The Rhetoric of the Conscience in Donne, Herbert, and VaughanThere is a kind of conscience some men keepe, Is like a Member that's benumb'd with sleepe; Which, as it gathers Blood, and wakes agen, It shoots, and pricks, and feeles as bigg as ten Donne, Herbert, and Vaughan see the conscience as only partly theirs, only partly under their control. Of course, as theologians said, it ought to be a simple syllogism, comparing actions to God's law, and giving judgement, in a joint procedure of the soul and its maker. Inevitably, though, there are problems. Hearts refuse to confess, or forget the rules, or jumble them up, or refuse to come to the point when delivering a verdict. The three poets are beady-eyed experts on failure. After all, where subjects can only discover their authentic nature in relation to the divine it matters whether the conversation works. Remarkably, each poet - despite their very different devotional backgrounds - uses similar sets of tropes to investigate problems: enigma, aposiopesis (breaking off), chiasmus, subjectio (asking then answering a question), and antanaclasis (repetition with a difference). Structured like a language, the conscience is tortured, rewritten, read, and broken up to engineer a proper response. Considering the faculty as an uncomfortable extrusion of the divine into the everyday, the rhetoric of the conscience transforms Protestant into prosthetic poetics. It moves between early modern theology, rhetoric, and aesthetic theory to give original, scholarly, and committed readings of the great metaphysical poets. Topics covered include boredom, torture, graffiti, tattoos, anthologizing, resentment, tears, dust, casuistry, and opportunism. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Conscience as a Syllogism | 11 |
2 Torturing the Conscience with Divine subjectio | 39 |
3 Godly Graffiti or the Enigma of the Conscience | 81 |
4 Bumptious Reading and Priggish antanaclasis | 116 |
5 Peevish Weariness aposiopesis and the Irresolute Conscience | 157 |
6 Eyes Tears Eyes and the Penitential chiasmus | 193 |
The Engineered Conscience | 220 |
| 234 | |
| 269 | |
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actions answer aposiopesis appears argues argument become Bible body called Cambridge Catholic century chapter Christ Christian Church collection commonplace confession conscience considered critics describes desire devotional discussions divine Donne Donne’s dust early modern effect England English expressions eyes figure final follow force George give God’s hand hear heart Herbert History Holy human instance interest John judgement language London looks Mary meaning memory method mind move nature noted object Oxford Peter places poems Poetry poets political practice praise prayer present problem produce Protestant question reader reading reason refer religious Renaissance response rhetoric Richard sacred says scripture secular sense Sermons sins sonnet soul speak Study tears texts thee things Thomas thou thoughts torture trans truth turn understanding University Press Vaughan verse vols weeping writing written