Let him forever go!—Let him not, Charmian.
Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon,
The other way’s a Mars.
Cleopatra, Shakespeare
*********************************************
An important consequence of the metaphor's willful falsity is a relativistic view of the world. If metaphors may be contrived without any regrd for the truth, they may make the world in their own image as well - in any image they like - merely by describing it. -- Peter Schwenger, Deceit in Appleton House
*********************************************
...the more unlike and unproportionable things be otherwise, the more grace hath the Metaphor.-- Thomas Hobbers, Brief of the Art of Rhetorique
*********************************************
Greenwood, Shifting Perspectives and the Stylish Style
...We see both in architecture and painting the replacement of the Albertian canon of numerical relationships between parts and whole with a more subjective view of beauty, perhaps best expressed by Vasari when, in defining beauty a hundred years after Alberti, he commented on the work of the classicists by saying that:
There was wanting in their rule a certain freedom which, without being of the rule, might be directed by the rule and might be able to exist without causing confusion or spoiling the order; which order had need of an invention abundant in every respect, and of a certain beauty maintained in every least detail, so as to reveal all that order with more adornment. In proportion there was wanting a certain correctness of judgement, by means of which their figures, without having been measured, might have, in due relation to their dimensions, a grace exceeding measurement. (p. 31)
**********************************************
John Southern to Earl of Oxford (Pandora, 1584)
Epode
No, no, the high singer is he
Alone that in the end must be
Made proud with a garland like this,
And not every riming novice
That writes with small wit and much pain,
And the (God’s know) idiot in vain,
For it’s not the way to Parnasse,
Nor it will neither come to pass
If it be not in some wise fiction
And of an ingenious INVENTION,
And INFANTED with PLEASANT TRAVAIL, (see Amorphus, Cynthia's Revels)
For it alone must win the laurel,
And only the poet WELL BORN
Must be he that goes to Parnassus,
And not these companies of asses
That have brought verse almost to scorn.
***********************************************
Style Wars - Classical Jonson, Mannerist Shakespeare
...He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometime it was necessary he should be stopped. 'Sufflaminandus erat,' as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the RULE of it had been so too. Many times he fell into those things, could not escape laughter, as when he said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him: 'Caesar, thou dost me wrong.' He replied: 'Caesar did never wrong but with just cause;' and such like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned. (Jonson, Timber -- writing of Shakespeare)
*********************************************
SENECA
EPISTLE CXIV.
~CXIV+ ON STYLE AS A MIRROR OF CHARACTER
...In short, whenever you notice that a DEGENERATE STYLE pleases the critics, you may be sure that character also has deviated from the right standard. Just as luxurious banquets and elaborate dress are indications of disease in the state, similarly a LAX STYLE, if it be popular, shows that the mind (which is the source of the word) has lost its balance. Indeed you ought not to wonder that corrupt speech is welcomed not merely by the more squalid mob but also by our more cultured throng; for it is only in their dress and not in their judgments that they differ. You may rather wonder that not only the effects of vices, but even vices themselves, meet with approval. For it has ever been thus: no man's ability has ever been approved without something being pardoned. Show me any man, however famous; I can tell you what it was that his age forgave in him, and what it was that his age purposely overlooked. * I can show you many men whose vices have caused them no harm, and not a few who have been even helped by these vices. Yes, I will show you persons of the highest reputation, set up as models for our admiration; and yet if you seek to correct their errors, you destroy them; for vices are so intertwined with virtues that they drag the virtues along with them.* (SNIP)
Some individual makes these vices fashionable - some person who controls the eloquence of the day; the rest follow his lead and communicate the habit to each other.
**********************************
Lax: Open, Loose, not careful enough, not strict enough
*********************************
'Loose Thought is Free':
Papers Complaint, compil'd in ruthfull Rimes Against the Paper-
spoylers of these Times. John Davies
...Another (ah Lord helpe) mee vilifies
With Art of Loue, and how to subtilize,
Making lewd Venus, with eternall Lines,
To tye Adonis to her loues designes :
Fine wit is shew'n therein : but finer twere
If not attired in such bawdy Geare.
But be it as it will : the coyest Dames,
In priuate read it for their Closset-games :
For, sooth to say, the Lines so draw them on,
To the venerian speculation,
That will they, nill they (if of flesh they bee)
They will thinke of it, sith loose Thought is free.
And thou (O Poet) that dost pen my Plaint,
Thou art not scot-free from my iust complaint
For, thou hast plaid thy part, with thy rude Pen,
To make vs both ridiculous to men.
(ll.47-62, Complete Works, vol. II, p. 75)
************************************
George Herbert
“Jordan (II)”
When first my lines of heav'nly joyes made mention,
Such was their lustre, they did so excell,
That I sought out quaint words, and trim invention ;
My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell,
Curling with metaphors a plain intention,
Decking the sense, as if it were to sell. (snip)
************************************
Wantonness of Wit - One descripton of the 'luxurious' poet's 'loose/lax style:
To Make His Saying True: Deceit in Appleton House, Peter Schwenger
...How, then, may we reconcile this malignant experience of the meadow with its final assessment in Stanza LXXXVII near the end of the poem? Maria is being praised as genius loci, the source of all true proportion in the Fairfax estate:
'Tis She that to these Gardens gave
That wondrous Beauty which they have;
She streightness on the Woods bestows;
To Her the Meadow sweetness owes:
Nothing could make the rive be
So Chrystal-pure but only She
She yet more Pure, Sweet, Streight, and Fair,
Then Gardens, Woods, Meads, Rivers are.
This stanza, not so very remarkable in itself, is noteworthy chiefly by virtue of what it ignores. The sweetness claimed for the meadow is in outright contradiction to the terrifying masque we have seen enacted there. In like manner, the characteristics of the other parts of the Fairfax estate do not take into account the complex connotations which these acquire in the course of the poem. Do we have here, then, another example of self-deceit? No: rather the truth, revealed by the holy clarity Maria brings to everything that surrounds her. The house and estate, we have been told from the start, are perfectly proportioned. If the poem that celebrates them is full of disproportions, the source of these can only be the poet's mind. The sweetness of the meadow is real; its sinister imagery has been projected upon it by the poet. The fallen nature of his mind cannot help but "put his Vice to use." Consequently, the images it projects reflect its own fallen state rather than the meadow's real sweetness. The actual scene is warped and distorted by its perceiver and so transformed that what is seen is more in the mind's eye than in the body's. The body's eye - despite the prevalence of optical illusion and deceit in the poem - is itself 'pure, and spotless," as Stanza LXXXXI describes it in a reference to Plato's Timaeus. The effect is like that of a "Landskip drawen in Looking-Glass," where, as the viewer draws closer, he may see his own face reflected amid the leaves. IN the "polisht Grass" of the meadow we may learn more of the perceiver than of what he perceives.
This is an usurpation like the Architect's, insofar as the world's true proportions are half dissolved in man's corrupting mind. Throughout the poem, we must be wary of this sort of activity. Its presence may be recognized by the restlessness character of FANCY. Whenever the subject begins to undergo rapid metamorphoses, we are warned that FANCY is at work. Image breeds image in accordance with fashionable techniques, and soon the subject has been replaced by the subjective. The natureal order is loosened to a point that may in places approach the chaotic. This looseness is that of luxurious man - the "libidine degli ingegni" [wantonness of wit] referred to by Tesauro. Where the diction is most clear, stable, and ordered, on the other hand, we may be reasonable sure that the perceiver is correspondingly close to a view of the world as true as when God created it. The fluctuating drama of Man's alienation from God and reconciliation with Him can thus be expressed to a considerable degree by the fluctuations between a loose and a stable style.
(Later in essay, commenting on the 'sanctuary' of the wood, Schwenger explains that the apparent escape from the 'duplicities of the meadow' may not be true.)
...That the trees become columns here is entirely appropriate, for, according to Alberti, it was from trees that the architectural idea of columns came into being. When the "arching boughs" join these, though, we can recognize the arches and columns of the first stanza. Is the old perversion here redeemed or only reasserted? Our suspicions may be aroused by the "loose order" of the trees. The phrase pretends to mean merely a generously spaced arrangement. But Corinthian, we recall, is one of the three orders of columns and is often personified as "loose" in the sense of wanton. The most luxuriously ornamented of the orders, it may derive its character from the reputation of Corinth in classical times. At Corinth was found the temple of the goddess of love. The worshiper resorted to the portico of the temple, hwere veiled priestesses waited. One of these would lead each worshiper to an inner chamber, where the goddess would be worshiped through acts of sexual intercorse. These wanton priestesses may remind us of our earlier encounter with the "loose order" of the nuns.
Not is our Order yet so nice,
Delight to banish as a Vice...
**********************************************
Corinthian -- A gentleman who is fashionable and adept at sporting
activities. It originally meant profligate, after the apparently
elegant yet dissipated lifestyle in ancient Corinth.
http://www.thenonesuch.com/
******************************
...According to the online OED, Corinthian relates to the Greek city
of Corinth. It is also one of the three Grecian orders of columns, a
type of brass or bronze, whence also a meaning equivalent to "brassy"
or "brazen," as effrontery, an excessively elegant literary style, an
amateur yachtsman, and a variety of bagatelle. Further, and probably
the meaning most apt here, it refers to a wealthy or fashionable man,
or one who is profligate, idle, or licentious.
http://dyve.net/sandman/
******************************
Jonson
XI. -- ON THE PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE.
TO THE READER.
This Figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle SHAKSPEARE cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature, to OUT-DOO the life :
O could he but have drawn his wit
As well in BRASS, as he has hit
His face ; the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass :
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.
*************************************
History of Henry IV, Part I
Act II, Scene 4
The Boar’s-Head Tavern, Eastcheap.
---
[Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS]
* Henry V. Ned, prithee, come out of that fat room, and lend me
985
thy hand to laugh a little.
* Edward Poins. Where hast been, Hal?
* Henry V. With three or four loggerheads amongst three or four
score hogsheads. I have sounded the very
base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother 990
to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by
their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and Francis.
They take it already upon their salvation, that
though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king
of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, 995
like Falstaff, but a CORINTHIAN, a lad of mettle, a
good boy, by the Lord, so they call me, and when I
am king of England, I shall command all the good
lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dyeing
scarlet; and when you breathe in your watering, they 1000
cry 'hem!' and bid you play it off. (snip)
****************************************
Oxford/Shakespeare/Comus
_Comus_, John Milton
745: COMUS. Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you frown?
746: Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates
747: Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures
748: That FANCY can beget on youthful thoughts,
749: When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns
750: Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
751: And first behold this cordial julep here,
752: That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,
753: With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.
(SNIP)
837: LADY. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips
838: In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler
839: Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,
840: Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb.
841: I hate when vice can bolt her arguments
842: And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.
843: Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,
844: As if she would her children should be riotous
845: With her abundance. She, good cateress,
846: Means her provision only to the good,
847: That live according to her sober laws,
848: And holy dictate of spare Temperance.
849: If every just man that now pines with want
850: Had but a moderate and beseeming share
851: Of that which lewdly-pampered LUXURY
852: Now heaps upon some few with VAST EXCESS,
853: Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed
854: In unsuperfluous even proportion,
855: And she no whit encumbered with her store;
856: And then the Giver would be better thanked,
857: His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony
858: Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his GORGEOUS feast,
859: But with besotted base ingratitude
860: Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder.
(SNIP)
871: Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,
872: That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;
873: Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.
874: Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth
875: Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
876: To such a flame of sacred vehemence
877: That dumb things would be moved to sympathise,
878: And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and SHAKE,
879: Till all thy MAGIC STRUCTURES, REARED SO HIGH,
880: Were SHATTERED into heaps o'er thy FALSE HEAD.
*************************************
"Judgement begets the strength and structure, and Fancy begets the ornaments of a poem," - Hobbes (quoted in Schwenger)
*************************************
Epidemical infection/see thee in our waters yet appear
Mount bank/literary 'cozening'/deceitful figures:
Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza, and our James !
- Jonson
Jonson, _Timber_
Jam literæ sordent. - Pastus hodiern. ingen. - The
time was when men would learn and study good things, not envy those that had
them. Then men were had in price for
learning; now letters only make men VILE. He is upbraidingly called a poet, as if it
were a contemptible nick-name: but the professors, indeed, have made the
learning cheap - railing and tinkling rhymers, whose writings the VULGAR more
greedily read, as being taken with the SCURRILITY and petulancy of such wits. He shall not have a reader now unless he jeer
and lie. It is the food of men' s natures; the diet of the times;
gallants cannot sleep else. The writer
must lie and the gentle reader rests happy to hear the worthiest works
misinterpreted, the clearest actions obscured, the innocentest life traduced:
and in such a licence of lying, a field so fruitful of slanders, how can there
be matter wanting to his laughter? Hence comes the EPIDEMICAL INFECTION;
for how can they escape the CONTAGION of the writings, whom the virulency of
the calumnies hath not staved off from reading?
**************************************
Infection/ casting waters
Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did TAKE Eliza, and our James !
**************************************
{{Topic 54}} {{Subject: mass taste}}
Vulgi expectatio.
333 Expectation of the Vulgar is more drawne, and held with newnesse, then334 goodnesse; wee see it in Fencers, in Players, in Poets, in Preachers, in all,
335 where Fame promiseth any thing; so it be {{new}} [[now]], though never so naught,
336 and depraved, they run to it, AND OUR TAKEN. Which shewes, that the only
337 decay, or hurt of the best mens reputation with the people, is, their wits
338 have out-liv'd the peoples palats. They have beene too much, or too
339 long a feast.
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Jonson, Alchemist
To the Reader
If
thou beest more, thou art an understander, and then I trust thee. If
thou art one that takest up, and but a pretender, beware of what hands
thou receivest thy commodity; for thou wert never more fair in the way
to be COZENED, than IN THIS AGE, in poetry, especially in plays:
wherein, now the concupiscence of dances and of antics so reigneth,
as to run away from nature, and be afraid of her, is the only point of
art that tickles the spectators. But how out of purpose, and place,
do I name art? When the professors are grown so obstinate contemners of
it, and presumers on their own naturals, as they are deriders of all
diligence that way, and, by simple mocking at the terms, when they
understand not the things, think to get off wittily with their
ignorance. Nay, they are esteemed the more learned, and sufficient for
this, by the many, through their excellent vice of judgment. For they
commend writers, as they do fencers or wrestlers; who if they come in
robustuously, and put for it with a great deal of violence, are received
for the braver fellows: when many times their own rudeness is the cause
of their disgrace, and a little touch of their adversary gives all that
boisterous force the foil. I deny not, but that these men, who always
seek to do more than enough, may some time happen on some thing that is
good, and great; but very seldom; and when it comes it doth not
recompense the rest of their ill. It sticks out, perhaps, and is more
eminent, because all is sordid and vile about it: as lights are more
discerned in a thick darkness, than a faint shadow. I speak not this,
out of a hope to do good to any man against his will; for I know, if
it were put to the question of theirs and mine, the worse would find
more suffrages: because the most favour common errors. But I give
thee this warning, that there is a great difference between those, that,
to gain the opinion of copy, utter all they can, however unfitly; and
those that use election and a mean. For it is only the DISEASE of the
unskilful, to think rude things greater than polished; or scattered more
numerous than composed.
**********************************
... for thou wert never more fair in the way to be COZENED, than IN THIS AGE, in poetry, especially in plays (Jonson, Alchemist)
Soul of the Age!...
Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did TAKE Eliza, and our James !
Mount Bank/Cozening:
{{Topic 54}} {{Subject: mass taste}}-Jonson, Timber
Vulgi expectatio.
333 Expectation of the Vulgar is more drawne, and held with newnesse, then334 goodnesse; wee see it in Fencers, in Players, in Poets, in Preachers, in all,
335 where Fame promiseth any thing; so it be {{new}} [[now]], though never so naught,
336 and depraved, they run to it, AND ARE TAKEN. Which shewes, that the only
337 decay, or hurt of the best mens reputation with the people, is, their wits
338 have out-liv'd the peoples palats. They have beene too much, or too
339 long a feast.
**********************************
Shakespeare
O, for my sake do you with fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide,
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdu’d
To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand:
Pity me then and wish I were renew’d;
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eysell, ‘gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
O, for my sake do you with fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide,
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdu’d
To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand:
Pity me then and wish I were renew’d;
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eysell, ‘gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
**************************************
Jonson, Timber
Optanda.
284 Whom the disease of talking still once possesseth, hee can never hold
285 his peace. Nay, rather then hee will not discourse, hee will hire men
286 to heare him. And so heard, not hearkn'd unto, hee comes off most
287 times like a Mountebanke, that when hee hath prais'd his med'cines, finds
288 none will take them, or trust him. Hee is like Homers Thersites.
Jonson, Timber
Optanda.
284 Whom the disease of talking still once possesseth, hee can never hold
285 his peace. Nay, rather then hee will not discourse, hee will hire men
286 to heare him. And so heard, not hearkn'd unto, hee comes off most
287 times like a Mountebanke, that when hee hath prais'd his med'cines, finds
288 none will take them, or trust him. Hee is like Homers Thersites.
****************************************
Jonson, Timber
De mollibus & effoemenatis There is nothing valiant, or solid to be hoped for from such, as are always kempt and perfumed; and every day smell of the tailor: the exceedingly curious, that are wholly in mending such an imperfection in the face, in taking away the morphew in the neck; or bleaching their hands at midnight, gumming and bridling their beards; or making the waist small, binding it with hoops, while the mind runs at waste: too much pickedness is not manly. Nor from those that will jest at their own outward imperfections, but hide their ulcers within, their pride, lust, envy, ill nature, with all the art and authority they can. These persons are in danger; for whilst they think to justify their ignorance by impudence, and their persons and clothes and outward ornaments; they use but a comission to deceive themselves. Where, if we will look with our understanding, and not our senses, we may behold virtue and beauty (though covered with rags) in their brightness; and vice, and deformity so much the fouler, in having all the splendour of riches to gild them, or the false light of honour and power to help them. Yet this is that, wherewith THE WORLD IS TAKEN, and runs mad to gaze on: clothes and titles, the birdlime of fools.
****************************************
Author: Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
Title: The blacke devil or the apostate Together with the wolfe worrying the lambes. And the spiritual navigator, bound for the Holy Land. In three sermons. By Thomas Adams.
Date: 1615
Ierem. 13, 23.
Bern. Sent.
(SNIP)
...Hee beholds as in a cleare mirrour of Chrystall all our impurities, impieties; our contempt of Ser|mons, neglect of Sacraments, dishallowing his Sa|boths. Well· as God sees all things so clearely; so I would to God, wee would behold somewhat. Let vs open our eyes, & view in this Chrystall glasse our owne workes. Consider we a little our owne wicked courses, our peruerse wayes on this Sea. Looke vppon this Angle of the worlde; for so wee thinke, Anglia signifies: how many vipers doth she nurse and nourish in her indulgent bosome, that wound and sting her! The Landlords oppression, Vsurers extortion, Patrons Simonie, Commons couetousnesse: our vnmercifulnes to the poore, o|uer-mercifulnes to the rich; malice, ebriety, pride, prophanation. These, these are the works, that God sees among vs: & shall we not see them our selues? shall we be vtter strangers to our owne doings? Be not deceiued. Neither fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor a|dulterers, nor theeues, nor couetous, nor drunkards, nor reuilers, nor extortioners shall inherite the king|dome
of God. Let not vs then be such. Let vs not be de|sirous of vaine-glory, prouoking one another, enuying one another. Me thinks here, vain-glory stalkes in like a MOUNTEBANK-GALLANT: Prouocation, like a swagge|ring RORER: & Malice, like a meager and melancholy Iesuite. All these things we do, and God sees in the light: and in the light we must repent them, or God will punish them with euerlasting darknes. You see, how the world is cleare to Gods eye, as Chrystall.
Jonson, Timber
De mollibus & effoemenatis There is nothing valiant, or solid to be hoped for from such, as are always kempt and perfumed; and every day smell of the tailor: the exceedingly curious, that are wholly in mending such an imperfection in the face, in taking away the morphew in the neck; or bleaching their hands at midnight, gumming and bridling their beards; or making the waist small, binding it with hoops, while the mind runs at waste: too much pickedness is not manly. Nor from those that will jest at their own outward imperfections, but hide their ulcers within, their pride, lust, envy, ill nature, with all the art and authority they can. These persons are in danger; for whilst they think to justify their ignorance by impudence, and their persons and clothes and outward ornaments; they use but a comission to deceive themselves. Where, if we will look with our understanding, and not our senses, we may behold virtue and beauty (though covered with rags) in their brightness; and vice, and deformity so much the fouler, in having all the splendour of riches to gild them, or the false light of honour and power to help them. Yet this is that, wherewith THE WORLD IS TAKEN, and runs mad to gaze on: clothes and titles, the birdlime of fools.
****************************************
Author: Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
Title: The blacke devil or the apostate Together with the wolfe worrying the lambes. And the spiritual navigator, bound for the Holy Land. In three sermons. By Thomas Adams.
Date: 1615
Ierem. 13, 23.
Can the Black-Moore change his skin? Or the Leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do euill.
Bern. Sent.
Quid prosunt lecta & intellecta, nisi teipsum legas & intelligas?LONDON, Printed by William Iaggard, 1615.
(SNIP)
THE Spirituall Nauigator BOVND For the Holy Land.
Epigraph:
Reuel. Chap. 4. ver. 6.
Reuel. Chap. 4. ver. 6.
Before the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse like vnto Chrystall.
...Hee beholds as in a cleare mirrour of Chrystall all our impurities, impieties; our contempt of Ser|mons, neglect of Sacraments, dishallowing his Sa|boths. Well· as God sees all things so clearely; so I would to God, wee would behold somewhat. Let vs open our eyes, & view in this Chrystall glasse our owne workes. Consider we a little our owne wicked courses, our peruerse wayes on this Sea. Looke vppon this Angle of the worlde; for so wee thinke, Anglia signifies: how many vipers doth she nurse and nourish in her indulgent bosome, that wound and sting her! The Landlords oppression, Vsurers extortion, Patrons Simonie, Commons couetousnesse: our vnmercifulnes to the poore, o|uer-mercifulnes to the rich; malice, ebriety, pride, prophanation. These, these are the works, that God sees among vs: & shall we not see them our selues? shall we be vtter strangers to our owne doings? Be not deceiued. Neither fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor a|dulterers, nor theeues, nor couetous, nor drunkards, nor reuilers, nor extortioners shall inherite the king|dome
of God. Let not vs then be such. Let vs not be de|sirous of vaine-glory, prouoking one another, enuying one another. Me thinks here, vain-glory stalkes in like a MOUNTEBANK-GALLANT: Prouocation, like a swagge|ring RORER: & Malice, like a meager and melancholy Iesuite. All these things we do, and God sees in the light: and in the light we must repent them, or God will punish them with euerlasting darknes. You see, how the world is cleare to Gods eye, as Chrystall.
*****************************************
Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality
James L Butrica, PhD
James L Butrica, PhD
...Now the controversial statement, as introduced by Seneca, who has just mentioned Haterius' propensity (no doubt connected with his age) for "off-colour" vocabulary:
With the exception of this [i.e. his choice of inappropriate vocabulary], no one was either fitter for the schoolmen or more like them, but in his wish to speak only elegantly, only impressively, he would often fall into that sort of thing that could not escape mockery. I recall that , when he was defending a freedman who was being criticized for having been his patron's concubinus, he said: Immodesty is a reproach in the freeborn, a necessity in the slave, an obligation in the freedman." This became a source of jokes: "You're not performing your obligation to me," and "He's spending a lot of time with his obligations to him." For a while, immodest and obscene persons were frequently called "obliging" as a result. (4.10)
(snip)
However as the client had been a concubinus, Haterius naturally wanted to counteract the bad image being crafted by the advocate for the other side. Presumably the facts of the relationship were too well known for denial (and many not have been a source of shame to the participants); hence, for the sake of his client's reputation and even more for the success of his case, he needed to take something that was being presented as negative and turn it around into something positive, and the mockery resulted from the way he put this strategy into effect while also trying to create a striking effect in his usual manner. His comment was not "made to sound ridiculous"; it was inherently ridiculous...
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Author: Chapman, George, 1559?-1634.
Title: Al fooles a comedy, presented at the Black Fryers, and lately before his Maiestie. Written by George Chapman.
Date: 1605
Act One:
Rynaldo
I dare sweare,
If iust desert in loue measur'd reward,
Your fortune should exceede Valerios farre:
For I am witnes (being your Bed fellow)
Both to the dayly and the nightly seruice,
You doe vnto the duty of loue,
In vowes, sighes, teares, and solitary watches,
He neuer serues him with such sacrifice,
Yet hath his Bowe and shaftes at his commaund:
Loues seruice is much like our humorous Lords;
Where Minions carry more then Seruitors,
The bolde and carelesse seruant still obtaines:
The modest and respectiue, nothing gaines;
You neuer see your loue, vnlesse in dreames,
He, Hymen puts in whole possession:
What different starres raign'd when your loues were borne,
He forc't to weare the Willow, you the horne?
But brother, are you not asham'd to make
Your selfe a slaue to the base Lord of loue,
Be got of Fancy, and of Beauty borne?
And what is Beauty? a meere Quintessence,
Whose life is not in being, but in seeming;
And therefore is not to all eyes the same,
But like a cousoning picture, which one way
Shewes like a Crowe, another like a Swanne:
And vpon what ground is this Beauty drawne?
Vpon a Woman, a most brittle creature,
And would to God (for my part) that were all.
(snip)
Ry.
Brother I read, that Aegipt heretofore,
Had Temples of the riches frame on earth;
Much like this goodly edifice of women,
With Alablaster pillers were those Temples,
Vphelde and beautified, and so are women:
Most curiously glaz'd, and so are women;
Cunningly painted too, and so are women;
In out-side wondrous heauenly, so are women:
But when a stranger view'd those phanes within,
In stead of Gods and Goddesses, he should finde
A painted fowle, a fury, or a serpent,
And such celestiall inner parts haue women.
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Shakespeare, King Henry IV
- FALSTAFF: Why, there is it: come sing me a bawdy
- song; make me merry. I was as virtuously given as
a [15]
- gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little;
- diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-
- house not above once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money
- that I borrowed, three or four times; lived well and
- in good compass: and now I live out of all order,
out [20]
- of all compass.
- BARDOLPH: Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you
- must needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable
- compass, Sir John.
Oxford Lies in 'Lethe's Lake':
Perrott, James, Sir, 1571-1637.
The first part of the consideration of humane condition vvherin is
contained the morall consideration of a mans selfe: as what, who, and
what manner of man he is. Written by I.P. Esquier. , At Oxford :
Printed by Joseph Barnes, and are to be sold [by J. Broome in London]
in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Bible.
--The well willer of them, that wish well--
James Perrott
...Even so commonly wee see that many of noble birthe and greate
parentage persuade themselves that they exceede all others in
estimation of bloode and linage: whereas they mighte consider with
themselves that how noblye soever they are borne, their Nobility hath
a beginning, not by their own, but by their Auncestors deserts and
vertues; wherefore if that there be not in them good partes and
properties aunswereable to the behaviour and good qualities of their
Elders, and their owne birthes, them are they but a blemish to the
Elders, and a staine to their names, and honors. We see the fairest
and richest silkes, when once they receive any blemish or staine, they
are more DISFIGURED
http://mysite.du.edu/~showard/
and in greater disgrace then cloath, or other
matter of lesse moment and reckoning: even so is it in the estimation
of Nobility. For a fault in a man of great birth and parentage is more
noted, and breedeth unto him greater disgrace and dishonour, then the
same should do unto a man of lesse and lower dignity. It is not inough
to be born of high bloude, without vertue aunswerable to that birth:
neither with reason may a noble man, because he is honourable
descended, challendge love, estimation, and honour of the actions
accomplished by his Auncestors, unless his owne carriage be
correspondent & aunswerable to theirs, and to his owne calling: for
Seneca sayeth, & that very truely, that, hee which braggeth of his
kindred, commendeth that which concerneth others. And the Poet
speaking to the same purpose saide very well.
Nam genus, et proavos, et quae non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco.
that is:
What kindred did, or Elders ours,
And what we have not donne,
I call not ours: it scarcely hath
Us any credit wonne.
This caused a Gentle man of great worth and worthines (note - Sir
Philip Sidney), as any that have lived in our age, to adde this mote
underneath his coate of armes: Vix ea nostra voce. Who although hee
might most deservedly have claimed unto himselfe as much honor as ever
any of his Auncestors have had, yet he would not appropriate their
vertues (which could not be called his) unto himselfe: for he had
rather gaine glory by his owne noble and worthy actes, then be
accoumpted renowned for the greatness of his Auncestors, how neere and
how deere soever unto him. *As his noble minde is worthy of memory in
all ages, and his heroicall actes never to be committed to oblivion:
so are they (which DEGENERATE from their Elders, or do disgrace and
dishonor the honourable actions of their Auncestors) to be accoumpted
worthy if not of all shame) yet of a place in LETHES LAKE to lye in
perpetually*. Q. Pompeius Pretor of Rome did most stoutely and wisely
carry himselfe, when he did interdict and disinherite the sonne of Q.
Fabius Max. from the use and benefit of all his fathers goods, because
he did DEGENERATE from the vertues of his noble father, as spent that
most luxuriously, which his father had most honorable gotten. There
was a law amongst the Rhodians, that what sonne soever followed not
the foot-steps of their fathers vertues should be disinherited: which
lawe if it were kept, & did continue in force amongst us this day, it
would make many a sonne goe without goods, and leave his fathers
living for others to inherite. For our daies make experience of that,
which the Poet spake, and applied to former ages.
Aequat rara patrem soboles, sed plurimi ab illis
DEGENERANT; pauci superant probitate parentem. (Homer)
that is,
Fewe sonnes are found of fathers mindes,
Or equall them in vertues actes:
The greatest sorte growe out of kinde:
Who doth regard his fathers factes?
Children seldome seeke indeede,
Their sires (in goodness) to exceede.
