Brit Lit Before 1800 Notes Week 13 PDF

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British Literature Notes 11/19/2019  Important Dates Coming Up: o Thursday – 2 Commonplace Entries o Tuesday, December 3rd: 3 Commonplace Entries o Do 8 Commonplace Entries by then!!! I’ve fallen b-e-h-i-n-d!  Today’s Readings: Select Poems o 1600: Literacy Rate for men goes up 20% o 1700: Literacy Rate for men goes up 60%  Writing becomes a valid profession to live by  Novel takes off  When you’re reading, that’s time you’re spending alone in a world, which changed the shape of culture  Different than the theater, literacy becomes a private event which you do in your own time  First magazines and newspapers come out in this time period  Circulating libraries  Politicians come out in this time period  Intentional Fallacy: Starts with the 18th century because people started to care about the writer with the rise of literacy rates and interest in writing  Romantic ideals of what a writer was took form o Jonathan Swift - The Lady’s Dressing Room (Personal Professor Note: If you teach Swift, teach Montagu too!)  Strephon, the lover of Caelia, sneaks into her chambers to see what is in there  This is a form of voyeurism  He finds makeup, clothing, wigs, false teeth… her toilet full of shit, which he proceeded to grope at with his bare hand  “Corinna, Corinna, Corinna shits!”  Strephon becomes blinded to the beauty of womanly charms  Women become monstrous looking in this poem  This poem is an example of a blazon  Like Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare but much more grotesque  Misogynistic/Feminist Poem?  Grotesquerie in action  Pure satire about how the switching of roles with naïve men in place of women  Willful ignorance towards how women are  A woman’s chamber is her safe space, so for a man to invade it was crossing a line  Nothing in Swift’s life seem to point to proto feminist tendencies  Use of Language

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Language is set up to show aggressively Strephon invades her space, in almost a sexual fashion  The Chamber Pot (Toilet) and Women  Expectations v. Reality  Strephon knows what is under the lid of the chamber pot because he can smell it, but he still looks anyway and gropes at it to see everything that is there  Pandora’s box = Caelia’s vagina  The once innocuous chamber pot’s appearance parallels the same ideas when looking at a woman’s appearance  Abject: Our bodies have an interior we do not want to see Has other meanings that do not necessarily have to do with the body itself. Something you cannot walk away and forget about, compelling and terrifying. o “I would rather die than talk to him again!” o “It’s like squishing a spider. I don’t want to look but I have to know it’s dead”.  Strephon sees women’s bodies as abject o Montagu – The Reasons that Induced Dr S to write a Poem called ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’  Fun Fact about Montagu:  One of the first major women writers to write a travel log  When she went to the Ottoman Empire, she encountered vaccinations for Measles which is part of the reason we have them today  She was friends with Pope and Swift at one point  Pope tries to woo Montagu, and she turns him down  The Doctor = Swift  Montagu’s point is that Swift wrote this poem because he hooked up with a prostitute and could not get it up so he’s mad at all women now  Montagu writes that the prostitute is bored by Dr S and his advances because he spends all his time talking to try and bade time to get hard in time to have sex  The name of the prostitute and street name are censored because Montagu wants to imitate Victorian gossip sections in newspapers, trying to get people to fill in the blanks to voyeuristically be a part of the poem: where did this happen and who was she? “The Doctor in a clean starched band, His golden snuffbox in his hand, With care his diamond ring displays And artful shews its various rays…” (Lines 1-4)

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Montagu is demystifying Dr S and his appearance the same way he depicted a woman in his poem, it is clear here that he is overcompensating “But now this is the proper place Where morals stare me in the face, And, for the sake of fine expression, I'm forced to make a small digression. Alas for wretched humankind, With learning mad, with wisdom blind! The ox thinks he's for saddle fit” (Lines 31-37) He is ready, he thinks is good at plowing women, but when the time comes for them to get it on, he cannot do it… Luce Irigaray  Mimesis – Copying  Women copy men in how they write logic shows their ability to understand it  Parody: Repetition with a difference Montagu uses the same meter and rhyme as Swift does but in a very different way with her social political views

British Literature Notes Before 1800 11/21/19  Today’s Reading: Paradise Lost, Book 1 o Theodicy: An effort to justify or explain the “justice” (dike) of God. o Sinful Readers: In siding with Satan in this story we partake in sinful behaviors o Dialectic readings begin because of Paradise Lost  Reader-Response Criticism: A literary theoretical school—tied to the work of Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser, Roland Barthes, and others—that focuses on the reader (or “audience”). A reader-response critic considers the mental processes produced by specific elements in a literary text, e.g., how a text raises expectation, leads its readers to presume outcomes or motivations, or prompts its readers to misinterpret meaning.  We, as readers, not so much a teaching as an entangling  Text is dialectic, NOT didactic  Paradise Lost entangles you in a lesson, not just teaches you one o Phenomenology: The study of consciousness, how we experience things from a 1st person point of view o From Book IV, Paradise Lost (223–47): This is before the fall where Eden shows that there is no place for error here, but this passage highlights that error might already exist here because perhaps human was meant to fall all along? The answer is no, Milton is just trying to manipulate reading via the bolded words to convince us that sin already exists in Eden through playing with the etymology of words. The error doesn’t exist, humans merely created it. Southward through Eden went a River large,

Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggie hill Pass'd underneath ingulft, for God had thrown That Mountain as his Garden mould high rais'd Upon the rapid current, which through veins Of porous Earth with kindly thirst up drawn, Rose a fresh Fountain, and with many a rill Waterd the Garden; thence united fell Down the steep glade, and met the neather Flood, Which from his darksom passage now appeers, And now divided into four main Streams, Runs divers, wandring many a famous Realme And Country whereof here needs no account, But rather to tell how, if Art could tell, How from that Saphire Fount the crisped Brooks, Rowling on Orient Pearl and sands of Gold, With mazie error under pendant shades Ran Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flours worthy of Paradise which not nice Art In Beds and curious Knots, but Nature boon Powrd forth profuse on Hill and Dale and Plaine, Both where the morning Sun first warmly smote The open field, and where the unpierc't shade Imbround the noontide Bowrs: Thus was this place, A happy rural seat of various view…. o The Tower of Babel: Edenic Language everyone spoke until after the tower fell. This is when imprecise language showed up.  Throughout the text, literal terms are used throughout until the fall of man and then he switches to using metaphors to show the sinful confusion of mankind and languages. o “Sexy Satan” in Book 1  Angels and Satan have fallen from God’s Grace and are building a kingdom in the depths of Hell called Pandemonium  While other Fallen Angels believed that they had made a mistake, Satan stands up and justifies why they should all keep going  “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven”.  The way that Satan stands up to God, as sacrilegious as it feels, speaks to the ideal of being an individual  Milton was sympathetic to the Devil: (1649) Milton publishes tracts in favor of Charles’s deposition (On the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates in February and Eikonoklastes in October); Parliament abolishes the House of Lords and Monarchy, declares England a

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Commonwealth; Milton is appointed Secretary of Foreign Tongues.  (1660) Milton publishes The Ready and Easy Way, which advocates for “rule by the rational”—a somewhat cynical, elitist form of Republicanism; the monarchy is nevertheless reinstalled; copies of Milton’s political prose are burnt in June and August; Milton is briefly imprisoned but freed following Andrew Marvell’s intervention in the House of Commons. Dryden v. Milton  Dryden did what he had to do to get by  Milton was very anti-Charles I so when Cromwell died and his side lost, he was broken  He was very opposed to the Monarchy  “Devil’s Party” – If you’re against the crown, you’re a sinner, why do you even matter? If you are against the crown, you’re against God  There is no way to read this text without looking at the political conflict at the time of Milton writing this Is Paradise Lost an Epic?  An Anti-Epic: An epic story of defeat Firstness  Milton wants to be the first to talk about Satan in literature  His muse he calls on is a biblical muse, the same muse which helped write the bible and talked to Moses  He is competing with the bible and all of literature by being the first Mulciber is the Architect who would build Pandemonium  Coincidence?  Hephaestus to Hera, from Homer’s the Iliad (1.588 ff.): The Olympian [i.e., Zeus] is difficult to oppose. One other time I took your part he caught me around one foot and flung me into the sky from our tremendous terrace. I soared all day! Just as the sun dropped down I dropped too, on Lemnos—nearly dead. The island people nursed a fallen god.   

All Pagan deities are just fallen angels…Milton is appropriating all of Literature Milton numbered the lines because he wanted to reference in case students studied the text… The Book of Genesis never mentions the Devil/Satan/other names, just the serpent

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This text was not rhymed at all, but in Blank Verse which is used in theater : “The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac’t indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian, and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected Rime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, triveal and of no true musical delight; which consists onely in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem’d an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover’d to Heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.” (Lines 1-16) o Rhyme is a waste of time and hinders good storytelling because you’re too focused on the ebb and flow of the verse o This is an attack on Dryden, who implemented rhyming verse in the theater o Enjambment: The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of an end-stopped line.  Every 3 to 5 lines in Paradise Lost in an enjambed line  Milton is painting form as being a political statement  Milton uses enjambment to make you keep reading since there are no pauses whatsoever, it is difficult to find a pause so they must keep reading  When Satan uses it the overall effect sounds like a rant, but it can also be interpreted as a rousing speech  Sturm und Drang. 1: a late 18th century German literary movement characterized by works containing rousing action and high emotionalism

that often deal with the individual's revolt against society. 2: turmoil. Lots of high emotionality and rousing words (Merriam-webster.com) o There are arguments that this text was intended to be a theatrical performance o Paradise Lost Plot Summaries:  Book I (798 lines): The fallen angels consider their postlapsarian state. Satan, roused by Beelzebub, summons a counsel of demons. They build Pandemonium to house a demonic parliament.  Book II (1055 lines): The fallen angels debate how they should proceed. They vote to send Satan to seek out and destroy humankind. Satan ventures from Hell's gate (where he stumbles upon his daughter and lover, Sin), into the realm of Chaos.  Book III (742 lines): God espies Satan amid his flight. He explains that humankind—while fated to fall—will fall as a function of its free will. The Son of God offers himself as a sacrifice to redeem the human race. Satan deceives Uriel, an angel. Satan lands on Earth—specifically, Mount Niphates.  Book IV (1015 lines): Satan discovers the beauty of God’s creation, espying Adam and Eve living in perfect harmony. He transforms himself into a toad and whispers temptations into Eve's ear as she sleeps. Gabriel expels Satan from the Garden of Eden.  Book V (907 lines): Raphael arrives, sent by God, to warn Adam and Eve. Raphael rehearses the details of Satan’s rebellion, i.e., the Son’s arrival and introduction as the Messiah. Satan is angered that he has been demoted in the hierarchy of Heaven.  Book VI (912 lines): Raphael describes the War in Heaven. Armed conflict between the revel angels and God’s army culminates in the Son driving Satan's forces over the edge of Heaven. The rebel angels fall through Chaos into a pit specially prepared for them.  Book VII (640 lines): Raphael explains that God sent his Son to create the world in six days. He again warns Adam that he and Eve cannot partake of the fruit of Tree of Knowledge.  Book VIII (653 lines): Adam is interested in the movement celestial bodies. Raphael offers a vague explanation (merging the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems) but insists that humankind should be content in its ignorance.  Book IX (1104 lines): Satan enters as a serpent and persuades Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve persuades Adam to eat, too. They discover shame and experience their first marital dispute.  Book X (1104 lines): God sends the Son to deliver judgment. Adam and Eve confess, and Sin and Death arrive to take possession of Eden. Satan returns victorious to Hell, but the demons' praise is cut short: They are all

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transformed into serpents; their voices turn into a “dismal universal hiss” (X: 508). Adam is witnessed to disorder in Eden (storms, predatory behavior among animals, etc.). Adam and Eve reconcile and seek mercy from the Son. Book XI (901 lines): The Son intercedes to prevent Adam and Eve’s immediate death, but God nevertheless orders that they be expelled from Eden. Michael assures them that the loss of Eden does not mean the loss of God's presence or mercy. He then describes humankind’s future, including Abel's murder, the spread of sin, the Flood, and the Covenant between God and the people of Israel. Book XII (649 lines): Michael concludes with a summary of the Old Testament; Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; the Church's corruption; and the Second Coming. Eve is given a comforting dream, which promises “some great good.” The poem ends as Adam and Eve depart from Eden to begin their lives anew: “The World was all before them, where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: / They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way.”...