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III. The Allegory as employed by Spenser, Bunyan, and Swift

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

Herbert Eveleth Greene
Herbert Eveleth Greene*
Affiliation:
Cathedral School of Saint Paul, Garden City, Long Island
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Extract

In a dissertation on “The Anglo-Saxon Metaphor,” Professor Gummere has shown conclusively that while the metaphor, “the corner-stone of all poetical style,” is a figure native to our literature, the simile had no existence in Old English poetry, until it was brought in through the influence of the Bible and of sacred Latin poetry. He also refutes the position taken by Professor Heinzel in his essay “Ueber den Stil der altger-manischen Poesie,” that the simile existed in Old English poetry previous to the introduction of Christianity, but was given up as a concession to a foreign culture; showing that, on the contrary, only a few sporadic cases of the simile occur before the sacred writings were made known to our ancestors, and that the development of that figure was distinctly hastened by the influence of the church.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , 1889 , pp. 145 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1889

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References

1 Quellen und Forschungen, 10: Strassburg, 1875.

2 The stomach.

3 Canto ii, stanzas 30-31.

4 Both Milton and Fletcher doubtless had in mind James I, 15: Fletcher quotes Romans VI, 13; ‘The Purple Island,’ Canto XII, Stanza 35. The description of Error in he first canto of ‘The Facrie Queen’ may also have been present in Milton's mind.

5 ‘Wallenstein's Tod,‘ III, 10.

6 ‘Macbeth,‘ II, ii, 35-40.

7 Cf. Quintilian, ‘Inst. Orator,‘ viii, 6, 52: Haec allegoria, quae est obscurior, aenigma dicitur; vitium meo quidem judicio, si quidem dicere dilucide virtus; quo tamen et poetae utuntur.

8 It may be objected that the seaman always knows for what land he is bound, and from what port he sailed; but the question with which th poem begins is not what, but where; and the answer does not give the name of the port, but merely points in the direction of the ship's course. It is an added excellence in the allegory, if the mind is caused to dwell for a moment upon the first stanza, until it realizen that “more is meant than meets the ear;” the reader “early grasps the key and begins to apply it to the solution of the various details of the narrative.” Cf. p. 155.

9 Thomson's ‘Seasons’: Summer, verses 1604-1608.

10 allud verbis allud sensu ostendit. Quintilian, ‘Inst. Orator.‘ viii, 6-44.

11 Grosart's edition of Spenser, Vol. i, p. 273: reprinted in ‘Essays, chiefly on poetry,‘ Vol. i, p. 17.

12 ‘Stones of Venice,‘ Vol. ii, p. 322.

13 ‘Works,‘ American edition, Vol. iv, p. 247.

14 ‘Works’ American edition, Vol. ix, note on p. 599.

15 ‘Grace Abounding,‘ p. 13.

16 ‘The Holy War,‘ end of preface addressed to the reader.

17 ‘Works,‘ American Edition, Vol. iv, pp. 247, 248.

18 ‘The Life and Death of Mr. Badman,‘ pp. 149-152.

19 Ibid., pp. 164-172.

20 ‘Works,‘ Vol. x, p. 211, Walter Scott's second edition of 1824, in nineteen volumes; reprinted by Bickers & Son, London, 1883-84.

21 Ibid., p. 71.

22 ‘Life of Swift.’ In Forster's ‘Life of Swift’ there is a footnote (p. 110) which quotes Dr. Johnson as saying of Swift that “The sly dog never ventures at a metaphor;” but I have not been able to find the original of the quotation in Boswell or elsewhere.—In Vol. xvii, p. 88, of Swift's ‘Workes’ is the following note from Dr. Warton: “A just character of Swift's poetry, as well as his prose, is, that it ‘consists of proper words in proper places.’ Johnson said once to me, speaking of the simplicity of Swift's style, ‘The rogue never hazards a figure.’”

23 ‘The Battle of the Books; Works,‘ Vol. x, pp. 226, 227. [Written before the death of Matthew Arnold.]

24 ‘Works,‘ Vol. xi, p. 162.

25 Ibid., p. 7, vol. i, p. 319.

26 ‘Works,‘ Vol. xi, pp. 130, 131.

27 ‘Works,‘ Vol. xvii, p. 4.

28 Boswell's ‘Life of Johnson,‘ edited by George Birkbeck Hill; Vol. ii, p. 319.

29 “Letter to Pope,” Nov. 17, 1726: ‘Works,‘ Vol. xvii, p. 80.

30 Cf. Quintilian, ‘Inst. Orator,‘ viii, 6, 54. In co vero genere, quo contraria ostenduntur, ironia est; illusionem vocant. Quae aut pronuntiatione intelligitur aut persona aut rei natur; nam, si qua carum verbis dissentit, apparet diversam esse orationi voluntatem.

Much the same thing may be affirmed of Euphemism; perhaps also of Litotes.

31 “Essay on Bunyan,” 1830.

32 ‘Life of Swift,‘ p. 108.

33. Ibid., p. 109.

34 ‘Works,‘ American Edition, Vol. iv, p. 247.

35 ‘Lectures on the English Poets:‘ Lecture ii.

36 ‘Among my Books,‘ Vol. ii, p. 177.

37 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ Book I., Canto xii, Stanza 1.

38 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ vi, Introduction 1.

39 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ vi., xii, 1.

40 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ V, v, 21.

41 Ibid., xii, 23.

42 Ibid., III, v, 11.

43 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ V, ii, 2.

44 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ III., vii, 36.

45 Ibid., V., ii, 3.

46 Ibid., II, ix, 7, and II, ix, 38.

47 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ VI, ix, 1.

48 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ IV, xi.

49 Ibid., II, x.

50 Ibid., III, iii.

51 Todd's Edition of Spenser, Vol II, p. clviii.

52 ‘Observations on the Faery Queen of Spenser:‘ Vol, i, p. 10.

53 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ IV, vii, 36.

54 Ibid., VI, vi.

55 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ V, ix.

56 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ V, ix, 30, 33.

57 'The Facrie Queene, IV, Int. 5.

58 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ VI, x, 28.

59 Balckwood's Magazine, Nov. 1833: Vol. xxxiv, p. 849.

60 Balckwood's Magazine, Sept. 1834; Vol. xxxvi, p. 425.

61 ‘Introduction to the Literature of Europe,‘ American edition; Vol. ii, p. 231.

62 See Note A, pp. 192-193; quotation from Lessing's ‘Laocoon.‘

63 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ I, iv, 30, 32.

64 Aubrey De Vere calls this vulgar allegory; rather it is repulsive, as Spenser intended it to be.

65 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ I, iv, 31.

66 See p. 155.

67 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ I, viii, 32, 33, 34.

68 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ I, x, 14.

69 ‘Stones of Venice,‘ Vol. II, p. 341.

70 ‘The Facrie Queene,‘ III, xii, 13.

71 See Note A, pp. 192-193.

72 ‘Essays on the Minor Poems of Spenser.‘ By F. T. Palgrave. In Grosart's Edition of Spenser, Vol. IV, p. lxviii.

73 Ibid., p. lxii.

74 ‘Spenser,‘ p. 128. By R. W. Church.

75 ‘Shakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama,‘ p. 146.

76 Lowell's ‘Among my Books;‘ Vol. ii, p. 177.