Defoe Reading Questions
Defoe is impersonating a "high church" Anglican with an extreme view of dissenters. It is this extremity that Defoe wants to expose. The voice we hear wants to destroy all Dissenters. Try to locate the implied voice that is critical of such extreme views. This use of a double voice is what we mean when we say that this pamphlet is ironic.
To get the hang of it, you might try writing something in which you impersonate someone you want to expose.
1. Explain the joke in the fable: "Pray gentlefolks, let us stand still, for fear we should tread upon one another."
2. Who are "some people" and "other people"? The "some people" find their day is over--when was "their day"?
3. "near 14 years": What does the writer's view of the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William III appear to be?
4. How does Queen Anne figure in this pamphlet? Consider the following sections:
- "the throne of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant member of, and friend to the Church of England";
- "and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows you, and will hve a care of you";
- "when Her Majesty dies . . .";
- "protected and encouraged by a Church of England Queen";
- "a true English queen";
5. How does William III figure here? ""new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government": "your Dutch monarch";
How might Queen Anne have regarded these characterizations of William?
6. Look for language that is too strong or somehow skewed, e.g., "harboured her enemies"; "huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration"; "to execute the laws upon any part of that nation it governs"; "cleared the nation of them"; "Just such measures as they have meted should be measured them again"; "rooted the Puritans from the face of the land"; "utterly extinguishing them long ago". What other examples do you see?
7. The pamphlet speaker is cast as having Jacobite sympathies and a clear hostility to William III (a Jacobite is a supporter of James II after he was overthrown or a supporter of the Stuart "pretenders"): "having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, [they] could not dispense with that oath, their King still alive, and swear to your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government." What might readers have thought?
8. Do you notice any logical problems with the speaker's reasoning?
9. Try to paraphrase the first 3 or 4 pages. When you get stuck tyring to put the narrative in your own words, mark that spot and ask a question.
10. Locate some statements that are perfectly unobjectionable to any audience. Locate others that close to sarcastic (what's the difference between irony and sarcasm?).
11. What sort of past England does the writer seem to want to restore?
12. Track on the words grace, mercy, and charity. What kind of vocabulary is this?
13. What constitutional isses come into view (e.g., "successive" vs "elective" government)?
14. What does the writer say to oppose the view that the Disseners are so numerous they can't be suppressed?
15. What do you make of the following phrases? "heretical weed of sedition";
16. Look up De Heretico Comburendo.
17. What is the speaker's argument about prevention?
18. "if it be not a crime, why dont we give them full license?" (44). How might this question be said to glance two ways?
19. How does Defoe's irony work in the following section: "We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five shillings."
20. What use does Defoe make of John Howe's argument? What do you think of that argument?