GOLDSMITHS’ COLLEGE
University of London
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2004 BA EXAMINATION
RESTORATION AND AUGUSTAN LITERATURE (EN52025A)
THREE HOURS
DATE:
Answer THREE questions, ONE from EACH section. Do NOT present
substantially the same material in any two answers, whether on
this paper or in any other part of your examination.
SECTION A
1.
Write on ONE of the following passages, indicating those
qualities which you think make it characteristic of its
period. Pay particular attention to the subject, the form,
and where appropriate the use of language and image.
a)
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A Satire on Charles II
In th’ isle of Britain, long since famous grown
For breeding the best cunts in Christendom,
There reigns (and oh, long may he reign and thrive)
The easiest king and best-bred man alive.
Him no ambition moves
to get renown,
1
Like the French fool who wanders up and down,
Starving his people, hazarding his crown.
Peace is his aim, his gentleness is such,
And love he loves, for he loves fucking much.
Nor are his high desires above his strength,
His sceptre and his prick are of a length,
And she may sway the one who plays with th’ other,
1
French fool: Louis XIV.
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And make him little wiser than his brother.2
Restless he rolls about from whore to whore,
A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.
Poor prince, thy prick, like thy buffoons at court,
Will govern thee because it makes thee sport.
2
his brother: James, Duke of York.
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’Tis sure the sauciest that did ever swive,3
The proudest peremptory prick alive.
Though safety, law, religion, life lay on ’t,
’Twould break through all to make its way to cunt.
3
swive: copulate.
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To Carwell,4 the most dear of all his dears,
The best relief of his declining years,
Oft he bewails his fortune and her fate,
Which made her love so well, and yet too late.
4
Carwell: Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, one of Charles’s mistresses.
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For though in her he settles well his tarse,5
Yet his dull graceless ballocks hang an arse.
This you’d believe had I but time to tell ye6
The pains it costs the poor laborious Nelly,
Whilst she employs hands, fingers, mouth and thighs
Ere she can raise the member she enjoys.
I hate all monarchs, and the thrones they sit on,
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6
tarse: penis.
Nelly: Nell Gwyn, actress in the King’s Company and another of Charles’s mistresses.
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From the hector7 of France to the cully8 of Britain.
(JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER, 1673)
b)
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In such a Night, when every louder Wind1
Is to its distant Cavern
safe confin’d;
2
And only gentle Zephyr
fans
his Wings,
And lonely Philomel,3 still waking, sings;
Or from some Tree, famed for the Owl’s delight,
She, hollowing clear, directs the Wand’rer right:
In such a Night, when passing Clouds give place,
Or thinly vail the Heav’ns mysterious Face;
When in some River, overhung with Green,
The waving Moon and trembling Leaves are seen;
When freshen’d Grass now bears itself upright,
And makes cool Banks to pleasing Rest invite,
7
hector: bully.
cully: dupe.
1
Cavern safe confin’d: imprisoned in a cave by Aeolus, ruler of the winds.
2
Zephyr: in classical mythology, the west wind. Hence, any gentle breeze.
3
Philomel: the nightingale.
8
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Whence springs the Woodbind,4 and the Bramble-Rose,
And where the sleepy Cowslip shelter’d grows;
Whilst now a paler Hue the Foxglove takes,
Yet checquers still with Red the dusky brakes:
When scattered Glow-worms, but in Twilight fine,
Show trivial Beauties watch their Hour to shine;
[...]
When a sedate Content the Spirit feels,
And no fierce Light disturbs, whilst it reveals;
But silent Musings urge the Mind to seek
Something, too high for Syllables to speak;
Till the free Soul to a compos’dness charm’d,
Finding the Elements of Rage disarm’d,
O’er all below a solemn Quiet grown,
Joys in th’inferiour World, and thinks it like her Own:
In such a Night let Me abroad remain,
Till Morning breaks, and All’s confus’d again;
Our Cares, our Toils, our Clamours are renew’d,
Or Pleasures, seldom reach’d, again pursu’d.
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(ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA, from ‘A Nocturnal Reverie’, 1713)
c)
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Nothing so true as what you once let fall,
‘Most women have no characters at all.’
Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,
And best distinguish’d by black, brown, or fair.
How many pictures of one Nymph we view,
All how unlike each other, all how true!
4
Woodbind: climbing plant such as honeysuckle.
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Arcadia’s Countess,9 here, in ermin’d pride,
Is there, Pastora10 by a fountain side.
Here Fannia,11 leering on her own good man,
9
Arcadia's Countess: a lady such as the Countess of Pembroke who was painted in a
vaiety of guises.
10
Pastora: from the Latin for _shepherdess'.
11
Fannia: a notorious Roman adulteress.
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And there, a naked Leda12 with a Swan.
Let then the Fair one beautifully cry,
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12
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Leda: the princess raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. The subject was
a popular
one among painters.
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In Magdalen’s loose hair13 and lifted eye,
Or drest in smiles of sweet Cecilia14 shine,
With simp’ring Angels, Palms, and Harps divine;
Whether the Charmer sinner it, or saint it,
If Folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
Come then, the colours and the ground prepare!
Dip in the Rainbow, trick her off in Air;
Chuse a firm Cloud before it fall, and in it
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13
Magdalen's loose hair: Mary Magdalen, the prostitute who anointed Jesus's feet and
wiped them with her hair.
14
Cecilia: patron saint of music.
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Catch, e’er she change, the Cynthia15 of this minute.
Rufa, whose eye quick-glancing o’er the Park,
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15
Cynthia: the moon goddess, traditionally associated with instability.
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Attracts each light gay meteor of a Spark,16
Agrees as ill with Rufa studying Locke,17
As Sappho’s18 diamonds with her dirty smock;
Or Sappho at her toilet’s greasy task,
With Sappho fragrant at an ev’ning Mask:
So morning Insects that in muck begun,
Shine, buzz, and fly-blow in the setting-sun.
(ALEXANDER POPE, from An Epistle to a Lady, 1735)
(d)
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IN the republic of letters, there is no member of such inferior rank, or who is so much
disdained by his brethren of the quill, as the humble Novelist: nor is his fate less hard in the
world at large, since, among the whole class of writers, perhaps no one can be named, of
whom the votaries are more numerous, but less respectable.
Yet, while in the annals of those few of our predecessors, to whom this species of
writing is indebted for being saved from contempt, and rescued from depravity, we can trace
such names as Rousseau, [...] Fielding, [and] Richardson [...] no man need blush at starting
from the same post, though many, nay, most men, may sigh at finding themselves distanced.
[...]
Perhaps were it possible to effect the total extirpation of novels, our young ladies in
general, and boarding-school damsels in particular, might profit from their annihilation: but
since the distemper they have spread seems incurable, since their contagion bids defiance to
the medicine of advice or reprehension, and since they are found to baffle all the mental art
of physic, save what is prescribed by the slow regimen of Time, and bitter diet of
Experience, surely all attempts to contribute to the number of those which may be read, if
not with advantage, at least without injury, ought rather to be encouraged than contemned.
Let me, therefore, prepare for disappointment those who, in the perusal of these
sheets, entertain the gentle expectation of being transported to the fantastic regions of
Romance, where Fiction is coloured by all the gay tints of luxurious Imagination, where
Reason is an outcast, and where the sublimity of the Marvellous rejects all aid from sober
Probability. The heroine of these memoirs, young, artless, and inexperienced, is
No faultless Monster, that the World ne’er saw,
but the offspring of Nature, and of Nature in her simplest attire.
(FRANCES BURNEY, from _Preface_ to Evelina, 1778)
SECTION B
2.
To please, this time, has been his sole pretence,
He’ll not instruct, lest it should give offence.
16
Spark: flashy man
Locke: John Locke (1632-1704) philosopher, author of An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690)
18
Sappho: Pope's name for Lady Mary Wortley Montague.
17
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(WILLIAM CONGREVE, Prologue to The Way of the World)
In the light of Congreve’s ironic claim, consider the relationship between entertainment and
instruction in at least two Restoration comedies.
3.
It has been suggested that mock-heroic involves the clash of irreconcilable value systems. In
the light of this idea, explore Dryden’s use of the mock-heroic in Mac Flecknoe.
4.
Love, the most generous passion of the mind,
The softest refuge innocence can find, [...]
That cordial drop heaven in our cup has thrown,
To make the nauseous draught of life go down,
(JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER)
Is it possible to reconcile this idealised view of love with the treatment of love and desire
found elsewhere in Rochester’s songs and satires?
5.
To what extent does Behn's Oroonoko offer a coherent critique of the slave trade?
6.
The preface to Robinson Crusoe claims that the story is told ‘to justify and honour the
wisdom of Providence in all the variety of our circumstances’. How convincing do you find
this claim?
7.
‘Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their
own’ (JONATHAN SWIFT). By what means does Swift prevent this happening with his
own readers? You need not confine your answer to Gulliver’s Travels.
8.
The Object of thy Spleen is Human Kind:
It preys on all, who yield or who resist;
To Thee ’tis Provocation to exist.
(LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, Verses Address’d to the Imitator of Horace, 1733)
How fair is this assessment of Pope’s poetry?
9.
‘All chambermaids are strictly enjoyned to look out after their masters; they are taught to use
little arts to that purpose; and [...] are countenanced in impertinence to their superiors’
(HENRY FIELDING, Shamela). How just is Fielding’s attack on Pamela?
10.
‘Good-nature requires a distinguishing faculty, which is another word for judgement, and is
perhaps the sole boundary between wisdom and folly’ (HENRY FIELDING). In the light of
this comment, consider the relationship between good nature and judgement in Tom Jones.
11.
Because of its apparent modernity, Tristram Shandy has been described as an inexplicable
anachronism. Is it possible to make sense of it in terms of its period?
12.
‘[Evelina’s] conclusion denies the earlier implied criticism of male domination by showing
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Evelina finding all her happiness in male protection’ (JANE SPENCER). How would you
explain the apparently confused message of Burney’s novel?
SECTION C
Answers in this section should discuss works by AT LEAST TWO different authors.
13.
To what extent does the concept of Augustanism help us understand the literature of the
period? You should refer to at least two writers.
14.
Is there more to the anti-feminist satire of the period than commonplace sexism and
misogyny? You should refer to at least two writers.
15.
Write on the use of the heroic couplet and/or blank verse in the poetry of the period. You
should refer to at least two writers.
16.
Writers and critics of the period often made a distinction between Juvenalian and Horatian
satire. Consider the satire of at least two writers whose work illustrates this distinction.
17.
‘I know no subject more elevating, more amusing, more ready to awaken the poetical
enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment, than the works of Nature’
(JAMES THOMSON). In the light of this comment, consider the treatment of nature in the
work of at least two writers of the period.
18.
Yet malice never was his aim;
He lashed the vice, but spared the name;
No individual could resent,
Where thousands equally were meant.
(JONATHAN SWIFT)
To what extent does this traditional defence of the general aims of satire find support in the
satirical writing of the period? You should refer to at least two writers.
19.
‘Romances are generally composed of [...] miraculous contingencies and impossible
performances [....] Novels are of a more familiar nature [...] and represent to us intrigues in
practice, delight us with accidents and odd events, but not such as are wholly unusual’
(WILLIAM CONGREVE). To what extent does this distinction between romance and novel
help us understand the period’s prose fiction? You should refer to at least two writers.
20.
‘Women writers are in a special position because of society’s attitude to their sex; and their
work is likely to be affected by their response to that position ’ (JANE SPENCER). Consider
the validity of this claim with reference to the work of at least two women writers of the
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period.
21.
To what extent does the period’s poetry of nocturnal meditation cohere into a distinct school
of poetry? You should refer to the work of at least two poets.
22.
‘Tho’ marriage makes man and wife one flesh, it leaves ’em still two fools’ (WILLIAM
CONGREVE). To what extent is this negative view typical of the period’s conception of
marriage? You should refer to at least two writers.
23.
Discuss the treatment of one of the following in the work of at least two writers of the
period:
(a) classical literature
(b) human nature
(c) landscape gardening
(d) libertinism
(e) Providence
(f) reason
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