SAEVA INDIGNAT10 IN DONNE, HALL AND MARSTON by LINDA WEBSTER B.A., U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1963 A THESIS, SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS i n the Department of E n g l i s h We accept t h i s t h e s i s as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1965 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make i t freely available for reference and study, I further agree that per-mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that,copying or publi-cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission* Department of English The University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada D a t e May, i i ABSTRACT OF THESIS, The formal satire of the late English Renaissance is a complex phenomenon, modelled upon the classical genre but also profoundly influenced by medieval homily and Complaint* It is connected with other lit e r a r y vehicles for social criticism and is a means of protesting against change, embodying the struggle between hierarchy and mobility that marks the period. Types are represented in a r e a l i s t i c manner and assigned parts i n miniature dramas unified by the presence of a narrator, by imagery and often by a thesis statement. C r i t i c a l theories about the derivation of the term "satire" and the nature of the genre helped to shape the form, tone and organization of these poems. This study focus es on the major writers of Elizabethan formal satire, Donne, Hall and Marston, and examines their relative merits. Donne is easily the most complex and the greatest poet, but the problem of. which is the most effective s a t i r i s t has yet to be resolved. Donne creates "humourous" and b r i l l i a n t l y sardonic portraits of types and with exhaustive detail localizes the s a t i r i c scene in Elizabethan London. However, his satires are a kind of metaphysical poetry, concerned with f i r s t principles and the narrator's psychological processes. i i i Intense subjectivity and metaphysical subtlety are perhaps better suited to l y r i c and devotional verse than to social satire, in spite of the poet's mastery of the art of caricature. Hall's style, lending an Augustan quality to Virgidemiae, is the measure of the differences among the writers. Hall's assimilations of classical sources, modified Neo-Stoicism, intense conservatism and references to a Golden Age and academic retreat fuse together in a witty and amusing sa t i r i c creation marked by the quiet insult, the polite sneer, contempt for the targets. Marston's use of language foreshadowsi certain important trends in the early Jacobean drama. Although he is sometimes incoherent i n his efforts to combine s a t i r i c a l rage and the pose of the malcontent with moral exhortation, Marston produces an impressive, ultimately unified structure and vision of man dominated by his animal nature. In conclusion, Donne is the superior poet, Hall the most effective s a t i r i s t , while Marston writes the most dramatic works, and only his lack of a r t i s t i c control prevents him from surpassing his contemporaries' satire. i v CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ' 1 II. THE SATIRICAL TEMPER OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND . . 3 I I I . ELIZABETHAN FORMAL SATIRE . . . . . . . . . . . 10 IV. DONNE 17 V. HALL 53 VI. MARS TON 79 VII. THE ENGLISH SATYRS 107 WORKS CONSULTED .110 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Joseph Hall's Virgidemiae (1597) and John Marston's Certaine Satyres. published with The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image (1598), are, apart from Thomas Lodge's A Fig for Momus (1595) and John Donne's unpublished satires, the f i r s t formal verse satires in English. This study w i l l attempt to differentiate between classical verse satire and the Elizabethan mode, to analyze the vogue for formal satire in the last decade of the sixteenth century and, l a s t l y , to examine Donne, Hall and Marston i n relation to one another and so determine their purposes, techniques and achievements. In order to do this, a c r i t i c a l standard must be formulated to distinguish satire from other literary genres and to evaluate the literary worth of s a t i r i c a l writing. Satire is motivated, at least by implication, by a set of abstract values, a conception of existence that the s a t i r i c world does not satisfy. The literary creation need not 2 explicitly affirm a moral standard, a criterion, but its very grotesqueness suggests that i t is a deviation from a norm in the reader's mind and in the author's consciousness against which the values presented i n the text are measured. Therefore, the particular c r i t e r i a of Donne, Hall and Marston w i l l be considered. The dramatic speaker and his tone and manner are examined, since they are major elements in the s a t i r i c impact. The analysis of image patterns attempts to arrive at a definition of the nature of e v i l and of the particular s a t i r i c targets in these poems. The metaphors for vice and f o l l y , the dominant images in each s a t i r i s t , w i l l be discussed, since in them is compressed the essential s a t i r i c effect. Finally, since, of a l l arts, satire is perhaps the most concerned with social questions, something of a hi s t o r i c a l dimension is useful for the understanding of Donne and his contemporaries. For this reason, the i n i t i a l chapter is devoted to a discussion of certain distinctive characteristics of the Elizabethan age. 3 CHAPTER II THE SATIRICAL TEMPER OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND The s a t i r e of the l a t e English Renaissance is not an isolated phenomenon, but a development of the c l a s s i c a l and medieval t r a d i t i o n s of s o c i a l c r i t i c i s m . Satire holds up a d i s t o r t i n g mirror to nature, her forces, men and t h e i r ways, while maintaining that experience is seen and depicted as i t i s . The s a t i r i c world i s exaggerated and d i s t o r t e d , yet retains some resemblance to the author's environment. In this way, the s a t i r i s t emphasizes the immense gap between the society i n which he writes and the i d e a l order. Superstition, prejudice, dogmatism, hypocrisy, personal vice and f o l l y and s o c i a l abuses are analyzed. The writer of s a t i r e often expresses a nostalgia for a l o s t Golden Age, an i d y l l i c pastoral existence when s i m p l i c i t y and v i r t u e reigned, completely opposed to thegrotesque, degenerate s a t i r i c world. Elizabethan "satyre" is given impetus by profound s o c i a l and economic changes and r e l i g i o u s and p o l i t i c a l c o n f l i c t s that undermined the medieval wrId-picture, which even as early as the f i f t e e n t h century was losing i t s cohesion, and provided ample material for the preacher, the moralist, the s o c i a l economist and the satirist.''" The s a t i r i c a l temper 1 H a l l e t t Smith, Elizabethan Poetry; A Study i n Conventions. Meaning and Expression (Cambridge [lass7], 1952), p. 198. 4 is basically conservative, hostile to change. Thus, the weakening of religious, social and economic hierarchy, the secularization of society and the development of a pragmatic, materialistic philosophy seemed to confirm the Idea of the decay and degeneration of man and nature. The increase in foreign trade, agrarian reorganization, the growth of London as a metropolitan market and the emergence of a new class, the bourgeoisie, with the ideas of individualism and free enterprise, represented the forces of mobility, of f l u i d i t y and f l e x i b i l i t y . The s a t i r i s t mirrors the older feeling, codified in the sumptuary laws, that man's place in society, his relation to himself and p to the universal order, should be defined and permanent and protests against the forces of materialism. Stock s a t i r i c targets are increased consumption and display of foreign goods, luxury, blurring of class distinctions, rising prices, monopolies, enclosures, a l l summed up in the contrast between traditional English manorial culture and Italianate, courtly c i v i l i z a t i o n . A skeptical attitude towards experience i s shown in the satires of Donne and Marston, in the drama of Webster, Marston and in the dark comedies and the tragedies of Shakespeare. The opposition between man's actual condition and his s p i r i t u a l potentialities, the themes of mutability, the degeneration of man, the decay of the world and its approaching end, combined to create a sombre picture of l i f e and a sardonic, melancholy, 2 Smith, p. 204. 5 b i t t e r and s a t i r i c s p i r i t i n many thoughtful men i n the l a s t decade of the sixteenth century. The discovery of change and decay i n the formerly apparently incorruptible and immutable heavens and the Copernican astronomy emphasized the p a t r i s t i c and c l a s s i c a l assumptions of the degeneracy of man and the almost immediate collapse of the physical universe."^ The strong moral and d i d a c t i c s t r a i n of English l i t e r a t u r e appears i n forms borrowed larg e l y from the c l a s s i c a l authors, f o r example, epigrams, s a t i r e s , Characters, e p i s t l e s , meditations and essays. English formal verse sat i r e usually takes the form of a monologue or dialogue written i n decasyllabic couplets, enclosed within a f a i r l y r i g i d r h e t o r i c a l and s t r u c t u r a l framework. This design involves a s a t i r i c observer and often an adversary, a se t t i n g , however vaguely sketched, and a thesis, the examination of some aspect of man's i r r a t i o n a l behaviour. The s a t i r i s t uses innumerable devices, small dramas, proverbs, metaphors, fables, anecdotes, b r i e f sermons, debates, apostrophes, slang, to i l l u s t r a t e his subject. 4" Attempts to reproduce d i r e c t , c o l l o q u i a l speech as closely as possible are contrasted with learned words and references. The juxtaposition 3 S,ee L. C. Knights, "Seventeenth Century Melancholy," The C r i t e r i o n . XIII (1933), 97-112; George Williamson, "Mutability, Decay, and Seventeenth-century Melancholy," ELH, II.. (1935)? 133; Don Cameron A l l e n , "The Degeneration of Man and Renaissance Pessimism," Studies i n Philology. XXXV (1938), 212. M. C. Randolph, "The S t r u c t u r a l Design of the Formal Verse S a t i r e , " P h i l o l o g i c a l Quarterly. XXI (1942), 373-6 of unlike things is a tactic to shock and surprise, not to excite laughter but to compel attention. A dramatic character, the "persona," serves as the author's mask, and either narrates or plays a leading role in the poem, which is often very like a series of dramatic scenes. Figures incarnating the abuse that is being attacked are introduced with identifying detail, shown in characteristic action and f i n a l l y exposed and judged. Thus, formal verse satire is connected with drama and with formal d i a l e c t i c . It sometimes resembles a kind of Socratic dialogue, either a conversation between two persons or a monologue where the second actor is present but allows the protagonist to speak for him, or i t may be simply a monologue. , Formal satire is also related to the Cynic diatribe, a discourse castigating vice, and to the English tradition of the "flyt i n g , " a spirited exchange of invective, the speakers appearing to improvise their arguments as the situation develops. S.. H. Henderson feels that the Renaissance sa t i r i s t s are not only trying to preserve the old order where possible, but are moralists who preach a s t r i c t code of ethics, for the most part strongly rooted in orthodox Christianity, but which 5 borrowed much from the pagan writers. Stoic doctrine, adapted by men like Guillaime du Vair, Antoine Muret and Justus Lipsius to the needs of Christians, was of a l l the classical philosophies the most acceptable to the English cultural and ' "Neo-S;toic Influence on Elizabethan Formal Verse SLatire," Studies i n English Renaissance Literature, ed. W. F. McNeir (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1962), p. 58. " 7 religious heritage. It emphasizes personal responsibility and moral preaching, inward fortitude and outward striving i n the search for the good l l f e . ^ The Roman formal verse satir i s t s were sources of Stoic thought, most obvious in Juvenal and Persius, and the Juvenalian indignant, ferocious, scathing attacks on abuses and the earnestness and seriousness of Persius are closer to the tone of English Renaissance satire than is the urbanity of Horace, with the possible exceptions of Wyatt and Lodge. The Elizabethans adopt the pose of the Cynic philosopher or preacher, since i t allows freedom and license in expression, or that of the Stoic s a t i r i s t , since i t stresses moral rebuke. Thus, as mentioned earlier, the Cynic-Stoic tradition of satire and diatribe, the "flyting" and the native preaching tradition combine to form a sharp instrument which purports to arraign man for his vices and f o l l i e s . The outburst of satire seemed to lead so inevitably to "flytings" and libels that the authorities attempted to suppress i t . The Order of Conflagration, an edict issued by the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London, the censors of the letter-press, and entered i n the Stationers* Registers on June 1, 1599? reaffirmed and strengthened existing restrictions on the press. It stipulated that Hall's Satyres. Pigmalion with certaine other S.atyres. The Scourge 6 Henderson, p. 62. 8 of Villanye. Sixe Snarling Satyres. Caltha Poetarum. Davies 1 Epigrams. Marlowe's Elegyes. of marriage and wwinge. The XV ioyes of marriage T and the books of the Nashe-Harvey controversy were to be called in and burnt. No satires or epigrams were to be printed i n the future, while the printing of English histories and plays was dependent upon the authority of the Privy Council. However, according to the entry in the Registers for June 4, 1599, Hall's Satyres and Caltha Poetarum were spared. The authorities were attempting to discourage erotic literature and to check libelous topical references. The edict was not intended to regulate a r t i s t i c expression, but simply to curb subversive and immoral literature. In Elizabethan England discipline within the church and state was expected and accepted by most citizens. Furthermore, censorship, as in a l l societies, could never have complete effectiveness, as i t relies on the vigilance and thoroughness of censors and the cooperation of readers. Patronage by nobles and wealthy merchants was no doubt a more direct Inducement for conformity of opinion among 7 authors than any o f f i c i a l regulations. The edict was, however, perhaps one reason for the channeling of satire into dramas like Marston's The Malcontent. The Fawne. What you Will . The Dutch Curtezan. Jonson's "humour" plays, Volpone. The Alchemist. Shakespeare's As You Like It. Twelfth Night. 7 E. H. Miller, The Professional Writer in Elizabethan England: A Study of Nondramatic Literature, (CambridgeJjMass.1 1959), P. 182. 1 J 9 Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida and the works of Webster and Dekker. Hall and Donne both wrote prose Characters which contain satiric elements. A strong satirical mood pervades Donne's Elegies, eptbhalamions and lyrics. The Elizabethans saw the satiric in the shadow of the pastoral, in the obverse of the heroic and in the extravagance of love g poetry. Indeed, the vehicles for the realistic and "humourous" spirit that informs much of late Elizabethan literature— prose satire, verse satire, "humour" comedy, prose Character— have a fundamental resemblance. Behind them a l l is the allegorical and realistic representation of the Seven Deadly Sins and their followers which is as old as the medieval pulpit 9 and the medieval homily. g Smith, Elizabethan Poetry, p. 207. ^ J. B. Leishman, ed. The Three Parnassus Plays (1598-1601) (London, 1949), p. 45. 10 CHAPTER III ELIZABETHAN FORMAL SATIRE The differences between Elizabethan and c l a s s i c a l formal s a t i r e are largely the resu l t of the homiletic and preaching t r a d i t i o n that was emphasized i n the second chapter. "Complaint" employs the technique of direc t rebuke."1" The complainant is the spokesman for a pa r t i c u l a r ethos, C h r i s t i a n i t y , which modifies his awareness of l i f e by r e l i g i o u s f a i t h and the s p i r i t of corrective chastisement, producing a moral earnestness, sometimes severity, and an impersonal point of view. He de l i b e r a t e l y avoids provocative, dir e c t a l l u s i o n s . Complaint often expresses i t s e l f i n conceptual and a l l e g o r i c a l terms because i t i s concerned with representatives of groups, organization types, the abuse rather than the abuser, i n short, • with man's perennial f r a i l t i e s . Man i s a f a l l e n being who must and can work out his salv a t i o n . This mode takes the form of ballads, dramas and narratives. Excluding i t s manifestations i n allegory, i t is r e l a t i v e l y d i r e c t , simple and loosely 2 structured. The emphasis is on a d i d a c t i c purpose, the 1 Raymond MacDonald Alden, The Rise of Formal Satire i n England Under C l a s s i c a l Influence, i n University of Pennsylvania Series i n Philology, Literature and Archaology, VII, No.2 ([Philadelphia^] 1899, reprinted 1962), p. 45. 2 John Peter, Complaint and Satire i n Early English Literature (Oxford, 1956), pp. 9-10, 59. 11 correction of v i c e . Thus, Elizabethan w r i t i n g assumes curative as well as punitive attitudes, a tone of reprobation as w e l l as occasionally one of r e f l e c t i o n . Complaint i s suited to the p r i n c i p a l subjects of Elizabethan s a t i r e , r e l i g i o u s and p o l i t i c a l concerns, the body p o l i t i c made up of various "estates." Let us examine the s t y l i s t i c "decorum" of Elizabethan "satyre." Two obvious characteristics are a c e r t a i n amount of deliberate obscurity and harshness of d i c t i o n , grammar and metre. The convention that s a t i r e is obscure, whether or not actually obeyed, i s related to the Elizabethan r h e t o r i c a l t r a d i t i o n , to the c l a s s i c a l s a t i r i c a l t r a d i t i o n as understood by English w r i t e r s , and to the l i t e r a r y influences of the period. Rhetoricians, such as Puttenham i n his Arte of Poesie, consider that an obscure style i s to be reserved for weighty matters since i t demands and challenges the reader's f u l l powers of concentration. The f i r s t English c r i t i c s , however, do not concern themselves much with the question of dark 3 w r i t i n g . Because of i t s extreme allusiveness, s a t i r e i s one of the most quickly out-dated l i t e r a r y forms. In order to protect himself when s t r i k i n g at powerful figures or i n s t i t u t i o n s , the s a t i r i s t has found i t necessary to use deliberate ambiguity, commenting on abuses whenever he has the opportunity, whether 3 A. S t e i n , "Dome's Obscurity and the Elizabethan T r a d i t i o n , " ELH, X I I I (June, 194-6), . . 98. 1 2 or not his digressions make the basic train of thought obscure. In the period with which this paper is concerned, the medieval tradition of semi-allegorical types, while s t i l l in evidence, was giving way to the presentation of figures familiar to the sat i r i s t ' s contemporaries. However, the intellectual climate of the 1 5 9 0 ' s fostered the attitude that the best literature is "dark," appreciated by only the most learned and acute readers, a chosen few. "Coterie literature," circulating in manuscript form, was a manifestation of this disdain of popular taste and a reaction to the dissemination and cheapening of the moods and idiom of Petrarchan poetry brought about by the invention of printing and the growth of the reading audience. Base subject matter demands a base style, as Spenser remarks in Mother Hubberds Tale (43-44). Thus, the nature of the s a t i r i c persona in Elizabethan formal satire is an important reason for the genre's harshness and obscurity. The doctrines of Scaliger and Donatus, deriving the term "satire" from the mythological wood god, half-goat, half-man, the rude, simple and frank observer who comments upon the degeneration of mankind, and connecting the form with the vigorous, abusive s p i r i t of the early Greek comedy, are the basis for nearly a l l Elizabethan theories of satire.^ 4 Arnold Davenport, ed. The Collected Poems of Joseph Hall (Liverpool, 1 9 4 9 $ , p. xxv. 5 Peter, p. 1 1 3 . ^ Oscar James Campbell, Comicall Satyre and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (San Marino, California, 1 9 3 8 ) , pp. 5 - 6 , 24-34. !3 It suggests a semi-dramatic s e t t i n g , an uncouth, perhaps r u s t i c and obscene, narrative s t y l e . Any alternate derivations only a f f i r m the concept of s a t i r e as a development of an archetypal form i n which satyrs recited verses of rebuke. Drant derives the term from various sources apart from "satyr": an Arabic word for a glaive or sharp cutting instrument, the s u l l e n and melancholy god, Saturn, and the L a t i n adjective "satura," "satiated." Harsh metre and coarse d i c t i o n are appropriate to the satyr's nature, since he i s "a distorted lens to bring man's moral ugliness into true focus."^ Abrupt tran s i t i o n s of thought and between speakers are means of expressing " g a l l , " or contempt f o r society. The Piers Plowman t r a d i t i o n , while not involving obscurity, also encourages a rough and harsh s t y l e , embodying simple t r u t h and rugged g honesty rather than polished wit. The c h a r a c t e r i s t i c persona i n Elizabethan s a t i r e , however, i s no longer a p l a i n , modest straightforward chider of v i c e s , but an arrogant, often ostentatious and e r r a t i c f i g u r e . The complainant's disgust and despair with the world continues, but i s no longer necessarily infenned by the C h r i s t i a n ethos of charity and humility. The narrator i s often saturnine, under the domination of the planet 7 A l v i n Kernan, The Cankered Muse: Sati r e of the English Renaissance (New Haven, 1959),p. 136. 8 Smith, Elizabethan Poetry, p. 216. 14 with power for e v i l and to spread incurable disease. Hall and Marston both invoke "Melancholy" as their muse. The s a t i r i c persona, for example, that of Marston, sometimes exhibits characteristics of the malcontent, one who was popularly believed to be a f f l i c t e d with "melancholy adust," a mental and physiological condition traditionally associated 9 with Saturn. The s a t i r i s t ' s attitude towards his subject is reflected, particularly i n HaEL and Marston, in medical and punitive imagery. The speaker is a whipper, a scourger, an executioner, a surgeon or a physician. His object is to mutilate, destroy or purge 10 a victim, criminal or patient. Generally, such imagery is a metaphor for philosophical abstractions, but sometimes, again in Marston, i t suggests a vengeful or sadistic pleasure in using satire to do physical harm, reflecting traces of a primitive belief in the power of incantational and magical verse, as Rosalind in As You Like It refers to the folk-belief in the Irish practice of rhyming rats to death (III.ii.186-188). Such an attitude finds a nebulous position somewhere between scorn and moral earnestness. The s a t i r i s t s • insist that their art is r e a l i s t i c . ^ ^ Lawrence Babb, The Elizabethan Malady: A Study of Melancholia in English Literature from 1580 to 1642 (East Lansing, 1 9 5 D , P. 57. 1 0 M. C. Randolph, "The Medical Concept i n English Renaissance Satiric Theory: Its Possible Relationships and Implications," Studies in Philology T XXXVIII (1941), 148. Campbell, Comicall S.atyre, p. 31 15 Their lack of s t y l i s t i c ornamentation corresponds to A t t i c , Senecan or anti-Ciceronian prose and late Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic blank verse, a l l r e f l e c t i n g the Baconian concepts of experiment, d i r e c t observation, and the need f o r accurate communication of immediate i n d i v i d u a l experience rather than expression of general ideas. Leishman remarks that " i n the Elizabethan s a t i r i s t s generalization is almost completely absent, and we have page afte r page of detail e d , r e a l i s t i c descriptions of p a r t i c u l a r f o l l i e s and 'abuses' and of the perpetrators thereof. On those occasions when, without any pa r t i c u l a r object before him, an Elizabethan s a t i r i s t indulges i n general invective, he nearly always gabbles l i k e 12 a thing most brutish, unable to endow his purposes with words." To conclude this chapter, are the imitations of c l a s s i c a l s a t i r i s t s and epigrammatists, the development of r e a l i s t i c writing about London l i f e , the self-conscious break with the immediate l i t e r a r y past expressed i n burlesques or parodies of older forms, simply techniques used by a coterie of d i l e t t a n t e s and by ambitious young men to amuse t h e i r friends and impress the court with th e i r b r i l l i a n c e and 13 unconventionality? Or are they an exercise i n a c l a s s i c a l l i t e r a r y convention? These p o s s i b i l i t i e s both seem to c o n f l i c t 1? Leishman, ed. The Three Parnassus Plays, p. 46. John Wilcox. "Informal Publication of Late Sixteenth Century Verse S a t i r e , " Huntington Library Quarterly, XIII (1950), 196. 16 with the idea of socio-economic protest, reflection and serious discontent with the age. Inconsistencies in the satires are caused by a sometimes imperfect fusion of classical and native English elements. Homiletic elements are assimilated in Donne's "S.atyres," which do not claim to effect correction of abuses. Hall and Marston, on the other hand, at various points in their work affirm a didactic intention. But are these statements merely lip-service to the tradition of moral reprobation or do they indicate an aim that is seriously pursued? Is the motivation for satire that which the writers claim? Is Elizabethan "satyre" "satire" or is i t invective? These questions have, I think, meaningful answers only in connection with examinations of the individual s a t i r i s t s . 17 CHAPTER 'IV. DOME The s a t i r e s o f Donne are a s e r i e s o f "humourous" and b r i l l i a n t l y s a r d o n i c p o r t r a i t s o f t y p e s . The marked H o r a t i a n element i n t h i s poet,"1" t h e urbane detachment and sense o f the a b s u r d , shown, f o r example, i n the l i g h t n e s s o f t o u c h w i t h w hich he'.describes the bore i n the f o u r t h " S a t y r e " and a n a l y z e s man's p e r v e r s e i n d u s t r y i n s t r i v i n g f o r u s e l e s s o r e v i l ends, c o n f l i c t s w i t h a h a b i t of i n t e n s e i n t r o s p e c t i o n , a sense o f d i s i n t e g r a t i o n , doubts and q u e s t i o n i n g s . Donne combines t h e t e c h n i q u e s o f d i r e c t rebuke and r e f l e c t i o n . H i s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c c r e a t i v e mood appears t o be the r e f l e c t i v e s t a t e o f mind, e v o l v i n g towards S.toic s e l f - k n o w l e d g e , but i t i s a r e s t l e s s and dynamic c o n d i t i o n r a t h e r t h a n a s t a t i c and serene one. He i s i n f l u e n c e d s t r o n g l y by the m e d i e v a l a l l e g o r i c a l and h o m i l e t i c t r a d i t i o n s w i t h t h e i r emphasis on t r a n s c e n d e n t , m e t a p h y s i c a l v a l u e s , y e t the n a r r a t o r o f the "S.atyres" e x h i b i t s a compromising, non-dogmatic c u r i o s i t y towards the w o r l d o f e x p e r i e n c e , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n " S a t y r e I I I , " a s e a r c h f o r the t r u e r e l i g i o n and a h i s t o r y o f man's s p i r i t u a l s t r i v i n g s w h i c h almost ceases t o be s a t i r e e x cept f o r the c a r i c a t u r e s T h i s p o i n t i s d i s p u t e d by E. G. L e w i s , The Times L i t e r a r y Supplement. S e p t . 27, 1934, p. 655. 18 illustrating the theme. The emphasis on skepticism implies a suspicion of rational processes. It is not the mind, however, that Donne attacks, but the misdirected use of the mind. The approaches and attitudes of the skeptic are methods to expose conventions and corrupt practices that hinder the realization of the truth. Melancholy is aroused by religious doubts, by the new astronomy, seeming to confirm the theory of the world's decay and degeneration, by an ambivalent attitude towards sex, relieved by abusing love, the beloved, and the lover in himself, by frustration of hopes of advancement and by the need for action, to have an important role to play in the world. Vigorous external expression of dissatisfaction through reproof and ridicule is>a r e l i e f for discontent and a r t i s t i c i r r i t a t i o n . Scepticism, however, seems only to increase the poet's sp i r i t u a l unrest: . . . . On a huge h i l l , Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and hee that w i l l Reach her, about must, and about must goe; And what the h i l l s suddennes resists, winne so; Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, ~ Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night. The characteristic virtues and vices of the "Satyres" are those of much of Donne's work. He applies the irregular, contorted rhythms of Elizabethan satire to some of his love l y r i c s , for example, "A Ieat Ring Sent," although the satires are the most obviously rough of his poetry. The Poems of John Donne, ed. Herbert J. C. Grierson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1912), I, 157. Subsequent citations from Donne in my text w i l l be to this edition. 19 They are the f i r s t English formal s a t i r e s written i n decasyllabic or "heroic" couplets. These poems c i r c u l a t i n g i n manuscript were perhaps i n f l u e n t i a l i n forming the patterns of obscurity and metrical harshness c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Elizabethan formal s a t i r e . Donne is a conscious master of harshness, especially i n "Satyres" IV and V, which is suited to the genre i n that i t implies a s o c i a l comment and an attitude of "contemptus mundi." An assumed carelessness for the external form of these verses expresses contempt for s u p e r f i c i a l i t i e s . Donne also avoids p a r a l l e l i s m and monotonous re g u l a r i t y i n order to g r a t i f y a personal taste f o r discordant effects aand 3 abrupt rhythms. The technique, i n addition, advertises the poet's acquaintance with the c l a s s i c a l s a t i r i s t s , p a r t i c u l a r l y Persius. One is made aware of the presence of an i n d i v i d u a l i s t i c , highly perceptive personality i n the "Satyres" through the use of abrupt syntax, ir r e g u l a r metre, s t a r t l i n g analogies and a dramatic, r h e t o r i c a l structure. Sound may give opportunities for irony by evoking certain a t t i t u d e s . Structures of sound i n the "Satyres" by t h e i r very lack of conventional aesthetic appeal usually reinforce the emphasis on ideas and on v i s u a l l y perceived Images that denote a r a t i o n a l l y perceived object or concept. Donne hardly ever uses sound to imitate the sense. Rather, meaning i s paramount and the c o n f l i c t between sound and sense A. S t e i n , "Donne and the Couplet," PMLA, LVII (1942), 686. 20 generally results in the accenting cf the sense, stressing the weight and importance of the subject. It is almost as i f Donne has attempted to create poetry where "thought i t s e l f may stand out unadorned by fantasy," that i s , by superfluous 4 ornament. Donne shares Bacon's dislike of Ciceronian eloquence, words rather than matter, "delicate learning." He attempts to convey accurately the flux of thought and feeling. Thus, the demands of logic and customary pronunciation wrench the metre and modulate the basic pattern, the five-stress decasyllabic l i n e . Diction is generally harsh and concrete, colloquial but low-pitched. Rhythms frequently mirror the natural manner of everyday speech and also suggest the erratic processes of thought. The poet sometimes writes in a compressed, assymetrical manner (iii.75-88); at other times he uses a loose, intimate style or combines the two manners (v.35-63). Syntactical variations are part of the attempt to create a sense of the spontaneous flow of ideas, a form of expression closer to actual experience than that of the sonneteers and poet-lawyer of "Satyre II." Dialogue is a frequent device (i.95-104; iv.73-87, 143-144). The "Satyres" are built upon the unit of the verse paragraph, rather than upon the couplet, elaborate stanzas shaped by the tones and rhythms of direct conversation. Donne's prosody is the chjef means by which he creates broken, unbalanced structures. D i f f i c u l t i e s in scansion 4 Anon., "The Oxford Donne," TL£_, Feb.6, 1930, p. 96. 21 challenge the reader, for the meaning often depends upon 5 metrical variations. Two unstressed syllables sometimes come together. The chief prosodic innovation is the frequent use of stress-shift in the f i f t h foot, thus providing a 7 feminine rhyme which is invariably matched with a masculine. The systematic introduction of stress-shifts speeds up the rhythm and emphasizes the s a t i r i s t ' s meaning. The rhythm is o reversed? a new rhythm is set up by attraction. Harsh combinations of consonants occur. Elisions are another device. Many elidable combinations are very li g h t l y articulated; others receive enough stress to be considered extra syllables. Dramatic extra syllables show the influence of Elizabethan dramatic blank verse, and add to the air of direct speech. Other additional syllables are attracted by stress-shifts. Trochaic rhythms and runover lines are cultivated. A tendency to be d i f f i c u l t to understand at times, particularly in the "Satyres," results in part from an extreme compression of word, thought and syntax. Concise and economical expression is achieved when one metaphor does the work of 1 several images and by the use of parenthetical remarks. The poet habitually avoids gradual logical transitions and on 5 Stein, FMLA. LVII (1942), 676-696. 6 See i i . 6 3 , 91; i i i . 4 2 , 86; iv.190-191, 223. 7 See i . 5 7 ; v.17, 88. 8 See i . 6 9 ; i i . 3 9 ; i i i . 8 8 , 92; iv . 2 3 1 ; v.185". 22 occasion separates subject and verb. Yet the poems are based on a rigid logical structure, showing the pervading influence of formal dialectic ( i i i ) , scholastic logic ("Elegie XI") and legal training (ii.4 9 - 5 7 ) . This tight rational control by concentrating emotion makes i t more intense. Furthermore, Donne does not write for impatient minds. His work is coterie literature, addressed only to "witty" and learned readers. "Wit" in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean eras is dependent upon formal and conceptual brilliance in seeking and co-ordinating hidden likenesses among disparate phenomena. Dr. Johnson's criticism of metaphysical poetry is that "heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together," Q that a fusion does not occur. This remark, of course, applies to a l l incoherent and disunified writing, not only to the excesses of the metaphysical school. Verbal ingenuity is not incompatible with the most serious purpose. Donne is a master of the metaphysical conceit, which at its best expresses emotion through intellectual images and fuses intense passion and wide-reaching thought in the union of apparently incongruous images or ideas. His intellectual play is part of his emotional experience. When T. S. Eliot speaks of "a direct sensuous apprehension of thought, or a recreation of thought into feeling, 9 Samuel Johnson, "Cowley," Lives of the English Poets, ed. George Birkbeck H i l l (Oxford, 1905), I, 20. 1 0 T. S. E l i o t , "The Metaphysical Poets," Selected Essays, new ed. (New York, 1950), p. 246. 23 he means that separate and isolated fragments of existence are seen as parts of a whole. Imaginative experience for Donne has its source and foundation i n the intellect and abstract ideas are perceived in concrete terms. "Wit" is allied to profound seriousness, thereby intensifying a poem's impact. 1 1 It exercises a c r i t i c a l function upon the emotions and gives 12 detachment to the feelings expressed in the poetry. Donne does not segregate the sublime from the commonplace. In his poetry t r i v i a l affairs are recognized as parts of the same experience as love and death. Contrasting elements occurring close together fuse into a single effect in order to express a particular mood, which may be i n f i n i t e l y complex ( i . 7 - 8 ) . A l l of the poet's many moods are implicit in any one, and so find their natural expression in paradox. In the "Satyres," however, the style is more irregular with fewer sharply contrasting elements producing a single effect, "dissonance," than i n Donne's other works because of the degree of habitual roughness and tendency towards levelling of stresses that was mentioned 1^ earlier. -' The Petrarchan tradition of idealization and extravagant 1 1 See i i i . 1 6 , 60, 68-69; iv .1-4, 201-203; v.9-12, 57-63, 75-76. 12 George Williamson, "Donne and the Poetry of Today," A Garland for John Donne. 1631-19^1. ed. Theodore Spencer (Cambridge ,[Mass ^ ], 193D , P. 162. ^ J. B. Douds, "Donne's Technique of Dissonance," PMLA, LII (Dec. 1937), 1052. 24 adoration of the beloved, with its diction, imagery and metrical techniques, is rejected ( i i . 1 7 ) . The s a t i r i s t revolts against superficiality, f a c i l i t y , and an inflated literary style, especially when used for subjects exalted above their proper condition, and mocks attitudes, tastes and conventions that have become empty patterns without true a r t i s t i c v i t a l i t y . He, for example, is a leader i n the movement against mythology. A conventional element is introduced, perhaps from pastoral or Petrarchan love poetry, but is then rapidly and violently modified by a discordant association or conclusion. A reference to the Greek sage Heraclitus furthers the s a t i r i c purpose (iv . 1 9 7 ) . "Macrine" must be very ridiculous indeed to cause the weeping philosopher to laugh. The myth of Circe is applied to the effect of the sinister "Makeron" upon the narrator (iv . 129-131) . "Satyre V" begins with the traditional invocation to the Muse, applied to the sa t i r i s t ' s apprehension of decay and death. The •Satyres" abound in r e a l i s t i c detail and acute analysis of men's motives. Donne's reflective tendency translates the abstract into the particular, although satire, while i t is r e a l i s t i c , characteristically also appears objective, concerned with the external world, that i s , society organized and distorted by the writer's concept of l i f e , rather than with the s a t i r i s t ' s own psychological processes. It focuses, outward rather than inward. Donne makes poetic capital out of interests of his own time, defining emotions by intellectual parallels from astronomy, geometry, chemistry and geography and expressing 25 ideas in philosophical, theological and s c i e n t i f i c terms. 14 Allusions to events and p o l i t i c a l issues of the day, such as the granting of monopolies to court favourites (iv.105-107) occur. The Latin form of the type names, some of which are possible personal references (v.87), is the only departure from the localization of the scene in Elizabethan London. A remarkably consistent dramatic character is developed in these poems. His sympathies are with a minority group under "the Statutes curse"(iv , 10), Roman Catholics in late sixteenth-century England. He is a melancholic scholar, indignant at society and the individuals within i t . This 15 isolated figure y broods about human l i f e in general and morbidly dissects its ugliest aspects, putrefaction, excrement, worms and dus t: A l l men are dust; How much worse are Suiters, who to mens lust Are made preyes? 0 worse then dust, or wormes meat, For they do eate you now, whose selves wormes shall eate. (v.19-22) The speaker must appear the opposite of the pride and hypocrisy he condemns. He is not a total skeptic , but maintains virtue as a goal towards which man must strive (iii. 5 , 7 9 - 8 1 ). He is the frank, unassuming man of the Piers Plowman tradition (iv.242) 1 4 See i.80-82; ii.5 9 - 6 0 ; iii.17-24; iv.189-190; v.85. 1 5 See i . 1 - 1 2 , 47-48; iv.67-68, 155-159. 1 6 See ii.2 5 - 3 0 , 41; iii.3 5-40; iv.104-105, 109-110, 134-135, 168, 201-203, 222. 26 In his search for stabilizing self-knowledge he turns within himself, like the Stoic "vir bonus" (iii.1 7 5 - 1 7 9 ). Introspection, however, merely encourages anatomizing of the world and himself (iv.156-157)» not a measured, serene attitude. The narrator has no illusions about the power of satire to change a man's conduct. He does not have any corrective 17 purpose or a b i l i t y . Nevertheless, satire is a noble and lofty art. His works have "knowne merit," and some "wise man?! may esteem them "Canonicall" (iv.241-244). "Satyre V," addressed to Donne's employer, the Lord Keeper, Sir Thomas Egerton, is a petition for reform and, like "Satyre III," an exhortation to virtue. It treats " a l l who in extreme/Are wreched or wicked"(5-6). Each satire is a miniature drama with a setting, plot, characters and action. The dramatic situations, s a t i r i c pose, diction and imagery a l l emphasize the contrast between sacred and profane values. Each poem treats one aspect of this theme, satirizing a particular aspect of society and thus illuminating the other four vignettes. The constancy of the protagonist is opposed to the inconstancy of his antagonists, swayed by materialistic standards, varying slightly from poem to poem, enslaved by fashion ( i ) , lechery ( i , i i , i i i ) , love of gain and position ( i i , iv, v) and a corrupt Court (iv). Imagery reinforces the contrast between eternal and 1 7 See ii.109-111j i i i . 1 - 4 ; iv.69-70, 237-241. 27 transient values. Motifs recur within individual satires and from satire to satire. The images are highly concrete; the abstract and the grossly material, especially in the last three "Satyres," are interlinked in visual metaphors. The sensual is seen as a bridge to the s p i r i t u a l . Religions in the s a t i r i c world are merely different "lecherous humors" ( i i i . 5 3 ) . Donne makes vice repulsive by introducing coarse, physical details. Man's bestiality may lead to sin and the misuse of reason. Water has both a p i c t o r i a l and a spiritual significance. It is life-giving at "the rough streames calme head" (iii.104), but drowns "Soules, which more chuse mens unjust / Power from God claym'd, then God himselfe to trust" (iii.109-110). Images are drawn from the offences with which the s a t i r i s t is concerned, fashions, prostitution, fraud, and applied to religious and philosophical concepts (v.68-75). In the f i r s t "Satyre" r e a l i s t i c detail predominates over sheer wit. It is interspersed with references to the snobbery, lust and vanity that the s a t i r i s t condemns in Court and London l i f e . The speaker is a retiring scholar who is occasionally persuaded to venture out of his study to observe the conditions that arouse his indignation. He begins by apostrophizing a person who embodies a l l that is satirized. The "fondling motley humorist" (1), the "fond" or foolish sycophant and flatterer of rich and powerful men, attired i n the fool's "motley," judges men by appearance (27-32). 28 But the scholar, anxious to give good advice, evokes an age i n which virtue was simple, bare and unchanging: Mans f i r s t blest state was naked, when by sinne Hee l o s t that, yet hee was cloath'd but i n beasts skin, (45-46) Deliberately fusing the metaphorical and l i t e r a l meanings of "naked," he associates s a t i r i c a l comment on fashions with condemnation of the morals of the time and of the lechery of this p a r t i c u l a r gallant (37-40). The s a t i r i c pose of the crabbed, b i t t e r c r i t i c of society, set apart from the rest of mankind, i s assumed when the narrator says "And i n thi s coarse a t t i r e , which I now weare, / With God, and with the Muses I conferre" (47-48). There is a suggestion of the shaggy satyr, or at least of the roughly clad hermit or carelessly dressed melancholic. Pompous figures are conjured up, an elaborately armed "Captaine" and pr o f i t e e r (17-18), "a briske perfum'd pi e r t Courtier" (19) and "a velvet Justice" ( 2 1 ), a grotesque, motley throng. To judge people on the basis of appearances i s a form of su p e r s t i t i o n , shared by over-precise, h y p e r c r i t i c a l "puritans" (27), a term which i s i r o n i c i n thi s context, suggesting lack of purity, s u p e r f i c i a l i t y , emptiness and e s s e n t i a l s e l f i s h n e s s . The second part of "S,atyre I" is a fast-moving, v i v i d , panoramic and dramatic view of Elizabethan London, the environment that i n the person of the "humorist" penetrates to 29 the scholar in his study. The dialogue (83-104) that breaks up the oration adds to the intensity and immediacy of the situation. The narrator, by the very fact of his presence i n this world, has sinned (65-66). The walk is simultaneously a survey of ci v i l i z e d society and a Dantean underworld journey (67-112). S a t i r i c asides earlier were directed at lust, impoverished nobles marrying city heiresses, merchants' daughters (57-58), and astrology. The f i r s t and last of these targets are associated with the extravagant dress of "subtile-witted antique youths" (62). The whole is applied to the underlying drama of the scholar and the "humorist." Flattery and patronage at court are joined with another allusion to fashions. A reference to the habit, newly introduced to London in Donne's time, of smoking exaggerates foppery (87-88). The fool is attracted to "silken painted" fops (72) and indifferent to "grave" men (79). The "Satyre" begins and ends with images of restraint, the need for control over the passions. The "wise politique horse," the'Elephant" and the "Ape" (80-81) are not only animals performing or exhibited in London about the time the poem was written but bestial metaphors for the sensual man. The s p i r i t u a l man, on the other hand, has a pastoral role (93). He knows that the young man w i l l not heed his counsel (53-64), but accompanies him in any case, eager to strengthen him (100). The fop deserts the narrator (107), as the latter had anticipated 30 (15), only to return abjectly (111). Ironically, the "humorist," earlier opposed to the "constant company" (11), after having been thrown out the /door (110) by his mistresses' new lovers, "constantly a while must keepe his bed" (111). But the continence of this state, as well as its duration, is enforced, and therefore no sign of virtue. The s a t i r i c hero has not been influenced by the advocate of truth and simplicity. "S-atyre I I " is basically directed against poets and lawyers. Distortions of language are equated with moral aberrations. The s a t i r i c commentator's hate towards " a l l this towne" (2) is modified by an ambiguous "Pitty" (4). He satirizes the extravagances of love poetry, particularly the fashion for sonnet sequences, the drama, with its mechanical writers and actors, and plagiarism. The structure is ri g i d l y l o g i c a l . After condemning a l l poor writing, associated with famine and invasions, pestilence (6-7) , a condemned man (11) and witch-craft (17), and bewailing the presence of a host of p r o l i f i c scribblers (23-24), the satire is focussed upon the worse and more specific sin of plagiarism (25-26). Paradoxically, stolen poetic craft becomes the thief's own: For i f one eate my meate, though i t be knowne The meate was mine, th' excrement is his owne: (29-30) Donne moves to the discussion of a specific figure, "Coscus," the lawyer-poet who alone arouses the speaker's "just offence" (40). The narrator claims to forego moral 31 rebuke of grave sins and to concentrate upon a "humourous" character. But his attitude i s not simply "almost l i g h t -18 hearted tolerance of S i n . " The growth of the s a t i r i c target is l i k e putrefaction, the progress of a disease and animal development (41-42). Speech for him Is l i k e "nets, or lime-twigs" ( 4 6 ) , a means of. securing his prey. The chaotic effect of the l e g a l jargon suggests the disorder of this world ( 5 7 - 6 0 ) . Then, by an abrupt t r a n s i t i o n , the speaker addresses "Coscus," "When sicke with Poetrie, and possest with muse / Thou wast, and mad, I hop'd" (61-62). But men who practice law only for gain, who combine l e g a l practice with usury to cheat prodigal heirs out of t h e i r estates ( 7 9 - 8 0 ) , are worse than "imbrothel'd strumpets" ( 6 4 ) . The images of p r o s t i t u t i o n , attacking those who s e l l t heir souls for secular gain, are applicable to both roles of the adversary, as a poet, one of those "who write to Lords, rewards to get" ( 2 1 ) , and as a lawyer. A series of his actions shows that fraud, a compound and s p i r i t u a l s i n based on the desire for wealth and power, is a more serious vice than of "carted whores" (73)? "Bastardy," "Symonie" or "Sodomy" (74-75) , which are recognized as e v i l , and indeed, are t h e i r own punishment ( 3 9 ) . "Coscus" uses speech for immoral purposes. He talks i d l y , l i k e prisoners who swear that they are only kept i n j a i l for "sur e t i s h i p " ( 6 8 ) , l i e s to his c l i e n t s and to the judge. A modification of Peter, Complaint and S a t i r e , p. 135. 3 2 Grierson's reading of l i n e s 71 - 7 2 suggests that as the "wedge" or ingot must shape i t s e l f to the mould or "blocke," the dishonest lawyer must s t r a i n or "wring" the meaning of his words to make his case acceptable to the "barre," the court. If the hyphen is dropped between "bearing" and " l i k e , " a 19 metaphor comparing the target to beasts of burden appears. ' In his world, "Coscus" thrives, satanic (80) and dominant s Shortly (as the sea) hee w i l l compasse a l l our land; From Scots, to Wight; from Mount, to Dover strand. (77-78) Legal procedure and terminology are used to consolidate his advances. The length of his "parchments" i s stressed by comparison with other voluminous writings (87-96). The word, the vehicle for justice and learning, is perverted (97-102). Although i n the f i r s t two poems there i s much condemnation of vice and l i t t l e portrayal of vi r t u e , the speaker upholds the values of s i m p l i c i t y , t r a d i t i o n and constancy. In the closing passage of "Satyre I I " he laments the decline of the r i c h man's sense of duty, the breakdown of a stable, s t r a t i f i e d society. For him, moderation i n the use of possessions, a s u f f i c i e n c y but not a s u p e r f l u i t y of a l l material things, is the basis for a good l i f e . This i d e a l , however, is only a f o r l o r n hope in a society ruled by "Coscus," even i f the narrator is not 1 9 L. S. Cobb, "Dome's 'Satyre II,' 7 1 - 7 2 , " Explicator. XIV (March 1956), 40. 33 endangered by "tn 1 huge statute lawes" (111-112). There remains the possibility of his own words being twisted and misinterpreted. "Satyre III" would seem to be a product of the period in Donne's l i f e between 1593 and 1599 when he was investigating the r i v a l claims of the Roman Catholic Church and the various Protestant churches to be closest to the primitive Church. Unrest i n this poem apparently has nothing to do with the shattering effects of sc i e n t i f i c discoveries about the nature of the universe, but is the manifestation of a personal skepticism caused partly by the attempt to recapture a vanished sp i r i t u a l unity and partly by the attempt to decide which, i f any, of the contending religious factions represented the true Church. The poet doubts human knowledge with its uncertainty.,,' concern with the material, shifting values and the disintegration of accepted spiritual beliefs. The search for religious certainty;' leads him, i n the framework of an essentially his t o r i c a l , factual, controversial conception of religion, carefully to compare the various doctrines. This "Satyre" is central in theme. It is not a satire in the Elizabethan tradition, but i s , rather, a hortatory epistle. The religious problem is shown as i t appears to an honest quester of the truth. The poem is one of the earliest appeals for tolerance and candid scrutiny of religious differences. The reflective, moralizing strain predominates. 34 Unlike the other "Satyres," this poem is a soliloquy in meditative isolation, with a change i n attitude, not s a t i r i c exposure of the grotesque and the ridiculous, as its f i n a l goal. The protagonist counsels with himself, not attempting to correct abuses, but exploring his own mind in an effort to resolve a sp i r i t u a l conflict. The poem's action is the evolution of the writer's thought, a dia l e c t i c a l process i n the course of which certain revelations are made and a ceaseless search for order through the multiple aspects- of experience is pursued. Donne's "wit" becomes the instrument of a discussion of the ultimate purpose in human l i f e . S a t iric touches come from the caricatures of those who refuse to leave "easie wayes and neare" (14) to reach religious truth, or who make a choice on narrow, sectarian lines (43-67). Structural unity is achieved by the working out of the theme, the character of the narrator, and the consistency of tone. There is an intense eagerness to reach the truth upon which the soul's salvation depends, a deep contempt for indifference, in this "Satyre." The s a t i r i c orator's emotion is complex, for his pity checks his "spleene," yet "brave scorn" (1) prevents him from showing compassion for worldly men. He can neither laugh, nor weep, and doubts that " r a i l i n g " is an effective medicine (4). He sets himself a series of questions (5-15) and then answers them, distinguishing between secular "courage of straw" (28) and spiritual courage. The f i r s t Mblinded," or pagan, age (7) espoused virtue for the sake of 35 "earths honour" ( 9 ) . Ironically, Christians, with an opportunity to reach "heavens joyes" ( 8 ) , may lose them to pagans of "strict l i f e " (12-13) If they do not learn to fear the foes of mankind, "the foule D e v i l l " (33), the world, since i t is in a state of degeneration (37-39), the flesh (40) and its joys, which without the "faire goodly soule" (41), that man loathes, are the companion of death. To fear damnation "great courage, and high valour i s " (16). As i n the previous "Satyres," Donne elaborates on statements with exhaustive detail. Sea-voyages, perhaps referring to the Cadiz expedition and the Islands voyage on which the poet sailed, merely expose one to "leaders rage, to stormes, to shot, to dearth" (19). To "ayd mutinous Dutch" (17), to "dive seas, and dungeons of the earth" (20), to explore the "frozen North" (22) and to bear the "fires of Spaine, and the l i n e " (24) are customarily regarded as brave, and are undertaken "for gaine" (26). But a l l these acts, as well as the pugnacious insistence that a l l the world defer to the beloved (26-28) and suicide, as a denial of the obligation to grapple with moral problems on earth, are cowardly. God made man to "stand / Sentinell in his worlds garrison" ( 3 O - 3 D. His task, therefore, is to seek "true religion" ( 4 3 ) . The narrator examines the possible places where the "true religion" may be found. He moves through a series of negative p o s s i b i l i t i e s , discovering only a confused variety of 36 warring creeds. Religious adherence is determined in the s a t i r i c environment by circumstances and caprices. The imagery is alrgely sexual, based on an extended conceit, the comparison of man's love of God to various "Lecherous humors" (53). The Roman Catholic searches for his faith at Rome because he knows that "shee was there a thousand yeares agoe," like a ragged woman who is beloved because she was splendid at an earlier time (43-48). The men of Geneva, Dutch Schismatics, Calvinists, see the true religion as a woman who is plain and devoid of ornament (49-54). Some uphold the established religion because of the influence of authority (55-62), like an obedient ward who accepts the wife of his guardians' choice; atheists are like cynics who, seeing that some women are impure, reject a l l marriage (62-64); the man accepting a l l creeds, like the lecher, has eclectic tastes (65-68). Religious truth must constantly be pursued* . . . unmoved thou Of force must one, and forc'd but one allow; And the right . . . (69-71) The basic appeal is to tradition, to history, to the precedent of one's forebears (71-73). Yet this attitude seems to contradict the possibility of paternal advice causing damnation (11-15) and unthinking conformity (55-62). The salvation of man's immortal soul i s , by implication, more important than the vices attacked in the other "Satyres." The narrator refuses to consider 37 the non-essential differences among religious sects, but bases his judgments on the metaphysical abstraction of absolute "truth," the one transcendant reality as opposed to the incidental trappings of religion that bind those he satirizes. Man, above a l l , must exercise reason and persistence i n a painful quest for "truth" (86-88) : Hee's not of none, nor worst, that seekes the best. To adore, or scorne an image, or protest, May a l l be bad; doubt wisely; in strange way To stand inquiring right, is not to stray; To sleepe, or runne wrong, i s . On a huge h i l l , Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and hee that w i l l Reach her, about must, and about must goe; And what the h i l l s suddennes resists, winne so; Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night. (75-84) The involved grammar and slow, labouring rhythms express the immense effort necessary to reach truth. Donne translates abstractions into concrete terms in an attempt to establish something permanent,, and unified behind the shifting and dissolving world of appearances, a violent extracting of order from the diverse elements of experience (67-68) . "Truth" is a subjective thing, a state of mind. Since no system is certain, the speaker can use doubt constructively in his search for truth. It is approached i n the devious ways (81) made necessary by the imperfections of human reason. The metaphorical description of the approach to truth, in the allegorical 38 tradition, localized on "a huge h i l l " (79), shows a keen awareness of manrs psychological processes. It is a means of accurately expressing at the same time the skeptic despair of knowledge and the belief in doubt as a valuable technique. The narrator is convinced that truth is to be found, but fears that men w i l l cease struggling and sleep on the side of the h i l l (83-85). Dualism and paradox are inevitable: . . . i n strange way To stand inquiring right, is not to stray; (77-78) Similarly, one learns that . . . mysteries Are like the Sunne, dazling, yet plaine to a l l eyes. (87-88) There is in this poem no ultimate reconciliation between the flesh and the s p i r i t . The emphasis is on the eternal war between the bestial and angelic elements of human nature. The desire to know is an unrelenting agony, for the poet cannot base his choice on any of the t r i v i a l reasons of the s a t i r i c characters. He tries to resolve by intellectual means a spi r i t u a l dilemma, the relationship between reason and fa i t h , and between the spi r i t u a l and secular powers. Man's laws must not hinder the soul's free search for religious truth (93-95)• One cannot rely for salvation upon the dicta of "a Philip, or a Gregory, / A Harry, or a Martin" (96-97)? a 39 neat antithesis between Roman Catholic and Protestant kings and s p i r i t u a l leaders. God's law must be followed, even i f i t conflicts with human legal codes. Material and secular power is a potential threat and temptation that blinds men to constant and immutable s p i r i t u a l values, causing them, like "Coscus" ( i i ) and like the officers of "Satyre V," to use human law in order to gratify their own desires and to ignore the supremacy of divine law (100-102). The water imagery in the closing passage (103-110) looks forward to the last two "Satyres," and acts as a focal point for a l l five poems. Earlier in "Satyre III" water imagery occurs (1-2, 20-22). The f i n a l section expands on a conceit comparing secular power to a rough stream issuing from the "calme head" (104) of spiritual truth. Flowers thrive, like men, at the peaceful source. But i f men abandon the height for the "tyrannous rage" (106) of secular desires and torments, they are destroyed* So perish Soules, which more chuse mens unjust Power from God claym'd, then God himselfe to trust. (109-110) Thus, the sense of urgency, a l l the arguments, only lead back to the situation which gave rise to them. By its very nature, the question cannot be resolved. Perfection, the certain knowledge of "true religion" and the comprehension of divine truth, cannot be achieved in a f i n i t e world. 40 F r u s t r a t i o n , n o n - s a t i s f a c t i o n , is i n e v i t a b l e . The ch ie f dec is ions that are reached are i n favour of continued i n d e c i s i o n . The poem, nevertheless , is i n no sense a f a i l u r e . It expresses through imagery, metre, d i c t i o n and d i a l e c t i c a state of mind and analyzes an i n d i v i d u a l i n t e l l e c t u a l and emotional r e a c t i o n from every angle . "Satyre I I I " a lso establ ishes a c r i t e r i o n that can be appl ied to Donne's other works. "Satyre IV ," the longest and roughest i n v e r s i f i c a t i o n of the formal s a t i r e s , i s l inked to the th i rd . "Satyre" by a reference to "Mistresse Truth" (I63). I f the poem has any c lear plan or dominant, un i fy ing idea, i t i s the grotesque language and dress of t r a v e l l e r s and c o u r t i e r s , intertwined -L'with the motif of the informer and 'sycophant,. The s e t t i n g is a "Purgatorie, such as f e a r ' d h e l l i s " (3). The speaker is doing penance fo r a great s i n . He has gone to Court, although he was not motivated by pr ide , desire to see or to be seen; ne i ther , he puns, had he "suit there , nor new sui te to shew"(7). He refers to the f ines imposed on Roman Cathol ics (8-10), incurred by one who, l i k e the narrator , attended a ceremony for a j e s t : . . . S o ' i t p leas 'd my dest in ie (Gu i l ty of ray s i n of going,) to thinke me As prone to a l l i l l , and of good as f o r g e t -f u l l , as proud, as l u s t f u l l , and as much i n debt, As vaine, as w i t l e s s e , and as fa l se as they Which dwell at Court, for once going that way. (11-16) 41 His torments in the company :bf the bore are a punishment for this sin (50-51? 137-140). The Court i t s e l f , however, is a prison, a kind of h e l l where "the great chamber" is hung with "the seaven deadly sinnes" (232), secular desires and accomplishments, from which the narrator f i n a l l y manages to escape. The antagonist is a caricature of the Gallicized or Italianate Englishman (84), a man who "hath travail'd, and saith, speakes a l l tongues" (35)• His appearance is outlandish, stranger than animals bred by the sun on the Nile's slime, than anything in "Noahs Arke," than anything Adam named, than any object of antiquarian research, than the famed "Africks Monsters" or S i r Walter Raleigh's description of "Guianaes r a r i t i e s . " His conversation is more unbearable than "Pedants motley tongue, souldiers bumbast, / Mountebankes drugtongue" or "the termes of law" (40-41). Like his jerkin, this person's speech has disintegrated. It is "no language" (38), only "complement" (44), stranger than "strange meats." The food metaphor debases the faculty that separates men from beasts. Language is used to cheat and deceive, to . . . win widdowes, and pay scores, Make men speak treason, cosen subtlest whores, Out-flatter favorites, or outlie either Jovius, or S or narrative. Many of the poems, especially in the Tooth-lesse Satyrs, are simply versified Characters (III.viO!. The dramatic speaker is present at a l l times, and 1 0 See I I . i ; IV.i.37-44; IV.iv.14-15; VI.i.1-20. 1 1 See I I . i i ; I I . i i i ; II.v; I l l . i v ; I I I . v i i ; IV.i; IV. i i i ; IV.iv; IV.vii; V . i i . 1 2 See I . i i i ; II.v; I l l . i ; I V . i i ; IV.v. 1 3 See IV.i; IV.vi. 1 4 See I I . i i i ; I I I . v i i ; IV.v; V . i i . 63 he insists in the Post-script that he does not wish to harm individuals. He says, "I . . . may safely professe to be altogether guiltlesse in my selfe to the intention of any guiltie person who might be blemished by the likelyhood of my conceiued application, therupon choosing rather to marre mine owne verse than anothers name" (44-49). He is a scourger and surgeon. On the very t i t l e page the image of a scourge appears, since Vlrgidemi,arvm is the genitive form of a Latin word meaning "a harvest of rods." The s a t i r i c commentator in the "Prologue" to the second book presents himself as the righteous successor to Diogenes: Or bene the Manes of that Cynick spright, Cloth'd with some stubburn clay & led to light? Or do the relique ashes of his graue Reuiue and rise from their forsaken caue? That so with gall-weet words and speeches rude, Controls the manors of the multitude? (1-6) He is inspired by "scornful rage" and a "scornfull Muse." Furthermore, he w i l l indulge his scorn for the most powerful institutions (IV.vii.1-4). The effect of his stinging 15 verse gives him pleasure: Go to then ye my sacred Semones. And please me more, the more ye do displease; (IV.i.80-81) The satires are offered as products of the narrator's "hote-' See "The Authors charge to his Satyres"; IV.i.74-75; Postscr. 21-22. 64 bloodes rage," since he is the agent of Nemesis, Whose scourge doth follow a l l that done amisse: That scourge I beare, albe in ruder f i s t , And wound, and strike, and pardon whom she l i s t . ("Prologue": 11.10-12) This personage employs the methods of torture as well as those of sanative castlgation. In "The Conclusion of a l l , " he announces that victims are expected to submit willingly to punishment. Yet he does not imply that his diatribes and verbal lashings w i l l effect either general or individual reform. Men are eager to confess the guilt of everyone but themselves: Who l i s t complaine of wronged faith or fame When hee may shift i t to anothers name? (IV.i.43-44) The reader is reminded that "silence is safe, when saying stirreth sore / And makes the stirred puddle stinke the more" (VI.i.173-174). The pose of detached superiority results in a protest that the speaker scorns danger or retaliations from the persons he satirizes (IV.1.82-89). The work is prefaced by "His Defiance to Enuie." The tone is highly ironical when he claims that he w i l l confine himself to attacking plebians after making one more allusion to people of importance (IV.iv.10-17). He announces his adherence to the tradition of Juvenal: 65 Renowmed Aguine« now I follow thee, Farre as I may for feare of ieopardie; And to thy hand yeeld vp the Iuye-mace, From crabbed Persius. and more smooth Horace; (V.i.7-10) The dramatic speaker, however, has characteristics of the plain man and preacher of the Complaint tradition and of the Stoic "vir bonus" as well as of the satyr and scourger. He is the good man compelled to write satire by the debauchery of a time "when a l l , saue tooth-lesse age or infancie, / Are summon'd to the Court of Venerie" (IV.i.108-109). He exclaims Pull out mine eyes, i f I shall see no vice, Or let me see i t with detesting eyes. (V.i .5-6) His "spight" is "not vnkindly," that i s , not unnatural. Although his poems, i t is asserted, tax only the l i v i n g , not the e v i l dead, the narrator apologizes for writing satire (V.i.21-22). He has rejected the stock literary themes in favour of satires inspired by "Trueth and holy Rage." Their stated purpose is to unmask "the vgly face of vice" and "in carelesse rymes, / Check the mis-ordred world, and lawlesse times" (I.i.23-24). In the "Prologue" to the f i r s t book the narrator denies that he is motivated by envy* Enuie waits on my backe, Truth on my side: Enuie w i l l be my Page, and Truth my Guide. Enuie the margent holds, and Truth the line: Truth doth approue, but Enuy doth repine. (5-8) 66 These statements, however, are qualified by the ironic coupling of the speaker's "deuout" loathing of vices with the actions of the hypocrite who "rounds Poules pi l l e r s i n the eare" ( Y . i i i . 2 0 ) . His aggressive, belligerent stance is somewhat like that of "the Male-content," who "speakes nothing but Satyrs and Libels, and lodgeth no guests in his 16 heart but Rebels." Virgidemiae closes with an ironic assertion that satire is no longer necessary (VI.i). The speaker praises the timess Then let me now repent mee of my rage, For writing Satyres in so righteous age: (21-22) "The Authors charge" commits his "playning Orphanes" to 17 oblivion. If the "luck-lesse Rymes" are for a time Ignored, their eventual impact upon the world w i l l be greater, since the envy, hatred and love of the s a t i r i s t ' s contemporaries w i l l not cause the meaning of his verses to be weakened, distorted, or their very existence to be threatened: For when I die, shall Enuie die with mee And lye deepe smothered with my Marble-stone, Which while I Hue cannot be done to dye, Nor, i f your l i f e gin ere my l i f e be done, Will hardly yeeld t'await my mourning hearse. But for my dead corps change my liuing verse. (13-18) 1 6 Kirk, p. 179. 1 7 Compare John Marston, "To the Worlds Mightie Monarch, Good Opinion"; "To euerlasting Obliuion." Citations from Marston i n my text are to The Poems of John Marston. ed. A. Davenport (Liverpool, 1961). 67 Hall's imagery depends largely for its effect upon contrasts between the sublime and the vulgar: So pride aboue doth shade the shame below: A golden Periwig on a Black-mores brow. (V.ii.4-3-44) Metaphors are drawn primarily from visual impressions, and frequently involve references to animals. "Labeo" reading Virgidemiae is described in this manner: His angry eyne looke a l l so glaring bright, Like th'hunted Badger in a moonelesse night, (VI.i.11-12) Animal images occur in connection with an opposition between darkness and light (IV.ii.6 8 - 7 0 ; IV.vi.23-29), with predatory qualities (IV.v.63-64), with corruption (V.ii.42) and with death (IV.v.21-22, 88) . On the other hand, beast metaphors are associated with intuitive apprehension of the natural order (IV.iii.6 8 - 7 1 ) . These poems, like those of Donne and Marston, use d i r t , excrement, putrefaction and disease as metaphors for 1R vice. Corrupt growth is an appropriate symbol for the degeneration of the countryside: The marble pauement hid with desart weede, With house-leeke, th i s t l e , docke, & hemlock-seed. (V.ii.59-60) See II.iii.10-14; II.iv.9-12; III.ii.21-24; IV.i. 158-160; IV.v.67-68. 68 Lechery is associated with f i l t h , "loathsome smoke," "Acherons steemes, or smoldring sulphur dust" (IV.i.154-155)• " S p i t f u l l mothes, and frets, and hoary mold" (IV.ii.14) threaten "Lolio's" possessions. The tricks of the usurer involve "fusted hoppes" and "mo'ld hrowne-paper" (IV.v.117-118). The peasant's cottage is ingrained with smoke and soot, suggesting the inhabitants' misery* . . . a s i l l y cote, Whose thatched spars are furr'd with sluttish soote A whole inch thick, shining like Black-moors brows Through smok that downe the head-les barrel blows. (V.i.59-62) This kind of imagery is used to describe "the hypocrite," who is "a rotten sticke in a darke night, a Poppie in a corne f i e l d , an i l l tempered candle, with a great snuffe, that 19 in going out smels i l l . " Rich men are generally diseased and bloated ( I I . i i . 6 2 ) : . . . I see some rotten bed-rid Syre, Which to out-strip the nonage of his heire, Is cram'd with golden broaths, and drugs of price, And ech day dying l i u ' s , and liuing dies, (V.ii.7-10) Hall can also suggest ta c t i l e qualities; for example, "Gallio's" manners are imaged forth rather than portrayed in direct narrative: Kirk, @>. 172 69 A l l soft as is the f a l l i n g thistle-downe, Soft as the fumie b a l l , or Morrians crown; (IV.iv.74-75) Clothes define the man in the s a t i r i c world. The grotesque dress of gallants is compared to the nakedness, "ruder hide" 20 or "home-spun Russet" of an earlier age. The parsimonious "Lolio" appears in "rough Pampilian," "white Carsy hose, patched on eyther knee" and a "knit night-cap" (IV.ii.19-24). This imagery is one way of contrasting the soldier and the plough-man: The sturdie Plough-man doth the soldier see, A l l scarfed with pide colours to the knee, Whom Indian pillage hath made fortunate, And now he gins to loath his former state: Now doth he inly scorne his Kendall-greene, And his patch't Cockers now dispised beene. (IV.vi.36-41) "Zoylus" feigns illness in order to display "his wrought night-cap, and laune Pillow-bere" (VI.i.112). Thus, elaborate, miserly and simple apparel become metaphors for vice and virtue. Virgidemiae evokes a world where a l l good Is measured by gain, a profit society: If Mammon selfe should euer Hue with men, Mammon himselfe shalbe a Citizen. (IV.v.129-130) 20 S,ee III.i.62-69; III.vii.25-46; IV.iv.46-51. 70 The narrator asks Whom cannot gifts at last cause to relent, Or to win fauour, or flee punishment? (V.i.79-80) A man's prestige is dependent upon what he owns, be i t gentle birth or financial means, not upon his personal virtue. Values are distorted. There is a cleavage between appearance and reali t y : A l l is not so that seemes; sor surely than Matrona should not be a Curtizan. Smooth Chrysalus should not bee rich with fraud, Nor honest bee his owne wiues baude. (V.ii.25-28) The general decay of the times is manifested in that of learning, resulting in the disintegration of the social order. These are the f i r s t English satires in which literary criticism is a major element. As i f to stress their importance, Hall places his literary and academic satires at the beginning of the book. Debasement of literature and literary taste reflects moral corruption. Hall attackes obscenity ( I I . i ) : Now is Pernassus turned to the stewes: And on Bay-stockes the wanton Myrtle growes. Cytheron h i l l ' s become a Brothel-bed, And Pyrene sweet, turnd to a poysoned head Of cole-blacke puddle: whose infectuous staine Corrupteth a l l the lowly f r u i t f u l l plaine. (I.ii.1 7 - 2 2 ) The popularization of tragic poetry (I.iv) causes him to exclaim 71 Shame that the Muses should be bought and sold, For euery peasants Brasse, on each scaffold. (I.iii.5 7 - 5 8 ) The s a t i r i s t attacks the immense amount of bad literature, in fact, simply paper-wasting ( I . i i . 2 7 - 3 4 ; I I . i ) , that is directed towards the vulgar (I.ix.11-12). Academics suffer hardships and wisdom is despised: Each home-bred science percheth in the chaire, Whiles sacred arts grouell on the groundsell bare. Since pedling Barbarismes gan be in request, Nor classicke tongues, nor learning found no rest. ( I I . i i i . 2 3 - 2 6 ) The "ouer-learned age" breeds superficial glibness and learning ( V I . i . l 2 9 - l 6 0 ) : 0 age well thriuen and well fortunate, When ech man hath a Muse appropriate, (VI.i.233-234) The "well knowne. daintines of the time" hinders the broadcasting of unpleasant truths: Ye Antique Satyres, how I blesse your dales, That brook'd your bolder s t i l e , their owne dispraise, And wel-neare wish; yet ioy my wish is vaine, I had beene then, or they were now againel For now our eares beene of more br i t t l e mold, Than those d u l l earthen eares that were of old: (V.iii. 5 - 1 0 ) The s a t i r i s t deplores writer^'; financial dependency and s e l f -abasement in sycophantic dedications (I.i.11-14). He attacks 72 not simply lasciviousness, corruption and over-production but also lack of restraint and decorum. Poets should be guided by reason (I.iv.15-17). In his satires upon indecent poetry, Hall glances at specific poets, such as Marlowe ( I . i i i ) and Nashe ( I . i x . 3 5 ) » and assumes that the writers of "ribald rymes" are as shameless as their verses (I.ix.21-24). Many of the important genres of Elizabethan literature are discussed, rhymed tragic poetry ( I . i i i ) , unrhymed heroic poetry ( I . i v ) , "de casibus" tragedy (I.v), attempts to write quantitative verse in English (I.vi) and sonnet sequences(I.vii). The "Academicall" satires are a survey of the various professions, focussing on greed as the motivation i n a l l walks of l i f e . The "Morall" criticisms are concerned with private behaviour, personal humours, fashions and religion. The multiplicity of stock figures gives an impression of great variety. Targets are the wealthy man who contemns scholars ( I I . i i ) , lawyers ( I I . i i i ) , doctors (II.iv), simoniacs (II.v), private tutors (II.vi), alchemists ( I V . i i i . 3 4 - 3 9 ) , astrologers ( I I . v i i ) , tailors ( I V . i i . 6 3 - 6 5 ) , usurers (IV.v.), merchants (IV.v.111-114) and landlords (V.ij V . i i i ) . Vainglory ( I l l . i i ) , the decline of hospitality (V.ii) and ostentatious piety or wealth ( I l l . i v ) are also satirized. The s a t i r i s t c r i t i c i z e s fantastic dress, drunkenness ( I l l . v i ) , excessive personal ornamentation (III.v) and elaborate food ( I I I . i i i . 1 7 - 2 6 ) . Other targets are avarice, 73 lechery (IV.i.92-161), murder (IV.1.55*58), marrying rich widows in order to inherit their lands (IV.i.61-65), pride ( I V . i i i ) , cockfighting and gambling (IV.iii. 1 8 - 2 3 ), gluttony (IV.iv.18-21), t r i v i a l pursuits (IV.iv.86-95), bribery (IV. v.1-16), travellers' tales (IV.vi.58-73) and extravagance (V.iv). He scorns Roman Catholics (IV.vii). The range of characters and subject-matter reveals an extensive and varied knowledge of most aspects of the l i f e of the time, that of the peasantry (V.i.59-122), of city merchants ( I I I . i i i ) , of the country gentry ( V . i i ) , of household servants (V.ii.49-50), of tavern dwellers (V.ii.100-102) and, above a l l , of scholars and gallants. The difference between the Tooth-lesse and the byting Satyres. 21 except for the f i r s t satire of the fourth book, is not so much in the style, in spite of the sa t i r i s t ' s declarations to that effect, as in the material. The later books are aimed more directly than the f i r s t three at the major social and economic abuses of the period, caused by the sweeping social and agrarian revolutions. The narrator does not approve of the desire for novelty, the discontent of the man who thinks "happy a l l estates except his own" (IV.vi.49), He cries 0-Nature: was the world ordain'd for nought, But f i l l mans maw, and feede mans idle thought: (III.i.56-57) 21 See above, p.54. 74 The satires are particularly bitter about social climbers, old "Lolio," who scrapes and drudges to make his son a gentlemen (IV.ii) and "Lolio's sonne," who buys his gentility, like "the Ambitious," who "hath projected a plot to rise, and woe be to the friend that stands in his way. He s t i l l haunteth the Court, and his unquiet s p i r i t haunteth him; which having fetcht him from the secure peace of his 22 Country-rest, sets him new and impossible taskes." The "vpstart" carpet-knight (IV.iv.l), for these reasons, denies his humble origins: He findes recordes of his great pedigree, And tels how f i r s t his famous Ancestor Did come in long since with the Conquerour. (iv.ii.134-136) The heir of "Vi l l l u s the welthy farmer" (V.lv) has the expensive tastes of the impoverished fops who congregate at St. Paul's ( I I I . v i i ) . Like "the Unthrift," "he ranges 23 beyond his pale, and lives without compasse." J In short, the ambitious or inconstant man "is an importunate suter, a corrupt client, a violent undertaker, a smooth Factor, but untrusty, a restlesse master of his owne; a Bladder puft up with the wind of hope, and selfe-love. He is in the common body, as a Mole i n the earth, ever unquietly casting; 22 Kirk, p. 192. 2 3 Kirk, p. 193. 75 and i n one word, is nothing, but a confused heape of envy, 24 pride, covetousnesse. 1 1 Questions of public concern are given considerable 25 attention, for example, the enclosure movement. ' "Faire g l i t t e r i n g Hals" (V.ii.1 8 ) conceal famine and misery. Estates are depopulated: Would i t not vexe thee where thy syres did keepe, To see the dunged foldes of dag-tayled sheepe, And ruined house where holy things were said, Whose free-stone wals the thatched roofe vpbriad, (V.i.115-118) Other abuses of the time do not escape notice, i n p a r t i c u l a r , rack-renting (V.i.51-58), "concealed land" (V.i.37-38) and the engrossing of corn (IV.vi.23-27). The attractions of late sixteenth-century London are described. Men pay to view some t r i c k e Of strange Moroccoes dumbe Arithmeticke, Or the young Elephant, or two-tayI'd steere, Or the rig'd Came11, or the F i d l i n g Frere. CIV.ii.93-96) P o l i t i c a l events, such as the English blockade on trade with Spain ( I V . i i i . 3 0 - 3 1 ) , are used for s a t i r i c a l purposes. Pride is embodied i n the building of the Es cur i a l , that "vaine bubble of Iberian pride" (V.ii.3 7-42), and the Spanish attempts to invade England ( V . i i i . 8 4 - 8 7 ) . Kirk, "Of the Ambitious," p. 193. S e e ' I V . i i . 123-128; V . i ; V . i i i . 76 The poems are often witty and amusing. Hall excels in animated character drawing. His idealized view of the Golden Age is localized by homely details that reveal keen observation of men and their activities (III.i . 2 $ - 2 7 ) . General sins are illustrated with sharp and often brilliant portraits. Examples are "Virginius" (IV.iv.108-123), "Matho" and "Cyned" ( I V . v .6 7 - 7 0 ) , "the hunger-staru'd Appurtenance" (7.ii.8 9 - 9 8 ) and the final satiric thrust, "old Catilla" (VI.289-304). Scenes are vividly painted, such as the one in which a factor tends his bed-rid master with great care, having been deceived into expecting a rich legacy: So lookes he like a Marble toward rayne, And wrings and snites, and weeps, & wipes againe, Then turnes his backe and smiles & lookes askance, Seasoning againe his sowred countenance, (VI.i.103-106) The dramatic elements, however, are often undermined by the author's rhetorical and declamatory tendencies, encouraged by the excellence of the heroic couplet as a vehicle for aphorisms and revealed in statements like this one: lo to the weale where manie Lawiers bee, For there is sure much store of maladie. (II.iii.15-16) This weakness is shown most clearly on the one occasion when Hall does not attempt to fully adapt classical references 77 26 and illustrations to Elizabethan England (IV.i). The portrait of the "close adultresse" (IV.i.144-157) lacks the force of the tableau of shrewish wives who . . . make a drudge of their vxorius mate, Who like a Cot-queene freezeth at the rocke, Whiles his breach't dame doth man the forren stock. (IV.vi . l 6 - l 8 ) Hall, like Donne, expresses in formal verse satires a contempt for the misuse of human a b i l i t i e s in the single-minded devotion to materialistic values characteristic of the s a t i r i c world, related to the degeneration of language manifested in the decline of literature. The poet searches for truth, but in the sense of unmasking hypocrisy rather than that of pursuing an absolute reality. He speaks in an individual tone. The reader of Virgidemiae is aware of an academic commenting on the outside world, unlike Donne's perceptive observer with his curious mixture of detachment and involvement or Marston's narrator, immersed in a sea of corruption. The values Hall's persona represents are contrasted with "each single-sold squire" ( I I . i i . l 8 ) . His cri t e r i a are expl i c i t l y set forths Mong'stall these sturs of discontented s t r i f e , Oh let me lead an Academicke l i f e , To know much, and to thinke we nothing know; Nothing to haue, yet thinke we haue enough, ^ Stein, "Joseph Hall's Imitation of Juvenal," MLR, XLIII (1948), 321. 78 In s k i l l to want, and wanting seeke for more, In weale nor want, nor wish for greater store; Enuye ye Monarchs with your proud excesse At our low Sayle, and our hye Happinesse. (IV.vi.82-89) Although H a l l does not communicate such an intense awareness of a d i s t i n c t personality as Donne and Marston do, he achieves a high degree of s t r u c t u r a l unity through organizati imagery, thematic patterns and the c r i t e r i a of the academic l i f e , antique s i m p l i c i t y and v i r t u e . The s a t i r i s t does not doubt these values i n spite of his conviction that he is l i v i n g i n a degenerate age, but he evokes a world i n which a flood of vice and f o l l y has overcome them, represented by the "spurious seede" (VI.i.239) of the press, springing up over a l l the land. He catches the f l i e s of Elizabethan England and by means of i r o n i c a l exaggeration fixes them i n amber, adapting the genre of formal s a t i r e to his own time. 79 CHAPTER VI MARSTON Marston 1s formal verse s a t i r e s , Certalne Satyres (1598) and The Scourge of V i l l a n i e , registered on September 8 of the same year, derive the monologue or dialogue form and the technique of i r o n i c a l exaggeration from H a l l as well as from first-hand examination of the c l a s s i c a l s a t i r i s t s . 1 Although neither H a l l nor Marston indicates any dir e c t knowledge of the "Satyres," the intense, v i v i d l y dramatic tone of Certaine Satyres and the Scourge resembles Donne's works rather than Virgidemiae. Marston, however, i s not subtle an i r o n i s t as Donne. The snarling and chastising s a t i r i c persona becomes a f u l l y established convention i n the Marstonian s a t i r e s , which include no "Tooth-lesse" c r i t i c i s m s . Inconsistencies arise from the attempt to fuse the scourging and scorning of i n d i v i d u a l s , either possibly i d e n t i f i a b l e persons or representatives or s p e c i f i c types, with the elaborate moral exhortation, the pose of humility and modesty, of the writer of homily and Complaint. The opposition is concentrated i n these l i n e s ; x A. Stein, "The Second English S a t i r i s t , " Modern Language Review. XXXVIII (194-3), 273-278. 80 Preach not the Stoickes patience to me, I hate no man, but mens imp iet ie . My soule is vext , what power w i l l ' t h des is t? Or dares to stop a sharpe fangd S a t y r i s t ? I h o ' l e coole my rage? who'le stay my i t ch ing f i s t But I w i l l plague and torture whom I l i s t ? 2 Indeed, Marston constantly d r i f t s toward one of two extremes, s t ra ight forward, powerful i n v e c t i v e , or ph i losoph ica l meditat ion; the c los ing passages of the seventh, eighth and eleventh "Satyres" of the Scourge i l l u s t r a t e the l a t t e r tendency. There is a c o n f l i c t between the speculat ive m o r a l i s t , expounding S t o i c and Machiave l l ian ideas, and the dramatic poet. The narrator of the formal s a t i r e s expresses h is " g a l l " by the use of t o r t u r e d , contorted d i c t i o n and syntax, sometimes overstrained and tas te less imagery and r h e t o r i c , e l i s i o n s , abrupt phrases, rapid t r a n s i t i o n s between subjects and speakers and uneven rhythms, probably suggested by passages i n the byt ing Satyres and by E l i zabethan dramatic blank verse . H a l l achieves greater compression i n meaning and ' form, often managing to confine the sense to the couplet , and Donne approaches more c lose ly the f u s i o n of form and content than does Marston. In general , the scourger of v i l l a i n y is l ess uniform i n s ty le than e i ther of h is predecessors. His verse is f r e e r , less regu lar , less compact The Poems of John Marston. ed . A. Davenport (L iverpoo l , 1961), p. 106. Subsequent c i ta t ions from Marston i n my text w i l l be to th is e d i t i o n . Alden, Rise of Formal S a t i r e , p. 132. 81 than Hall's, with fewer closed couplets, more irregularities of accent and some unrhymed lines (SV v.18). The s a t i r i s t claims that his style is " l o f t i e r " than the usual s a t i r i c verse: 0 how on tiptoes proudly mounts my Muse, Stalking a l o f t i e r gate then Satyres vse. Me thinkes some sacred rage warmes a l l my vaines, Making my spright mount vp to higher straines Then wel beseemes a rough-tongu'd Satyres part, But Art curbs Nature, Nature guildeth Art. (SV ix.5^10) He also asserts that he is not influenced by earlier writers in the genre (SV vi.99-100). Although he is reticent about his s t y l i s t i c goal and, unlike Hall, does not suggest that the English language is unsuitable for any conception of the s a t i r i c form, Marston explicitlyyproclaims his detestation of "too much obscuritie, & harshnes, because they profit no sence" in his a r t i s t i c manifesto, "To those that seeme i u d i c i a l l perusers." He "will not deny there is a seemely decorum to be obserued, and a peculiar kinde of speech for a Satyres l i p s " which he "can wil l i n g l i e r conceiue, then dare to prescribe," but the "substance"—the matter—not the "shadow"—the form—is to be "rough." The classical sat i r i s t s are obscure only because they speak of "priuate customes" of their time. Nevertheless, i n spite of his boasted "plainnes," Marston continually experiments with rhythms ("Ad Rithmum"), unusual words—archaisms, alchemic, 82 c a s u i s t i c and scholastic terms—and imagery to produce verse that i s crabbed and contorted with thought. 4" His attempts, however, often degenerated into absurdity, unlike the effects created by similar imagery i n Hamlet. King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra and si m i l a r d i c t i o n i n Donne's secular and r e l i g i o u s love poetry, for instance, i n passionate philosophical d i s q u i s i t i o n s l i k e "The Extasie." The Marstonian s t y l e has been called "clumsy and c h i l b l a i n e d , " and a perceptive c r i t i c remarks that i t can be described as "a kind of growing pain which language was bound to s u f f e r as i t passed from the manner of Spenser to the manner of Donne." Neo-S.toic elements are as important i n Marston's works as they are i n Virgidemiae. Certaine Satyres. the Scourge and a l l the dramas with the possible exception of Eastward Ho dramatize the breakdown of the accepted order of Nature (S.V iv.24; v i i ? 9 ) and express a v i s i o n of l i f e as dark and d i f f i c u l t , a violent c o n f l i c t between reason and passion i n which passion i s most often the v i c t o r . Crime exi s t s , but the formal satires give no hint of the r e s o l u t i o n of e v i l Una Ellis-Fermor, The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation. 3rd ed., revised (London, 1953), P» 83. ^ Peter Ure, "John Marston's 'Sophonisba 1: A Reconsideration," Durham University Journal, n.s., X, No. 3 (194-9), 82. Theodore Spencer, "John Marston," The C r i t e r i o n . XIII (1934), 584. 83 through experiencing the suffering i t causes. By w i l f u l l y committing a s i n or omitting to control h i s bodily appetites man becomes unable to hear the voice of God, Right Reason, the dictates of which are e s s e n t i a l for s a l v a t i o n . Man d i f f e r s from a l l other created beings on earth i n that he possesses a r a t i o n a l soul, capable of distinguishing matters affecting his salvation f o r good or i l l from those not es s e n t i a l to i t , discriminating between good and e v i l and contemplating i t s e l f and God. When the passions are strong, overruling t h i s reasonable f a c u l t y , they cause e v i l and misery. One doctrine of Renaissance psychology is that normally the passions act i n response to the reason, through the medium of the animal s p i r i t s , the l i n k i n g agents between the s p i r i t u a l essence and the material substance of man. However, passions may sometimes be i n i t i a t e d by the imagination or stimulated by physiological factors without the intervention 7 of the reason. The person dominated by passions is "sprightlesse, sence or soule hath none, / Since l a s t Medusa turn'd him to a stone" (SV vii.44-4 - 5 ) . In man there is a continual warfare between the r a t i o n a l and the s e n s i t i v e , the human and the b e s t i a l , the i n t e l l e c t u a l and the p h y s i c a l . Usage i n vice d u l l s the w i l l to r e s i s t : Now here-vpon our I n t e l l e c t u a l l , Compact of f i r e a l l c e l e s t i a l l , 7 Babb, The Elizabethan Malady, p. 12. 84 Invisible, immortall, and diuine, Grewe straight to scorne his Land-lordes muddy slime. And therefore now is closely slunke away (Leauing his smoakie house of mortall clay) Adorn'd with a l l his beauties lineaments And brightest iemms of shining ornaments. His parts diuine, sacred, s p i r i t u a l l Attending on him, leauing the sensuall Base hangers on, lusking at home in slime, Such as wont', to stop port Esqueline. CSV viii.189-200) The reasonable soul must continually restrain the sensitive powers. Man's greatest enemies l i e within himself, so he must strive for self-knowledge and thereby gain self-mastery. The central concept of Neo-Stoicism is "synteresis," "the spark," the function or department of conscience that o should guide conduct. God as a fire is equated with s p i r i t , soul, mind and reason, a l l of which are compressed i n the term " i n t e l l e c t u a l l . " A vestige of the divine f i r e remains in man, making him potentially able to achieve perfection and communion with God. However, the Christian writer sees manu as a fa l l e n being who does not naturally prefer the good and is not naturally inclined to be ruled by reason (SV iv . 1 0 9 -113). Marston even suggests that the human condition, involving a physical body, necessarily obscures the voice of Right Reason. Man w i l l , in the distorted s a t i r i c world, either obey normal animal impulses "that soile our soules, and dampe our reasons l i g h t " (SV vi i . 1 8 3 ) , or turn to Anthony Caputi, John Marston. S a t i r i s t (New York, 1961), P. 59. 85 perversions worse than simple sensuality: Sure I nere thinke those axioms to be true, That soules of men, from that great soule ensue, And of his essence doe participate As't were by pypes, when so degenerate, So aduerse is our natures motion, To his immaculate condition: (SV vii.188-193) The Scourge ultimately preaches the Calvinist position; man, who on earth is entirely bestial, is redeemed only by the grace of God.^ Stoicism helps man keep his equilibrium i n a world of upheaval, but controlled patience and endurance are not adequate for l i f e (SV iv.145-160). The concept of virtuous or vicious behaviour as not determined by free w i l l , however, is consistent neither with earnest moral exhortation nor with the belief that the mind is capable of reform. If the individual is not personally responsible for his actions, how can he be attacked for his vices? Therefore, in other passages Marston assumes that physical characteristics and temperament do not control "the inward disposition," although they may incline a person to act in a particular way (SV i.11-13). Readers of Certaine Satyres and the Scourge encounter the conventional classicisms—pagan deities, personal type names, dialogue and dramatic settings. The author combines dramatic narrative, direct rebuke and reflection in the y See SV iv.115-122, 141-144, l 6 l - l 6 6 ; viii.1 1 0 - 1 1 7 , 173-214. 86 c h a s t i s e m e n t o f a d e c a y i n g s o c i e t y . The s a t i r e s a re e s s e n t i a l l y a s t r i n g o f p o r t r a i t s and scenes used t o i l l u s t r a t e g e n e r a l v i c e s . The fragments e x h i b i t a p a t t e r n o f a t t a c k f o l l o w e d by r e f l e c t i o n and m o r a l e x h o r t a t i o n . T h i s a l t e r n a t i o n between exposure and m e d i t a t i o n d e t e r m i n e s the s t r u c t u r e o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l poems and o f the whole work. M a r s t o n , l i k e H a l l , p r e f i x e s mottos t o h i s s a t i r e s . I n C e r t a i n e S a t y r e s and i n the f i r s t and t h i r d poems o f the Scourge he l i m i t s h i m s e l f t o the themes suggested by the t i t l e s . The t i t l e t h e s i s i s r e s t a t e d w i t h i n " C r a s . " I n " S a t y r a Nova" and the s i x t h and e l e v e n t h s a t i r e s of the Scourge u n i t y depends upon i n t e r n a l a s s o c i a t i o n s . I n a d d i t i o n t o t h e m a t i c p a t t e r n s , the c h a r a c t e r and a t t i t u d e s o f the d r a m a t i c s p e a k e r and h i s use o f language are d e v i c e s t o s e c u r e a c e r t a i n degree o f o r g a n i z a t i o n . The m a l c o n t e n t e d n a r r a t o r o f C e r t a i n e S a t y r e s and the Scourge i s p a r t l y a c o n v e n t i o n , p a r t l y a m a n i f e s t a t i o n o f t h e a u t h o r ' s temperament, and p a r t l y a p r o d u c t o f c o n d i t i o n s of t h e time (SV. i i . 104-109). I n the l a t e R e n a i s s a n c e , the " a n a t o m i s i n g " o f man and s o c i e t y t r a n s f o r m e d " m e l a n c h o l y , " a sombre d i s p o s i t i o n always p r e s e n t i n human n a t u r e , i n t o a d i s e a s e d b i t t e r n e s s , an o b s e s s i o n w i t h v i c e , e s p e c i a l l y s e x u a l v i c e . The m e l a n c h o l y man, f r e q u e n t l y i d e n t i f i e d w i t h t h e m a l c o n t e n t , i s a n a t u r a l s a t i r i s t , s i n c e he senses w i t h i n h i m s e l f the p o t e n t i a l e v i l he sees d i s p l a y e d 87 in society at large,and his own impulses give strength and vigour to the violent disgust his bitter disposition arouses in him. This personage, like "Malevole," "Macilente," "Jaques" and "Bosola," r a i l s at classes, the world in general, and contemplates the vanity and transitory nature of existence i t s e l f . In the extreme form he becomes a "humourous" character with the privilege of verbally reviling others, a professional cynic and fantastic meditator. The formal satires, i n spite of the character of "Bruto" (CS i i . 1 2 7 - 1 % ) , are narrated by precisely such a person, one who feels himself misunderstood and undervalued by his fellows, unjustly deprived of the power and influence his superior qualities merit and so embittered. Malevolence and e v i l , criminal passions and actions, the malign planet Saturn, are frequently associated in Elizabethan literature with melancholy. Indeed, the melancholic 1s astuteness and morose mental industry increase his power to do e v i l . Two concepts of melancholy, however, appear in the writings of the period; i t i s , f i r s t , a particular set of physical and mental characteristics determined by physiological conditions, sometimes exaggerated into a disease.^ In this sense, the state is betrayed by despondency, taciturnity, misanthropy, envy, jealousy, suspicion, stubbornness, inconsistency and irrational fear and sorrow. The term suggests, in the second 1 0 Babb, The Elizabethan Malady, p. 30. 88 place, the physiological c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sober and philosophic man, the fostering of i n t e l l e c t u a l and imaginative powers. This dualism l i e s behind the "dissembling s h i f t s " of Marston's narrator. His Muse, l i k e that of Hall's satyr, is a haughty one, "Ingenuous Melancholy," invoked i n the "Proemlvm i n librum primum." L i t e r a r y melancholia i s simply a t a c t i c that the narrator adopts i n his self-appointed mission to expose the fools and knaves of his world. When he has finished h i s task, he exorcises " d u l l sprighted Melancholy" (SV x i . 3 ) . The s a t i r i c cycle i s completed. Marston, l i k e H a l l , i s influenced by the concept of the s a t i r i s t as a scourge, but unlike H a l l , his manner, despairing and turbulent, does not suggest constancy and serenity. His spokesman i s characterized by insolence and bluster, uncompromising intolerance and insistence that merit does not depend upon popularity. He proclaims h i s disdain of popular opinion i n the prefatory piece, "To Detraction I present my Poesie": S.pight of despight, and rancors v i l l a n i e , I am my s e l f e , so is my poesie. (23-24) The persona is rough, honest, sickened at the rottenness and b e s t i a l i t y around him and a heroic scourge of v i c e , compelled to speak out against "impietie." The s a t i r i s t attempts to fuse the t r a d i t i o n s of the Juvenalian angry man, 89 the satyr, the surgeon and the preacher and deliverer of homilies in a narrator who is by turns amused, haughty, a furious punitive agent and an earnest healer of souls. Above a l l , he is an outspoken, blunt exposer of unpleasant t r u t h s . 1 1 "Reprofe" is invoked. 1 2 "Epictetus," the Stoic philosopher referred to in the "Preface" to The Fawne as the author's "bosome friend," delivers Certaine Satyres, but in the Scourge gives way to the coarse, savage "Theriomastix"—"Beast-scourge"—and "W. Kinsayder." The last name seems to be a pun on "Mar-stone." "Kinsing," 13 a word which is recorded only in Hall's epigram on Marston, J may signify, as Gosse, Kernan and Spenser suggest, an operation to castrate unruly dogs and dock their t a i l s . 14 This Interpretation i s , however, only a conjecture. The concept, nevertheless, is appropriate to the dramatic speaker's violent nature, who performs a similar operation upon mankind in his satires. The frequently recurring symbolism of barking, snarling dogs connects the Scourge with the Cynic philosophers. Indeed, the "Cynicke worke" contains a 1 1 See CS iii.93-100; iv.1-4; SV: "In Lectores prorsus indignos"* 16, 3 5 - 3 6 ; "Proem, i n l i b . I": 9-20; ii.1-18, 70-71, 142-143; I i i . 1 2 5 - 1 2 7 ; v.109-110. 1 2 See CS: i i i . l ; SV: "Proem, in l i b . I l l " ; i x . l . 1 3 See "Satyra Nova." 1 4 Leishman, ed. The Three Parnassus Plays, p. 241. 90 "Cynicke Satyre" delivered by a "Cynick dogge." The speaker takes pleasure in tormenting and punishing his victims (CS v.179-181): My pate was great with child, & here ti s eas'd, Vexe a l l the world, so that thy selfe be pleas'd. (SV vi.111-112) In the "Proemivm in librum prlmum" of the Scourge there is a suggestion of physical torture rather than of sanative castigation: I beare the scourge of iust Rhamnusia. Lashing the lewdnes of Britania. . . . my vexed thoughtfull soule, Takes pleasure, in displeasing sharp controule. (1-8) However, in addition, the targets' physical reactions manifest an inner catharsis. The "Rhamnusian whip" (CS i v . l ; v.5) is a violent purge, sap-green, yielded by the berries of the buckthorn, Rhamnus catharticus The narrator purges 16 (SV iv.81-82), scourges, wields a razor (SV v.118) and exposes "the hidden entrailes of ranke villanie./Tearing the vaile from damn'd Impietie." He has many satyrical qualities and refers to satyrs, demanding whether abuses shall remain shrouded in hypocrisy 15 Randolph, "The Medical Concept in English Renaissance Satiric Theory: Its Possible Relationships and Implications," Studies in Philology. XXXVIII (1941), 148. 1 6 See SV i i i . 1 5 0 ; ix . 5 4 , 129-130. 91 . . . Whilst my satyrick vaine Shall muzled be, not daring out to straine His tearing paw? No gloomie Iuvenall Though to thy fortunes I disastrous f a l l . (SV iii.193-196) What is the s a t i r i c commentator's "natiue straine"? He is deeply interested i n philosophical speculation. Like Hall's, these are satires in which personal references can be found, although the narrator protests that he does not attack individuals. In "To him that hath perused me," the postscript to the Scourge. he declares that he is "'free from endeuoring to blast any priuate mans good name." In many passages the moral intention of "this sharpe, yet well meant poesie" is asserted. A "milde Muse" (SV i i . 9 7 ) compels the poet to attack universal e v i l s . He is a saviour of mankind, "a second Theseus" (CS iii.100), no "icye Saturnist." no "northerne pate" (SV i i . 1 9 ) . In "To Detraction" he reveals an awareness of his limitations; his is a "setled censure" (20) . He carefully differentiates between greater and lesser vices, as Donne does in "Satyre II" (SV i i i . 8 1 - 8 4 ) . Although the whole society is corrupt, the speaker recognizes that hypocrisy and self-righteousness are the most monstrous sins (CS i.125-136; SV x.126-130) and that he himself is guilty of the faults he condemns. Self-criticism occurs in Certaine Satyres (ii.11-14) and i n the Scourge ("Proem, in l i b . II"J 1-6). The scourger unmasks, 92 unveils and probes into the cankered spots of human society. Images of s t r i p p i n g away f a l s e fronts are a recurring m o t i f , 1 7 based upon the s a t i r i c discrepancy between the substance and the shadow. 1 8 S c u r r i l i t y , envy and malice are d i s c l a i m e d . 1 9 The dramatic narrator i s preoccupied with the popular reaction to his poetry (SV iv .169-170) and d e l i b e r a t e l y makes the f i r s t s a t i r e of the Scourge obscure to s u i t those who ignorantly think that such a style is a mark of a refined t a s t e . He is concerned about misinterpretation of his words: . . . 0 i n d i g n i t i e To my respectlesse free-bred poesie. (SV vi.99-100) Since the world is "damn'd," the scourger is aware that i t is impossible or at least extremely d i f f i c u l t to reform f a l l e n human nature and that a "bold-fac'd Satyre" might as well confine i t s e l f to "meaner g u l l e r y , " for i t is as easy to "draw Nilus r i u e r dry, / As dense the world from foule impietie" (CS il.105-106, 159-160). But even although he knows they w i l l have no e f f e c t , he persists i n writing s a t i r e s . The "Proemium" to the l a s t book of the Scourge 1 7 See CS i.135-136; ii. 3 0 - 3 2 , 158; SV: "In Lectores": 42-43; "Proem, i n l i b . I": 18; "Proem.in l i b . I l l " : 22. 1 ft See CS i.123-124; SV i.11-12; ii.12-14; v.40-47; vi.71-72; vii. 1 3 - 1 6 , 90-91, 139-14-2. 1 9 See CS iv.167-1695 SV xi . 1 - 1 2 . 93 advertises one more attempt to remove sin: 0 that a Satyres hand had force to pluck Some fludgate vp, to purge the world from muck: Would God I could turne Alpheus riuer i n To purge this Augean oxstaule from foule sin. (17-20) The s a t i r i c commentator is entrusted with "a sacred cure / To salue the soules dread wounds" (SV iv.114-115), the noble purpose that is announced in the prefatory lines to the third book of the Scourge: In serious iest, and iesting seriousnes 1 striue to scourge poluting beastlines. (1-2) In spite of this claim to be concerned about the moral well-being of others, the. speaker again and again announces his contempt for the vulgar and complains that his work is exposed to the gaze of idiots (SV vi.105-110). The pose of the virtuous avenger at times verges on comedy, as when he snarls, "Let Custards quake, my rage must freely runne" (SV i i . 4 ) . The over-shrill tones of this versa perhaps reveal an insecurity about the narrator's moral right to attack others and a need to convince himself of the potency of his social criticism, that he is indeed a "barking Satyrist," before whom a l l should tremble. He is inconsistent--sometimes arrogant, dedicating his book "to his most esteemed, and best beloued Selfe," while at other times he longs for the 94 cloak of "euerlasting Obliuion." Pride in "darke reproofes" alternates with the attitude that i t is madness to waste hours in "idle rime" and that deficiencies in the work are to be excused because of sickness or the public's ignorance (S.V x.69-79). His attitudes towards other poets and towards literary devices fluctuate. In "Ad Rithmum," for example, rhyme is praised, but w i l l be disdained i f i t interferes with the poet's " l i b e r t i e " (26). Hall abandons minor s a t i r i c targets for major ones, but Marston rejects the other writer's topics as t r i v i a l and hackneyed (SV i i i . 105-120). Petty sins are well punished, while vice in high places is triumphant (CS. v): • Ay me, hard world for Satyrists beginne To sette vp shop, when no small petty sinne Is l e f t vnpurg'd . . . (SV ii.44-46) Nevertheless, Marston covers much of the same ground as his predecessor. The speaker remarks in the address, "In Lectores," that he writes for the "diuiner wits, c e l e s t i a l l soules, / Whose free-borne mindes no kennel thought controules" (81-82). But where in the satires do these choice spirits appear? The narrator admits that in the s a t i r i c world verses such as his are not li k e l y to be appreciated: These notes were better sung, mong better sort, But to my pamphlet, few saue fooles resort. (SV iv.169-170) 95 Although passivity is beyond the reach of the speaker's angry violence of s p i r i t , his attitude of moral reproof crystallizes into a kind of Stoic self-sufficiency. In the last poem of the Scourge he pretends to no moral purpose whatsoever: Here ends my rage, though angry brow was bent, Yet I haue sung in sporting merriment. (239-240) In Marston's formal satires dense language and remarkably consistent, striking imagery express disgust with the animal nature of man. This idiom is a powerful mixture of bawdry and philosophy, although sometimes perversely and nearly always badly expressed. Vice and f o l l y are associated with images of physical torment, bodily processes—sexual and excremental—and decay, d i r t , putrefaction, the desecration of lovely and noble things. Men have become beasts and insects (SV v i i ) : . . . 0 these same buzzing Gnats That sting my sleeping browes, these Nilus Rats, Halfe dung, that haue their l i f e from putrid slime, (SV vi.65-67) In the world of the satires "beasts for f i l t h are deified" (SV iii.104). E v i l infects the ''world Arteries" with "corrupt blood" (SV iii.160-161). Grossly physical words and images are used in serious contexts, such as the il l u s t r a t i o n of the nature of carping criticism by the 96 spaniel who -"perfumes the roome, / With his tailes f i l t h " (SV ix.31-32). Humanity is a milling crowd of forms without substance, of faces showing no signs of individual intelligence, a "vIzard e d-b i f r ont ed-Ianian rout" (CS i . 4 ) of "ambitious Gorgons. wide-mouth'd Lamians. /Shape-changing Proteans, damn'd Briareans" (CS v.1-2) s p i l l i n g over into every corner of the s a t i r i c world. "Opinion," the abuse of reason resulting from the habit of making judgments based upon incorrect sense impressions, to which Pigmalions Image and Certaine Satyres is dedicated, is the chief cause of the grotesqueness and horror of the s a t i r i c vision. It is the source of false values and therefore a corrupting influence: Shamev to Opinion, that perfumes his dung, And st'reweth flowers rotten bones among, lugling Opinion, thou inchaunting witch, Paint not a rotten post with colours rich. (SV x.63-66) "Detraction," to which the Scourge is dedicated, frustrates the progress towards perfection by subverting, tainting and soiling good works before they can mature. It is the "foule canker of faire vertuous action, / Vile blaster of the freshest bloomes on earth." The Neo-Stolc Lipsius associates "Opinion" with earth, the contrary of fi r e and 2i the usual source of sense impressions, the threat to reason. Caputi, p. 68. 97 Marston's imagery l a r g e l y depends upon t h i s antithesis between f i r e and earth i n h i s creation of a world dominated by ''Opinion*' and "Detraction." The f i r e - e a r t h symbolism i s associated with the figure of a conduit, pipes connecting human souls, conceived af as plants, to God, the fountain that provides t h e i r nourishment. When this clear spring i s polluted and clogged with slime, man's reason i s rendered i n e f f e c t u a l . The s a t i r i c protagonist must purge the slime to r e e s t a b l i s h contact with God, as he states i n the "Proemium 21 i n librum tertium." An opposition between f i r e and a i r is also set up. The narrator protests i n "To Detraction" that h i s " s p i r i t i s not huft vp with fatte fume / Of slimie A l e , " for "'Opinion" puffs the sould, which becomes a "windie bubble" (SV v i . 4 ) , and "but a spunge" (SV v i i . 5 8 ) . The gallants scorned i n "In Lectores" are "puffie youthes" (42). This image i s used to express the s a t i r i c fury i n these l i n e s : I cannot hold, I cannot I indure To view a big womb'd foggie clowde immure The radiant tresses of the quickning sunne. (SV i i . 1 - 3 ) The s a t i r i c world is dusky (SV i i . 2 3 ) , covered i n mists "of watry foggs, that f i l l the i l l - s t u f t l i s t / Of f a i r e Desert, ielous euen of blinde darke" (SV v.11-12). Vice is symbolized by the absence of l i g h t : 21 See SV Ii.3 9 - 4 3 , 70-71, 80; i i i . l 6 0 - l 6 l ; vi.21-22; vii.1 8 8 - 2 0 2 ; viii. 1 8 5 - 2 0 0 ; ix.28-29; xi.206-207. 98 Who sayes the sunne is cause of vgly night? Yet when he vailes our eyes from his faire sight, The gloomie curtaine of the night is spred. (SV iv.125-127) Corpulence and inflation are associated and identified with degeneracy, since '"to be huge, is to be deadly sicke" (SV ii.118). The task of the barber-surgeon narrator is to relieve "the goutie humourssof these pride-swolne dayes" (SV xi.9). In this atmosphere, a l l appearances are false. Certaine Satyres treats, f i r s t , negative e v i l , the empty appearance of good, flatterers, lovers, courtiers, Puritans in the roles of citizens and usurers, and soldiers, second, positive e v i l masquerading as good, Puritans, flatterers, the malcontent, third, e v i l both in fact and appearance. After attacking Hall's criticism of the literature of the time, the poet expands on the picture of a world in which a l l values are inverted (CS v). He ends on the ironic note, as Hall does i n the sixth book of Virgidemiae. that the world has become so virtuous that there is no need for satire (139-166). In the f i r s t book of the Scourge. "Satyres" one to three are a general attack on various aspects of immorality, especially lust. "Satyre I" is a panoramic survey of s a t i r i c types which illustrates the motto, "Fronti nulla f i d e s " — "there is no trusting to appearances." The next poem, a 99 similar review of society, justifies the writing of satire and l i s t s the topics proposed for discussion i n the works that follow. In the third satire the speaker reaches the heights of indignation. "Cras" (iv) portrays those who w i l l repent tomorrow and closes the book on a didactic note, an examination of philosophical and theological concepts. The next look is made up of the f i f t h , sixth and seventh satires. The f i r s t and last, as well as the beginning of "Satyre VIII," which opens the third book, develop more fu l l y the vices exposed in the earlier group, such as the domination of wealth and guile (v), man's bestiality ( v i i ) and the loss of reason when sensual desires are dominant ( v i i i ) . The central portion in this section is occupied by "Hem nosti'n" ( v i ) , a structural digression attacking those who, the author claims, have misinterpreted his Pigmalion. related to the main s a t i r i c theme in that literary corruption, another abuse of man's rational faculties, reflects and encourages moral decline. The last passages in the seventh and eighth satires are didactic and reflective. Book III, after "Satyre VIII," is in a somewhat lighter vein. "Here's.a toy to mocke an Ape indeede" (ix) unmasks the apishness of man, the ridiculous nature of the creature. "S.atyra Nova" is another digression, a sustained, somewhat petulant attack upon Hall, 100 added in the second edition (1599). The f i n a l satire parallels the opening one in that i t is a survey of the age. "Humours" presents a string of caricatures of gal l a n t s — dancers, theatre-lovers, fencers, bores, lechers, fops,—and closes, like the other two books, with moral exhortation. The speaker appeals to young men to recover "Synderesis." He has moved from fury to contempt, reflection and some kind of resolution. Marston is concerned with morals, humours, manners, fashions and classes of mankind. "In Lectores" follows the precedent set by Hall of prefacing verses with a literary manifesto, defining the nature and mission of satire and discussing the degeneration of the literature of the time. In Marston1s satires Hall symbolizes something resembling the figure of "Labeo" in Virgidemiae, the bad writer who spreads his venom abroad, "belching lewd termes gainst a l l sound l i t t r a t u r e " (SV i i i . 1 7 6 ) . Distortions of language are a major cause and manifestation of the abuse of reason (S.V vii.84 - 9 9 ) . The general decay of the times extends to "Englands yeomanrie" (SV ii . 1 3 9 ) and to the military caste (SV viii. 7 2 - 8 3 ) . References are made to monopolies (SV iv.83-86; vii.3 3 ) , the cheating of heirs (SV ii. 5 6 - 6 3 ; iii.1 5 7 - 1 5 8 ), usury (SV iv.73-80; vii.62-75) and lawyers (SV vii.80-99). Other targets are Puritans (SV ii.92 - 1 0 6 ; ix.105-119) and Roman Catholics (SV Ii.72 - 9 0 ) . 101 The t r a d i t i o n a l a n t i - c l e r i c a l and anti-feminist c r i t i c i s m i s r e i t e r a t e d . These satire s are p a r t i c u l a r l y b i t t e r i n the i r invective against the lower classes, peasants and artisans. The most substantial subject, however, is l u s t , normal and abnormal. The s a t i r i s t depicts an age When euery signe can brothelrie a f f o r d . When lust doth sparkle from our females eyes And modes t i e , is rousted i n the skies. (SV ii.107-109) The lover frequently i s a s a t i r i c target, a conventional figure exhibiting the f a m i l i a r melancholic t r a i t s (CS. i i i . 5 1 - 7 4 ) . The i d l e and luxurious l i f e of courts is ami er o t i c l i f e ; wine and ce r t a i n foods, such as eringoes, eggs, potatoes, oysters and marrow pies (SV i i i . 6 8 - 7 4 ) , are considered to be aphrodisiacs. Lust i s a disease of body and mind, destroying virtue and happiness. When i b overpowers reason, f l e s h conquers s p i r i t and the subhuman element i n man's nature conquers the human. Marston creates the v i s i o n of a world gone mad, a world i n which "Circes magick charme" turns men into maggots (SV vii.70-71) and " s t i l l the sensuall haue preheminence" (SV xi.234). The obsessive concern with the f l e s h , drawing fort h e v i l from dark corners, ripping off v e i l s and tearing up e n t r a i l s , produces a bizarre, eccentric, 102 sometimes hysterical and incoherent, but always strongly individual note. The desire for recognition and the self-dramatization as a dreadful scourge conflict with the wish for oblivion in these poems. There is a mixture of contempt for the reader, for the vices that are being unmasked and for the speaker. The discrepancy between the narrator's revulsion at the physical and his attraction, even fascination, by i t , his unpleasant satisfaction in dwelling upon unclean 22 details, can perhaps be explained as an ironic comment upon the speaker himself, but I think not. The incongruity is central to the a r t i s t i c failures in Marston. It is manifested in the grotesque attempt in Antonio and Me11ida to fuse romantic melodrama, s a t i r i c a l comedy and burlesque of conventional literary and theatrical modes. A similar effect is created by the superfluous accumulation of hor r i f i c details in Antonio's Revenge (1602), the frank delight in sheer brutality. The scourger depicts the unnatural vices of "Luscus" (SV iii.34-52) in the tone of one simply reciting an unsavoury joke; but the habits of "Lucea" in the same poem are offered as an example of the "brutish f i l t h " he w i l l not "cease to curse and ban" (126). The problem has given rise to a c r i t i c a l quarrel over Marston's claim that his Ovidian poem The Metamorphosis of Alden, p. 135. 1 0 3 Pigmalions Image is s a t i r i c a l . Should his statement be accepted at face value? Is Pigmalion "an ironic piece of 2 3 studied excess"? . Or did a revulsion against the physical cause the author to declare that his work had a moral intent (SV v i . 2 3 - 3 2 ) ? Although Pigmalion is not, of course, a formal satire, i t contains, in my opinion, the tensions between dwelling on lust and contempt for i t and for the readers that are found in Certaine Satyres and the Scourge. The highly personal tone of the running commentary, the incidental social satire in references to "the subtile Citty-dame " and "the peeuish Papists" and the burlesque of the affected language of the sonneteers in the hero's plea to the "sweet happy sheetes" differ in kind from the conventional asides and, for example, the story of the country maid and Mercury in Hero and Leander. And f i n a l l y , the pretense of tantalizing the reader is drawn out to an inordinate length. The tone shifts from light banter to mockery of the "gaping eares that swallow vp" the tale when the narrator excuses himself from saying more. The "loose lines" are an intentional s l i p . The s a t i r i c comment is based upon the discrepancy between the imaginative world of lover and empirical reality. The conventions of the Ovidian poem allow Marston to illust r a t e the fact that a romantic insistence on the ideal can only lead to absurdity: Douglas Bush, Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry. 2nd ed. (New York, 1963), p. 182. 104 I oft haue smil'd to see the foolery Of some sweet Youths, who seriously protest That Loue respects not actuall Luxury, But onely ioy's to dally, sport, and iest: (109-112) The poet exploits the ironies latent in the Pygmalion myth, the familiar dichotomy between shade and substance (6, 163-168). The statue is constantly compared to a living woman, the commentator's beloved (65-66) and the narrator's behaviour is contrasted with that of "Pigmalion": 0 wonder not to heare me thus relate, And say to flesh transformed was a stone. Had I my Loue in such a wished state As was afforded to Pigmalion. Though f l i n t y hard, of her you soone should see As strange a transformation wrought by mee. (187-192) The theme of the amorists who are distracted with "busk-points" is developed further in the formal satires (SV v i i i . 9 4 ) . Finally, Pigmalion is prefaced and followed by pieces written in the form of the verse satires. One must conclude therefore, I think, that in tone, attitude and subject-matter, although not in form or organization, Pigmalion is distinctly s a t i r i c a l . In the formal satires, imagery, keen and vigorous 24 character sketches and exempla, shifts in style and mood and movements from ridicule and bitter indignation to pleas See SV iv.167-170; v.103-106; ix.54. 105 for reform are a l l devices to present a particular, usually grim, vision. The targets condemn themselves by their actions. Situations are taken from the l i f e of Elizabethan England, such as the tableaux of simoniacs, usurers, lawyers and soldiers. At times Marston draws illustrations from classical mythology (CS_ v). In the handling of these elements, however, the s a t i r i s t often models himself upon the worst in Hall, exaggerating the passages in Virgidemiae that are written in an a r t i f i c i a l , forced manner. Hall's mythological and literary allusions, when illuminated by his editor's commentary, have an intellectual content and a structural role in,the poetic argument. The allusions in Marston, however, sometimes do not advance the conceptual movement of the satire. While Marston does objectify his emotions and point of view to a certain extent, he does not achieve the degree of aesthetic distance that a reader might desire. He has 'l i t t l e of Hall's Augustan quality, clarity of apprehension and expression. A c r i t i c analyzes this characteristic: The secret of Marston's temperament is that he was an idealist, and like so many of his contemporaries, he was an idealist whose idealism was built on insufficient facts. When the facts hit him in the face the blow was severe, and in order to conceal how much he was hurt, he pretended that he had known about them a l l along, that he had enjoyed them. . . . he only gives himself away by 106 the unnecessary violence with which he expresses himself. 25 Psychological speculations are outside the limits of literary criticism, but i t is certainly true that Marston is more unrestrained in his denunciations of the corrupting influence of lust and hypocrisy than Hall or Donne. The dominating impression l e f t by his work is one of bitterness and P6 violence. However, as this chapter has attempted to show, the Scourge is not without order, nor does i t preach a purely destructive ethos, ' Marston does not have a set of values based upon academic pursuits, ancient simplicity and decency, but the denial of the usefulness of good works and, to an extent, the power of the human w i l l , gives his works a vivid, dramatic quality that is lacking i n Hall's reminders of a shadowy Golden Age and classical wisdom and approaches the effect of Donne's formal satires, J S/pencer, "John Marston," The Criterion. XIII (1934), 597. 26 / ' A. Jose Axelrad, Un Malcontent Ellzabe'thain: John Marston (1576-1634)(Paris. 1955). p. 38. 27 Ure, "John Marston's 'Sophonisba's A Reconsideration," Durham University Journal, n.s., X, No.3 (1949), 90. 107 CHAPTER VII THE ENGLISH SATYRS An order of merit has been assigned to the Elizabethan s a t i r i s t s by Morse S. A l l e n . Marston is ranked t h i r d , surpassed i n "interest 11 by H a l l and i n " l i t e r a r y a b i l i t y " by Donne. 1 This vague evaluation says nothing about the s p e c i f i c a l l y s a t i r i c q u a l i t i e s of t h e i r works, and with the closing of the sixteenth century and the coming of the seventeenth, the s p i r i t of England was becoming more harshaand s a t i r i c a l . Hall's s a t i r i c pose is detached and imparti a l . His c r i t i c i s m of society i s perfectly clear and i n no danger of being misunderstood. Marston, on the other hand, assumes the mask of the malcontent, and his subjective scourging i s more f o r c e f u l than h i s predecessor's cool, r a t i o n a l approach. Yet when the s a t i r i s t himself is involved i n the subject of h i s denunciations, inconsistencies r e s u l t . Donne unites the advantages and avoids the disadvantages of both techniques i n "Satyres" one, two and four, which combine objective characterization and r e a l i s t i c d e scription with subjective r e f l e c t i o n and intense introspection. However, Donne's genius i s not directed primarily towards s o c i a l 1 The S a t i r e of John Marston (Columbus, Ohio, 1920), p.115. 108 s a t i r e but towards s e l f - a n a l y s i s i n "Satyre I I I , " which is the best of the f i v e poems but is not s a t i r e except for the exempla that advance the t h e s i s . H a l l and Marston attempt i n t h e i r styles to produce 2 "synthetic obscurity." Thus, i n their works are found references which are undigested, is o l a t e d , unconnected with the surrounding material. This f a u l t is p a r t i c u l a r l y noticeable i n Marston. These s a t i r i s t s adapt c l a s s i c a l material to t h e i r own age and express contempt for popular taste. At the same time, they long for recognition by the reading p u b l i c . Their dilemma i s whether to write f o r the learned or the unlearned. Donne quite frankly addresses himself to a l i m i t e d , cultivated audience, and so is able to d e l i v e r a monolithic indictment of London society, lawyers, r e l i g i o u s sects, the Court, o f f i c e r s and s u i t o r s . The f i v e "Satyres" have more immediate impact than a l l s i x books of Virgidemiae. with i t s a r t i s t i c r e s t r a i n t and wealth of fascinating Information about the poet's society. Marston's works have a power si m i l a r to Donne's, but a lack of a r t i s t i c control at times makes them di f f u s e and transforms personal f e e l i n g into petulance. Compare these passages, the f i r s t from the "Prologue" to Book I, Virgidemiarvm. and the second from the "Proemivm i n librum primum" of the Scourge: 2 A. S t e i n , "Donne's Obscurity and the Elizabethan T r a d i t i o n , " ELH, XIII (June 1946), 105-109 Goe daring Muse on with thy thanklesse taske, And do the vgly face of vice vnmaskes Marston's narrator snarls a warning: Quake guzzell dogs, that Hue on putred slime, Skud from the lashes of my yerking rime. Donne's "S,atyre I I I " begins i n this manner: Kinde p i t t y chokes my spleene; brave scorn forbids Those teares to issue which swell my eye-lids; I must not laugh, nor weepe sinnes, and be wise, Can r a i l i n g then cure these worne maladies? To conclude, Donne's works are superior as poems to those of his contemporaries, but the fine balance of moral indignation and detached contempt shown i n Virgidemiae is the most purely s a t i r i c a l achievement, creating a distorted world as a vehicle for s o c i a l c r i t i c i s m . Marston, however, i n my opinion, has been underestimated. I f the h y s t e r i c a l tone that his narrator. adopts i n c e r t a i n moods were further modulated, the power manifested In the organization of b r i e f sermons and the dramatization of general sins with a battery of stock characters and s i t u a t i o n s , evoking a world from which Right Reason has been banished, would make the Scourge the most ef f e c t i v e of the Elizabethan formal s a t i r e s . 110 L I S T OF VifORKS C O N S U L T E D Books and Chapters in Books Adams, Robert Martin. Strains of Discord: Studies In Literary Openness. New York, 1958. Alden, Raymond MacDonald. The Rise of Formal Satire in England Under Classical Influence. University of Pennsylvania Series in Philology. Literature and Archaology. VII. No. 2 [[Philadelphia.] 1899. reprinted 1961. Allen, Charles A., and George D. Stephens, eds. Satire: Theory and Practice. Belmont, California, 1962. Allen, Morse &. The Satire of John Marston". Columbus,Ohio, 1920. Alvarez, Alfred. The S,chool of Donne. London, 1961. Axelrad, A. Jose'. Un Malcontent Ellzabethaln: John Marston (1576-1634). Paris, 1955-Babb, Lawrence. The Elizabethan Malady: A Study of Melancholia in English Literature from 1580 to 1642. East Lansing, 1951. Bennett, Joan. Four Metaphysical Poets: Donne, Herbert. Vaughan. Crashaw. 2nd ed ., Cambridge £~ Eng.J, 1953. Boas, F. S.. An Introduction to Stuart Drama. London, 1946. Burke, Fidelian. Metrical Roughness in Marston's Formal Satire. Washington, D. C , 1957. I l l Bush, Douglas. English Literature i n the E a r l i e r Seventeenth Century. 1 6 0 0 - 1 6 6 0 . 2 n d . ed., revised. The Oxford History of English L i t e r a t u r e , V o l . IV. Oxford, 1962. . Mythology and the Renaissance Tr a d i t i o n i n English Poetry. 2nd ed.,New York, 1 9 6 3 . ' Campbell, Oscar James. Comical Satyre and Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cress id aT" S.an Marino, C a l i f o r n i a , 1 9 3 8 . Caputi, Anthony. John Marston. S a t i r i s t . Ithaca, New York, 1 9 6 1 . 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