BRITISH CRITICISM DURING THE RENAISSANCE, PART V—Bacon & Jonson

BRITISH CRITICISM DURING THE RENAISSANCE –Blamiers

M. Phil English, Bharathiar University--Blamiers—

Approaches--Unit I

The RENAISSANCE V

BRITISH CRITICISM DURING THE RENAISSANCE

Summary by Dr. S. Sreekumar

Note: The summary is in FIVE parts

PART V—Bacon & Jonson

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

In the second book of The Advancement of Learning Bacon attempts a systematic study of various branches of learning.

·        Bacon argues that a man’s understanding has three parts—memory, imagination & reason.

·        History is related to memory, poetry to imagination and philosophy to reason.

·        Similarly theology consists of history, parables (Poetry) and doctrine.

Bacon on poetry

Bacon says that poetry is not tied to the laws of Nature. Therefore it has the license to join what nature has cut and cut what Nature has joined.

·        In respect of style poetry belongs to ‘arts of speech’.

·        In respect of substance, poetry is ‘Feigned History’. It can be presented either in prose or in verse.

·        True history cannot satisfy human mind. Poetry feigns (pretends, simulates) events that are greater and more heroical than history. “It also distributes reward and retribution to virtue and vice more justly than life itself, and more in accordance with divine Providence.”

·        Poetry has some element of divineness in it. It exalts and fulfils the aspirations of the mind.

Bacon divides poetry into three convenient groups——

a. Narrative    —   a direct imitation of history.

b. Representative — a visible presentation in                           dramatic form.

c. Allusive or parabolical — narrative expresses some

                            special message.

Bacon pays tribute to poets for surpassing philosophers in ‘the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions, and customs’. But poets are inferior to orators in ‘wit and eloquence’.  

BEN JONSON (1573-1637)

Ben Jonson is better known as a poet and a dramatist rather than as a critic. All the same he has an honoured place in the history of criticism. Widely and deeply read in the classics, he tried to mould English literature along the same lines. He saw danger in the free rule given to English poetry and drama by the advocates of the native tradition. While it might be good enough for a divinely gifted writer like Shakespeare, it was not without dangers for lesser men. So he advocated order and discipline in writing. Like the classical critics he wanted writers to write well ‘not by chance but knowingly’.

Unlike Sidney, Jonson followed his ideas with practice. All his plays are modelled on the Latin dramas——Seneca in tragedy and Plautus and Terence in comedy. In his critical views his masters were Aristotle, Horace, and the Latin writers of the Silver Age——Quintillion, Pliny the younger and Petronius. This makes him one of the first significant neo-classic critics in English. By neo-classic we simply mean a critic who tries to develop his theory and practice on the basis of the achievement of the great Greek and Latin writers and who tries to systematize classical practice and classical critical ideas into a set of rules for the guidance of modern writers. By his repeated stress on rules he becomes the literary dictator of his age.

Discoveries

This is his most valuable work published four years after his death. It is a collection of notes which Jonson made from time to time. Each has a Latin heading and varying in length from one sentence to a miniature essay. A few are his own and the rest are translations of well known writers. But the translations bear his special stamp.

Jonson’s Classicism

Jonson did not love the classics for their own sake. He was at one with the great Elizabethans in loving English more. But it was English raised to the excellence of Greek and Latin. With this noble aim he tried to cure the ills of English Literature which could be summed up in one word—— ‘excess’. [‘Excess of passion, excess of imagination, excess of expression] Even the great Shakespeare was not free from them. Jonson felt that some law is necessary to curb it. This law he found in Poetics.

   

A poet himself, he was quick to find out what was most useful in Aristotle’s Poetics for the art of poetry. He has noted down them in his Discoveries.

Of particular importance among the notes are his notes on unity of action. He follows Aristotle word for word. He added to these his concept about the unity of time which formed no part of Aristotle’s definition of action or plot.

Jonson considers action or plot under fable. The dimension of the plot is given much importance. The fable must be the imitation of one entire and perfect action. The parts of the action must be knit together. Nothing in the structure should be changed or taken away. The fable must have a beginning, middle and an end.

Jonson also considers the dimensions of the action. It must not be too great or too small. If it is too great we will not be able to understand it. If it is too small, we will not be able to appreciate it.

Lastly, Jonson takes up the question of wholeness. The action must be one and entire. As a house consists of different parts, a fable may possess different parts. But just as the house is one, the fable must be one.

Thus in his pronouncements on Plot Jonson faithfully follows Aristotle in letter and spirit.

The qualifications of the Poet

Jonson follows Sidney in his definition of a poet as a ‘maker’ or ‘feigner’ and of poetry as ‘fiction’ or the art of feigning. A poem is the thing ‘feigned’—the end and fruit of the poets’ labour. Like Sidney, Jonson believes that ‘Poesy is the Queen of Arts’

Jonson lays down five requirements for a good poet.  What the poet should be by nature, by exercise, by imitation, by study & by art.

What the poet should be by nature

The first thing required in a poet is a ‘goodness of natural wit. The poet must be by nature and instinct able to pour out the treasure of his mind.

Exercise

The natural wit has to be exercised properly. Common rhymers pour out verses. But there never came from them one sense worth the life of a day. A rhymer and a poet are two different things. It is said of the great Virgil that he brought forth his verses like a bear, and after formed them with licking…. Things written with labour deserve to be read. They only will last their age.

Imitation

The poet has to make the imitation sweet. Like the bee he has to draw out honey from other writers. Thus he has to observe how the best writers have imitated and followed them.

Study

The exactness of study and multiplicity of reading which make a full man is the fourth requirement for a poet. The poet must be the master of the matter and style and he must be able to handle both.

Art

The poet becomes perfect only though art. This is the advice given by both Aristotle and Horace. It is interesting to note that Jonson gives the first place to natural endowment. But he is distrustful of it without the necessary discipline in the art of writing.

Jonson’s Observations on Style

Jonson criticizes the extravagant style of the Elizabethan and Jacobean writers. He has no use for words for their own sake. To him language owes its life to thought. It bears the same relation to it as the body to the soul. It is lifeless without it. It is even an index of character.

Jonson says that the writer must never be content with the first word nor with the first arrangement in composition. They need to revise repeatedly to arrive at the best. Even the best writers at the beginning wrote with care and industry. They did nothing rashly. They learned first to write well, and then custom make it easy, and a habit. Ready writing makes not good writing: but good writing brings on ready writing.

The writer has to imitate good writers. It is better for the beginners to study others. Mind and memory become more focused when we study the writing of other people than our own writings.

Jonson is at his best when he speaks about the choice of words. However what he says had been said long ago by Aristotle, Horace, and Quintillion. Ancient words give charm to the language. Language used must be intelligible. It should not need the help of an interpreter.

Estimates of Bacon and Shakespeare

Jonson has remarked on men who most interested him—Montaigne, Spenser, Marlowe, Bacon, Shakespeare. Of all these, the most interesting are those on Bacon and Shakespeare. Jonson judges them both by the neo-classical standards of order and restraint.

µ    Bacon passes the test fully. Jonson says, “No man ever spake more neatly, more precisely, more weightily”. He was the master of the closely packed style that says twenty things in ten words.

µ    About Shakespeare, Jonson’s opinion is very important as it comes from a contemporary. “I remember that players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that in his writing he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand….He was honest, and of an open and free nature: had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions. His wit was in his own power. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned”.

It is important to note that Jonson’s neo-classic beliefs do not blind him to the native excellences of Shakespeare. Therefore Jonson’s neo-classicism is not a blind following of the ancients. He gives praise where praise is due, even in a different school of writing.

Jonson’s Liberal Concept of Rules

µ    He wanted every writer to learn as much from the ancients.

µ   But no writer must rest in the sole authority of the ancients.

µ   Truth lies open to all. Rules are ever of less force and value than experiments.

µ   Nothing is more foolish than to make an author a dictator, as the schools have done to Aristotle.

µ    It is not proper to conclude a poet’s liberty within the narrow limits of laws. Before laws were found out there were many excellent poets.

Estimate of His Criticism

Jonson was conscious of the glories of English Literature. But he was concerned about its unbridled course. Bacon and Shakespeare had their own lights to guide them, but what about the rest?

Ø  England surely needed more men of letters.

Ø  Jonson advises the critics. He would not trust hem unless they were gifted enough to enter into the complexities of the poetic art. ‘To judge poets is only the faculty of poets; and not of all poets, but the best….

Ø  This is no doubt an extreme position. Aristotle, on Jonson’s own admission, was a great critic without being a poet.

If there is one word to sum up Jonson’s contribution to the critical art, it is ‘to curb’—the necessity of submission to a code of conduct both on the part of the writer and the critic. He trusts training more than natural inspiration that is often a law unto itself.

   

UNIT I Concluded

Study material for MPhil English students of Bharathiar University by Dr. S. Sreekumar