a family man rather than a superman, Antony is the hero of a play which exalts the man of feeling, the man who Weeps much; fights little; but is wondrous Antonys flaw is resembles Samsons uxoriousness. Dalilas
overwhelming confidence that het touch alone (Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand951) would bring Samson back to her is echoed by Ventidius passionatt advice to Antony not to accept a gift from Cleopatra. To quote Drydens words, Now, my best lord,in honours name, I ask you, For manhoods sake, and for your own dear safety, Touch not these poisoned gifts, Infected by the sender; touch them not . . . (II, i) Ventidius, Dolabella, and later Octavia have repeatedly to call forth the sentiment of honour in Antony. He is known to be a great warrior, but as he has been portrayed in the play, he appears a feeble and more or less passive character. Cleopatra is consistent throughout; her love for Antony never varies for a moment, even in
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her interview with Octavia, she defends herself ably for such love. Even as a voluptuary and a dissipated rake Antony shows much of zest, or a keen sense of enjoyment. and passions or that he is He is a man of strong appetites of yielding himself to the
capable
frenzied intoxication of love. Antony seems to be without character. Ventidius tries to inspire him with a feeling for honour, but he cannot retain it long. He has to bring in Dolabella and Octavia to enforce his appeal to Antonys fiftul sense of honour, Octavia brings him fair terms. The terms give Antony entire freedom of choice. He may even discard his legally wedded wife, Octavia, while he offers his friendship to Octavius. Octavia says: Ill tell my brother we are reconciled; He shall draw back his troops, and you shall march East: I may be dropt and Athens; No matter where. I never will complain, But only keep the barren name of wife, And rid you of the trouble. to rule the
Antony almost surrenders to Octavia, who wins the sympathy of the audience. but there is more pity for Cleopatra. Octavia, behaves with more grace and dignity than Antony. At last Antony confesses himself vanquished. For the time being it is a total surrender to Octavia: Take me, Octavia; take me, children: share me all [Embracing them. Ive been a thriftless debtor to your loves, And run out much, in riot, from your stock; But all shall be amended.
Antony
is
as
variable
as
the
wind.
He
is
later filled with
jealousy when it is reported to him that Dolabella, sent by him to bid farewell to Cleopatra for him, has been making love to her. Ventidius might have overreached himself in this matter, for he
inflames jealousy in Antony by his report which Alexas is made to
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confirm in a wayand the result is the final breakoff between Antony and Octavia. His jealousy again seems to be fatuous. He is incapable of the fury of jealousy. Antony is disturbed and dissatisfied with the confession
Cleopatra and Dolabella the trick that seems to have been played upon him. His reason and judgment seem to be of a very low order. The confession of Cleopatra and Dolabella leaves their bonafides
unquestioned, and makes truth come to limelight, but Antony is unable to see it. After his rupture with Octavia, Antony does not go back to
Cleopatra. He suspects Cleopatra of loving Dolabella, and he may perhaps want to keep away from her. He resumes fighting with
Octavius, and then the crisis comesthe Egyptian fleet goes over to Octavius. And Antony thinks that he has been betrayed by Cleopatra : Ungrateful woman! Who followed me, but as the swallow summer, Hatching her young ones in my kindly beams, Singing her flatteries to my morning wake; But now my winter comes, she spreads her wings, And seeks the spring of Caesar. The following dialogue between Ventidius and Antony at this stage throws light on his character: Ant, I will not fight; theres no more work for war. The business of my angry hours is done. Vent. Caesar is at your gates. Ant. Why, let him enter: Hes welcome now. Vent. What lethargy has crept into your soul ? Ant. Tis but scorn of life and just desire To free myself from bondage.
The
slumbering
sentiment
of
honour
in
him
is
awakened
by
Ventidius now and then. His love for Cleopatra does not seem to be a
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strong passion: it is easily killed by a flick of jealousy. However, he is going to die like a Roman, who would not let himself be
captured alive by his enemy. He throws himself upon his sword, but it misses his heart. Now a reconciliation is patched up between him and Cleopatra.| Before dying he wants to be assured that Cleopatra is not false to him. She exclaims. First, this laurel Shall crown my heros head; he fell not
basely. Nor left his shield behind him,only thou Couldst triumph oer thyself, and thou alone Wert worthy so to triumph. Antony, destroyed by his own passions and the situation in which he is placed, is a truly tragic figure. 5.6 CLEOPATRA Cleopatra attempts to bring Antony back into her world. The
opening and concluding lines of the act indicate the progress of the action and her success: Cleopatra. What shall I do, or whither shall I turn? Ventidius has orcome, and he will go. Antony. How I long for night! That both the sweets of mutual love may try. (p. 216) Cleopatra is far more than the evil temptress, offering ruin, that Dryden seems to indicate in his preface: instead, she
illustrates a moral complexity which reason cannot solve. Iras. Call reason to assist you. Cleopatra. I have none. And none would have; my Moves a noble madness, Which shows the cause deservd it. Moderate sorrow Fits vulgar Love, and for a vulgar Man: i
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But I have lovd with such transcendent passion, I soard, at first quite out of Reasons view, And now am lost above it. (p. 204) Her transcendent love is an emotion which rises above reason. Cleopatras false cloak of virtue does not enrich her personality but detracts from her essential character of mature sophistication: she is hardly a woman who would mourn the loss of honor through love.
Cleopatra, similarly
though
somewhat and
less
masochistic
than
Octavia, In
is one
domesticated
sentimentally
self-indulgent.
speech she complains that Nature meant her to be A Wife, a silly harmless household Dove, / Fond without art; and kind without deceit (p. 47; V, 399), and although these lines can be misleading out of context, spirit, they if not do in nonetheless name, she de-scribe is her wishes accurately. In
indeed a suffering wife: utterly
true, as Dryden describes her in the prologue, utterly without the sexual independence which characterizes the heroines of Drydens
earlier plays. She dotes, / She dotes . . . on this vanquishd Man (p. 3; V, 346). Alexas remarks, that she herself bewails the curse / Of doting on, evn when I find it Dotagel (p. 63; V, 418). Although she proclaims the heroism of this dotage and its simplicity (her love, she insists, is plain, direct and open), the plays emphasis is not upon the magnanimity of her fidelity but upon the hardships which she must endure because of it. Her major scenes are those in which she must face the loss of Antony, and in all them she proves herself by the sincerity of her grief. When Dollabella pretends that Antony has cast her off unkindly, she sinks quite down on the stage (p. 50; V, 402), and after her encounter with Octavia, she exits to a solitary Chamber,
... to take alone
My fill of grief:
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There I till death will his unkindness weep As harmless Infants moan themselves asleep. (p. 44; V, 395) Cleopatra is heroic, worthy of Antony, not because she is a queen, and a woman infinite in variety, but because she suffers and deserves pity as she herself is quick to point out to Octavia: Yet she who loves him best is Cleopatra. If you have sufferd, I have sufferd more. You bear the specious Title of a Wife, To guild your Cause, and draw the pitying World To favour it: the World
contemns poor me; For I have lost my Honour, lost my Fame, And Staind the glory of my Royal House, And all to bear the branded Name of Mistress. There wants but life, and that too I would lose For him I love. Love triumphs in her, and death is the vindication of her love, and it is love transcendent, and so it is little troubled brittle, finicky question of honour. She is the finest by the
drawn
character in the play. She is the triumph of Drydens art. The title of the play, All for Love, or The World Well Lost is appropriate only in relation to Cleopatra. It is justified by Cleopatras invariable love and the sacrifice she made for it. Cleopatra is rightly the heroine of the play. She is all for love and love absorbs her whole being and she cannot think of anything. It is all transcending love. Her position is that of a mistress to Antony. But she is more than that, and love raises her above the position of a mistress. She is not artful, coquettish, lascivious as a mistress should have been. She is rather characterized by modesty and seemliness in all her dealings with Antony. Octavia knows not her character. Ventidius wishes only to
separate Antony from Cleopatra, and is biased against her from the beginning. Antony, though brought into the most intimate relation
110
with her, has not the understanding or insight to fathom the depth of her being. Alexas knows too well that Cleopatra cannot disentangle herself from her love for Antony. He remarks that she dotes.....on this vanquished man and winds herself about his mighty ruins ; and his opinion, is that she can save herself and her kingdom by giving up Antony. Her love is unquestioning ; undeviating that she cannot be the love of a mere mistress. Cleopatras love is all-transcending, it is for such love that she sacrifices her kingdom and herself. Ventidius gauges her as mistress pure and simple. When he reports to Antony that Cleopatra has been carrying on with Dolabella, he says : I do not lie, my lord, Is this so strange ? Should mistress be left, And not provide against a time of change ? You know shes not much used to lonely nights. Cleopatra has not the remotest intention of exchanging one lover for another. She would not even save herself by casting off Antony when Antony had cast her off. Alexas suggests that he can persuade Octavius to spare her life. Cleopatra protests : Base fawning wretch ! wbuldst thou betray, him too ? Hence from my sight! I will not hear a traitor;
Twas thy design brought all this ruin on me. Alexas persuades her to play with Dolabella so that she might make Antony jealous. A
mistress could have managed it all right. Later she confesses to Antony: Ah, what will not a woman do who loves ? What means will she refuse, to keep that heart. Where all her joys are placed ? Twas I encouraged, Twas I blew up the fire that scorched his soul, To make you jealous, and by that regain you But all in vain, I could not counterfeit: In spite of all the dams my love broke oer,
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And drowned my heart again.
The above words express her true and sincere love. Cleopatra is f a r f r o m Octavias notion that she is an abandoned faithless
prostitute. It is an accident, and it is her misfortune that she has the position of a mistress to Antony. But she bears him true, all undying love. She might have better graced the position of a wife to Antony. She asserts Ah, no : my loves so true, That I can neither hide it where it is, Nor show it where it is not. Nature meant me A wife, a silly, harmless, household dove, Fond without art, and kind without deceit; But Fortune, that has made a mistress of me, Has thrust me out to the wide world unfurnished Of falsehood to be happy.
It is a pity that she has not been appreciated by anybody in the play except by Charmion and Iras who are sincerely devoted to her. With good reason she defends her love for Antony. When Octavia
accuses
her with being the cause of Antonys ruin, of his being
cheapened and scorned abroad, of his losing the battle of Acturn, and all that, she replies : Yet, she, who loves him best, is Cleopatra. If you have suffered, I have suffered more. You bear the specious title of a wife. To guild your cause, and draw the pitying world To favour it; the world condemns poor me. For I have lost my honour, lost my fame And stained the glojy of my royal house, And all to bear the brand name of mistress, There wants but life, and that too I would lose, For him, I love.
It is the vindication of her love in the right strain. So much is being made of Antonys honour being at stake in his infatuation for Cleopatra by Ventidius and Dolabella while Antony seems to be little bothered about it. Cleopatra breathes but once of having sacrificed
112
honour, fame and the dignity of her royal house for love. But honour is not an issue with her, as it is supposed to be with Antony. Love means everything to her; she lives and dies for love. Commenting on Shakespeares Cleopatra Mrs. Jameson opines on the
features of her character mental accomplishments, unequalled grace, womans wit and womans wiles, irresistible allurements, starts of irregular grandeur, bursts of ungovernable temper, vivacity of
imagination, petulant caprice, fickleness and falsehood, tenderness and truth, childish susceptibility to flattery, magnificent spirit, royal pride. Drydens Cleopatra is not such a complex character, so rich in contradictions. Nor can we picture her as one brilliant
impersonation of classified elegance, oriental voluptuousness, and gypsy sorcery. None of the subtlety, witchery, infinite variety are displayed in Drydens Cleopatra. Though she does not w a n t i n
mental accomplishments, in grace or in womanly wit, to Shakespeares Cleopatra she may, match her in love for Antony. Enobarbus, comments her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. But Brandes notes the difference: This is literally true only that the love is not pure in the sense of being sublimated or unegoistic but in the sense of being quintessential erotic emotion, chemically free from all the other elements usually combined with it. Cleopatra is a supreme creation indeed a triumph of his art. Cleopatra, urged by her maids to call reason to her aid, replies that she has none, "and none would have." She has loved "with such transcendent passion" that she has soared "quite out of reason's view" and now is lost above it. She is incapable of thought and depends on scheming Alexas to prescribe her course of action.
Cleopatra, the embodiment of love, whose being depends on Antony's,
113
and
who
prefers
death
with
him
to
life
without
him,
is
merely
pathetic. 5.7 OCTAVIA Dryden regards Octavia as a sympathetic character who arouses compassion. Octavia, is so well drawn as a respectable woman,
because it is her pride, her regard for honor in the form of her reputation, which qualifies her love as something far more a vice than the love of Antony and Cleopatra. Octavia is so undeniably selfrighteous that Antony does what man would do when he returns to Cleopatra in Act 5. A good illustration of Octavias morality is her plea: To quote,
Go to him. Children, go; Kneel to him, take him by the hand, speak to him: For you may speak, and he may own you too, Without a blush; and so he cannot all His Children: go, I say, and pull him to me, And pull him to your selves, from that bad Woman. You, Agrippina, hang upon his arms; And you, Antonia, clasp about his waist: If he will shake you off, if he will dash you Against the Pavement, you must bear it, Children; For you are mine, and I was born to suffer, (p. 226) The sudden intrusion of virtue into the scene may be morally necessary, but Dryden makes it so much less attractive than the compelling physical love affair that he is obviously aligning himself with passion and against the reason and virtue he urges in his .
preface. Even the sophisticated serpent of the Nile is dampened by the overbearing virtue and becomes a pale shadow of Octavia: Cleopatra, I have sufferd more. / You bear the
specious Title of a Wife, To guild your Cause, and draw the pitying
114
World To favour it: the World condemns poor me; (For I have(lost my- Honour, lost my Fame, And staind the glory of my Royal House, And all to bear the branded Name of Mistress, There wants that life, and that too I would lose For him I love. (p. 229) She feels wronged and pities herself.
Octavia is introduced as the symbol of the family. Although she speaks in the name of the Roman empire, her role in the play is really defined by her domestic relationships: as a wife,: a s a
mother, and as a sister. She is an abused wife, and also she is well-naturd; she leaves Antony ; only after she has exacted from him, from Ventidius, from Dollabella, from the audience, a full
measure of the thrills of domestic piety. Her reconciliation scene with Antony is a paradigm of sentimental drama. Octavia enters, leading Antonys two little Daughters and she and Antony stage a brief debate in what appears to be the old style, and strife of sullen Honour. But she confesses her love, and as Antony himself makes clear, the debate shifts from honor to pity. Pity, he says, pleads for Octavia; But does it not plead more for Cleopatra? Ventidius answers that Justice and Pity both plead for Octavia and Antony admits to ,a distracted Soul. The maudlin
resolution of the scene is worth quoting at length: Octav. Sweet Heavn, compose it. Come, come, my Lord, if I can pardon you, Methinks you should accept it. Look on these; Are they not yours? Or stand they thus neglected As they are mine? Go. to him, Children, go; Kneel to-him, take him by the hand, speak to him, For you may speak, and he may own you too, Without a blush; and so he cannot all
115
His Children: go, I say, and pull him to me, And pull him to yourselves from that bad Woman. You, Agrippa, hang upon his arms; And you, Antonia, clasp about his waste: If he will shake you off, if he will dash you Against the Pavement, you must bear it, Children; For you are mine, and I was born to suffer. (Here the Children go to him, etc.) Ven. Was ever sight so moving! Emperorl Dolla. Friend! Octav. Husbandl Both Childr. Father! Ant; I am vanquishd: take me, Octavia; take me, Children; share me all. (Embracing them.) Ive been a thriftless Debtor to your loves, And run out much, in riot, from your stock; But all shall be amended. Octav. O blest hour!
Dolla. O happy change 1 Ven. My joy stops at my tongue,
But it has found two channels here for one, And bubbles out above. Ant. to Octav. This is thy Triumph; lead mewhere thou
wilt; Evn to thy Brothers Camp. Octav. All there are yours.
Octavias Marriage is a result of reconciliation between Antony and Octavius. When Antony deserts her for Cleopatra, she is out for revenge as reflected in the following words of Alexas. His wife Octavia, Driven from his house, solicits her revenge. Later as per the request of Ventidius, she seems to have come on a mission of peace and friendship. She raises the issue of honour with: I love your honour Because tis mine: it never shall be said. Octavias husband was her brothers slave.
So she brings fair terms of friendship from Octavius. According
116
t o h e r Antony is ; free
to
leave
her.
Octavia
seems
to
be
very
generous. It might be a policy with her after all. She says : For, though, my brother bargains for your love, Makes me the price and cement of your peace, I have a soul like yours; I cannot take Your love as alms, nor beg what I deserve. She strongly feels that she is being offered as a sacrifice to the peace and friendship between her brother and husband. Though for a short time Antonio surrenders to her, it appears that Antony is
going to own his friendship and his life to her duty. Octavia says that when she had been denied her wifely right it is but proper that she should leave him. Antony is moved to the point of yielding, when Octavia draws her two little daughters round Antony. They are to pull him away from that bad woman (Cleopatra), and pull him to her. Th e t r i c k
succeeds. Octavia has been used, and is still being used as pawn in politics. And she is conscious of it, as it appears from her speech here. However, Antony surrenders to his wife and daughters. They are to take him, and share him all. During her arguments with Cleopatra, she claims the virtue of a modest wife as against black endearments, of Cleopatra who
enslaving him. Cleopatra, retorting Exclaims: And, when I love not him, Heaven change this face
(her own face) For one like that (Octavias face). And then she claims that she loves Antony best. To this Octavia can make no suitable reply. Octavia boldly announces that she has
come to free Antony from bondage, who was once a Roman, but is now a slave in Egypt. Cleopatras reply is very effective: When he grew weary of that household clog, He chose my easier
117
bonds. Octavias seeming success is not for long. Ventidius incites
Octavia against Cleopatra by dilating on her irresistible charms from which Antony cannot yet be safe, and when he tells is making terms of peace for Cleopatra with her that Antony she is
Octavius,
stiffened against Cleopatra. She declares that she will not allow this strumpets peace. If Antony is jealous of Dolabella, Octavia is jealous of
Cleopatra. She cannot bear to see the passion in her husband for an abandoned, there is a faithless prostitute. outburst Antony bids The her leave is him, a and
passionate
from
her.
result
final
breakoff between Antony and Octavia. And Ventidius realizes that he has pushed the matter to extremes. His objective has been to separate Antony from Cleopatra, but he succeeds in separating Octavia from Antony for ever ; and he says: I combat Heaven, which blasts my best designs : My last attempt must be to win her back; But oh ! I fear in vain. 5.8. VENTIDIUS Ventidius argues for reason, he wants to do an unreasonable thing because of his deep love for Antony. In terms of the morality of Drydens preface, Ventidius idea is wrong; in the context of the play itself, it seems admirable. We thus have between intention and achievement a split, At the which, close though of Act minor I, presages more serious is He
difficulties.
Ventidius
persuasion
temporarily victorious, and Antony returns to reason and honor:
declares to Ventidius: Our hearts and armes are still the same (p. 203).
Ventidius is Antonys general, and his great and devoted friend too. He means well by Antony. He finds Antony languishing at the court of Cleopatra after the battle of Actium, still a slave to the enchantment of Cleopatra. He is determined to rescue Antony from the
118
bad, degrading
influence of Cleopatra, and makes him resume fighting
with Octavius who is in camp with his army in Alexandria. Ventidius is clever and intelligentand is good at persuading. He appeals to Antonys slumbering sense of honour. He invokes honour
again and again, for Antony seems to be little alive to it. Ventidius thus addresses Antony: You sleep away your hours In desperate sloth, miscalled
philosophy, Up, up, for honours sake; twelve legions wait for you. And long to call you chief. Persuading Antony to go to fight Octavius again, he is able to push him and his army back a little, but they do not leave Alexandria as yet. He is able to kindle in Antony to a sense of honour, but the effect does not last long. He applies himself more seriously to the task of rescuing Antony from the influence of Cleopatra. He is
determined to separate them, otherwise, as he believes, Antony will not be his old self again. It is no small credit to Ventidius that he finally rouses Antony from his blank despair by alternately praising him and reproaching him for indolence. He may indeed think highly of Antony and his capabilities : But you are love misled, your wandering eyes, Were sure the chief and best of human race, Framed in the very pride and boast of
nature. However much his spirit is roused, Antony cannot still think of severing himself from Cleopatra. If he is going to again, he says: Caesar shall know what tis to force a lover From all he holds most dear. fight Octavius
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So after all the persuasion Ventidius exercises upon Antony, love has the first place in his heart, and then comes honour. If Ventidius has succeeded at all, it is that Antony admits honour as a rival issue. H e Antony enlists from the the services of Dolabella of and Octavia Antony to wean
away
influence
Cleopatra.
welcomes
Dolabella as his old friend and he too harps on honour, and says that he brings terms from Octaviusand these terms, as it appears, have been arranged by Octavia. Ventidiuss plan is successful for a short time when he brings Octavia. Antony surrenders to Octavia, and promises to break off his
relations with Cleopatra. Ventidiuss next move spoils the game. When Dolabella is sent by Antony to bid farewell to Cleopatra for him, Ventidius brings Octavia on to the scene. They watch from a distance Dolabella kneeling to Cleopatra and pressing her handand Octavia is led to believe that Dolabella is making love to her. Ventidius to Antony, which is confirmed by Alexas who happens to be present at the moment. The passion of jealousy roused in Antony provokes Octavia, and there is final breakoff between Antony and Octavia. So Ventidius succeeds in separating Antony from Octavia, and not from Cleopatra. Ventidius demonstrates his faith in, and devotion to Antony in the last scene. When Antony has no alternative but to kill himself after the desertion of the Egyptian fleet in his last fight with Octavius, he makes a pact with Ventidius that he should kill him
first and then take his own turn, Ventidius breaks the pact and kills himself firstand so. Ventidius proves to be an ideal Roman soldier in his death. Ventidius plays the role of the Chorus. To Ventidius, Antony, before his love for Cleopatra ruined him, was "the lord of half mankind," the "bravest soldier and the best of friends," and "the chief and best of human race." To Ventidius he is still a "vast soul," "all that's good and godlike." To Dolabella, Antony is still ''lord of all the world." To Cleopatra he is lover, lord, and hero, a
120
"greater Mars." Antony himself reminds us of his former greatness, when he was "the wish of nations," and "the meteor of the world." Once he brags of the time when he stormed the heights before Cassius' camp so eagerly that he won the trenches single-handed, while his
soldiers "lagged on the plain below." These constant reminders enlist our sympathy and admiration for a former hero.
5.9.
Dolabella At the opening of the play, Dolabella, once a friend of Antony is
reported to be seeking his ruin, for some private grudge. But this does not turn out to be true. Later, Ventidius brings in Dolabella and Antony welcomes him as his old friend. There was but a temporary misunderstanding between Antony and Dolabella over Cleopatra, for Dolabella too was attracted by Cleopatra. Antony alludes to it when they meet again now. Dolabella has no guile ! He is frank and candid and this is the best thing we find in him : And should my weakness be a plea for yours ? Mine was an age when love might be excused, When kindly warmth, and when my springing youth Made it a debt to nature. It is a very sensible report Antony to with Antony. his Dolabella supports love for
Ventidius,
and
reproaches
degrading
Cleopatra which has cost him his manhood : Twas but myself I lost; I lost no legions : I had nb world to lose, no peoples love.
So Dolabella wants to waken in Antony his slumbering sense of honour and his palsied manhood. As organized by Octavia he brings terms from Octavius and they are quite honourable to Antony. Dolabella is soft and sensitive by nature. When Antony wants to send him to Cleopatra to bid farewell for him, he pleads to be excused :
121
I should speak So faintly with such fear to grieve her heart, Shed not believe it earnest. He feels sorry for Antony; it seems that at the instigation of Ventidius he has tried to stir up Antonys spirit and alienate him from Cleopatra. Now he feels that he should not have blamed his friends love, and wishes that he were Antony, to be so ruined. In the meantime, Cleopatra has been instructed by Alexas to excite
Antonys jealousy by encouraging Dolabella to make love to her. Dolabella, encouraged by the hint from Cleopatra that love may be expelled by other love, is caught unawares, and frames the
parting message of Antony in the harshest words. And the shock is too much for Cleopatra. Then Dolabella goes down on his knees and
confesses that he had been a traitor for the love of her and reported wrongly of his friend, Antony, and now begs her forgiveness. Dolabella loses his good name with Antony as the result of
Cleopatra too openly admitting her own part in kindling love in him. The scene is witnessed by Ventidius and Octavia, and when it is reported to Antony, he is inflamed with jealousy. Both Dolabella and Cleopatra make an unreserved confession to Antony, but he will not listen to reason. This episode produces serious consequence such as. Dolabellas loss of fair name, final breakoff between Antony and Octavia, Antonys estrangement from Cleopatra. For a l l t h i s ,
Ventidius and Alexas are responsible. If Dolabella has any fault, it is his sentimentalism, and he becomes the victim of a shady intrigue. Dolabells holds an important position in the court of Cleopatra and Cleopatra often follows his advice. He is devoted to Cleopatra and he is concerned about the dubious position of Cleopatra now that Antony has fallen from his fortunethe battle of Actium being lost,
122
and Octavius with his army stationed in Alexandria. 5.10. ALEXAS
Alexas speaks as the man of unimpassioned reason: You [Cleopatra] misjudge; You see through Love, and that deludes your sight: As what is strait, seems crooked through the Waiter;
But I, who bear-my reason undisturbed can see this Antony. He is an u n d i s t u r b e d m a n of reason, and is ironically,
unmanned, a eunuch; and if this speech is designed to identify him with reason, then his later failureshis- counsels to Cleopatra in Act V to negotiate with Caesar, is lie to Antony, his scheme to make Antony jealous have the effect of discrediting reason. He sees
through reason and his sight is deluded. Alexas as the perpetrator of poetic justice, the punishment inflicted upon the lovers. But then the whole problem of sympathies and motiva^ tions in the play becomes confused because Alexas is the least sympa-1 thetic character in the play and is, as such, a poor instrument of justice. His lies are a dramatic weakness.
5.11.
STYLE AND TECHNIQUE
T h e p l a y has
moments
of
grandeur
and
some
of
Drydens
most
intense poetry; some have even believed that if Shakespeare had never written, it would be one of the most impressive monuments of English drama. But this study suggests that the play is full of confusions: the conclusion of the play endorses passionate love, though earlier in the play, and in the: preface, passionate love is condemned as unreasonable and therefore immoral; the inevitability of the action is marred because the catastrophe is brought about by an accident; the role of reason in the play; is ambiguous. Clearly the play is not what it has been called (by Dobree, Restoration Tragedy, 1929, p.
123
90): a play which has a co-herence, a direction to one end, in a word, a unity. Antonys love is presented in the words of one recent critic, as a suitable enterprise for a hero. The heroism of All for Love is
subverted at every turn by sentimental effects which emphasize not the heroic glory_of love, but ..its. domesticity and compassion. Dryden is explicit in the prologue. The author, he writes:
fights this day unarmd; without his Rhyme. And brings a Tale which often has been told; As sad as Didos; and almost as old. His Heroe, whom you Wits his Bully call, Bates of his mettle; and scarce rants at all: Hes somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind; Weeps much; fights little; but is wondrous kind.
In short, a Pattern, and Companion fit, For all the keeping Tonyes of the Pit, I coud name more: A Wife, and Mistress too; Both (to be plain) too good for most of you: The Wife well-naturd, and the Mistress true. The weeping of the men in All for Love is especially conspicuous. Antony cries three times onstage (V, 353, 388, 417) and once his falling tear is reported (V. 362). Dollabella cries when Antony exiles him (V, 417) and even Ventidius cries twice, once in grief for Antony (V, 352) and once in joy over Antonys family reunion (V, 390).
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The following views of Hazelton Spencer highlight the technical excellence in the play. It seems to me more apparent than real. There is a unity of action, certainly, but it is of the most artificial kind. As a matter of fact, the. play is a series of confrontations between Antony and Ventidius, Antony and Alexas,
Antony and Cleopatra, Antony and Octavia, Octavia and Cleopatra. One scene does not grow out of another, or out of characterization; the action is essentially arbitrary with the dramatist, not spontaneous with the characters. And the style is rarely good enough to redeem this defect, as it so often is redeemed in Racine. Characterization (this is the plays most grievous fault) has been dedicated to the great principle of consistency. Antony is a sentimentalist; Cleopatras degradation at Drydens hands is even
more pitiful. Shakespeares great psychological portrait of the queen and woman is turned to the wall in favor of the puppet of a ruling passion. The complex human being, with her infinite variety, gives place to a lay figure of Woman in Love. The unity of place is likewise achieved by arbitrary measures; the poet does not even trouble to excuse his characters for appearing so promptly and so pat. They saunter in and saunter out from the four quarters of the Mediterranean world, as if their leisure hours were habitually passed in wandering up and down the streets of Alexandria. Poetic justice is not respected except in the death of the hero and heroine. Violence on the stage is permitted in the deaths of five of the characters. Of comedy, even of ironic there is no wishing her joy of the worm. The influence of the heroic drama is powerful in this play, as it is in Drydens alteration of Troilus and Cressida. The heroics not comedy, there is none;
infre-quently pass over into the extreme absurdities of that derided form, yet the passion is rarely wild or indecorous. Even the diction,
125
the best thing in the play, is for the most part smooth and flowing. There is rant in profusion, but the daring homeliness, which makes so many of Shakespeares metaphors so impressive, is never indulged in. A s P r o fessor Saintsbury points out, there is nothing like
Cleopatras Peace, peace: Dost thou not see my Baby at my breast, That suckes the Nurse asleepe? which, he continues, no poet save Shakespeare since the
foundation of the world, would or could have written. Judged by what he conceived a tragedy ought to be and by what he tried to accomplish with his source, the author of All for Love
achieved a remarkable tour de force. No one in his senses desires to deny to the great name of Dryden one scrupleof the praise that such an accomplishment deserves. But our admiration for its authors
genius does not oblige us to like this play or, for more than a moment in the fifth act, to believe in it. The views cited. of T. S. Eliot on Drydens blank verse herewith
As for the verse of All for Love and the best of Drydens
blank verse in the other plays in which he used it, it is to me a miracle of revivification. I think that it has more influence than it has had credit for; and that it is really the norm of blank verse for later blank verse playwrights. Drydens rendering there is nothing to say except that it has none of the and poetic a n d verse that life of lends the original. It is accomplished to stage-delivery, but it is
verse,
itself
hardly poetry. It is not poetry, in the sense that it is not the product of a realizing imagination working from within a deeply and minutely felt theme. Dryden is a highly skilled craftsman, working at his job from the outside. The superior structure with which his play
126
is credited as a theater-piece is a matter of work-manship of the same external order as is represented by his verse. He aims at
symmetry, a neat and obvious design, a balanced arrangement of heroic confrontations audience is and that big of scenes. an The satisfaction and he offers his from
operatic
exaltation
release
actuality, a ballet-like completeness of pattern, and an elegantly stylized decorum. The structure, it will be seen, is always that of simple,
illustrative, point-by-point correspondence. One analogy may give way to another, and so again, but the shift is always clean and obvious; there is never any complexity, confusion or ambiguity. When there is development, it is simple, lucid and rational. This habit of expression manifests plainly the external approach, the predominance of taste and judgment. It is an approach equally apparent in the treatment of emotion in what are meant to be the especially moving placesas, for instance, in the scene in which
Octavia and the children are loosed upon Antony: Antony: Oh, Dollabella, which way shall I turn? I find a secret yielding in my Soul; But Cleopatra, who would die with me, Must she be left? Pity pleads for Octavia But does it not plead more for Cleopatra? (Here the Children go to him, etc.) Ventidius: Was ever sight so movingl Emperorl Dollabella: Friend. Octavia: Husbandl Both
Children: Father! Antony: I am vanquished: take me, Octavia; take me, Children; share me all. (Embracing them). Commenting doesnt emerge on the a is scene Morris Freedman s a y s , given situation not realized in or The emotion its concrete The
from it
particualrity;
stated,
presented
enacted.
127
explicitness is of the kind that betrays absence of realization. Antony is depicted, like Samson, as a man bereft of hw masculine strength. Oh, she has decked his ruin with her love, Led him in golden bands to gaudy slaughter, And made perdition pleasing: She has left him The blank of what he was.
6
I tell thee, eunuch, she has quite unmanned him. (I, i) Dryden follows the unities of time and place,
and
has
conse-quently to limit the number of characters and incidents, and avoid any entanglements. The first Act has but one scene, and so has every other Act. This has been done to make sure of the unities of time and place. All for Love is soundly plotted, the characters are fully
developed, and the verse is dramatic, vigorous, and flexible. The conflict is between love and reason, heart and head. A t t h e
beginning of the play Antony has lost his reason; he has dis graced "the name of soldier with inglorious ease." It is Ventidius' function to make him see his plight rationally and to act according to the dictates of reason. But Ventidius can never be sure of Antony, w h o acts, now rationally, now impulsively, as his passions spin the plot. As the play opens, Antony is already so far sunk in the
lethargy of love that his flashes of strength seem like the false shows of health in a dying consumptive. But neoclassic limitations gave little space for slow decline, and if terror is diminished, pity is increased by the exposure of Antony's weakness and suffering.
5.12.
Features of Heroic Play
The Heroic play is otherwise called the Heroic Tragedy, It
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arose first as reaction to Shakespeare because it was felt that nothing more could be done with the Shakespearean type of tragedy, and if they wanted rally to excel and do something new, they must explore fresh fields. It arose mainly to satisfy the social, moral and artistic needs of the age and it lived so long as it satisfied those needs. Dryden defined it, as an imitation, in little of an heroic poem. H e
noticed the great affinity between the two genres the end is the same, the characters are the same, the action and passions are the same. But the epic poet uses narration while the heroic play used action and dialogue for the purpose. The heroic play was invested with, the greatness and majesty of a heroic poem. It was not to hold merely a mirror to nature but to magnify reality. It was the representation of nature but nature raised to a higher pitch. The plot, the characters, the passions, the descriptions were all to be exalted above thelevel of common
converse. The style was also to be made epical. It was not to imitate conversation of real life too closely, since sublime subjects ought to be adorned with the sublimest expressions.The purpose of the
Heroic play was not to arouse, pity, and fear but admiration. Dryden emphasised three virtues, Valour, Duty and Love, for which the poet should arouse admiration. The dramatist must present patterns of virtues in his plays.The most impressive feature of the heroic play is the hero who is superman and in whom are emboided the typically romantic qualities of Love and Valour. Valour is the
outstanding trait of his character. He is a great warrior and he sweeps across the world in quest of glory and honour. He performs incredible feats, conquering a few million soldiers is a mere trifle for him. But he is not a mere men-killer, he is also a lover of extraordinary emotional capacity. His love is so sudden and intense that it surprises everybody including himself. He throws away the entire universe in the pursuit of his love. The audience is amazed at such superhuman devotion and loyalty.
Moreover, this love is not a mere physical passion it is a virtue, heroic passion. It kindles in the soul honours fire, and so the lover is eager to be worthy of his desire. To be worthy of his beloved, he must be a man of honour and honour includes all possible moral and spiritual qualities. Heroic love purifies the hero of all base desire and makes him a fit object of admiration.
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But
love
does
not
arouse
only
admiration,
it
also
arouses
compassion. It involves so much pining and whiming on the part of the lover that in the true romantic tradition he is always on the verge of dying. This lethargy of love is the only weakness on the great hero. It paralyses his will. It makes him a captive helpless and pitiable. He fawns on, and flatters, his beloved, and faints and swoons. He passes from love to jealousy from hope to despair from crisis to crisis. Because compassion the an heroic tragedy ending was arouses not only admiration appropriate and or
unhappy
considered
necessary for it. There is no place for tragic awe and sense of< waste in the heroic play : Dryden discarded the unhappy ending. The aim of the playwright was to extol some great hero and this naturally made and happy ending quite unsuitable. Heroic play is a play
offering one sensation after another, arousing hopes and fears and at last making the event happy to the infinite surprise and wonder of the audience. The hero does not die in the end. He is virtuous, and so virtue must be rewarded. It is only then that the people would follow the virtuous example of the hero. Poetic justice was,
therefore, considered necessary in the interest of moral edification. Sensationalism is an essential feature of the heroic play. This admiration in the heroic play is not aroused merely by the
contemplation of the virtues of the hero, it is also here physical wonder at the sight of the strange, the marvellous and the terrible. Ghosts, spirits, operatic elements, scenic effects, stirring action, bustle and turmoil, were all used to dazzle and stupefy the
contemporary novelty seeking audience. The theme is taken from past history so that the dramatist may claim more reality for his
absurdity. The setting is always foreign and unfamiliar, and the time remote, and in this way the dramatists try to procure, willing suspension of disbelief for the incredible in their plays. To depict sudden turns of fortune and to provide theatrical effectiveness, the heroic play gives prominence to martial action. It also employs elements of the opera to provide thrill and spectacle to the audience. There are songs and dances, angles and spirits, ample measure. Scenes of horror and bloodshed are frequent. Reaction against the manifold extravagances of the heroic play began quite early. The heroic play could provide romance and heroism, but it could not meet any larger demands. Soon there was a longing
130
for nature and reality. Its artificiality, its improbability, its extravagance, its lack of genuine human passion, doomed it to an early and natural death. 5.13. ALL FOR LOVE AS A HERIOC PLAY The Heroic Play usually called itself a tragedy but preserved the heros life. a flaw, and dies. Antony on the other hand, as Dryden points out, has But the exception proves the rule, for Antonys
one human frailty proves by contrast that he is otherwise superhuman: Virtue is his path; but sometimes it is too narrow for his vast soul; and then he starts out wide, And bounds into a vice, that bears him far from his first course, and plunges him in ills: But, when his danger makes him find his fault, Quick to observe, and full of sharp remorse, He censures eagerly his own misdeeds, Judging
himself with malice to himself, And not forgiving what as man he did, Because his other parts are more than man. Indeed, by the standards of the Heroic Play, this makes Antony a superman, for the ordinary superman is merely content with virtue. is a superman who nevertheless whines; he
Characteristic of Antony
gives All for love after a series of struggles with duty, each of which takes up an Act, and, turn and turn about, gains a temporary mystery, the whole suggesting a formal debate rather than a play which rises to and falls from a central climax. the near East. example. Moreover, Antony fights little. Not of course from lack of The setting is in
But it is not either in theory or effect a strict
valour but from the policy of curbing heroics hard in this play. There is the usual state of siege, convenient for the heros armykilling excursions and for saving appearances in the matter of the unity of time, but Antony is allowed only one Hotspur sally, and even then Ventidius pours cold water on his exultation. Tis well; and he, Who lost them, could have spared ten
thousand more. Use of verbal hyperbole is a significant feature. Ventidius theory that Antonys vice proceeds from the unmanageable size of his virtue is one of the few parallels to Almanzors stand off; I have not leisure yet to die or
131
It (the bulls head) fell so quick, it did even Death prevent : And made imperfect Bellowings as it went The ruminations on life which occur often enough in the strict Heroic Plays are absent from All for Love, as is everything else not bearing on the situation, including the songs, Concomitantly the
structure has been tightened. A Restoration tragedy like All for Love depends for its effect not on character The interest is or on situation, off stage, and and least the of all on are
exploit.
last
always
others
contrivances for exhibitions, in fine rhetoric, of emotions which, although they are in All for Love invariably pertinent to situation and role, are there for their own sake.
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5.14.
HIGH TRAGEDY For nearly three centuries critical opinion has agreed that
Dryden's All for Love, or The World Well Lost (December, 1677) is the best example of Restoration high tragedy. In conformity with the neoclassic unities and the vogue for heroic plays, Dryden limited the action to a single straightforward conflict between love and honor or reason. To achieve unity of
place he set the action in one catch-all building, the Temple of Isis, and by carefully avoiding any mention of time lie managed to give the impression that the ideal time of the play was not more than the permissible twenty-four hours/ The neoclassic critics objected to the delightful slanging 'match between Cleopatra and Octavia as
indecorous because both were great characters of high rank. With sublime common sense Dryden replied that, though one was a Roman and the other a queen, "they were both women." In All for Love we see the final downfall of Antony, a veteran hero, is the mere "shadow of an emperor"; he has almost lost his ability to reason and decide. Dryden, a master plotter, worked out his conflicts and climaxes with almost mathematical precision. Thus i n A c t one, honest Ventidius, the embodiment of honor and reason, persuades Antony to leave Cleopatra and join twelve loyal legions waiting for him in Syria. Alexandria is besieged by Caesar, but there are still ways open. In Act two, Cleopatra, whose love is "a noble madness," persuades Antony to remain with her, and Ventidius
complains, O women! women! women! all the gods Have not such power of doing good to man As you of doing harm! In Act three, Ventidius, aided by Antony's wife, Octavia, and their two children, and by Antony's young friend, Dolabella, persuades Antony to desert Cleopatra and make peace with Caesar. In a contrived but very effective scene, Antony stands alone. His two
little daughters run to him and throw their arms about him. Then
VENTIDIUS. Was ever sight so moving? Emperor! DOLABELLA. Friend! OCTAVIA. Husband! CHILDREN. Father! ANTONY. I am vanquished. Take
me, Octavia take me, children share me all. Embracing, them. I've been a thriftless debtor to your loves, And run out much, in riot, from your stock,
133
But all shall be amended. In Act four, nobody wins. On tbe advice of her prime minister, the eunuch priest Alexas, Cleopatra tries to make Antony jealous of Dolabclla and succeeds all too well. Octavia, angered at Antony's concern for "an abandoned, faithless prostitute," flings away in a huff, breaking off negotiations with Caesar; and, in a fury, Antony rebuffs both Cleopatra and Dolabella. Now he is left with only
faithful Ventidius to share his wretchedness. In Act five, the Egyptian fleet deserts to Caesar. Antony and Ventidius have just decided to sally out with the remnant of their forces and die bravely in battle, when Alexas, carrying out another scheme to reunite the lovers, brings the false news of Cleopatra's death. Completely unmanned, Antony cries, My torch is out; and the world stands before me Like a black desert at tV approach of night. I'll lay me down and stray no farther on. Ventidius, called on to slay his master, instead kills
himself. Antony falls on his sword. Cleopatra and her women find him dying, and seat him in a chair. He sings his swan song in melodious blank verse, dies, and Cleopatra, with her basket of "'aspics,"
quickly follows him in death. As a mob enters the temple, they see the lovers seated together in somber state. Serapion, a priest,
pronounces their benediction: Sleep, blest pair, Secure from human chance, long ages out, While all the storms of fate fly o'er your tomb; And fame to late posterity shall tell, No lovers lived so great or died so well. No doubt All for Love is a magnificent tragedy, and yet
perhaps it is a too well contrived, too coldly classical in form and style. Possibly the conflict is too mechanically balanced, the
"moral" too obvious. "The chief persons represented," said Dryden in his preface to the play, "were famous patterns of unlawful love; and their end accordingly was unfortunate." Yet, as his second title, The World Well Lost, suggests, Dryden hedged on his thesis. He seems to ask us, in effect, to forgive his lovers' faults and to blame their fate on the circumstances of their world. The "famous patterns of
134
unlawful love" are not presented as sinners or adulterers; indeed, the word "sin" appears in connection with them only once in the play, when Octavia accuses Cleopatra of owning "those black endearments that make sin pleasing." Adultery is never mentioned. Political necessity forces Antony to marry Octavia (Caesar's sister) after the death of his first wife, Fulvia. He never loved Octavia; he loved only Cleopatra, whom Dryden depicts, not as the "serpent of old Nile," but as a sweet, good, beautiful woman meant by Nature to be a wife, "a silly, harmless, household dove." Cleopatra is aware that she has lost her honor and "stained the glory" of her royal house "to bear the branded name of mistress," but Antony seems unaware that he has done anything wrong, that he has broken a moral law and must pay the penalty. Instead he blames his own sloth and the gods, crying in his despair, "Is there one god unsworn to my
destruction?" In the inal scene, as the blood drains from his body, he whispers to Cleopatra, Think we have had a clear and glorious day, And Heaven did kindly to delay the storm Just till our close of evening. Ten years' love, And not a moment lost, but all improved " To the utmost joys what ages have we lived! And now to die each other's; and, so dying, While hand in hand we walk in groves below, Whole troops of lovers' ghosts shall flock about us, And all the train be ours. From Antony there is no word of remorse, regret, or repentance. 5.15. SHAKESPEARE AND DRYDEN An examination of the immediate cause of the tragedy as compared with that in Shakespeares Antony this a weakness failure it of All because is a and for it Cleopatra can Love. We does not play, be useful not in
illustrating Drydens
should do
judge
play
thing s t h a t with
Shake-speares
does;
different
conceived
considerable differ-ent dramatic intentions. But in both plays the lovers die, and die within the dramatic framework of the tragedy. In Shakespeares play the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatr a i s
135
brought about almost wholly by the love affair; all through the play we feel the awful compulsion of this love forcing them to their
inevitable end. Dryden gave to the early part of his play the same im-pression of inexorability. But the destruction later of Antony and Cleopatra is not occasioned by their love alone. Instead, the
motivation for their deaths, the quarrel which leads to the suicide of Antony, is the result of the blundering lies and machinations of the well-meaning Alexas, who is not directly involved in the love affair. Specifically, it is his lie to Antony about Cleopatras death which causes Antony to kill himself and later Cleopatra to do the same. Although there is a similar chain of events in Shakespeares play, there Cleopatra agrees to Charmians subterfuge, hiding in the monument, the false suicide; whereas in All for Love Alexas on his own initiative tells the lie which sets off the chain of forces. Thus he assumes the immediate responsibility for the deaths, which are not the inevitable result of the love affair but the result of a casual mischance (the mistake due, ironically, to Alexas faith in reason). The action moves from the lovers entangling themselves in inexorable fate to a simple accident, not caused by the lovers themselves. Shakespeares verse; the life have in his a life is, as corresponding in fact, the to the of life the of the
them poem an
life
verse. rhythm,
Correspondingly,
dramain a
situation, richness
larger and a
cumulative effecthas
actuality,
depth
in
comparison with which it becomes absurd to discuss Drydens play as tragedy. It is, of course, understood that in a sustained reading Shakespeares poetry conveys an organization such as cannot be
examined in an extracted passage remarks T.S. Eliot. The point may be fairly coercively made by an observation
regarding what, in Drydens verse, takes the place of the life of
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metaphor and imagery in Shakespeares. What we find, when we can put a finger on anything, is almost invariably either a formal simile, or a metaphor that is a simile with the like or the as left out. The choice is so wide and the showing so uniform that illustration must be random. In the words of Ifor Evans Dryden indulged in no slavish
imitation of Shakespeares play, though the composition shows again Drydens admiration for Shakespeare. Dryden breaks down the widely distributed scenes of Shakespeare and brings the theme as close to the unity of action as its nature will permit. The picture of Antony is less generous than in Shakespeare, for the emphasis is on the very last phase, full of fretting and nerves and morbid suspicion. Nor has Cleopatra the infinite variety that she once possessed. Antony and Cleopatra was the play in which Shakespeare approached the Values of the Restoration stage most closely, for this is the only one of his mature tragedies in which love is made the dominant theme. All for Love, of all Drydens plays, is the one in which the Restoration motives of love and honor are subordinated, and their place taken by suspicion and jealousy. Drydens Antony is far closer to Miltons Samson, as is his Cleopatra to Dalila, and Ventidius to the chorus, than they are to their counterparts in Shakespeares tragedy. But the tempestuous,
mighty-spirited, mature lovers of Shakespeare were transformed by Dryden Samson to and resemble the far simpler, more predictable figures of
Dalila. For example, he pruned and trimmed Enobarbus'
florid description of Cleopatra as she came down the Nile in her barge, changing its archaisms and deleting its pathetic fallacies to fit the Restoration taste for the language of direct statement. Thus Enobarbus' verdict on Cleopatra. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where
137
most
she
satisfies
became
in
Dryden's
hands
Antony's
"refined"
apostrophe to his mistress, There's no satiety of love in thee: Enjoyed, thou still art new; perpetual spring Is in thy arms; the ripened fruit but falls And blossoms rise to fill its empty place, And I grow rich by giving. Dryden glossed over the conclusion of Enobarbus' description, For vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish. Dryden's Cleopatra was never wanton. Shakespeare dramatized the entire Antony and Cleopatra story as told by Plutarch, while Dryden concentrated on the final events in the tale, after Antony's defeat by Octavius Caesar at Actium. 5.16 LET US SUM UP Through this lesson we have learnt the following. 1) Drydens life and works. 2) Plot Construction 3) Theme of All for Love 4) Important Characters of All for love. 5) Styles and techniques of Dryden. 6) Features of Heroic play etc. 5.17 Lesson-End Activities 1. Write an essay on the character of Antony. 2. Compare and contrast Cleopatra and Octavia. 3. What is the significance of the role of ventidius? 4. Consider All for Love as a heroic play? 5.18 References Emerson Everett H., Harold E. is, and Ira Johnson and Achievement in All for Love Intention
Kirsch, Arthur C., All for Love from Drydens Heroic Drama Princeton, N/J.: Princeton Univer-ify Press, 1965. Spencer Hazelton, From Drydens Adaptations in Shakespeare Improved (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-vard University Press. Eliot T . S . F r o m Dryden the Dramatist Listener, V, No. 119 \ April 22, 1931, by From The
Leavis F. R. F r o m Antony and Cleopatra1 and All for Love: A Critical Exercise by From Scrutiny, V, No. 2 September
138
139
Unit III Lesson 6 Francis Bacon Contents

6.0 Aims and Objectives 6.1 Bacon's Life and Works 6.2 Of Ambition 6.3 Of Revenge 6.4 Of Love 6.5 Bacons Regard for Structure 6.6 Poetic Qualities 6.7 Bacon's Use of Allusions and References 6.8 Let Us Sum Up 6.9 Lesson End Activities 6.10 References
6.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson talks about Francis Bacon. You will understand, by reading this lesson, the life and
works of Francis Bacon and his use of concenities as reflected in his works. 6.1 Bacon's Life and Works Francis Bacon was the younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon who held the high position of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of the King-a political office, and was born in the city of London on January 22nd 1561. To hold his high office, his father must have been an educated and cultured courtier but even more
140
surprising it is to find that his mother also was highly educated in Latin of and English and made for a
scholarly Church of
translation
Jewel's Apology
the into
England which was written in Francis was sent to
Latin
English.
Trinity
College,
Cambridge, where the education was at that time in Greek and Latin but where the spirit of the new
learning had begun to establish itself to such an extent that the works-especially, the scientific
treatises-of Aristotle were being called in question. After graduation, be entered Gray's Inn to study Law, and he went to Paris in the company of the ambassador Sir Amyas Paulet, since travel on the continent of Europe was considered at that time the final touches to the education of a gentleman and a courtier.
Unfortunately his father died suddenly, and he had to return to England without spending much time abroad. But prepared for a political career by being elected to Parliament at the early age of 23. He soon made his mark in Parliament because of his sharp intellect and oratorical ability, and was called upon to draw up a Treatise of Advice to Queen Elizabeth at the age of 24. He then became a Bencher (a Magistrate) in Gray's Inn, but failed to secure any better political post.) Francis Bacon, being a younger not inherit son, did
an estate from his father and had to He was relationship with them in a
make his own way in the world. o f s e l f -giving love. He deals
utilitarian sense. Though he values them highly it seems clear that he has not experienced such
141
closeness himself. There seems to be a pre-occupation with the self-rather than with the other. This
selfishness and self-regard mark the tone of these essays. The same is also true with regard to his
essays on religion. Bacon is lacking in what we may term as religious fervour. His religion is not of the heart or soul, but of the mind. So he does not think of what religion means to the human soul, but to the live community of of mankind in on this terms earth. even He when is he
thinking
religion
human
thinks of death so he leaves out any mention of life after death or resurrection. We may safely conclude that religion of the more fervent kind played no part in his life it was all a matter of belief, and of human relationships and morality-a path to follow, not a heaven to aspire to. Essays filled with thought so massive could
only be written by Bacon; and in this respect, the earliest of English Essayist still stands alone. Yet the massive thought we poured into a style that has been unrivalled as well-a style suited to the
shortest and briefest of meditations, and stately and dignified enough to convey the deepest ideas.
Baconian lucidity has become a byword in English, but the essays have still to be read slowly to allow the mind to grasp the concept and the progression of
ideas-The style suits itself to the simple as well as the profound, it can be .used in any situation and so is completely flexible. Some of the best English
prose is suited only to highly emotive passages, or to lofty oratorybut Bacon's style is a 'style for
142
all seasons'. 6.2 Of Ambition Ambition gives a strong motivation to a man, unless it is frustrated. If man's ambition is
frustrated then ambition turns to evil, and becomes venomous. So an ambitious man who is given an
opportunity is an asset, but a frustrated man is a danger. Since and ambitious for men have the necessary and drive rulers
motivation
achievement,
Kings
should make use of their gift. Ambitious men make the best soldiers and generals; they are also useful
courtiers in order to provide rivalry and competition among them. The King can encourage one at one time, and another later. So that one does not get all the time. Positions of danger and envy are best offered to ambitious men as they will be bold enough to take them and make the most of them. Here he probably means foreign embassies and such political mission. One ambitious courtier may also be used to pull down another who is getting too powerful, as in the case of Macro, whom Tiberius the Roman Emperor used to pull down Sejanus. So it has been shown that
ambitious men are useful to the state-it now remains to see how best they can be used without causing trouble. Men of low birth who have been raised to high positions are less troublesome and more easily
controlled since they have more to lose. Men of good and pleasant natures are better than men of harsh and
143
hard dispositions. It is better to keep changing the power structure, thus getting in fresh blood e v e r y now and then, instead of allowing one man to hold a dominant position for too long. So Kings should change their favourites
frequently. I t i s a weakness in a monarch to keep a single favourite too long. Another rival method men or is to
encourage
competition
between
rival
groups, so that both parties are kept guessing, and none gets any monopoly of favour. Kings should also show some favour to men of lower birth, and greater steadiness to keep the balance of power. Those than those who who have a single to ambition in are better sphere.
desire
shine
every
Constant competition among those in the lower ranks to rise is a good thing, either in politics or in business. These men should be ambitious for honour, which is the safest, for it holds them to morality and makes them bold to their positions in society. A good King will be able to pick out men whose
ambitions are good, and whose intentions are to serve his King and country. I n c h o o s i ng ministers particularly, rulers
should be careful to choose such men as are anxious to serve, and not merely to build their own selfish profits. If it is in the military services the men chosen should be brave, not for personal but for
national glory, if it is in business the man should be conscious of service to the country as well as serve his own profit. One way of finding such people
144
is test and see whether they are willing to obey commands and offer services. In this essay, Bacon shows himself to be a
shrewd judge of courtiers, generals, and businessmen. He seems to understand how to make the best use of able men who are ambitious for themselves, and to use them for the service of the country. He shows himself to be farsighted statesmen. It is noteworthy that he takes a very detached view of the subject even though he himself was in the very positions that he
describes. He was a poor man who had to be patient and even frustrated for a long time before he
obtained recognition. Yet he looks at the problem from a detached standpoint and is able to make a number of points that a good manager in a large
company today, as well as a chief minister in a state of a government, may find useful. Bacon is an expert in assessing situation and men and finding who would fit the problem to be solved, best 6.3 OF REVENGE Revenge is a crude form of justice and it
usurps the function of law.
So it should be our
foremost duty to stop the practice by legal steps. Actually there is no superiority in taking Rather, to condone is princely virtue. revenge,
Wise men do
not trouble themselves thinking of past bitterness. No one does wrong for the wrongs sake. Every wrong If any because
doer is motivated by a strong self interest. man does wrong without any motive, it is
cannot help it, it is in his nature.
145
Revenge is sometimes tolerable for those wrongs which are not legally punishable, but the avenger must sea that his revenge is not unlawful. Noble revenge is that which is open and bold. are sneaking mischief makers. But cowards may be
Enemies
forgiven, as Jesus has commanded us, but Cosmos holds that treachery from friends is unpardonable. Job
remarks that we should accept both good and bad in the same spirit. The thought of revenge disturbs the mental
peace of the avenger, which would have been tranquil otherwise. whereas Public revenges are are not. often In fortunate fact, the
private
revenges
avengers lead the life of the witches, which is both mischievous and unfortunate. 6.4 OF LOVE Of Love The great the worthy men have always
kept themselves from love. It is a form of idolatory and therefore contemptible; it grossly distorts and exaggerates truth and it deprives a man of the gifts of Juno and Pallas. On analysis of the observations
of respective love, it is the most powerful in times of weakness, and it when to of it be is kept found within love to be
irresponsible, limits. In
ought case
proper is the
the
soldiers
compensation for peril sought in pleasure Love should be allowed to expand for from individual and at love t o t h e last. Bacon
general
love
humanity
concludes that nuptial love is the cause of mankind, friendly love is the perfection of it, but sensual or
146
wanton love is the corruption of it. Bacon life. says that love should be kept out of
It may be allowed only on the stage, in the In real life love creates great and worthy We must from
tragedies and comedies. great mischief and
therefore
persons have kept themselves away from it. be very careful in keeping our hearts
free
passion, for it has found entrance even in the hearts free from passion, for it has found entrance even in the hearts of ansters they and wise men like of Appius their
Claudius, guard.
when
have
been
slightly
It is not proper to say that we are each a sufficient theatre to one another. All men are equal
and a man kneeling before a woman, is a sort of idolatory and it is not proper for a man to use his eye in his affair which was given to him to execute higher purposes. Another evil that love develop. In A lover always
man is a tendency to exaggeration. speaks in a hyperbolic language.
It is impossible to
love and to be wise man ought to guard very carefully against this passion, in which he loses himself. A lover has neither riches nor wisdom. This
can be illustrated by the example of Paris who chose love and despised the two, as a result of which the whole nation was involved in war. Love overtakes a prosperity
man when he is weak either due to great
or great adversity; but in the latter case it is less frequent from this very fact, that it overtakes a man in his weakness - it proves that it is the outcome
147
of folly. The best course is that if one cannot help
loving, he must keep his love limits.
He should not
let this passion interfere with the serious affairs in life a man does not adopt the above course, he is sure to lose his fortune and he cannot be able to achieve his land. Even soldiers fall in love but with them it is the compensation sought for perils. Man is inclined to love and if he does not
spend his love on the particular person or a group of persons, it expands itself into universal love and such men become very kind and charitable to others.
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6.5 Bacons Regard for Structure Structure In the essay there is a strong organic unity of structure like a tree with its various branches. From the main trunk of the basic concept arise the growth and evolution of a series of related ideas that are structured accordingly, one. leading on and sometimes generating the other; or explaining and justifying what had been said earlier. Bacons divides his essays into paragraphs, It is not like the modern system of paragraphing, where we set one idea and its relationship in a single paragraph. Sometimes there are sentence paragraphs. A group or cluster of ideas are presented at the same time. Hence his paragraphs are long and sometimes contain whole series of related ideas, which break up into separate units. Bacon maps out the subject, so that the reader will know, what exactly is to follow. The exclusion of all extraneous material is the essence of Bacon's structure. There is nothing but the barest truth of what he desires to present. The logical division into its several aspects and parts, is noteworthy. This preserves the
perspective and not giving undue prominence to any one portion of the material. To conclude with the words of Bacon, "Above all things, order, and distribution, and singling put of parts, is the life of despatch; so as
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the distribution be hot too subtle; for he that will not divide, will never enter well into business; and he that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly". (Essay "Of Despatch") Bacon's use of Aphorism Bacon's use of structure of individual
sentences has caught the attention of stylists His apposite style is based on his use of aphorism. This use of aphorism give firmness and flexibility to the style. Bacon here makes use of a pattern which has been known for a long time and was, much respected in his time but not used as he did as a quality in prose writing. The aphorism is to be found for instance in the Bible, in the Book of Proverbs; it is to be seen in some of the pronouncements of Moses, especially in the Laws. It is to be found again in the sayings of the prophets,' style and in finally his Jesus himself the best used an
aphoristic
teaching
example
being the Beatitudes. The aphorism was also to be seen in the writings of the Greek and Latin writers of Classic times who used it with great effect. So it was no new method that Bacon had invented it was rather one that he knew and had appreciated, and had appealed to him as suitable to the ideas together. 'The aphoristic and style makes his essays can more be
professional
intellectual.
Aphorism
easily memorised and quoted, and provides a kind of wisdom on occasions which cannot be achieved in any other manner and Bacon them a new form and lease of
150
life. The moral precision of the aphorism is asking
of reasoning and persuasive power which was accepted in his time. He uses it in the form of very short 'dispersed meditations'. Bacon sees aphorism as a condensation of wisdom and knowledge. In an age which valued precepts and aphorisms, Bacon provided exactly what they needed, and had the knowledge and wisdom to do so. It is probably for popular. below: (a) For a lie faces God and shrinks from this reason that of his essays were so
Some
Examples
aphorisms
are
cited
man. (Of Truth) (b) studieth This revenge is certain, his that a man that which
keeps /
wounds
green,
would otherwise heal and do well. (Of Revenge) (c) Revenge) (d) Besides nakedness is unseemly as well in Revenge is a kind of wild justice. (Of
mind and in body. (Or Simulation and Dissimulation). Bacon uses this short pithy style so peculiar to him to impress what he said upon the reander as forcibly and memorably as possible.' 6.6 Poetic Qualities Bacon's prose is poetic among them the most
poetic of poets. This may be attributed to his use of
151
imagery, metaphor, and analogy and other rhetorical devices in his prose. The purpose of these devices is to create an image in the imagination to up a picture before the imagination of the reader. He was able to present abstract ideas endowed with a kind of life and
actuality which was miraculous because they did not lose their precision and yet were full of emotive meaning. The clear expression of his subject matter reveals that it is not necessary for words to be affected or dominant but that meaning could be made the prime interest without losing the grandeur and dignity of literature. Commenting Reynolds remarks of "The Bacons Essays and Sir their Joshua value
excellence
consisted in being the observations of a strong mind operating upon life; and in consequence you find
there, what you seldom find in other books". Bacon himself opinions there is no proceeding in invention of knowledge but by similitude". So
Bacon himself sought out similarities between natural phenomena and human situations which he could use with strong effect. The opening lines of Of Fruth is cited here as an example "What is truth? said jesting Pilate;
and would not t stay for an answer". Immediately he is able by this image call up the picture of the trial of Jesus Christ, and the incident of Pilate not taking seriously the statement of Jesus at he had come to bring truth into the world. He further uses
152
this image to point out that there are a type of people who will not take anything-particularly truth seriously. In the essay "Of Revenge", he alludes to the witches in closing they ascribe it to the evil
work of the witch and hunt her and either drown her burn her. To quote "Nay, vindictive persons live the life ' witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they unfortunate". In other words vindictive persons will come to a good end, just as witches will come to harm. Bacon thus uses images very skillfully and
powerfully in his essays to affect his purposes. Bacon uses metaphorical language to make
matters much clearer and actual to the reader. In the essay of 'Simulation and Dissimulation' have the example of analogy "Where a man cannot
choose or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest and wariest way, like the going
softly, by one that cannot well see;" Here we have an example of the simplest form of analogy. The prose of Bacon does contain many examples in almost all his e s s a y s r hetorical devices which makes his prose
imaginative and poetic. It clearly adds depth and richness to his prose and clarity to what he wishes to express. He is able to bring home what he means to express much more powerfully because of the use of other methods. 6.7 Bacon's use of Allusions and References Almost all the essays have at least one
reference to the Bible. The most famous one is the reference to jesting Pilate in the essay "Of Truth".
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But besides that he has several references to the famous King Solomon. In the essay "Of Revenge",
Solomon is quoted as saying that "it is the glory of a man to pass by an offence". In the essay "Of
Riches", as saying: "Where there is much, there are many to consume it; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes? and "He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent". Bacon also quotes the Bible in 'On Atheism' as saying; '"The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God". There is little doubt that Bacon knew his Bible very well, and used it with great effect. Bacon also uses the classics for reference to a very great extent. Bacon refers freely Epicurus
Plato, and Democritus among the Greeks, and Seneca among the Roman philosophies. He refers to the Roman Emperors others. Bacon also alludes to modern writers in Europe such as Montaigne. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, and Augustus Caesar, Tiberius, Vespasian and
Spanish proverbs and thus orbiting his knowledge of the modern European languages, French, Italian and Spanish. This wide frame of reference goes to show the immense amount of reading and knowledge that
Bacon possessed, and which he was able to call upon in his dispersed meditations. Finally we have references to Nature, a tree and its branches, the hills, the sea, precious stones and pearls, and talks about the waves and weathering of time. His appreciation of the beauty and order of
154
the created universe is best seen in his essay 'On Atheism', this universal frame is without a mind.
And therefore God never wrought miracles to convince Atheism, because his ordinary works convince it." The belief in the natual world as against miracles is the attitude of a truly scientific mind. Thus the use of allusions makes his Essays rich and varied, and give an idea of Bacons
encyclopedic knowledge and interests. In the words of Benjonson he seemed to me
ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and the most worthy of admiration, that had been in many
ages. One of the contemporary
men remarks "He was a
man of strong, clear and powerful imagination, his genius was searching and inimitable; and of this I need give no other proof than his style itself. The course of it is vigorous and majestically; wit bold and familiar; the comparisons fetched out of the way, and yet the most easy". According imagination than almost and any to Hazlih, "He in He united a powers of
understanding other of writer. those
greater was one
degree of the rare and
strongest privilege
instances of their
men at
who once
by poets
nature
are
philosophers, and see equally into both worlds." Commenting upon Bacon's style, Hazlitt remarks "His writing have the gravity of prose with the
fervour and vividness ofpoetry. His sayings have the effect of axioms, are at once striking and self evident. His style is equally
155
sharp
and
sweet,
flowing and pithy, condensed and expansive expressing volumes thought in a sentence, of or amplifying glowing and a single,
intopages
rich,
delightful
eloquence." In the words of Sir, to be Mathews, "A man so rare in knowledge of so many several kinds, endowed with the faculty and felicity of expressing it all in so elegant, significant, so abundant and yet so
choice and ravishing a way of words of metaphors and allusions as perhaps the world has not seen since it was a world. 6.8 LET US SUM UP You have learnt so for, life and works of
Francis Bacon, his style and technique employed in his work and essential components of his essays. 6.9 LESSON END ACTIVITIES: 1. Comment on the style and technique of Bacons Essays with reference to the essays prescribed. 2. The essays of Bacon are true of all men, for all time and in all place, Justify. 3. Discuss Essays. the essential features of Bacons
156
6.10 REFERENCES Chaudhuri, Sukanta Bacons Essays : A Selection. 1977 ; rpt. Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1984. Selby F.G. Hudson, Bacons Essays. 1889; London Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1964. :
William Henry Outline History of English Literature. 1961 : rpt. Bell & Hyman Ltd., 1988.
Saintsbury, George A short History of English Literature. 1898; rpt. London : Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1960. Sutherland, James. On English Prose. 1957 : rpt. Canada : University of Toronto Press, 1965. Vickers, Brian Francis Bacon and Prose. Great Britain University Press, 1968. Renaissance : Cambridge
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Lesson 7 Charles Lamb Contents 7.0 Aims and Objectives 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Charles Lambs Life & Works 7.3 Dissertation upon Roast Pig 7.4 In Praise of Chimney Sweepers 7.5 Dream Children- A Reverie 7.6 Style and Technique of Charles Lamb 7.7 Humour and Patho7s in Charles Lambs Essays 7.8 Let Us Sum Up 7.9 Lesson End Activities 7.10 References
7.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson aims to present you the life and works of Charles Lamb; a towering essayist and critic besides detailing various styles, feeling techniques and detailing of employed by him in his works. 7.1 Introduction. The true art of the essay was born with Lamb. high as an essayist and critic. He ranks very
He is compared to Addison but he is
far, superior to Addison in depth and tenderness of feeling, and in richness of fancy. Goldsmith comes nearer to Lamb in delicacy of
feeling and sentiment, and also in pathos and humour, but does not posses Lambs exquisiteness and quaintness of fancy. is the true inventor of the essay. After all, Lamb
In his own style he has woven Elizabethan
together into one charming whole the quaintness of the
manner, and the clearness and common source of modern times. 7.2 Charles Lambs Life & Works Charles lamb was born in 1775. He was cradled in the quiet cloisters of the Temple, and the old-world atmosphere of the Temple clung about him all of his life. Charles and Eilzabeth Lamb was the John seventh Lamb was and a
youngest
child
John
Lamb.
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barristers clerk, with seven children, and had to fight hard against the encroach-ments of poverty. Little money could be spared for
educational purposes, and it might have fared ill with Charles had not Samuel Salt, his fathers patron, obtained for him, when he was seven, a presentation to Christs Hospital. He could thus bid
farewell to his earlier mentor, Mr. William Bird, eminent writer and teacher of languages, whose readiness with the birch was more obvious than his readiness with learning. At Christs Hospital he stayed for another seven years. Here he made the acquaintance of the youthful Coleridge, three years his senior, and the acquaintance soon ripened into a friendship that was to last a lifetime. Lamb proved a fairly good scholar, and when he left in November 1789, ob-tained a post in the South Sea House, where the friendly Salt was a Deputy Governor. His family had left the Temple, the father by reason of increas-ing infirmities having
retired on a small pension, and we find them in Little Queen Street, Holborn. In his scanty leisure, Lamb threw himself with keen zest into the joys of reading, a joy he shared with his sister Mary. This was varied by occasional visits to the theatre, a brief excursion to Hertford-shire where some of his happiest moments were spent, and where the one romance of his life budded and faded. His home life was wearisome and gloomy. His father was growing childish and querulous ; his mother was an invalid, and the strain of insanity in the family suddenly showed itself in poor Mary, upon whom all the household
cares had devolved. Between 1807 and 1817, Lambs contributions to! literature were frequent and important. In 1817 the Lambs left the Temple for Covent Garden, and an interesting chapter in his life was closed, f o r i t was at the Temple where the famous, Wednesday evening gatherings took place at theTemple moreover, where he made so many of hislasting friendships. The most interesting chapter in his literary life was to start, however, in 1820, when Hazlitt introduced him to the editor of the London Magazine, and the famous Elia essays came into existence. In 1821 John Lamb died. In the summer of 1823 the Lambs once again migrated yet further north, this time to Islington, failing health made Lamb consider retirement, perhaps the loss of some of his best friends weighed upon him also. The fact remains that neither brother nor sister got so much pleasure from this retirement as had
159
been anticipated. He found the folk at Enfield slow, and too prone to talk about cattle. To relieve his boredom he would indulge in farcically
extravagant letters. Lamb started as a writer about 1795, when Burke and Gibbon were at the height of their glory, and some years before Scott had given romantic narrative verse its astonishing vogue. He experimented both in prose and verse. The tenderness of Lamb, and his genius for
reminiscence, find expression in Mrs. Leicesters School and Poetry for Children (1809) works written also in collaboration and designed for Mrs. Godwins Juvenile Library. For some years he wrote
little, but his literary friendships helped to stimulate his slowly maturing powers. Lambs work as a critic precedes his work as an essayist,
though the essays no less than the letters scintillate in brilliant flashes of criticism. His earlier essay work, between 1811 and 1820, is scarcely up to the level of Leigh Hunts. The flowering time came in 1820 when Elia entered upon his own and started with the South Sea House, rich in observant humour and reminiscent charm. In 1833,
the final fruits of Lamb were gathered together in The Last Essays of Elm. 7.3 DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG Lamb believes that the practice of roasting pigs originated in China. A manuscript which was read out to him by his friend Thomas Manning, told the story that the art of roasting was discovered
accidentally. Once the cottage of a shepherd caught fire and his nine young pigs were burnt to death. From the burnt bodies of the pigs the son of the shepherd experienced an alluring odour. As he searched for the source of that smell in the ashes, he stooped down to feel a pig, if there were any signs of life in it. The Shepherd burnt his fingers and in order to cool them he put mem into his month. In this way, he happened to taste the roast skin of the pig, which appeared to him the greatest delicacy in the world. From that day, the shepherds started setting fire to their cottages now and then and leaving some pigs to get roasted in it. Gradually, a wise man suggested them not to burn their cottages but roast pigs on gridirons. Later the judge purchased all the pigs of the town. In a few days
160
his house was observed to be on fire. Then it followed that every house was on fire. Throughout the district, fuel and pigs became very costly. Insurance offices were closed. After a long time a practical
philosopher like Locke invented a cheaper way of roasting the flesh of pigs and other animals. The costly method described in the Chinese manuscript is worthy of the pig. It is worthy because the roasted flesh of the pig is the most delicate of all delicacies. It must be a young pig which is less man a month old and which is called a crackling. In the plate on the dinner-table is his second cradle. Such a pig is beautiful and good. Elia might enjoy certain things when his friends taste them. But on the question of the pig, he is stubborn. He himself must taste the pig. Our ancestors were very particular about the way they sacrificed such tender animals. How will a pig taste when it is whipped to death? The young students at St Omer discussed a similar problem. If the pig killed by whipping adds a new taste to the roasted flesh, is death by whipping justifiable? Whatever be the decision, the young pig is a weak ling a flower. Lamb considers the roast pig as one of the best delicacies in the world. "Of all the delicacies in the whole mundus edibilis, I will maintain it to be the most delicateprinceps obsoniorum". Like a true epicurean, Lamb describes the taste of this delicate dish, "There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, wellwatched, not overroasted, crackling, as it is well calledthe very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this banquet in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance with the adhesive oleaginous O call it not fat, but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it the tender blossoming of fat fat cropped in the bud. roast pig is the
The essay reveals Lamb's epicurean tastes. A greatest
delicacy in the world. Lamb wants to enjoy every good thing in the world. There is a charming self-revelation in the essay. Lamb was a kindhearted man, but his preference for pigs which have been whipped to death is against his nature. 7.4 IN PRAISE OF CHIMNEY SWEEPERS
161
This essay reflects Lamb's concern for the lowly placed chimneysweepers. This is one of his best essays. His concern for humanity and his profoundly sympathetic nature is vividly displayed throughout the essay. No doubt he speaks only for the "young" chimney-sweepers but that does in no way lessen the importance of the essay. He refers to them as "those tender novices." Lamb recalls his child-like wonder at the young chimneysweeper
disappearing into the chimney and emerging at the top like a warrior. He is impressed by their work so he wants other people to be kind to them. He urges the reader to give a penny or a two pence to a young chimney sweeper, when he meets him on the way. He does not forget to tell his readers not to be offended like Lamb himself if he laughs or jeers at them because in this way only they will provide the chimneysweeper a chance to enjoy himself. Similarly he is pleased to see the white teeth of a sooty young chimney-sweeper but he would not tolerate a young beauty to show her white teeth. Charles Lamb says that he always feels attracted towards young chimney-sweepers whose cry of "sweep-sweep" at dawn fills him with a little excitement that reminds him of the chirping of sparrows. He r e f e r s t o
them as their work demands patience, When Lamb was a child he used to w o n d e r h o w
young boys would enter the chimney from below, brush its walls and then emerge at the top. ' Lamb's appeals for such boys for their wont is strenuous as well as dangerous. They deserve charity from us. He urges people to give a penny or a two-pence to such a boy meeting them on the way. The chimney-sweepers try to keep their senses of smell and taste in order. They use sassafras tea or "salon" a favourite beverage
with them. Lamb himself has never tasted it but thinks that it should be gratifying to their senses as Valerian is to cats. But there are imitators who sell the A show of charity to such boys will enable them to do better work so that there may never be a casual spark. The reader's hospitality will be suitably rewarded in the future as this gesture will save them the expense of having to call fire engines in the event of a chimney catching fire. Lamb hates jeers and ridicules of a street crowd but he does not
162
mind if a young chimney-sweeper laughs at him. He tells us that once he fell on his back in street. A roguish young chimney-sweeper saw him in that condition and started laughing. He went on laughing until tears flowed from his eyes.Still Lamb did not feel offended for, as he felt, he had provided the chimney-sweeper an opportunity to be happy at his cost. There was of course no malice in the heart of the young chimney-sweeper. Lamb is critical of young ladies showing their beautiful white teeth but the sight of a black and sooty figure of a young chimneysweeper showing a set of white teeth is attractive. ' Lamb testifies to their social or family status. They are born in high aristocratic family but are kidnapped from their homes in their infancy. Once a young chimney-sweeper was found asleep in a
lordly bed. Had he been of low-birth, he would have dared not do so. The possible explanation can be that the boy must have got some
natural instinct to get into that aristocratic bed. Finally, Lamb tells us how his friend Jem White used to entertain a large number of young chimney-sweepers every year. Mr. White was a kind man. He had a great deal of sympathy for these unfortunate chimneysweepers. During the feast Mr. White would go round offering a morsel here and a slice there. They had a sumptuous meal. He used to propose slogan several toast of one of the to the king, was: to "May the the chimney brush sweepers. supersede The the
toasts
Laurel". The young chimney-sweepers really used to enjoy themselves on these occasions. It is a sad lot, Lamb says, that after the death of Jem White, the practice has come to an end. No one else could undertake to continue the tradition. The essay is characteristic of its personal note. Lamb speaks
much about his attitude, likes and dislikes. The use of "I" is in no way annoying, instead it adds to the charm of the essay. His style is persuasive when he speaks on behalf of the young chimney-sweepers; we almost begin to share his sentiments about them. There are three paragraphs in which he describes "Sassafras tea" which is a stimulating drink for the young chimney-sweepers. It is greatly relished not only by the chimney-sweepers, but also by other workmen leaving their homes at dawn. They freshen themselves with this drink.
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Another quality of the essay is that Lamb often slips into his fancy. He imagines that some of chimney-sweepers were born in a
aristocratic
family and were kidnapped from their homes in their
infancy. In order to make his argument appear sound, he relates an anecdote concerning a young chimney-sweeper who crept into the lordly bed in Arundel Castle. As Lamb is fond of loading his essays with anecdotes, he does the same in this essay as well. There are three anecdotes, one when he slipped while walking and thus provided a chance of fun and enjoyment to a young chimney sweeper. Two, there is a story about a young chimneysweeper who slipped into the lordly bed in order to feel the softness of the bed and also to give his tired limbs a little rest. Three, there is a long narrative about Jem White who used 'to arrange annual feasts in order to honour and provide entertainment to young chimney-sweepers. The essay presents a rich variety of Lamb's characteristic style. There are high-sounding words and phrases that interest the reader liking high-flown style of writing. Iteration which is a significant feature of Lamb's writing is also noticeable in this essay. A few examples of his style from this essay are given below: "I have a kindly yearning toward these aim speckspoor blots innocent blacknessthese young Africans of our own growththese almost clergy imps....." (The description of young chimney-sweepers). It is like some ramnant of gentry not quite extinct; a badge of better days; a hint of nobility....and a lapsed pedigree", (an example of iteration). Example of high-sounding or unusual words ".....whether the oily particles (sassafras is slightly oleaginuous) do attenuate and soften the fuliginous concretions....." ".....to come just in time to see the sable phenomenon emerge in safety....." ".....but one of those tender novices, blooming through their first negritude." "Him shouldest thou haply encounter, with his dimvisage pendent over the grateful steam, regale him with a sumptuous basin." Lamb writes with eloquence. The description of Lamb's falling down in
164
the street exciting laughter of a young chimney-sweeper is such an example. Though the entire description has been made in one long sentence, yet several parentheses therein are not able to mar either the eloquence or the beauty of the sentence. The same is true about the description of Jem White's way of entertaining the young chimneysweepers. The racing if of sentences were is smooth with and the reader Lamb's is carried is
forward as
he
flowing
water.
style
characteristic in its imaginative approach and the poetic appeal. The essay may be called a "lyric in prose". Above all the humanistic purpose of the essay makes it all the more beautiful and pragmatic. 7.5 DREAM CHILDREN- A REVERIE Children like to hear about their elders when they were children. So, our authors children sat around him to listen to the stories of childhood of their great grand-mother Field. She lived in a great house in Norfolk. The most interesting fact about this house was that the whole story of the Children in the Wood was carved in wood upon the chimney piece of the great hall. But this was replaced by a marble chimney-piece by a rich person afterwards. Great grand-mother Field was not the real owner of the house but her behaviour and manners, and her religious devotions were so great that she was respected by every one. She however used the house as if it was her own. But later, the ornaments were taken off from the house to the real owners home, which was in the adjoining country. When Mrs. Field died, her funeral was attended by both, poor folks, and the rich people. Men from many miles . round, came to show their respect for her memory. She was indeed a very gentle-hearted and pious person. She knew the Psaltery by heart and also a great part of the Testament.
Then Lamb began telling them about their great grandmothers youth, when she was regarded as the best darcer in the country. But she was attacked by cancer, and that desisted her from dancing any further. Her good spirits, however, could not be broken, and she continued to be good and religious. She used to sleep by herself in a desolate chamber of that great house. She thought she saw two apparitions of infants at midnight, but she was sure that they were good creatures, and would not hurt her. She was also very kind to her grand--children, who went to her during the holidays. Lamb himself used to spend hours in gazing upon old busts of the Emperors Rome. He used to roam round the large silent rooms of that huge house, and looked through the wt;rn-out hangings, fluttering tapestry, and carved oaken panels. He also used to hang about the garden, gazing at the trees and flowers. He was satisfied thus roaming about and preferred this to the sweet flavours of peaches, nectarines, and such like common habits of children.
Though great grand-mother Field loved all her grand-children, she had a special favour for their uncle John Lamb, because he was a handsome and spirited lad He was dashing sort of fellow.
165
While others would have preferred a secluded corner, he used to mount on horses and ride around the country and join the hunters. Their uncle John Lamb was really a brave man, and when he grew up to be a man, he won the admiration of every one. When our author was a lame-footed boy, John who was few years senior to him used to carry him on his back for many miles. In after-life, John, however, became lame-footed. Lamb now fears that perhaps he had not been considerate enough to bear the impatient pains of John, or to remember his childhood, when he was carried by John. But when Juhn died, Lamb came to miss him very much, and remembered his kindness and his crossness, and wished him to be alive again. The children then demanded that Lamb should say something about their dead mother. Then Lamb began telling them how for seven long years he patiently courted the fair Alice Winterton. As he was relating these experiences of his, he, suddenly felt that the eyes of that old Alice were gazing from the face of the little Alice, sitting before him. As Lamb looked, and looked, it seemed that the two chitdren, John and Alice, were receding from him. At last just two mournful features were left of them, and they told him that they were neither of Alice, nor of Lamb, that they were not children. For, the children of Alice, had Bartrum for their father. So they were merely dreams. At this point. Lamb woke up and found himself sitting in his bachelor arm-chair, where he had fallen asleep with the faithful Bridget by his side.
7.6 STYLE AND TECHNIQUE OF CHARLES LAMB Lambs place in literature is unique. He is a fine
imaginative critic and something of a poet; but he lives, and will live, by virtue of being himself and expressing that self in a series of prose essays unsurpassed in their charm, prodigality of fancy and literary artifice, marked by a distinguished common sense, starred with passages of great beauty and profound insight, and suffused with a kindly and capricious humour. The Essays of Elia are a complete
revelation of their writers character and, with his correspondence, constitute an autobiography. Lamb is fond of a kind of reversed irony. He makes a
statement or uses a phrase which at first is unpleasing, but becomes pleasing when we consider it more carefully. of the rational antipathies of the For instance, he writes English and French
great
nations. harmony,
He says of himself and his sister, We are generally is with occasional describes bickerings, the as it should as be among near a
relations,
and
coast-guard
men
carrying
on
legitimated civil war in the deplorable absence of foreign one. The Essays of Elia reveal the charm and endurance of a
personality with a turn for quaint and fantastic humour, melting into pathos, with sober delight in the things of life, which even the overshadowing tragedy of his sisters fatal malady can hardly
166
repress.
In reading his essays the tragic background of his life is
highlighted but there is no track of self-pity to our sympathy, nor any bravado, nor the hashing of teeth in important range. alchemy of his sweeteners of disposition and By the
by the alchemy of
poetry, he seems to have metamorphosed all his troubles into the fancy realm of dreams, reminiscence, unfulfilled longings, things stored up in the memory, experiences that should have been forgotten long ago, sketches of incidents which one would have passed over in life, the bizarre and fantastic which he seem to have an miscanny sense of perceiving all these enter into his essays. Lamb lives mostly in the world of memories, the has a brooding fantasy and it ponders and meditates, softening the outlines of the past and presenting a clear, though sad picture. Pathos becomes a necessary element of each writing. for compassion. He converts his It reveals his infinite capacity personal experiences into the
universal suffering of mankind. to this unfailing sense of pathos.
His style owes its grace and charm
The romantic essence of things and personalities which he very stuffily brings out is a part of his humorous understanding and sensibility. including It is love and of life vices of things essentially human, that lifts him above the
weakness
even
calamities of life. As a contributor to the London Magazine, he evolved the
Essays of Elia, incomparable meditations, reveries, fantasies, on the accidents and essentials of life and death. There the tenderness, the most lovable steeped in rich
pathos, and ineffable lavish humour of one of personalities in literature find an expression
allusiveness, quaint with freaks, starting with sudden child like felicities, and sweet with sighing cadavers. RemarksG.L. Craik.
In his essays there is a hint, now and then, of things painful Dream children, can be cited as an example but the painful relatives o f l i f e form the back drop, a n d are transmitted to us in shadowy renaissance, He does not deal with problems, but in memories of
simple things and simple people, often with the pathos of death on oblivion dinging about these; the sights of common London the
chimney sweepers and the Jews and the actors, the choice savours of beasts and of fish, Herford) the street arise and the changing bells (C.H.
167
Humour and pathos which are allied in Lambs essays. Humour in an essential part of his nature. He could just get away from his own Sometimes
tragic experiences and dispassionately view human affairs. he indulges such humour to spite realities.
Lambs humour keeps him human and makes up a large part of his benign personalities. He could never have cherished any bitter
feelings in his heart. The tender watchfulness with which his humour invests everything is a quality unique in Lamb. Wh a t s u d d e n
unexpected touches of pathos in him!
He is represented by the fine
shade of perception and sensibility expressing itself in delicate humour, which is rendered in language subtle and perfect. His
humour makes a sense appraisement of life. How admirably, he has sketched the former of the south sea house; what fair fretwork be makes of their double and single
entries.
With that a firm, yet subtle peril, he has embodied Mrs.
Battles opinion on what! How notably he embalms a battered bearer; how delightfully an armour, that was cold forty years ago revives in his pages ! With what evil distinguished humour he introduces us to his relation, and how freely leaves up his friends! It reflects Lamb's epicurean tastes, his liking of delicious dishes, like that of a roast pig. Though Lamb calls the essay 'a dissertation*, it is not a formal treatise. Throughout the essay can be seen a vein of humour and fun. The essay, Dissertation upon a roast pig, is full of fun and humour. The story of accidental discovery of cooking or burning is quite humorous. The various anecdotes narrated by Lamb provide
occasions of fun and humour which was an essential trait of Lamb's nature. The roasted pig is humorously called 'mundus edibilis' and 'the chief of the dainties'. There can be nothing but humour in
remarks, such as 'See him in the dish', his second cradle, how meek he looks. The pine-apple is a humorous simile for the pig. In short, the essay is full of fun and humour. The essay should be read with a spirit of light fun and laughter. Lamb explains the principles of his diction Diligent care
has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote ; those few words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided.
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Some things are of that nature as to make ones fancy chuckle while his heart doth ache, wrote Bunyan. The nature of things mostly appealed to Lamb in that way. Humour with him is never far from tragedy ; through his tears you may see the rainbow iii the sky ; for his humour and pathos are really inseparable from one another, they are different facets of the same gem ; or to change the simile, one may say that Lambs moods, whether grave or gay, are equally the natural effervescence of an exquisitely mobile imagination. As a rule he tells the world more about himself than he tells his friend. This is due to no morbid egotism, no mere loquacity, it is a necessity of his nature to express himself. In fiction it is the least apparent, because of the exigencies of this particular art form. A novelist may dramatize his moods and experiences, and this to an extent disguises his selfrevelation ; but in the essay form the intimate confidential note is the most obtrusive, and the disregard for classical standards and rigidity of form that is peculiar to romantic literature of all kinds, necessarily helps this self-
revealing process. For this reason the Essays of Elia especially, and the critical essays to a less extent, are practically autobiographical fragments, from which we may reconstruct with little difficulty the inner life and no little of the outer life of Lamb. carelessness as to the comfort of had always retained a strong In spite of his apparent
his brother and sister, Charles affection for him. This most
pathetically expressed in Dream Children. The streets of London are his fairy-land, teeming with wonder with life and interest to his retrospective glance, as it did to the eager eye of childhood; he has contrived to weave its tritest traditions into a bright and endless romance. To one chief feature of city life, Lamb was indifferent. He
took no interest in politics. Lamb was so thoroughly a lover of the town. In the underlying melancholy of his character Lamb resembles many of the Elizabethans, for melancholy is a common accompaniment of habits of deep thought, but in Lambs case his melancholy was due to a hereditary taint. His fathers dotage and his sisters madness have been mentioned already, and though no actual evidence of madness has been recorded of his brother John, we find Lamb writing on one
occasion that he has fears for his mind.
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One can
notice the usual wit and humour in this essay. The
description of how a young-chimney sweeper disappears into a chimney and emerges at the top, is interesting. Similarly, the description of "Sassafras" tea and the Chimney-sweeper's liking for that is
humorous. Then follows the incident of Lamb's stumbling and falling on his back in the street causing laughter of a young chimney-
sweeper. The odd reference to young beautiful ladies showing their "white and shining ossifications" is satirical as well as humorous. Then the whole account of Jem White is also very interesting. Thus humour is the chief quality of the essay. As pathos also runs beside humour in Lamb's writing, mean find moving references about chimneysweepers' poverty and fate. He writes, "Reader, if thou meetest one of these small gentry in thy early rambles, it is good to give him a penny." Pathos is present also in the description of how these young chimney-sweepers might have been kidnapped from their aristocratic homes in their infancy and left to suffer the whole life. 7.7 HUMOUR AND PATHO7S IN CHARLES LAMBS ESSAYS Lamb is the supreme essayist of the period and in
English literature because the true art of the essay was born with him. He ranks very high as an essayist and critic. He is compared
to Addison but he is far, superior to Addison in depth and tenderness of feeling, and in richness of fancy. Goldsmith comes nearer to Lamb
in delicacy of feeling and sentiment, and also in pathos and humour, but does not posses Lambs exquisiteness and quaintness of fancy. After all, Lamb is the true inventor of the essay. out-of twists the-way in humours and opinions He was fond of
heads with some diverting
them things quaint, irregular and out of the road of
common sympathy. In his own style he was woven together into one charming whole the quaintness of the Elizabethan manner, and the
clearness and common source of modern times. The essays of Elia reveal the charm and endurance of a
personality with a turn for quaint and fantastic humour, melting into pathos, with sober delight in the things of life, which even the overshadowing repress. tragedy of his sisters fabal malady can hardly
In reading his essays we feeling the tragic background of
his life but there is no truck of self-pity to evilest our sympathy, nor any bravado, nor the garnishing of teeth in important range. life is a tragic history dashed tremendously with gloom, His
suffered
with tears, but when read as a whole, it is a tale of conquest and of
170
triumph.
There is little direct hint of all in his essays.
By the
alchemy of his sweeteners of disposition, by the alchemy of poetry, be seems to have metamorphosed all his troubles into the fancy realm of dreams, reminiscence, unfulfilled longings, things stored up in the memory, experiences that should have been forgotten long ago, sketches of incidents which one would have passed over in life, the bizarre and fantastic which he seem to have essays. As a contributor to the London Magazine, he evolved the Essays of Elia, incomparable meditations, reveries, fantasies, on the all these enter into his
accidents and essentials of life and death. There the tenderness, pathos, and ineffable in lavish humour of one of find an expression the most lovable steeped in rich
personalities
literature
allusiveness, quaint with freaks, starting with sudden child like felicities, and sweet with sighing cadavers. describable book in literature says G.L. Craik. The south sea House, Oxford in the vacation, Chiefs hospital are some of the many essays that reveal the essentially human There is no more in
interest of the prices. then, of things of painful are
In his essays there may (e.g. kept in Dream the children), region of
be a hint, now and but the painful and are
realities
life
memory,
transmitted to us in shadowy renaissance, He does not deal with problems, but in memories of simple things and simple people, often
with the pathos of death on oblivion dinging about these; the sights of common sights? London and what else is a great city but a collection of the chimney sweepers and the Jews and the actors, the the street arise and the
choice savours of beasts and of fish, changing bells Lamb lives (C.H. Herford) mostly in the world
of
memories,
that
has
brooding fantasy and it ponders
softening the outlines of the past
and presenting a clear, through sad picture, which we may think romantically coloured, but which in tree relatively to the authors experience. Pathos becomes a necessary element of each writing. It
reveals his infinite capacity for compassion.
He read his personal His style owes
experience into the universal suffering of mankind.
its software grace and charm to this unfailing sense of pathos. Then again humour in an essential part of his nature. Humour
grace him the detachment of an onlookers and he could just get away from his own tragic experience and dispassionately view human
171
affairs. touches
The pre-environment everything be writes
gift in
to humour, most akin to pathos, all its shifting colours. The
romantic essence of things and personalities which he very stuffily beings out is a part of him humorous understanding and sensibility. It is love of life of things essentially human, including weakness and even vices that lifts him above the calamities of life. Lambs humour that keeps him human and makes up a large part of his benign personalities. His humour in a mingling of laughter and He had a comic
tears. and they are again acrylic laughter tears. view o f l i f e whole.
and he could see life and see it steadily and as a
Lamb is represented by the finer shade of perception and
sensibility expressing itself in delicate humour, which in rendered in language subtle and perfect. What largely describes as a
ghastly make believe of humour as a gross judgment.
It is rather His
diving a veil over the ghastliness of his experience in life. humour makes a sense appraisement of life. life; he cannot for
He does not jest with
he has known all that is grim in life; but his
humour relieves him of the painfulness and tendencies of life. How admirably, he has sketched the former of the south sea house; what fair fretwork be makes of their double and single
entries.
With that a firm, yet subtle peril, he has embodied Mrs.
Battles opinion on what! How notably he embalms a battered bearer; how delightfully an armour, that was cold forty years ago revives in his pages ! With what evil distinguished humour he introduces us to his relation, and how freely leaves up his friends! Humour perforce of is a necessary out all equipment that of a in writer spirit like and Lamb turn who his
black
troubles
attention to men and things outside himself;
now when doing so be
must assessable incongracious elementary in life and he must laugh inspite of tears. The tender watchfulness with which his humour
invests everything is a quality unique in Lamb and we look for it elsewhere in vain what sudden unexpected touches of pathos in him! - beauty witness how the sorrow of humanity the welf schemers, the constant asking of the wounds, is ever present with him; but what a gift also for the enjoy of life in its suffleties, actuality making. Lambs humour, in all its shifting colours, touches everything he writes. The romantic essence of things and personalities which he very subtly brings out is a part of his humorous understanding and refined by the need of some thoughtful of enjoyment economies and
172
sensibility. His humour, his wistful longing, his haunting sense of the painful realities of life, his loving interest in his habitat and neighbors, as well as in things that are gone or going and lastly his style and fancy are all moulded together by his essentially human personality are all of a piece. Hence we cannot separate his style from his humour. His essays are alive with his being and iridescent with his character and sensibility, and fully develop all the graces, nobility, tenderness and whimsicality that make Lamb what he is. Humour lends enchantment to all his reveries, fantasies and speculations, and humour is a very important element in his character as well as in his writings. 7.8 Let us Sum Up The genius of Lamb lay in his power of visualizing memories. As a stylist does he walk in the past, gathering to himself the pleasant tricks and mannerisms of bygone writers. Passing through Lambs
imagination, they become something fresh and individual. The matter harmonizes with the manner. It also belongs to the past; its charm, too, is a retrospective one. In his dearly loved haunts it is the shadow of bygone times that he sees, rather than present actualities; a vanished face, a hushed voice, a recollected gesture, some familiar friend from book, the memory of some treasured joyance. But Lamb a memories are not like Wordsworths, emotions recollected in
tranquility. He recalls them not to wring from them some spiritual rapture, or ethical significance, but merely as material for his intellect and fancy to play upon. He plays with his thoughts the atmosphere of his mind reflects the pictures that he conjures up Lamb belonged externally very little to his own time. He
cared nothing for politics on public events, although he was not sorry when the death of a royal personage gave him a holiday. He
preferred, as he put it, to write for antiquity. His life is a tragic history dashed tremendously with gloom, suffered with
tears, but when read as a whole, it is a tale of conquest and of triumph. There is little direct hint of all in his essays.
7.9 LESSON END ACTIVITIES: 1. Analyse the distinctive features of Lambs essay with reference to the essays prescribed. 2. Comment on the humour and pathos in Lambs essays. 3. Consider Lamb as an Essayist.
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7.10 REFERENCES Lamb, Charles Essays 1970. of Elia, Bombay: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,
Lucas; E.V. Park, Roy
The Best Lamb London: Methuea and Co. Ltd., 1966 Lamb as Critic. London: Routledge & Thegan Paul, 1980.
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LESSON - 8 JOHN BUNYAN THE PILGRIMS PROGRESS Contents 8.0 Aims and Objectives 8.1 The Life of John Bunyan 8.2 Outline of The Pilgirms Progress 8.3 Style and Technique 8.4 Pilgrims Progress as an Allegory 8.5 Let Us Sum Up 8.6 Lesson End Activities 8.7 References
8.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson costs light on one of the works of John Bunyan, entitled The Pilgrims Progress By reading this lesson, you will be aware of the life history of Bunyan and his contributions with style and techniques. 8.1 The Life of John Bunyan John Bunyan was born at Elstow near Bedford in 1628. His father was a tinker by trade, and he brought up his son also in the same job. There is no record of his having gone to any school, but in the years of the Civil War, lie was drafted into the army, but stayed in it for little more than a year. For he returned to his native village in 1645 while the Civil War was still in progress, and married in year of the king's trial and executiona poor girl who
1649the
brought him curiously enough two old books as her dowry! These were well-known religious tracts entitled ' Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven' and ' The Practice of Piety." In 1653 he became a member of a small Christian oommumfes-whioh had no other dogma except to follow the teachings of Christ implicitly. Thereafter Bunyan began to address
small groups of his acquaintances and the public on the message of Christianity as he understood it. There were severe laws enacted against unofficial and
175
unauthorised preachers who began to multiply in all parts of the land. Bunyan was arrested in 1660 for disobeying the law and sent to
Bedford jail where he dwelt till the year 1679. In those twelve years he wrote in jail a number of religious discourses such as ' Christian Behaviour,' 'Grace ' The Holy City', 'The Resurrection of the Dead* and From 1672 to 1675 he laboured as a licensed
Abounding.'
preacher, but in the latter year the freedom given to Dissenters was withdrawn and he was again sent to jail for six months in 1675. It was during the period of his second imprisonment that he wrote in Bedford jail the first part of ' The Pilgrim's Progress.' It was published in 1678 . Then followed a series of other books from his pen in too-following years. Chief of them were ' The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680). 'The Holy War' (1682), and the second part of ' The Pilgrim's Progress ' (1684). After labouring zealously as a preacher among his fellow-townsmen, he at last died in 1688. Altogether he wrote about sixty books, all of religious appeal. But ' The Pilgrim's Pro g r e s s ' became a best seller even in his life-time, and has
remained one of the world's classics ever since. It has since been translated into almost all the languages of the world. " 8.2 OUTLINE OF THE PILGIRMS PROGRESS The journey of the Christian occurs in three different stages and stands a good comparison to the life journey of every individual with the temporal things of the world and secondly he is pre-occupied with self love. The last stage deals with the Christians full and
victorious living with God, his total surrender and sanctification and the heavenly bliss accruing to him from his intimate association with him. At the very outset Christian is seeking deliverance from the enmeshing Though and enervating resolves influences o f t h e City to pursue him, to of Destruction. his purpose,
obstinate
change
Christian is able to overcome him because he is firm in seeking an inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled. The company of
Pliable is responsible for driving him to the Slough of Despond. There arises in him fears, doubts and discouraging apprehensions. For the deliverance from the burden of sin that he is carrying on the back the Evangelist leads him to Calvary and throws light upon the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ. The Worldly wise man of the
176
town of Carnal Policy, Legality of the village called Morality and Civility try to mislead and misguide Christian. During the course of his pilgrimage in the way of the cross, there are numerous temptations for him to burn back. The love of
earthly comforts, the priority of tender family ties, are some of the primary hindrances to his true discipleship. As he walks through the wicket gate and reaches the house of Interpreter, many truths about Christ and Satan, Salvation, sanctification, Second coming and about the life of this world, and that of which is to come are revealed to him. The First stage of Christians spiritual-journey ends with his thrilling experience of Salvation. the vision of the cross. The load of sins rolls away at
The redemption which is in Christ Jesus has
a specific beginning, a specific working out in Christians life and ultimately a specific conclusion, a goal, a mark towards which he is pressing. Since his assurance of salvation is securely based, his progress is not deterred by Simple, Sloth, Presumption, Formalist, Hypocrisy and Vain glory who come along his way. As Christian climbs up the Hill of Difficulty, clambering upon his hands and his knees, life seems to be filled with innumerable cares and disappointments, penetrating care and sorrow which become a heavy weight and impede him and make him grow slack in his running race and reaching the goal. As a result Timorous and Mistrust
encounter him, and a sense of fear and guilt arise in him making him feel helpless. In the early stages of his journey Christian moves through an inhospitable terrain, where he must take refuge in a way station such as House Beautiful and where evidences of divine favor are fleeting and mysterious for example, the hand that appears with leaves from the Tree of Life to heal Christians wounds when he is in the Valley of Humiliation. When Christian keeps on his way and faces Apollyon, he is not inspired by any martial ardour. He goes on because he
remembers that he has armour for his chest but not for his back, so that turning tail would be the most dangerous thing he could do. The way of the cross involves Christian passing through the valley of Humiliation, with a direct encounter with Apollyon, the
devil, whom Christian successfully overcomes him. The Valley of the Shadow of Death is an inevitable place in the way of the
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cross.Chsristian accompanied by Faithful reaches the town of Vanity Fair, where all worldly things, transactions, places, honours,
desires, titles, kingdoms, lust, pleasure and all kinds of delights and evils prevail. The people of the town sentence faithful to death
and imprison Christian who finally manages to escape with the help of God. Hopeful is another interesting character who joins Christian. Though they encounter Mr. Hold-The-World, Mr. Money-love and Mr.
Save-All, whom successfully overcome. In the progress of Christian the field of Ease is another barrier. Though he is trapped and imprisoned in the Doubting Castle
by giant Despair, he makes use of the key of promise and successfully escapes from the Doubting Castle. As he reaches the Immanuels land,
he gains more knowledge, experience and become more watchful and sincere. In the continuation of their journey, despite the words of Flatterer, ignorance and the Atheist they never waver in their faith. Christian is in inclined to be impulsive and passionate. He
runs part of the way up the Hill of Difficulty, and it is he who, by overruling Hopefuls good advice and taking a short cut, leads them both into By-Path Meadow and to Doubting Castle. He is too ready to
jump to conclusions, fearing that all hope is gone when he loses his roll of election in the Arbour, or beginning to sink when his doubts return upon him in the crossing of the River. Christians actions describe a progression through stages of spiritual life proceeds from an initial conviction of sin that lands him in the Slough of Despond to the instruction in Scripture that he receives in the Interpreters House and through the various trials of the major part of the journey until he finally arrives at the
assurance of Gods mercy represented by Beulah.
The more violent, the most
and dramatic, assaults on Christians faith come early
violent, that of Apollyon, soon after he has put on the Pauline armour of the solider of Christ. The transition from the Valley of
Humiliation to the Valley of the Shadow of Death makes sense in terms o f C hristians experience; he has just faced the prospect of
annihilation in the battle with Apollyon.
After escaping the fiends
of the Valley of the Shadow, Christian must face the hostile society of Vanity Fair. Later Christian encounters more subtle kinds o f Demas, By-Path
temptations, involving fraud or deceptive appearances
Meadow, Flatterer, the seductive appeal of the Enchanted Ground for the pilgrim nearing the end of his journey. The Delectable Mountains constitute a spiritual height
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attained only by the stalwart For but few of them that begin to come hither, do shew their face on these Mountains, remark the shepherds on which Christian and Hopeful anticipate pleasures to be realized more fully in Beulah. The Gardens, and Orchards, the Vineyards, and Fountains of water serve as tangible proof of Gods marvellous
bounty. When Christian reaches Beulah the gate of the New Jerusalem is within sight and he is able to solace himself with delights of the place: flowers, singing birds, abundance of corn and wine, and , not least, the presence of Shining Ones. The Delectable Mountains suggest a large region named
Immanuels land that embodies the promise of salvation, Beulah a whole country. By the time Christian and Hopeful have reached the River of Life the landscape itself sustains them; it is an oasis where they may lie down safely and enjoy the life giving fruit and water of the place. In addition to the River of Life the springs and fountains that Christian encounters in his journey, beginning with the spring at the foot of the hill Difficulty, embody the Spirit of grace. As Christian drinks these waters, and eats the fruit of the Tree of Life and of the vineyards of Beulah and the Delectable Mountains, he may be said to grow in spiritual strength and vitality. The delights of Beulah suggest the high level of spiritual satisfaction that can be attained by the faithful in this life, but Chrisitian must cross the river, a spiritual Jordan to reach the true promised land. Bunyan shows his pilgrims, transfigured by their heavenly
garments, entering into a state of bliss and rest that surpasses anything they could have known in the world and justifies all the trials they have endured there. The holy joy that they experience can be attained only in the presence of God, in the act of praising him. We last see Christian and Hopeful as they blend into the festive chorus of angels and saints singing: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord (p.162). Pilgrims Progress consists of two parts, each complete in itself. The first recounts the full journey of the pilgrim, who was called Graceless and is now known as Christian, from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Concerned as it is with the
individual, this first part presents one facet of the Christian life, and does not deal primarily with the larger life of the Christian community.
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The second part of The Pilgrims Progress (1684), which is the story of Christians wife and children on their way to Paradise, is much inferior to Part I. At the outset, it was Bunyans idea to
have Mr. Sagacity tell the story to the Dreamer; then, apparently, he realized the clumsiness of this plan, and Sagacity was summarily dropped. Bunyan seems now to be writing for women and children. But
a picturesque narrative needs a hero, not a heroine. At the outset, Bunyan substituted an assault on Christinas chastity for the physical combats in which her husband had
participated.
But he unable to do much with it, and in any event
such a device could not very well have been repeated. When combats do occur, it is not Christina but her guide, Greatheart, who is involved in them. There is a adventure and more exposition in Part II, then in Part I and much of it is dismal. Even the death of Giant Despair,
which ought to have been a climax to the thrilling adventure of Part I, is comparatively tame. Yet G Mr. r e a there t for h are e Truth, touches a r Mr. t as fine h i and as m anything s e l in f Bunyan. , are all
Valiant
Honest,
Madame
Bubble
memorable characters. weak Christians, Mr.
Abstractions come to life as of old in those Fearing and Mr. Fearing and Mr. Feeblemind
how wise, how tender, and how deeply Christian Bunyan is in his treatment of them! When Ready to Halt dances with Despondencys there is a w e l c o m e touch of humour. When
daughter, Much-Afraid,
Mercy falls in love with Christians son, Matthew, and marries him and bears him a child, we are coming close to the novel of domestic life. Finally they cross the River. Despondencys daughter went over
singing, but none could understand what she said. With Mr. Valiantfor-Truth the situation was different him on the other side. 8.3 STYLE AND TECHNIQUE Considering the real qualities of the novel, ocean find it very hard to discover one which is not eminently present in Pilgrims Progress. It has a sufficient and regular plot in each of its parts, the two being duly connected a plot rather of the continuous or straight line than of the interwoven or circular order, but still amply all the Trumpets sounded for
sufficient. continuous or
The action and interest of this plot rather of the straight line than of the interwoven or circular The action and interest of this
order, but still amply sufficient.
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plot are quite lavishly supported by character; indeed, the Pilgrims Progress is the first prose work of fiction in which this all-
powerful tool, which had hitherto been chiefly used by the dramatist, and to a less intense, but more extensive, degree by the poet, was applied. The description and the dialogue are used to further the
narrative, in the precise way in which novel differs from Drama the description being given by the author, not by the characters or the stage directions and are mixed and tempered of with an art only they
inferior to that shown in the projection help.
character
which
In his relations with Faithful and Hopeful there is some room for the play of temperament as well as a generalised picture of Christian comradeship. structure. The In theological contrast, in passages the have a firm
intellectual
minor
characters
something that can be called literary art is displayed in its full subtlety it is the art of the traditional popular sermon judiciously fusing moral doctrine and dramatic reality into economical vignettes. In the portraits of heretics and backsliders, after we have taken in the introductory catch-word of a moralised name, Ignorance or Ready to halt, we slip from allegory to genre studies of flesh and blood. Ignorance is a very brisk lad. Talkative is a tall man, and
something more comely at a distance than at hand. The skilful, dissecting humour of the portrait of Ignorance may serve to illustrate the quality of all these studies of heretics and backsliders Ignorance is young and some what ingenuous; he is not a corrupt old time-server like By-Ends, or a pompous authoritarian prig like Worldly Wiseman. The grammatical arrangement is loose but never sloppy, a series of parallel clauses and sentences; if they naively run on, they are never allowed to pile up too much and cause confusion. pause, like that before the last sentence, serves An emphatic to make the
structure of meaning absolutely clear.
The slight but pleasing music
of the short clauses, varying in length but only varying a little, creates a transparent medium for dramatic effects. The simpler the
prose statement, the more humorous or poignant implications can show through it. The prose has a range extending through this serviceable,
fairly neutral medium, to a rough, vivid colour in words and phrases from racy, country speech. The language is studded with popular
181
proverbs sometimes it is hard to tell whether a phrase not recorded elsewhere is a rare proverb or simply the creation of the proverbial imagination. Major force is Bunyans own speech and tone of voice, modified by the use he had put it to in order to express personal religious experience and by his training as a popular preacher. Where the First,
Bible is dominant is in the though and structure of the work.
in the great metaphors of wayfaring and struggle, but also in nearly every important episode. The Valley of the Shadow, Vanity Fair, the houses of
entertainment for pilgrims modeled on the life of the apostles in the Acts, the final bourne of the Heavenly City all by the creative ferment of the native imagination expand hints and suggestions into full-scale drama. The dream is frame; it is also the process by
which the native imagination was able to crack the narrow sectarian pattern and free the Biblical truths to describe the way of the people of God in living terms. Christian undertakes his journey
because he believes his hometown is going to be destroyed by fire. Lively characterization, of course, constitutes a major But the
strength of The Pilgrims Wiseman and Talkative and Pliable.
spirit and quality of Bunyans art in this respect are not adequately suggested in terms of the characters in the book that are observed satirically; there is no lack in his characterization of sympathetic perception and rendering or of warm human feeling. The encounter of Christian and Hopeful with the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains provides a revealing illustration of
Bunyans ability to combine the two basic senses of the metaphor of the way. This episode of offers one of the of best the examples in T h e way of
Pilgrims faith:
Progress
the
subjectivity
individual
Christian . Shepherd .
Is this the way to the Celestial City? You are just in your way.
Christian. How far is it thither? Shepherd. indeed. Christian. Is the way safe, or dangerous? Shepherd. Safe for those for whom it is to be safe, but Too far for any, but those that shall get thither
transgressors shall fall therein. The deliberate ambiguity forces one to recognize that the
182
nature
of
the
way
its upon
length the
and faith
the of
specific the
dangers
to
be
encountered
depends
individual
pilgrim.
Christians faith exists only in this time present because faith must be renewed continuously. One cannot overemphasize the importance of his final episode to the structure of The Pilgrims Progress and the experience of its contemporary readers. The emotional intensity of Bunyans narrative, as it rises to a series of peaks leading up to the moment of
Christians and Hopefuls reception into the New Jerusalem, registers in unmistakable fashion his own estimation of how far his pilgrims have progressed. Bunyans rendering of the glory of heaven, and of the
preliminary delights of Beulah, is one of the great triumphs of the Puritan imagination and the ultimate justification of his use of the metaphor of the journey. The climatic episodes of The Pilgrims
Progress bring the reader all the way from the carnal world in which the narrative began up to the contemplation of a transcendent world whose reality is validated by the word. In the terms of Bunyans narrative one can gain entrance to heaven only by learning to understand the visible world of ordinary experience in the metaphoric terms established by the Word: as an alien, and ultimately insubstantial country through which Gods
people must journey until they attain the ultimate satisfaction of communion with God. To accept this mode of thought is to see in the Exodus a pattern explaining and assuring the deliverance of the
faithful of all items. 8.4 PILGRIMS PROGRESS AS AN ALLEGORY The allegory in The Pilgrims Progress helps to give us a
clear idea of the various difficulties and obstacles, temptations that lie in the path of any one who wants to reach God. Christian is
the personification of an ideal Christian, simple, honest and good, who has an earnest desire to save his soul and secure eternal life in Heaven. Christian in a restless consciousness of his sins. frame of mind, is weighed down by the He
Domestic happiness leaves him cold.
is sick of the world and its sins.
His thoughts are on salvation.
His family and his friends first treat this as a physical ailment and later deride him as crazy. Thus the path to salvation is shown to
him and all alone he sets out to seek it.
183
Christians dramatic flight from his family-with his fingers in his ears and crying, Life, Life, Eternal Life the expect the his life in order to save it (Mark his family in order to follow the way of Christ, one will
Gospel demands that one loses 8:35) and further 15:26) that if
one leaves one chooses
Christ(Luke
necessarily appear foolish in the eyes of the world. The world tries to drag him back. overtakes him. This is natural as he is Very soon despondency mentally lonely. Soon
however he gets over it. to claim him back.
The world in the shape of Mr. Wiseman tries
For a short while he is taken in by Mr. Wiseman,
Soon he recollects the worlds of Gods Interpreter and cleanses his mind of all thoughts of self-indulgence. He receives good advice and directions from men of good will and this encourages him. ways and illustrates guidance the He meets one who interprets to him Gods dangers well of worldly in the temptations. spirit of This Gods
spiritual
from
one
versed
teachings is of great help to him.
And soon his conscience is But he
cleared of its sins and he feels very free and light-hearted. is yet open to attacks from the world. to show him short-cuts to heaven.
Formalism and hypocrisy try
But he sufficiently developed to
discard such devices as signs of self-deception. The process acquiring spiritual exaltation is very rigorous. Christian has his weakness in him. He relaxes and indulges in sloth.
This weakens his moral tone and so he becomes a prey to timidity and lack of confidence. But his better nature asserts itself and be soon He bravely faces the dangers on the way
repents his temporary lapse.
and this matures new aspects in his mind. In the Palace, Beautiful, Discretion, Prudence, Pity and Charity enlighten him and give him a new armour to resist the physical terrors of the world in the shape of Appollyon. Then for a while he has to grope along amidst the
fogs, pitfalls and dangers of the world, through the valley of the Sh a d o w o f Death. through. And By keeping his mind resolutely on God he wins this be acquires a great mental equipment,
with
unshakable faith in God.
He easily sees through.
And with this he He
acquires a great mental equipment, unshakable faith in God.
easily sees through Talkative who cares only for the form and not the spirit of religion. T h e w o rldly forces beset him again in another guise. In the Vanity Fair all the allurements, wiles and wickedness of the world
184
beset him. With staunch faith he overcomes these.
He develops in
this process another noble quality, Hope. He is by now morally well developed and is able to nail By-ends lies. Wealth ceases to hold
any allurement for him. He ignores the call of wealth as reflected in the episode with Demas. He indulges himself and pays the price of easy by getting his mind clouded over with doubt. Soon he becomes very desperate. Despair is driven off and
Despair and hope wage a war in his heart.
hope triumphs. Now he is on an elevated mental plane from which he is able to glimpse the truth of heaven and also understand the danger of worldly indulgence and ignorance. The delectable mountains depict
his high mental and moral development. He is proof against ignorance. But flattery leads him astray
and lands him in trouble. He however gets over this weakness too. Yet another obstacle in the shape of Atheism confronts him. has no power over Christian. But this
Still the danger of falling a pray to Christian gets over this
self-indulgence remains a constant threat. by concentrating on God and His teachings. And finally he faces death. He
has
still
some
worldly
weakness in him. afraid of death. with courage.
His hope of salvation is shaken and he begins to be But ultimately hope sustains him and he faces death Thus he reaches heaven. The entire pilgrimage is a
figurative illustration of the psychological struggle inside man who wants to attain God. Man can attain mental and moral eminence only
by battling against his base inclinations i.e. by conquering his thirst for worldly pleasures. Fortitude, austerity, faith, hope are
the primary qualities needed by man to attain salvation. The Doubting Castle episode proves that Christian can lose the way at a relatively late point in the journey through overconfidence, not that he has failed to grow in faith and understanding. In
Doubting Castle Christian is baffled and dismayed by the fact that it seems impossible either to defeat his enemy or to get his key. The
brilliance of the episode lies in the fact that Bunyan makes escape seemingly so difficult yet paradoxically so easy; Christian has only to remember that Scripture has provided him with his own key, a solution that comes to him as a result of prayer. Christian again lapses into doubt at the River of Death, this time a paralyzing darkness and horror that causes him to forget
temporarily the sweet refreshments he had met with in the way and
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the assurance they had given him of reaching the Land that flows with Milk and Honey. death does not subvert Bunyans emphasis upon the sorrows of the metaphor of the journey it merely
indicates his acute sense of the dangers of this final obstacle, even for those who have persevered in the way of holiness. Reaching the
plane of assurance represented by Beulah does not relieve one of the necessity of making the crossing. Christian continues to be vulnerable to doubt throughout his pilgrimage because Bunyan believed that faith could never be
completely secure in this world.
But his doubts are prompted by very
different kinds of trials, appropriate to different stages of the journey, and in each case we are reminded of what has gone before. Christianas journey presents a clearer, less interrupted sense of progress, of course, because her way is so much easier. To understand the nature of Christians spiritual progress
one must look more closely at the stages of his journey, particularly at his experience in such the land of Beulah. Those favour places as the Delectable Mountains and that mark Christians growing
episodes
awareness
of divine
serve to establish the truth embodied
in the biblical metaphor of the journey and hence to convince the reader that the goal for which Christian strives is real. Bunyans narrative insists that the claims of the way and those of the world are mutually exclusive. The pilgrim must set his course against Faithful relates Wind and Tide as Christian increasingly realizes. that he has learned to ignore the hectoring
spirits of the world because he recognizes that what God says, is best, though all the men in the world are against it. The Vanity Fair episode constitutes the most important
statement of the warfare between spirit and flesh in The Pilgrims Progress. The whole episode illustrates the necessity of choosing
between two modes of life that are irreconcilable, between carnal sense and things to come, to use the distinction made for
Christian by Interpreter. All the assumptions about the end of human activity that underlie Vanity Fair, and the indulgence of fleshly appetite that they allow, can be comprehended in the term carnal sense. The Valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
the Delectable Mountains, and the other landscapes that Christian must traverse define a world that is open only to those who believe in the Word sufficiently to seek the goal that he does. landscapes do not exist for Pliable, who refuses to These the
enter
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spiritual country to which they belong, or for Atheist, who cannot find it. The topography of this country is determined largely by
Bunyans experience of Scripture, and the key to Christians progress through it is his understanding of the power of the word. Christians near disaster in his struggle with Apollyon
suggests that this understanding does not come easily.
The education
in the Gospel that he has received from Evangelist, Interpreter, and the inhabitants of House Beautiful prepares him to resist Apolyons arguments successfully. Yet his failure in the physical combat that follows suggests that Christian is deficient in faith and needs the intervention of the Spirit to be able to manage his sword. The Gate by which the pilgrim enters upon the way is Christ, according to the symbolism by which Jesus had declared, I am the door. This identification of Christ with the Gate is explicit in Part II (the Gate which is Christ) of The Pilgrims Progress but is clearly implicit here, so that the Christian begins with the
incarnation and moves on toward God. Men tend to assume they can know God as he is, often judging Christ by his conformity to a prior human image of God. Christianity, however, denies that finite and sinful creatures can know God, with any great clarity, apart from Christ. Bunyan thus indicates that the pilgrim knows virtually nothing of God until he enters the Gate which God has provided, and that henceforth, his knowledge increases as he advances along the route of pilgrimage. From the total number of the pilgrims in both parts of the allegory, problems, pilgrims different we see the various and the of types of Christian to each. each life Not a and t h e all the
temptations, set out for
joys same
incident reason,
and
has
somewhat City of
experience
the
way.
Christian
leaves
the
Destruction because of a compelling sense of doom, and a sort of numinous fear, so that he sets out with less sense of his goal than of his need. As Augustine put it, Christ as God is the fatherland where we are going; Christ as man is the way by which we go. The way is the same, but the wayfarers differ and, therefore, so does the wayfaring. Each learns for himself and in terms of his own character how to act faith (213), to use the words of Christiana, and each increases in the love for God and for Gods people, which is the only ultimately satisfactory motive for acting the Christian faith. The pilgrims who complete the journey from destruction to
fulfillment do so out of the love that they bear to the King of this place(172), and they continue in the way only because, like
187
Christian, they prefer the person, company, and servants of Christ over the enticements of Apollyon (6I-2). No other motivation is
ultimately sufficient to sustain the pilgrims in the completion of so difficult a way. Each who perseveres does so in order that, as young Samuel puts it, I may see God, and serve him without weariness; that I may see Christ and love him everlastingly; that I may have that fullness of the Holy Spirit in me, that I can by no means here enjoy(238). Heaven is sought not because it is a palace and state most blessed, but because God is the center of heaven, and it is only for that reason that heaven is the palace and state most
blessed(238). The love of God, then, is clearly central. Without it, mans alienation cannot be overcome, or his fulfillment attained. We have developed in some detail, in Chapter 3, the threefold alienation from which Adams suffers, as his sin sets him at odds with God, with his neighbour, and with himself. This isolation of the self is overcome, as we have seen, only by reconciliation with God, and this
reconciliation comes in its turn only through the action of God himself, in and through Christ. In Christ, God acts so that his justice and mercy, his power and his love, are at one, and it is only through such divine action that man can be rescued from imprisonment to his own self-critical or self-satisfied self. No merely human efforts will suffice, for, as Hopeful says of himself, man commits enough sin in one duty to seal his own isolation; Augustine says, our greatest virtues are but
splendid vices (149). Man, then, must enter through the one Gate. 8.5 Let us Sum Up The reader is led through his own stages of pilgrimage in the way of the cross as he reads The Pilgrims Progress. The Pilgrims Progress is one of the very few books, which may be read over
repeatedly at different times and each time with a new and different pleasures pilgrimage for for it it is is a a lively lively portrait portrait of of everymans everymans life life in in
pilgrimage in the way of the cross. 8.6 Lesson End Activities: 1. Account Progress. 2. Write an essay on the Pilgrims Progress as an allegory. 3. What are the significant features of Bunyans writing? for the popularity of Bunyans on the Pilgrims
188
8.7 References Raju, Anand Kumar The Pilgrims Progress New Delhi, Macmillan Indian Ltd., 1999. Keeble. N.H. John Banyan : The Pilgrims Oxford University Press 1984. Progress Oxford :
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Unit IV Lesson - 9 JONATHAN SWIFT GULLIVERS TRAVELS

Contents 9.0 Aims and Objectives 9.1 Introduction
9.2 Life & Works of Swift 9.3 Outline of the Story 9.4 Gullivers Travels as an Allegory 9.5 The Moral Vision of Swift
9.6 Gullivers Travels as a Satire on Man.
9.7 Gullivers Travels as a Political Satire 9.8 Gullivers Travels as a Satire on Humanity
9.9 Style and Technique of Gullivers Travels 9.10 Let Us Sum Up
9.11 Lesson End Activities 9.12 References

9.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson aims at presenting you all things about Jonathan Swift; a greatest prose satirist of the eighteenth century. That includes his life and works, outline of the Gullivers Travels, his style and techniques, and his moral vision. 9.1 Introduction Swift is the greatest prose satirist of the eighteenth
century. No other major English writer is so charged with the spirit of satire as Swift. His entire work is satirical in tone. Swift's apparent malignity arose from a great love of his fellow-creatures, soured by continual disappointment in their nobility, and from a
love of truth and of righteousness that on every hand he saw trampled under foot." His personal life also contributed in making him a
ferocious satirist.
"He was disappointed in material ambition, a
190
victim of love,
hope deferred ; far sadder, he was debarred from conjugal by his fear of madness or by some other and more
either
mysterious ban." His works are a satire on humanity. He uses irony to drive home a point. He sounds profounder depths and exhibits a cosmic humour.
9.2 LIFE & WORKS OF SWIFT Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin on the 30th of November, 1667, of English parents living in Ireland. He was graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, with some difficulty because of his refusal to study logic and he left Ireland for England at the time of the Revolution (1688). His writings rather strangely
began with a group of Pindaric Odes, of which he published only one. At Moor Park he wrote his first A Tale of a Tub and The he published in 1704.
and very important prose. Battle of the Books,
which
Gulliveers Travels was published in 1726.
The
Demands
of
the
reading
public
during
the
Augustan age was met by the growth of periodicals like The Idler, The Tatler, The Spectator, The Examiner. proportion This age was marked by a love of reason, and balance. Thus this era has been
rightly named.
The Age of Prose and Reason.
Swifts early prose masterpieces A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books had their origin in the so called quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, which Temples essay of Ancient and Modern Learning (1690) had fanned into flame. Swift
completed his masterpiece Gulivers Travels in 1725.
191
As a whole Gullivers Travels has the multiple intention of a masterpiece; it can be read by
children for its narrative and descriptive charm; it can be read by learned historians as an allegory of the political life of Swifts time; it can be read as a burlesque of voyage literature; it can be read as a masterpiece of misanthropy; it is perhaps best read as the ingenious reflections of a thoughtful man on the abuses of human reason. ..2.. In the first voyage a complex political allegory is at work based on Swifts own experience of
politics in Queen Anns reign.
It focuses attention The second voyage
on the corruptions of court life.
takes Gulliver to the land of giants where the human body seems loathsome when seen in its magnified form. The satire reaches its climax in the denunciation of the entire human race by the king. Voyage Swift attacks every kind of In the third impractical
scholarship and vain philosophy and the absurd and pretentious schemes of economist and promoters. The
fourth voyage to Hounhmland, where animal man, the Yahoo, is contrasted with the Perfection of nature seen in the Houyhnhnms who are figured as horses.
9.3 Outline of the Story Gullivers Travels records four voyages of one Lemuel Gulliver, and his adventures in four
astounding countries. voyage and shipwreck
The first book tells of his in Lilliput, where the
inhabitants are about as tall as ones thumb, and all
192
their scale.
acts
and
motives
are
on
the
same
dwarfish
In the petty quarrels of these dwarfs the The statesmen
littleness of humanity is highlighted.
who obtain place and favor by cutting monkey capers on the tight rope before their sovereign, and the two great parties, the Littleendians and Bigendians, who plunge the country into civil war over the momentous question of whether an egg should be broken on its big or on its little end, are satires on the politics of Swifts own day and generation. The style is
simple and convincing; the surprising situations and adventures masterpiece are ; as and absorbing as those it is of Defoes most
altogether
the
interesting of Swifts satires. On the Second voyage Gulliver is abandoned in Brobdingnag, where the inhabitants are giants, and everything is done upon an enormous scale. The
meanness of humanity seems all the more detestable in view of the greatness of these superior beings. When
Gulliver tells about his own people, their ambitions and was and conquests, the giants can only wonder that such great venom could exist in such little
insects. In the third voyage Gulliver continue s h i s
adventures in Laputa, and this is a satire upon all the scientists and philosophers. Laputa is a flying
island, held up in the air by a loadstone ; and all the professors of the famous academmy at Lagado are of the same airy constitution. The philospher who
worked eight years to extract sunshine from cucumbers is typical of Swifts satirtic treatment of all
193
scientific problems.
It
is
in
this
voyage
that
we
hear
of
the
Struldbrugs, a ghastly race of men wtio are doomed to live upon earth after losing hope and the desire for life. The picture is all the more terrible in view
of the last years of Swifts own life, in which he was completed to live on, a burden to himself and his friends.
In these three voyages the evident purpose is to strip off the veil of habit and custom, with which men deceive themselves, and show the crude vices of humanity as Swift fancies he sees them. In the
fourth voyage the merciless satire is carried out to its logical conclusion. of the Houyhnhnms, in This brings us to the land which horses, superior and All
intelligent creatures, are the ruling animals.
our interest, however, is centered on the Yahoos, a frightful race, having the form and appearance of men, but living in unspeakable degradation. There are four books in Gullivers Travels:
the story of the ships doctor who goes first to the land of people six inches tall to Lilliput, then to Bobaingnay a land of giants seventy two feet tall to Brobdingnag next to Laputa a Floating island and As
other places and finally to the land of horses.
he wrote to Pope : The chief end and purpose of my labour is to vex the world rather than divert it. In personal this satire Swift aims shrewd blows at the
enemies,
especially
Robert
Walpole,
194
first
Prime
Minister
Whig,
man
known
for
permitting and indulging in corruption and one who, Swift felt sure, was keeping him from advancing. In
Lilliput Swifts shows Walpole walking the tight-rope an inch higher than the other ministers and managing to keep his equilibrium, ridiculi n g w a l p o l e s
agility in retaining office.
195
9.4 GULLIVERS TRAVELS AS AN ALLEGORY
In the words of
Kathleen Williams, Its sharp
contrast in method, with the grotesque figures of the Laputans and the excursions into magic and
immortality, certainly breaks the atmosphere of moral realism which pervades the voyages even to the Lilliput, rational not of
Brobdingnag, horses
and
Houyhnhnm-land; a world of
belong
to
morality,
fantasy. "Voyage to Laputa" can be considered as an allegorical presentation of the evils of a frivolous attitude political to life. The flying a island comment presents on a
philosophy
and
mans
relationship to nature.
The balance of power, and the delicate relationships which subsist between a monarch and those whom he governs, could scarcely be better represented than by conditions in Laputa and Balnibarbi. The Laputan king, for all his knowledge of cosmic circumstance, for all the ingenuity of his flying island, is yet dependent upon the firm earth beneath him for every movement Laputa can make; for all his theoretic
achievement man is, in practice, dependent upon and circumscribed by other men and by laws of nature, of which he can take a certain limited advantage but which he can neither alter nor, finally, explain.
For
example,
the
astronomers
of
Laputa,
although they have written "large Systems concerning the Stone" whose movements control the course of the
196
flying
island,
can
give
no
better
reason
for the
inability of Laputa to rise above four miles, or to move beyond the than extent the of the King's one continental "That the
dominions,
self-evident
Magnetick Virtue does not extend beyond the Distance of four Miles, and that the Mineral which acts upon the Stone in the Bowels of the Earth, and in the Sea about Six Leagues distant from the Shoar, is not
diffused through the whole Globe, but terminated with the Limits of the King's Dominions. Their pursuit of second their causes ends in inscrutable can mystery, which not
confident
exposition
only
conceal,
clarify.
The
Laputans
have
indeed
lost
their
human
quality in their abnormal absorption in things remote from the concerns of men. They make little physical effect upon as us, for their outer aspect as that is of as a of
unnatural,
purely like
emblematic, Spenser's
personification
Occasion:
"One
their Eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the Zenith" because they are completely absorbed in their own speculations and in the study of the stars. Their interests are entirely abstract, and
they see nothing of the everyday practical world, ignoring the knowledge of the senses.
They Laputans
scorn are
the
evidence bad
of
the
sences, These
the
very
Reasoners.
strange
figures are akin not only to the mechanical operators but more closely to the spider-like world-makers. One
197
eye looks outward, but only to a remote world of abstractions where, in the regular motions of the heavens, mathematics and music join. One eye looks inward, to the mind where systems are spun out of a "Native Stock," not built up from that basis of
observed fact which, however faulty our senses, is yet the only material upon which our reason can work constructively and practically. Laputan thinking
produces results as flimsy and useless as a cobweb G u l l i v e r ' s i l l -fitting countryside of Balnibarbi. soil/file devastated
The Laputans are absorbed in music, mathematics and astronomy. preparing They spend hours join at in their the instruments, music of the
themselves
to
spheres, which they claim to be able to hear. Since mankind is traditionally deaf to this music because of the grossness of the senses through sin, the claim implies that the Laputans believe themselves to have escaped from such tyranny.
The Laputans cut themselves off completely from all that is humanly creative and constructive. Even their food approaches as nearly as possible to the rarefied atmosphere in which they live, for their meat is carved into geometrical shapes and their poultry trussed up "into the Form of Fiddles."
6
Nor have
they any conception of physical or sensuous beauty, since they see beauty only in mathematical abstractions, and judge not by sense impressions but by an arbitrary relation of animal forms to abstract
198
shapes existing in their minds: "If they would, for Example, praise the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they describe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms, Ellipses, and other Geometrical Terms; or else by Words of Art drawn from Musick . . . the whole Compass of their Thoughts and Mind, being shut up within the two forementioned Sciences."
They do not realize that the world of human beings cannot be adequately dealt with in mathematical terms, and their wives, as a consequence, have fallen into matter, escaping whenever possible into a life altogether physical and degraded, as exaggeratedly animal as that of their husbands is exaggeratedly intellectual king has no
interest in "the Laws, Government, History, Religion, or Manners of the Countries" Gulliver has visited, and his realm of Balnibarbi is chaotic. Gulliver "could not discover one Ear of Corn, or Blade of Grass" except in a few places, during his journeys,
and our minds revert to the kingdom of Brobdingnag, the land which has been called a "simple Utopia of abundance," where government is conducted with practical good will and a due regard for traditional wisdom, and where the King regards his task as one of promoting increase and life, making "two Ears of Corn, or two Blades of Grass, to grow where only one grew before." The Laputans, on the other hand, produce a world of death, and the results of their efforts are purely destructive because their aims are impossibly high and are unrelated to real conditions.
199
Some day, they say, "a Palace may be built in a Week, of Materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. All the Fruits of the Earth shall come to Maturity at whatever Season we think fit to chose, and increase an Hundred Fold more than they do at present; with innumerable other happy Proposals."
10
In the
meantime, and
houses
are
ruined, and the
land only
uncultivated,
people
starving,
result of Laputan enterprise on the prosperous estate of the old-fashioned Lord Munodi has been to destroy the mill which had long provided his family and
tenants, in order to make way for one which should, on scientific principles, be better, but which
somehow fails to work. . . . That Munodi, the one successful landowner in Balnibarbi, should be a
traditionalist is only to be expected; "being not of an enterprizing Spirit, he was content to go on in the old Forms; to live in the Houses his Ancestors had built, and act as they did in every Part of Life without Innovation."
The projects of Lagado are, in fact, conducted in an atmosphere similar to that of A Tale of
a
Tub,
an atmosphere of aimless activity, distorted values, and a perversion of things from their proper purpose even to the point of removing all life and meaning from them. The results produced are woolless sheep, dead dogs, horses whose living hooves are turned t o stone. The mechanism of the Tale exists in Lagado
too, in the machine which is to replace the thinking and creating mind of man and will, by pure chance,
200
eventually
produce
"Books
in
Philosophy,
Poetry,
Politicks, Law, Mathematicks and Theology."
The effect of Laputa and its subject kingdom is of a wilful abandoning of the physical and of the vital for the abstract, the mechanical, and the
unproductive. The prevailing images here are not of real people and animals, even "little odious vermin," but of ruins, mechanical constructions, men who look like allegorical figures and women who are thought of as rhomboids or parallelograms. Animals are only
negatively present, as in the pathetic horses and sheep of the Academy. Even Laputa itself is a
mechanical
device, and the flying island expresses
not only the Laputans' desertion of the common earth of reality but their conversion of the universe to a mechanism and of living to a mechanical process.
A gloomy enough picture of both the ancient and the modern world, and upon this ghostly history follows the most somber of episode of in all, which that the of the of
Struldbrugs
Luggnagg,
lesson
Laputa with its naive hopes, its misplaced ambition, and its eventual sterility is repeated with more open seriousness. A right sense of values, a proper
attitude to living, is here suggested not through the handling of contemporary aims and habits of thought but through the figure of man, immortal yet still painfully recognizable. Gulliver, hearing of the
immortals, cries out "as in a Rapture," exclaiming upon the wisdom and happiness which they must have
201
achieved. And he is only too willing to tell his hearers how he would plan his life, if he were a Struldbrug, to bring the greatest possible benefit to himself and his
a ged
country.
In
fact, though full
of
course, from fears
the the and
immortal and fear of
creatures, are yet as
free of
death,
wretchedness as any other men: being what we are, we will always find occasion to display those vices
which as human beings we will always have, however long we may live. The Struldbrugs certainly do not keep their minds free and disengaged, and for them the prospect visions virtue. of of endless life does not in conjure wisdom up and
endless
improve-nient
They
regard
their
immortality
as
"dreadful
Prospect" even as other men regard their death, and indeed they long to die as did the wretched Sibyl in Petronius's Satyricon, regarding with great jealousy those of their acquaintance who go "to an Harbour of Rest, to which
16
they
themselves
never
can
hope
to
arrive."
Immortal man is still man, limited in his
capacity for growth, sinful, fearful, dissatisfied; the somber simplicity of the passage, and indeed of the whole of of the visit to Glubbdubdrib, rather than is of
reminiscent Swift's, and
Johnson's message
methods is
the
essentially
similar.
Gulliver, who has dreamed of being a king, a general, or a great lord, has to and learn now the dreams same life of lesson is a being as a the
Struldbrug, Prince of
Abyssinia:
that
serious,
202
difficult, and above all a moral undertaking, and thought no Tyrant could invent a Death into which I would not run with Pleasure from such a Life,"
The voyage to Laputa is a voyage of illusion, the escape from facts, ends in a darker reality than any Gulliver has yet encountered. Gulliver himself, in this book, becomes a part of the world of illusion and distorted values. Already in the earlier voyages the shifting, inconsistent quality which Gulliver
shares with all Swift's satiric mouthpieces has been made to contribute to effects of relativity, and to suggest the hold of physical circumstances over
mankind. That he is, generally, a different man in Brobdingnag and in Lilliput is made into part of
Swift's presentation of human nature. In the "Voyage to Laputa," any still surviving notion that Gulliver is a safe guide through these strange countries is ended.
9.5 The Moral vision of Swift
Samuel H. Monk remarks Gulliver's Travels is a complex book. It is, of course, a satire on four asgects of man: the physical, the political, last three the are
intellectual, and
the
mofalTThe
inseparable, and when Swift writes ofone he always has in view the others. It is also a brilliant parody oftravel fiction literature; and a witty and it is at once science It
parodyof science
fiction.
expresses savage indignation at the folios, vices,
203
/and stupidities of men, and everywhere implicit in the book as a whole is an awareness of man's tragic insufficiency. But at the same time it is a great comic masterpiece, a fact that solemn and too-
sensitive readers often miss.
Swift's satire was written in anger, contempt, or disgust, but it was written to promote self-knowledge in the faith that self-knowledge will lead to right action. Swift did not wish us to laugh but beyond the mirth and liveliness are gravity, anger, anxiety,
frustration and he meant us to experience them fully, there is an abyss below this fantastic world the
abyss of corrupt human nature. He is the great master of shock. With perfect control of tone and pace, with perfect timing, he startles us into an awareness of this abyss and its implications. We are forced to gaze into the stupid, evil, brutal heart of humanity, and when we do, the laughter that Swift has evoked is abruptly silenced. The surface of the book is comic, but at its center is tragedy, transformed through style and tone into icy irony.
Gulliver in all respects is a goodman. He is simple, direct, uncomplicated. At the outset he is full of naive good will, and, though he grows less naive and more critical as a result of his voyaging among remote nations, he retains his benevolence
throughout the first three voyages. The four voyages "into several remote nations of the world," are so arranged as to attain a climactic intensification of
204
tone as we travel through increasing darkness into the black heart of humanity.jBut the forward movement is interrupted by the third voyage, a macabre scherzo on science, politics, economics as they are practiced by madmenSwift's term for those who misuse and abuse human reason. The first two voyages, Gulliver is made aware of his disproportion;" placed on this isthmus of a middle state, in the voyage to Lilliput he looks down the chain of being and knows himself an awkward, if kindly, giant in that delicate kingdom; voyage to Brobdingnag he looks up the in the and
chain
discovers a race of "superior beings," among whom his pride shrivels through the humiliating Knowledge of his own physical insignificance. The emphasis here is upon size, the physical; but it is none that Lilliputia calls into the less
notable
operation
Gulliver's engaging kindliness and gentleness, and that Brobdingnag brings out his moral and physical courage.
Gulliver, who seemed lovable and humane among the Lilliputians,-appears an ignominious afld morally insensitive being in contrast to the enlightened and benevolent Brobdingnagians. The Lilliputian's
ingeniously capture the Hercules whom chance has cast on their shore; they humanely solve the problem of feeding him; their pretty land and their fascinating little city take our fancy. But in the end what do they prove to be? prideful, , envious, rapacious, and
treacherous,
cruel,
vengeful,
jealous,
hypocritical. Their primitive social and political
205
systems have been corrupted; they are governed by an Emperor who is ambitious totally to destroy the
neighboring kingdom, and by courtiers and ministers who are chosen not for their fitness for office, but for their skill in walking the tightrope, leaping over sticks or .creeping under them.
"Climbing," Swift once remarked, "is performed in the same Posture with Creeping." These little
people, like Gulliver himself, are an instance of the disproportion of man. Their vices, their appetites, their ambitions, their passions are not commensurate with their tiny stature. They appear to Gulliver as he and his kind must appear to the higher orders of beingsas venomous and contemptibly petty. In
Brobdingnag we meet creatures ten times the size of Europeans, 'and we share Gulliver's anxiety lest
their moral natures be as brutish as their bodies. But the reverse is true; and through a violent and effective shift of symbol, tone, and point of view,
In the questions which the king asks and which Gulliver meets with only an embarrassed silence, the voice of morality is heard condemning the
institutions of the modern world. And the verdict of a moral being on European man is given in words as icy as controlled contempt can make them: "But, by what I have gathered from your own Relation, and the Answers I have with much Pains wringed and extorted from you; I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives to be the most pernicious Race of little
206
odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth." Such a conclusion is
inevitable, for the King is high-minded, benevolent, and, in Swift's sense of the word, rational: i.e., he and his people think practically, not theoretically; concretely, intricately. com.mon good not metaphysically; is a simply, Utopia not of
Brobdingnag sense and
Swiftian and
morality;
Gulliver,
conditioned by the corrupt society from which he. comes, appears naive, blind, and insensitive to moral values/His account of the history of England in the seventeenth century evokes the King's of crushing
retort: ... it was only an Heap Rebellions, Banishments; Faction, Madness, Murders, the very
Conspiracies, Revolutions, that Avarice, Rage,
Massacres, worst Effects
Hypocracy, Hatred,
Perfidiousness, Lust,
Cruelty, and
Envy,
Malice,
Ambition
could produce.
Houyhnhnms They know
are
the love
embodiment nor
of
pure nor
reason. nor
neither
grief
lust
ambition. They cannot lie; indeed they have no word for lying and are hard put to it to understand the meaning of opinion, Their society is an aristocracy, resting upon the slave labor of the Yahoos and the work of an especially-bred servant class. With icy, stoical calm they face the processes of life
marriage, childbirth, accident, death. Their society is a planned society that has achieved the mild
anarchy that many Utopian dreamers have aspired to. They practice eugenics, and since they know no lust,
207
they control the size of their population; children are educated by the state; their agrarian economy is supervised by a democratic council; government is
entirely conducted by periodic assemblies.
The Houyhnhnms feel natural |iuman affection for each other, but they love every one equally. It is Gulliver, not Swift, who is dazzled by the Houyhnhnms ' and who aspires to rise above the human condition and to become pure intelligence as these horses and the angels are the most powerful single symbol in all Swift is the Yahoos. They <Jo not represent Swift's view of man, but rather of the bestial element in manthe unenlightened, unregenerate, i r r a t i o n a l
element in human naturethe id or the libido.
From
the
moment sets
that
the
banished
Gulliver land, his
despairingly pride, his
sail
from his
Houyhnhnm madness are
misanthropy,
apparent.
Deluded by his worship of pure reason, he commits the err: r of the Houyhnhnms in equating human beings with the Yahoos, Cy ired by a Portuguese crew and forced to return from sullen solitude to humanity, he trembles between -fear and hatred. The captain of the ship, Don Pedro de Mendez, like Gulliver himself, shares the nature of the Houyhnhnm and the Yahoo; and like the Gulliver of the first voyage he is tolerant, sympathetic, kindly, patient, and charitable; but
Gulliver can no longer recognize these traits in a human being. he With the myopic only the vision Yahoo of and the is
Houyhnhnms,
perceives
208
repelled by Don Pedro's clothes, food.
In the words of Gulliver my Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult, if they would be content with those Vices and Follies only which Nature hath entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at the Sight of a Lawyer, a
Pickpocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamester, a Politician, a Whoremunger, a Physician, an Evidence, a Suborner, an Attorney, a Traytor, or the like: This is all according to the due Course of Things: But when I behold a Lump of Deformity, and Diseases both of Body and Mind, smitten with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience; neither shall I ever be able to comprehend how such an Animal and such a Vice could tally together.7
The grim joke is that Gulliver himself is the supreme instance of a creature smitten with pride. His education has somehow failed. He has voyaged into several remote nations of the world, but the journeys
v ere
not long, because of course he has never moved
outside the bounds of human nature. The countries he visited, like the Kingdom of Heaven, are all within us. The ultimate danger of these travels was
precisely the one that destroyed Gulliver's humanity the danger that in his explorations he would discover something that he was not strong enough to face. This befell him, and he took refuge in a sick and morbid pride that alienated him from his species and taught him i the gratitude of the Pharisee"Lord, I thank
209
Thee that I am not.
9.6 Gullivers Travels as a Satire on Man. Gulliver's Travels is divided in to four books recounting the adventures of Gulliver in four lands. The main burden of Gullivers Travels is satirical and Swift set out to show man in the most
despicable form. Swift once said to Pope, "I heartily hate and detest that animal called man," and this book is an elaboration of that attitude. He magnifies man into a giant, and then diminishes him into a manikin, and he finds him wicked, insolent and mean. He regards man in his wisdom, and he finds him a fool. In despair, in the last book o f t h e Travels, he turns from man altogether, and in the brute
creation he discovers a charity and sagacity before which humanity grovels as a creature , beastly beyond measure. In the first book of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver's ship is wrecked at Lilliput where the inhabitants are six inches tall except their emperor, "taller by almost the breadth of my nail". Here the satire obviously consists in showing human motives at work on a small scale, and in the suggesting littleness by of the likeness of the Lilliputians to and especially t h e
ourselves,
human
affairs,
pettiness of political intrigues. The arts by which the officers of the government keep their places, such as cutting capers on a tight rope for the entertainment of the emperors, remind us of the quality of statesmanship in both Swift's day and our own. The dispute over the question at which end an egg should properly be broken which plunged Lilliput into the civil war, is a comment on ' the
seriousness of party divisions in the greater world. Gulliver's next voyage, recounted in the second book, is to
Brobdingnang, where the people are as large in comparison with man as the Lilliputians are small. wonder behind which lurks Once more Swift's his adventures are a tale of contempt for man's meanness.
Gulliver tells the giant beings by whom he is a mere manikin, of the world from which he has come. Among other things he tells of the invention of gunpowder and the use of instruments of warfare. "The king was struck with horror at the description If had given of these terrible engines. He was amazed how so important and grovelling an insect as I could entertain these inhuman ideas." The first two books of the Travels, in spite of the satirical
210
tone, have a charm and vivacity that delight the old and the young. The satire lurks in the allegory, but it is so delicately tinselled over that it does not repel. The crowded incidents are plausible and lively, and they are often spiced with a quaint and alluring humour. Here his comments upon mankind are shrewd and arresting, as well as satirical,
There is playfulness of fancy, a lightness of touch about the two books and a simplicity of treatment that gives it a readier access of appeal. In the third book we have Gulliver's voyage to Laputa and other curious places embodying Swift's contempt for pedantry and for useless 'scientific' experiment. In the fourth voyage a burning to the
indictment of man's tortuous and sly reasoning as compared
noble inhabitants of' Houyhnhnm land is highlighted who within the shapes of horses embody 'perfection of nature.' The beastly Yahoos represent Swift's conception of man living in a degenerate state of nature. The evil instincts of 'civilized' men are here again bitterly portrayed.
9.7 GULLIVERS TRAVELS AS A POLITICAL SATIRE
T h e s i x -inch perfectly
high to
creatures show the
of
lilliput and
are
conceived
mental
moral
smallness of man, the pettiness of the concerns about which we are so pompous and self important. Swift eighteenth century party politics, with For its
struggles for office and for court favour, was one of the areas of human activity where such smallness and pretensions could be seen. Gullivers adventures in Lilliput are riddled
with more allusions to contemporary political evens
211
and personalities than any other part of the travels: Part I of Gullivers Travels, ostensibly a satire on human greatness, can be seen, if one looks a little deeper, to be simply on attack on England, on the dominant The Whig Tiny Party ruler and of on the war with France.
Lilliput
whose c o u n t r y
measures twelve miles round is no mere king but the mighty Emperor, delight and terror of the Universe whose head strikes the against the Sun. for At great court, office
Gulliver
sees
candidates
competing before the Emperor, and the skill they are required to show is calculated by Swift to point to the kind of quality needed for political success
under George. looks to
I. The fact that a Lilliputian rope like a slender white thread
Gulliver
increases our sense of the dexterous balance required for survival in the precarious world of eighteenth century politics. Similarly the art of jumping over
or crawling under stick for the reward of what looks to Gulliver like a colored silk thread-the ribbons of the order of the Garter suggests (blue), both Bath the (red) and
Thistle
(green)
subservience
demanded by Lilliputian Emperor and the worthlessness of the honour for which the great persons compete. Swift of course, disapproved of George Is government led by the Whig Sir Robert Walpole. Under Walpoles
leadership political life was thought by many to be more than usually corrupt, and his politics were
disliked by Swift. the supremely
Walpole figures in the story as rope dancer Flimnap. The
skilful
cushion that broke his fall represents the Duchess of
212
Kendal, one of George Is mistresses.
Reldresal is
thought to be Lord, Cateret, a personal friend of Swifts but a political opponent in the affair of woods half pence. political Many of the and details of of the
Lilliputian
scene,
Gullivers
relations with the Emperor and his ministers relate to England under George I and his predecessor Queen Anne. In his account of the two parties in the country distinguished by the use of high heels and low heels, Swift satirises English Political parties, and t h e intrigues that centred around the Prince of Wales. Religious feuds were laughed at in an account of a problem which was dividing the people; Should eggs be broken at the big end or the little end? All this is a reference to current politics at the time of Gulliver stands largely for Belingbroke, the
Swift.
secretary of the state from 1710 1714. In Lilliput, although Gulliver is under a strong guard, he is unavoidably expressed to the
Impertinence and malice of the rabble some of whom sheet arrows at him. But the colonel delivers Gulliver
six of the ring leaders into his hands.
frightens each one by pretending he will eat the man alive and then as setting them free. of stamp It was that under the
Bolingbroke, Government
Secretary trying to
State out
was
journalistic
opposition by means of frequent arrests rather than by court action. has thus Swift, libeled like the government an of allegorical dealing detail the from dart-
created method
Belingbrokes
with
213
throwing hack writers of 1710-1714. The fire in the palace is put off by Gulliver urinating over it. Case interprets it as the Treaty
of Utrecht ending the war of the Spanish Succession. Gullivers story is based on Bolinbrokes adventures, with only minor references to Oxford. Swift mentions the displeasure makes and of the Emperor with visit the of Lilliput when from thus
Gulliver Blufuscu
friends to
ambassadors emperor,
agrees
their
creating a suspicion of high treason.
The proposed
visit to the French Court, and the suspicion of his disaffection would be due to Bolinbrokes having seen the Pretender during that visit. of the impeachment to against The fourth article for treason and
Gulliver
corresponds
that
against
Belingbroke
Gullivers flight to Blefuscu is a close parallel of Boling brokes flight to France in 1715. Lilliputians treacherous, are proud, envious, rapacious, and
cruel,
vengeful,
jealous,
hypocritical. Their emperor is ambitious totally to destroy the neighbouring king. The Lilliputians, like the nations, regard accession of strength primarily as a means to overcome their rivals. Though Gulliver is willing to defeat the aggressive intentions of the Blefuscans by capturing their navy, he draws the line firmly at being used to subjugate and enslave them. To punish him for this the Lilliputians states-man resolve to put him to death. The first voyage exposes man in his myopic self- esteem.
Thus the High heels and the low heels are the
214
Tories and the wigs, the stand for the and
Big and Little endians the protestants, to England and and
catholics and Blefuscu
Lilliput
correspond
France. Firth identified skyresh Bolgolam, Gullivers chief opponent, with the earl of Nottingham, who
became a personal enemy of swift in the years before 1714. A.E. Case postulated that Gullivers career in Lilliput represents the joint political fortunes of Oxford and Boling broke during the latter half of Annes reign, when the two men shared the leadership of the Tory party. The inventory of his personal
effects refers to the attempt by the whigs in that year to implicate Harley in the treason committed by one of the clerks in his to office. power His in release the
symbolizes
Harleys
return
1710,
conditions attached to it by Belgelam representing Nottinghams amendment on No peace without Spain
which was added to the House of Lords address in 1711. The reaction of the empress is equated with Queens growing disgust with Oxfords policies and person, and his final dismissal in 1714. The
Lilliputian ministers named by Gulliver as being his main opponents case identified as members of George Is cabinet, of Reldresal state who representing prepared Townsend with the the
secretary
dealing
fallen ministers leniently. Gulliver who has deserved the highest gratitude from the Lilliputians, chiefly for is impeached water for capital the
offences
making
within
precincts of the burning royal palace Under colour of extinguishing the fire, and for traitorously
215
refusing to
reduce the empires of Blefuscu to a
province and put to death all the Big Endians. The courts debate en how to dispose off Gulliver is
corrosive
satire, savage
and irenic. They decide to
blind Gulliver and to starve him to death. Then there is a delightful side kick at all
government officials. Because
Gulliver was suc h a n
attraction people were flecking into town from all over the island, leaving farming and household duties in a state of proclamation neglect. The emperor therefore issues saying that anybody who had seen
Gulliver once must return home and must not again presume to come within fifty yards of his house
without license from court, whereby adds Gulliver, the secretaries of state get considerable fees. In this voyage swift also attacks the time
honoured target, the disproportionate aims for which nations go to war. The article of impeachment, and especially the alleged reasons for Gullivers crimes, are so flimsy that swift is here hitting at the
processes of the law in Britain. In Lilliput
a set
of puny insects, or animalcules in human shapes are ridiculously engaged in a affairs of importance. In Broadening the monsters of enormous size are
employed in trifles. In the fourth voyage, he gives an account of the political state of the political state of Europe. Gullivers conversations with the king of
Brobdingnag are often quoted as example of Swifts
216
satiric force. In the first encounter with the king that Gulliver reports, the king observes. How contemptible a thing was human grander which could be mimicked by such 2 diminutive Insects as I , At Brobdingnag Gulliver is part pet, part freak of doll, and in each of these aspects his experiences enable Swift to indulge in satirical exposure of
human pride and pretension. is horrified when Gulliver
The King of Brodingbag offers him a way to
complete dominion over his subjects by teaching him to make gunpowder. The King is baffled by the
concept of political science as to how could the art of government be reduced to a science? comment makes us of aware our of our The Kings of the
pettiness of the
disproportion
recent
shocking
difference between what we profess and what we are. But Swift uses the good giants to strike an
unexpected blow at human vanity.
Gullivers tiny
stature and comparative importance lend a particular irony to his grandiose account of western
civilization.
It is of course the ludicrous size of
his tiny visitor which prompts the king to comment on the folly and pride of human beings.
Gulliver boasts to the king about thousands of books in Europe written on politics and the art of government. Again the kings reaction is unexpected. For him the in art common of government and consists almost and
entirely
sense
reason,
justice
lenity, and speedy decisions in all legal cases.
217
Thus
in
his
Gullivers
Travels
Swift
has
successfully exposed the vain pride vain pride and absurd whims of monarchs, the stupidity of men with titles, the intrigues, of courtiers, the corruption and greed of the politicians, treachery and the false glory of of
conquers,
meanness
court
favorites and the corrupt and unscrupulous nature of politicians. Gulliver who seemed lovable and humane among the Lilliputians, appears an ignominious and morally
insensitive being in contrast to the enlightened and benevolent Brobdingnagians. Since Gulliver is We,
his shame, insufficiency, and ludicrousness are ours. The giant king is high-minded, benevolent and, in
Swifts sense of the work, rational i.e., he and his people thing not practically, not theoretically, simply, Utepia not of
concretely, intricately. common good
metaphysically, is a
Brobdingnag sense by the and
Swiftian and from
morality, society and
Gulliver which he to
conditioned comes,
corrupt
appears,
native,
blind
insensitive
moral values.
In the country of faints, the animal imagery is more explicit; the giant is half afraid of Gulliver, as of a small diangerous animals like a weasel. The first impression Gulliver makes is of an animal. The tiny Gulliver, so self important about the great affairs of his diminutive country is absurb to the huge king; he is an insect.
218
The Brobdingnagians, as Gulliver explains in his epilogue, species, are and the their least Wise corrupted maxims in of the Yahoo and
morality
government it would be our happiness to observe. But not all the Brobdingnagians are superior beings. The treatment of Gulliver by his farmer captor is pitiless and in human, he intends, without a qualm, to work him to death much as contemporary society treated Negro slaves. Gullivers portrait of the
king of Brobdingnag agrees in many essentials with the character of temple. In politics the King of
Brobdingnag professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement and intrigue, either (of) a prince or minister. Though less vicious than the pigmies, the
Brobdingnagians possess a fair complement of human weakness. Error abounds even among the least
corrupted of mankind. The voyage to Laputa, gives us the most
elaborate mechanical image of the state. actual functioning of the government
Here the on
depends
managing the flying island and its lode stones.
This
allows an ironical comparison to be made with the political situation and oppressive centre of power in London. impasse The Lapouta Balnibarbi situation, is the between England and Ireland, is seen as
allowing free scope for misapplied reason in social, political and economic matters where bright ideas
solely motivated by self interests the traditional values of
seem better than good government
responsibility, duty, compassion and love, informed
219
by intelligence.
The flying island of Laputa seems
to be the English court.
The King and his court are devoted entirely to two subjects, music and mathematics, the most Those
obstruct of sciences rather than as an art.
who held this view began to demand that the state should be run by experts well versed in mathematics and other sciences, rather than by cultured amatures, Swifts dislike of government by experts is most clearly demonstrated in Gullivers description of the flying island of Laputa. Here the political
arithmeticians are completely in change, and they are making as complete a mess of things. Gullivers
marration of affairs in Laputa and Balnibarbi is a political satire on the whigs and the tories and on Anglo- Irish relations. The whigs were regarded as the champlions of professional government. and the Tories as the up holders of the ancient constitution. The first favoured the employment of experts in
government, the
second looked upon them as a virus introduced into the body politic, which was never really healthy
unless cared for by honest country gentlemen. The flying island can be a symbol for the English court in which case Balinbarbi represents the whole of
Great Britain But laputa can stand for England and lindalino for Ireland
There is also a personal element in the political
220
satire.
Swift
had
spent
many
vain
weeks
in
1708
trying to get the government to make a definite move on the subject of extending queen Annes bountry to Ireland . He never forged the frustrations which he suffered from their perpetual procrastination and
their indifference to Irish affairs. His reception from the whigs of Annes reign was surely in his
mind when he wrote of Gullivers (receptions from the king of Luputa.
Gulliver praises the progress of the laputans in the science of astronomy and describes the revelt of the people of lindaline. They erected high towers, with strong magnets at the top of each which effectively neutralized the magnets of laputa and the king of the latter was eventually forced to grant the request of the lindalinians.
In
the
Academy
of
projectors
in
lagade
Gulliver
visits the school of political projectors. There is a doctor who relates physical well being closely to political judgements and administers the appropriate medicines to every senator, who after arguing any
case, should give his vote directly contrary to what he had argued, be cause if that were done, the result would infallibly terminate in the good of the that the senators should
public He even suggests
be operated on and part of the brains of one should be transferred to another since the mingling of
brains would induce moderation. Gulliver
visits the
island of luggage, where he is required literally, to
221
lick
the
dust
before It
the is
king not
but only
is the
otherwise English
hospitably
received
political life of his time which he thus dissects, the monarchy itself the paraphernalia that surrounds
it the courts and countries the debating assembles, the struggles of parties, the wiles of the favorites of both sexes everything upon which in fact, rests the contemporary administration of Europe is
irremediably damaged by this corrosive satire. The object of ridicule is the absurdity of human
government.
The
flying
island,
in
its
devious
and
sensitive
oblique movements, suggests the relationship of king and country. Laputa is ultimately dependent upon
Dalnibarbi, its motions only allowed by the magnetic quality of the kings Dominious. It is this quality which has allowed the Laputan king to establish his power either but there is a reciprocal dependence, for if side pressed its power too far the result
would be general ruin. The kings last resource, in case of defiance from the populace of Balnibarbi, is to let the flying island drop upon their heads. But t h i s t hough it would certainly destroy both houses and men, would at the same time damage the adamant of Laputa itself.
Laputa
signifies
condemnation
of
political,
scientific and moral irresponsibility, For England the symptoms include the Royal society the Walpole
towns head fued and the personal vices of George As
222
the decay of agriculture, industry, and trade In such a scene to busy oneself with fantastic inquiries and useless experiments appears criminal.
In the fourth voyage we get a picture of an anarchist society, not governed by lawn the ordinary sense but by the dictates of reason which are voluntarily
accepted by every one. Swift
was a Tory anarchist,
despising authority while disbelieving in liberty, and preserving clearly the that aristocratic the out look while is
focusing
existing
aristocracy
degenerate and contemptible.
In
recent
years
critics
have
tended
increasingly, to find the Houynhms satire upon the neoteric humanism of shaft burry or the Deists.
9.8 Gullivers Travels as a Satire on Humanity Swifts Gullivers Travels may be seen as a
controlled display of mans nature and his social life. It presents Swifts vision of the essential
contradictions of human nature, of the war between rational control and animal drive, between just
judgement and pride, between ignorance and knowledge, between true belief and illusion, between freedom and tyranny.
The almost
intention always to
of
the
imaginary the
voyages
was
satirize
existing
European
order, and it did so by playing up the innocence, manliness and high ethical standards of the untutored
223
people whom the voyages claimed to have met. voyages tend alike to stress the
These of
goodness
unspoiled primitive man.
Swift makes use of animals
as his symbols in order, to make it quite plain that pure rationality is not available to man. is directed against all the common His irony of
failings
mankind.
All human institutions from the family to
the state are the targets of his irony.
In Lilliput, Gullivers body is grosser than he can imagine and the Lilliputians seem more
delicate than in fact they are.
Gullivers ineptness
among the Lilliputians like his insignificance among the Brobdingnagians is not a weakness which can be attributed to any identifiable group or person; it is the result of his normal, his universal human
qualities, in large part simply of his ordinary human size. The and moral frailties for example he displaysgeneric is
inflexibility human
vanity, The
are
weaknesses.
Lilliputian
stature
employed to augment the ludicrous effect of their complacency, arrogance and short sightedness, all of which are displayed as human failings.
Gulliver discovers in the Lilliputians admirable qualities absent from the English, For example their treatment of Children, which consists of an odd
mixtures of rational and common sense and a Swiftian mistrust amounting to dislike of human sentiments. Swifts ideas regarding the education of children are outlined in his description of the educational
224
systems of the Lilliputians and the Houyhnms. both places parents are not entrusted with
At the
education of their own children.
As infants they are
sent to nurseries where they are taught by expert professors. not to make The aim of education in both places is the students merely literate but to
develop in them noble qualities of character.
Gulliver
treats
the
Lilliputians
kindly,
but
when he leaves he reveals how readily he still thinks of them, because they are smaller than the humans he is used to-as not so different from animals. As he
is taking the tiny cattle home, to propagate the bread, natives, so he would have taken a dozen as of the
without
considering
them
individual
humans, who might be distressed at being so treated.
The voyage to Brobdingnag contains such sarcasm on the structure of the human body, as too plainly show us, that the author was unwilling to lose any opportunity species. of debasing and ridiculing his own
Swifts purpose is to make an assault on
human pride, particularly on the beauty of the female form. Swift makes us share Gullivers disgust at the
cancerous breasts and lousy bodies of the beggars; at the blotched color, the huge pores, the coarse hairs. Swift shows that our beauty is only apparent, our disportion general is the is real. Swifts satire in on his women in
very
sharp. of
Women
view are
embodiment
physical,
intellectual and moral waste under a fair exterior.
225
He regarded women as loathsome creatures and marriage as a calamity for man.
Voyage to Laputa brings out Swifts satire on the abuse of learning. The Laputans neglect
practical matters to indulge in theory. are illbuilt without even one right
Their houses angle in any
apartment, and this defect arises from the contempt they bear to practical geometry, which they despise as vulgur. From Laputa Gulliver goes to Balnibarbi
and its capital Lagage, and in the description of the Academy of projectors and in Lagado, of Swift for satirizes improving
inventors
promoters
schemes
everything. A new method of teaching is as follows:
The preparation and demonstration were fairly written on a thin wafer, with ink composed of a caphalick _incture. This the student was to swallow upon a fasting stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but bread and water. As the water digested, the tincture mounted to his brain, bearing the proposition along with it.
Laputans with their absorption is music, mathematics, and astronomy, represent specifically the members of
226
the Royal Society but more generally all those who believe that, by turning away from the impressions of the senses and the ordinary concerns of human nature they can ignore sublunary confusion and reach eternal truth. The sources for nearly all the theories of the works at the academy of Lagade and came from Swifts in the
contemporary
scientists
particularly
philosophical transactions of the Royal Society.
The account of the miscalculations of Laputan tailers in making-Gullivers clothes is a satire on Newton who makes a mistake in his calculations of the distance of the sun.
The Laputans
c a l c u l a t e that
after
certain
number of years the sun would lose its heat and they are sure that it would be the end of the world. Such fears are scientists not of original that to the Laputans. over Many the
age have
pandered
possibility of such calamities. It is the influence of Newton which makes people fear that their planet might one day fall into the sun.
Among the professors of Lagade is blind who has and several who apprentices
a in
man his colors
born own by
condition;
could
distinguish
feeling and smellings. Swift is here attacking Robert Boyles Experiments and observations upon colours. Another trying projector to whom Gulliver gun saw it work is was an
calcineice
into
powder.
This
attack on Boyles Experiments and observations upon
227
cold in which he had suggested this idea.
One experiments at the Academy want to change human excretion into original food. There is also an architect who wanted to construct houses by beginning at the roof and then coming down to the foundation. At the school of languages, one of the experiments is to simplify the language by retaining only
monosyllabic words and nouns.
Their
efforts
are
summed
up by title has
an of
illustrious the for The the
member who has been given the Universal thirty Artist and who
been
years directing his followers in various
ways of converting things into their opposites, thus turning the useful, into the unusable and the vital into the atrophied. Air is made tangible and marble left. land is sown with chaff and naked sheep are bred and perhaps as an epitome of the achievement of the Academy of the heeves of a living hoarse are being petrified.
From
Lagade
Gulliver
makes
his
way
to
Gulubbddubdrib, where again he is in a world of no meaning, of delusion and death, darker and more
shadowy than Laputa. The final mockery of the pursuit of progress comes when Gulliver visits luggage and meets the immortal struid-bruggs. These, so far from leading the idyllic life he imagined would be the lot of a human freed from the fear of death, were the most miserable of beings. Although they have eternal
228
life they do not have eternal youth, so that physical and mental decay continue until they acquired an
additional ghastliness in proportion to their number of years, which is not be described.
It
has
been
fully
demonstrated
that
in
his
satire of scientists and projectors swift made use of the knowledge of actual experiments which were being undertaken by members of the Royal Society, possibly drawn to his attention by his friend Dr. Arbuthnet. Swift was not opposed to all forms of progress. What he opposes distinct is from what he regards as artificial, The as
natural appear
progress.
political and
arithmeticians
ludicrously
absentminded
impractical when Gulliver tells of the Flappers who attend them to keep their minds on the immediate
subject under discussion and of the ill-fitting suits of clothes produced by their refined method of
measuring. Gulliver sees for himself the effects of their schemes when he looks around Balnibarbi. There they have inspired projects designed to work economic
miracles. The projects are not brought to perfection and the whole country lay miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes. By contrast the estates of Gullivers friend lord Munodi who used old fashioned methods were flowing with milk and honey. Balnibarbi is badly cultivated, its people in misery and want.
The Luptans, though they are in human shape, are
229
more
obviously
allegorical
creatures
than
any
in
Gullivers Travels. Their effect is made through at the same time are it a tends race to of destroy itself. who The live
Houyhnhnms
noble
horses
according to the laws of reason and nature. Serving them and despised by them are the beastly Yahoos, a degenerate species of man. Gulliver himself
recognizes how detestable the yahoos are before he realises to his horror and astonishment, that these abominable animals had perfect human figures.
Gulliver is appalled by the bestiality of the yahoos, recoiling from them as creatures for whom, he had natural antipathy. Yet it is demonstrated that the yahoos are men, although completely degenerate men.
The
life
of reason asked by the Houyhnmnms is
curiously dead. George orwell has argued that the reason death. which He governs that them they is really a desire from for
says
are
exempt
love,
friendship, curiosity fear and sorrow except in their feeling of anger and hatred towards the Yahoos, who occupy rather the same place in their community as the Jews in Nazi Germany. Gulliver concludes the
voyage by describing his difficulty in reconciling himself to life among yahoos in England after his experience with the noble Houyhnhnm race, and he ends with a final bread side against human pride.
In this voyage Gulliver discovers the shocking recognition indeed a that man, his in his brute vainly nakedness, disguised is by
Yahoo,
ugliness
230
civilized artifice, his animal powers merely vitiated by refinements which are actually corruptions. The second discovery emerges largely in Gullivers
dialogues with the Houyhnhnm master, it is simply that those systems which we regards the hall marks of civilization breeding, law military and the the science, best government, the
medicine,
represent of our
institutionalizing,
elaboration
animal
indications toward hatred, avarice and sensuality. Gullivers own account of western society produces a third discovery, unequivocally advanced by the
Houyhnhnm master himself who defines mankind as: .....a sort of animals to whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture some small pittance of reason had fallen, where of we made no other aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones which nature had not given us. use than by its assistance to
The superiority of the Houhynhnms is discovered by Gulliver as proof of the fact that a horse-even a horse could, if endowed with that genuine reason on which man falsely prides himself, achieve a serene, beign and cleanly prosperity which is the opposite, in every important respect to the present state of civilized man. The traditional view was that the
Yahoos represent man as he actually is, self-seeking, sensual and depraved while the Houyhnhnm symbolize
231
what
men
ought
to
be,
altruistic
rational
and
cultured.
Yahoos have a strong disposition to nasty ness and dirt. Their eating habits are equally filthy. Their undistinguishing appetite to devour every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots,
berries, corrupted flesh of animals or all mingled together yahoos rendered is no them mere odious. waste Excrement but to a the magic
product
instrument for self expression and aggression. In the Yahoo system of social indentation their leader had usually a favorite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his masters feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his
kennel. As a constrast to the Yahoos, the horses do not shirk, do not lie, do no evil, and so the
Houyhnhnms are industrious, truthful and virtuous. They have no word in their language to express
anything that is evil, except what they borrow from the deformities or ill qualities of the Yahoos. Swift reader The is attacking the Yahoo in each the of the
good
qualities
are
given
non-human
form of the horse, and the bad qualities the nearly human form of the Yahoo. The etymology of the word Houyhnhnm means horse but also the perfection of nature. Swift was trying to create a sort of utopia in his account of the life if reason led by
Houynhnhnms. It was a singularly dull and inhuman utopia. These noble horses never experience love or hope, curiosity or passions they take pleasure in sex
232
and feel no more affection for their own off spring strictly limited to two per family than for other foals. The only reference to music in their lives is
the rather comic idea of a song composed in honour of the victors in their running race. have no conception of beauty, They apparently other than the
comeliness of their chosen, mates, and even their poetry is apparently restricted to exalted motions of friendship and benevolence and the praise of
successful athletes.
It is difficult to resist the
conclusion that Swift was more concerned to satirize human nature in the Yahoos than to arouse our respect and admiration for the Houyhnhnms.
Swift Yahoo
presents
number
of
descriptions of
of
behaviour,
provokingly
reminiscent
human
behaviour but cruder; more contemptible in one sense, and yet more harmless. The pictures of the Yahoo
treatment of a fallen favourite and a Yahoo female sexually excited can be cited as an example. the human equivalent with in that we are It is
continually Swifts
confronted
these
descriptions.
intensity and disgust are now here more striking than here when the Houyhnhnms compare. Yahoo at first objects Gulliver with the some
acknowledging
resemblance, but insists that he cannot account for their degenerate and brutal nature. The Houyhnhnms
have none of this however, deciding that if Gulliver does differ he differs for the worse. The
contemptuous view of mankind formed by the Houyhnhnms is the main satiric charge.
233
Although
the
Houynhnhnms
embody
traits
which
Swift admired they do not represent his moral ideal for mankind. The Houyhnhnms combine deistic and
stoic views of human nature views against which as a devout Anglican, he fought. as a rational as possible; Swift wished men to be
he believed that religion
helps them to become so, and that reason leads them towards revelation. But the deistic efforts to build
a rational system of morals outside revelation, he regarded as evil and absurb, Gulliver, occupying a position between the two, part beast, part reason, is Swifts allegorical picture of the dual man. nature of
Arthur.E. Case thinks that Gullivers Travels is a politico sociological treatise much of which is covered in the medium of satire. as a savage, upon mad, embittered of was The legend of Swift misanthrope the last largely of
rests
the His
reading hatred
voyage
Gulliver. abstract
directed
against
man, against men
existing and acting within semi-human or dehumanized racial or professional groups. Apparently he felt
that when men submerge their individual judgement and moral beings in such groups they necessarily further, corrupt their already corrupted natures. Swifts
satire rises from philanthropy and not misanthropy.
It is strange that in spite of the universal condemnation of mankind, Gulliver Travels remains a
234
popular work.
That is because nobody is hurt when
every body is condemned.
Swift is regarded as one of the greatest masters of satire in English literature. In Gullivers
Travels Swifts aim is to expose all the foibles, petty aims and ambitions of men and to show how these lie at the root of all mans struggles. Swift wanted to entertain and instruct his readers, and to make them feel the vanity of human grandeur. Gullivers Travels is, in its totality, a satiric construction and the attractive fiction which supports the entire work is merely the mask or vehicle for sustained
satiric assault. The surface of the book is comic but at its centre is tragedy, transformed through style and to into icy irony. Gullivers allegory Travels resembles in its John Bunyans and
Pilgrims
Procress
popularity
human interest. Bunyan used fiction for the practical purpose of converting the ungodly. Swift wrote to express his contempt and abhorrence for great mass of human kind. The outstanding characteristic of swift style is its clarity. This is the result of the simplicity of his language. His page is a model of plainness. Swift always hides his aim of attacking a vice behind a voile of superfluous playfulness. He possessed
piercing insight into human nature. Swift is a great master of irony. The shock technique of irony has been used in Gullivers Travels. His irony is deadly and bitter and yet not lacking sincerity. We are
235
forced to gaze into the stupid, evil brutal heart of humanity, and when we do, the laughter that swift has evoked is abruptly silenced.
The effectiveness of Swifts satire is derived from his mastery in pages of of the technique knit of grim irony, without
unrolled
closely
prose
padding or waste of words. To discover the virtues of English prose, a young writer may still, following the advice of Dr.Johnson, give his days and nights to the study of the volumes of Addison, but he will do better to substitute the paragraphs of Swift.
Swift dramatic
was
skilled The
in
the of
use
of
fable as
and
technique.
use
fiction
sugar
coating for a pill of bitter philosophy is one of his greatest distinctions. Secondly to this use of an
fiction must be added Swifts wit and humour also
ingredient indispensable to good satire every where.
As
convinced
Tory,
Swift
opposes p o p u l a r
radicalism in politics, philosophy and religion when he satirizes existing government, he attackes not the theory but the abuse of authority. When he castigates bishops and prime ministers it is because they are unintelligent or corrupt. More difficult open for our for
generation to accept is Swifts
contempt
Free thinkers , but here, as elsewhere he
is ahead of, not behind, his times, and may prove to be the prophet of the twenty first century. If Swift
236
has been admired and feared more than he has been loved, it is partly because he does not write the language of heart, unromantic by temperament but it should be recalled that his age distrusted sentiment and disdained romance. In his refusal to reduce human suffering to statistics, in his concern for the
starving in Ireland, in his horror of the effects of war, Swift writes with a compassion which speaks
across the centuries.
In the voyage to Lilliput,
Swift satirizes the
pettiness of political intrigues. The arts by which the officers of the government keep their places, such as cutting of capers the on a tight rope us for of the the
entertainment
emperor,
remind
quality of statesmanship in Swifts day. The dispute over the question, at which end an egg should be broken, which plunged Lilliput into Civil war is a comment on the seriousness of party divisions in the greater mainly world. in the Politics voyage of to England is ridiculed
Brobdingnag especially
through the comments of the Giant King. Political satire becomes very bitter when we come to the flying island. Gullivers narration of affairs in laputa and Balnibarbi is a political satire on the whigs and the Tories and on Angle Irish relations. The voyage to Laputa is a scientific parody and burlesque of the experiments of contemporary scientists and schemes of other projectors. The entire myth of a voyage to the Houyhnhnml and is an instrument of one who in hatred of what he saw about him set out to vex the world.
237
Hazlitt misanthropical Gullivers grandeur
contends in Swift, is to
that whose
there main empty
is
nothing in and
purpose pride
Travels of the
strip air
imposing
which
external
circumstances throw around then, Swift unlike pope restricts himself to general rather than personal
attacks. His dissection of humanity shows a powerful mind relentlessly probing into the weaknesses and
hypocrisy of mankind.
Addison says that Swift is the greatest genius of his age. Saints b u r y has praised Swift for his
talents. Sir Walter Scott, who edited Swifts work thought Swift was irritability and savage indignation all compact, combined with an extraordinary but
perverse genius.
Scott feels that we are compelled
to admire the force of his talents, even when he is employed in exposing the worst part of our nature.
Gullivers
Travels,
despite
common
impressions
to the contrary, presents in every voyage a balanced picture of human nature and the presence of goodness and good sense, as well as folly and vice in each country warning readers. visited. and a What happens to Gulliver for is a
psychological
preparation
the
Swift holds up before us a glass in an
eighteenth century frame; but if we will we can see in it our twentieth century faces too.
Gullivers Travels is the most mature, the most
238
pondered of all Swifts works, and the most complex, though of simplicity. personal, Complex as and the book is stuffed with it has in many ways a deceptive air
political
philosophic
criticism and
dicta, crammed with personal and literary allusions, the story is unified, as it is made vital by the tremendous pride. urgency of the desire to humble human
Gullivers Travels is not a reviling of mans indignity, but a passionate plea for the dignity of man, in spite of his loathsome body, his absurd mind, his ridiculous political pretensions, and his
arrogant ignorance.
The only hope for salvation,
Swift tells us, is to rid ourselves of our cruel illusions, to be aware of and to accept the hells beneath, so that we may not subside into them.
9.9 Style and Technique of Gullivers Travels Swift's use of humour and irony are sometimes as bitter as gall. His works are challenge to an easy, complacent optimism, and as an ironist, he is superior to any other writer of the age except Fielding. intensity similes His of irony, feeling. strong savage His and bitter, dialect he is glows is with consuming by apt
gravest
1
enlivened
and
metaphors;
but
often
outrageously victims he makes
coarse, and in the
ludicrous degradation of his
on affection of kindliness. Often the satire is violent and sometimes it is coarse and repulsive perhaps the result of his own physical disabilities and his keen disappointment at his failure to gain the preferment which he left himself to have merited. The pettiness, the stupidity, and the injustice, which he saw so cleverly, roused his satirical humour and his venom.
239
In
all
the
four
bo o k s o f Gulliver's Travels, the vigorous
spirit of satire is seen. In the first book dealing with the Lilliputians, the satire obviously consists in showing human motives at work scale, and in suggesting, by the likeness of the ourselves, the littleness of human affairs, and on a 'small
Lilliputians to the pettiness of
political intrigues. The dispute over the question at which end an egg should properly be broken, which plunged Lilliput into the civil war is a comment on the seriousness of party divisions in the greater world. Gulliver's next voyage to Brobdinginag brings him to a people as large in comparison with man as the Lilliputians are small. Here man is magnified into a giant, though in the earlier work he is reduced to a manikin. The third voyage to Laputa and other curious places embodies Swift's contempt for pedantry and for useless
'scientific' experiment. And, lastly in the fourth voyage there is an indictment of man's tortuous and sly reasoning as compared to the noble inhabitants of Houyhnhnmland, who within the shapes of horses embody 'perfection of Nature.' The beastly Yahoos represent Swift's conception of man living in a degenerate state of nature. The evil instincts of 'civilized' man are here again bitterly portrayed. In short, the voyage of
Lilliput and Brobding satirised the politics and manner of England and Europe; that to Laputa mocked the philosophers; and the last, to the country of the Houyhn-hnras, lacerated and defiled the whole body of humanity. Swift's pessimism that had been gnawing at his own heart finds its expression in this terrible attack on his fellow men. The entire work is an elaboration of the attitude expressed by him to Pope, "I heartily hate and detest that animal called man." Swift's method in all these works is to strike boldly with sarcasm and irony. He hates wrangling and argument, and seldom
bothers to use the weapons of logical controversy. He attempts, with his almost unparalleled fund of ingenuity and caustic wit, to laugh his opponents off the stage. In his writings there is a disconcerting intermingling of earnestness and play. His unique position, his
singularity and peculiar impressivenes among English writers is due to his thorough pessimism and the contribution he made to the development of English prose style as a writer of English prose his
importance is historical.
240
Swift's
style
is
marked
for
its
clarity,
precision
and
conciseas Herbert remarks, "However widely his vision might extend, however dignity deep and his insight, his mode of expression remained simple Directness and simplicity,
clearly
comprehensible.
economy of words, his ironic ingenuity and practical downright ness are the virtues by which he writes. He is concerned with the full and effective expression of his deep, passionate convictions in all their sincerity in a language simple, unvarnished, precise and transparent which at once reveals the meaning below its surface. Clarity he valued most." In the words of Compton-Rickett,
"Like other great stylists of the time, Pope and Addison, he achieves a triumphant clarity ; but unlike Pope he is never epigrammatic ; unlike Addison he had little plasticity of form He is plainly and forcefully clear with a greater strength than theirs ; all the more striking and urgent for his lack of ornament and concentrated
passion." He never used redundant words. Swift employed figures of speech and epigrammatic expressions very rarely indeed. Dr. Johnson said, "The rogue nev e r h a z a r d s a metaphor. His delight was in simplicity." That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is not true, but his few metaphors, seem to be conceived rather by necessity than by choice. He tried to avoid the figurative language and most of the rhetoric devices such as balance, rhythm and antithesis. In fact, Swift's style is of one who followed 'the plain path of Nature and Reason'. He is an inimitable master of forceful narrative prose. Swift made no use of Latin wordsy He strongly advis e d h i s clergymen against the use of words like ubiquety, omniscience and he is
idiosyncrasy. These latin words create obscurity and Swift
dead set against obscurity in style. Likewise he was strongly opposed to the stylistic device of contracting or abbreviating, words like incog. fpj incognists, phizz. for physiognamy, pozz. for positive. As the most original writer of his time, Swift proves to be
one of the greatest masters of English prose. Directness, vigour, and simplicity mark his every page. Among writers of his age he stands almost alone in his domain of literary effects. Keeping his object steadily before him he drives straight to the end, with a convincing power that has new surpassed in English language. Herbert rightly remarks, The prose style of Swift is unique. It is an instrument of clear, animated, animating and effective thought. English prose has
241
perhaps
attained
here
and
there ;
noble profundity, never has
and
here
and a
t h e r e a subtler
complexity
but
maintained
such
constant level of inspired expression." The prose style of Swift has been admired by many a critics Albert says that in Gulliver's Travels the style of Swift it is Moddy and Lovett
clean, powerful and as clear as summer noon day.
are of the view that directness and simplicity are the hall marks of his writing. Absolute, unmitigated prose he wrote, the quintessence of prose. In the words of John Dennis If we regard the writer's
end, it must be admitted that his language is admirably fitted for that end. elevation Swift's style wants the 'sweetness and lacks also the which inspires, and the persuasiveness that convinces
while it claims. No style, perhaps, is better fitted to exhibit scorn and contempt; It grace and without is a radically a low and homely style, without affection, and chiefly remarkable for a great
choice and profusion of common words and expressions.
242
9.10 Let us Sum Up Gulliver's Travels "is one of the supreme comic masterpieces of the world, As a comedy it is not only Swift's masterpiece but one of the masterpieces of all time. The unit of the book lies in its satirical tone.
9.11 Lesson End Activities 1. Consider Humanity 2. Write an Essay on the element of satire in Gullivers Travels as a Satire on
Gullivers Travels 3. Comment on the style and technique of Gullivers Travels 9.12 References
Swift, Jonathan, Gullivers Travels. London & New York : J.M.Bent & Sons, Ltd & E.P.Dutten & Co., Inc, 1906, rpt., 1977. Swift, Jonathan, Satires and Personal Writings. ed., Willian Affred Eddy. London : Oxford University. Baugh, Albert, C.Literary History of England. Rouledge & Kegan Ltd., 1967. London :
Bridgewater, William and Kurtz, Seymour. The Columbia Encyclopaedia. New York and London : Columbia University Press, 1935. Dobree, Bonamy, English Literature in Eighteenth Century. London : Oxford Press, 1959. the Early University
Daiches, David, A Critical History of Literature V.3. England: Martin Secker & Ltd., 1960
English Warburg
Davis, Herbert, Jonathan Swift : Essays on his satire and other studies : The Satire of Jonathan Swift. New York : Oxford University Press, 1964. Dyson, A.E. The Crazy Fabric : Essays in Irony. London
243
Macmillan
and
co., Ltd., 1965.
Ehrenpreis, Irvin. Swift the man, his works and the age Vol I & II. Great Britain : The Broad water Press Ltd., 1967. Ford, Boris. A guide to English Literature. Vol IV. Great Britain : penguin Books Ltd., 1957 rpt., 1965. Jeffares, A. Norman. Swift : Modern Judgements. Great Britain : Western Printing Services Ltd., Bristol, 1968. Mathur. S.S.Swift : Gullivers Travels. Agra : The Premier Press, Lakshmi Narain Agarwal, 1980. Rosenheim, Edward. W.Swift and the satirists art. Chigaco : The University of Chicago Press, 1963, rpt., 1967. Ross, Angus. Swift : Gullivers Travels. Edward Arnold, 1968. London :
Speck. W.A. Literature in perspective : Swift : Gullivers Travels. Montague House, Russel Square, London, W.C.I. Evans Brothers Ltd., 1969. Tuveson, Ernest. Twentieth century views on Swift : United States of America : Prentice Hall Inc., 1964. Williams, Kathleen. Profites in Literature : Jonathan Swift. Great Britain : Northumberland Press Ltd., 1968. Williams, Kathleen. London : Rouledge Swift : the critical Heritage. and kegan Paul Ltd., 1970.
244
Unit V
LESSON 10 PHILIP SIDNEY APOLOGY FOR POETRY
Contents
10.0 Aims and Objectives 10.1 Introduction 10.2 An Outline of Sidneys Apologie for poetry 10.3 Introduction to Apology 10.4 Sidneys reply to the charges against Poetry 10.5 The Nature and Function of poetry: 10.6 Let us Sum Up 10.7 Lesson End Activities: 10.8 References
10.0 Aims and Objectives This lesson is devoted for making you understand the works of Philip Sidney and how he expressed his own intelligence, and intellectual milieu. 10.1 Introduction T h e A p o l o g y is epoch marking. not epoch-making, but it is
Of course Sidney was unaware of
what vernacular English Poets were to achieve within
245
the next generation or so, and yet what he intends is triumphantly authenticated by their achievement. 10.2 An Outline of Sidneys Apologie for poetry
EXORDIUM Employs a recognised method of indirect approach to the case and seeks to capture the goodwill of the audience by humorous anecdote, mock expostulation, and modesty
formulas. The anecdote adumbrates the concern of the Apology with the relation between the theory and practice of an art. NARRATION Relates the facts which give dignity to poetry.Brief transitional argument to lower the personal creditof the opponents of poetry Facts indicating worth of poetry(a) the universality of poetry title of vates title of '
bits superior antiquity its names and etymology maker. III PROPOSITION
That poetry is to be commended and approved for what it essentially is Imitation.This is the central issue of the controversy and sums up what is about to be discussed step by step. IV DIVISION
Shows the way in which the facts averred in the NARRATION are going to be systematically interpreted to prove the
PROPOSITION.
Poetry classified according to (a) its subject matter or fable (i) religious themes (ii) philosophical themes themes its form
DIVISION
(iii) strictly imitative ends with ENUMERATION.
246
CONFIRMATION V CONFIRMATION or PROOF
by examining the ' works 'the nature and effects of poetic imitation (i) the essential function of human arts (ii) claims of philosophy to be the supreme discipline (iii) claims of history (iv) Comparison of poetry with other disciplines showing value of poetic imitation
(v) examples
(vi) conclusion by examining the ' parts ' - character and effects of the different kinds of poetry of the whole argument up to this point leading to the conclusion that poetry is the worthiest of all disciplines.
SUMMARY
VI
REFUTATION
Deals with the specific charges against poetry which the prosecution is assumed to have made. (a) personally discrediting attack on those who defame poetry (b) objections against poetic form answered (c) objections against poetic material listed (i) fallacy exposed of argument that poetry is unprofitable
(ii) assertion that the poet is a liar rebutted (iii) assertion that poetry is the nurse of abuse rebutted (iv) Plato's condemnation of poets answered
SUMMARY
of favourable points from REFUTATION
which by leading to
the conclusion that poetry should be the more honoured turns the REFUTATION into a corroboration of the PROOF.
247
Digression Indicates the ways in which contemporary English writers disgrace the ideal of poetry set out in the rest of the Apology, and how they should amend. The DIGRESSION has the structure of an independent oration.
NARRATION
giving an account of situation
(i) great men in the past honoured poetry (ii) even in England poetry was once honoured (iii) poetry now despised and produced by base writers ii PROPOSITION that poets must seek to know what to do and how to do it, if poetry is to be esteemed properly in DIVISION indicating the need for art, imitation, and exercise, followed by ENUMERATION of matters to be discussed iv CONFIRMATION by consideration of (a) (b) subject-matter or fable (i) deficiencies in past practice
(ii) defects in drama in disregard of unities lapses in decorum (6) words or expression
(iii) defects in the other kinds (i) verbal affectations
(ii) dangers of exaggerated Ciceronianism (iii) vice of Euphuism (iv) general failure to make proper use of language of art (c) Conclusion to treatment of defects
(d) Commendation of the English language for its expressiveness v CONCLUSION of DIGRESSION for its metrical possibilities
leading into
VII PERORATION of the whole
10.3 Introduction to Apology
248
Sidney opens his defense of poetry by referring to John Pietro Pugliano who as horseman praised the horse and horsemanship so profusely that a hearer would wish to become a horse or a horseman. When Stephen Gosson dedicated his puritanic attack on
poetry to Sidney, and hence Sidney had to make his reply. Philip Sidney wrote his Apology for Poetry in reply to Stephen Gossons School of Abuse. Stephen Gosson denounced the art of poetry and condemned
poets as the Caterpillars of the Commonwelth. The earliest works of Greece, Rome, Italy, England and other countries of the world prove the antiquity and universality philosophical of poetry. of The earliest works, have even, been
works
various
nations,
written either in verse or in a poetical style. Even the historians used the poetical art in designing their historical writings. Poetry has the power to popularize the abstract principles and thorny arguments of philosophy as well as the imperfect and unethical matters of history. The Roman word Vates means a prophet and it is used to The denote a poet of endowed Delphos with and prophetic Sibyllas
power.
oracles
Prophecies were delivered in verse. The association of poetry with the divine power clearly reveals its highest value. Davids Psalms are written in verse. Poetry is closely connected with the Church and God, its source of inspiration and
249
enlightenment. The meaning of the Greek word potein is to make; it denotes the creative power of the poet in building up an ideal world by making virtue triumphant and vice powerless. All arts and sciences imitate the imperfect visible nature without any
modification. But Poetry differs from them in its treatment of nature. The Poet has unlimited freedom to imitate
nature as well as penetrate behind appearance and discern the hidden ultimate reality. He presents
heroes as demigods, Cyclops, chimeras and funnies in his works. He transforms the brazen world of Nature in to a golden world of poetic reality. When the real world of God is made imperfect by mans abuse of his free will, the poet perfects it by introducing ideal heroes as well as imperfect
villains and by making virtue triumph over vice in all his works. Sidney sets forth the nature of poetry by means of his references to classical times. Sidney cities Aristotles definitions of poetry to bring out the dignity and utility of poetry.
Poetry represents the real world in all respects and offers delightful instruction to its readers. There are three kinds poetry, of poetry described poetry which and are tree-
religious
philosophical
poetry. The first kind, that of religious poetry is illustrated by Davids Psalms, Solomons Song of
songs the Hymns of Moses and Deborah. Philosophical poetry, is found in the moral
works of Tyrtaeus, and Cato.

250
True poetry differs
very much from the art of painting and deals with nature in such a way that it is able both to delight and teach by its subject and mode of treatment. True poetry is further subdivided into several kinds such as heroic. Iyric, tragic, comic, satiric,
elegiac and pastoral. It is possible to write poetry without verses. i.e. the emotional and imaginative treatment of any subject. It is also possible to
compose verse without poetry by consciously employing rhymes and rhythms without any inspiration, emotion and imagination. Poetry alone imparts the knowledge of righteous life and directs people towards virtuous action When all arts and sciences fail to lead men to virtuous action. Moral philosophers fail to attract the public on account of their gravity and subtlety of division and definition. But the public by their concrete historians examples attract prove
and
superior to philosophers. Poetry makes men good by pointing out the ills of the human world, and the punishment meted out to evil doers. So poetry is superior to philosophy,
history and law by virtue of its moral function. The Limitations of philosophy and history are easily
pointed out. Philosophy presents thorny arguments and misty conceptions in dry language. History shows the triumph of vice over virtue in the real world. So history is defective from the view of morality and divinity. Poetry combines the precepts of philosophy and the example of history and it delights readers by its emotional But and imaginative fails treatment to do of all
subjects.
philosophy
imaginative
251
treatment of dry and abstract moral principles. All the abstract virtues are delightfully and effectively characters portrayed wisdom and by the poets in through their Ulysses and
temperance
Diomedes, Valour in Achillers, friendship in Nisus and Euryalus. All the abstract vices are also
powerfully presented by the classical poets- anger in Ajax, the remorse of conscience in Oedipus, the soon repenting ambition pride in the of two Agamemnon, Theban the violence the of sour
brothers,
sweetness of revenge in Medea and so on. The poet is superior to the philosopher in his way of teaching and the value of as virtuous has been action done by
effectively
delightfully
Virgil, Xenophon, and Thomas More. The parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible are essentially poetical and not at all philosophical or historical. He presents uncharitableness and humility in the further of the prodigal son his father.
Aesops Fables is more effective than a book of moral philosophy in teaching the value of virtuous life. According to Aristotle poetry is more philosophical than philosophy and more serious than history. Poetry presents the eternal truths of virtue and v i c e
through imaginary stories about imaginary characters. So poetry is better than history in its delightful teaching of moral truths. Poetry conceals all the natural ugliness of the real world and to presents delight and
252
the
pleasing the
picture
of The
everything
teach
readers.
feigned Cyrus of Xenophon is much better than the true Cyrus in Justain. Similarly the feigned Aeneas in Virgil is more attractive than in true Aeneas in Darius Phrygius. It is impossible for the historian to present ideal characters of virtue because he is bound to present the actual details of historical characters combining their good and bad qualities. Poetry alones can give a perfect pattern of good and evil without any confusion. The art of feigning has to be practised at
times when direct truth fails to impress itself upon people. The story of Zopyrus cutting his own nose
and ears and going to the Bobylonians in order to make them change their attitude to his master, King Darius, cannot be forgotten for its success and ideal loyalty. The poet has unlimited freedom unlike the historian. So the poet employs his imagination to create present earth. The historical accounts of tyrants flourishing and the virtuous people suffering in this imperfect real speaks only in favour of vice and not of virtue. Poetry not only imparts the knowledge of good and evil but it also moves the readers towards Hell the or Heaven world but of the good historian and evil has on to the
mixed
virtuous action. But philosophy fails to do so at those two levels. The study of poetry is a journey through a vineyard with the tasting of grapes and seeing the beautiful scenes of nature. Hearing the tales of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus and Aeneas is more
253
pleasing
and
enchanting
than
following
the
dry
definitions and thorny explanations of philosophy. Even the hard-hearted men who refuse to touch the books of moral philosophy are tempted to read
delightful poems and drawn unconsciously towards the ideal of goodness. That is the reason why Plato and Boethius borrowed the garment of poetry to clothe the mistress of philosophy. Poetry is a medicine like cherries. At the time of a crisis Agryppa used his
poetical faculty to draw the attention of all his angry senators by narrating the story of the
different parts of the body turning against the belly and accusing it of consuming all the food. But when the belly was starved the parts of the body also
suffered. Thus Agrippa won the hearts of the senators once again. Gods men who commit any evil deed God sends some of his prophets or angels to warn. It so
happened in the life of David. Nathan, the prophet appealed to Davids good sense by the art of
feigning. The poet vindicates the value of virtue and directs all readers to follow the goal of virtuous action by means of his imaginary stories and
characters.
The creator of such poetic art has to be
highly respected and honored, Since the end and aim of poetry is to move its readers to virtuous action. Some poems combine various elements of tragedy and comedy. But all the poems prove to be useful to
mankind because they teach the value of order and peace, virtue and discipline
254
in
directly
and
delightfully. A passage is produced from Virgils First
Eclogue to illustrate the effect of pastoral poetry on the readers. By the description of beautiful
natural landscape and the narration of the tales of wolves and sheep the pastoral poet moves the readers to virtuous action. By means of elegiac poetry the poet shows the weakness world. of mankind and the wretchedness of the
The iambic poetry puts villainy to shame. In
the illustrative lines of Horace the aim of satiric poetry is well explained. follies of people and Satiric poetry attacks the the readers laugh at
makes
them, aiming at reform. Comedy is an imitation of life, Remarked Aristotle the comic writer exposes
the common errors of life in the most ridiculous and scornful Just way and aims and at reformation of mankind. that deal with
like
geometry
arithmetic
opposites, comic poetry shows both the filthiness of evil and the beauty of virtue. The characters of Terences comedies illustrate all kinds of human qualities niggardly Demea,
crafty Davus, flattering Gnatho and bragging Thraso. On seeing the evil qualities portrayed ridiculously and evil doers undergoing punishment the readers as well as the audience of the comedies think about them and decide not to follow them. Senecas Oedipus by showing all the tyrannical measures of the tyrants as tragic poetry produces the effects of admiration and
255
commiseration
on
the
readers. Alexander
Plutarch presented an abominable tyrant, Phereus as a subject of tragedy. The
choice of a tyrant as a subject to tragedy is always harmful and so only excellent qualities of life
should be treated in the art of poetry. Lyrical poetry exalts virtuous actions and
sings the glory of God.
Sidney was very much moved
by the ballad of Chevy Chase : if small things were highly praised by Pindar and other Greek poets it was due to the attitude of the Greeks. poets should not be blamed for Therefore the trivial
praising
things : the people were responsible for such things. The heroic poetry of classical poets focuses on heroes like Achilles, Cyrus, Aeneas, Turnus, Tydeus and Rinaldo. on The heroes exhibit their and heroic conduct are
qualities themselves
different so
occasions that the
heroically
readers
inspired to emulate them in life.
By watching the
heroism of many heroes in heroic poetry the readers are induced to follow their way of life. condemn poetry are to be dispraised. Those who
They neglect a
means for moving men and women to virtuous action. Sidney sums up all the vital ideas connected with the value of poetry to humanity. He stresses the antiquity, poetry. 10.4 Sidneys reply to the charges against Poetry Sidney like Stephen faces the charges against of puritan critics universality, morality and dignity of
Grosson
poetry.
Those who
256
without understanding poetry, praise other subjects and arts are really foolish and try to worship their folly. Erasums of and Agrippa did not realize the
superiority
poetry.
Puritan
critics
attacked
poetry, but the poets also not attack anybody. It is possible to write poetry without rhyming or following any verse pattern. Similarly it is
possible to write verses without any poetry in them. In some cases both poetry and verse go together and such poetical works cannot be blamed by anybody. Rhyming and other devices of verse are meant to fix the words and phrases, ideas and thoughts in the memory of the readers. So the readers of Virgil,
Horace, and Cato remember some of their lines even after many years by recalling the music of the verse patterns. The first charge is that a man could spend his time in pursuing many fruitful arts if he ignores that art of poetry. In other words the study of
poetry is a waste of time. Secondly, poetry is the mother of lies. Thirdly it is the nurse of abuse. that poetry softened the Chaucer himself has said marital velour of the
soldiers and made them sleep in idleness.
So the
puritan critics pointed out that the study of poetry demoralized and debilitated strong people. No learning in the world is so powerful as
poetry in its power of moving men to virtuous action. According to Sidney, the study of poetry moralizes
257
and refines the animal and devilish nature of the people. The poets deal with universal and eternal
truths not affirmatively but allegorically in order to perfect the imperfect world. They give imaginary They do not
names and details and make men better.
lie like astronomers, historians lawyers and so on. They are not concerned with the material facts and figures of this world. eternal world and Their aim is to present the the perfectible human
perfect
beings of the imperfect real world. are not liars.
Therefore they
If the divine art of poetry is abused by the devilish with of some poets. Poetry is not
responsible for it and is not to be blamed. only the
It is
poet who abuses the divine art of poetry
that deserves censure. Sidney explains this fact by the illustration of a sword being used for the wrong purpose. If a sword is used to kill a father, the
sword should not be blamed for the unfilial act. It is the misuse of the sword that is to be blamed. Similarly there is a natural tendency with some witty men to abuse even the holy name of God and write hereby about Him. Therefore only the poets who abuse their wits by treating of lust, vanity and
scurrility are to be blamed and not the divine art of poetry. The great warriors and soldiers used to carry volumes of poetry inspire them with the ideals of courage, truth and strength. So poetry did not
debilitate the soldiers. In fact Alexander the Great
258
preferred
the
dead
poet
Homer
to the
the
living of
philosopher,
Aristotle
because
portrait
Achilles in Homers llaid was more inspiring and real than Aristotles definition of fortitude. The art of poetry gives many other examples of the courageous and mighty heroes. Sidney Platos could not of understand poetry the from reason his for ideal
banishment
commonwealth because Platos works are essentially poetical. Examples of poets who succeeded even in
reforming some tyrant kings. He also points out that many philosophers were banished from their countries. The Athenians, who disliked philosophers saved their own lives by quoting a few lines of Euripides before the Syracusans. The poets, Simonomides and Pindar, succeeded in changing Hiero, the worst tyrant in to a just king. According to a common story, even Plato was sold as a slave by Dionysius the tyrant. So
Sidney makes it clear that philosophy had drawn its mysterious riddles from the world of poetry but it failed to grateful to be poetry. On the whole,
philosophy and philosophers cannot excel poetry and poets. According to Sidneys argument, Plato allowed emotional beings, and namely so he women, should into not his condemn ideal the
commonwealth
emotions of poetry. Regarding the treatment of many baser gods in some poetry, Sidney answers that the theology of that time had been responsible for it. But when compared with the atheism resulting from philosophical argument, the superstition of poetry is
259
nothing. Plato only banished the poets who abused their wits and dealt with lust, vanity and scurrility. But he did not banish poetry. In fact Plato was a patron of right poetry and so he condemned the wrong poetry of the poets who abused their wits. Laelius, the Roman Socrates, was a poet.
Alexander, Caesar and Scipio were admirers of poetry. Therefore it was improper to banish poetry from his ideal Republic. In fact poetry contributes much to the ideal Republic of Plato. Thus the attack on
poetry when carefully analyzed turns out to be an appeal for its admiration. Sidney makes it clear that poetry is an art, not of lies but of true doctrine, not of
effeminateness but of a notable stirring of courage, not of arousing mans wit but of strengthening it; In fact poetry is not banished but honored by Plato. Sidney does not understand the indifference of
England towards poetry because poetry has contributed substantially to the training as English minds and the making of many other branches of knowledge. The art of poetry has been admired by many
kings, captains and generals from the earliest times in several countries. But puritan critics like
Stephen Gosson attacked poetry which prospered more in wartime than in the peaceful days of Elizabethan England. Sidney dislikes the idea of mixing hornpipes
260
and
funerals
in
the
tragic-comedy
of
contemporary
times. He denounces tragic-comedy as a mongrel. He explains the difference between delight and laughter with a number of examples. A fair woman delights a man but people laugh at mad clowns. In short people delight in good chances but laugh at mischance.
Delight is the result of seeing pleasant scenes and situations. But laughter is born of deformities and abnormalities. It stranger, is improper Sidney to laugh at a beggar and a
condemns
the
meaningless
and
scornful laughter of farcical comedy but encourages the delightful the teaching of a comedy without any scorn. The English Comedy of Sidneys days was based on the false hypothesis of making people laugh at everything and offending everybody. Lyrical poetry is a blessing of God. It is also devoted to the praise of immortal beauty and goodness of God. Love is
treated as a subject of poetry. It is elevated to the noble height of sacrifice or degraded as the baser passion of lust. Sometimes the words used in poetry are richly appareled. But at time the words are less colorful and suggestive as in some verses of conscious
composition. Some writers use words profusely to produce a rhetorical effect. A mere string of words and phrases cannot make good poetry. In fact true poetry lies in sincerity phrases, of expression and rather than in words and
rhymes
rhymes
and
rhythms.
Sidney
261
inquires into the nature of diction in poetry. One of the essential elements of poetry is effective
diction. The similes drawn from diverse sources are intended more to explain the meaning of the subject than to distract the readers. Men of little learning impress the audience by their eloquence but professors of wide learning fail to do so. Similarly minor poets abuse their wit to please the large public but great poets maintain
their dignity and preserve the purity of poetic art. Sidney expects words and idea to be properly used without any abuse as in oratory and baser poetry. Good poets know how in to choose to noble make subjects their and
better
expressions
order
poetry
eternal. The poets have to chose the best words from the vernacular language, apply the grammatical
principles and put them in the best order. English is the best suited for the art of poetry among the
European languages. Sidney refers to two kinds of versification
ancient and modern. The ancients marked the quantity of each syllable but the moderns considered the
accent. The language of the English, compared and contrasted with other European languages, has certain advantages in making rhymes and none of the defects of other languages. Sidney praises the unique of the English language allowing all kind of rhyme the male, the female and the sorucciola. He also points out the limitation of Latin, French and Italian. Sidney sums up, at the end, all the merits of
262
poetry, its all
freedom from defects and its sway over and sciences. and moves Since man poetry and imparts to
people,art
virtuous
knowledge
women
virtuous action it is more useful and valuable than other arts and sciences to mankind. Those who love poetry, honor poets and serve poetry are, also to be honored. They grow rich, fair and wise. They are to be ranked with the souls of Dantes Beatrice and
Virgils Anchises. If any one has no power to admire the vault of poetry, he cannot its hear divine its celestial If music any and one
understand
message.
underestimates poetry, he becomes as foolish as King Midas. On the whole, poetry has the power to teach the valuable principles of life delightfully. 10.5 The Nature and Function of poetry: Sidney defends the art of poetry by emphasizing the antiquity, universality, dignity and utility of poetry. He refers to the definitions of poetry by classical writers of the past and establishes the superiority of poetry over philosophy, History and the other arts and by the giving sciences. pleasant He and states that
poetry
teaches
unpleasant
pictures of virtue or vice, and making its readers move towards virtuous action. Sidney illustrated the poetry by referring to the earliest writings in many languages and noting the fact that earliest of philosophers and historians wrote their works either in verse or in a poetical manner. he explains the universality of poetry by
263
saying that almost in all the countries of the world the earliest writers have been poets. After proving the antiquity and universality of Poetry, Sidney draw on the classical writings to explain the nature and function of Poetry. The Roman word vates suggest the prophetic
nature of Poetry. The Greek word Poiein denotes the creative power of the poet. The Delphic Oracles and Sibyllas prophecies were delivered in verses. The pets have the power to penetrate the hidden reality and discern the future of the world. Similarly the poets perfect the imperfect real world by means of the imagination and intuition displayed in their
poetical works. Both the prophetic nature and the creative power of the poets definitely differentiate them from other artists and associate them with God and the Church. Sidney inspiration imitation to uses and Platos Aristotles the poetic poetic and theory theory Function of of of
explain
nature
Poetry. According to Plato the poets are inspired by their vision of god and the ideal world of heaven. Hence they build up the ideal world in their works. On the other hand, Aristotle defines Poetry as an art of imitation. He explains how the poets imitate the actual life by giving vivid accounts of the real
world with a view to delight and teach the readers. Horace also defines the art of Poetry and admires it for its speaking pictures and delightful teaching. After explaining the meaning and nature of
264
Poetry in the light of classical achievements, Sidney describes three kinds of Poetry as religious poetry illustrated songs and by Davids psalms, S o l o m o n s S o n g o f the Hymns poetry as of Moses and by Cato, Deborah, the and moral true
philosophical works of
illustrated and
Tyrtaeus,
Phocylides
poetry, further subdivided in to several kinds such as heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic,
elegiac pastoral. 10.6 Let us Sum Up The main ideas in the Apology for poetry are
not peculiar to Sidney though the arrangement of the argument is his own. intelligence, his own It is a product of his own intellectual milieu and its
critical inheritance.
265
10.7 Lesson End Activities: 1. How does Sidney reply Gossons charges poetry? 2. What is Sidneys estimate English poetry and drama? 3. What according to function of poetry? Sidney is of the against
contemporary nature and
10.8 References Shepherd, Geoffrey An Apology for Poetry, London, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1964. Shuck Burgh, Evlyn S. An Apology for Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
266

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What is discussed about Chaucer's life?

What is discussed about Chaucer's life?

What are the three kinds of poetry described by Sidney?

What are the three kinds of poetry described by Sidney?

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THE PRIORESS (lines 118-164)

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THE FIVE GILDSMEN AND THEIR COOK (lines 361 387)

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Burrow, J.A., Coghill. Noville Daiches, David Howard. J. Edwin

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He pictures the villages suffering the woes of exile in

Nor yet does the precise

Some maintain that it is England,

England and maintains this in spite of contradiction.

Goldsmiths impersonal moralizing

was in much of its

pastures. The poet cannot but protest against a state of things

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2.2 Goldsmiths life & works.

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plenty cheer d t h e labouring swain; here

spring paid its

The never-failing brook,

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repeated pleasure tired, band. The dancing

pair, that simply sought

side-long looks of love,

charms sweet village; sports like these with sweet

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solitary rounds, amidst his after