Poetry and Vision in Early Modern England

345 Pages·2018·5.54 MB·English

by  Jane Partner

POETRY AND VISION
IN EARLY MODERN
ENGLAND
Jane Partner
EARLY MODERN LITERATURE IN HISTORY
General Editors: Cedric C. Brown and Andrew Hadfield
Early Modern Literature in History
Series Editors
Cedric C. Brown
Department of English
University of Reading
Reading, UK
Andrew Hadfield
School of English
University of Sussex
Brighton, UK
Within the period 1520–1740, this large, long-running series, with
international representation discusses many kinds of writing, both within
and outside the established canon. The volumes may employ different
theoretical perspectives, but they share an historical awareness and an
interest in seeing their texts in lively negotiation with their own and
successive cultures.
Editorial board members: Sharon Achinstein, University of Oxford,
UK; John Kerrigan, University of Cambridge, UK; Richard C McCoy,
Columbia University, USA; Jean Howard, Columbia University, USA;
Adam Smyth, Birkbeck, University of London, UK; Cathy Shrank,
University of Sheffield, UK; Michelle O’Callaghan, University of Reading,
UK; Steven Zwicker, Washington University, USA; Katie Larson,
University of Toronto, Canada.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14199
Jane Partner
Poetry and Vision
in Early Modern
England
Jane Partner
Trinity Hall and Faculty of English
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Early Modern Literature in History
ISBN 978-3-319-71016-7 ISBN 978-3-319-71017-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71017-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017963638
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Cambridge University Library
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer
International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For my mother
and for Charlie
with love
A
cknowledgements
It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to acknowledge the many debts of
gratitude that have accrued during the writing of this book. The project
began as a PhD thesis that was completed at the University of Cambridge
under the supervision of Colin Burrow. It was a tremendous privilege to
be taught by Colin, and I had the good fortune to benefit from his humour
and kindness as well as his erudition. His example as an outstanding
teacher and scholar remains an inspiration. I am also immensely grateful to
my doctoral advisor John Kerrigan and to my examiners Raphael Lyne and
Jonathan Sawday, all of whom gave me invaluable commentary on my
work and have been very generous with their time and support since. My
postgraduate study in Cambridge was funded by the AHRC, to whom I
am also very grateful.
After completing my doctorate, I was awarded a Junior Research
Fellowship at Trinity Hall, which was funded by the late Peter Orton.
Peter became terminally ill whilst he was a Fellow-Commoner at Trinity
Hall and, regretful that he would not be able to participate in the life of
the college in the ways that he had planned, he made his own misfortune
into the occasion of generosity towards others by funding two Fellowships
for young researchers. I only had the opportunity to meet Peter once,
shortly after my election, by which time he was already gravely ill; but his
graciousness and kindness have stayed with me throughout the course of
my JRF and beyond. I am glad that I was able to tell him that the oppor-
tunity he gave me was a life-changing one, and my thoughts are with him
and his family on the occasion of the publication of the book that he did
so much to make possible.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An enormous debt of affection and gratitude is due to the Master,
Senior Tutor, Fellows and Staff of Trinity Hall, who have become my sec-
ond family. Most particular thanks go to my colleagues in English Jan-
Melissa Schramm, Alison Hennegan, Vladimir Brljak and Daniel Tyler for
their invaluable friendship and support. I fell in love with the college when
I joined as a JRF and it is a cause of the deepest happiness to have an ongo-
ing position there as a Fellow. I will continue to endeavour to live up to
the faith that the college has shown in me.
The most heartfelt thanks are also due to my students, above all my
DoSees at Trinity Hall, from whom I have learnt so much, both academi-
cally and personally. Their energy, excitement, humour, perseverance and
sheer brilliance have been an inspiration and a delight, and their compan-
ionship and ongoing friendship are highly prized. Be assured that if I have
taught you, I remember you—even if I can only mention here the lumi-
nous moment when Luke Sumner set the Globe on fire, and the way that
Kitty Drake’s fine writing on Traherne started fires in its own way.
Within the wider community of the University in Cambridge, I am
grateful for the collegiality and stimulation offered by many members of
the Faculty of English and the Department of the History of Art, and in
particular to the members of the Renaissance Graduate Seminar and
Renaissance Research Workshop, as well as to the team at the Crossroads
of Knowledge project. Parts of this book were offered as papers at a num-
ber of seminars and conferences in Cambridge and beyond, and I am
grateful for a wealth of illuminating comments and questions, particularly
from Gavin Alexander, Edward Holberton, Cassandra Gorman, Joe
Moshenska, Jason Scott-Warren and Nigel Smith.
In addition to those already mentioned, I have benefited from numer-
ous other inspirational teachers, including, in the field of English Literature,
Alison Davidson, Jean Gooder, Juliet Fleming, Eric Griffiths and Peter de
Bolla. In the field of Fine Art, I am especially grateful to my teachers and
friends at Morley College and at the Royal Drawing School.
I am extremely grateful for the efficiency and support of Ben Doyle and
Camille Davies at Palgrave, who are a pleasure to work with. I am also
profoundly indebted to the anonymous readers of the manuscript of this
book, whose meticulous care and erudite suggestions have much improved
the final result. I would also like to thank the Librarians at the British
Library and in the University Library in Cambridge, especially in the Rare
Books Room and the reprographics department, and above all Domniki
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S ix
Papadimitriou for her help with many of the illustrations. The errors that
remain in this volume are of course entirely my own.
An earlier version of part of my work on Milton appeared as ‘Satanic
Vision and Acrostics in Paradise Lost’ in Essays in Criticism 57, Number 2,
April 2007, pp. 129–46, and I am grateful to Oxford University Press for
the kind permission to reproduce some of that article here.
Various challenges have slowed the progress of this project, including
health problems that require me to thank Fiona Cornish, Lee Brosan and
above all Youngsuk Kim. For me, this book represents a manifestation of
one of the most profound tenets of teaching: that transformation always
remains possible.
The love and companionship of friends have carried me through all the
stages of writing this book, and particular gratitude is due to: Ned Allen,
Rebecca Barr, John Biggins, Charles Buchan, Sarah Cain, Sarah Castell,
Ellen Davies-Walker, Georgina Evans, David Fickling, Lydia Grove, Katie
Halsey, Tamsin Hart, Alex Houen, Ewan Jones, Louise Joy, Nicola
Kozicharow, Hester Lees-Jeffries, Alison MacDonald, Colm and Helen
McGrath, Juliette Meinrath, Jean Meiring, Subha Mukherji, Kathryn
Murphy, Andrew Murray, Sophie Read, Alexander Regier, Emilie Ringe,
Andrew Rudd, Maartje Scheltens, Teresa Shawcross, Emma Smith, David
Theobald, Angus Vine, Marcus Waithe and James Womack. Above all, this
project would not have been finished without the alchemical friendship of
Charlie Galustian: once my student, but always my teacher.
My profoundest thanks go to my family, and most of all to my mother,
for her inexhaustible generosity and kindness and for the endless practical
support that she has provided throughout my studies. Her passion for art
and history has enabled so much of what I do and sharing my interests
with her is one of my greatest pleasures. There is no greater fortune in life
than to share such love, for which I am perpetually grateful.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Vision, Image and Rhetoric in Poetic Theory and Practice 10
Theories of Physical Sight in Early Modern England 19
Early Modern Cultures of Vision 26
‘Outward Objects’ and ‘Inward Discourse’: Vision
and the Emergence of the Subjective and the Objective 34
Methodology and Critical Field 43
Survey of Chapters 45
2 Margaret Cavendish, Vision and Fancy 51
Lenses and Atoms 54
Hobbes and Light as a ‘Fancy in the Minde’ 62
Observation and the Royal Society 70
Seeing Through The Blazing World 82
3 The ‘Infant-Ey’ in the Devotional Writing
of Thomas Traherne 89
Attaining Felicity Through the ‘Infant-Ey’ 93
Subjects, Objects and Reflexive Vision 100
‘Transparent Words’: Reading and Seeing 105
xi