17th-Century Poetry II

John Miltonand

John Dryden

- son of a wealthy notary- St. Paul's School- Cambridge University - 1638 European tour - conversion to Puritanism opposition to Catholics and Stuarts - foreign language secretary to Oliver Cromwell- 1652 blindness - persecution after the restoration withdraws from politics - 1667 Paradise Lost; followed by Paradise Regainedand Samson Agonistes (1671); other works: e.g. "Lycidas", "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." - dies London November 12, 1674.

On his Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent,E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one Talent which is death to hide,Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, least he returning chide,Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts, who bestBear his milde yoke, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o're Land and Ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and waite.

[c. 1652; publ. 1673]

Paradise Lost (1667)

BOOK I.Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth Rose out of CHAOS:

Text: every year since 1652 could be the beginning of Milton's work on PL. Certain only that it was published in 1667, must have been complete by 1665: second edition in 1674; original books VII and X divided into two books each.

Structure of Paradise Lost(following R.J. Beck)Book 1 (hell; rebel angels):• Story of the rebel angelsBook 2 (hell; rebel angels):

• council of the rebel angels; Satan's escape; meeting with Sin and Death.

Book 3 (heaven; God and son; Satan on his way to the universe):

• God’s speech on man's freedom to choose between good and evil; philosophical considerations of free will and predestination; man's freely-chosen disobedience fore-shadowed; Son accepted by God as the ransom for mankind. Satan finds his way into the universe and proceeds to earth

Book 4 (earth/paradise; Satan; Adam and Eve):

• marital happiness of Adam and Eve Satan’s envy; Uriel reports to Heaven; God sends Gabriel and an angelic patrol; Satan’s first attempt to tempt Eve; is expelled from Eden

Book 5 (Eden; Raphael and Adam):

• God sends Raphael to warn Adam; Raphael narrates the story

Book 6 (Eden; Raphael and Adam):

• Raphael’s story continued: Michael’s and Gabriel’s battle against Satan. God sends his Son; Messiah returns with triumph.

Book 7 (Eden; Raphael and Adam):Raphael relates how the world was first created; God, after expelling Satan and his angels, declared his pleasure to create another world.Book 8 (Eden; Raphael and Adam):Adam inquires into astronomy and astrology; Adam narrates Raphael what he remembers

Book 9 (Eden; Satan and Eve; Adam and Eve):

• tragic tone; Satan succeeds in persuading Eve; Adam eats to share Eve's fate; they are blaming each other.

Book 10 (Eden; Christ; Adam and Eve; Satan and his followers):

• Book of retribution and reconciliation. Son comes down to Eden to pronounce God's sentence; promise of ultimate victory over evil. Adam and Eve reconciled. Satan returned to hell; ransforms into the greatest serpent

Book 11 (Michael and Adam):• Archangel Michael shows Adam in a

vision a synopsis of Jewish history down to the redemption of mankind by Christ

• first part: history up to the FloodBook 12 (Michael and Adam):• second part of the story• Adam reconciled to his fate; Adam

and Eve enter the outside world.

Three important common features of Homer's Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid and Milton's Paradise Lost:

(1) duodecimal system(2) division of narrative between a quest

theme and a theme of the settling of a social order (cf. Exodus)

(3) beginning of the action in medias res. (Horace, Ars Poetica).

Who acts in the poem? With whom can the heroic action be found?

Definition: "An act is the expression of the energy of a free and conscious being. consequently all acts are good. There is no such thing, strictly speaking, as an evil act; evil or sin implies deficiency, and implies also the loss or lack of the power to act. There is a somewhat unexpected corollary of this: if all acts are good, then God is the source of all real action." (416)

Who acts?

Adam: "surrendering of the power to act.." Satan: "concentrated parody of divine action”;

“parody-heroism”; “destructiveness”

God/ Christ: "only the divine that can really act”; “act of creation, which becomes an act of recreation or redemption”; Christ as hero and ultimate actor

Idea of satan's physical size and picture of him as the personification of evil(1, 192-220)

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest Mate,With head uplift above the wave, and

eyenThat sparkling blazed; his other parts

besidesProne on the flood, extended long and

large,Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as hugeAs whom the fables name of monstrous

size,Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on

Jove,Briareos or Typhon, whom the denBy ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beastLeviathan, which God of all his worksCreated hugest that swim the ocean-

stream.Him, haply slumbering on the Norway

foam,The pilot of some small night-foundered

skiff,Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind,Moors by his side under the lee, while

nightInvests the sea, and wishèd morn delays.

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay,

Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence

Had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will

And high permission of all-ruling HeavenLeft him at large to his own dark designs,That with reiterated crimes he mightHeap on himself damnation, while he

soughtEvil to others, and enraged might seeHow all his malice served but to bring

forthInfinite goodness, grace, and mercy,

shewnOn Man by him seduced, but on himselfTreble confusion, wrath, and vengeance

poured.

PL 56-134:God foresees the Fall

Erasmus: "Who will be able to bring himself to love God with all heart when he created hell seething with eternal torments in order to punish his own misdeeds in his victims as though he took delight in human torments?" (De libro arbitrio, 1524)

Luther: "This is the highest degree of faith, to belief him merciful when he saves so few and damns so many, and to believe him righteous when by his own will he makes us necessarily damnable." (De servo arbitrio, 1525)

PL 56-134:God foresees the Fall

Free will and predestination: God can change what he foresees (by a miracle e.g.).God must foresee that he is going to alter it.

circular argumentconclusions:

(1) God is not omnipotent,or(2) man has no free will.

"Predestination is the ugly side of the belief in the omnipotence of God." (19)

For Milton man is free and responsible of his deeds.

Is Satan a conservative orrevolutionary?

John Donne: Satan = the first innovator/ a revolutionary

vs.

John Milton (1608-74): Satan = a conservative or reactionary

Is Satan a conservative orrevolutionary?

Satan in Paradise Lost (1667):... new Laws thou see'st impos'd;New Laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise In us who serve, new Counsels, to debateWhat doubtful may ensue.... (V, 679-82)

That we were form'd then say'st thou? and the work Of secondary hands, by task transferr'dFrom Father to his Son? strange point and new!Doctrine which we would know whence learnt: who saw When this creation was? remember'st thouThy making, while the Maker gave thee being?We know no time when we were not as now. (V, 853-59)

The Age of DrydenJohn Dryden (1631-1700)

most conspicuous literary personality between 1660 and 1700poet and dramatistheroic drama (e.g. The Indian Queen, TyrannicLove, The Conquest of Granada)mixtures of heroic tragedy and contemporary comedy (e.g. Marriage à la Mode)1668 poet laureate; poetry on topics of the day

John Dryden – poetical works

Absalom and Achitophel (1681)Astraea Redux, 1660Annus Mirabilis, The Year of Wonders,

1666 publ. 1667

Occasional Poems: coronation, militaryvictories, death, political crisis

since 1668 Poet Laureatesince 1670 Royal Historiographer.

1660 – Restoration of the Monarch

"29 [May] This day came in his Majestie Charles the 2d to London after a sad, & long Exile, and Calamitous Suffering both of the King & Church: being 17 yeares: This was also his Birthday, and with a Triumph of above 20000 horse & foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with unexpressable joy: The wayes straw'd with flowers, the bells ringing, the streetes hung with Tapissry, fountaines running with wine: The Major, Aldermen, all the Companies in their liveries, Chaines of Gold, banners; Lords & nobles, Cloth of Silver, gold & vellvet every body clad in, the windos & balconies all set with Ladys, Trumpets, Musick, & myriads of people flocking. . . . I stood in the strand, & beheld it, & blessed God: And all this without one drop of bloud, & by that very army, which rebell'd against him: but it was the Lords doing, et mirabile in oculis nostris: for such a Restauration was never seenein the mention of any history, antient or modern, since the returne of the Babylonian Captivity, nor so joyfull a day, & so bright, ever seenein this nation: this hapning when to expect or effect it, was past all humane policy."

(John Evelyn)

John Dryden: Astrea Redux, lines 250ff (1660)

Your power to justice doth submit your cause, Your goodness only is above the laws; Whose rigid letter, while pronounced by you, Is softer made. So winds that tempests brew, When through Arabian groves they take their flight, Made wanton with rich odours, lose their spite. And as those lees, that trouble it, refineThe agitated soul of generous wine; So tears of joy, for your returning spilt, Work out, and expiate our former guilt. Methinks I see those crowds on Dover's strand, Who, in their haste to welcome you to land, Choked up the beach with their still growing store, And made a wilder torrent on the shore: While, spurr'd with eager thoughts of past delight, Those, who had seen you, court a second sight;

Preventing still your steps, and making haste

To meet you often wheresoe'er you past.

How shall I speak of that triumphant day,

When you renew'd the expiring pomp of May![28]

(A month that owns an interest in your name:

You and the flowers are its peculiar claim.)

That star[29] that at your birth shone out so bright,

It stain'd the duller sun's meridian light,

Did once again its potent fires renew, 290

Guiding our eyes to find and worship you.

And now Time's whiter series is begun,

Which in soft centuries shall smoothly run:

Those clouds, that overcast your morn, shall fly,

Dispell'd to farthest corners of the sky.

Our nation with united interest blest,

Not now content to poise, shall sway the rest.

Abroad your empire shall no limits know,

But, like the sea, in boundless circles flow.

Your much-loved fleet shall, with a wide command,

Besiege the petty monarchs of the land

1666 The Great Firefrom John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis ["The Year of Wonders" - 1666]

[lines 1169-1216, "London Reborn"]

Me-thinks already, from this chymic flameI see a city of more precious mold:Rich as the town which gives the Indies nameWith silver paved, and all divine with gold.

Already, laboring with a mighty fate,She shakes the rubbish from her mounting browAnd seems to have renewed her charter's date,Which Heaven will to the death of time allow.

More great than human, now, and more August,New deified she from her fires does rise:Her widening streets on new foundations trust,And, opening, into larger parts she flies.

Before, she like some shepherdess did show,Who sat to bathe her by a river's side:Not answering to her fame, but rude and low,Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride.

Now, like a Maiden Queen, she will behold,From her high turrets, hourly suitors come:The East with incense, and the West with gold,Will stand, like suppliants, to receive her doom.

The silver Thames, her own domestic floodShall bear her vessels like a sweeping train;And often wind (as of his mistress proud)With longing eyes to meet her face again.

The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier RhineThe glory of their towns no more shall boastAnd Seine,that would with Belgian rivers joinShall find her luster stained, and traffic lost.

The venturous merchant, who designed more far,And touches on our hospitable shore,Charmed with the splendor of this northern star,Shall here unlade him, and depart no more.

Our powerful navy shall I no longer meet,The wealth of France or Holland to invade;The beauty of this Town, without a fleet,From all the world shall vindicate her trade.

And while this famed emporium we prepareThe British ocean shall such triumphs boast,That those who now disdain our trade to share,Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coast.

Already we have conquered half the war,And the less dangerous part is left behind:Our trouble now is but to make them dare,And not so great to vanquish as to find.

Thus to the eastern wealth through storms we go,But now, the Cape once doubled,fear no more:A constant trade-wind will securely blowAnd gently lay us on the spicy shore.

Absalom and AchitophelHistorical context and Form

problem: successor to Charles II 1) James, Duke of York: Catholic2) Duke of Monmouth: more acceptable

"Popish Plot”, forwarded by e.g. Titus Oatespublic hysteria; Earl of Shaftesbury, the Duke of Buckingham, and other Whigs

conspire against the Duke of York. public opinion = anti-Catholic and anti-French Dryden tries to side with Charles II and James II without harming the Duke of

Monmouth.1685 Monmouth’s rebellion against James II defeated in the battle of Sedgemoor.

Form: heroic couplets, no enjambements. Rhymed iambic pentametre.

Narrator:Epic, omniscient narrator, long speeches presented by the story‘s characters.narrator comments on the events.

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel (1681): Tradition and Sources

• Typological Narrrative:

Biblical names from the Book of Samuel:David (Charles II), Absalom, the son of David (Monmouth), Achitophel, David's counsellor (Shaftesbury), Jesusites (Catholics)Jews (English Protestants)Egypt (France)Pharaoh (Louis XIV)Israel (England)Jerusalem (London)Sanhedrin, supreme council and court of justice among the Jews (Parliament)Saul (Cromwell)Zimri, Book of the Kings (Buckingham) Corah, a Hebrew of principal account conspired against Moses (Titus Oates) [seeFlavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4 - Chapter 2]

Charles II - David

• In pious times, ere priestcraft did beginBefore polygamy was made a sin;When man on many multiplied his kind,Ere one to one was cursedly confin'dWhen nature prompted, and no law deniedPromiscuous use of concubine and bride;Then Israel's monarch after heaven's own heart,His vigorous warmth did variously impartTo wives and slaves; and wide as his command,Scatter'd his Maker's image thro' the land

Duke of Monmouth - Absalom

Of all this numerous progeny was noneSo beautiful, so brave, as Absolon

....Early in foreign fields he won renownWith kings and states allied to Israel'scrown:In peace the thoughts of war he couldremove,And seem'd as he were only born for love.

Earl of Shaftesbury - Achitophel

• Of these the false Achitophel was first;A name to all succeeding ages curst:For close designs and crookedcounsels fit,Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,Restless, unfix'd in principles and place,In pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of disgrace;A fiery soul, which, working out its wayFretted the pigmy body to decay.

Titus Oates - CorahSunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and

loud, Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud; His long chin prov’d his wit; his saintlike graceA church vermilion, and a Moses’ face, His memory, miraculously great, Could plots, exceeding man’s belief, repeat; Which therefore cannot be accounted lies, For human wit could never such devise. Some future truths are mingled in his book: But where the witness fail’d, the prophet

spoke; Some things like visionary flights appear; The spirit caught him up, the lord knows

where…Eberhard Späth: „Die Enthüllungen von Titus Oates: Fiktion als Mittel der Politik,“ in: Uwe Böker und Christoph Houswitschka (Hgg.). Literatur, Kriminalität und Rechtskultur im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Tagung am 17. und 18. Juni 1994 an der Technischen Universität Dresden. Essen: Blaue Eule, 1996, pp. 241-261.

Lines 43/44: "Life can never be sincerely blest: / Heaven punishes the bad, and proves the best"

Lines 134ff.: "This Plot, which fail'd for want of common Sense, Had yet a deep and dangerous Consequence; For, as when raging Fevers boyl the Blood, The standing Lake soon floats into a Flood; And every hostile Humour, which before Slept quiet in its Channels, bubble's over: So several Factions from this first Ferment, Work up to Foam, and threat the Government".