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n m dramatic m m h oa in ehglish poetry BEFORE BRGV/NING- by Benjamin Willie Fuson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment or the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of English, in the Graduate College of the State University of Iowa luly, 1942 ProQuest Number: 10991942 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10991942 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 TTe>4-& F00 ,£ Co Xt is a pleasure to record her© my deep appreciation for the stimulus and guidance given me by the mashers of my thesis committee, Dr* John MeaaUlard, Dr* Austin Warren* and especially by chairman* Dr. Joseph E* Baker. X desire also ^ to acknowledge some preliminary suggestions given (Ti by Dr* Bene Wellek, whose later absence made it impossible for him to continue as a member of my committee. These advisors must not* of course* be j\held responsible for any errors of fact or judgment ^ that may appear in the following pages. Kl VeU-eJ 3= g This study is dedicated to my wife* o oDaisy Lee* without whose unstinting help it could V ^not have been completed* and to Linda Lee and David, Hi who were too young to understand. - ii - fO IBS twsnwb If fan have opened this volume 08830117, to "so* idiot it is oil about,” the following two paragraphs moy bo helpful, os woll oo time-saving. browning*s dramatie monologs are brilliant examples of a type or aenre of poetry, a type distinct in that a poet designs his poem as an utteranoe of someone apart from himself who is involved in a specific dramatic situation. Zt has sometimes been asserted that Browning was a pioneer in this aenre. the present survey, although far from exhaustive, shows that some 200 poets during a thousand years of xngllsh poetry before Browning wrote over 2000 poems which exhibit same or all of the charac­ teristics of a dramatic monolog. In Chapter Z of this thesis a definition of the Objective or dramatic monolog Is reached, and its elements are analysed. Monologio poems by over 120 Xngllsh poets from Anglo-Saxon times up to Bums are surveyed in Chap­ ters ZZ and ZZZ. (See page 357 for a list of 50 such poems worth investigating further.) Chapter IV embodies a more intensive treatment of about 80 major and minor poets who wrote dramatic monologs during the generation before Browning*s "My last Duchess” appeared in 1812. (See page 358 for a list of 50 such poems.) As a result of this survey, Browning is seen in new perspective, as a subtle craftsmen, not as an inventor, in the aenre. (see pages 196-200 for a re-evaluation of Browning's position.) - iii - TABU o r CONTENTS Page to too iNter . . ♦ ......... . ................ lii O B t m Z * tm'tmmtmm 1 Oenerio Criteria ana the objective Monolog, . 3 A Moosh-Stane from Browsing . . . . . . . . . 10 la Genre ana the IwhidvM . . . . . . . . . 17 mvloni studies In the Genre . . . . . . . . 19 CHAPSKR XX • VJtkfZOAZi 8057X78 . . . . . . . . . . 21 Monolog la technique In Pastoral Poetry. . . . 22 Imaginary Terae~8pistles. . . . . . . . . . . 31 tbo Ghoragus aa Monologlst in Bplthalamia . . 39 Monologa In Volk-Ballads and Broadsides . . . 38 Traak Monologa. 18 Deathbed Monologs ............. 51 Taleas from the Tomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Daaginary Elegies • . « . • * . • . . « * . * 60 Biblloal inspiration for llonologs . . . . . . 61 the Toman as Monologlst.......... 68 A Mate on Monologio internal Dram. . . . . . 71 Monologs In first Person Plural. . . . . . . 76 CHAPTER TTT - HDBTZOWPAt SUBTEIB............ 77 Xarlier Centuries: 700 - 1556 . . . . . . . . . 78 Anglo-Saxon Monologs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Monolog In Ohaueer.......... 82 Skelton* s Masterpiece ........... 84 The Renalssanoet 1557 » 1660. . . . . . . . . . 86 Gascoigne, Artist in Monolog............ 87 Some Unusual Elizabethan Monologs . . . . . . 89 Perfunctory Employment of Monolog Patterns. . 90 Renalssanse L«rer*3-Lyrioa as Monologs. . . . 92 Monologio Aspects of the Sonnet Cycles. . . . 98 The Contribution of John Donne. , ......... 103 Other Metaphysical Poets. . . . . . ....... 108 Cavalier Poets and the Genre. .......... 110 BOoolaaslolaffii 1661 - 1798. .................U S Meoelassle Treads In the Lover * s-Monolog. . . 116 Seeelassie llonologs in Satire and Burlesque . 121 Sens Miscellaneous Augustan Monologs. . . . . 126 Romantic Precursors in the Genre. . . . . . . . 130 The Martens and Xxotio Monologs . . . . . . . 130 Blake and the Domestic Monolog. . ......... 134 Orabbe and the Beal loti o Monolog............. 137 The Achievement of Bums. . . . . . . . . . . 138 Retrospect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 - iv - IT - 19th <mJTORT MOHOLOGS TO BROWNDKJ . 1 U Southey and hi* Monodramas......... U 5 Coleridge*0 Monologio Period . . . . . . . . 147 Wordsworth . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . 149 the Versatile Moore. ............ 151 Minor Poena of Soott.................... 155 Byron's Use of Monolog ............. 156 Keats and Shelley. . . . . . . . . . . . . » 158 laslgh Bunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 She Monologs of Praed and Hood . ......... 163 Landor and Monologic Technique . . . . . . . 166 Monologa by John Clare . . . . . . . . . . . 168 The Xndefatigable Mrs. Homans. . ......... 171 Poems by Two Brothers! 1827. . . . . . . . . 177 Tennyson and the Dramatic Monolog........... 179 Elisabeth Barrett Browning ...............182 6C Minor vs. 20 Major Poets in the Qenre * . 184 Motes on the Minor Poets* Monologs . . . . . 187 Browning in Perspective. . ............ 196 FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER X. .........201 FOOTMOTSS TO CHAPTER II. . . ........ 206 FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER X U . . . ............. 249 FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER ....................... 289 3PPPIJMKRT! The Monologs of Sixty Minor Poets. • 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY AMD APPENDICES.......... 333 Bibliography SECTION Xt CRITICAL LITERATURE (annotated) . . 334 SECTION XX* COLLECTIONS OF POEMS EXAMINED. . . 339 SECTION XXX* EDITIONS EXAMINED OF THE POETS. . 343 Appendices AFFBHDXX Z (E4BJ2B X) . * « « • * • * • * • • * 354 Distribution and thematic classification of 1300 objective monologs by 30 Romantic and Victorian poets before 1350# AF£3£RDX3C XX# , * # * * • * • « * * ♦ # • # • , 356 A list of 153 poets writing before 1300 whose works were examined for this survey* AEEBHDXX XXX........ * • « . . * • • • « • * 357 Fifty notable monologs written before 179&« AFEE8DXX XV* • 353 Fifty monologs by fifty poets: 1793-1340, - v - CHAPTER X A quotation cogent to almost any study in belles- lettres can bo found among Emerson's writings. When Tenny­ son published in 1842 his dramatic monolog, "Ulysses," our clairvoyant "Yankee farmer"*- wrote (in the oourse of an otherwise fairly severe oritioal article in The Dial), "Ulysses’ belongs to a high class of poetry, destined to be the highest, and to be more cultivated in the next genera­ tion," It is precisely this "high class" or genre of poetry (which has also been called "an ass's bridge for mediorol- ties"^) that the present writer deals with in this thesis, primarily through inspection of individual poems throughout English literary history before Browning which belong to this aenre or display seme of its attributes* The first chapter includes remarks on the dramatic monolog as a genre, and discusses previous research upon the general subject* The survey is initiated in chapter H by tracing from their origins to 1800 oertaln types of poetry in which monologio technique has been prominent* This group of "vertical" sub-surveys is supplemented, in Chapter III, % fejr a aeries of "horizontal" studies, Indio a ting, for success sive periods in the history of English poetry, the degree of "development* in monologio technique, and also noting the 2ft>te*— All footnotes are grouped at the end of this thesis* 2 m work of individual poets significantly contributory to the genre* Chapter XV eyaluates the output of dramatic monologa from the beginning to the middle of the nineteenth eentury-- by which time it la aaaumed that Browning*» "crystallisa­ tion* of the genre make a hla poema the dominant influenee upon contemporary and later poetaf efforta In thla vein* the work of the major Bomantie poeta la covered In aeparate treatmenta* while a general eurvey aaaeaaea the attrlbutea of monologa by minor writers# It la believed that the aurveya of material before 1800 are baaed upon examination of enough specimens* to en- eure a fair degree of accuracy and weight in the evaluetIona attempted* the worke of about eighty poeta writing in the Romantic and Regency perioda form the baaia of obaervatlona in the final chapter* Browning*a dramatic monologa are placed* then* In a somewhat truer perspective* aa the work not of a pioneer but of the master-eraftsman in this genre* the present study may be considered aa preliminary to a projected definitive treatise on thla genre in all lta aspects* It la Indicative* not exhaustive* the influences upon English poetry of European work in the Rollenlvrlk re* main to be treated* the possible interrelations of the dramatic monolog with the histories of allied forma such aa prose monologa and dialogs* verse-dialogs* verse-novels* and aollloqiiiea Imbedded in legitimate verse-drama* are fur­ ther avenues of research* though a genre may validly be 3 studied as "an autonomous development of literature, dis­ tinct from its reflection of social change or change of in­ tellectual atmosphere,"* an extended treatise should no doubt assess such influences shore they do Impinge on the genre* A study of a poet's involuntary subjective intrusion into his objective monolog Intended as utterance "of so many Imaginary persons, not mine,"* is another fruitful field for psychiatric analysis* Finally, there has never been published an anthology of the dramatic monolog per so* Such a volume would have a wide appeal— lyric, dramatic, psychological* The present study cites enough valid material to fill a slsabla part of a oollaetion thua limited.7 Generic Orlterla and the Dramatic Monolog Before reading an alleged "history" of what even­ tually develops into the genre called dramatic monolog, critics will demand that the historian "display his colors*" Bow does he define the genre t When and how did It become Isolated and susceptible of definition? What criteria are used in determining its generic status? More specifically, upon which of the following considerations (not mutually ex­ clusive) is its identity as a genre chiefly based? Subject (e*g«, elegy, regional literature, outlaw ir "ballad, proletarian fiction) Magnitude (e«g*, novelette, short-story, epic, epigram) Audience (e*g«, nursery rhyme, folk ballad, closet-drama, wassail-song, sermon) Orthodox "Form" (e*g«, tragedy, comedy, lyric, eclogue, oration) 4 Maker** Halation (e»g*, personal lyric, imper­ sonal narration, "overshoulder" account, "public statement," dramatic lyric) gffcat an Header (e*g*, Gothic naval, satIra, comic literature, burl a aqua, "sentimental drama") Mechanics (e*g», sonnet, hymn, radio-sketch, Mndario ode, detective-story) Finally, why has the alia gad genre remained virtually un» recognised aa such before Browning1 a time $ or did it apring into existence with "My Last Duehess" in 1S42? Obviously a full-dress diaeuaaion of tha whole theory of genres baa no place in a theaia of tba present scope and direction* But just aa obviously, one who pre- aanta tba "history" of a given genre not already accepted by critical cons ensue must face such questions, and supply a minimum of theory, if his materials are to fall into co­ herent patterns and his conclusions are to possess signif­ icance for others* Overleaping several stages of discussion for a moment, one may aa veil present a broadly-phrased definition valid for the material in this thesis* An OBJECTIVE MONOLOG la an isolated poem intended to simulate the utterance of a specifle individual not the poet* relevant to a particular dramatic situation* Henceforth in the present thesis, the writer--in order to avoid the ambiguity Inherent in the ad­ jective "dramatic* (via*, "passionate and vivid" versus "utterance by one detached from the poet") has adopted the

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