From the desks of More and Castiglione

As I picked up The Book of the Courtier this weekend, I was interested to find a letter prefacing Book 1, titled "To the Reverend and Illustrious Signor Don Michel de Silva, Bishop of Viseau."

Clearly More, including a letter with his Utopia, was not the only author to see the benefits of using letters and verses to introduce a work. A quick search of google scholar will tell you that many authors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and beyond included similar letters in volumes of their work. But why?

Originally I believed that Sir Thomas More simply included his "Letter to Peter Giles" in an attempt to corroborate his story, to give it that appearance of actually having happened. While the letter to Peter Giles does serve a clever literary technique, playing in the reader's mind and hinting that Raphael may have existed, there are additional reasons for the inclusion of letters in volumes.

Consider this: A New York Times best seller of the 21st century will be featured in newspapers and magazines, will have summaries presented on sites such as "amazon.com", and will be the topic of talk shows featuring the author. Through the many medium we have available to us today, we have no trouble accessing summaries, reviews, and commentaries on popular works. In fact, many authors go on promotional tours and speak to fans, publishers, and television producers about their works and the intent of the pieces.

The people of More and Castiglione's time, however, did not have ready access to this type of information. Short of being close to the royal family, the common man of the Renaissance era would never have the chance to even set eyes on admired authors. The only way to see inside the mind of an author and to understand his or her intent, was to read a commentary that they wrote.

Yet, as Peter Allan points out in his article "Utopia and European Humanism: the Function of Prefatory Letters and Verses", these letters are more than commentaries and summaries. "This complicated machinery, I would suggest, is much more than an equivalent of the modern dust-jacket blurb, for it is deliberately designed to control the reader's interpretation of the text." [1]

By addressing letters to respected confidants rather than to the reader, an author can convey greater authority through the words. The reader feels as though he or she is listening in on a private conversation about the intent of the work, rather than an overstated summary intended to make the author and the work appear larger than life.

The letters included in volumes may also serve the purpose of recognizing important individuals and dedicating works, much as a page of thanks and dedication is included in modern novels. Castiglione, for example, creates a list of respected persons in his letter to the Bishop of Viseau, naming them and citing their examples as the inspiration for his book.

[1] Article by Peter Allan featured through JSTOR. Note: You must be logged on through the university to access the article.

“Well, Raphael has taken care of the thieves…”

"If you allow young folks to be abominably brought up and their characters corrupted, little by little, from childhood; and if then you punish them as grownups for committing crime to which their early training has inclined them, what else is this, I ask, but first making them thieves, and then punishing them for it? (532)"

Even those of us who are not well-read have heard this passage quoted among the many medium of society. In Ever After, a movie released in 1998, the main character Danielle de Barbarac frequently quotes Utopia, citing this passage as an argument against the harsh punishment of thieves and blaming society for creating them.

Raphael/More continues by saying:

"It seems to me...that it's altogether unjust to take someone's life for taking money. Nothing in the world that fortune can bestow is equal in value to a human life...as if there were no difference between killing a man and taking a coin from him. (533)"

Not only is he making the argument that society creates the thieves of our time and therefore cannot punish them, but he also brings up the fact that punishing thieves the same as murderers is wrong. To kill a man for trying to feed his family is extreme. He makes an interesting comment that if the punishment for stealing and murder is the same, soon thieves will kill those they take from, thereby eliminating the witness of the crime and not changing their punishment.

Raphael then begins a lengthy explanation of how the Polylerites treat those who steal. The result is a lifetime of servitude (ah, there's that word... read my last post to see what I think!) and therefore an inescapable and extremely long and drawn out punishment.

Not only does this place thieves on a different level from murderers, but I believe it brings up more serious consequences. For those who are constantly in need, execution after a lifetime of thievery and humiliating beggary may seem like an escape. The consequence of lifetime slavery may be less appealing.

To Serve or Not to Serve?

More’s character Raphael Hythloday has traveled the world, and as he begins to discuss life and politics with both Peter Giles and Thomas More, he easily gains their respect. Mr. Giles is astounded by Raphael's experience and wonders that with such wisdom Raphael has not offered his services to a prince, or any form of royalty..

“My dear Raphael,” he said, “I’m surprised that you don’t enter into some king’s service;…Thus you might advance your own interests and be useful at the same time to all your relatives and friends.”
“…I think they should be content with this gift of mine, and not expect that for their sake I should enslave myself to any king whatever.”
“Well said,” Peter replied; “but I do not mean that you should be in servitude to any king, only in his service.”
“The difference is only a matter of one syllable,” Raphael replied (527-528).

Is there a difference between service and servitude? According to the Oxford English dictionary, “service” is simply defined as being in service to a master. This slightly circular definition gives us more of a voluntary picture of someone offering what they have to someone else [1]. Servitude on the other hand is defined as “the condition of being a slave" [2]. Clearly in the semantics of things, there is a difference. Yet as Raphael points out, when it all comes down to the two words, there is little difference other than one syllable. This is particularly true in the case of a king. When in the service of a king, as Raphael points out, you may not be bound in shackles and whipped for disobedience, but your ideas and your opinions are bound. If you wish to stay in the good graces of the king you are a slave to what he wishes and freedom of speech turns into a one-way ticket to treason.


[1] Oxford definition of "service". From http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50220772?query_type=word&queryword=service&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=aAJI-5aaYwK-5731&result_place=1
[2] Oxford definition of "servitude." From http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50220813?query_type=word&queryword=service&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=aAJI-5aaYwK-5731&result_place=1

Burning Ice? The Contradictions of Sir Thomas Wyatt

Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder writes with the distinctive wisdom of someone who has lived and loved. Although most of his poems are translations of Petrarch's sonnets, Wyatt imparts his own feelings and ideas into the works. As with any translation, it is difficult to do a direct word-to-word change without bending the words and grabbing at synonyms to fit a personal belief for the meaning of the work.

Wyatt's sonnet "I Find No Peace" is an interesting poem which portrays for the reader the conflicting feelings brought about by love. Wasting no space, the speaker begins with the first contradiction by saying “I find no peace, and all my war is done,”. As the reader continues, the poem offers similarly opposing phrases in every line. We read of how he "fly above the wind, yet can I not arise," and "without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain;". The clue to unraveling the poem lies in the last line, where the speaker says "And my delight is causer of this strife." Or, as the modern translation puts it, "In this state am I, Lady, on account of you." The speaker of the poem is tormented with his love, not truly held prisoner by the one he loves, yet completely captive by her every whim. He hopes for her love in the future and yet fears what will happen (596).

As with most of Wyatt's sonnets, the speaker here is driven by love, but not a sweet, unassuming love. The love we find between the lines of "I Find No Peace" is passionate and complicated.


Wyatt's poem "Whoso list to Hunt" likewise echoes love throughout its lines. The initial theme of the sonnet may appear to be hunting, as several references are made to deer. Then end of the poem, however, gives the poem a slightly more personal feel and causes the reader to consider that the speaker is in fact talking about a women. The end of the poem reads:

And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about,
"Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame (595)."

In line four the speaker makes reference to "falling behind" the other hunters. As he pursues her, she only flees further, and his wearied attempts are coming to an end. The speaker's desire for her is strong, and it carries him far, yet he finally comes to the conclusion that finding her love is as difficult as "in a net I seek to hold the wind". Furthermore his efforts are bested by a person of power, likened to Caesar. The words "Noli me tangere" are latin for "touch me not". [1] The words then engraven about her neck signify her allegiance to another. Touch me not, for Caesar's I am.

Some have suggested that the poem is actually about Anne Boleyn who, although Wyatt may have pursued her with his love, was conquered by Henry VIII. [2] The sonnet is also a derivation of one of Petrarch's sonnets, yet as we read the modern translation we see that each
poem has been colored by the author's feelings.

[1] The translation of "noli me tangere". Taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/noli-me-tangere
[2] Copy of the poem and notes, courtesy of luminarium. Taken from http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/whosolist.htm.

Intro. to the Renaissance

In our Norton Anthology, the intro. to 16th century literature makes an interesting comment on the type of literary output that was going on during this time.

"In a society with no freedom of speech as we understand it and with relatively limited means of mass communication, important public issues were often aired indirectly, through what we might now regard as entertainment, while lyrics that to us seem slight and nonchalant could sere as carefully crafted manifestations of rhetorical agility by aspiring courtiers (486)."

The writers and aspiring political commentaries of the renaissance era did not have access to CNN interviews and the opportunity to publish anonymous "letters to the editor" in newspapers. There was no mass media as we know it, and in order to have one's voice heard while also making sure that your head remained on your shoulders, the only option was political satire. For men such as Sir Thomas More, the author of Utopia, it would have literally been suicide to speak up directly against the king. Instead, those who disagreed with royal policy disguised their opinions through literary devices such as metaphors and they hid their opinions under the names of their characters. This is evident in Utopia, as we find that More's own feelings may be exhbited through Raphael more than the Thomas More of the story. During the 16th and 17th centuries, literature was more than a good read, it was the secret voice of the political skeptics of its day.

Welcome, 381-ers!

I saw a few of my fellow students posted a "welcome" post, so I thought I'd do the same. While this isn't my first blog (more like... 5th? Hmm, perhaps not that many. I did go through my share.) it is my first focused on literature!
Should be fun!

The name of my little corner is, as you see, "a slip of the pen." The website is also lapsus calami which is latin for the same phrase. Sorry for all the hyphens in the address, but apparently "lapsus calami" was popular in the blogging world. I guess I'm not as unique as I thought.

Now to more scholarly posts. Enjoy!