Seventeenth-Century English Romance: Allegory, Ethics, and Politics

237 Pages·2007·0.87 MB·English

by  Amelia A. Zurcher

Seventeenth-Century
English Romance
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Seventeenth-Century
English Romance
Allegory, Ethics, and Politics
Amelia A. Zurcher
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seventeenth-century english romance
© Amelia A. Zurcher, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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other countries.
ISBN-10: 1-4039-7752-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-7752-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sandy, Amelia Zurcher, 1965-
Seventeenth-century English romance : allegory, ethics, and politics/
Amelia A. Zurcher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN: 1-4039-7752-6 (alk. paper)
1. Love stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fi ction—
Early modern, 1500-1700—History and criticism. 3. Politics and
literature—England—History—17th century. 4. Love—Moral
and ethical aspects. 5. Ethics in literature. 6. Love in literature.
7. Self-interest. I. Title. II. Title: 17th century English romance.
PR844.L68S36 2007
823(cid:2).08509
2007060020
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan India Ltd.
First edition: June 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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To my parents, Lynne Zurcher and John Zurcher
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Politic Romance 4
2. From Morality to Ethics 11
Chapter 1 Allegory, Constancy, and the Politic Agent 19
1. Acquisitive Desire and Agency in Sidney’s Arcadia 21
2. The Infl uence of Sidney: Wroth’s Urania 26
3. Allegory and Irony 31
4. The English Crisis of Virtù and Allegory’s
Mediating Role 38
5. Constancy and the Challenge of Self-Interest 43
6. Alienated Self-Regard 51
7. Virtue and Transparency 54
Chapter 2 Incest, Rivalry, and Succession: Romance and
the Problem of Sociality 61
1. Peers Who Are Chastened 64
2. Incest and Chastity 68
3. Between Endogamy and Marriage:
The Fantasy of Agency 75
4. Barclay’s Argenis: The Cultural Plot of Rivalry 81
5. Toward Emulation 88
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viii Table of contents
6. Succession 94
7. The Readers of Romance 99
Chapter 3 The Trials of Love: Interest and Social
Bonds in Midcentury Romance 105
1. The New Discourse of Interest 111
2. Interest and its Discontents 115
3. Love and Interest 123
4. Friendship 129
5. Oceana and the “Interest of Mankind,” or Reading
Politics by Way of Romance 135
6. Theodora and Disinterested Passion 140
Chapter 4 Interest, the Sovereign Hero, and the
End of Romance 149
1. The Tyrannical Hero 150
2. Interest as Critique in The Princess Cloria 153
3. Aretina, Eliana, and the Refusal of Sovereignty 162
4. Rape and the Failure of the Symbolic in Pandion and
Amphigenia 171
Conclusion 183
Notes 189
Index 221
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Acknowledgments
During my work on this book I have incurred many obligations,
which if I cannot requite I at least have the pleasure of acknowl-
edging here. I take this opportunity, fi rst, to record two very long-
standing intellectual debts, to Jonathan Freedman and to the late
Dennis Kay. Judith Anderson, John Boly, Ed Duffy, Constance
Jordan, Steve Karian, Christine Krueger, the late Josephine Roberts,
Tom Roche, and Will West all generously read and commented on
portions of the manuscript at various stages; James Holstun offered
some very useful words on James Harrington. My sincere thanks as
well to Al Braunmuller, Larry Danson, Jonathan Goldberg, James
Grossman, Devoney Looser, and Mark Sandy for all their help.
I am especially grateful to Margaret Reid for her generosity and her
intellectual acumen, both as a reader and as a friend. I have been the
benefi ciary throughout the writing of this book (and for many years
before) of Andrew Zurcher’s meticulous reading, his assistance with
all sorts of research conundrums, and his never-failing fellowship.
Story Sandy and Will Sandy generously granted me more than a little
extra time. I owe particular debts to Victoria Kahn, whose support
has been unstinting from the very beginnings of my work on romance
and without whose contributions of all kinds this book would be
much poorer than it is; and to R. Clifton Spargo, whose intellectual
rigor and commitment have been a model to me during the writing
of this book and have stamped its pages, both directly and indirectly,
in more ways than I can count.
A Whiting Doctoral Fellowship from the Mrs. Giles Whiting
Foundation enabled me to undertake early research on this project,
and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Newberry Library made
possible a full year of research in very collegial surroundings, without
which I could never have tackled these very long narratives.
Portions of Chapter 1, much revised for this book, appeared in
English Literary Renaissance 35, no. 1 (2005): 73–101, published by
Blackwell Publishing, under the title “Ethics and the Politic Agent of
Early Seventeenth-Century Prose Romance.”
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