SAMUEL RICHARDSONのMODERATE RAKERY論
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
While working on Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison, Richardson often denounces the saying that a reformed rake makes the best husband. At the same time, he is very nervous about the doctrine of moderate rakery suggested by Lady Bradshaigh. She says in one of her letters to Richardson that is is quite all right for him to accuse an abandoned profligate, but she wonders why he cannot show some leniency toward such a man as moderate rake. For him, however, a rake is a rake, whether abandoned or moderate ; or so he gives his admirers to understand. The above saying or the doctrine of moderate rakery seems to have reminded him of his own Pamela, which, it appears, is partly based upon these ideas. Now the use of the reformed rake convention is often found, not only in the so-called Sentimental Comedy or Genteel Comedy of his days, but also in prose literature such as the Spectator or the Tatler. In this connection, it seems rather interesting to the present writer that, while defending himself against the doctrine of moderate rakery, Richardson refers to Colley Cibber, who, he says, holds this doctrine and once laughed at him for his defence of male-virgin or what Fielding calls male-chastity. This is interesting in view of the fact that Cibber is one of the representative writers of the Sentimental Comedy, where the doctrine which Richardson hates is often taken for granted, and, as is seen in Cibber's works, the happy ending is brought about by the more or less doubtful repentance of the moderate rake in the last act. Richardson cannot accept such morally ambiguous solution seen in what Allardyce Nicoll calls moral-immoral comedies. Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers represents the new trends in drama against these moral-immoral comedies. Its strong moralizing tendency reminds us of Parson Adams' words in Fielding's Joseph Andrews that "there are some things almost solemn enough for a sermon" in this play. The present writer suspects that Richardson's words against Cibber and Lady Bradshaigh in his letter are based upon the dialogue between Mr. Sealand and Sir John Bevil on similar topic in The Conscious Lovers. This comedy of Steele's seems to have furnished Richardson with valuable hints in fighting against the moral ambiguity of the Sentimental Comedy as is seen in Cibber's works.
- 財団法人日本英文学会の論文
- 1967-11-10
財団法人日本英文学会 | 論文
- 補部に見られる島の効果について
- 堕落の光景 : The Rainbow最終章における炭坑町の風景について
- Poe 解読 : 穴と反転
- 乗り物と替え玉 : The Great Gatsby を動かす法則
- 重名詞句移動の A 移動分析と寄生的空所現象について