520 Class 6

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URBS AND SUBURBS

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Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand the relationship between the City, the Liberties, and the Suburbs (JJ will discuss).
  • Take stock (again) of the genres we have seen thus far.
  • Consider the impact of the plague upon London and locate its source.
  • Consider the impact of the legal terms upon the communitas.
  • Ask if talking buildings and monuments represent the urbs. Would the people posing discussion questions please point us to relevant passages that might help us answer this question?
Primary Reading:
  • Dekker, selections from The Dead Term (.pdf file)
  • Dekker, Chap. 9 of Lantern and Candlelight (The Infection of the Suburbs) (.pdf file)
  • By the major [mayor] whereas the infection of the plague is daily dispersed more & more in diuers parts of this city and the liberties thereof (read at EEBO)
  • The Dolefull lamentation (read at EEBO; read only the title page, Sig. A4r, and Sig. A4v, i.e., the first, fourth, and fifth of the five images). See transcription with light annotations on MoEML.
  • Cheapsides Triumphs (read at EBBA);
  • Quotations about the plague (.doc file; I have photocopies for you, so no need to print out this one)
Secondary Reading: None for this class.
Other References: Munro; Sokol and Sokol. Note! These references are for information only. I may draw upon them in my discussion, but do not expect you to read them.
Discussion Questions:
  • According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a paradox is defined as either a statement or tenet contrary to received opinion or belief, or a proposition that is (taken to be) actually self-contradictory, absurd, or intrinsically unreasonable. How does the praise of vacations described by the personified city of London in Dekker’s Dead Term embody these definitions? (KTY)
  • In Dekker’s Dead Term, London reminds Westminster how [she] came to be called a Citty (72), describing her founding, previous names, historical rulers, rapid growth, and civic organization. Since this history is well known and is recorded by many other authors and chroniclers, including Stow, why does Dekker choose to recite it once again in this particular work? How does his version of the city’s founding and growth differ in tone and style from Stow’s account? (KTY)
  • Language of anatomy, personification, and anthropomorphism strongly pervades Dekker’s The Dead Tearme, perhaps to the point of becoming awkward, but with such a consistency and intentionality that it cannot be overlooked. The leaves of trees are taken away by the cool Autumn’s breath as the French Razor shaves off the haire (28) and, at one point, the city of Westminster rhetorically asks, for what are Citties if they be not peopled[?] (27). Is Dekker’s work as far to the side of civitas as one can reasonably lie, to the point that other perspectives (e.g., urbs) are completely eclipsed? Or does Dekker’s anthropomorphism achieve the opposite effect, focusing entirely upon the behaviours of buildings, forgetting that I am a Citty (36), in the words of Westminster? If you were to select a previously read text to stand in opposition to The Dead Tearme, which would you choose? (Note that these questions can also readily apply to The Dolefull lamentation.) (KK)
  • From what we have seen in Polemical Passages and By the major, the typical explanation for the plague is of quite a different character when it is issued by a preacher than by the mayor. Adding further diversity to this, Dekker makes the claim in Lantern and Candlelight that the plague that a whore-house lays upon a city is worse (137), and almost goes as far as to blame suburbs themselves for the problem – How happy, therefore, were cities if they had no suburbs... (138). Is there some way to make coherent sense of this variety of explanations? Do they manifest themselves along consistent borders? Are there any commonalities shared by the parties in these explanations, or is everyone hurling targeted, exclusive blame, championing their own personal causes? (KK)
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References