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Title	Articulate wisdom : rhetorical technique in John Donne's satires
Publication Type	dissertation
School or College	College of Humanities
Department	English
Author	Gregory, Donna Uthus
Date	1977
Description	This study tries to account for the differences between Donne's and the other satires of the 1590's. It analyzes the five satires from the point of view of rhetorical technique, and finds that the poems use predominantly the devices of teaching. They at least pretend to be didactic discourse. Elizabethan formal verse satire is usually epideictic; Donne's is deliberative in overall purpose, though the other rhetorical modes are used to achieve the end. The poems show an interest in virtue and vice, in ways that reflect the cardinal virtue tradition. They assert an optimistic v i.cw of the power of reason to lead men to virtue. They are informed by an ideal of the sapiens upon whom is conferred a civic responsibility. They also show an interest in language, and reflect some of the values attached to the classical ideal of eloquence. In all these aspects, Donne is deliberately identifying his work in the Humanistic tradition, particularly as it derives from Cicero. As satirist, Donne is pretending to be a moral teacher, a teacher of moral knowledge who want to exhort us Lo live a more rational life. As teacher, he tells us that the quest for wisdom, which is the highest virtue, must start w i t.h self-knowledge, which begins at understanding our concupiscent and irascible tendencies. These satires educate us about vice, and, by making the passionate life appear undesirable, enjoin us to temper our passions by means of reason. The satirist is vates, the priestly poet, who perceives a relationship between language and wisdom.
Type	Text
Publisher	University of Utah
Subject	Donne, John, 1572-1631
Dissertation Name	Doctor of Philosophy
Language	eng
Rights Management	© Donna Uthus Gregory
Format	application/pdf
Format Medium	application/pdf
ARK	ark:/87278/s6jx3h5c
Setname	ir_etd
ID	1527645
Reference URL	https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jx3h5c

Page Metadata

Title	Page 172
Format	application/pdf
Setname	ir_etd
ID	1527817
OCR Text	Show 165 Sister. Und e r Pretext of Praise: Sat .i.r i.c Hade in Erasmus''- F ic t i.o n Toronto: Urn vc r s i ty of To-ronto Pres s, 197 Lj Thompson, Geraldine, . .• Tuve, Rosc10nd. i Ch Eliabetn d Un i.ver J_Ly c ago : f".1taphysi.cal Press, oCCTllcago s Vickers, Classical Rhetoric Brian. New York: MacmUL3n-;-I970. Walker, Hugh. M. J. English C. English Poetry. Satirists. London: Poetic. .?tu<li-__in Se\Centeenth-_Century University-----otlJisconsin Madison: Weiss, and T9-4T.- 1925. Dent, R. Wallerstein, Satire in y. 1950. Press, New Light on Marston's the Satire." Journal of Eng_lish an.s!_Genn._hi 10 logy 71 (19T'2):22 35. "Rhetoric and Satire: A. and Pigmalion vJilcox, John. "Informal Publication of Late Sixteenth Century Verse Satire.1I 13 arterlY Will iams, .t!.ntinfton Library (1950):191-200. TMarc1=lTjT3T:Bu Williamson, the George. _Soule. !I - I I I s Apology for English Language Notes llEen Jonson. Harv C. Bartholome\'I7 Fair." 10 - . . 8 5. IIDonne's Satirical Progresse of ELH 36 (1969):250-64. " Zive1y, Sherry. Studies in John Donne Enolish Literature 6 "Imagery in --- "87:'-9-.-·-·----·-· IS. aty§ .. (Wlnter 1966):
Reference URL	https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jx3h5c/1527817