British and American Literature. Учебно-методическое пособие

and – something which has drawn the indignation of many critics down on Fielding – accepts money from her. It is not until after he has broken with her and been thrown into jail at the instigation of Lady Bellaston and Lord Fellamar who wishes to marry Sophia that everything is set right, the truth about his birth revealed, Blifil banished in disgrace, and he is able to marry Sophia.

The book is richly filled with incidents, scenes and characters. Fielding was the first to introduce into the novel real characters in their natural surroundings. His heroes travel around the country, their adventures are full of humour and sound cheerfulness. The significance of the novel is its realism. The author makes a common man as the hero of the novel. Besides, by depicting Tom’s character, the author’s intention is to show that even a good man may commit grave mistakes and be easily led astray, but by his virtue he is not corrupted and eventually overcomes his weaknesses. A comprehensive, all-embracing picture of the life of “Merry Old England”, combined with understanding of human psychology, together with fool-blooded characters, realistically depicted in brilliant, witty and highly artistic language, makes Tom Jones a real masterpiece of English literature. Fielding wrote about his novel and his method: “Though we have properly enough entitled this our work, a history, and not a life; nor an apology for a life, as is more ‘in fashion’; yet we intend in it rather to pursue the method of those writers, who profess to disclose the revolutions of countries, than to imitate the painful and voluminous historian, who, to preserve the regularity of his series, thinks himself obliged to fill up as much paper with the detail of months and years in which nothing remarkable happened as he employs upon those notable eras when the greatest scenes have been transacted on the human stage.

Such histories as these do, in reality, very much resemble a newspaper, which consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.

Now it is our purpose, in the ensuing pages, to pursue a contrary method. When any extraordinary scene presents itself (as we trust will often be the case), we shall spare no pains, nor paper to open it at large to our reader... The world hath been often compared to the theatre and many grave writers as well as poets, have considered human life as a great drama…”

Tom Jones is the longest of Fielding’s novels and his greatest contribution to English fiction. In spite of the large number of characters and the many changes of scene, the plot is constructed with great care. Coleridge

51

asserts that there are only two better plots in existence, those of Aedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles and the Alchemist of Ben Jonson. Throughout, the atmosphere is charged with healthy vitality. Fielding called his novel “a comic epic in prose”. With encouragement from Cervantes he managed to introduce a burlesque element into the style and the incident.

Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774), an Irish by birth, played a significant part in the brief revival of original drama in the 1770s. The central comic plot of his She Stoops to Conquer is the mistaking of a country house for an inn that leads to a joyful series of farcical misunderstandings.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) is another playwright of the XVIII century, though his career as a dramatist was rather short. His fame depends on three comedies, The Rivals (1775), The School for Scandal (1777) and The Critic (1779). The School for Scandal is his masterpiece in which the author contrasts two brothers, the hypocrite Joseph Surface and good-natured spendthrift Charles. The comedies are brilliant both in the balance of action, and the technical perfection of the scenes. The main memory from his plays is of the verbal dexterity and the laughter his wellplanned scenes can create. Sheridan was sufficiently realistic to portray the late XVIII century as no other dramatist had done, yet with the geniality of romance. For some time he was the sole proprietor of the famous Drury Lane Theatre.

The plays of the XVIII century are often seen as a victory in the newly formulated battle against Sentimental comedy. One can also compare them with the comedies produced by the contemporary Frenchman Beaumarchais, particularly The Marriage of Figaro, with its layers of social and political comment beneath the gay surface, to see that even at its best English drama was comparatively thin.

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was a great poet with an extraordinary rich and rapid play of mind. He translated both Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and wrote one of the most imaginative and profound verse satires of all time – Dunciad (1743), which consists of four books and is directed against all the authors who have earned Pope’s condemnation, though literary vices of the time have their due share in it. Pope was also one of very few friends of Jonathan Swift. With Alexander Pope, it sometimes seems, the situation is reversed: about the world in general he expresses great optimism, and he has a high opinion of the capacities of man in general; but he does seem mortally to hate a large number of individuals. His

52

satire was personal, bitter, and sometimes unduly vindictive. But the people he satirized – the people who had offended him, wittingly or unwittingly – were mostly his inferiors both intellectually and morally, and he retained the love and trust of the big people who were his friends: Swift, Bolingbroke, Gray. Pope was highly valued by Samuel Johnson (1709– 84), the author of A Dictionary of the English Language, the first of the two greatest landmarks in English lexicography. In his article about the poet Johnson wrote: “He was one of those few whose labour is their pleasure; he was never elevated to negligence, nor wearied to impatience; he never passed a fault unamended by indifference, nor quitted it by despair. He laboured his works first to gain reputation, and afterwards to keep it.”

Pope was a man of letters, one of the first who lived entirely by his pen. He was also, appropriately, the supremely competent technician, a poet who had exploited the infinite possibilities of his art. In his hands the heroic couplet – the preferred form of most of the neo-classical writers (those who imitated the great authors of antiquity as a matter of aesthetic principle) – was a thing of enormous variety. Pope expressed the main principle of neo-classicism: “Those RULES of old discover’d not devis’d / Are Nature still, but Nature methodize’d”. Most characteristically he could use it for purposes of satire; yet he used it too to expound his philosophy in the Essay on Man; to write a treatise on literature and criticism in the Essay on Criticism and even to express passionate feeling. In Eloisa to Abelard, for example, the habitual authority and smoothness of the couplet breaks down, and we find something disjointed, breathless, hysterical, as the nun Heloise fails to subdue her long-ago passion for the monk Abelard:

No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;

Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!

Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,

Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.

Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;

Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine . . .

This poem, at least, proves that Pope was not incapable of passion. But we should not fall into the trap of judging eighteenth-century poets by how far they can approach to being Romantic ones. Pope's preferred mode is satire, and his range, though narrower than Swift's, is remarkable. The Rape of the Lock is his single most perfect poem – a beautifully propor-

53

tioned, mock-heroic treatment of a trivial incident in noble circles. The Dunciad, as it has been mentioned, is a rambling, nightmarish farce, in which all sorts of literary pedantry, pretension and dimness are clouted with Pope's satiric club. He hits at the futility of fashionable life, travesties the grand style.

One of the major peculiarities of Pope’s style is the classical balance, precision. The wording always follows the rules of clarity, brevity and euphony, deduced from the study of ancient authors. Samuel Johnson wrote about it: “It is related to Virgil that his custom was to pour out a great number of verses in the morning, and pass the day in retrenching exuberances and correcting inaccuracies. The method of Pope, as may be collected from his translation, was to write his first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amlify, decorate, rectify, and refine them.”

Pope will never again be the popular classic he was in his own century. Yet his poems are the most accomplished works of the English classical tradition. Behind the bland, accepting facade of Pope's philosophy and satire there is loneliness and deep consciousness of pain.

The other excellent poet of that period is Thomas Gray (1716–1771), a Sentimentalist. Sentimentalism is a literary movement of the second half of the XVIII century and marked a new stage in the development of the Enlightenment. The belief in the values of reason being shattered, the emotional tendencies became accentuated. Sentimentalists were characterized by emotional treatment of Nature, the belief in innate virtues of man and his ability of moral improvement. Though Gray’s literary heritage is not rich, he will be always remembered by The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which roused sympathetic echoes in all Englishmen. Here the natural cast of his mind is matched by the subject-matter: his reflections on the nameless, obscure country people who lie around him in unmarked graves, or commemorated by rough peasant memorials. The poem also describes the supposed death of the melancholy and unknown author. Critics have related the closing stanzas to Gray’s fears about his own poetic destiny. The diction of the poem is very XVIII century with its use of inverted word-order, but the wistful gloom, and some of the sense for the qualities of the humble, point forward to Wordsworth. Elegy contains some of the best-known lines in English literature. It won universal recognition and was translated into many languages.

54

Tasks

1. Here is an extract from Pope’s Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735). Define the genre of the poem, the poet’s views on literature. Do you think antithesis – contrasting ideas in next-door clauses, using opposite or contrasting meanings of words – is the main artistic device of the author?

A mans true merit ‘tis not hard to find;

But each man’s secret standard in his mind,

That casting-weight pride adds to emptiness,

This, who can gratify? For who can guess?

The bard whom pilfer’s pastorals renown,

Who turns a Persian tale for half a crown,

Just writes to make his barrenness appear,

And strains, from hard-bound brains, eight lines a year;

He, who still wanting, though he lives on theft,

Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left:

And he, who now to sense, now nonsense leaning,

Means not, but blunders round about meaning:

And he, whose fastian’s so sublimely bad,

It is not poetry, but prose run mad:

All these, my modest satire bade translate,

And own’d that nine such poets made a Tate*.

*Tate – the Poet Laureate in Pope’s time; the allusion to the proverb “Nine tailors make a man”.

2. Here are the first three stanzas of the poem and two versions of its translation, made by V.Zhukovsky. Read them and answer the questions:

–What mood is set by these stanzas? Point out the words, which contribute most to the atmosphere of these stanzas.

–Compare the translations with the original. Which translation do you like more? Why do you think Zhukovsky made the second translation?

–Compare the stylistic devices, used by the author and by the transla-

tor.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world of darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

55

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower,

The moping owl does to the moon complain

Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,

Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Уже бледнеет день, скрываясь за горою; Шумящие стада толпятся над рекой; Усталый селянин медлительной стопою Идет, задумавшись, в шалаш спокойный свой.

В туманном сумраке окрестность исчезает… Повсюду тишина, повсюду мертвый сон; Лишь изредка, жужжа, вечерний жук мелькает, Лишь слышится вдали рогов унылых звон.

Лишь дикая сова, таясь под древним сводом Той башни, сетует, внимаема луной, На возмутившего полуночным приходом Ее безмолвного владычества покой.

Перевод 1802 г.

Колокол поздний кончину отошедшего дня возвещает; С тихим блеянием бредет через поле усталое стадо;

Медленным шагом домой возвращается пахарь, уснувший Мир уступая молчанью и мне. Уж бледнеет окрестность, Мало-помалу теряясь во мраке, и воздух наполнен Весь тишиною торжественной; изредка только промчится

Жук с усыпительно-тяжким жужжаньем, да рог отдаленный, Сон наводя на стада, порою невнятно раздастся; Только с вершины той пышно плющом украшенной башни Жалобным криком сова пред тихой луной обвиняет Тех, кто, случайно зашедши к ее гробовому жилищу, Мир нарушают ее безмолвного, древнего царства.

Перевод 1839 г.

3. A novel can be defined as a work of narrative fiction, usually in prose portraying characters and actions representative of real life in a continuous plot. As a distinct literary form, the novel came into being in Britain in the XVIII century. These are some of the factors, which are said to have influenced its development:

56

–Literary influences: Journalism (in the XVIII century it set out more to enlighten than entertain readers); parallel art forms (biography, diaries and memoirs were very fashionable at that time); letter writing; travel literature; the picaresque convention (this convention was a form of prose fiction originating in Spain in the XVI century, dealing with the adventures of rogues; in English fiction the term “picaresque” refers to a series of episodes where the often daring hero is forced to seek his fortune outside of stable society); the mock romance (such as Don Quixote de la Mancha” where, in comic vein, wandering knights try to put injustices to right.

–Other influences: Puritanism (it is characterized by a practical attitude to world affairs; a belief in the individual conscience, the voice of God; a love of truth); the rise of the middle class; scientific philosophy (the optimistic philosophy of “natural philosophers” such as John Locke (1632–1704) was consistent with a greater belief in reason at the expense of imagination).

Indicate which of the above influences seem to apply to such novels as

Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Pamela and Tom Jones.

4. What is the difference between the literary forms of adventure and travel? What are the peculiarities in the depiction of their main characters?

5. Can you find anything in common in the characters of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders; Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver?

Chapter IV

ROMANTICISM: PART I

The second half of the XVIII century was marked by the revolutions in France and America, popular wars for independence in Italy, Greece, Spain and Poland. These political changes inspired the Romantic period, which lasted from 1789 to about 1830 and at first meant “fanciful”, “light”. August Wilhelm Schlegel, a well-known German Romanticist and critic first coined this literary term and gave two famous lectures on the subject. In the first lecture (1801) he said that the first Romantic works appeared with Dante, etc. In his second lecture given in Vienna in 1808 he defined Romanticism as “organic” and “plastic”, against the “mechanical” tendencies of classicism.

The roots of the Romantic movement can be found in neo-Platonic ideas about the difference between appearance and reality as well as in

57

Ossianic movement: in the beginning of the 1760s James Macpherson wrote his “Ossianic” fragments – a forgery of Gaelic myths, and after that many other poets and writers turned to folk creations. Bishop Percy published his celebrated collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765, which became the main source of national ballads. It is necessary to say that Percy edited folklore ballads in order to bring them closer to the literary taste of his time, he was sure that he was making them better. It is quite true, because it is often difficult to read folklore in its original form, which is more interesting for the scientists engaged in this field. The other poet, who knew his native folklore perfectly well was Robert Burns. He can be considered a pre-Romantic poet. Robert Burns (1759–1796) wrote with equal facility in correct XVIII century English and in his native Scottish. The Scottish poems owe much to Scottish song, to the early Scottish poets. He died at the dawn of Romanticism, but he was nonetheless a powerful influence on it, being one of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s favourite writers. His literary heritage can be refered to pre-Romantic period. His first book, Poems,Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published in 1786 to enormous acclaim. It sold out in its first month of publication and strongly influenced Lyrical Ballads – a collaborative work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. One can feel the beauty of Scotland and the poet’s love for it and its people.

Burns was ever ready to uphold intellectual and moral freedom as man’s most sacred heritage and to denounce all those who interfere with freedom. Burns’ poetry rises from a conversational level, from small mar- ket-town and village talk about various subjects that include the affairs of kirk and kingdom, but are always related to personal and local interests, rises from that level in rhythms that have a relation also to dance and dance tunes:

That some kind husband had addressed

To some sweet wife:

It thirled the heart-strings through the breast,

A’ to the life.

Burns is also known for his comic and satirical verse, such as Holy Willy’s Prayer, To a Louse and some others. This poetry is like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Through rhythm and imagery he manages to create a sense of a world or community of particular characters behaving, talking

58

in particular scenes. But we listen not only to the characters talking, but to the poet himself talking characteristically, as an eye-witness and shrewdly humorous commentator on the life he is presenting and of which he is himself a part.

Tam o’Shanter is Burns’s most important single work. It has endured not just for its power as a Gothic chiller, but for its distinctive energy and as a product of Burns’ control of the language.

Terror, passion and the Sublime (an idea associated with religious awe, vastness, natural magnificence and strong emotion which fascinated XVIII century critics and aestheticians) are essential concepts in early Romanticism (pre-Romanticism). The introduction of the non-rational into literature is its another feature. In 1764 Horace Walpole wrote his famous novel The Castle of Otranto full of ghosts, vaults, giants, living statues. Later the author said that he gave reign to his imagination; visions and passions choked him. The book became the first Gothic novel – tale of the macabre, fantastic, usually set amid haunted castles, graveyards, ruins. Among the most famous Gothic novels we can name Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), Lewis’ The Monk (1796), as well as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) – the books that appeared on the peak of Romanticism .

Another very important feature of Early Romanticism was the revival of interest to Shakespeare who had been almost forgotten by the middle of the XVIII century. Of course, Romanticism would have been impossible without him. David Garrick, an author of lively farces and an unsurpassed actor of his time, produced many of Shakespeare’s plays, though he excluded unhappy endings: Hamlet remained alive, Othello did not murder Desdemona, and it was the sign of the time.

Imagination was very important for the Romantics. “This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity; it is the divine bosom . . .” – wrote Blake. Where intelligence was fallible, limited, the Imagination was out. The Romantics were fascinated by the faculty of imagination, and elevated the concepts of spontaneity, inspiration, and so on. In general they celebrated the limitless possibilities of the human mind, and explored the means of penetrating down to subconscious levels: dreams, drugs, madness, hypnosis, thought transference occupy a place in the romantic view of things that the eighteenth century would have found unhealthy, simply foolish. These were the Romantics' ways of escaping from, or at any rate articulating an alternative to, a world that had become excessively rational, as well as excessively materialistic and ugly. It is not surprising that, finding

59

little sustenance in the world of the late eighteenth century, where even nature was threatened by the burgeoning industrialism, and where all the impulses of spontaneity and free expression were stifled under a reactionary political system, the imaginations of the Romantics tuned in, instead, to other times and places, where the qualities they valued could be convincingly depicted. As it has been mentioned, the medieval or renaissance worlds were particularly favoured , but they might range further afield – to the central Asian chief of Kubla Khan, or to India for the vaguely Hindu tales of Robert Southey. In such settings, it seemed, life was more dangerous, man's individuality more sharply defined; existence had a zest, an edge, lacking in conformist nineteenth-century Britain. There too one could allow free play to the supernatural – witches, curses, visions and prophecies – without arousing feelings of incongruity.

There are two generations of “Romantic poets”. The first generation is represented by Blake, Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge, though some of them outlived the second generation, who all died young.

William Blake (1757–1827) is a very original poet who is characterized by individual testing of the wisdom, morality and theology of his time. He anticipated the period, which was coming, turned away from the conventions of the classical past, valued highly strong emotions and experimented in symbolic writing. He published his first volume, Poetical Sketches, in 1783, which was followed by Songs of Innocence in 1789, and The Book of Thel. These books manifested the early phases of his highly distinctive mystic vision and the evolution of his personal mythology. In his poem Jerusalem he stated, through the character Los: “I must Create a System, or be enslaved by another Man’s”. The poem is prophetic. After the preface in which Blake defies his use of free verse, he proceeds to personify England as the fallen giant Albion and to summon him to the “awakening of Eternal Life”. Blake mingles prophesy with social criticism, and biblical legend with legends of druids and Gog and Magog. The book contains 100 etchings, made by Blake himself. The poet was a talented engraver.

One of the difficulties in coming to Blake’s poetry is to know where to focus attention. If we read only his comprehensible short poems, we may lose much of their meaning by ignoring their relation to the obviously esoteric writings, and if we turn to the “prophetic books”, we may miss the charm of Blake’s poetry. In his books the poet raises many important problems. He is a master of combining a very general, complex meaning with a vivid phrase-embodied symbol. For example in the poem The Tiger Blake presents the fierceness of nature through a symbolic object – a tiger.

60