The Virtue of Sympathy: Magic, Philosophy, and Literature in Seventeenth-Century England

429 Pages·2015·1.54 MB·English

by  Seth Lobis

Y S e
ale tudieS in ngliSh
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t V
he irtue
S
of YmpathY
Magic, Philosophy, and Literature in Seventeenth-C entury England
Seth Lobis
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2015 by Seth Lobis.
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lobis, Seth.
The virtue of sympathy : magic, philosophy, and literature in seventeenth-century
England / Seth Lobis.
Pages cm.— (Yale studies in English)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-19203-2 (hardback)
1. English literature—Early modern, 1500–1700—History and criticism. 2. Literature
and society—England—History—17th century. 3. Sympathy—England—History—17th
century. 4. Sympathy in literature. 5. Social ethics—England—History— 17th century.
6. England—social life and customs—17th century. I. Title.
PR438.S63L63 2014
820.9'004—dc23
2014031335
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The nature of a relationship is enigmatic.
—Walter Benjamin, from “Analogy and Relationship”
In what great distance, secret sympathy,
Through ayre or spirits thou act’st on things remote,
I cannot say with perspicuitie,
Nor how thy impertitions are begot.
Distempers and conceits doe verifie,
Strong fancied objects outwardly appeare,
Paying in opticall realitie,
The intromissions of the impregnat Ayre.
Worke then my faith by thy great energy,
Faith upon others warme with charitie,
The coldnesse of the times to fructifie,
By its diffusive vertuous qualitie;
Rise Lord and sympathetically encline
To turne to thee, thy enemies and mine.
—Dudley North, third Baron North, from A Forest of Varieties (1645)
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Toward a New History of Sympathy 1
one Sir Kenelm Digby and the Matter of Sympathy 36
two The “Self-T hemes” of Margaret Cavendish and Thomas Hobbes 69
three Milton and the Link of Nature 110
four Paradise Lost and the Human Face of Sympathy 156
five “Moral Magick”: Cambridge Platonism and the Third
Earl of Shaftesbury 198
six The Future of Sympathy I: The Poetry of the World 256
seven The Future of Sympathy II: Hume and the
Afterlife of Shaftesburianism 289
Coda: Hawthorne’s Digby and Mary Shelley’s Milton 313
Notes 327
Bibliography 367
Index 407
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ACknowledgments
I am immensely grateful to the many people whose assistance and encour-
agement made the completion of this book possible. I would like to acknowl-
edge first David Quint and John Rogers, who advised the project in its initial
stages and continued to support it thereafter. At a later stage David Quint very
generously read and commented on the manuscript as a whole. I wish to thank
the following as well for their long-s tanding support: Harold Bloom, Marie
Borroff, Leslie Brisman, the late Thomas M. Greene, the late John Hollander,
Lawrence Manley, Annabel Patterson, and Joseph Roach. William Carroll,
Geoffrey Hill, Erin Murphy, Rosanna Warren, and James Winn received me
warmly during the two years spent working on this book at Boston University,
and I am especially glad to have had the benefit of Michael Prince’s advice and
conversation at a time when I was thinking and writing about the eighteenth
century. I completed this book at Claremont McKenna College and deeply
appreciate the support of all my colleagues in the Department of Literature:
Audrey Bilger, Leland de la Durantaye, Robert Faggen, John Farrell, James
Morrison, Ellen Rentz, Robert von Hallberg, and Nicholas Warner. John
Farrell read a version of the entire manuscript and offered many clarifying
comments. Leslie Elias-V olz, Cindi Guimond, Gregory Hess, and Nicholas
Warner provided much- appreciated institutional support. I am indebted to my
research assistants—Chris Ferrer, Carl Peaslee, and Kathryn Punsly—for their
timely help. For various kinds of advice and assistance I also wish to acknowl-
edge the following people: Eugenie Birch, Dave Bjerk, Adam Bradley, Jenny
Davidson, Kathy Eden, Mordechai Feingold, Angus Fletcher, Lily Geismer,
Victoria Kahn, Jamaica Kincaid, Laura Knoppers, Anthea Kraut, Sarah Larson,
Aaron Matz, Molly Murray, Mark Oppenheimer, George and Fernande Raine,
M. A. Sancho II, Debora Shuger, Phyllis Thompson, Eden Werring, Judy
ix