Unit Five: Political Satire
Lesson Nine
The Political Essayists
Daniel Defoe, 1660-1731
Son of Alice and James Foe.
His father was a City tradesman and
member of the Butchers’ Company.
The Foes were Dissenters, Protestants
who did not belong to the Anglican Church
- come occasionally comes through
Defoe's writing.
Business Man
He studied at Charles Morton's Academy,
London.
Father wanted him to be a minister
Defoe preferred politics and trade,
travelling extensively in Europe.
Business ventures failed and left him with
large debts, amounting over £17000
Prolific Writer
Journalist, pamphleteer, social and
political commentator, and novelist
some of his religious and political writings
led to arrests for libel and treason, fines,
imprisonments, and one
pillorying, from July 29- 31,
1703.
Political Rebel
Joined the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion
in Lyme Regis
While hiding as a fugitive in a churchyard
after the rebellion was put down, he
noticed the name Robinson Crusoe
carved on a stone
later gave it to his famous hero.
Early William Supporter
Participated in the Glorious Revolution as
a member of William’s army
Served the king in various capacities in
England and Scotland, 1689-1702;
Notably, an agent for Robert Harley, a
member of parliament and secretary of
state, 1703-14, working as a
propagandist, opinion pollster, and spy in
England and Scotland.
Incredibly Prolific Writer
He produced some 200 works of
nonfiction prose
In addition, close 2000 short essays in
periodical publications, several of which
he also edited.
True-Born Englishman
Written in 1701, became the best-selling
poem ever at that time.
By the end of 1701 it was in its ninth
edition, and there were 30 editions before
1750.
The Foes were a family of Flemish
descent, so close to his heart
Political Background
After Queen Mary’s death, William wanted a
standing army, as he didn’t trust the king of
France (who was supporting James II at the
time).
But both the Whigs and Tories felt that a militia
was sufficient, so William sent home his Dutch
troops and considered abdicating
particularly after a series of attacks on the Dutch and
the removal of many of the grants he had given his
friends.
So Much for Purity
By showing through England's history just
how many races and nationalities it had
taken to produce the Englishman of his
time, Defoe reduced arguments about
racial and national purity to absurdity
Important Resources
Defoe's verse dominated the volumes of
political poetry known as Poems on Affairs
of State that were published between
1700 and 1710
They were a continuation of the volumes
of political poems from the Restoration.
Delarivier Manley
Arguably the most famous woman writer of her
time.
Friend and collaborator of Jonathan Swift;
On-again, off-again social and literary
relationship with Sir Richard Steele
Had the patronage of Robert Harley, the Duke of
Devonshire, and Sir Thomas Skipworth;
Important enough to be lampooned and
satirized on a number of occasions.
Knew Her World
With keen insight into her culture and
society, she wrote of herself in her
autobiography in the guise of a male
narrator:
If she had been a Man; she had been without
Fault: But the Charter of that Sex being much
more confined than ours, what is not a Crime in
men is scandalous and unpardonable in Woman.
(Rivella 2:743)
Her Writings:
Her four hugely popular and most famous
works:
The History of Rivella
Queen Zarah and the Zarazians
The New Atalantis
which is credited with a major role in the toppling
of the Whig government in 1710 (Trevelyan Peace
38)
The Memoirs of Europe
Others:
Three early little-known narratives;
four plays;
six political pamphlets;
and a brief turn as the editor of The
Examiner (after Swift)
Obscure Biography
One fact Manley obscured was her date of birth
could be either in 1673 or 1675.
Both of these dates are highly suspect.
If she was born while her father was in Jersey,
her date of birth must have been between 1667
and 1671.
The year 1671 is most likely if Swift was
accurate when he wrote in 1711 that Manley
was "about forty, very homely, and very fat"
(Journal to Stella 2:474).
Unusual Christian Name
She was most likely named after Lady
Delarivier Cholmondeley Morgan, the wife
of her father, Sir Roger's superior on
Jersey, Sir Thomas Morgan
The Royalist Manleys
The Manley family of Denbighshire, Wales, near
Wrexham, were loyal to Charles I.
Delarivier's grandfather was most likely
Cornelius Manley of Erbistock.
Had three sons: Francis, Roger and John.
Both Francis and Roger fought for the king during the
Civil War and both were knighted for their efforts.
But the third son, John, became a major in the
parliamentary army.
Scholars suspect that John's allegiance may have
been swayed by his wife, Margaret Dorislaus, the
daughter of a prominent Parliamentarian
Bigamous Marriage
John and Margaret were the parents of
John Manley, the cousin who later
bigamously married Delarivier.
She had a child by him, and was
considered “unfit” for marriage after the
trickery was discovered.
Prose Narratives
The reading public, critics and scholars
have traditionally denigrated Manley's
prose fiction as either soft pornography,
scandal chronicles, or partisan political
satire.
Yet Swift was writing the latter in books
now considered classics of literature like
Gulliver's Travels, and no one would think
of labeling that novel a "mere political
satire."
Writer to Take Seriously
If one reads the books as novels, one
finds that she will stand up to serious
criticism, especially in The New Atalantis.
She uses recurring motifs,
Her "warmth" is usually employed in an
ironic or negative manner,
most important, Manley spends much time
exploring her characters' psyches, both
heroes and villains alike.
Can’t Ignore Politics
 The political satire comprises a very important aspect of
her works.
 To her contemporaries, she was powerful Tory writer, who
attacked her Whig enemies with scandalous tales, which,
in many cases, were uncomfortably close to the truth.
 The questioning that Manley underwent after her arrest
for libel also underscores the veracity of much of what
she was writing.
For the Whigs to want to know who her "inside source" was,
there had to be more than a grain of truth in her stories
The New Atalantis
The New Atalantis is much nearer a true
novel than either of Queen Zarah's
volumes
Of all Manley's novels, it is the best.
While critics have argued that it is merely
a collection of tales and novellas linked by
a narrator, it is more than that.
Title Page of First Edition
What Makes It a Novel?
It does have a unified theme, which is the
treachery of the powerful, and usually
corrupt, against the powerless.
As Ros Ballaster points out, the novel is
centered around the Charlot/Duke story
"to or from which all subsequent stories in
the novel correspond or diverge"
(Seductive 132).
Successful in Her Time
Immensely popular and influential book in its
day.
Trevelyan calls it "the publication that did the
most harm" to the Whig Ministry in 1705 (Peace
38).
Albeit satirically, Pope uses it as a measure for
literary immortality in The Rape of the Lock:
"For long as Atalantis shall be read" is
synonymous with the timelessness of "While
fish in streams, or birds delight in air."
Power Corrupts
The narrative has a definite theme —
power corrupting, often underscored by
examples of powerful men taking
advantage of powerless women.
In the second volume this emphasis is
slightly modified to show hypocrisy being
a tool of power and evidence of
corruption.
Social Commentary As Well
All of the seemingly unrelated narratives
and vignettes work together to paint a
broad picture of those in power running
amok, glutted with their own excesses and
destroying the powerless for fun or profit.
This is a broad theme which allows
Manley room to make commentary on a
number of social ills that are the direct
result of abuses of power.
Forced Marriage
Manley goes further than merely attacking
parents who force their children into
marriages for financial or political reasons.
She underscores its horror by showing the
ultimate evil in forced marriages: bigamy.
Three instances of it occur in the novel,
including Manley's own story, which
coincidentally was the only instance in the
novel in which the young woman was not first
convinced that bigamy was a "natural" state.
Children Are Lesser Beings
Most of these forced marriages turn out to
be loveless as well.
Virtue tells her daughter Astrea that
children of these all-too-common loveless
marriages are lacking something in their
make-up.
They are "void of generous Fire, of that
Sparkling Genius, the product of noble
free-born love," and that is why there are
so few heroes left in the world (1:276).
What’s Wrong With the System
"But Parents think their Children can
never be unhappy, if they do but take care
of their Interest, which is the true reason
we so seldom see People of Condition
fortunate in their Marriages"
In the section we read for today
The St. Amants
The moral of their tale is that people
should be in love with one another before
they marry or the scene is set for disaster.
In the case of the St. Amants, their
parents had arranged their marriage while
the two were still children.
Attacks Androcentric Medical Care
Manley's description of Madam's
"vapours" and the doctor's diagnosis and
treatment is comment on what women are
to expect at the hands of doctors.
The doctor's method of diagnosis is to tell
a joke. If a woman doesn't laugh at a
man's joke there must be something
wrong with her. It can't be that the joke
was bad; she must be mentally ill (see
1:381-83).