JOHN EACHARD'S "THE GROUNDS & OCCASIONS OF THE CONTEMPT OF THE CLERGY AND RELIGION ENQUIRED INTO IN A LETTER WRITTEN TO R.L.".
Item
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Title
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JOHN EACHARD'S "THE GROUNDS & OCCASIONS OF THE CONTEMPT OF THE CLERGY AND RELIGION ENQUIRED INTO IN A LETTER WRITTEN TO R.L.".
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Identifier
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AAI8611357
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identifier
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8611357
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Creator
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KRAMER, ROBERTA.
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Contributor
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SAMUEL I. MINTZ
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Date
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1986
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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John Eachard's Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy (1670) brought to public notice the plight of the lower clergy of Eachard's time. In it, Eachard inquired into the roles which class feeling, clerical behavior, and educational practices and selection played in forming a general popular contempt of the clergy. Among his recommendations for improvement were a call for the use of the English language and English literature in the schools, rather than a slavish reliance on classical languages, and a call for an improvement in the development and delivery of sermons.;Grounds & Occasions excited such interest that there were six editions in the first year alone. A major reason for its popularity was its style. Written in a style known as raillery or drollery, the words fairly dance on the pages; images leap out and remain in the mind. Eachard was a coiner of phrases; so fresh and original was his language that many of his sentences are used illustratively by the O.E.D. The work was also in demand because it was controversial. Some, unimpressed by Eachard's humor, or misled by it, took Grounds & Occasions itself as a contemptuous attack on the clergy. A vigorous controversy arose; at least five authors quickly wrote rejoining works, to which Eachard responded individually.;Grounds & Occasions reached eleven editions in Eachard's lifetime, and its popularity extended into the two following centuries, but Eachard is a little-known figure today. No text is readily available. Currently, in order to read Eachard, one must search him out in a rare book room, a difficulty the present edition seeks to remedy.;This dissertation is an eclectic edition of Grounds & Occasions, with an extended monograph as an introduction to set the work in perspective and review the controversy. For my copy text, I have used Eachard's own, signed copy of one of the first-year editions, which I have closely compared to the other first-year editions. I have recorded all significant substantive variants in an historical collation, and I have made only those emendations which, on bibliographical or literary grounds, I judge to have the greater authority, and to be closest to what Eachard intended.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
