1/15/09 Neoclassical wit; Ridicule; "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift"

URL ON SYLLABUS INACCURATE: actually <http://www.iwu.edu/~wchapman/britpoet/>.

Next week: at least one and possibly two long poems coming up. Pope's "Essay on Criticism" for sure; if we can stay a little ahead, we'll also start on "Rape of the Lock." Both are a little difficult, because they make references to lots of things that are no longer familiar. Definitely read the headnotes for Pope. For T, only need to read "Essay," but if your schedule is tight between T and Th, start on "Lock."

Ridicule

Defn of wit in neoclassical era somewhat different from our defn today (today, something like verbal cleverness). From OED (most relevant 17th/18th C meanings:

• Good or great mental capacity; intellectual ability; genius, talent, cleverness; mental quickness or sharpness, acumen.
• Quickness of intellect or liveliness of fancy, with capacity of apt expression; talent for saying brilliant or sparkling things, esp. in an amusing way.
• That quality of speech or writing which consists in the apt association of thought and expression, calculated to surprise and delight by its unexpectedness (for particular applications in 17th and 18th century criticism see esp. quots. 1650, 1677, 1685, 1690, 1704, 1709); later always with reference to the utterance of brilliant or sparkling things in an amusing way.

In general, then, wit did have its present meaning of verbal cleverness, but it also had deeper connotations of raw intelligence and ability, and a more specific meaning of "apt association of thought and expression."

Let's start with the most interesting and enigmatic comment on wit in the film, "the soul of wit is knowing one's place."

• Is it true for the film?
  • abbot in this scene: how has he violated this rule?
  • Ponceludon's "four-footed" remark: has the Baron deserved this?
  • Ponceludon's score against the abbot in the rhyming contest comes after he has caught the abbot cheating
  • In the dinner scene, after Ponceludon has been betrayed by Countess de Blayac, why does he say upon leaving the table, "I'm hungry. Please serve me with the footmen"?
  • Ponceludon's first quip: I have only the buckles of my shoes (putting himself in an inferior position by admitting he has no money), but perhaps you would like to examine them more closely (putting the abbot in his)
• Does the wit/place remark make sense? How are wit and "one's place" connected? Is wit inherently heirarchical?
  • ridicule as lowering strategy
  • wit as natural intellectual ability; presumes that social heirarchy and a heirarchy of ability match up
  • how does honor factor in?

Other issues:

• Ponceludon challenges a man to a duel--and kills him--because the man insults him: the man, deliberately trying to offend Ponceludon after Ponceludon has shown him up before the king, says that Ponceludon's "ass is wider than his mouth." What would make any of the other putdowns that we see in the movie acceptable, when they are so obviously wounding?
  • Dryden 2120: occasion of offense may be presented, but he cannot take it.
• What does wit seem to consist of, in this film? How is it different from humor?
• what's at stake in wit? Why is it so important? Is there a way in which the very specific ways in which wit is important in this film--i.e. as a way of getting access to the king--can be generalized to show the importance of wit in general?
• We don't see any writers per se in this film. But what sort of literature do you suppose would arise from this cultural milieu?
• [in England:
  • the economics of authorship was quite different in the early 18th C than it is today. The 18th C basically invented modern publishing--but slowly. By the end of the neoclassical era, it was possible to make a living as a published author, at least for a few. At the beginning, however, authors survived on patronage--the economic support of wealthy nobles. Most authors, indeed, had other jobs, many of them given to them, again, by powerful aristocrats. Even authors like Pope, who as a Catholic was barred from many of the usual avenues of success and who was probably the first writer other than a playwright to make a living from his writing, got by mainly on subscriptions--amounts paid by wealthy patrons who then got the privilege of having their names inscribed in books. ]

Swift, "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift"

[SHOW TIMELINE] Note that we've fast forwarded a bit. Started with an early poem by Swift, "City Shower," from 1710; that was early in Swift's career, and only ten years into that middle period of the Neoclassical era, called the Augustan Age; now moving to 1731, ten years from the end of the Augustan era.

What I want to accomplish with this poem: give some sense of the complexities of Augustan irony. The degree of irony in an Augustan satire is rarely consistent over the course of a poem; within the same poem, you'll have statements that are clearly ironic, statements that are not ironic at all, statements which are subtly ironic, statements which are ironized in some way but in which the nature and purpose of the irony isn't fully clear, etc. I want to give us examples of these things and then ask what position Augustan irony puts us in as readers.

Root meaning of irony: difference or distance between what is said and what is meant (verbal irony) or between what is said and what is actually the case (dramatic irony).

Which of the following are ironic?

1. ll. 13 - 20 [no apparent irony, yet]
2. ll. 39-42 [no apparent irony]
3. 43-52 [an apparently clear example, but:
   • how does Pope end up looking?
   • does Swift's practice support his point?
4. back to 13-20. Is this ironic yet?
• ironized by the position it puts the speaker into: by calling attention to his own vanity, the speaker makes himself appear less vain--and thus undercuts his own claim that we are all vain.
5. 99-102 speech of the "special friends" (l. 75)
   • how does it make Swift look, as a writer?
• how does this make the friends look?
• how does it compare with Swift's own envy of Pope?
6. 81-93 more from the special friends. What does it say about Swift?
7. 147-155. Markers of irony: tone, disjunction between tones
8. 225-242. Similar markers.
9. 281-298. Clearest irony: speaker who is partial or foolish.
   • who is the speaker?
   • what do we know about his taste?
   • would Swift, an Anglican cleric, be likely to approve of a tract that shows that Jesus was a "grand imposter"?
   • Note mutual reinforcement: if you aren't sure what we're supposed to make of Colley Cibber or Stephen Duck, we can figure it out from what he says about Woolston
10. Note the speaker, then, of the final long description, 299-306. But...
11. Does the description that follows seem impartial?
    • 309-314
    • 334-338
    • 347-350
    • 351-354 Does it matter that this is true?
    • 355-359
    • 379-390 Definitely not impartial, but is it ironic?
    • 455-474 the "fault." Is it really?
    • 483-484

    Assuming that this is not impartial at all, where do we stand in figuring out what to DO with that irony? Is everything untrue? Is any of it untrue? Or is it just partial?

In the end, what is the poem saying about pride? About the original maxim by Rochefoucauld? About Swift?