UPHAM, A.H. (1918) Rabelaisianism in Carlyle.pdf

7/26/2019 UPHAM, A.H. (1918) Rabelaisianism in Carlyle.pdf

1/8

Rabelaisianism in Carlyle

Author(s): A. H. UphamSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 33, No. 7 (Nov., 1918), pp. 408-414Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2915763.

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2/8

408

MODERN

LANGUAGE

NOTES

sion of the

countrey

which

Englishmen

had

so

long

held,

after

good

deliberation ee determined

o leave somemen

behinde

to

reteilneossession ftheCountrey." (Page 347.)

And ours to

hold,

VIRGINIA,

Earth's

onely Paradise.

Drayton

perhaps

intelnded

o

acknowledge is

indebtednesso

Hakluyt

n

the

concluding

tanza:

Thy

Voyages

attend,

Industrious

Hacklvit,

Whose Reading shall inflame

Men to

seeke

Fame,

And

much

commend

To

after-Times

thy

Wit.

It

might e

worth

while o

search

or

other

nstances

f

Drayton's

ilndebtedness

o the

Priniicipal

avigations.3

Indeed

the

influence

of

the

literature

f

the sea

upon

the

Elizabethanpoets

might

well

constitute

he

work

of a

doctoral

dissertation.

JOSEPH

QUINCY ADAMS.

Cornell

Univer^sitpy.

RABELAISIANISMi IN

CARLYLE

Professor

liss

Perry's

recent

tudy

of

Carlyle,1

hough

written

primarily orthe generalreader,should commend tselfto the

more careful

studelnt

n

accouint

f

the

directnesswith which

t

proceeds

o

its task

alnd

he

vitality

t

imparts o its

subject.

The

conceptiont

presents

f

the

workilngf

Carlyle's

mind

and of

the

doctrines

hereevolved s

in

most

respects

omplete

lnough; tLt

olne ide

of his

mental

activity,

nd

one

in

which

he stands

unique

in his

generation,

as

received

very

slight

consideration.

No

ac-

3 The list

of

borrowings

in

the poem just considered might be increased.

For

the

adjective

"

vse-full

as

applied to sassafras,

see

page 355;

and for

the lines:

And

as

there

Plenty

growes

Of Lawrell

euery

where

see

page

304. The

apostrophe

"

You

braue

Heroique

minds

"

was

possibly

addressed to

those persons

whose

names are

given

on

apage

317.

I

Bliss

Perry,

Thomas

Carlyle:

How

to

Know

Himn.

Indianapolis,

The

Bobbs-Mlerrill

Co.,

1915.

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3/8

RABELAISIANISMi

IN

CARLYLE

409

quaintance

with

Carlyle

s complete

without

due

con;sideration

f

his humor.

Perhaps

t

wou-Lld

e

neither

resumptuous

or

nappro-

priateto suggest possible nterpretationf this element n his

work,

mploying

n

part

Professor

erry's

method

f making

the

subject

peak

for

himself.

Analyzing,

r

even

describing

umor

is

difficult

t

all

times,"

declares

Carlyle

in

the

second

Richter

essay.

"It is

like

a

fine

essence,

ike a

soul,"

he explains;

"

we

discover

t only

n

whole

works

nd

delineations,

s

the

soul

is

only

to be seen

in the

living,

body,not in detached

imbs

anid

fragments."

His various

defini-

tions

of humor,

n

the

Richter

essays

and

elsewhere,

re

in

extremely

eneral

ncl

oniventional

erms.

Humor

s

" sensibility,"

or

rather

he

"sport

of sensibility";

"the

playful

teasing

fond-

ness

of

a

mother

or

her

child."

It is

"

gentle

and genial,"

"

full

yet

ethereal."

In fact,

t appears

to

be

suLmmed

p

in

the

simple

formula:

sensibility,

portfullness,

nd

love.

To

go farther

nto

detail

than

this,

one

needs

to have

some

concrete asis forcomparison,ome suggestion t least of source

or inspiration

by

which

to clarify

he problem.

The

humorous

turn

of

mindwas

native

wTith

arlvle.

At

the

a(re

of

eighteen

e

wrote

o

his friend

Robert

MAitchell

1814):

"N7Vap

he Mighty,

who,

but

a

few

months

ago,

made

the

sovereirns

f Europe

tremble

t

his

nod;

who

has

trampled

on

thrones

ancl

sceptres,

kings

alnclpriests,

and

prineipalities

nd

powers,

and carried

ruin

and

bavoc

and

blood

and

fire,

from

Gibraltar o Archangel-N7ap heMighitys-gone to pot "

Another

etter,

ix

months

ater,

contained

his promise:

"After

this

long

preamble,

you

are

not

to expect

that

I,

all

jaded

as

I am, can

even

attempt

o

amnuse

you

thisbout,

ut,

my

dear

Bov,

sencd

me

a letter nforming

me

that

you

are

reconciled,

and

I'll

warrant

you

recei-ve

letter

full

of

qairk

and

oddity,

covered

hick

nd

threefold

ith

mirth

lhumor,

it,

nd

the

several

other

ppendages

equisite

or

forming

n

unexceptionable

orceau

d'e'loquencet d'esprit."

By

the

time

Carlyle

wrote

of

his

Ge'rmans,

ifteen

ears

after

this

correspondenice,

e

was

able not only

to

repeat

earned

com-

monplaces

bout

humor

n the abstract,

ut

to illustrate

hese

with

abundant

references,

n

a

familiar,well-aequainted

one,

to

a

con-

siderable

ody

f

humorists.

These,

t

should

be

noted,

re

English,

French,

nd Spanish,

rather

han

Gernman.

Humor

meant

to

him,

after ll, not merely he sportfulnessfwholesonmeensibility,ut



4/8

410

-MODERN

LANGUAGE

NOTES

more

oncretely

he

mlloods

nd

utteralnces

f

Rabelais

and

Cervantes,

of

Samuel

Butler,

Dean

Swift,

Arbuthnot,

nd Sterne,

nd

finally

ofRichter.

Trhat

e

had

been

reading

these

uthors

nd had learned

to

love

them

s well

established.

He

has

mentioned

udibras

and

Tristram

Shandy

as

his earliest

favorites.

His university

orrespondence

has

frequent

eferences

o

Swift,

Sterne,

nd

Cervantes,

ne

friend

addressing

im variously

s

"

Dean,"

" Jonathanl,"

nd

"Doctor."

He insisted

n his

letters

that

tfohn

Carlyle,

his

brother,

hould

readtheTale ofa Tub andDon Quixote. It is hardly

hance

that

during

his

courtship

Jane

Welsh

owned

a dog

named

"

Shandy,"

or

that

oln

his first isit

to

France

the

party n which

he

traveled

used

the Sentimental

Journey

s

a

Baedeker.

The

same group

of

authors

s

richly epreselnted

n the references

nd allusions

strewn

so plentifully

mong

his essays,

with

Sterne

in the

lead,

and

Cervantes

close

second.

Taken

as a basis

for

the

consideration

f

Carlyle's

own

humor,

thisgroup s moreuniifiedhan at firstt may appear. However

distinct

n

time

and

place

and

dominating

purpose,

these

men

suggested

o the

general

reader

f England

or

Scotlanda

compara-

tively

short

period

in

English

thought,

he

era

of

satire

anid

burlesque

hat

followed

lose

upoln

the StuartRestoration.

iterary

England

at

that

time was

largely

under

foreign

nfluence,

articu-

larly

in the

cultivation

f the

satiric

forms,

uch as

burlesque,

mock-heroic,

omnan

clef,

nd the

device

of

the naive

and detached

observer. EveryE'nglish uthor n Carlyle'shumorgroupshared

largely

n the

influence

f a

great

French

master

of

satire,

and

they

pparently

erived

rom

him much

that

made

them

trongest

and most sympathetic-much,

ndeed,

of what Carlyle

himself

an

be shown

to

possess,

whether

ative

in his

genius

or derived

at

first

r second

hand.

The

only difficulty

s

that

thisauthor

s

the

one

mentioned

east

of the whole

group

by

Carlyle

himself-

Franigois abelais.

In actual

practice

he

nfluence

f Rabelais

and that

of

Ceirvantes

permeated

England

together.

But

wvhile

he

popularity

f

Don

Quixote

gave

decided

mpulse

to

prose

mock-heroic

s a form

nd

operated

o restraini

arious

mitations

within

the limits

of

good

taste,

Rabelais's

Lucianic

marvels

provided

storehouse

f

strange

and

adaptable

things.

Giants

by

generations,

haracters

f

almost

obtrusive ersolnalities,

stoundinig

dventures

n uncharted

eas,



5/8

RABELAISIANISM

IN

CARLYLE

411

keen

satile

of such

familiar

ubjects

as

law

courts

and

religious

ceremony

nd

scholarship:

dd

to

these

the

elemelnt

f

a new

style,

and the result s a literary emptationntirely oo strong o be

r

sisted

by

U

rquhart,

he

Scottish

translator;

by Butler,

Swift,

Ailbuthnot,

ind

Sterlne;

ndl

probably

by

their

ineal

descendant

Carlyle.

It cainnot

e far amiss,

then,

to consider

n

Carlyle's

writings

the

obviouts

raits

of

Rabelaisian

style

hus tralnsmitted

o

modern

times.

MIore

direct

analogies

between

Rabelais

and

Carlyle

need

notbe surprising.

As noted

above,

we findCarlyle,

arly

n

life,

cultivating

rhapsodical

or dithyrambic

ort

of

extravaganlce

n

passages

of satire,

which

ater

he was

to extend

o longer

organized

discourses,

t

least

approaching

he

scope

of

the

Gargantua

or

Pantagruel.

The

outburst

egarding

Nap

the

mighty

may

be

paralleled

in countlessparagraphs,

particularly

n

the

French

Revolution,

while

the

entire

essays

on Count

Cagliostro

nd

The

Diamond

Necklace

are

admirable

specimens

of

mock-ronmance

entirelyn this same vein. Fundamentally,f course,Rabelais's

great

work

s

only

a mock-romance,

nd

was

projected

ike

Don

Quixote

s

a

burlesque

f

the popular

type.

Hence

it

is

interesting

to note

in

Carlyle's

Sartor

Resar

us

the

further

ppearance

of

romantic

onventions.

Herr Teufelsdrockh,

or

all

his

bachelor

seclusion

nd

clouds

of tobacco

moke, uggests

hero

of

romance

in

the

mystery

hat

enshrouds

his

parentage,

his

birth,

nd

his

supposed

passing."

The experiences

f

his youth,

arefully

ut-

lined,serveas travestyo theenfances f manysuchheroes. He

is experienced

n love,far-traveled,

agnanimous,

nd

in

his

obser-

vation

nd judgment

lmost

uperhuman.

His

aery

bove

the

city,

from

which

he

overlooks

he

teeming

ife

of street

nd

tenement,

suggests

t

once

Le

Sage's

Diable

Boiteutx.

Teufelsdr6ckh

ike-

wise

has

his

fidus

Achates

n the

person

f theHofrath

Heuschrecke,

corresponding

o

the Sancho

Panza

of Quixote,

he

Ralpho

of

Sir

Hudibras,and-at

a

very

considerable

istance-the

Panurge

of

Pantagruel.

One may

wonder

too how

far

the

wanderings

f

Teufelsdr6ckh

oward

the

"Everlasting

Yeg"

correspond

o

the

search

of

these

ast

two

for the Oracle

of the Bottle.

But

the

analogy

weakens

t this point.

Goethe

nd

his

WVanderjahre

ere

too

close

at

hand.

Carlyle

has

a

peculiar

appreciation

or the gigantic

or

Titanic

figures

n

history

ndl

iterature.

His

spiritual

giants

oom

quite



6/8

412

MODERN

LANGUAGE

NO,TES

as large

as the material

ones in

Rabelais.

All

his selections

of

"

Heroes

"

are

Titans

in their

way, nd

when

they re treated

lse-

wheren his writingshisgigantic uality s sure tobe emphasized,

as

in

the

case of MIirabeau

nd

Burns. Richter,

who is

Carlyle's

most humorous

of

Germans,

e constantly

resents

s a spiritual

giant:-"

A

Titan in

his sport

as in

his earnestness,

e

oversteps

all

bound

ndriots

without

aw

or measure.

He heaps

Pclion

upon

Ossa,

and

hurls

the universe

ogether

nd asunder

ike

a case of

playthings."

Even

Teufelsdr6ckh's

nique

laugh,

as described

n

the firstbook of Sartor,has something f the colossal

about it.

Dean Swifthad

caught

from

Rabelais

a trick

fpresenting

iants,

and

in

the process

he provided

Carlyle

with a good

mouth-filling

word to

characterize

he immensities

hatappealed

to

him.

The

Norse

myths,

for

example, show

"

huge untutoredBrobdignag

genius ;

there s

"

a great

broad

Brobdignlag

rin

of true

humor"

in

the god

Skrymir;

nd

the

wholeScandinavian

onception

f the

creation

f cosmos s

a

"

Hyper-Brobdignagian

usiness."

One of theclosest ynonymsor the" sportfulness in Carlyle's

humor-program

s "whimsicality,"

nd

whimsicality

s clearly

a

feature

of

which

he

was

very

fond.

In

this

regard

Sterne

approached

nearest to

Rabelais,

but

Carlyle

finds

numerous

ilnstances

n all his favorite uthors,

gain

including

Richter.

In

Rabelais

this

whimsicality

as

chiefly

n matters

f

detail,

though

it

appeared

as

distinctly

n

certain

of

the

larg,e

onceptions

f

his

work,

uch

as

the

old convention

f

depending

n

a

mysterious

manuscripturiouslv oncealed n a tomb, hewholenotionof the

essential herb

"

pantagruelion,"

nd the fantastic

ourney

to

the

equally

fantasticOracle

of

the Bottle. Swift

and Sterne

particu-

larly

reveled

n

tricks

ike these.

Carlyle's

best known

pproxima-

tion

of them

s

in

Sartor,

where

he

poses

as

merely

he

English

editor

f a German

cholar,

whose

biography

omesto him n "

six

considerable

aper

Bags,

carefully

ealed,

and marked

uccessively

in gilt china-ink,with the symbols f the Six Southern

Zodiacal

signs,

beg,inning

t

Libra."

Carlyle

s

always

trifling

ith

his reader's

redulity

n this

way.

Teufelsdrockh

s

not

the

author

of

Die

Kleider-

merely;

but also

of

a

chapter

on The Greatness

f Great

Men,

fromwhich

Carlyle

quotes

n

his

essay

on Goetlhe's

Works.

Herr

Professor

auerteig

is

a favorite

uthor of his,

whose

mysterious

works ppear

again

and

again

in his

pages.

Twice

at least he reworks is own

critical



7/8

RABELAISIANISM

IN

CARLYLE

413

dicta,

acknowledging

bligation

o

"a

writer

n

this

subject"

and

to

"

one

of

Richter's

English

critics."

In

The

Diamond Necklace

he introduces long burlesque ddressbyCountCagliostro o his

faithful

followers.

The

fantastic

titles

of

various

of

Richter's

books

please

Carlyle

mmensely,

nd

he notes

of that

author

with

great

satisfaction

hat

he

"has

a whole

imaginary

eography

f

Europe

in

his

novels."

With

visualizing

uch

geography

arlyle

was

much

ess

concerned

than

Rabelais

or

Swift,

ut

at times

when

he set

his

mind

upon

it

he produced

its of fantastic

escription

uite

on

a par with

either

of these.

Witness he

rather

xtensive

ictures

f SouthAmerican

life n

Dr. Francia,

orthe

vivid,naively-drawn

ortrayal

f

English

dandies

and

Irish

Poor Slaves

at

the

end

of Saitor.

Carlyle's

real

interest

ay

in

depicting

ot peoples

but

people

that

were

unusual

to

thepoint

of fantasy,

rom

Richard

Arkwright,

he

"

bag-cheeked,

pot-bellied,

much-enduring,

uch-inventing

arber"

of

Chartism,

to sea-green

obespierre

nd the

rest

of

the

Processioln

f Deputies.

Moreover, arlyle ppearstohavehad faith n thepower fnames

equalled

only

by

that

of

Pantagruel

and Walter

Shandy.

Every

German

proper

name

in

Sartor

Resartus

repays

lose scrutiny,

ut

the

author's

possibilities

n his owu language

are equally

large.

Sansculottist

nd

Sanspotato,

igman

and

Soap-bubble

guild,

MT.

and

Mrs. Rigmarole

nd

Don

Fatpauncho

Usandwonto

ake

second

place

to

nothing

met

by

Pantagruel

on

his

wanderings.

Carlyle,

ike

Rabelais

and others

of the

humor-group,

epends

for much of his pictorialeffect n a realism of detail that is

grotesque

nd

often

trifle

ough.

Frequently

his

is

arrived

t

in

the

manner

of

genuine

burlesque-by

a

vocabulary

f

collo-

quialism.

The

Cagliostro

essay,

appropriately

nough,

s

packed

with expressions

f this kind. Elesewhere

he

readermay

happen

at

any

turn

upon

descriptions

ike

that

in

Dr. Francia

of

the

wearied

oldiers

who " sank

soon

enough

nto

steady

nose-melody,

into

the

foolishest ough

colt-dance

f

unimaginable

reams."

One

of

the most

conspicuous

eatures

f Rabelaisian

style

was

the

fondness

for

accumulating

xpressions

n long

and

utterly

useless

processions.

Sometimes

here

was

a common nding

for

all

these,

but more often

their effect epended

upon

the

hopelessly

miscellaneous

haracter

f

the series.

Urquhart

njoyed

his

device

thoroughly

nd

managed

o

lengthen

most

of theseprocessions

till

farther

n translation.

Sterne

found

t

easy

to

imitate

nd

worked



8/8

414

MODERN

LANGUAGE

NOTES

it habituallv. Carlile

adopted

t earlyand made

it

very

much his

own, producing

effects

to use

his own words

of

poor Teufels-

dr6ckh's ook " like somemad banquet,wherein ll courseshad

been confounded,

lnd

fishand flesh,

oup and

solid,

oyster-sauce,

lettuces,

Rhine

wine and French

mustard,

were

hurled into one

huge

tureen

or ti'ough, nd the

hungry

public

invited to

help

itself."

As earlyas 1822

he was

writing

o his brother:

I have

written

n

a strange

humourtonight,

Jack: melancholickish,

ll-

naturedish,

ffectionatish-all

n

ish-for I

am

very weak

and

weary." Even the " Nap the mighty passage, indeed, shows

tendencies

his way.

Of

all

his work

the

essays

on Diderot

and

CoulntCagliostro

re

perhaps

the

richest n these effects. Sartor

Resartus

has

one famous

passage,

in

which

"kings

and

beggars,

and angels

and

demons,

nd

stars

and

street-sweepings

are

"

cha-

otically

whirled." Part at least

of

the life

and movement

n

the

French

Revolution

s secured

by a

skillfulmanipulation

f this

same

device.

It maybe objectedthatthequalities enumerated ere are con-

cerned

with

oily

one

phase

of

Carlyle's

humor its

sportfulness-

and

thus

fairly

beg,

he

question

n favor

of Rabelais.

They are,

and

they

do. But

sportfulness

s

the

tangible hing

bout

humor,

sensibility

nd

love

are " the

fine ssence

ike a soul

"'

that

Carlyle

himself dvises

us

not to seek

n "

detached

imbs and

fragments."

Hence sportfulness

s

the

only

imitable

thing

about

humor;

sensibility

nd

love-or

a

genuinely

responsive

ympathy,

hich

embraces hemboth-must be sought n the core*of man's own

iiature.

It remains

nly

to

poilnt

ut that

these

lemiients

n

Carlyle

are analogous

in

degree

and

kind

to those

in

the

hearts

of

the

English

Rabelaisians

nd their

French

master.

Cervantes,

arlyle

confesses,

s in a class

by

himself.

Carlyle

had

a

consistently

igher

moral

purpose

and

tone

than

Rabelais,

or

several

f his

English

mitators.

He

was not so

readily

maovedo emotion s Sterneand lnotnearly o fondof the expe-

rience.

Like

Swifthe

was

inconasistent

nd

many

times unfair

n

his

sympathy

nd

severity.

But as a man

and

a

scholar,

with

a

man's

reactions

n life and

an

appreciation

f

passions

becausehe

had

felt

them nd wrestled

with

them

ime out of

mind,

he

shows

striking

inship

with

the secular

Benedictine

f

France,

who

oved

mankind

while

he shook

his sides

n

laughter

t

it.

Miami

Univer

ity.

A. H.

UPHAMr.

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