Friendship and its discourses in the seventeenth century

246 Pages·2016·1.44 MB·English

by  Brown, Cedric Clive

FRIENDSHIP AND ITS DISCOURSES
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Friendship and its
Discourses in the
Seventeenth Century
CEDRIC C. BROWN
1
3
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Acknowledgements
Materialsinthisbookoverlapthefollowingpublications.Theanalysisof
the John Evelyn–Elizabeth Carey/Mordaunt friendship in Chapter3 is a
fuller, revisedversion of‘John Evelyn,Elizabeth Carey,andthe Trialsof
Pious Friendship’ in Living Letters: Women and Epistolary Agency, ed.
James Daybell and Andrew Gordon (Farnham, 2016). The account of
theMilton–Diodatifriendshipisashortenedandrevisedversionof‘John
Milton and Charles Diodati: Reading the Textual Exchanges of Friends’
in Young Milton: The Emerging Author, 1620–1642, ed. Edward Jones
(OxfordandNewYork,2012).Somepassagesonthesonnets,letters,and
verse letters of Milton in Chapter5 overlap, but once again in revised
form, ‘Letters, Verse Letters, and Gift-Texts’ in Milton in Context, ed.
Stephen B. Dobranski (Cambridge, 2010). The Milton–Cyriac Skinner
case study in Chapter5 represents a shortened version but incorporating
newarchivalmaterialsandfindingsof‘Milton,theAttentiveMrSkinner,
andtheActsandDiscoursesofFriendship’inAConciseCompaniontothe
Study of Manuscripts, Printed Books, and the Production of Early Modern
Texts, ed. Edward Jones (Oxford and Malden, 2015). Some passages on
Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and visitations in Chapter6 are taken
selectively and recast from ‘Europe Comes to Mr. Milton’s Door, and
OtherKindsofVisitation’,TheEuropeanLegacy17(3)(2012),291–307.
In terms of personal acknowledgements, I feel that I have too many
scholars of different generations to list. The materials of the book have
been developed over a good number of years and taken to many confer-
ences and symposia in the UK, Europe, and North America, and I have
accumulated many obligations through those events and continuing
exchanges. Many individual debts for particular archival or technical
help are acknowledged at the appropriate places in the text. I should
perhaps register one particular set of thanks to those who have helped
me in detailed discussions about the foreign language texts, as important
togetrightastheEnglish:inparticularIhavetothankHugoTuckerfor
exchangesaboutdetailsofLatinandItalian.Forvariousexchangesabout
JohnEvelynandhiscircleImustthankFrancesHarris,andforElizabeth
Carey and the Low Countries Nadine Akkerman. With Edward Jones
I shared discussions about archival evidence connected with the Milton–
CyriacSkinnerfriendship.FordiscussionsaboutKatherinePhilipsIhaveto
thank Marie-Louise Coolahan, amongst others. For allowing frequent
absenceofdiscourseImustofcoursethankmyfamily.
Reading,January2016

Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
ListofAbbreviations xiii
1. Introduction:ExplorationsoftheFriendshipSpectrum 1
1.1 WhatandWhatNot 1
1.2 InstrumentalandIntimate:Finch,Baines,HenryMore,
LadyConway,andChrist’sCollege 7
1.3 WhoWasTraherne’sBestFriend? 16
I. JOHN EVELYN, JEREMY TAYLOR, AND
ELIZABETH CAREY: FRIENDSHIP,
RELIGION, AND ‘THE MATERIAL
INTERCOURSES OF OUR LIFE’
2. JohnEvelynandJeremyTaylor 23
2.1 Introduction 23
2.2 ‘Tokens’ofFriendship 26
2.3 Taylor’sDiscourseRevisited:SubstanceandWorth 37
3. JohnEvelynandElizabethCarey/Mordaunt 40
3.1 Penthea,Electra,and‘theMutualLoveofGod’ 40
3.2 Penthea’sObjects 42
3.3 TheLoyalandCelebratedMrsMordaunt 50
3.4 TheFriendshipwithElizabethintheRestorationYears 53
3.5 Conclusions:ReligiousFriendshipandPracticalService 58
II. MILTON, FRIENDSHIP, AND
READER-FRIENDS
4. Milton’sYoungerYears,HumanistIdentities,
Diodati,andItaly 65
4.1 Introduction 65
4.2 TheScholarlyIndividualistandCollegiateSociability 66
4.3 EarlierExchangeswithCharlesDiodati 69
4.4 FriendshipResumedandTheorizedintheLettersof1637 75
4.5 SpecialFriendshipEnacted:EpitaphiumDamonisandGifts 79
4.6 Italian/HumanistIdeals,Mansus,andaGlimpseofNewTimes 84
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,23/9/2016,SPi
viii Contents
5. Polemics,Blindness,CyriacSkinner,andMeditations
onFriendship 88
5.1 TheConstructionofFriendshipintheSonnets 88
5.2 FriendshipValuesandtheNegativeExampleofMorus 93
5.3 FriendshipandtheBlindMan:TheCaseofCyriacSkinner 96
5.4 TheDiscourseofSkinner’s‘Life’ 108
6. MatureReflections,ParadiseLost,andSamsonAgonistes 111
6.1 FromReader-FriendstoGeneralReaders 111
6.2 FromVisitsOuttoVisitsIn 111
6.3 VisitationsandFriendsinParadiseLost 114
6.4 VisitsandFriendsinSamsonAgonistes 118
6.5 Conclusion:TheIntellectualizingIndividualist 125
III. DOROTHY OSBORNE, WILLIAM
TEMPLE, LORD ARLINGTON, AND OTHERS:
FRIENDSHIP IN PRIVATE AND POLITICS
7. DorothyOsborne,Sociability,andtheLawsofFriendship 133
7.1 Introduction:TwoKindsofFriendship? 133
7.2 ExtraordinaryLetters,Courtship,andtheAnxieties
ofDifference 134
7.3 ‘AnAgreement&ConformityofHumors’ 147
7.4 Friendship,Love,andtheCrisisof1653/4 149
8. Temple–ArlingtonandEvelyn–Arlington:Client–Patron
FriendshipsatCourt 158
8.1 TempleandArlington:ALexiconofClient-Friendship 158
8.2 PolicyandFriendshipBetrayed 167
8.3 EvelynandArlington:Counter-Manoeuvres
andComparisons 174
9. EndingsandCounter-Discourses 181
9.1 TempleinhisGarden,DorothyinLondon,
LadyGiffard,LordHatton,andOthers 181
9.2 TotheGardensofEpicurusandNotEatingBeans 189
10. Conclusions:TheSpectrumofFriendship 194
10.1 VulnerabilitiesandSociability 194
10.2 ExclusivitiesandControl 197
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,23/9/2016,SPi
Contents ix
10.3 TheTextsofKatherinePhilipsasaCompendium
ofFriendshipPractices 199
10.4 FriendshipbeyondDeath 212
Appendix:JeremyTaylor’sTenLawsofFriendship 215
SelectBibliography 217
Index 227