Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a934226
Stephen De Hailes
Abstract:
This article focuses on the parallels that can be drawn between the characters and landscapes of the fourteenth-century Pearl poem and the fairy characters and otherworlds that frequently appear in works of medieval romance. It argues that the Pearl-poet is consciously engaging with readily identifiable fairy themes and motifs, made popular through a wide range of romances and other sources, in order to help propagate a certain ambiguity within the poem: one that feeds into the broader epistemological themes that are present within the text. More specifically, this article shows that the poet's manipulation of these motifs forms part of the broader unraveling of the poem, in which both the dreamer's and the reader's ability to comprehend the nature of the vision develops as the poem progresses. Drawing on two works in particular, the fourteenth-century alliterative romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chrétien de Troyes's twelfth-century French romance Le Conte du Graal, this article argues that Pearl parallels these texts in the way that they utilize otherworldly conventions to inhibit both the protagonist's and the reader's ability to rationalize the events taking place within the poem. By identifying the poet's use of fairy conventions in Pearl, a poem that consistently draws attention to the limits of human knowledge, this article examines, from a fresh perspective, the poet's exploration of ineffability and of the divide between material and spiritual modes of existence.
摘要:本文主要探讨了十四世纪珍珠诗中的人物和风景与中世纪浪漫主义作品中经常出现的仙女人物和异世界之间的相似之处。这篇文章认为,珍珠诗人有意识地采用了易于辨认的仙女主题和图案,这些主题和图案在各种浪漫主义作品和其他资料中广为流传,以帮助在诗歌中传播某种模糊性:这种模糊性与文本中更广泛的认识论主题相辅相成。更具体地说,本文表明诗人对这些主题的处理构成了诗歌更广泛的解构的一部分,其中梦者和读者理解幻象本质的能力都随着诗歌的进展而发展。本文特别借鉴了两部作品,即十四世纪的拟声罗曼史《高文爵士与绿骑士》(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)和十二世纪法国罗曼史《圣杯记》(Chrétien de Troyes),认为《珍珠》与这两部作品相似,都是利用异世界的惯例来抑制主人公和读者将诗中发生的事件合理化的能力。珍珠》一诗始终提请人们注意人类知识的局限性,本文通过鉴别诗人在这首诗中对仙界惯例的使用,从一个全新的视角审视了诗人对不可言说性以及物质和精神存在模式之间的分野的探索。
{"title":"Pearl and the Fairies of Romance: Hermeneutics and Intertextuality in a Fourteenth-Century Religious Dream Vision","authors":"Stephen De Hailes","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a934226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a934226","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This article focuses on the parallels that can be drawn between the characters and landscapes of the fourteenth-century <i>Pearl</i> poem and the fairy characters and otherworlds that frequently appear in works of medieval romance. It argues that the <i>Pearl</i>-poet is consciously engaging with readily identifiable fairy themes and motifs, made popular through a wide range of romances and other sources, in order to help propagate a certain ambiguity within the poem: one that feeds into the broader epistemological themes that are present within the text. More specifically, this article shows that the poet's manipulation of these motifs forms part of the broader unraveling of the poem, in which both the dreamer's and the reader's ability to comprehend the nature of the vision develops as the poem progresses. Drawing on two works in particular, the fourteenth-century alliterative romance <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> and Chrétien de Troyes's twelfth-century French romance <i>Le Conte du Graal</i>, this article argues that <i>Pearl</i> parallels these texts in the way that they utilize otherworldly conventions to inhibit both the protagonist's and the reader's ability to rationalize the events taking place within the poem. By identifying the poet's use of fairy conventions in <i>Pearl</i>, a poem that consistently draws attention to the limits of human knowledge, this article examines, from a fresh perspective, the poet's exploration of ineffability and of the divide between material and spiritual modes of existence.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141935740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a934227
Nadine Tara Weiss
Abstract:
George Herbert's "Easter-wings" is perhaps the best-known shape poem in the English language. As such, it has been the subject of intense and sustained scholarly scrutiny. With very few exceptions, however, critics have shown surprisingly little interest in contextualizing the poem in light of the Hellenistic tradition of shape poetry from which the Renaissance figure poem ultimately descends. In particular, no previous scholarly examination of the poem has taken into account the genre's penchant for encrypted reading and plural signification. In doing just this, the present essay uncovers another semantically coherent, arresting, "new" version of "Easter-wings" that has been hiding in plain sight all along, a combined "Easter-wings" that remains visible today in the poem's two surviving manuscript sources. Enlisting qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyzing Herbert's corrections in the palimpsestic backdrop of the only authorially supervised manuscript copy of The Temple, it finds that these authorial revisions exist with the primary (and hitherto unrecognized) purpose of better supporting a combined reading of the poem. Finally, by discussing some of the more pressing challenges facing future editors of The Temple, this essay also draws on and contributes to ongoing scholarship in textual criticism, material texts, and the history of the book.
{"title":"Recreating the Eye of the Beholder: Technopaegnia, Encrypted Reading, and a New Version of \"Easter-wings\"","authors":"Nadine Tara Weiss","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a934227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a934227","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>George Herbert's \"Easter-wings\" is perhaps the best-known shape poem in the English language. As such, it has been the subject of intense and sustained scholarly scrutiny. With very few exceptions, however, critics have shown surprisingly little interest in contextualizing the poem in light of the Hellenistic tradition of shape poetry from which the Renaissance figure poem ultimately descends. In particular, no previous scholarly examination of the poem has taken into account the genre's penchant for encrypted reading and plural signification. In doing just this, the present essay uncovers another semantically coherent, arresting, \"new\" version of \"Easter-wings\" that has been hiding in plain sight all along, a combined \"Easter-wings\" that remains visible today in the poem's two surviving manuscript sources. Enlisting qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyzing Herbert's corrections in the palimpsestic backdrop of the only authorially supervised manuscript copy of <i>The Temple</i>, it finds that these authorial revisions exist with the primary (and hitherto unrecognized) purpose of better supporting a combined reading of the poem. Finally, by discussing some of the more pressing challenges facing future editors of <i>The Temple</i>, this essay also draws on and contributes to ongoing scholarship in textual criticism, material texts, and the history of the book.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141935734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a934228
Bradley J. Irish
Abstract:
Emerging from the growing subfield of emotion history, this essay anatomizes the discourse of jealousy in early modern England. Through lexical analysis of a wide range of sources, the essay outlines how the passion of jealousy was understood in Renaissance England, treating four broad categories: (1) definitions of jealousy; (2) contexts of jealousy; (3) the experience of jealousy; and (4) sufferers of jealousy. Taken together, the analysis here presents one of the most complete accounts of early modern jealousy to date and points to the emotion's considerable importance in the period.
{"title":"Jealousy in Early Modern England","authors":"Bradley J. Irish","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a934228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a934228","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Emerging from the growing subfield of emotion history, this essay anatomizes the discourse of jealousy in early modern England. Through lexical analysis of a wide range of sources, the essay outlines how the passion of jealousy was understood in Renaissance England, treating four broad categories: (1) definitions of jealousy; (2) contexts of jealousy; (3) the experience of jealousy; and (4) sufferers of jealousy. Taken together, the analysis here presents one of the most complete accounts of early modern jealousy to date and points to the emotion's considerable importance in the period.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141935738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a934225
Kirsty Bolton
Abstract:
This article explores the intricate connections between motherhood and construction in the fourteenth-century French Roman de Melusine. Presine can be viewed as a model for her daughter, in that she uses physical space to exert her influence on women's networks of family and dynasty. Melusine's legacy is enacted through both prolific reproduction and construction, as she gives birth to ten sons and founds multiple castles and towns. This article argues that Jean d'Arras uses the crusader queen Melisende as another model for his heroine Melusine, indicating that motherhood and construction were connected in history as well as in literature.
摘要:本文探讨了十四世纪法国作品 Roman de Melusine 中母性与建筑之间错综复杂的联系。梅露辛可被视为其女儿的典范,因为她利用物理空间对妇女的家庭和王朝网络施加影响。梅露辛的遗产是通过多产和建设来实现的,她生了十个儿子,建立了多个城堡和城镇。本文认为,让-达拉斯将十字军王后梅利森德作为其女主角梅露辛的另一个原型,表明母性和建设在历史和文学中都是相互关联的。
{"title":"Motherhood, Building, and Dynasty in the Roman de Melusine","authors":"Kirsty Bolton","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a934225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a934225","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This article explores the intricate connections between motherhood and construction in the fourteenth-century French <i>Roman de Melusine</i>. Presine can be viewed as a model for her daughter, in that she uses physical space to exert her influence on women's networks of family and dynasty. Melusine's legacy is enacted through both prolific reproduction and construction, as she gives birth to ten sons and founds multiple castles and towns. This article argues that Jean d'Arras uses the crusader queen Melisende as another model for his heroine Melusine, indicating that motherhood and construction were connected in history as well as in literature.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141935735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923965
William C. McDonald
Abstract:
Cyriakus Spangenberg (d. 1604), a prominent Protestant theologian, seeks to trace and celebrate the history of the comital House of Mansfeld in his dynastic chronicle, Mansfeldische chronica (Eisleben, 1572). There, he includes a brief biographical entry on King Arthur that links the Round Table to Hoyer the Red, imagined progenitor of the Counts of Mansfeld and Arthurian paladin (fl. ca. 550 AD). Spangenberg’s intertwined material on King Arthur and Count Hoyer, we have found, draws on the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Johannes Agricola, Wirnt von Grafenberg, and Polydore Vergil. Polydore is a surprising choice as an Arthurian arbiter and sympathetic voice, given his reputation for skepticism about Galfridian lore and the place of King Arthur in British history. Spangenberg’s willingness to promote Polydore’s witness reveals that, in this important early modern case of reception, contemporary and modern critical assessments fail to align.
{"title":"Polydore Vergil as Arthurian Witness: On King Arthur and Count Hoyer the Red in the Mansfeldische chronica (1572) of Cyriakus Spangenberg","authors":"William C. McDonald","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a923965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a923965","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Cyriakus Spangenberg (d. 1604), a prominent Protestant theologian, seeks to trace and celebrate the history of the comital House of Mansfeld in his dynastic chronicle, <i>Mansfeldische chronica</i> (Eisleben, 1572). There, he includes a brief biographical entry on King Arthur that links the Round Table to Hoyer the Red, imagined progenitor of the Counts of Mansfeld and Arthurian paladin (fl. ca. 550 AD). Spangenberg’s intertwined material on King Arthur and Count Hoyer, we have found, draws on the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Johannes Agricola, Wirnt von Grafenberg, and Polydore Vergil. Polydore is a surprising choice as an Arthurian arbiter and sympathetic voice, given his reputation for skepticism about Galfridian lore and the place of King Arthur in British history. Spangenberg’s willingness to promote Polydore’s witness reveals that, in this important early modern case of reception, contemporary and modern critical assessments fail to align.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140590670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923964
Michael D. C. Drout, Caiden Kumar
Abstract:
Line 1314b of Beowulf is regularly emended to “alwalda” (Ruler of All) from the manuscript form “alf walda” (Ruler of Elves). But the other instances of “alwalda” in Beowulf do not have visible space between the l and the w, and no plausible motivation for the addition of an f and a space has been proposed if the exemplar read “alwalda.” We contend, therefore, that MS “alf walda” is correct, and that the compound refers to the pre-Christian deity Yngvi-Freyr (to use the more familiar Norse name) rather than to the Christian God. We note that in the same passage in which “alf walda” appears, the Danes are called the “Ingwine” (friends/followers of Ing) and that later in the poem Hrothgar’s daughter is named “Freawaru” (watchful care of Freyr). Connecting this material with archaeological finds at Gamle Lejre that indicate the sacrifice of pigs (Freyr’s sacred animal), the place name Hleiðra (“the place of the tent”), and the statement in line 175 that the Danes made sacrifices “æt hærgtrafum” (at the pagan tabernacles), we argue that “alf walda” is part of a larger pattern of connections between the Danes in Beowulf and pre-Christian Germanic practices that appear to have been understood by one of Beowulf’s sources (and perhaps by the Beowulf-poet) but which were opaque to later scribes.
摘要:《贝奥武夫》第 1314b 行经常被修正为 "alwalda"(万物之主),而手稿形式则为 "alf walda"(精灵之主)。但是,《贝奥武夫》中其他 "alwalda "的例子中,l 和 w 之间并没有明显的空格,而且如果范例读作 "alwalda",也没有人提出添加 f 和空格的合理动机。因此,我们认为 MS 中的 "alf walda "是正确的,这个复合词指的是基督教之前的神灵 Yngvi-Freyr(使用更熟悉的北欧名称),而不是基督教的神灵。我们注意到,在出现 "alf walda "的同一段落中,丹麦人被称为 "Ingwine"(英的朋友/追随者),在诗歌的后面,赫鲁斯加尔的女儿被称为 "Freawaru"(弗雷尔的看护)。将这些材料与在 Gamle Lejre 的考古发现联系起来,这些发现表明曾有人用猪(弗雷尔的圣物)献祭,地名 Hleiðra("帐篷的地方"),以及第 175 行中关于丹麦人在 "æt hærgtrafum"(异教帐篷)献祭的说法、我们认为,"alf walda "是《贝奥武夫》中的丹麦人与基督教之前的日耳曼习俗之间更大关联模式的一部分,《贝奥武夫》的一位资料来源(或许还有《贝奥武夫》诗人)似乎了解这些习俗,但后来的抄写员却不清楚这些习俗。
{"title":"Aid from the Elf-Ruler: Line 1314a and the Pre-Christian Antecedents of Beowulf","authors":"Michael D. C. Drout, Caiden Kumar","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a923964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a923964","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Line 1314b of <i>Beowulf</i> is regularly emended to “alwalda” (Ruler of All) from the manuscript form “alf walda” (Ruler of Elves). But the other instances of “alwalda” in <i>Beowulf</i> do not have visible space between the <i>l</i> and the <i>w</i>, and no plausible motivation for the addition of an <i>f</i> and a space has been proposed if the exemplar read “alwalda.” We contend, therefore, that MS “alf walda” is correct, and that the compound refers to the pre-Christian deity Yngvi-Freyr (to use the more familiar Norse name) rather than to the Christian God. We note that in the same passage in which “alf walda” appears, the Danes are called the “Ingwine” (friends/followers of Ing) and that later in the poem Hrothgar’s daughter is named “Freawaru” (watchful care of Freyr). Connecting this material with archaeological finds at Gamle Lejre that indicate the sacrifice of pigs (Freyr’s sacred animal), the place name <i>Hleiðra</i> (“the place of the tent”), and the statement in line 175 that the Danes made sacrifices “æt hærgtrafum” (at the pagan tabernacles), we argue that “alf walda” is part of a larger pattern of connections between the Danes in <i>Beowulf</i> and pre-Christian Germanic practices that appear to have been understood by one of <i>Beowulf’</i>s sources (and perhaps by the <i>Beowulf</i>-poet) but which were opaque to later scribes.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"102 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140590552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923966
Anna N. Ullmann
Abstract:
This essay argues that the textual differences between the quarto and folio versions of William Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI evince the three-way ideological contestation between the aristocracy, the middling sort, and the lower classes in early modern England. Perhaps the most famous scenes from the play, those depicting Jack Cade’s rebellion, exist in both versions, but the portrayal of the uprising is very different between the two texts. The 1594 quarto gives us a vicious Cade intent on destroying businesses, raping women, and spurning well-meaning nobles; the 1623 folio version, by contrast, gives us an eloquent if imperfect Cade whose grievances are justified, reasoned, and well articulated. Political and economic power was steadily shifting during this period from the aristocracy to the middling sort, and, although the differences in Cade’s rebellion from the quarto to the folio might seem to indicate a revision in favor of the rebels, what the changes represent is the beginning of the transfer of ideological power from the aristocracy to upper-class commoners. To the nobility, the rebels are rioters, intent on causing chaos. For the middling sort, it was more advantageous to label them justified protesters, as the rebellion might remove the middling sort’s direct competition—the aristocracy. Thus, the two authoritative texts of Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI can help us understand changing perceptions of popular riot and protest in the period and their connection to dominant and emerging class ideologies.
{"title":"Making Commotion: Riot and Protest in the Texts of 2 Henry VI","authors":"Anna N. Ullmann","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a923966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a923966","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay argues that the textual differences between the quarto and folio versions of William Shakespeare’s <i>2 Henry VI</i> evince the three-way ideological contestation between the aristocracy, the middling sort, and the lower classes in early modern England. Perhaps the most famous scenes from the play, those depicting Jack Cade’s rebellion, exist in both versions, but the portrayal of the uprising is very different between the two texts. The 1594 quarto gives us a vicious Cade intent on destroying businesses, raping women, and spurning well-meaning nobles; the 1623 folio version, by contrast, gives us an eloquent if imperfect Cade whose grievances are justified, reasoned, and well articulated. Political and economic power was steadily shifting during this period from the aristocracy to the middling sort, and, although the differences in Cade’s rebellion from the quarto to the folio might seem to indicate a revision in favor of the rebels, what the changes represent is the beginning of the transfer of ideological power from the aristocracy to upper-class commoners. To the nobility, the rebels are rioters, intent on causing chaos. For the middling sort, it was more advantageous to label them justified protesters, as the rebellion might remove the middling sort’s direct competition—the aristocracy. Thus, the two authoritative texts of Shakespeare’s <i>2 Henry VI</i> can help us understand changing perceptions of popular riot and protest in the period and their connection to dominant and emerging class ideologies.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140602819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923967
Niall Allsopp
Abstract:
This essay presents a reading of Sir William Davenant’s previously unstudied poem “Epithalamium. The Morning after the Marriage of the Earl of Barymore with Mrs. Martha Laurence,” written in October 1656. The poem offers a significant comparison to Andrew Marvell’s near-contemporary wedding song for the marriage of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter Mary. It thereby sheds light on Cromwellian poets’ efforts to formulate a poetic language in which to address the Protectoral court. The essay contextualizes the poem in the political realignment of the Cromwellian regime in 1656–1657. It suggests that Davenant’s paradoxical style attempts to adapt the courtly epithalamium to the minimalistic religious settlement and the principle of toleration for Protestants that underpinned the Cromwellian coalition. In this way, the poem illustrates how the 1650s Davenant can be read as a Cromwellian poet, alongside Marvell, Edmund Waller, and even John Milton, developing his ambitious and idiosyncratic ideas about public festivity and civil religion.
{"title":"The Politics of Wedding Poetry under the Cromwellian Protectorate: Sir William Davenant and \"Hymen's Policy\"","authors":"Niall Allsopp","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a923967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a923967","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay presents a reading of Sir William Davenant’s previously unstudied poem “Epithalamium. The Morning after the Marriage of the Earl of Barymore with Mrs. Martha Laurence,” written in October 1656. The poem offers a significant comparison to Andrew Marvell’s near-contemporary wedding song for the marriage of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter Mary. It thereby sheds light on Cromwellian poets’ efforts to formulate a poetic language in which to address the Protectoral court. The essay contextualizes the poem in the political realignment of the Cromwellian regime in 1656–1657. It suggests that Davenant’s paradoxical style attempts to adapt the courtly epithalamium to the minimalistic religious settlement and the principle of toleration for Protestants that underpinned the Cromwellian coalition. In this way, the poem illustrates how the 1650s Davenant can be read as a Cromwellian poet, alongside Marvell, Edmund Waller, and even John Milton, developing his ambitious and idiosyncratic ideas about public festivity and civil religion.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140602717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923968
Mark Loveridge
Abstract:
This essay reads Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (1759) against the background of negative or apophatic theology and argues that it is unique among Johnson’s works in expressing a sense of life as an enigma. The silent or hidden symbol of the story is the Giza Sphinx, one of the foundational symbols of such theology: the second-century Church Father Clement of Alexandria, whose works Johnson owned, associated the enigmas of the Hebrew Bible with the mystery of the Egyptian sphinxes. More widely, Rasselas contains absent objects and symbols, enigmatic silences and responses, hidden images and paradoxes, self-defeating dualisms and habits of style, apophatic philosophy (“philosophy can tell no more”), and an enigmatic conclusion (“nothing”). The apophatic quality is embodied in the text through what Jorge Luis Borges refers to as Rasselas’s “agile music,” the subtle, flexible management of narrative voices, which generates a distinctive kind of attention in the reader.
摘要:本文以否定神学或天启神学为背景,解读塞缪尔-约翰逊的《拉塞拉斯》(1759 年),认为该书在约翰逊的作品中独树一帜,表达了一种将生命视为谜的意识。故事中沉默或隐藏的象征物是吉萨狮身人面像,它是此类神学的基础象征物之一:约翰逊拥有的二世纪亚历山大教父克莱门特的作品将希伯来圣经中的谜团与埃及狮身人面像的神秘联系在一起。更广泛地说,《拉塞拉斯》包含了不存在的对象和符号、神秘的沉默和反应、隐藏的形象和悖论、自欺欺人的二元论和风格习惯、神谕式的哲学("哲学无法讲述更多")以及神秘的结论("什么也没有")。文本中的天启特质通过豪尔赫-路易斯-博尔赫斯(Jorge Luis Borges)所说的拉塞拉斯的 "灵动音乐 "得以体现,即对叙事声音进行微妙、灵活的管理,使读者产生一种独特的关注。
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Pub Date : 2024-04-06DOI: 10.1353/sip.2024.a923963
Lisa Myers
Abstract:
A wide variety of scholars have examined the settings of the Old English epic Beowulf, interpreting the text in a myriad of ways and providing valuable information on sources and analogues. This article seeks to build upon and add to this body of scholarship by applying landscape history and a variety of archaeological evidence to the poem in order to develop a further understanding of the landscape settings of Beowulf as literary representations of real topographical features of early medieval England. Attention is paid to the mere and lair of the Grendle-kin, the barrow of the dragon, and Beowulf’s own final resting place. Analysis of these landscapes, grounded in the historical topography of England, enhances an interpretation of the text as a statement on humanity’s relationship with the past and hope for the future.
{"title":"The Ruined Landscapes of Beowulf: Apocalypse and Hope","authors":"Lisa Myers","doi":"10.1353/sip.2024.a923963","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2024.a923963","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>A wide variety of scholars have examined the settings of the Old English epic <i>Beowulf</i>, interpreting the text in a myriad of ways and providing valuable information on sources and analogues. This article seeks to build upon and add to this body of scholarship by applying landscape history and a variety of archaeological evidence to the poem in order to develop a further understanding of the landscape settings of <i>Beowulf</i> as literary representations of real topographical features of early medieval England. Attention is paid to the mere and lair of the Grendle-kin, the barrow of the dragon, and Beowulf’s own final resting place. Analysis of these landscapes, grounded in the historical topography of England, enhances an interpretation of the text as a statement on humanity’s relationship with the past and hope for the future.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140590565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}