Abstract
Language | English |
---|---|
Pages | 107-126 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | English Journal |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 215 |
Publication status | Published - 2007 |
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Keywords
- seminall business
- Andrew Marvell
- William Harvey
- Abraham Cowley
- politics
- fertility
- Seventeenth Century
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Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century
AU - Sawday, J.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - This essay explores the tropes and metaphors of generation and fertility in the poetry of Andrew Marvell and Abraham Cowley in the period c. 1650 - c. 1665. Poetic utterance is linked to the investigation of human and animal origins, associated with the work of William Harvey after 1649. The political implications both of Harvey's work, and of the image of Harvey amongst his contemporaries is explored, and these are linked to other examples of 'Harveian' metaphors in Marvell's writing (in particular: 'An Horatian Ode', 'Upon Appleton House', 'To His Coy Mistess', and 'The First Anniversary'). The essay concludes that the metaphor of 'emasculation', which has been used to understand the execution of Charles I in 1649 for Royalist apologists, does have a substantial historical basis in the thinking of Marvell and his contemporaries. The article is illustrated.
AB - This essay explores the tropes and metaphors of generation and fertility in the poetry of Andrew Marvell and Abraham Cowley in the period c. 1650 - c. 1665. Poetic utterance is linked to the investigation of human and animal origins, associated with the work of William Harvey after 1649. The political implications both of Harvey's work, and of the image of Harvey amongst his contemporaries is explored, and these are linked to other examples of 'Harveian' metaphors in Marvell's writing (in particular: 'An Horatian Ode', 'Upon Appleton House', 'To His Coy Mistess', and 'The First Anniversary'). The essay concludes that the metaphor of 'emasculation', which has been used to understand the execution of Charles I in 1649 for Royalist apologists, does have a substantial historical basis in the thinking of Marvell and his contemporaries. The article is illustrated.
KW - seminall business
KW - Andrew Marvell
KW - William Harvey
KW - Abraham Cowley
KW - politics
KW - fertility
KW - Seventeenth Century
M3 - Article
VL - 56
SP - 107
EP - 126
JO - English Journal
T2 - English Journal
JF - English Journal
SN - 0013-8274
IS - 215
ER -