English
101: Jane Austen and Popular Culture
SENSIBILITY:
READING THE BODY
Empiricist
Perception, Figure #1:
senses---->passions
|
|
V
judgment<----imagination
The Primal
Scene of Sensibility, Figure #2
(Insert stick
figure drawing of sympathetic exchange)
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral
Sentiments (1759), first paragraph:
"However selfish man may be
supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him
in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though
he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is
pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the misery of others, when we
either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. That we
often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious
to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other
original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous and
humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility.
The greatest ruffian or most hardened violator of the laws of society, is not
altogether without it."
Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling (1771),
132-5: "'Last night, but for an exertion of benevolence which the
infection of our infamy prevents even in the humane, had I been thrust out
[and] exposed to the brutal insults of drunkenness, or dragged by that justice
which I could not bribe, to the punishment which may correct, but alas! can
never amend the abandoned objects of its terrors. From that, Mr. Harley, your
goodness has relieved me.'
He
beckoned with his hand: he would have stopped the mention of his favours; but
he could not speak, had it been to beg a diadem.
She
saw his tears; her fortitude began to fail at the sight, when the voice of some
stranger awakened her attention. She listened for a moment; then starting up,
exclaimed, 'Merciful God! my father's voice!'
She
had scarce uttered the word, when the door burst open, and a man entered int he
garb of an officer. When he discovered his daughter and Harley, he started back
a few paces; his look assumed a furious wildness! he laid his hand on his
sword. The two objects of his wrath did not utter a syllable. 'Villain, he
cried, thou seest a father who once a daughter's honour to preserve; blasted as
it now is, behold his reader to avenge its loss!...
Harley
had by this time some power of utterance. 'Sir,' said he, 'if you will be a
moment calm'--'Infamous coward!' interrupted the other, 'dost thou preach
calmness to wrongs like mine?' He drew his sword. 'Sir,' said Harley, let me
tell you'--The blood ran quicker on his cheek--his pulse beat one--no more--and
regained the temperament of humanity!--'You are deceived, Sir,' said he, 'you
are much deceived; but I forgive suspicions which your misfortunes have
justified: I would not wrong you, upon my soul, I would not, for the dearest
gratification of a thousand worlds: my heart bleeds for you!'
His
daughter was now prostrate at his feet. 'Strike,' said she, 'strike here a
wretch, whose misery cannot end but with that death she deserves.' Her hair had
fallen on her shoulders! her lood had the horrid calmness of out-breathed
despair! Her father would have spoken; his lip quivered, his cheek grew pale!
his eyes lost the lightening of their fury! there was a reproach in them, but
with a mingling of pity! He turned them up to heaven--then on his daughter.--He
laid his left hand on his heart--the sword dropped from his right--he burst
into tears.
William
Wordsworth, "Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of
Distress" (1787)
She
wept.--Life's purple tide began to flow
In languid streams through every
thrilling vein;
Dim were my
swimming eyes--my pulse beat slow,
And my full heart was swell'd to dear
delicious pain.
Life left my
loaded heart, and closing eye;
A sigh recall'd the wanderer to my
breast;
Dear was the
pause of life, and dear the sigh
That call'd the wanderer home, and home
to rest.
That tear
proclaims--in thee each virtue dwells,
And bright will shine in misery'd
midnight hour;
As the soft
star of dewy evening tells
What radiant fires were drown'd by
day's malignant pow'r,
That only
wait the darkness of the night
To cheer the
wand'ring wretch with hospitable light.
Helen
Maria Williams, "Sonnet to Mrs. Siddons" (1786)
SIDDONS! the Muse, for
many a joy refin'd,
Feelings which ever seem too
swiftly fled--
For those delicious tears she
loves to shed,
Around thy brow the
wreath of praise would bind--
But can her feeble notes
thy praise unfold?
Repeat the tones each changing
passion gives,
Or mark where nature in thy
action lives,
Where, in thy pause, she
speaks a pang untold!
When fierce ambition
steels thy daring breast,
When from thy frantic look our
glance recedes;
Or oh, divine
enthusiast! when opprest
By anxious love, that eye of
softness pleads--
The sun-beam all can
feel, but who can trace
The instant
light, and catch the radiant grace!
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FURTHER READING
Literature of Sensibility
Poetry of
Thomas Gray (1740s and 1750s)
Adam Smith, A
Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
Laurence
Sterne, A Sentimental Journey (1768)
Henry
Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling (1771)
Goethe, The
Sorrows of Young Werther (1773)
Frances
Burney, Evelina (1773)
Adam Smith, The
Wealth of Nations (1776)
Any Minerva
Press Novel 1780-1820.
Friedrich
Schiller, Die Rauber (1782; trans 1792)
Charlotte
Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (1784) & Emmeline (1788)
Helen Maria
Williams, Poems (1786)
William Lisle
Bowles, Fourteen Sonnets (1789)
Ann Radcliffe's
fiction (1789-97)
The
British Album (1791)
Samuel
Coleridge, Poems (1796; esp. the "Effusions")
Mary
Robinson, Poems (1791), Sappho and Phaon (1796)
Wordsworth
and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Joanna
Baillie, Plays on the Passions (1798)
Rosa Matilda
[Charlotte King] Hours of Solitude (1805)
Lord Byron, Hours
of Idleness (1807)
Jane Austen, Sense
and Sensibility (1813)
Some
Secondary Reading
Averill, Wordsworth
and the Poetry of Human Suffering (1981)
Janet Todd, Sensibility:
An Introduction (1986)
David
Alexander, Affecting Moments (1993)
Markman
Ellis, The Politics of Sensibility (1996)
Adela Pinch, Strange
Fits of Passion (1996)
Jerome
McGann, The Poetry of Sensibility (1996)