Henry Vaughan and William Wordsworth

This article is a revised version of a paper, first presented in Japanese at the 41st Annual Conference of Japan Association of English Romanticism in October, 2015, and read at the 24th Colloquium of The Vaughan Association in April, 2019

花を見つめる詩人たち : ヴォーンとワーズワス <論文>

Many readers have noticed striking similarities in both thought and language between Henry Vaughan’s ‘The Retreat’ and William Wordsworth’s ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’.　This paper, by comparing and contrasting them again, demonstrates that their differences stem from the thought and literary modes dominant in their respective times, and by providing new evidence, argues that a point of contact between them could have been Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In their poems, both Vaughan and Wordsworth seem to deplore the fact that they have lost the blessings that they had in childhood, but on analysis, while the former has given up the idea of spying ‘some shadows of eternity’, the latter tries to keep his ‘natural piety’, and to find ‘the eternal deep’ even in adulthood.　Consequently, when gazing at Nature, Vaughn has a tendency to convey the medieval thought of contemptus mundi, whereas Wordsworth is inspired and filled with joy.　That is why the glory of Nature for Vaughn is couched in the past tense whereas for Wordsworth the power of Nature is still present: Vaughan says ‘[I] felt through all this fleshly dress / Bright shoots of everlastingness’; Wordsworth says ‘in my heart of hearts I feel your might’. That is also why Vaughan’s poems tend to be intellectual, or emblematic, whereas Wordsworth’s are emotional.　In other words, Vaughan’s Nature functions as the Book of Nature, looking beyond the surface－for example, ‘Not this with cataracts and creeks’－and giving divine messages, whereas the impassioned Wordsworth exclaims, ‘My heart leaps up when I behold’ a rainbow. This paper also demonstrates that the two poets have in common the doctrine of the preexistence of the soul and the philosophy of reincarnation. In the case of Wordsworth, however, these ideas were obviously problematic to him because they are ‘an ingredient in Platonic philosophy’ and contradictory to the orthodox Christianity.　Wordsworth claimed, as if he made use of a subterfuge, that he made ‘for [his] purpose the best use of it [he] could as a Poet’.　By examining ‘The Two April Mornings’, which describes a natural feeling of a father bereft of his dear daughter, the paper argues that this Romantic poet could believe emotionally, though not intellectually, the doctrine and philosophy in question. As another similarity between Vaughan and Wordsworth the paper discusses the panentheism of the former and the pantheism of the latter. Though contradictory, while Vaughan seems to have contempt for this world on the one hand, he can perceive the deity in Nature on the other and triumphantly claim, ‘each bush / And oak doth know I AM’.　Next, the paper not only affirms that behind Vaughan’s capability of perceiving ‘Bright shoots of everlastingness’ was the influence of Hermeticism, but also confirms that the poet’s high valuation of childhood was based upon the thoughts of Jacob Boehme and Hermes Trismegistus.　The paper concludes by arguing that Wordsworth’s ideas and treatments of children came from the same Hermetic source, and that the conduit was Coleridge, who regarded Hermeticism as one of his ‘darling Studies’, and took a keen interest in Boehme.　In his marginalia on the passage in Boehme’s Aurora, in which the German mystic says ‘Thou bringest an Angelical Garment into this World’, Coleridge quotes his close friend’s poetic lines, ‘trailing clouds of Glory do we come / From God who is our Home / HEAVEN LIES ABOUT US IN OUR INFANCY!’ Perhaps, smiling at Coleridge’s first baby to whom ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ alludes, Wordsworth could believe emotionally the mystical doctrine of Hermeticism, ‘Thanks to the human heart by which we live, / Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears’.この論文は，2015（平成27）年，10月17日に奈良教育大学で開催されたイギリス・ロマン派学会第41回全国大会において口頭発表した「花を見つめる詩人たち－ヴォーンとワーズワス－」に加筆したものである

The Rib of Adam and Marvell's 'The Garden' (Part III)

Further to the second part of this study in the previous volume, in order to suggest the other cause of Marvell's misogynistic gesture, the paper attempts to prove that there was - even if its truth cannot be demonstrated - at least a rumour that Lady Fairfax was (according to the standard of the time) a scold, who dared to shout in public, and that Lord Fairfax was henpecked. Certain of Marvell's lines - such as 'Vera the Nymph that him inspir'd, / To whom he often here retir'd', in 'Upon the Hill and Grove at Billborow: To The Lord Fairfax' - can be read as alluding to Lady Ann Fairfax's powerful influence over her husband. Given this factor, as the other possible cause for the poet's misogynistic expression in 'The Garden', the paper argues that Marvell might have intended to facilitate the male friendship and relationship with his employer by hinting at the possible common enemy, the matriarchic truculent 'Mate' inside 'The Garden'. The paper concludes that Marvell seems to attempt to put the large-scale breakdown of the patriarchal order and the threatening topsy-turvy public world to a more mild, domesticated, private homo-social use. At the same time, however, this attempt does not necessarily seem to have succeeded, because the private, henpecked relationship that can be lightly ridiculed inevitably invokes the public and politically serious one between Charles I and Henrietta Maria - the Adam and Eve who led the Garden State of England to the Fall

The Rib of Adam and Marvell's 'The Garden' (Part II)

The second part of this paper, (and the third part in the next volume), focusing on the poet's surroundings in the middle of political turmoil of the mid-seventeenth century, propose two other possible causes for his attempt to exclude women from 'The Garden'. One cause, which I treat in this volume, is that Marvell, seeking after 'Fair quiet' (1.9) in 'The Garden', wanted to wall off noisy, aggressive women of the radical religious sects swarming and politically active outside his sanctuary. And if 'The Garden' has something to do with 'Upon Appleton House: To My Lord Fairfax', among the targets of his misoginistic jibe must have been intended Katherine Chidley, separatist and Leveller. In the mowers' scene in 'Upon Appleton House', Marvell seems to defend the rights of property owners such as his patron, Lord Fairfax, against the radical claims of the Levellers and Diggers by letting the mowers reflect those disruptive sects and playing up their violence. The paper points out that Thestylis in 'Upon Appleton House' obliquely reminds the reader of some of the words and images which Katherine Chidley uses in her pamphlet, The Justification of the Independent Churches of Christ (1641). For example, when Thestylis barbarously trusses the rail up, Marvell is appropriating Judges 4:21 with which Chidley prefaced her work, and emphasizing the violent and cruel side of Jael's heroic deed of piercing Sisera's temples with a stake

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