4.0674 Rs: Shipwreck Topos (2/36)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 31 Oct 90 23:18:57 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0674. Wednesday, 31 Oct 1990.
(1) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 90 10:33 GMT (19 lines)
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 4.0637 Qs: Shipwreck Topos ...
(2) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 90 14:04:44 GMT (17 lines)
From: David Shaw <djs@ukc.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.0637 Qs: Shipwreck Topos
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 90 10:33 GMT
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 4.0637 Qs: Shipwreck Topos; CETEDOC; Writing Assessment
Dryden's lines have as their model Lucretius De rerum natura 2.1-4,
in Dryden's own translation:
'Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore
The rowling Ship; and hear the Tempest roar:
Not that another's Pain is our delight;
But Pains unfelt, produce the pleasing sight.
There are a great number of other classical examples of the topos, in
various forms (e.g. Archippus fr. 43 K., Sophocles fr. 636 Radt - often
imitated, see esp. Cicero Att. 2.7.4), and an even greater number of
Renaissance imitations and encounters like Bacon Advancement of Learning
p.58 Kitchlin. There is a good article on 'Lucretian Pleasure' in the 18th
C. but with earlier material published some time in the 50s, but I can't
find the ref. for the moment. One of the headings in Betjeman's Summoned by
Bells is 'Lucretian Pleasure in the bath'. There's lots more if its necessary.
Don Fowler.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 90 14:04:44 GMT
From: David Shaw <djs@ukc.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 4.0637 Qs: Shipwreck Topos
Lucretius's De rerum natura, Book 2, opens with a couplet saying how nice
it is to view a storm at sea from the safety of the land:
Suaue, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,
e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.
It doesn't specifically mention shipwreck, but Dryden did know
Lucretius -- see W.B. Fleischman, Lucretius and English Literature, 1680-1740,
Paris, Nizet, 1964.
Maybe someone can find Bill Kupersmith a closer match.
David Shaw, Univ. of Kent at Canterbury