Time, Space, and Motion in the Age of Shakespeare

188 Pages·2007·0.73 MB·English

by  Angus Fletcher

Time, Space, and Motion
in the Age of Shakespeare

Angus Fletcher
Time, Space, and Motion
in the Age of Shakespeare
Harvard University Press
Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England2007
Copyright©2007bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Fletcher,Angus,1930–
Time,space,andmotionintheAgeofShakespeare / AngusFletcher.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02308-6(alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-674-02308-0(alk.paper)
1.Englishpoetry—Earlymodern,1500–1700—Historyandcriticism. 2.Literatureand
science—England—History—17thcentury. 3.Literatureandscience—England—History—
16thcentury. 4.Motioninliterature. 5.Renaissance—England.
PR535.S33F552007
321′.30936—dc22 2006043576
Contents
Introduction 1
1 Galileo’sMetaphor 12
2 TheThemeofMotion 21
3 OnDrama,Poetry,andMovement 36
4 MarloweInventstheDeadline 55
5 TheDefenseoftheInterim 70
6 StructureofanEpitaph 95
7 Donne’sApocryphalWit 113
8 MiltonandtheMoonsofJupiter 130
Conclusion 152
Notes 159
Acknowledgments 176
Index

Time, Space, and Motion
in the Age of Shakespeare

Introduction
Imaginativeliteratureisthesubjectofthisbook,yetourdiscussionmustbe-
gin elsewhere, in the field of ideas and the history of religion. There the
contextualinterestsofliteraturearelinkedtoonestartlingdevelopment:a
broad-based radical change in fundamental attitudes, a shift generated by
theriseofearlymodernscience.DuringthefrightfulconflictoftheSecond
World War, Lucien Febvre looked back to a somewhat parallel period; he
wrotethatthroughoutEuropetherehadbeen“aproblemofunbeliefinthe
sixteenth century,” a picture few historians would care to contradict.1 Tur-
bulent collisions of ideological conviction are not hard to discern, while
skepticism and what some thought to be atheistic forays against the true
faith created all the conditions for a storm of religious warfare—the storm
broke savagely during the Thirty Years’ War—and at the very least for un-
relenting religious ambivalence. If we begin, as did Lucien Febvre, with
the omnipresent differences among various religious sects, we must guard
against being entrapped inside their religious doubts. Given the complex
characterofChristianity,givenexternalpressuresfromIslam,giventhein-
herently obscure nature of religious mystery, there was assuredly no easy
wayfor“unbelief”tofindadoctrinalpathtoharmony.
Withinthislargecircleofideasweshallask,soonerorlater,whereskepti-
cism could possibly find a successful alternative authority. In philosophy
perhaps? Or in science, as it took its first serious steps toward Newtonian
mechanics? Or in the occult, including Gnosticism, the kabala, and al-
chemy?Onethingissurprisingaboutourownperiod:chroniclingtheWars
ofTruth,historiansspeakofthateraasacrisisoffaith,yettheydonotsuf-
ficientlyclarifyonecriticalperspectiveuponthisstrifeanduncertainty—the
crisisofnaturalscienceandnaturalknowledge.Thereisclearlystillnocom-
fortablewaytojuxtaposereligionandscience,excepttonotetheirfrequent
1