Chua - Ravishment of Reason: Governance and the Heroic Idioms of the Late Stuart Stage, 1660-1690

Ravishment

of Reason

Transits: Literature, thought & culture 16501850

Series Editor

Greg Clingham

Bucknell University

Kate Parker

University of WisconsinLa Crosse

Transits is the next horizon. The series of books, essays, and monographs aims to extend recent achievements in eighteenth-century studies and to publish work on any aspects of the literature, thought, and culture of the years 16501850. Without ideological or methodological restrictions, Transits seeks to provide transformative readings of the literary, cultural, and historical interconnections between Britain, Europe, the Far East, Oceania, and the Americas in the long eighteenth century, and as they extend down to present time. In addition to literature and history, such global perspectives might entail considerations of time, space, nature, economics, politics, environment, and material culture, and might necessitate the development of new modes of critical imagination, which we welcome. But the series does not thereby repudiate the local and the national for original new work on particular writers and readers in particular places in time continues to be the bedrock of the discipline.

Selected titles in the Series

The Family, Marriage, and Radicalism in British Womens Novels of the 1790s: Public Affection and Private Affliction

Jennifer Golightly

Feminism and the Politics of Travel After the Enlightenment

Yal Schlick

John Galt: Observations and Conjectures on Literature, History, and Society

Regina Hewitt

Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals

Manushag N. Powell

Excitable Imaginations: Eroticism and Reading in Britain, 16601760

Kathleen Lubey

The French Revolution Debate and the British Novel, 17901814: The Struggle for Historys Authority

Morgan Rooney

Rococo Fiction in France, 16001715: Seditious Frivolity

Allison Stedman

Poetic Sisters: Early Eighteenth-Century Women Poets

Deborah Kennedy

Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The Impresario in Political and Cultural Context

Jack E. DeRochi and Daniel J. Ennis

Studies in Ephemera: Text and Image in Eighteenth-Century Print

Kevin Murphy and Sally ODriscoll

Developments in the Histories of Sexualities

Chris Mounsey

Enlightenment in Ruins: The Geographies of Oliver Goldsmith

Michael Griffin

Reading Christopher Smart in the Twenty-First Century: By Succession of Delight

Edited by Min Wild and Noel Chevalier

Wordsworth, Hemans, and Politics, 18001830: Romantic Crises

Benjamin Kim

Print Technology in Scotland and America, 17401800

Louis Kirk McAuley

The Idea of Disability in the Eighteenth Century

Chris Mounsey

Ravishment of Reason: Governance and the Heroic Idioms of the Late Stuart Stage, 16601690

Brandon Chua

For a complete list of titles in this series, please visit http://www.bucknell.edu/university press

Transits

Ravishment

of Reason

Governance and the Heroic Idioms of the Late Stuart Stage, 16601690

Brandon Chua

LEWISBURG

BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by Bucknell University Press

Copublished by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

16 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BT, United Kingdom

Copyright 2014 by Brandon Chua

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chua, Brandon, 1981- author.

Ravishment of Reason : Governance and the Heroic Idioms of the Late Stuart Stage, 1660-1690 / Brandon Chua.

pages cm. (Transits: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61148-582-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61148-583-7 (electronic) 1. English dramaRestoration, 1660-1700. 2. TheaterEnglandHistory. I. Title.

PR691.C48 2014

822'.409dc23

2014022373

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Marion J. Campbell

Contents

Acknowledgments

I have incurred a great debt to the many people who have discussed and debated several of the issues covered in this book. This book grew out of doctoral work undertaken at the University of Melbourne, and the warm and collegial environment provided by staff and fellow students played a large role in sustaining my scholarly efforts. I owe special thanks to Marion J. Campbell, who introduced me to early modern literature, and whose intellect and patience were crucial in the shaping and clarification of my argument. Justin Clemens generously supported this project with his insightful and challenging commentaries on several drafts, and I am particularly grateful for his friendship and encouragement. This book has also benefited immensely from Deirdre Colemans careful and meticulous editing of several manuscript drafts, and her invaluable advice helped me see more clearly the kind of book I wanted to write. In the course of revising my PhD thesis into this book, I have been generously assisted by Steven Zwicker and Elliott Visconsi, who both provided careful readings and offered invaluable suggestions for redrafting the manuscript.

At the University of Queensland, I have had the benefit of a supportive research environment that allowed me to bring this book to completion. I would like to thank Peter Holbrook, Ross Knecht, Lisa OConnell, Simon During, Alison Scott, Diana Barnes, and Jennifer Clement for providing the collegial support and intellectual engagement so crucial for the final drafting phase. I was enabled to pursue research crucial for the final drafting of the manuscript by a fellowship from the Australian Research Councils Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and I would like to acknowledge my colleagues at the Centre for their thoughtful conversations with me on the passions and early modern politics. The Centre has also provided me with several opportunities to present portions of this book and gain invaluable feedback, and I would like to thank Philippa Maddern and Stephanie Trigg for their invitations and intellectual support. I would also like to thank the following visiting scholars to the Centre, who offered encouragement and helpful pointers in the right direction: Conal Condren, Erin Sullivan, Will Sharpe, Laura J. Rosenthal, and Richard Strier. I would also like to thank Greg Clingham and the anonymous readers at Bucknell University Press for their careful and indispensable attention to this project, which eventually allowed me to get past the finishing line.

Several close friends and family members have also been burdened with this book and would be happy to learn of its completion. I am particularly beholden to Anna Cordner, Emma Fajgenbaum, Aaron Orzech, Lauren Bliss, Ruby Lowe, Tyne Daile, David Mcinnis, Johanna Simmons, Kate Derby, Matthew Guc, Thomas Crouch, Sam Baily, and Piero Damiani for their continued support and toleration of my writing ambitions. Finally, Id like to thank my familymy parents, James and Elizabeth, my brother, Christian, and sister, Ann Mariefor all their love and support.