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dc.contributor.advisorCorder, Jim W.
dc.contributor.authorPeplow, Michael Websteren_US
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-11T15:10:25Z
dc.date.available2019-10-11T15:10:25Z
dc.date.created1966en_US
dc.date.issued1966en_US
dc.identifieraleph-255066en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/32550
dc.description.abstractIn opposition to prevailing theories of his romanticism, this study attempts to set forth an evaluation of the ethical humanism and artistic neoclassicism of Edward Young. Specifically, this paper is concerned with Young's orthodoxy as manifested in the too-often ignored sermons and satires. Young's humanism is demonstrated clearly in his three sermons, Vindication al Providence (1728), Apology for Princes (1728-1729), and The Truth of Christ's Religion (1758)--the subject of the first chapter of this study. These sermons reveal that Young was a conservative Anglican or "Anglican Rationalist," defending the Church's moderate doctrines of reason, faith, authority and tradition while denouncing Deism, Roman Catholicism, Puritanism, Sentimentalism, Benevolism, and Latitudinarianism. As an Anglican apologist, Young inherited a well-defined polemics, developed by Aquinas, Hooker, Jewel, and the Boyle lecturers of his own time, with which he could expose the "vanity of human wishes" and the "false pleasures" of sense and imagination, and denounce the bestiality of contemporary libertines who were willing to sacrifice their god-given reason and promise of eternal joy for illusory pleasures and eternal damnation. Vindication of Providence, Young's first sermon, presents an orthodox discussion of man's duality and a traditional classification of his "tempers" and "passions." Apology for Princes, which is one of the January 30th sermons in commemoration of Charles I, is a neoclassical "mirror for magistrates" document. And The Truth of Christ's Religion, preached toward the end of Young's career, is a typical .Anglican defense of free will over predestination. In each of the sermons, as well as in his three satires and the rest of his work, Young manifested a traditionally Anglican frame of reference. Young's satires--the subject of the next three chapters--blend ethical humanism and strict neoclassical artistry in order to achieve the proper balance between "instruction" and "pleasure." Love of Fame; the Universal Passion (1725-1728) clearly demonstrates Young's orthodoxy. In a Preface--Young's "Defense of Satire"--he announces that he will "emulate" the great classical and neoclassical models of formal verse satire. Moreover, in strict accord with current theory, Young insists that his primary model is Horace, whose "wit" and "delicacy" are necessary if true "instructional satire" in the "laughing vein" is to be achieved. Throughout the satires Young not only employs traditional satiric devices (the satiric persona, the bipartite structural plan of formal verse satire, the "character"), but he continues to "emulate" the style and subject matter of his favorite models--Horace, Juvenal, Dryden, Pope, Bruyere, and Addison. By closely following his Horatian model, Young manages throughout Love of Fame to fuse wit and morality into the neoclassical ideal. Epistles to Mr. Pope (1730) represents Young's contribution to the neoclassical cause in the warfare inspired by Pope's Dunciad. In a traditional manner, Young devotes his first epistle to praising Pope's artistry and denouncing the literary dunces who try to gain fame. In the second epistle Young branches out, this time producing an "ethical ars poetica" in the manner of Horace, Sidney, Dryden, Pope, and others. Nowhere is Young's orthodoxy more evident than in his defense of reason, a disciplined imagination, "emulation" of the ancients, and the "sublime" themes worthy of a Christian poet--the "dictator of mankind," serving in "Virtue's cause" and revealing "Truth's illustrious way." Centaur Not Fabulous (1754), Young's last satire, is in prose. In this work Young's primary themes of man's duality and the "vanity of human wishes" --treated somewhat more lightly in the previous satires--are once again stressed with the same intensity that they were in the sermons. Again assuming epistolary form and the bipartite structural pattern evident in the sermons and early satires, Young attacks the degenerate "centaurs" of his own time with near Juvenalian indignation. The characters attacked and the themes stressed are the same as those in Love of Fame; but whereas the early satire is "laughing satire" in the Horatian tradition, the later satire is "tragical satire" in the Juvenalian mode. In both the sermons and satires, then, Young chooses themes and styles which are obviously humanistic and neoclassical. As might be expected, similar orthodox material is evident 1n the rest of his work as well to anyone who will take the time to search for it. And it is especially evident in his best known pieces--Night Thoughts (1742-1746) and Conjectures on Original Composition (1759)--although Young's critics have persisted in analyzing bits and pieces of these two works in order to demonstrate Young's romanticism. In the last chapter of this study, a few frequently cited passages are considered within context in an effort to show that they have been over- interpreted, if not misinterpreted, by proponents of Young's romanticism. Only after all of Young's work is analyzed can anything like a reasonable interpretation of his frame of reference be established.
dc.format.extentv, 183 leaves, bounden_US
dc.format.mediumFormat: Printen_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.relation.ispartofTexas Christian University dissertationen_US
dc.relation.ispartofAS38.P47en_US
dc.subject.lcshYoung, Edward, 1683-1765en_US
dc.titleOrthodoxy and Neoclassicism in Edward Young: studies in his sermons and satiresen_US
dc.typeTexten_US
etd.degree.departmentDepartment of English
etd.degree.levelDoctoral
local.collegeAddRan College of Liberal Arts
local.departmentEnglish
local.academicunitDepartment of English
dc.type.genreDissertation
local.subjectareaEnglish
dc.identifier.callnumberMain Stacks: AS38 .P47 (Regular Loan)
dc.identifier.callnumberSpecial Collections: AS38 .P47 (Non-Circulating)
etd.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
etd.degree.grantorTexas Christian University


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