Sociable Criticism in England, 1625-1725Sociable Criticism in England explores how from 1625 to 1725 cultural practices and discourses of sociability (rules for small-group discussion, friendship discourse, and patron-client relationships) determined the venues within which critical judgments were rendered, disseminated, and received. It establishes how individuals operating in small groups were authorized to circulate critical judgments and commentary, why certain modes of critical exchange were treated as beyond the ken of good social manners, and how such expectations were subverted or manipulated to avoid the imputation that individuals had violated the standards for offering public criticism. Philips, George Villiers, John Dryden, Lady Margaret Cavendish, John Dennis, and Joseph Addison, this study argues that seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century criticism could circulate either orally, in manuscript, or in print so long as it appeared to originate in interpersonal encounters considered appropriate to critical discussion. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 78
Page 14
... letters of dedication and prefatory essays . ' " 12 While such works have pointed the way to a more effective history of critical practices for the period , they fall short of what Terry Castle in her short article on eighteenth ...
... letters of dedication and prefatory essays . ' " 12 While such works have pointed the way to a more effective history of critical practices for the period , they fall short of what Terry Castle in her short article on eighteenth ...
Page 15
... letters , face - to- face discussions , manuscript exchange , and elsewhere . We argue that sociable criticism was the default mode in the early modern period in England so much so that even public crit- icism for the most part print ...
... letters , face - to- face discussions , manuscript exchange , and elsewhere . We argue that sociable criticism was the default mode in the early modern period in England so much so that even public crit- icism for the most part print ...
Page 22
... letters , and answer poems . Whether such notebooks contained single - author collections of verse , miscella- neous collections of popular poets and prose writers , imitations 22 1: Critical Commonplaces: Manuscript Production and ...
... letters , and answer poems . Whether such notebooks contained single - author collections of verse , miscella- neous collections of popular poets and prose writers , imitations 22 1: Critical Commonplaces: Manuscript Production and ...
Page 23
... letters or speeches . " Most often , they were intro- duced in schools to develop and cultivate students ' capacity for judgment and discernment . 1 As Harold Love observes , in the sev- enteenth century students used them to set " down ...
... letters or speeches . " Most often , they were intro- duced in schools to develop and cultivate students ' capacity for judgment and discernment . 1 As Harold Love observes , in the sev- enteenth century students used them to set " down ...
Page 24
... letters from Crowther , Ralph Verney's tutor at Magdalen Hall at Oxford , who in 1631 " sends Ralph astronomy notes which he himself put to- gether for his pupil . . . . Afterwards he gives him ' a generall scheme of the Arts and a ...
... letters from Crowther , Ralph Verney's tutor at Magdalen Hall at Oxford , who in 1631 " sends Ralph astronomy notes which he himself put to- gether for his pupil . . . . Afterwards he gives him ' a generall scheme of the Arts and a ...
Contents
22 | |
43 | |
Front Matters Margaret Cavendishs Prefaces and the Margins of Sociable Criticism | 64 |
Impudence and Polite Conversation Rules for Coterie Discussion and Drydens Essay of Dramatick Poesie | 83 |
Performing Criticism Villierss The Rehearsal and the Discourse of Friendship | 101 |
Friends in Christ and Denizens of the Stage Religious Reforms Challenge to Coterie Criticism | 119 |
Speaking for the Magistrate John Dennis and Critical Regulation | 138 |
Sociable Criticism into Print Addisons Spectator and the Personality of the Critic | 156 |
Notes | 177 |
Bibliography | 203 |
Index | 225 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Addison Alexander Pope amendment Aphra Behn audience authors Bayes Ben Jonson Bohun Boyle's censure Charles circulation cism collaborative Collier commendatory poems commentary context conversation copies correct coterie critical coterie group Cotterell Cotterell's court Crites critical judgment critical practices cultural Dennis's dialogue discussion dramatic edition efforts England English epistle Essay Eugenius evaluation exchanges faults Freeman friends friendship front matter George Hooker Ibid individuals Jeremy Collier John Dennis John Donne John Dryden Jonson Joseph Addison judge Katherine Philips L'Estrange letters Literary Criticism London Mad Madge manuscript Margaret Cavendish notebook Orrery Oxford patron performance Peter Beal Philips's Philosophical and Physical Physical Opinions play poet poetic poetry political Pompey praise preface print criticism production reception reform regulation Rehearsal Reproof reputation role satire Seventeenth-Century Short View Sir Roger L'Estrange sociable criticism social Society Spectator stage theater theatrical tion translation Triumvirate of Poets verse Villiers Villiers's vouching William writers
Popular passages
Page 38 - Donne Who shall doubt, Donne, where I a poet be, When I dare send my epigrams to thee? That so alone canst judge, so...
Page 165 - ... be venerable even to such an audience as at present frequents the English theatre. My friend Will Honeycomb commended several tender things that were said, and told me they were very genteel; but whispered me, that he feared the piece was not busy enough for the present taste. To supply this, he recommended to the players to be very careful in their scenes ; and, above all things, that every part should be perfectly new dressed.
Page 200 - And perhaps the reason why common critics are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to pursue their observations through an uniform and bounded walk of art, than to comprehend the vast . and various extent of nn*ure.
Page 81 - Lord, that he would be pleased to let me have some elegant and learned historian to assist me; which request his Grace would not grant me ; saying, that having never had any assistance in the writing of my former books, I should have no other in the writing of his life, but the informations from himself, and his secretary, of the chief transactions and fortunes occurring in it, to the time he married me.
Page 39 - What transcripts begg'd? how cry'd up, and how glad, Wilt thou be, Muse, when this shall them befall? Being sent to one, they will be read of all.