E102B Restoration and Revolution|| SQ || Rochester, Satyr Against Reason and Mankind
NB: Please see below for explanatory notes for this poem.
1. What is satire? What makes this poem a satire?
2. What difference does it make if you think of the title of this poem as "Satyr against Mankind" or "Satyr Against Reason and Mankind" or just "Satyr"?
3. What can you say or guess about the poem just by examining the end rhymes? (The first 17 follow below.)
amWhat about the rhyme words of the last couplet: "least, beast"?
man
share
wear,
bear,
animal
rational.
contrive
five,
prefer
err;
mind,
behind,
takes
brakes,
pain
brain.4. Trace the words sense(s) and reason. How does Rochester contrast them? Which does he think is more reliable?
5. If Rochester is making an argument here (he is), what is it? What is his thesis? Is it a good argument? Is it persuasive? Why or why not? What kinds of reasons does he give for his claims? What does he share with Hobbes?
6. Lines 48-71 are spoken by an opposing speaker (someone with a clerical collar), often caled a satiric adversary. In what sense is this speaker the main speaker's adversary? What is his opposing thesis?
7. (Overlapping with #5) Examine carefully lines 130-160. Paraphrase.
8. Can you put this poem on the same map with The Country Wife? Which terms seem portable? Are there any that aren't?
9. Choose particular couplets that interest you and explain how they "work."
10. What makes this poem worth reading?
Explanatory notes for Satyr Against Reason and Mankind
Please note:
1. LINES 48-71 are spoken by a second speaker, the satiric adversary.
prodigious: monstrous, unnatural
case: condition
ignis fatuus: a llight seen at night moving over swamps or marshy places (will-o-the-wisp); a deceptive hope; delusion
bladders: floats
dazling: dazzled
reas'ning Engine: Notice the mechanical image for reasoning.
bubbles: dupes (Compare characters in The Country Wife.)
band: clerical collar
likes me: I like
Ingello: Nathaniel Ingelo (1621-83) was the author of a religious romance, Bentivolio and Urania (1660).
Patricks Pilgrim: Simon Patrick (1626-1707), Bixhop of Ely, wrote The Parable of the Pilgrim (1664), a forerunner of Jhn Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).
Stillingfleet: Edward Stillingfleet (1635-99), Bishop of Worcester, wrote against nonconformity and was a popular London preacher.
Sibbs Soliloquies: Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Puritan clergyman, author of religous tracts.
reverend: venerable
Bedlam: a famous London hospital for the mentally ill
charming: magical
Philosopher: a reference to Diogenes, Cynic, (c. 400-c. 325 BCE), who is said to have lived in a tub. He taught a combination of self-reliance and no shame. I'll tell you more about him. I read somewhere that Plato was supposed to have said that Diogenes was a Socrates gone mad.
own: admit, acknowledge
secures: satisfies
Jowler: a common name for a heavy-jawed dog
Meres: Sir Thomas Meres (1635-1715), member of Parliament
screws: strains
Aureal: golden
sawcy: insolent
gossipping: a social gathering of women, especially at lying-ins and christenings. The original meaning of gossip was "godparent."(Notes are adapted or quoted from the poem as printed in Eighteenth-century English Literature, ed. Geoffrey Tillotson, et al (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1969), pp. 33-6, with some material added by AJVS.)