Andrew Marvell's "Upon Appleton House" and Ben Jonson's "To Penshurst" share similarities characteristic of the English poem "Country House ", but they contain notable differences from each other. Both "To Penshurst" and "Upon Appleton House" depict the respective estates and family lives of the poets' patrons in idyllic terms. Admiration for the aristocracy also reveals the artistic reliance on patronage during this era, as well as the need to maintain their high position in order to preserve the social hierarchy. Poets, however, differ in their representation of perfection. Marvell's long-winded work, more complex in its praise, focuses primarily on the superiority of the Fairfaxes and also makes broader reference to issues relating to politics and religion that Jonson entirely ignores or merely glances over. eye. Jonson, in a more direct manner, obsequiously describes the Sidneys as having a magnificent and luxurious lifestyle, but is particularly interested in their generosity, which he believes is reflected in the exterior features of their palatial neighborhood. Both poets describe their clients as the pinnacle of perfection in all areas, manifested in the homes they describe in detail. Although there are major contrasts, these poems are similar in many of the typical "country house" respects, attempting to discuss a particular abode while alluding to broader cultural attitudes regarding nature , art and society of the 17th century. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In writing “At Penshurst,” Jonson describes the bucolic surroundings of Penshurst as the ideal natural paradise to inhabit. Jonson acknowledges that it is less garish than other palatial homes, such as Solomon's Temple, but says "the art (it's still there) was revered at the time." (Jonson 6) The residence may not be Mount Olympus in terms of architectural brilliance, but this exquisite country charm only adds to Penshurst's glory as a pastoral wood suitable for nymphs to frolic and to the gods to walk around. In typical country house terminology, he claims that the forest landscape is full of all sorts of wonderful things. Even the pheasants and partridges love the place so much that they are "ready to be killed" for food, "your ponds... do you homage to the fish... who run into your net", and "the bright eels, which imitate, jump to the ground. » ; These references may sound absurd to our modern ears, but they would have been an Arcadian theme quite familiar to classical scholars. (Jonson 30, 32-33, 37) Jonson continues, in his panegyric, to praise the magnificent generosity offered by Penshurst. He characterizes it as overflowing with “garden flowers” ​​and full of fruit trees including succulent “early cherries, with later plums, / Fig, grape and quince, each in its time come / The blushing apricot and the peach woolly / Wait. your walls, that every child can reach”, particularly beautiful images. (Jonson 39.41-44) But the poem is not simply an ode to an idyllic landscape, having much more depth beneath the surface. The most powerful social commentary here begins to emerge: And though thy walls are of country stone. They are raised without ruin, without the groaning of any man; There is no one living around them to greet them, But all come in, the farmer and the clown, And no one empty-handed to greet Your lord and your lady, wellthat they don't have a costume. (Jonson 45-50) Customers are loved by all for themselves and not for selfish reasons. This reveals the pleasant place Penshurst occupies in the surrounding community, and not an object of contempt for the working classes. It should be noted that the building was not, in this fantasy scenario, constructed by hard work. Serving as an oasis of work, Penshurst invites members of all levels of society to enter its gates and jubilantly bring their harvest to the field. Unfortunately, not all are treated equally in the poem: the objectification that women faced in the 17th century is evident when women are listed among the "ripe" fruits offered. Nevertheless, the abode is still described as the ideal idyllic abode for all: “But what can this (more than expressing their love) / Add to your free provisions, far above / The need of this? whose liberal table flows freely / With all this hospitality that knows! mine. » (Jonson 62, 64) Ideally, no turmoil exists between the nobles or the servants, because the pinnacle of virtue and concern for the oppressed is represented in the work. Christian symbolism is present, as Penshurst resembles a paradise where no one is unhappy or overworked; Biblical references permeate the play, such as illusions about the magnanimous master nurturing poor, modest sinners as well as wealthy invited guests. Jonson's boss, Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester and brother of that brilliant Renaissance man, Sir Phillip Sidney, is supposed to be this kind lord who treats people exquisitely. The emphasis here is on highlighting the object of the poet's gratitude, the patron who allows him to continue writing. According to the Broadview Anthology, "we see in his many occasional commissioned pieces the culture of aristocratic patronage on which he depended, as in 'To Penshurst,' his eloquent tribute to the Sidney family." » (Black) Jonson also pays tribute to the mistress of his house, a woman of "high housewife" with several lines expressing the beauty of her domestic equipment and explaining how the arbors are always prepared for visitors. (Jonson 85) Jonson ends by completing the portrait, saying to the personified Penshurst: “The noble, fruitful and chaste soul of your lady; / His children, your great lord may call his own, / A fortune rarely known in this age” and asserting that “the gentler spirits of children have sucked up innocence”, having learned to pray and study theology from the “ noble parts of virtuous parents” and learned “The mysteries of morals, weapons and arts” in this pure and charming intellectual atmosphere. (Jonson 90-92, 94, 97, 98) Jonson echoes a classic sentiment in an English country setting, describing how living a quiet life, free from political strife and war, is not a vain or unnecessary waste of time for a family. , but the most desirable state of being, for "Now, Penshurst, they will proportion thee / With other edifices, when they see / These proud and ambitious heaps, and nothing else, / May say, their lords have built, but thy lord inhabited” (Jonson 99-102) The harmony between art and nature in 17th-century society culminates in this rural palace, fit for a rustic king or a poet's patron. Andrew Marvell's "Upon Appleton House" draws on similar themes to "To Penshurst", but there is a great disparity in the body of the poem. At the very beginning, Marvell immediately poses a hypothetical question and answers it. quickly to his own question: if we take nature as our guide, why does Lord Fairfax need such a large and opulent house when ithardly corresponds to the size he needs? Rather than speaking of the master's magnanimous nature toward the rest of the community, as Jonson repeatedly did, Marvell, as if expecting an envious or critical reaction from other impressed people by the Fairfax residence, depicts its patron as a sort of saint. character higher than the others and therefore more deserving of Appleton House. He first emphasizes: But all things are here composed like nature, ordered and near: in which we find the dimensions of that more sober age and spirit, where taller men stooped to enter by a loop narrow; You might as well train, in such narrow doors, To force yourself to cross the Gate of Heaven. (Marvell 25-32) Already he is ready to expand the reasoning behind the erection of architecture. Rather than considering many superficial elements, as Jonson playfully used to do, Marvell focuses primarily on the moral integrity and heroism of the protective family. With typical flourishes, he argues that Fairfax deserves an elaborate home, formerly on the grounds of the convent, because of his noble merits and maintains that men will flock on pilgrimage to his palace, "to worship... where Fairfax walked before." (Marvell 36) Marvell actually considers him too small for Fairfax's metaphorical stature and, in parodox terms, writes: "ungirded and unconstrained, / Greater things are contained." (Marvell 43-44) Often, in describing the physical aspect of the property, Marvell makes geometric references: in doing so, he attributes the brilliant house to human work but, metaphysically, rationalizes its magnificence as evidence of the spiritual value of the owner. describing the grounds of his home, Marvell presents a larger-than-life characterization of Lord Fairfax. Both "Upon Appleton House" and "To Penshurst" provide abundant foundations for the existence of the residences and highlight the virtue of their individual clients, although in different ways: Marvell's tactic is to make his client a passionate romantic and spiritual hero. Marvell repeatedly speaks of Fairfax's honor above that of other humble men: Yet thus the burdened House sweats, And hardly hardens the great Master: But where he comes, the Hall swollen, So the honor is better than baseness carries... So This unusual grandeur takes height with a certain Grace bends, but low things rise in a clownish way. (Marvell 49-56) He continues to assert that no excuse is warranted, however, because everything in Appleton "responds to usage", claiming that he is prideful, a vice absent in Penshurst, of " to despise” “where cleanliness, nothing can condemn”. . (Marvell 62, 64, 63) This concept of order being a high priority for a home and in life in general, also echoes Jonson's sentiments. For Marvell, the Fairfax house is a beacon of order and goodness. He views Fairfax as a Protestant hero who took control of a morally disordered Catholic stronghold. Much of the poem's passages describe "Discourse with the Nuns of Suttle" who are despised by Marvell as cunning and corrupt, nothing like his Lord Fairfax. Fairfax, by removing his wife from the sisters' supposed trappings and replacing their grounds with his "holy" house, is depicted as the restorer of order, both in the physical and spiritual sense. Before becoming Fairfax's wife, Isabella was a naive virgin girl, drawn first to the convent grounds by (what he believed to be) the "false" rituals of superstitious papal "madness." According to Marvell, Fairfax would later transform itfrom a place of danger to a just and law-abiding zone, “it was not a religious house until now.” (Marvell 94, 218, 280) Marvell describes how, for bribes, the women inside the "dark gates of the Cloyster" claimed to live lives of prayerful contemplation, holy leisure, and fair obedience as innocent and chaste warriors for God. They reside in a bastion of religious isolation, far from "those wild creatures, called men," including Fairfax. (Marvell 89, 102) With homoerotic undertones, the condescending Mother Superior notes the beauty of the virgin's face, comparing it to a statue of Mary (a devotion Anglicans lack and most Protestants consider idolatry ), praises her industrious hands and praises her. a pretty voice that rises to the sky, but Marvell thinks her words are all part of a cunning plan to trap the girls in the "evil" convent. Marvell's deliberate renunciation of any value inherent in the Catholic faith, by putting these nuns in the same basket as all of Catholicism, is manifested in the hypocritical duplicity, from an Anglo-Protestant point of view, of the discourse of the mother. Presenting a distorted representation of religion, its rhetoric of worship of women leaves no room for a man like Fairfax or for Christ; there would be no place for men at Appleton House unless he stepped in to save the day. The powerful protagonist, Fairfax, believes the nuns' claims that piety is found in pleasure to be false when he saves the virgin, "weeping at the altar" from these liars with "sweet" tongues. (Marvell 264, 200) The Valorous Fairfax is depicted as the freest of the so-called dungeons of the imprisoned nonnity as a true man of God. Marvell uses the natural analogy to express how “with his utmost skill.” / Ambition grass but conscience up. / Consciousness, this plant nourished by the sky, / which most of our earthly gardens need / a prickly leaf that it carries. (Marvell 353-357) Redeemer of buildings ruled by madness, Fairfax praised a kind of savior of humanity against women who consider it "sacrilege a man who admits thee / To holy things, for Heaven is worthy. » (Marvell 139-140). ) Jonson certainly also praises his patron, but not with the same level of hero worship as that exhibited by Marvell. Ironically, given that the poem was created by an artist, the art in "Upon Appleton House", more specifically the seamstress's work, is presented in an unflattering light as part of a clever ploy to trap the Virgin of Thwaites in a Vow, "The art by which you will end up cheating". (Marvell, 204) This distrust of art is, although attenuated, later in his description of the wonders that nature produces, as in the "Paintings of Mexico, all the feathers" that "Rome, the Greece, Palestine, said before / I in this light Mosaick read… (was not mistaken) in the mystick book of Nature (Marvell 580-584) This shows that artistic beauty and the beauty of nature, on which Appleton House is built, are not dangerous in themselves, but that the spiritually sterile and barren nuns are unworthy of such beautiful grounds, the writer implies that these women defile the purity of nature and abuse art, simply using them as illusions to trap the virgin Similarly, before Fairfax inspired the "real" art of Marvell's work, Marvell posits that the beauty of art was only used as a tool of corruption. Jonson portrays the beauty of art, architecture, and nature in only a positive light, but Marvell exposes thedark underbelly of these things which his patron must destroy in order to recreate the pastoral paradise of Appleton House. This prejudiced depiction of the convent and disdain for insidious (in Marvell's mind) rosary-wielding nuns reflects the chastisement of the Roman Catholic Church in general, which was a widespread horror in England at that time. Such bias is nowhere to be found in “To Penshurst,” even if the author shared this repugnance. “To Penshurst” certainly touches on Christian moral and spiritual themes, but never engages in this culturally relevant battle between religious sects. It is as if the wonderful environs of Penshurst are protected from such spiritual conflicts. However, much like Jonson's Sidneys, the Fairfax family is opposed to completely withdrawing from the rest of the world and enclosing themselves within their private stockade, which is exactly what the nuns did according to Marvell. In her poem, the calculating nuns try to convince the girls to join an oasis of pleasure without distress, where strict rules will bend at the boundaries of freedom. In Marvell's real estimation, their Catholic precepts are like cages: "Bars (which) enclose the wider den... close its doors / And, from us, lock the gates upon them." » (Marvell 101-104) Patrons of Jonson and Marvell advocate entering the gate of Heaven through generosity and openness to the larger surrounding community, in contrast to the closed cloister. Thus, enclosing oneself in a life of prayer and meditation is seen by the poet as a lesser way of connecting with God and helping humanity, less than action and physical interaction with others. Fairfax saved the good lady from her supposed torment as a recluse, but along the way he exiles the bigoted nuns and takes their land, a morally dubious act. However, this is justified in Marvell's mind, as he writes: "Women ill advised, do you know / Whom you resist or what you do? (Marvell 239-240) In both Marvell's and Jonson's poems, neither patron can do any harm from the poets' point of view, but, in Fairfax's case, this involves driving out an entire group of people , to ostracize/slander a religious order and take over their home, suggesting he can't do it. to be the perfect saint that the poet describes him to be, regardless of the rationalization proposed by Marvell. Quite briefly, Marvell addresses another controversial subject, defending Fairfax's choice to withdraw from Cromwell after the Glorious Revolution, another politically charged subject absent from the Peace of Penshurst. Fairfax took a break from war in gentle defiance, and Marvell lost none of his admiration for his courage or his financial dependence on him after this incident. According to the dissertation by Ashley Randolph Griffith of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, "information about the career and retirement of Thomas Fairfax – who by 1650 was nominally England's highest-ranking Interregnum ruler – partly debunks both the motivations for Fairfax's retirement and Marvell's poem. » (Griffith) But regardless of whether this was truly the best way of life for Fairfax, Marvell explores an age-old conflict between pacifism and the honor of fighting nobly for one's country, between contemplation and action. Marvell qualifies his boss's decision by saying that Fairfax's status as a soldier cannot be released, that his love for war has not dissipated even though he has abandoned a vita activa for the contemplative life. In war imagery, Marvell argues that Fairfax simply replaced actual war, rather absurdly, with the exaggerated intrigue of an imagined domestic war zone: "The Gardiner had the place ofSouldiers, / And his sweeter forts traced. / The nursery of all things green. / Was the only magazine then. (Marvell 337-340) Almost ridiculous, Marvell often combines nature and architecture with combat imagery when discussing terms such as "invisible artillery", flower petal armies, "vigilant patrol", language of the camp, “the bee” – “sentinel”. “Huts”, guards storming and conquering castles, “bloody” “Massacre”, well-shot shots, mini “Garrions”; he even depicts the men mowing the grass at Appleton House as victors commanding the fields. (Marvell 362, 313, 317-318, 394, 397, 332) While Jonson places more esteem on a life without work and embraces the passivity of a country lifestyle, Marvell maintains that even off the field of battle, Fairfax is a man of action, not of contemplation and cunning like the nuns who owned the land before him. Just as there is a difference between how poets perceive their respective patrons and how they characterize ideal country life, there is a disparity between Marvell's fervent and active perception of nature and more serene and pacifist adoption of Jonson; however, it is worth noting their mutual interest in the natural environment of a country house. Indeed, in a striking parallel to Penshurst's poem, references to the beauty of nature abound in "Appleton House." The cult of Mother Earth, so to speak, is less blind than Jonson's, because it recognizes its negative aspects, as we discussed earlier. Marvell focuses particularly on the death, fall, and proliferation of plants, compared philosophically to the battle of temptation against devastating sin. Although it is important to note that, just as Jonson had a deep and intimate connection with Penshurst, Marvell felt just as affectionate and deeply proud of his boss's house. Having lived in Appleton and spent many a lazy day among its foliage, cherishing the air that cooled his brow on the mossy banks, the poet's affection is personal. He never desires to escape the hold Appleton has over him, "Tie me, you Woodbines, in your strings, / Wind me round your vines, / And oh, so close your laces of circles, / That I can never leave this place” yet. lest thy chains prove too weak, / Ere I break thy silken bondage, / Do so, O Brambleschain me too, / And the courtly Briars nail me yet. (Marvell 609-616) Even this language, while laudatory, is expressed with sinister and violent undertones, as if it had been hypnotized by the wiles of nature and could not leave if it tried. Marvell's focus is less on Jonson's fish and fruits than on the birds of the fresh air and the colorful, fragrant flowers, the bees that fly through the air or the insects that flit in and out of the humble grass, of which he speaks several times. With religious imagery, Marvell compares the Mowers advancing through the garden to the "Israelites" crossing "a green sea", proving once again that he uses explicit religious imagery like Jonson, perhaps even a little more often. (Marvell 389-390) Throughout, he references biblical sites, discussing the need for shelter from the flood, and ancient foreign cities like Rome and Greece, birthplaces of democracy, mixing nature and politics. By alluding to the great learning of the classical era, he employs an epic style which is reminiscent of the exaggerated and idealistic elements of Jonsonian poetics. However, as we saw earlier, Jonson humbly acknowledges that Penshurst is not.9709600>