The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century

J. Sawday

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    Pages107-126
    Number of pages19
    JournalEnglish Journal
    Volume56
    Issue number215
    Publication statusPublished - 2007

    Fingerprint

    Fertility
    Mystery
    Emasculation
    Apologists
    Poetry
    Poetics
    Animals
    Utterance
    Royalist
    Tropes
    Horatian Ode

    Keywords

    • seminall business
    • Andrew Marvell
    • William Harvey
    • Abraham Cowley
    • politics
    • fertility
    • Seventeenth Century

    Cite this

    Sawday, J. / The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century. In: English Journal. 2007 ; Vol. 56, No. 215. pp. 107-126.
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    Sawday, J 2007, 'The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century' English Journal, vol. 56, no. 215, pp. 107-126.

    The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century. / Sawday, J.

    In: English Journal, Vol. 56, No. 215, 2007, p. 107-126.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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    Sawday J. The chief mystery of the seminall business: Andrew Marvell, William Harvey, Abraham Cowley and the politics of fertility in the Seventeenth Century. English Journal. 2007;56(215):107-126.