Renaissance

South Atlantic Modern Language Association

Renaissance Conference Author(s): Rhea Thomas Workman Source: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 1 (May, 1959), pp. 9-11 Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3198441 Accessed: 25-03-2020 08:17 UTC

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Renaissance Conference The Southeastern Renaissance Con-

ference met in Columbia, South Caro- lina, on April 17-18, in Russell House at the University of South Carolina. This annual session was held in honor

of Allan Gilbert, Professor Emeritus of Duke University. Dr. Gilbert spoke on "The Simplicity of Milton" at a buffet dinner Friday night, at which the Conference members were the

guests of Columbia College. A mu- sical program was presented at din- ner by the Columbia College Renais- sance Singers. On Saturday noon the members of the Conference were

the luncheon guests of the Univer- sity of South Carolina.

In the three regular sessions of the Conference, eighteen papers were pre- sented on aspects of Renaissance cul- ture. Abstracts of the papers are as follows:

ALLAN H. GILBERT, Duke University and the University of Oregon: "The Simplicity of Milton." Milton's liking for simplicity appears in the limited plots of all this poems. His presenta- tion is objective and direct, without in- dication of hidden symbolic meanings. Much of his Biblical, theological, and classical reference is not clear to

the present age, but such references are usually secondary and ornamental rather than essential. They can even be at times treated as nonsense syl- lables by readers sensitive to the sound of poetry. Learned men who have written on Milton have often

been so interested in backgrounds that they have neglected the spirit of the work itself. As poet, Milton wished to make his writings poetically pleasing rather than merely informa- tive. Even a little-educated reader

who goes to Milton for poetry will not find much that is beyond his powers.

FRANK B. EVANS, College of Wil- liam and Mary: "The Printing of the 1596 Faerie Queene." A biblio- graphic analysis of the 1596 Faerie Q uecne reveals that each of the two volumes (quartos in eights) was com- posed by two compositors and printed on two presses. There is reason to

suppose that the volumes were printed simultaneously; that is, by four com- positors and four presses. The evi- dence is that eight different skeleton chases were used to print the volumes. Four chases appear in each, two pairs occurring in roughly alternate gather- ings. The pairs of chases correspond

generally with four distinct patterns of canto headings. It is possible to identify the work of each compositor and to show differences in their hand-

ling of the copy. A. G. D. WILES, The Citadel: "R.

B.'s Sixth Book to Sidney's Arcadia." Though his style is frequently awk- ward and lifeless, R. B. is obviously the best of the sixth-book continu-

ators, and a continuator of very con- siderable achievement: he has effec-

tively tied off all major threads left to the continuator; he has shown a keen sense of Sidneian form; and he has, to a high degree, captured the tone of the romance.

JOHN L. KIMMEY, University of South Carolina: "The Art of the Par-

ticular-A Consideration of George Herbert's Revisions." George Her- bert revised his poems to fulfill the demands of his faith, his audience, and the art of poetry. The most ex- tensive revisions occur in his church

poems where he sought to make his verses more responsive to his deeper religious feelings upon coming to Bemerton in 1630. Next he sought to use specific homely detail that would appeal to his rural parishioners. Last he recast his poems to make more vivid and more coherent his mean-

ing. In all these revisions it is rig- orous attention to particulars which turns vague piety into precise devo- tional poetry of the highest artistic order.

RAYMOND JENKINS, Catawba Col- lege: "The Tragic Hero of Aristotle and Shakespeare." The tragic hero of Shakespeare is a nobler man than the ideal tragic hero of Aristotle's Poetics. The hero of Aristotle falls

through an error in judgment or some frailty, and he is not pre- eminently good and just. The flaws of the Shakespearean hero are in- tertwined with his virtues, and he seems extraordinarily good and just. In his salient qualities Shakespeare's hero more closely resembles the high- minded man of Aristotle's Ethics.

The quality of moral nobility, or great- ness of soul, which is the chief trait of Aristotle's ideal man of the E-thcs, is the quintessential virtue of the Shakespearean tragic hero.

DENVER EWING BAUCHAN, Univer- sity of Florida: "The Very Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy." By the dramatic device of the motion of the spheres,

particularly in the first scene of Ham- let, the stage is set for an over-all dramatic action that moves in circles. The defect of a hero as attractive but ineffectual as Hamlet is overcome partly by his vigorous determination to fly to his revenge, but even more by the directness and clearheaded- ness of Claudius, who finally brings about the resolution that Hamlet him- self is helpless to achieve. Moreover, the mockery of madness so colors all that Hamlet does, says, and thinks that it becomes the thing that it mocks.

W. L. WILEY, University of North Carolina "The Theatre of the Hotel de Bourgogne in the Late Renais- sance." The H6tel de Bourgogne was built in 1548 by the Confrerie de la Passion, the medieval organization that produced mystery plays. The Confr6rie, after plays involving sacred material had been forbidden by the Parlement of Paris, maintained its monopolistic control over the produc- tion of any play in the H6tel de Bourgogne. This limitation over ac- tivities of any dramatic company had a bad effect on the development of the public theatre in France. The old H6tel de Bourgogne was in shape a long oblong, around 108 feet by 35. It had a flat floor downstairs (the parterre) with no seats in it, and two superimposed galleries on the long sides of the hall. There could scarcely have been a worse place to see a play. Nevertheless, the H6tel de Bourgogne influenced theatrical construction in France for over a century.

GEORGE WALTON WILLIAMS, Duke University: "Romeo and Juliet at thc Swan Theatre, 1595." As the Swan was in 1595 the most magnificent of the London theatres, it probably satis- fied every theatrical requirement of Romeo and Juliet: the platform with its two entries serves for most scenes; the upper level is used with the plat form for the two balcony scenes; a hypothecated curtained pavilion rep- resents Juliet's bed/tomb. When Juliet. drinks the potion in IV. iii and falls on her bed, she remains concealed be- hind the action of JV. iv, is (liscovered by the Nurse in IV. v, remains con- cealed behind the action of V. i, ii, an(l is discovered a-gain by Romeo in V. iii.

FRANCIS MANLEY, Johns Hopkins University: "Donne's First Anniver- sary of Wisdom's Death." The first

SOUTH ATLANTIC BULLETIN Page Nine May, 1959

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l'agi- Ten SOUTH ATLANTIC BULLETIN May, 1959

forty-two lines of The F'irst Anniver- sary present in epitome the major symbolic process of the poem and the key for our ultimate understandinz:. In lines 1-24 Donne collapses the present into the past by juxtap)osing the death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury with the results of original sin and forcing an emotional if not a logical identity: a woman who in her ab- stract femininity is the imagistic realization of the lost completeness of man's soul. Lines 25-42 supply the reason for that juxtaposition by identifying the resultant symbol and the tradition from which it emerges. Donne's symbolic Shee is wisdom, sapientia creata, an eternal woman who in the mind and heart of man is

the knowledge, awareness, and pres- ence of God.

RHEA THOMAS WORKMAN, Columbia

College: "The Continuity of Some Con- cepts of Hell-Anglo-Saxon to Mil- ton." Milton's description of hell in Paradise Lost, Books I and II, reflects certain Anglo-Saxon ideas which need not depend upon his having read Genesis B. The torment of alternating heat and cold, as Milton describes it, first appears in Anglo-Saxon litera- ture, then in a twelfth-century Eng- lish vision account. A few variations

of this torment next appear in seven- teenth-century English and Dutch literary works, but Milton's account (liffers in detail from theirs, and more closely resembles the earlier descrip- tions. This hot-and cold section of

Milton's hell strongly suggests thc rugged terrain and dangerous mon- sters of the pagan Teutonic Utgard, which a-lso informs the Anglo-Saxon concept of hell.

HENRY L. SNUGGS, Wake Forest College: "Observations on the Theory of 'Correlated' Plot-Structure and Act-

Division." T. W. Baldwin's heory that Renaissance critics evolvud an "Andria formula" which correlated or integrated Donatus's protasis-epitasis- catastrophe plot-structure and his five-act division of Terence's comedies seems doubtful. Prominent critics

like Minturno and Scaliger do not state such an integration, which is really to be found only in one rela- tively unknown commentator on Terence. This theory seems to be a mistaking of the critics' use of act- division for convenient reference to describe where in a play the protasis epitasis, and catastrophe occur. To say that an "Andria formula" was so well known to Elizabethan play-

*v rights, including Shakespeare, that it was a sort of recipe for writing p'ays seems an extravagant claim.

JOHN I,. IF'VSAY, University of Tennessee: "Milton among the Nighlt- ingales." The nightingale is the most interesting and most frequently men - tioned bird in Milton's writings. On the basis of the ancient Philomela

legend, medieval folklore, and per- sonal observation Milton built up for himself in the associations with which

he gradually surrounded the nightin- gale a symbol of some of his most personal and intensely felt beliefs. For him the nightingale was not merely the solitary sweet singer of night, love, and springtime; it was the symbol of his own poetic powers and vocation, his separateness, his melan- choly, his chastity, his blindness, his dream of a marital happiness which he possibly never knew.

CAROL JONES CARLISLE, University of South Carolina: "The Macbeths and the Actors." The most significant changes in the critics' views of Mac- beth and Lady Macbeth have prob- ably come through the influence of the actors. There are two main ques- tions concerning Macbeth's character on which actors have disagreed: (1) Is Macbeth "strong" or "weak?" (2) Is he essentially noble but corrupted through ambition, or is he thoroughly evil from the beginning? Actors' in- terpretations of Lady Macbeth have also disagreed on two major points: (1) Is she a "fien(l" or a recognizable luman being? (2) Is she "masculine" or "feminine" in appearance and per- sonality? A study of the actors' in- terpretations reveals a trend toward the lightening of Lady Macbeth's character and the darkening of her husband's.

FRED E. FRIEND, Chattanooga, Ten- nessee: "Against What Does Sidney Defend Poetry?" Although most com- mentators assert that Sidney wrote to defend poetry against the attack in Gosson's School of Abuse, this ex- planation rests mainly upon assump- tions. Actually, the Defense has very slight connection with the attacks of moralists such as Gosson. Sidney's insistence upon the ethical and didac- tic values of poetry is the result prin- cipally of his exaltation of poetry above the rival claims of other dis-

ciplines, such as philosophy and his- tory. In 1579 North's translation of I Plutarch's Lives was published with i Amyot's preface, which claims the E first place among disciplines for his-

tory. This challenge helped to pro- voke and to shape the form of Sidney's Defense. The greatness of the De- finfse is the establishmnt, in terms of thl .wig'nific( nce of )(oetry, of its clai,ms to first place among all the arts iI(nd .sciences.

CLIVFFORm) P. LYONS, University of North Carolina.: "Authorizing Critical Trespass with Compare-Notes on Image Collecting in Shakespeare In- terpretation." Concern with imagery in Shakespeare's plays, as in studies by Spurgeon, Knight, Clemen, and others, while a critical interest of some significance, has been insuffi- ciently restrained in methods and conclusions. A common procedure is to collect by categories-sea imagery, animal imagery, economic imagery- the auxiliary metaphoric imagery throughout a play, and to infer from these massed figurative similitudes essential meanings of a play. The method neglects the significance of images in context and neglects unduly the fact that the imagery of a play is predominantly literal imagery.

CHARLES EUGENE MOUNTS, Univer- sity of Florida: "The Evolution of Spenser's Attitude toward Cupid and Venus." The evidence of Spenser's ref- erences to Cupid and Venus through- out three clearly isolated stages of his writing career warrants the conclusion that there wa-s a philosophy, nay almost a religion, of earthly love and earthly beauty that he e(volved for himself out of his Own mnatchisj(

idealism, rehabilitating Cupid andl Venus after a new fashion and exalt- ing them into symbols of the pro- creative power tha-t continually re- populates the world and reaches its highest form in the chaste love of man and wife.

MARILYN L. WILLIAMSON, Durham, North Carolina: "Delight in Jonson's Comedies." Jonson's comedies are not meant to delight solely through profit. There are parts of all his plays which seem to have been included merely to make the audience laugh. This kind of comedy takes various forms: more frequently single lines or word play, but occasionally scenes or even character. Jonson has always adapted this element to the structure and tone of his plays. When it is closely re- lated to the rest of the play the matically, it heightens the satiric ef- fect by contrast, but more often it seems simply to lighten the comedies and make them more popular.

THOMAS WHEELER, University of

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May 195 SOT ATANI BULEI Pag Eleven May 195 SOT ATANI BULEI Pag Eleven

Tennessee: "Francesco Guicciardir

and the Clouded Crystal Ball." I:

many of his 'ieordi Guicciardini poen ilers the question of whether past ex perletice enables a prediction of fu ture events. Strongly influenced b: Machiavelli, he says in one ricordi that a practiced observer will be abli to foresee the future. But in man.

other ricordi he expresses varying degrees of doubt. The only ricordc dealing directly with the writing oj history concludes that history is pri marily a record of past experience valuable simply because men have a natural curiosity about the past Guicciardini's conflicting opinions or this point illustrate his uncertainty concerning the value of historical knowledge.

EDWARD W. RANNELLS, University of Kentucky: "Renaissance Survivals in Modern Painting." The Renais- sance image has been transformed.

Cubism has supplanted Alberti's per- spective; abstraction has discarded even the image of man. The "poesies" of the Renaissance have disappeared. Yet there are some survivals from the Renaissance, especially in methods of painting. Titian's chromatic construc- tion is still used by our better painters. Again, there are survivals of a formal kind. Structural patterns of Piero della Francesca are echoed in Balthus. Finally, there are survivals of the humanist's concern for the condi- tion of man. Beckmann's "Departure" seems proof enough that humanism still lives in modern painting, and still draws life from the Renaissance.

RH&A THOMAS WORKMAN, Columbia College.

Samla Guggenheims

Three members of Samla. have been granted Guggenheim Fellowship awards for 1959-60. They are Andrew Lytle of the University of Florida, whose project is creative writing in fiction; Arlin Turner of Duke, who will study sectionalism in Southern literature since the Civil War; and .Richard Bea-le Davis of the University of Tennessee, whose research will ~eal with Virginian culture in the Jeffersonian era.

A total of twenty-seven awards were made in the South. Of these,

Tennessee: "Francesco Guicciardir

and the Clouded Crystal Ball." I:

many of his 'ieordi Guicciardini poen ilers the question of whether past ex perletice enables a prediction of fu ture events. Strongly influenced b: Machiavelli, he says in one ricordi that a practiced observer will be abli to foresee the future. But in man.

other ricordi he expresses varying degrees of doubt. The only ricordc dealing directly with the writing oj history concludes that history is pri marily a record of past experience valuable simply because men have a natural curiosity about the past Guicciardini's conflicting opinions or this point illustrate his uncertainty concerning the value of historical knowledge.

EDWARD W. RANNELLS, University of Kentucky: "Renaissance Survivals in Modern Painting." The Renais- sance image has been transformed.

Cubism has supplanted Alberti's per- spective; abstraction has discarded even the image of man. The "poesies" of the Renaissance have disappeared. Yet there are some survivals from the Renaissance, especially in methods of painting. Titian's chromatic construc- tion is still used by our better painters. Again, there are survivals of a formal kind. Structural patterns of Piero della Francesca are echoed in Balthus. Finally, there are survivals of the humanist's concern for the condi- tion of man. Beckmann's "Departure" seems proof enough that humanism still lives in modern painting, and still draws life from the Renaissance.

RH&A THOMAS WORKMAN, Columbia College.

Samla Guggenheims

Three members of Samla. have been granted Guggenheim Fellowship awards for 1959-60. They are Andrew Lytle of the University of Florida, whose project is creative writing in fiction; Arlin Turner of Duke, who will study sectionalism in Southern literature since the Civil War; and .Richard Bea-le Davis of the University of Tennessee, whose research will ~eal with Virginian culture in the Jeffersonian era.

A total of twenty-seven awards were made in the South. Of these,

seventeen were granted for projects in the humanities and history. seventeen were granted for projects in the humanities and history.

The twelfth annual University c . Kentucky Foreign Language Confer y ence, held in Lexington April 23-2.

attracted some 700 participants an e guests from most of the states an y many foreign countries. In number

alone this Conference far surpasse< any of its predecessors, for not onl:

f did language teachers turn out iI record numbers, but the number o: section meetings (43) and the numbe: of papers read (400) set new records Under the able direction of Jonal

l W. D. Skiles, with the assistance o: r Hobart Ryland, Paul K. Whitaker

and a staff of co-workers drawn franr many educational institutions, the Kentucky Conference demonstrated once again that interest in foreign lant guage study and teaching is growing rapidly in the South Atlantic states. This year new sections in Celtic, in Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and Afrika- ans, and Scandinavian were added to the program; a decade ago it woul( have been most difficult to find spe- cialists in these languages in the Sam- la area. Although national in scope, the Kentucky Conference is strongly supported by delegates from South Atlantic institutions; consequently, the contributions of Sa-mla members will be particularly noted in the fol- lowing report.

At the opening sessions on Thurs- day afternoon and evening papers and films were presented on Antarctica, Greece, and medieval medical prac- tice. The medical paper, read by Loren C. MacKinney, Kenan Professoi of History at the University of North Carolina, was accompanied by the showing of manuscript miniatures col- lected by MacKinney in the great libraries of Europe and selected from the more than 3,000 in his microfilm collection to illustrate the general quality of medical practice not only in the Middle Ages (when the minia- tures were made), but also the medi cal practice of the ancient Greeks and Romans, from whom much of medieval practice (as well as some of the minia- tures) was copied. Likewise, manu- script miniatures of the early modern period (later appearing in early printed 'books) were shown. It is MacKinney's contention that much of the basic medical practice of the Mid- dle Ages continued in Western Eur- ope and America until the nineteenth century, notably cautery, bloodletting,

The twelfth annual University c . Kentucky Foreign Language Confer y ence, held in Lexington April 23-2.

attracted some 700 participants an e guests from most of the states an y many foreign countries. In number

alone this Conference far surpasse< any of its predecessors, for not onl:

f did language teachers turn out iI record numbers, but the number o: section meetings (43) and the numbe: of papers read (400) set new records Under the able direction of Jonal

l W. D. Skiles, with the assistance o: r Hobart Ryland, Paul K. Whitaker

and a staff of co-workers drawn franr many educational institutions, the Kentucky Conference demonstrated once again that interest in foreign lant guage study and teaching is growing rapidly in the South Atlantic states. This year new sections in Celtic, in Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and Afrika- ans, and Scandinavian were added to the program; a decade ago it woul( have been most difficult to find spe- cialists in these languages in the Sam- la area. Although national in scope, the Kentucky Conference is strongly supported by delegates from South Atlantic institutions; consequently, the contributions of Sa-mla members will be particularly noted in the fol- lowing report.

At the opening sessions on Thurs- day afternoon and evening papers and films were presented on Antarctica, Greece, and medieval medical prac- tice. The medical paper, read by Loren C. MacKinney, Kenan Professoi of History at the University of North Carolina, was accompanied by the showing of manuscript miniatures col- lected by MacKinney in the great libraries of Europe and selected from the more than 3,000 in his microfilm collection to illustrate the general quality of medical practice not only in the Middle Ages (when the minia- tures were made), but also the medi cal practice of the ancient Greeks and Romans, from whom much of medieval practice (as well as some of the minia- tures) was copied. Likewise, manu- script miniatures of the early modern period (later appearing in early printed 'books) were shown. It is MacKinney's contention that much of the basic medical practice of the Mid- dle Ages continued in Western Eur- ope and America until the nineteenth century, notably cautery, bloodletting,

)f herbal medicines, and crude surgery. r- "The early modern physician," accor,!- 5 ing to MacKinney, "improved some- d what on the best of medieval tech- d niques, and on the other hand some s physicians and many of their patients d and non-patients continued to prac- y tice most of those superstitions of n early folk medicine tha-t we so often f refer to as 'medieval' as though they r were invented and monopolized by our

medieval European ancestors." Pro- fessor MacKinney concluded with the

f question: How medieval was modern , medicine before the mid-nineteenth a century technological revolution?

The Friday morning general ses- sion, presided over by Armand E. Singer (West Virginia University),

; got under way with a discussion of "The Bayeaux Tapestry: Sources and Influence" by F. Sidney Walls of The Citadel. Major Walls, who has de- lighted many Conference audiences with his informed descriptions of various European tapestries, pointed out that until 1946 scholars who were concerned with the Bayeux tapestry were pimarily interested in its his- torical background. Since then re- search has been directed towards its creative artistic merit. Walls stated that the tapestry made a complete break with Greco-Roman tradition by intoducing a new vision of abstract reality, its dramatic expressive power resembling that of the French Ro manesque mural frescoes. Neverthe- less, one can observe convincing de- tails paralleling the Winchester style of drawing of Anglo-Saxon manu- scripts as well as that of eleventh century needlework. The tapestry it self presents an impartial biographical account of Harold's perjury, with Wil- liam brought in as an instrument of divine vengeance to give a moral and theological explanation of the fall of England. Major Walls concluded that "the origin of the tapestry is still not solved, but fresh evidence is given for a contemporary dating."

At the same session Albert Wilson Server (University of Kentucky) de- scribed "Chipilo, an Italian-Mexican Village." Chipilo, a village established by Italian immigrants in 1882 in the state of Puebla, offers much of soci- ological and linguistic interest, but thus far it has escaped the searching gaze of the anthropologist. An in- teresting discovery made by Dr

)f herbal medicines, and crude surgery. r- "The early modern physician," accor,!- 5 ing to MacKinney, "improved some- d what on the best of medieval tech- d niques, and on the other hand some s physicians and many of their patients d and non-patients continued to prac- y tice most of those superstitions of n early folk medicine tha-t we so often f refer to as 'medieval' as though they r were invented and monopolized by our

medieval European ancestors." Pro- fessor MacKinney concluded with the

f question: How medieval was modern , medicine before the mid-nineteenth a century technological revolution?

The Friday morning general ses- sion, presided over by Armand E. Singer (West Virginia University),

; got under way with a discussion of "The Bayeaux Tapestry: Sources and Influence" by F. Sidney Walls of The Citadel. Major Walls, who has de- lighted many Conference audiences with his informed descriptions of various European tapestries, pointed out that until 1946 scholars who were concerned with the Bayeux tapestry were pimarily interested in its his- torical background. Since then re- search has been directed towards its creative artistic merit. Walls stated that the tapestry made a complete break with Greco-Roman tradition by intoducing a new vision of abstract reality, its dramatic expressive power resembling that of the French Ro manesque mural frescoes. Neverthe- less, one can observe convincing de- tails paralleling the Winchester style of drawing of Anglo-Saxon manu- scripts as well as that of eleventh century needlework. The tapestry it self presents an impartial biographical account of Harold's perjury, with Wil- liam brought in as an instrument of divine vengeance to give a moral and theological explanation of the fall of England. Major Walls concluded that "the origin of the tapestry is still not solved, but fresh evidence is given for a contemporary dating."

At the same session Albert Wilson Server (University of Kentucky) de- scribed "Chipilo, an Italian-Mexican Village." Chipilo, a village established by Italian immigrants in 1882 in the state of Puebla, offers much of soci- ological and linguistic interest, but thus far it has escaped the searching gaze of the anthropologist. An in- teresting discovery made by Dr

Kentucky Conference Kentucky Conference

May, 1959 May, 1959 SOUTH ATLANTIC BULLETIN SOUTH ATLANTIC BULLETIN Page Eleven Page Eleven

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