Seventeenth-century Writers Research Articles

Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I. The matter of Bitu

In late medieval and early modern times West Africa was one of the principal suppliers of gold to the world bullion market. In this context the Matter of Bitu is one of much importance. Bitu lay on the frontiers of the Malian world and was one of its most flourishing gold marts. So much is clear from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writings, both African and European. A review of this body of evidence indicates that the gold trade at Bitu was controlled by the Wangara, who played a central role in organizing trade between the Akan goldfields and the towns of the Western Sudan. It is shown that Bitu cannot be other than Bighu (Begho, Bew, etc.), the abandoned Wangara town lying on the northwestern fringes of the Akan forest country, which is known (from excavation) to have flourished in the relevant period. In the late fifteenth century the Portuguese established posts on the southern shores of the Akan country, so challenging the monopolistic position which the Wangara had hitherto enjoyed in the gold trade. The Portuguese sent envoys to Mali, presumably to negotiate trade agreements. The bid was apparently unsuccessful. The struggle for the Akan trade in the sixteenth century between Portuguese and Malian interests will be treated in the second part of this paper.

Mary's Protestant Martyrs and Elizabeth's Catholic Traitors in the Age of Catholic Emancipation

Debates over the interpretation of the English Reformation often have followed from the wider controversies of the day. This was especially true in the years before Catholic Emancipation, when political tensions led Catholic, Anglican, and Whig historians to revive the many quarrels about the past. Of these disputes, the persecutions under Mary I and the alleged treason of Elizabethan Catholics seemed most relevant to the issue of Catholic freedom. From John Foxe had come the Anglican image of Catholic cruelty; from the statutes and official tracts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, the obsessive fears of Catholic treason. John Foxe taught his generation that persecution and treason had been practiced by the papal antichrist since the fourteenth century. The apparent timelessness of Roman evil was given new support by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the Irish Massacres of 1641. Moreover, by culling quotations from church councils, papal decrees, and Catholic divines, seventeenth-century Anglican writers alleged that treason and cruelty flowed from the very principles of the Roman church. Since those same principles had been established as early as 1215 and never had been rescinded, the lesson was clear enough: the penal laws could not be ended until Rome changed. For the historians of the English Reformation, Mary's fires and Elizabeth's traitors would show not only what Rome had been but what it must always be.

Mersenne on Keyboard Tuning

Mersenne is an interesting figure in the history of keyboard temperaments not only for what he said but also for what he stimulated others, including Titelouze, Descartes and Rousseau, to say.1 It is true that he tended to combine sophistication and naivety as perhaps only a very kindly and cloistered savant could do, and that his first-hand grasp of the craftsmanly and even mathematical aspects of temperament was less secure than that of a Zarlino or a Sauveur. (In the Latin counterpart of Harmonie Universelle, the Harmonicorum libri of 1636, he gave a prescription for tuning the organ which is, as far as I can tell, inept by any standard.') Nevertheless, he is one of the outstanding seventeenth-century writers on tunings as well as other aspects of acoustics and organology; his treatment of the subject over the years reflects the growth of an intellectual personality of considerable importance in the history of science as well as musicology; and his instructions in French for meantone temperament may have exercised a particularly curious influence in the stylistic development of the French harpsicord repertoire. Perhaps the fairest way to summarize Mersenne's views on keyboard tuning is to discuss in turn his attitude toward the three main varieties that he dealt with: just intonation, meantone temperament, and equal

Depression and Loss: A Theme in Robert Burton's “Anatomy of Melancholy” (1621)

Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) can hardly be thought of as a modern study in psychiatry, but it contains more elements of modern theory than have been recognized. Attempts to recommend the book to modern readers have missed the point that Burton, more clearly than other seventeenth century writers on melancholy, sees traumatic loss of attachment figures, status symbols and personal health as predisposing to mood disorders. In this he strongly anticipates such work as that of John Bowlby in Attachment and Loss (1969), 1973). Burton's theory is divided between the humoural physiological theory descending from Galen and the observation that loss is a frequent precursor of melancholy. He cannot reconcile the two, writing a book only poised on the verge of modernity. The Anatomy of Melancholy nevertheless very fully discusses etiological "hunches" which have found verification in recent studies of traumatic loss.

From Humanist to Enlightenment Historiography: A Case Study of Francois Eudes de Mezeray

During the seventeenth century historians in France developed new conceptions about history and applied new methodologies of historical writing. Not yet content to leave behind the Renaissance view that history was an art, and not yet comfortable with the Enlightenment claim that history was a science, these seventeenth-century writers created a transitional genre of historical writing. Called by contemporaries the histoire raisonnee,e it was a fluid genre which absorbed some elements of the Renaissance style, transformed others to accord with seventeenth-century values and tastes, and cast away those unnecessary embellishments which detracted from its goals. As a result of its new orientation, the histoire raisonnee also laid the foundations for the broader based, more critical history of the Enlightenment in France. Thus the histoire raisonnee was a unique style of historical writing which modulated between Renaissance and Enlightenment historiography. This article will use the works of Franc;ois Eudes de Mezeray (1610-1683) both to illustrate the genre of the histoire raisonnee and to show how the histoire raisonnee evolved from the histoire d'humanisme. The works of Mezeray have been selected for this study for several reasons. Mezeray was a royal historiographer, pensioned during the

The Political Thought of Richard Cumberland: Sovereignty and the Escape from the Search for Origins

Much of what seventeenth-century writers and preachers had to say about allegiance was framed in terms of deference to the past: subjects owed obedience now because they were heirs to some ancient obedience rightfully exacted. Patriachalists and contractualists alike supposed that questions of legitimacy were best resolved by examining what they took to be the origins of human society. Eventually it became possible to construct a utilitarian political theory which instead judged a given system in terms of the needs it met; Richard Cumberland's De Legibus Naturae (1672) marks an important stage in this process. His cosmology is Christian and his political theory shares many trappings with those of his contemporaries, but from an examination of human interdependence he succeeds in establishing an unequivocally utilitarian account of sovereignty.

Social Realism in the Dialogue of Eighteenth-Century French Fiction

Social Realism in the Dialogue oj Eighteenth-Century French Fiction VI VIENNE MYLNE One element of French novels which shows a marked change during the eighteenth century is that of dialogue. The simplest and most obvious way of describing the change is to say that, in a significant number of novels, dialogue becomes more “realistic” in manner and presentation: the style of conversations in a work by Balzac is more like the way people talk in real life than is, say, the dialogue style of La Princesse de Cleves. However, once we try to go beyond simplistic statements of this kind, the criterion of “realism” becomes less satisfactory. There are problems in ap­ plying the criterion (some of which involve conflicts between different types of “realism”); and in any case, “realism” alone cannot serve as a criterion of literary excellence. In this essay we shall consider the theoretical problems as they arise in the course of discussing our examples, while the question of the evaluation of literary merit will be left until the end. In order to keep the discussion within manageable limits, I shall concentrate here on the kinds of realism which can be most easily identified. These are the cases where a novelist indicates—by grammar, vocabulary and even spelling—that the character in 265 266 / VIVIENNE MYLNE question does not use the language of well-educated Parisians. Such divergences from standard French thus carry implicit infor­ mation about the character’s social class, level of education, and place of origin. Before considering eighteenth-century developments, however, we need to look briefly at some of the conventions concerning dialogue which were in force toward the end of the seventeenth century. There are two main points which should be mentioned here. The first is merely one aspect of the more general question of levels of style: the concept of literary genres, and of maintain­ ing a style consonant with each genre or type of work. This “rule” was followed in fiction as well as in drama and poetry, and it covered not only passages where the voice is that of the narrator, but dialogue too. Thus, in France, it was only in comic fiction, and more especially in burlesque novels or anti-romans, that one found common characters talking in a low style. Far more frequent were novels in which the protagonists were noble and the dialogue was presented in correct and fairly formal language. Commenting on the style of such works, Henri Coulet says: Sa politesse amortit toute violence, toute erudite, son absence d’elan est propre a insinuer la tristesse; les conversations sont tres souvent rapportees au style indirect, dans le meme but d’attenuation , et quand elles sont transcrites au style direct, toujours tres eloignees de la phraseologie baroque, elles ne sont pas moins eloignees du dialogue familier.1 This regular correlation between certain identifiable kinds of fiction and their corresponding stylistic registers is one that begins to break down in the eighteenth century; and dialogue, as we shall see, is one of the elements which contributes to the breakdown. Coulet’s remark about the frequency of reported speech brings me to my second point concerning conventions. In this case we are dealing with a specific device or technique. Besides using indirect speech liberally, seventeenth-century writers also had frequent recourse to what one might call narrated speech, which presents the gist of what was said—sometimes fully, sometimes in a Social Realism in the Dialogue ofFrench Fiction I 267 compressed form—but without supplying the actual words of the speaker. Narrated speech is often combined with reported speech, and this mode of presentation continued throughout the eight­ eenth century. In the hands of a skillful writer the technique can be quite lively and effective. The following passage, by Louvet de Couvray, relates a scene in which the Count is teasing the Marquise, in her husband’s presence, about her guilty secret (“Mile Duportail” is in reality young Faublas himself, disguised as a girl): Preludant avec la Marquise par de legeres epigrammes, il protestoit qu’elle seule, jusqu’a present, savoit precisement combien Mademoiselle Duportail meritoit d’etre aimee. La Mar­ quise, egalement adroite et prompte...

Winstanley: A Case for the Man as He Said He Was

The publication of Christopher Hill's Winstanley: The Law of Freedom and Other Writings was an exciting event for students of mid-seventeenth-century England. It provides a readily available edition of Winstanley's most important writings. To these Hill offers a compelling introduction which has much to stimulate and interest, but in his interpretation of Winstanley there are also invitations to misunderstanding. Ultimately, Hill's interest in Winstanley arises from his perception of the seventeenth-century writer as ‘modern’ and, if another recent article is any guide, this continues to be the common factor for studies of Winstanley. It is the purpose of this article to argue that this ‘modern’ view of Winstanley misconstrues his intellectual sources and historical significance by minimising the part theology played in his theories of social and moral change. The result of such a view is to misrepresent Winstanley's meaning, and his relationship to his contemporary world.

L'Empirisme de Locke (review)

410 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY the famous doctrine of "mirroring" or representation. I do not intend to criticize Spinoza rather than Sen, simply to illustrate the difficulty of adequate exposition when cognate philosophers are not given enough attention. In my judgment the only really weak chapter of Sen's book is his critical examination of some of the difficulties of Spinoza's system (chap. 10). First of all, his critical base is unclear. Spinoza's theory of substance is "rather abstruse" (p. 177). "Experience, taken at its face value, never reveals the identity of thought with its object" (p. 180). Spinoza's monism "requires a great stride of speculative imagination" (p. 185). Some vague appeal to experience and what can only be called personal opinion are made to substitute for penetrating critical analysis. Oddly enough, impressive difficulties are raised throughout the book, and dealt with skillfully and with ease by the author, occasionally appealing to the very metaphysical method which in this chapter is considered suspect. The chapter is puzzling and disconcerting, resembling nothing so much as those annoying footnotes that readers sometimes demand before they approve dissertations. Nothing would have been lost if it had been omitted. If anything, though, these reservations are intended to put in sharper focus this book's real merits. Sen is capable of careful textual analysis, and he possesses admirable expository talents. His book will serve the student well who wants to find out what precisely Spinoza said in Part I of the Ethics and what he meant. ROBERTJ. MULVANEY The Catholic University o/America L'Empirisme de Locke. By Francois Duchesneau. Ohe Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973) Duchesneau's careful study of Locke is a fine example of the way precise tracings of historical lineage can illuminate philosophical issues. By placing Locke in the context of Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, and Boyle, epistemological questions found in Locke's Essay are sharpened, their analysis deepened. The early chapters ("Locke et la Doctrine de Sydenham" and "L'Empirisme M~clicale de Locke") trace the medical background of Locke, especially his relations and similarities with the doctrines of Thomas Sydenham. The drafts of the Essay, together with other early fragments, are made to yield, in this Sydenhamian context, greater understanding of Locke's philosophy of science and of its accompanying theory of knowledge than one usually finds in studies on Locke. Duchesneau does not take the medical interests of Locke as some magic key to his philosophy; rather he explicates the empiricism of Locke's philosophy and of his science by reference to attitudes and doctrines inherited but extended from Sydenham. Chapter III ("L'Analyse Empiriste de la Connaissance avant Locke") charts seventeenth-century empirical epistemology prior to Locke. The middle chapters ("Positions Initiales de Locke sur le Probl ~me de la Connaissance" and "Locke Philosophe de l'Exprrience") constitute one of the most sophisticated discussions that I know of Locke's philosophy of experience. The final chapter ("Locke et la Throrie Malebranchiste des Idres") is an especially important discussion of Locke's reaction to Malebranche's theory of ideas. A theme running through this study is that of the rationality or intelligibility of the real. That theme is reflected in the concerns with the relation between knowledge and reality which Duchesneau finds in seventeenth-century writers. Does a writer's theory of knowledge presuppose certain features in reality, even though the real may not be accessible to human cognition? In writing of Sydenham, Duchesneau suggests that this question takes the form of asking how treatment of symptoms can cure: "A priori, la rrponse est simple: il faut admettre que les phrnomrnes observrs, qui servent de fondement h la m&hode de traitement, rrvrlent une rationalit6 inhrrente au rrd" (p. 16). But Sydenham did not be- BOOK REVIEWS 411 lieve reality was directly accessible to man. It is, however, the real which is responsible for the order and uniformity of observed phenomena. Our knowledge is limited to phenomena but by being careful and patient observers of the phenomena of illness, of symptoms, we can construct an effective diagnostic on the general assumption that what lies behind these phenomena is responsible for them. Hypotheses on the nature of the reality behind appearances...

The Context of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel

With very few exceptions, Dryden's Absalcnn and Achitophel maintains a narrative integrity that few political allegories ever reach; its fable (in our terms, its vehicle) achieves a kind of autonomy which renders it complete and satisfying in itself and perfectly transparent as a metaphor for other things. These very qualities hide the real achievement of the fable of Abbsalum and Achitophel by cloaking it with an inevitability which it by no means possesses. We have been sufficiently reminded of the frequency with which seventeenth-century political writers compared Charles to David to accept without demur the appropriateness of the biblical tale to the English situation. If we remember piously that Dryden has really reversed the roles of the biblical Absalom and Achitophel, the fact does little to alter our acceptance of Dryden's fable as a donnee rather than an apercu, a fiction. Yet the imaginative reordering of history, both Jewish and English, constitutes the excellence of Dryden's poem, and the 'fabulous' (in the root sense) nature of Dryden's narrative makes it so inevitable a vehicle of his meaning. This is the aspect of Absalom and Achitophel I would like to explore in this paper. In general terms, the most significant change Dryden has made in the biblical narrative lies in his radical transformation of its temporal and conceptual contexts, both of which he wrenches into a rich ambiguity. To clarify this, we shall have to examine the much-worked-over opening lines of the poem:

Theme and Counterthemes in "Damon the Mower"

N THE ART OF MARVELL'S POETRY, J. B. Leishman states that Marvell's initial impulse for writing Damon the Mower might have come from Randolph's Dialogue. Thirsis. Lalage.l However, aside from a general resemblance between Randolph's lover, who burns from the cold power of Lalage, and Marvell's mower, who is scorched by the icy Juliana, there is little similarity between Randolph's complaint and Marvell's enigmatic overturn of the pastoral genre. This is not to deny Randolph's influence but rather to suggest that Marvell's initial impulse came from some other source, specifically, I feel, from Stanley's Acanthus Complaint and its French original, Tristan's Les Plaintes d'Acante. But more important than trying to determine the starting point of Marvell's composition-a task impossible to accomplish with any certainty-is the analysis of how Marvell's poem differs from these works. Such an analysis reveals the complexity of Marvell's mind. One discovers that Marvell's great achievement in the pastoral lies not merely in the overturn and transformation of his sources but in his ability to treat different and indeed mutually contradictory traditions contrapuntally. One sees that whereas most seventeenth-century writers of pastoral laments are writing airs, that is, poems with a single theme, Marvell is, in fact, writing a fugue, an understated one to be sure, not a full-blown fugue to be performed at St. Peter's, but a fugue nonetheless. A typical fugue contains a theme (or subject) and one or more counterthemes (or countersubjects) that are pitted against each other. The contrasting strands are interwoven so tightly that the countersubjects seem almost as important as the subject itself. So, too, in Damon the Mower, there is a contrapuntal handling of contrasting elements.

The Eye of Providence.

The eye in a triangle that appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States was called the Eye of Providence by the designers of the seal. The origins of this symbol which appeared in the last half of the seventeenth century are documented nowhere. However, consideration of analogous symbols and seventeenth century writers makes it clear that the origins of the Eye of Providence lie in the Greek classics. The subsequent paths are via alchemy, astrology, kabala, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. This symbol which suggests the protective observation of a benevolent diety has been with us for three centuries now and may be consulted at any time on the back of the United States one dollar bill.

On the Role of Symbolism in Political Thought

New philosophy calls in doubt, wrote John Donne, and thereby suggested a theory of intellectual transformation. Because the universe was of a piece, its parts harmoniously connected, the Copernican revolution seemed to call into question not only Ptolemaic astronomy but also a whole series of related ideas having to do with order, not in the heavens but on earth. With the sun lost and the cosmos all in pieces, Prince, Subject, Father, Son are things forgot.' Suddenly, the very categories of social and political thought seemed empty anct useless. In a sense, Donne was right: later seventeenth-century writers like Hobbes and Locke were indeed compelled to work out anew the meanings of authority and subjection and to redefine political and familial obligation. But was he also right to suggest that this work was made necessary by the new philosophy? For other writers, it was the new religious ideas which had destroyed the perceived coherence of the social world. Machiavellian atheism and Protestant voluntarism, thought Richard Hooker, endangered the ancient, elaborate, and lawful structure of human

No Middle Flight

1HE FORTUNATE COLLABORATION of literary-historical scholarship 1 with literary criticism, so often wished for, so seldom achieved, is nowhere more plainly to be seen at present than in Milton studies. One can return to the reading of Paradise Lost with a certain youthful excitement and sense of novelty, because it seems clear that the critical appraisal of that poem is a central literary experience, relevant to our theories of poetry in general, to our response to modern poetry, and to our understanding of history. To read the twenty or thirty recent books on Milton as we reread the poem is to sense that some of the best minds of our age are engaged in the study of Milton, and that if we wish to consider what are the vital and energetic forces at work in modern criticism, here is an arena where we can see the display. Far from smothering the subject, the Milton scholarship and criticism of the last quarter century have successfully directed our attention back to the poetry itself, and this is indeed a virtue. Moreover, the concerns of the recent scholars and critics of Milton have not been narrow; to approach Paradise Lost these days is to bring to bear the principal methods and techniques of both scholarship and criticism. Perhaps the chief service which modern scholarship has performed for Paradise Lost is to show that it is a hexaemeral poem; to demonstrate how deeply it is embedded in a tradition, to illustrate how respectable, intellectually, are the ideas to which the poem is a monument. We have learned how to approach the thought of a seventeenth-century writer seriously, with a realization that a proper appraisal requires knowledge of contemporary issues, insight into the importance of the argument about each of them, and infinite patience to trace the logic, the allusions, the chronology of his thought. Seen in the proper historical perspective, Milton's poem becomes a part of a large body of learned discussion of the meaning and significance of the Creation myth. Arnold Williams' book, The

A Bibliography of Seventeenth-Century Writings on the Pictorial Arts in English

The following bibliography is an attempt to list all seventeenth-century English writings on the pictorial arts. It includes works on painting and the graphic arts, i.e., drawing, woodcut, engraving, etching, and mezzotint. In general, works on the applied arts have been omitted along with works on architecture and sculpture. However, a few works on lacquering and glass painting which contain material pertinent to pictorial art generally have been included.

A Bibliography of Seventeenth-Century Writings on the Pictorial Arts in English

A Bibliography of Seventeenth-Century Writings on the Pictorial Arts in English

Our Lady’s Part in the Redemption According to Seventeenth-Century Writers

Our Lady’s Part in the Redemption According to Seventeenth-Century Writers

Cardinals of English Sees

With the elevation of the present Archbishop to the Sacred College the see of Westminster has seen all its rulers raised to the purple, Nicholas Wiseman, Henry Edward Manning, Herbert Vaughan, Francis Bourne, and Arthur Hinsley. The ancient see of Canterbury saw only four of its archbishops made Cardinals: Robert Kilwardy, Simon Lang- ham, Thomas Bourchier and John Morton, and of these the first two had to surrender their see on their promotion. Three others, Stephen Langton, John Kemp and Reginald Pole were already Cardinals when appointed Primates. There is no truth in the statement that Archbishops Chichele (1414-1443) and John Stafford (1443-1452) were Cardinals, though this statement, based on careless seventeenth century writers, has crept into so good a reference book as the Catholic Encyclopedia under the article, Canterbury, and has been several times repeated. Henry Chichele, far from being a Cardinal, was the cause of Pope Eugenius IV publishing a decree, dated 1439, declaring the precedence of Cardinals over all other prelates, particularly mentioning primates and archbishops. In this Bull, known as Non mediocri, the Pope tells Chichele of the displeasure with which he has heard that the archbishop, for close on fourteen years, has given precedence to the Cardinal of St. Eusebius, Henry Beaufort, presumably because of his royal birth, yet now refuses a like precedence to the Cardinal of St. Balbina (John Kemp, Archbishop of York). The Pope orders him to desist from this conduct, reminds him of the precedence of Cardinals over all other prelates in the Church, and instances the custom observed in the General Councils.

The Argentine Refrigerated Meat Industry

THE importance of a meat supply for the people of this country in an age which is characterised by the slow and gradual exhaustion of the meat supplies of the world available for the purposes of international trade lends special interest to the position of British capital in the Argentine meat industry. The Argentine Republic is one of the few countries of the world which has a considerable export of meat of all varieties, for the United States has already become a beef-importing Thus in an age when the industrial populations of the world are making increasing demands on sources of meat supplies, the investment of British capital in the Argentine refrigerated meat trade, and in the Republic generally, has a new significance. This view of the relation of the world demand to world meat resources may seem unduly pessimistic, but it is the conclusion reached by Shanahan from a detailed study of the available and potential sources of meat supplies.' Cattle and sheep rearing in the Argentine Republic dates back to the earliest stages of its history; in fact, to the sixteenth century, when the Spaniards first settled in the River Plate provinces. So peculiarly adapted to cattle rearing did the soil and climate of the country prove, that the slender stocks imported by the Spanish pioneers became the progenitors of herds of both domestic and wild cattle that spread rapidly over the rich pasture lands of those parts of South America with a temperate climate. Cattle were so plentiful that they threatened to become a menace through sheer force of numbers. They multiply so prodigiously, said a seventeenth century writer, that the plains are covered with them . . . in such numbers that, were it not for the dogs that devour the calves and other tender animals, they would devastate the country. 2 But the period of the greatest development of the

JAMES PRIMROSE 1580 (?)-1659

James Primrose, a somewhat prolific seventeenth century writer, is far better known as an opponent of Harvey's views on the circulation of the blood than as a pediatrician. His grandfather, Gilbert Primrose, was surgeon to James VI and his wife, Alison Graham. His father was a clergyman, who, owing to his religious views, emigrated to France. James was born at St. Jean d'Angely. He received his M.A. degree at Bordeaux and his doctorate from Montpellier in 1617. He was incorporated at Oxford in 1628 and admitted as a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1629. He settled at Hull, in Yorkshire, where he practiced for years, and, as Sir Anthony Wood says "was esteemed an eminent physician." He married Louise de Hankmont in 1640 at the Walloon Church in London. He died in 1659, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Hull. Primrose was steeped in the teachings