Philosophy in poetry; a study of Sir John Davies's poem "Nosce teipsum", by E. Hershey Sneath..

Front matter

A STUDY OF SIR JOHN DAVIES'S POEM "NOSCE TEIPSUM"

BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE MIND OF TENNYSON

A STUDT OF SIR JOHN DAVIEVS POEM "NOSCE TEIPSUM"

Preface

SIR JOHN DAVIES'S philosophical poem, Nosce Teipsum, is regarded by competent critics as one of the finest pieces of philosophical verse in the English language. It is really a masterpiece of metrical philosophy. It is also of importance as furnishing an insight into the psychology and philosophy of the period immediately preceding the birth of modern philosophy. However, no interpretation of the poem, tracing its antecedents, unfolding its speculative contents, and giving them an historical setting, has ever been made by historian or essayist, either in English literature or in philosophy. The following Study aims to supply this deficiency. It is, therefore, hoped that it may prove to be a real contribution to the literature of both departments of learning, as .well as of interest to the intelligent reader. As the poem is not easily accessible, it was deemed advisable to publish it as an appendix to the Study. The text is taken from Grosart's edition (London, 1876). It is to be regretted that a more carefully edited edition of the text is not available.

A study of the sources of Davies's philosophy was of course necessary for a scholarly treatment mil Preface

of the subject. Furthermore, it was thought that a statement of the position of the philosophical contents of the poem in the stream of speculative thought might be of special service to students of English literature. But the introduction of this material, at the close of the various chapters, has, to a certain extent, broken the continuity of the exposition. The only alternatives were to introduce this matter either as footnotes, or as notes at the end of the volume. After careful consideration, the method adopted seemed less distracting, and more in accord with the aim of the volume than the others.

The author gratefully acknowledges his obligations to his colleague, Professor Albert S. Cook, of Yale University, for valuable suggestions and criticism in the final revision of the work.

E. H. S.

YALE UNIVERSITY,

October, 1903.

Contents

PAGE

INTRODUCTION i

CHAPTER

Introduction

TT is an interesting and noteworthy fact that English poetry has, to a very large extent, concerned itself with the problems of philosophy. The careful student of English verse cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that England's greatest poets have been dependent, in no small measure, upon these problems for poetical inspiration and content. Beginning with Spenser, we find that he presents, in the Faery Queen, an elaborate system of social and moral philosophy. In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh he acknowledged this to be his aim. And, as one reads this interesting and beautiful poem, noting the impersonation of the virtues in its heroes, he can trace much of the poet's inspiration to the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. It would doubtless be drawing upon the imagination to speak of Shakespeare as formulating a system of philosophy. But it is certainly within the

2 PbUosopb? in Poetry

bounds of truth to say, that rarely has any psychologist or moral philosopher portrayed the ethical life, and its philosophical implications, with greater accuracy and force than did he. The supremacy of conscience, the absoluteness of moral law, the freedom of the human will, man's responsibility for conduct, the implications of the moral nature with reference to God and Destiny, these are subjects which engaged the genius of England's greatest poet, and which he treated with remarkable insight. Milton, like Dante, derived much inspiration from the problems of Christian philosophy. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained show that a philosophy of evil, and a philosophy of redemption, inspired poetry which for grandeur and sublimity is hardly surpassed in the history of verse. Pope chose the philosophical problems of man's relation to the cosmos, his relation to himself, his relation to society, and his conceptions of human happiness, as the subjects of his chief poetical work — the Essay on Man. Among the main sources of Shelley's early poetical inspiration was an atheistic and anarchistic philosophy. The very soul of Queen Mab is a philosophy of negation. And, later, in Prometheus Unbound, the questions of social philosophy engaged his mind. Wordsworth confessed himself ambitious to be a philosophic poet. A philosophy of nature as well as a philosophy of society seriously commanded his reflective and aesthetic powers. And Aubrey De Vere is not far afield in saying: "He is England's great philosophic, as Shakespeare is her great dramatic, and Milton her great epic, poet." 1 Coleridge did most of his philosophizing in prose. But it is interesting to note how intimately related are the aesthetic and reflective in his mind, and it is difficult to resist the conviction, that they were mutually helpful in his poetizing and philosophizing. Browning as a poet is greatly indebted to the problems of philosophy. Doubtless more of a dramatic psychologist than a philosopher, he nevertheless thought long and seriously on the profound problems of a philosophy of life ; and much of his poetry is devoted to an expression of a philosophical optimism which is the result of his reflection. With regard to Tennyson, it has been shown elsewhere2 that the questions of God, Freedom, and Immortality — "the inevitable problems," as Kant calls them — lie at the very roots

1 Essays chiefly on Poetry. London and New York, 1887, Vol. I. p. 177.

2 Sneath, " The Mind of Tennyson." New York, 1900.

of his poetry. They, more than any other subject, engaged his genius. And much of his power over the hearts and minds of men is due to the consummate manner in which he has given poetical expression to his thought on these fundamental questions.

What is true of English poetry in its relation to the problems of philosophy, is true of the great poetry of the world. The great poets of every age and of every nation deal with the fundamental problems of human thought and life. A careful inquiry into the history of poetry — both ancient and modern — reveals the fact that these vital problems of thought and life have not been the exclusive property of the philosopher and theologian, but that the poet also has a legitimate claim upon them, having established it by the fact that these problems have proven to be a prolific source of poetic inspiration; an inexhaustible storehouse of poetic content or subject-matter.

Now if we examine the method of the poet's dealing with these problems we shall find a twofold method revealed. The poet may be possessed of an intuitive power by which he gains an almost immediate insight into the nature of

Truth and Reality. Or, like the average philosopher, he may reach a knowledge of such Truth and Reality by a long and carefully sustained process of reasoning. In the first case, we have intuitive philosophy ; in the second, reasoned philosophy. In the first case, we have merely a record of intuitions, clothed often in highly imaginative and descriptive poetry. In the second case, we have philosophizing in verse — a statement of positions, and an elaborate poetical presentation of the process of reasoning by which those positions were attained. Undoubtedly the greater portion of philosophical poetry is of the intuitive order. It is an immediate envisagement of Truth and Reality. This is what we should naturally expect. The poet's mind, as a rule, proceeds synthetically rather than analytically and discursively, as do the minds of the scientist and philosopher. He grasps the unity in the manifold, the one in the many, generally by an act of poetic intuition rather than by a long process of analysis and generalization, or by a severe and sustained method of reasoning. As to whether his intuitions are as valid as are their generalizations reached by induction and deduction, individual opinions will differ. But some there be who will not deny that the heart of Reality may be pierced as truly by such intuition as by logical inference.

But all philosophical poetry is not of the intuitive order. There are poetic minds which, in their pursuit of ultimate Truth and Reality, proceed by the ordinary methods of philosophy — minds that really philosophize — that move by the slow, careful, and toilsome processes of reasoning to the attainment of knowledge; and, having reached conclusions by such methods, these are embodied in verse. These minds are, more strictly speaking, the philosophical poets. They are, however, undoubtedly aided by the poetic nature in their pursuit of truth in some other manner than by direct intuition, for cognition is not solely a matter of the intellectual nature of man. The aesthetic nature shares largely in the pursuit of knowledge. There are aesthetic momenta in human knowledge which superficial analysis is wont to overlook. Much of scientific generalization and philosophic conclusion is not mere inference from bare fact of experience. Such generalization and conclusion frequently carry us beyond what rigid logical inference would justify. Man enters upon the study of phenomena and Reality with conceptions of, and a love for, order, propertion, symmetry, and harmony — with aesthetic ideals and feelings — and insists that an interpretation of the facts of science, and the Reality of philosophy, satisfy these aesthetic elements of human nature. The history of science and philosophy bears testimony to the fact. Neither science nor philosophy can establish, by strictly logical inference, a world of order and law, of harmony and proportion, a world of system. These are postulates having chiefly an aesthetic warrant, rather than the warrant of strict logical inference from brute fact. They are none the less valid for all that. The fact is, that man is not merely logical intellect, but aesthetic life and feeling ; and Truth and Reality reveal themselves to man not merely as intellectual, but also as a^sthetical. And, as we distinguish the poet who deals with the problems of philosophy according to the usual methods of the philosopher from the poet who deals with them by intuition ; so we may distinguish the poet-philosopher from the mere philosopher, not simply by the fact that the former records his reasoning and conclusions with respect to ultimate Truth and Reality in verse instead of prose, but also by the fact, that in his actual pursuit of knowledge the aesthetic life figures more conspicuously in his attainment of conclusions than it does in the case of the mere philosopher.

Now one of the most remarkable examples of actual philosophizing in verse is found in Sir John Davies's poem — Nosce Teipsum. A sixteenthcentury production, to many students of literature and philosophy it belongs almost to the category of " half-forgotten lore." Indeed, it is questionable whether the poem is known at all to the large majority of students of philosophy.1 However, it is worthy of a much better fate. Were an excuse needed for calling attention to this notable production, it could easily be found in the fact that, almost by common consent among competent literary critics, it is pronounced one of the best examples of philosophical poetry in our language. An excuse could be found also in the historical significance of the poem. That the first statement is correct will be apparent from an examination of the following record of critical opinion : —

Beginning with estimates of some of the earlier writers, Elizabeth Cooper, in her judgment of Davies, says : " [He] left behind Him more val-

1 Of the many recognized histories of philosophy, the poem b mentioned by only one.

liable Witnesses of his Merit, than all the Titles that Heraldry can invent, or Monarchs bestow: The joint Applauses of Cambden, Sir John Harington, Ben Johnson, Selden, Donn, Corbet, &c. ! These are great, and unquestionable Authorities in Favour of this Author ; and I shall only presume to add, That, in my humble Opinion, no Philosophical Writer, I have met with, ever explain'd their Ideas more clearly, or familiarly even in Prose; or any so beautifully or harmoniously in Verse. There is a peculiar Happiness in his Similies, being introduc'd to illustrate, more than adorn; which renders them as useful, as entertaining ; and distinguishes his from those of every other Author."1

In the next place, George Ellis, after referring to the fact that the Theatrum Poet arum contains the names of seventy-four poets belonging to the Elizabethan period, and to the further fact that most of them have been " consigned to oblivion," remarks, that " a few, such as Drayton, Fairfax, Warner, Sir John Harrington, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, &c. continue to be cited in deference to their ancient reputation; but Shakspeare, Jonson, Fletcher, Spenser, and Sir John

1 " The Muses' Library," 26. ed. London, Vol. I. p. 332.

Davies, are still confessed to be unrivalled in their several styles of composition, although near two centuries have elapsed, during which the progress of literature and the improvement of our language have been constant and uninterrupted." 1 He further adds with respect to Davies : " His poem on the Immortality of the Soul is a noble monument of his learning, acuteness, command of language, and facility of versification. His similies (as Mrs. Cooper and Mr. Headley have justly observed) are singularly happy; always enlivening, and often illustrating his abstruse and difficult subject."2

More favorable still is the critical estimate of Hallam. He says : " Perhaps no language can produce a poem, extending to so great a length, of more condensation of thought, or in which fewer languid verses will be found. . . . Lines there are in Davies which far outweigh much of the descriptive and imaginative poetry of the last two centuries, whether we estimate them by the pleasure they impart to us, or by the intellectual vigour they display. Experience has

1 "Specimens of the Early English Poets." London, 1811, Vol. II, pp. 157-158.

2 Ibid., Vol. II. p. 369.

shown that the faculties peculiarly deemed poetical are frequently exhibited in a considerable degree, but very few have been able to preserve a perspicuous brevity without stiffness or pedantry (allowance made for the subject and the times), in metaphysical reasoning, so successfully as Sir John Davies." 1

Essentially the same view of Davies is taken by Campbell, who says: " Davies's poem on the Immortality of the Soul, entitled ' Nosce teipsum,' will convey a much more favourable idea of metaphysical poetry than the wittiest effusions of Donne and his followers. Davies carried abstract reasoning into verse with an acuteness and felicity which have seldom been equalled. He reasons, undoubtedly, with too much labour, formality, and subtlety, to afford uniform poetical pleasure. The generality of his stanzas exhibit hard arguments interwoven with the pliant materials of fancy so closely, that we may compare them to a texture of cloth and metallic threads, which is cold and stiff, while it is splendidly curious. There is this difference, however, between Davies and the commonly styled metaphys-

1 " Introduction to the Literature of Europe." London, 1839, Vol. II. pp. SH-S'Sical poets, that he argues like a hard thinker, and they, for the most part, like madmen. If we conquer the drier parts of Davies's poem, and bestow a little attention on thoughts which were meant, not to gratify the indolence, but to challenge the activity of the mind, we shall find in the entire essay fresh beauties at every perusal: for in the happier parts we come to logical truths so well illustrated by ingenious similes, that we know not whether to call the thoughts more poetically or philosophically just. The judgment and fancy are reconciled, and the imagery of the poem seems to start more vividly from the surrounding shades of abstraction." 1

Again, Professor Craik pays this high tribute to Nosce Teipsum and its author : " [The poem] is written in rhyme, in the common heroic tensyllable verse, but disposed in quatrains, like the early play of Misogonus already mentioned, and other poetry of the same era, or like Sir Thomas Overbury's poem of The Wife, the Gondibert of Sir William Davenant, and the Annus Mirabilis of Dryden, at a later period. No one of these writers has managed this difficult stanza so suc-

1 " Essay on English Poetry," prefixed to " Specimens of the British Poets," 2d ed. London, 1841, Pt. II. p. Ixx.

cessfully as Davies: it has the disadvantage of requiring the sense to be in general closed at certain regularly and quickly recurring turns, which yet are very ill adapted for an effective pause ; and even all the skill of Dryden has been unable to free it from a certain air of monotony and languor, — a circumstance of which that poet may be supposed to have been himself sensible, since he wholly abandoned it after one or two early attempts. Davies, however, has conquered its difficulties; and, as has been observed, ' perhaps no language can produce a poem, extending to so great a length, of more condensation of thought, or in which fewer languid verses will be found.' : In fact, it is by this condensation and sententious brevity, so carefully filed and elaborated, however, as to involve no sacrifice of perspicuity or fulness of expression, that he has attained his end. Every quatrain is a pointed expression of a separate thought, like one of Rochefoucault's Maxims ; each thought being, by great skill and painstaking in the packing, made exactly to fit and to fill the same case." 2

1 Hallam, « Lit. of Europe," II. p. 227.

2 " A Compendious History of English Literature." New York, 1863, Vol. I. p. 578.

An American critic, Edwin P. Whipple, speaks of Davies and his celebrated poem as follows : " It is usual among critics, even such critics as Hallam and Campbell, to decide that the imaginative power of the poem on the ' Immortality of the Soul ' consists in the illustration of the arguments rather than in the perception of the premises. But the truth would seem to be that the author exhibits his imagination more in his insight than in his imagery. The poetic excellence of the work comes from the power of clear, steady beholding of spiritual facts with the spiritual eye, — of beholding them so clearly that the task of stating, illustrating, and reasoning from them is performed with masterly ease." *

George MacDonald also holds our poet's work in high esteem. Referring to Nosce Teipsum, he says : " It is a wonderful instance of what can be done for metaphysics in verse, and by means of imagination or poetic embodiment generally. . . . Sir John Davies's treatise is not only far more poetic in image and utterance than that of Lord Brooke, but is far more clear in argument and firm in expression as well." 2

1 "The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth." Boston, 1869, pp. 239-240.

2 " England's Antiphon," pp. 105-106.

Grosart, the editor of Davies's works, says: "The nicety and daintiness of workmanship, the involute and nevertheless firmly-completed and manifested imagery of ' Nosce Teipsum ' wherewith this nicety and daintiness are wrought, place Sir John Davies artistically among the finest of our Poets." 1 And again : " ' Nosce Teipsum ' as it was practically the earliest so it remains the most remarkable example of deep reflective-meditative thinking in verse in our language or in any language."2

Henry Morley, also, joins with the critics in praise of Nosce Teipsum. He says : " Its stanzas of elegiac verse were so well packed with thought, always neatly contained within the limit of each stanza, that we shall afterwards have to trace back to this poem the adoption of its measure as, for a time, our 'heroic stanza.'"3

Of similar character is the judgment of J. W. Hales: "In the kingdom of poetry, as has been said, are many mansions, and undoubtedly one of these belongs to Sir John Davies, however

1 "The Complete Poems of Sir John Davies." London, 1876, Vol. L, Mem. Int. p. Ixxxiii.

2 Ibid., p. Ix.

3 " A First Sketch of English Literature." London, 1886, P- 459- we may describe it, however we may censure its style and arrangement. Far be from us any such critical or scholastic formulae as would prevent us from all due appreciation of such refined, imaginative thought and subtle, finished workmanship, as mark the first notable philosophical poem of our literature."1

Edmund Gosse also accords our author high praise. He says : " Sir John Davies, whose philosophical poems were among the most original and beautiful literary productions of the close of Elizabeth's reign, was suddenly silenced by the admiration James I. conceived for his judgment in practical affairs, and was henceforth wholly absorbed in politics. But an examination of Davies' work, had we space for it here, would form no ill preparation for the study of several classes of Jacobean poetry. He was eminently a writer before his time. His extremely ingenious Orchestra, a poem on dancing, has much in it that suggests the Fletchers on one side and Donne on the other, while his more celebrated magnum opus of the Nosce Teipsum is the general precursor of all the school of metaphysical ingenuity and argumentative imagination." 2

1 " Folia Litteraria," p. 163.

2 " The Jacobean Poets." London, 1894, ch. i. pp. 8-9.

The number of these favorable critical estimates might easily be increased, but those given are enough, and sufficiently representative, to show that Davies is regarded by competent critical thought, not only as an artistic poet, but as one of the foremost writers of philosophy in verse in English poetry. This is no small merit, when we remember how largely poetry is dependent upon philosophy for her inspiration and content. It has been shown, by an appeal to the history of poetry, that the greatest poets have been those who have drunk from the cup of Philosophy. To think clearly on philosophical themes, and to present one's thinking in remarkably perfected verse, is a distinction that any poet might well covet. In the judgment of the critics this is a distinction which Davies undoubtedly possesses. In an elaborate poem, without diffuseness of thought or language, he proceeds carefully as a thinker and an artist, or rather as an artist-thinker, to work out a solution of some of the profoundest problems that can engage the human mind, and to present, in genuinely artistic form, not only the solution itself, but also the patient steps by which it was attained. A poet who undertakes conscientiously such a piece of work, and who suei8 Philosophy in Poetry

cessfully accomplishes it, deserves well of every student of literature and philosophy.

But, in the second place, Davies is by no means unworthy of notice as a philosophic thinker. He was possessed of the spirit of the true philosopher— of an earnest love for, and desire to know, the truth. In his reasoning he is candid, and, for the most part, free from dogmatism — especially when viewed from the standpoint of the spirit of his age. He stands ready all through the poem to give a reason for the faith within him. He does not underestimate the force of opposing views, nor attempt to evade them. He meets his antagonist fairly — whether he be sensationalist, materialist, sceptic, or Christian philosopher. He does not proclaim merely, but philosophizes. Furthermore, he reveals a strong grasp of the problems of philosophy. This is not the case with many of the philosophic poets, and there is often a deficiency in this respect among philosophers themselves. Davies, throughout Nosce Teipstim, seems to apprehend the essential nature of the problems with which he deals. And to this, as much as to anything, do we owe that clearness— that perspicacity — which his critics praise so much. This is all the more evident, when we note that he makes himself clearly understood in verse — which does not lend itself so easily to philosophical expression as prose. And it is still more evident in view of the fact that he deals with an exceedingly difficult stanza.

But after we have said all this, the real value of his work as a philosopher lies in its historical significance. Dr. Porter has truly stated what this historical significance is. " It gives," he says, " a transcript of that better scholastic doctrine of the soul which combines the teachings of both Aristotle and Plato, when purified from many of the extreme subtilities ingrafted upon them by the doctors of the schools, and adds the results of the dawning good sense which attended the Reformation and the Revival of Classical Learning. For the history of philosophy it is of great significance, as it enables the student to understand the psychology and philosophy which were current before the introduction of the philosophies of Descartes on the one hand and of Hobbes and Locke on the other." x

In somewhat similar vein Professor Morris remarks : " With considerable appositeness of argu-

1 Ueberweg, " History of Philosophy," trans, by G. S. Morris. New York, 1873, Vol. II., Appendix, pp. 352-353.

ment, and clearness of exposition, Sir John Davies sets forth his thoroughly spiritualistic psychology, and develops numerous considerations tending to establish the doctrine of the soul's immortality, all founded on the best philosophy the world had produced, and pervaded by an obvious breath of sincere and independent conviction. . . . The poem may stand as a document to prove what was the thoughtful faith of the best type of English gentlemen in his day."1

The historical significance of the poem as thus stated is not unimportant to the student of the history of psychology and philosophy. Works on the history of philosophy are not rich in materials to represent the period marking the transition from scholasticism to the birth of modern philosophy. So that any work, like Davies's Nosce Teipsum, which throws light on the best thought of this period, is of value to the student.

The work of a man, then, who is thus highly estimated as a poet and poet-philosopher by competent critics, and whose historical significance for students of psychology and philosophy is of such importance, is certainly worthy of careful study. And, as we note the progress of psychology and

1 " British Thought and Thinkers." Chicago, 1880, pp. 67-68.

philosophy since the poet's day, to the rewards of such a study will be added the additional recompense of which Goethe speaks in the following lines : —

" A great delight is granted When, in the spirit of the ages planted, We mark how, ere our time, a sage has thought, And then, how far his work, and grandly, we have brought.'*

Chapter I Biographical Sketch. — Relation To The Age And To Preceding Thought

T T 7E can gain a clearer insight into Davies's philosophical poem by making a brief study of his life, and an inquiry into his relation to his age. His indebtedness to predecessors must also be considered.

Sir John Davies, poet, poet-philosopher, lawyer, and statesman, was born in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England, in 1569. He was the son of John Davies, of Chisgrove, also a lawyer, and country gentleman. His mother, Mary Bennett, was a member of a distinguished family. Davies " became a commoner of Queen's coll. about the beginning of Mich, term in the fifteenth year of his age, an. 1585, wherein having laid a considerable foundation of academical literature, partly by his own natural parts (which were excellent) and partly by the help of a good tutor, he was removed (having taken a degree in arts, as it seems) to the

Middle-Temple, wherein applying himself to the study of the common-law, tho' he had no great geny to it, was in fine (July 1595,) made a barrester." * There are evidences that, although Davies was an earnest student, he was nevertheless given to indulgence in the youthful extravagances more or less characteristic of the times. He associated with the wits and poets of the period, and the character of the epigrams penned by him at this time indicate that the moral tone of society was not very high. He was admitted to the bar, as has already been stated, in 1595. Two years earlier, his celebrated poem entitled Orchestra, or a Poeme of Daunting, " was licensed to John Harison," although it seems not to have been published before 1596. This poem was dedicated to

i

one Richard Martin, afterward Recorder of London, and a very dear friend of Davies. This fact is interesting in the light of subsequent events. Later a quarrel occurred between the two friends, the consequences of which completely changed the tenor of the poet's life. For some reason Davies took offence at Martin, who is represented as a man " fast of tongue and ribald of wit, with a

1 Anthony-a-Wood, "Athenae Oxonienses." London, 1815, Vol. II. p. 400.

dash of provocative sarcasm." a Davies resented the offence by cudgelling him severely while dining at the barrister's table in the Middle Temple. On account of this assault he was expelled from the Bar.2 His disbarment, however, was not, in the end, a misfortune to him or to the world. It, so to speak, brought him to himself. Having been thus humiliated, he returned to Oxford and resumed his studies. It proved to be a year of repentance and soul-searching — a year of serious study and reflection — which resulted in a complete reformation of life. To this Davies himself testifies in the following words descriptive of his own experience : —

" Yet if Affliction once her warres begin,

And threat the feebler Sense with sword and fire ; The Minde contracts her selfe and shrinketh in, And to her selfe she gladly doth retire :

" As Spiders toucht, seek their webs inmost part ; As bees in stormes vnto their hiues returne ; As bloud in danger gathers to the heart; As men seek towns, when foes the country burn.