Timorous and Moderation, as used in Joseph Addison’s Allegory of Public Credit.
Timorousness is constant fear, or something that is always timid. As in the allegory, economy tends to be incredibly sensitive to any sort of unrest, shrinking at the fear of war or even just the hint of foul weather. Even though the economy is abnormally timid towards any perceived threats, sometimes the caution towards a dwindling commodity, such as oil, can pay off though it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy with demand and prices shooting through the roof simply because they were predicted to.
Moderation in regards to the economy however is keeping a steady course with careful and minor adjustments to avoid disaster. Ideally an economy will remain moderate, spending carefully within its bounds and leaving fickle credit sitting on the doorstep. But since the economy is run by human beings, moderation is often just a pipe dream, driven by the ever changing and often unpredictable market.
While at first blush moderation and timorousness seem to be diametrically opposed, but caution often can be an asset. Excessive fear and excessive confidence are both deadly, though in recent years reckless spending has disrupted countries such as the United States and Greece and have begun to suffer during this economic downturn, as well as inflicting collateral damage to their neighbors. Other countries such as Germany however have tried to remain within their means and as a result have remained afloat even as the United States’ economy flounders.
Important words from Montagu’s:
wisdom and merit
Wisdom is used throughout the poem. Normally, we see wisdom as a desirable trait. But here, Montagu seems to be decreasing the value of wisdom. In the beginning, she says that the Doctor tries using his wisdom and wit to joke and charm his way to the lady but that the lady takes no notice of it. What does win the lady over is gold. Later she writes “With learning mad, with wisdom blind!”–that the wise think that they’re always right when they’re not. Then she writes that she’s telling this story “to show the wise in some things fail.” Because this poem was an attack on Swift’s poem, I feel like Montagu wanted to show her audience that though Swift is supposedly wise, there are things that he fails in and that he wrote his poem out of spite and embarrassment of his failure.
I chose merit because merit refers to something that deserves respect or praise, so it is something of value. What was valuable in a man back then (I’m assuming) was status and money. And back then, it seemed like wisdom, good-looks, and religion came with high status. But Montagu writes, “None strive to know their proper merit/But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit,/And lose the praise that is their due/While they’ve th’impossible in view.” This makes me believe that she did not want to portray any trait that Swift had as meritable, and her view of what was meritable is different from the common view as well as our current one.
I chose wisdom and merit because wisdom is usually a trait that can earn you merit. But Montagu seems to believe else wise and so her view on both differs from the norm.
1. In what ways does Lady Mary Wortley Montagu attack Jonathan Swift for his poem?
2. “The Lady’s Dressing Room” contained at least one, and possibly more didactic assertions about value. In “The Reasons…,” do you interpret these messages as being challenged? Confirmed? On what basis?
3. While “The Lady’s Dressing Room” doesn’t mention money explicitly, this poem is very explicit about its mentions of gold. How is money used in the poem?
4. Using your handout, “How to talk about value in literature,” what is the community (or communities) involved in this poem, and in “The Lady’s Dressing Room?,” and what are their wants?
5. When discussing economics in the 21st century, we often talk about labor and value. We assume that labor is a type of value. But in the 18th century, people don’t have that same assumption. Based on your interpretation of these two poems, is labor valuable to Swift? To Montagu?
6. If “The Lady’s Dressing Room” is a poem about value with certain messages, then based on what you learn when you read “The Reasons…,” do those messages change? Do your opinions about the messages change? How?
ETA: for those of you who are wondering, yes: “The Lady’s Dressing Room” was very popular indeed.
From Locke’s Treatise of Civil Government,
“property” and “labour”
“Every man has a property to his own person: this no body has any right to but himself.” (5.27) Property is something that belongs to a person and cannot belong to anyone else. Locke argues that property should be sufficient to fulfill needs, and no more. Locke does not use “property” quite the way we use it today—property is supposedly something we carve out from nature by applying effort. However, Locke repeatedly emphasizes that the taking of more property than is needed is harmful to others. He implies that the converting of property into the more-permanent money is a bad shift, and allows people to hoard property.
“It is labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing.” (5.40) Not only does applying labour create property, it creates value itself. Locke compares untilled land to one that is farmed, and apples on a tree to apples gathered by a person. This is important to his general argument because Locke is trying to say that we should only possess that which we labored upon. This would prevent the problem of hoarding, and in Locke-land of bountiful resources, if everyone was restricted by the amount of labour they could apply, there would always be enough resources for everyone.
Property and labour are two key points in Locke’s text. Property is important because it is the focus of section five, and Locke is explaining his ideal world where there is no conflict over property. Labour is important because it is the way Locke defines property. Regarding what a person owns, Locke writes, “the labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his.” (5.27) The entire section five of Locke’s treatise of civil government is trying to define property, and Locke does so by saying labour creates property.
From Jonathan Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room”
Women & Men
This poem was written from a man’s perspective and the main character was male. The male’s point of view was seen through Strephon. This man saw Celia, his significant other or a prostitute (who really knows), as this otherworldly beauty. Actually, I believe he saw women, in general, as beautiful goddesses.He entered her room without her knowing and was immediately disgusted and disturbed by what he saw. Then reality hit him and he realizes that she isn’t this goddess he thought she was. He sees dirty combs, a spittoon, and of all things, a chamber pot. He then looks into the chamber pot maybe hoping that she doesn’t (excuse my language) take a shit. I believe that Swift used Men and Strephon interchangeably. Even though there would be a line with “Strephon” and not “Men,” Strephon is a man. Swift made it more personal by using an actual name instead of, “This man…”
Women was the “theme” of the poem. To be more exact, the poem was about women, therefore, it would makes sense that an important word would be “women.” Women were portrayed as goddesses that are perfect and clean. (Men could only imagine) It is flattering that men saw women as goddesses but that is when women put time into making themselves look presentable. It is like celebrities getting their hair and makeup done for some fancy award show. The non-famous folk idolizes them because they are glamorous. Once the award show is over, the “war paint” comes off. The regular people then actually see what they truly look like and like Strephon, they don’t like what they see.
Just from the poem, the readers can depict how society viewed females and males. I think that Swift wanted to point out that women are human beings. Sometimes I wonder if Swift is trying to portray women as vain creatures. In either case, he has the point across that women, with their faults and disgusting habits, are here to stay. And men, like Strephon, should suck it up and realize that as long as he is living (and is attracted to women), he better start getting used to it.
Important Words from Defoe:
1. Credit
2. Trade
Credit can be good or bad. It can be your reputation, a form of money, a savior, or a bother. In Defoe, credit comes in all these forms. Credit to Defoe is a sort entity that can bring with it a solution to the economic problem, but with it comes internal strife. This is an important word because it ties in with his whole text, whether it is about the economy, the people, or even trade. It relates to all of them. Credit now has a close meaning to that which is said in Defoe’s text. It can be used as a placeholder for money, and can help or ruin a persons life. It is used differently now in a way but it is still an entity that can come or go.
Trade to Defoe, is a common occurrence that he supports. It is what people do to make a living. However, Defoe does not talk about trade as a transaction in this text but what is needed in order to make trade possible and create trade. He uses trade to inform those that plan to go into this business what they should consider and some of the better ways to create trade for oneself. He is trying to move people towards the idea that credit and business comes to those who work hard at it rather than making a front. What better way to explain this but through trade, which is a common ground for those in his time. The meaning of trade to Defoe is similar to the one we have today. It is still a transaction between people who wish to acquire different things.
I chose these words not because they are in the title of the readings but because they hold a lot of meaning behind them. They represent so much and have a huge effect on peoples lives. Without trade to begin with, there would be no need for credit because there is no need for any transactions. Trade would not get as efficient and organized as it is now if it weren’t for credit as well. It make for a speedy transaction and can last a lifetime. Understanding what credit and trade is will be important for reading this text because it is the concept for which this text was written upon.
Words that I found important from Monday’s readings are:
1. Strephon and Celia,
and
2. Gold.
Strephon and Celia are names of classical pastoral poetry and romance. Gold is a form of currency, which the pound was once valued against. The names Strephon and Celia appear throughout Swift’s poem, “The Ladies Dressing Room,” which is about a man who is spurned by a lady because he is not wealthy enough for her. Swift, an influential 18th century British poet, laments gender roles and materialism in “The Ladies Dressing Room.” He makes it clear that women, no matter how pretty, who value possessions and wealth over love are not beautiful at all but rather “satiras,” or worthless women. The woman in “The Ladies Dressing Room” is described as such. She, Celia, snubs Strephon because he has not much to offer her in the way of gold. She is haughty and vain, spending all day in her dressing room applying a grotesque amount of beauty products. This is an indication of her own self-absorbption. Also, no matter how much make-up she puts on, or how pretty she looks, Swift views her as essentially ugly. He puts it thus: “Such gaudy tulips spring from dung.” So, Celia, Swift’s archetypal female, is a worthless strumpet who is only interested in money. Swift’s man, Strephon, is an unfortunate fool to be taken by a typical materialistic female’s beauty when all she was really interested in was his money. Swift’s poem, “The Ladies Dressing Room,” is about how love of Gold degrades love.
This week, for your blog post, I’d like you to respond to the following prompt:
Choose one of the texts we’ve read so far (up through Swift and Montagu), and choose two words within it that you think are important. Write a paragraph for each word, describing how the author of the text uses it, and what it means to him/her, according to your interpretation.
What makes each word important to the author’s point? Is there anything unique or unusual about the way that a word is being used in the text? Does it contrast with the meaning that we use for the term today?
After you’ve written both paragraphs, write one more, to communicate to your readers why you chose the words, what connections exist between them, and why understanding them is important to reading the texts.
And, of course, tag your post with week2blog.
This is just a reminder for this week — I won’t remind you every week, though — it’s good to get into the habit of commenting when you can.
For tomorrow, you’ll be reading pieces by Daniel Defoe, who handled the subject of economics both in producing journalistic nonfiction, and fictional texts; and Joseph Addison, who was one of the authors of the Spectator, one of London’s first newspapers. The Defoe texts are a PDF file available under the Course Readings tab; the Addison is at a website, and I’d again like you to annotate it with Diigo.
Here’s what I’d like you to think about as you read:
1. What kind of woman is Credit? (Hint: more than one type of woman) When is she innocent, and when is she corrupt?
2. In “On Credit,” Defoe was writing for the Review, a more general literary magazine — in “On Trade,” he was writing for The Complete English Tradesman — a collection of essays on economic issues. In both pieces, he describes challenges that individuals who are trying to be active economically are facing. Are these issues the same? Different? What common ground (or lack of common ground) can you see between them?
3. In the Vision of Publick Credit, Addison is looking at credit from a different perspective than Defoe — that of an individual (and not necessarily someone involved in business). What differences do you notice between the way that Addison and Defoe portray credit?
4. What is Addison trying to portray, in his piece?
5. Since you’ve just been reading Locke on labor and property, do you see any points of connection between he and Defoe and Addison?
Recent Comments