Knowing to meet such excellent company 25D) Inth’other world, _ many ‘OsoLA: Yet, methinks, The manner of your death should much aflict you, The cord should territy you? DUCHESS: Not a whit! us 2 What would it pleasure me, to have my throat cut £1 _ With diamonds? or to be smothered'* With cassia? oF shot to death, with pearls? \ know death hath ten thousand several doors F]_ For mon to take their exits; and ‘tis found s They go on such strange geometrical hinges’ ‘You may open them both ways: any way for heaven sake", ‘So | were out of your whispering’. Tall my brothers ‘That | perceive" death, naw | am well awake, Bost git is, they can give, or | can take. would fain® put off my last woman's fault, Nid not be tedious® to you, EXECUTIONERS: We are ready, «o @) ‘ucHess: Dispose” my breath how please you, but my body 1H) Bestow* upon my women, will you? as EXECUTIONERS: Yes, Duchess: Pull, and pull strongly, for your able* strength 1) Must pull down heaven upon me: Yet stay, heaven gates ara not so highly arched* " J] As princes’ palaces: they that enter there * Must go upon their knees. Come, violent death, KJ Serve for mandragora® to make me sla Go tell my brothers when | am laid out, ‘They then may feed in quiet. [They strangle her} ss BOSOLA: Where's the waiting woman? Fetch her. Some other strangle the children. POST-READING EXERCISES {alitet your mane you sue. 43 not a whit rota a 14 omothered: suocated. hinge 9f doar attached to wall ingen po oar stacheso wa. 19 sorbeavon eke forthe ov of Gos. ‘oping’ peng vy aoe ols. 18 perce el, so 23 aerator wis. Br putt got at 22 Hie not bo tad: L do wan 8 Big Bi epone rato wh Bt bestow open ge pole 3 Plgiy arched costco ih. FF marager nes Sond pop ms 20 ald out eas BB seed po @ Read the passage again and note down the different attitudes to death that the Duchess displays in this scene, in particular at the points marked A~K in the leftchand margin, © Was the Duchess's reaction what you expected? Comment on her reactions. © Critics have often disagreed about Webster's Inrid violence, some seeing it as a cheap effect, used just to shock his audiences, but with no real moral purpose. Others see it as a facet of his humanity: his gloomy view of the world was an attack on the generalized corruption and cruelty of the times. ‘What do you think? You might like to compare modem horror films with Webster's at. The Metaphysical Poets This term, which may seem a litle misleading, was coined by Dryden-to describe the characteristics of a group of seventeenth-century poets writing under the influence of John Donne. There are considerable variations in style and content, as is to be expected in period which saw great social and cultural changes, but there is something which unites these poets in their diversity, a common strand. These poets were certainly influenced by the spitit of the times: under the early Stuarts, religious and political tensions reached fever pitch, and a modern scientific and empirical viewpoint began to replace medieval scholasticism and theology. ‘The Elizabethan posts had mostly been concemed with the expression of simple and conventional themes in a fairly elaborate and artificial ~manner. The Metaphysicals were much more intellectual, both ‘subject matter and style, and expressed their interest in ‘their own experience and in the changing world around ‘them, Their poems are analytical and usually follow & logical order of development. Thus we have a fruitful ‘combination of thought and feeling, resulting in a rich65 Poetic vein, which speaks directly across the years to modem times. A celebrated essay by T.S. Eliot in the early twentieth century revived interest in the Metaphysicals and contained the following definition of Donne's poetry: “A thought to Donne was an experience: it modified his sensibility’ How then is this combination between thought and feeling expressed in Metaphysical poetry? One way is in the striking imagery used: a post may express his relationship to his mistress using mathematical, astronomical or geographical terms. The most celebrated example is from Donne's A Valediction Forbidding Mouming where he compares two lovers to a pair of compasses (mathematical instrument): "if they be two, they are two so As stif twin compasses are two, Thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th’other doe” ‘Conceits’ or extended metaphors of this kind are ‘common, but the most important feature to note is the Metaphysical poet's use of the whole of his experience to ilustrate or express a theme, thus leading to a wide range of emotions and a more subtle analysis of life and love. Another feature is the use of direct colloquial language: a far cry from the rather poetic and artificial diction of the Elizabethan poets. Donne often seems to speak directly to us as in: “Busie old fool, unruly Sunne, Why dost thou thus Through windowes and through curtaines call on us? ‘Must to thy motions lovers seasons run? ‘Saucy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schoole boys, and sowre prentices’. Here the iregular stanza communicates something of the quality of everyday speech, ‘Another influence on the Metaphysical poets was Ben Jonson, Donne's friend ‘and contemporary. Although Jonson had none of Donne's bold use of imagery, his classical grace and elegance were particularly influential on the later Metaphysicals such as Marvell and Carew. This chapter focuses on Donne and Herbert (for the later Metaphysicals — King, Vaughan, Carew, Cowley, Crashaw, Marvell - see the next chapter). “The trontapiace to Henry Vaughan’s Silex ‘eins, 180. 3-265 Silex Scintillans: SK OMS, Grasse ‘The Renaissance John Donne (1572-1631) Life and Works “John Donne was born in London ‘and had a Roman Catholic ‘education. He entered Oxford University at the age of twelve but he did not take a degree, as he could not subscribe to the compulsory Anglican declarations required by law. After three years at Oxford, Donne also attended Cambridge University, without being attached to any particular college, but stil did not take a degree. He probably spent the years from 1589 to 1591 traveling in Spain and Italy, and on his return studied law in London for four years. twas during this time that he renounced the Roman Catholic religion. He was also a soldier on expeditions to Cadiz (1596) and the Azores (1597). In 1597 he became secretary to. an important government official and later entered Parliament. In 1601 he secretly married his employer's niece: the parents strongly disapproved of the marriage and Donne was dismissed from his post as secretary, and even went to prison fora short time. His employment prospects had been seriously damaged, and for the next fourteen years he worked in a variety of jobs in an irregular fashion. In 1615 he entered the church on the king's request, and the. University of Cambridge was finally forced to award Donne a dogreo in divinity, in 1621 Donne was. appointed as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, thanks to the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, and he became the most famous preacher of his generation. Most of his lytic poetry (collected in Songs and Sonnets), whose date of ‘composition is uncertain, was published posthumously. Other more formal poetry, such as the Satires and Elegies, dates trom the 1590s, and the Anni- versaries were written in 1601, The poetry dealing with religious material mostly dates from between 1606 and 1611. His prose works, apart from his ‘sermons, published after his death, include a treatise on suicide (Blathanos ©. 1608), two ant-oman Catholic tracts and his Devotion upon Emergent Occasions (1624). Donne is generally regarded as the leader of the so-called Metaphysical Poets; for more details see the relevant headnote. vaculafore+ TEXT 34 «+. The Good Morrow Here is one of Donne’s most celebrated love lyries, The Good Morrow. (morrow = day, morning). While you read, notice the use of surprising geographical and scientific imagery to describe love. ~~ see PRE-READING EXERCISE @ How does being in love seem to distort the usual conventions of space and time? (so that nothing else seems to | wonder by my troth’, what thou, and | Did tll we loved? were we not weaned till then, But sucked on country? pleasures , childishly? Or snorted! we in the seven sleepers’ den*? 5 “Twas so; but® this, all pleasures fancios’ be. It ever any beauty | did see, Which | desired, and got, ‘twas but a dream of thee, ‘And now good morrow* to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear; 10 For love, all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room, an every where, Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let maps* to others, worlds on worlds have shown, Let us possess one world, each hath one and is one. 15 My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, ‘And true plain hearts do in the faces rest, Where can we find two other hemispheres" Without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies was not mixed equally; 20 If our two loves be one, or, thou and | Love so alike, that none do slacken", none can die, ¢xist, and time seems to run at a completely different pace). Why do you think love has this effect? jae m ay paenated maaan longer ang motor ik 7 2 3 country: ste. 4 5 ‘norte: snore. Seven sleapers'den: refers to the legend ofthe oven perovouted Chastians who wore imprisoned Ina cave and sept fr 187 years but dd nol but: apart tom. faneles: imagination, unreaty, jrroW: good morning. stenomiea| charts. ‘on worlds: many words. hemispheres: Iwo hemispheres make up the word, bul tie lovers are superior because thoy linton creates a word whieh does not have the agave charactors of wes! or noth. 2 equal alon, the Roman coc, woe tat 7 ea rested rom an imbalance of lent a tra booy. 1 alleen smi way. ++. POST-READING EXERCISES +-¢ ® Why does the poet wonder what they did before they loved? What does this imply about the psychological time- scale of love? What two explanations does the poet offer for this dislocation in time? © Other pleasures outside their love are considered to be... Other beauty in the poet’s experience is considered to be... @ Why does the poet describe their souls as ‘waking"? How does love transform the room where the lovers are? © How does Donne compare their world with other worlds? What is the significance of this? 4 What is Donne’s conclusion? What conditions are necessary for love to last forever? ® Personal response: do you feel that this rather spectacular view of love is still relevant to our twenty-first-century existence, or are we more down-to-earth toda oo+ TEXT 35 +o Holy Sonnet X In later life Donne turned his attention from physical, or secular love, to the love between Man and God, and wrote some very striking accounts of religious feeling. Below is one of his most famous Holy Sonnets, treating the theme of death and life after death,7 The Renaissance +++ PRE-READING EXERCISE +e+ @ Death offen seems to the great leveller, vanquishing everybody and everything. What possible reasons could a Christian have for rejoicing in death? Death be not proud, though some have called thee, ‘Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, For, those, whom thou thinkst, thou dost overthrow’, Die not. poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me; From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, ‘Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, [And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and sout's delivery. ‘Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men, And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell, And poppy", or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke; why swel'st thou then’? 2 Gra be (One short sleep past, we wake etemally, 3. poper, red ower conaring saute og. ‘And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die, SS eaten eee, ++ POST-READING EXERCISES «<@¢ @ Describe, in your own words, Donne's opening proposition (lines 1-2). @ How is Death deceived in lines 3 and 4? © Rest and sleep are pleasant for mea; how does Donne use this argument to make Death seem pleasant? © How do you interpret “soonest our best men’ in line 7? © What bad company is Death forced to keep? Why? © Which sedatives are better than Death? @ What is Donne's elegant final paradox, linking the ideas of Death and Etemal Life? © What elements in the poem give it its surprising force? Think about rhythm and imagery. George Herbert (1593-1633) ‘of consumption. He is also the author of various 7 — translations and prose works appearing during his Life and Works lifetime, including a fine description of a model country George Herbert was bom in Wales | parson called A Priest to the Temple (1652). The and educated at Westminster School | Poems in The Temple are striking in their choice of ‘and Trinity College, Cambridge. He imagery and their expressive force and covet a variety had a brilliant University career of religious subjects. culminating in a position as Public Herbert also occasionally experimented with Oratorin 1620, a post which brought J ‘hieroglyphic’ poems, whose shapes match their him into contact with the court of ‘meaning, as in the following celebrated example: King James. For two years he was a Member of Parliament, but in 1626 he was ordained as a deacon, i 4 and he became prebend of a mined church in| eae = Huntingdonshire. This was very near Lite Gidding, ge z 5 woes canbidge tan, Neves Fore wore [RES GREER | PLE ogPEy contribution to the development of Herbert's religious |g oF FF Fra pa ByeePPisg sensibilly 1s evident, has established a religious [PET REL gies rREiE F 4 community. In 1630 he became a priest and moved to a Fel, fey PgSh GLB?! village near Salisbury, where he lived for the last three | £2 & pet re Rell years of his life. ee "Ba ee) feel Herberts Engish poems were published only afterhis |p ® it a i 5 death, although some of his Latin poems had been | eer z| printed previously. The posthumous collection The 2 r . =i Temple was published a few weeks after he had died = | |