The Dramatic Monolog in English Poetry Before Browning

364 Pages·025.785 MB·English

by  Fuson, Benjamin Willis

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
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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