4th lecture Intro to Early Modern Lit L3 S5

What was the interiority in the 16th and 17th?

• a psycho approach

• sentimental space where feelings can be expressed or retrieved through poetry

What were the 2 understandings of the interiority?

1) Physical interiority through organs

→ Interiority and anatomy Michael Drayton 1599

• body metaphorised as a music instrument

• use of doctor terms

16th = dvt of anatomy and dissection. It was a shock at the time because the inside of the human body is way more complex that they had been thinking since the Antiquity

2) Interiority through physiology

• The 4 elements according to Aristotle ( Fire, Air, Water, Earth)

• The theory of humours according to Hippocrates and Galen (Hot, wet, dry and cold have to be balanced, it determines people's temperance

What did Saint Augustine think?

That Passion, rather than being repressed should be directed in the right way, that is to say, to God

On what do Stoicisim and Neostoicism focus on?

Controlling the passions

Justus Lipisus, De Constantia 1583

What is the physiology of love?

• love = heating up the heart

• transmission of the heat from the eye to the heart

The soul was believed to be in the heart

• the spirit as an intermediaire btw the material and the unmaterial

• /!\ can also be poisoned

• a mirror of the soul BUT at the time, mirrors = distorded => =/ faithful

What is the practice of Rumination about?

Saying aloud songs and priors to remember them and to practice faith

When did the practice of Medeitation develop?

from 12th onwards

Dvt accelerated with the Counter Reformation (1545 onwards)

→  = had a huge influence through Europe among the Catho and Protestants

What are the different steps of Meditation?

1) Preparatory steps - composition of pace = a visualisation

2) Meditation itslef= consideration of the Bible practices

3) Colloquies = the soul speaking intimately with God and expressing its passions and thanksfulness = meant to be said aloud and practiced

Give an example of a sonnet of Meditation

John Donne, Holy Sonnet VII 1609-10

• 1st quatrain = preparatory steps

• 2nd quatrain = the meditation itself

• 3rd quatrain = the volta starting with a dialogue with God

• The last couplet = colloquies