EMOTIVE PROSE

Lyly's aim was to write in a style that was distinct from colloquial speech and yet not poetry. He actually says that Englishmen wished "to hear a finer speech than the language will allow." Euphuism however is regarded as a reactionary trend in the development of emotive prose. It was orientated upon the language of the court and the nobility and barred all kinds of lively colloquial words and expressions. In general it is characterized by artificiality of manner.

Euphuism bred a liking for excessive embellishment, and this in its turn, called forth an unrestrained use of rhetorical devices unmotivated by the content and unjustified by the purport of the communication.

But not all 16th century emotive prose was of this character. Walter Raleigh's writing was much simpler, both in vocabulary and syntax; it was less embellished and often colloquial. Roger Ascham, though an excellent classical scholar, chose to write "English matter in the English speech for English men." He writes in a plain, straightforward, clear manner with no attempt at elegance. Philip Sidney, though a poet, wrote prose that could be as clear as Ascham's. Even when his sentences are long, they do not lose their clarity. In contrast to Ascham he did not scorn ornament, but unlike Lyly, he used it in moderation. The prose of Richard Hooker, who wrote on controversial religious themes, is restrained and has power and balance. Hooker also had considerable influence on the development of English emotive prose.

Euphuism however had merits in its time. It made men-of-letters look for finer, more elegant forms of expression and this search inevitably made them more form-conscious — they learned to polish their language and, to some extent developed a feeling for prose rhythm. But at later periods euphuism became reactionary, inasmuch as it barred all kinds of lively colloquial words and expressions and hindered the process of liberating the belles-lettres style from rigid poetical restrictions. The "democratization" of the means of expression was incompatible with the aristocratic artificiality and prettiness of euphuism.

A great influence on the further development of the characteristic features of the belles-lettres style was exercised by Shakespeare. Although he never wrote prose, except for a few insertions in some of his plays, he declared his poetical credo and his attitude towards all kinds of embellishments in language in some of his works.¹ Also in his "Love's Labour Lost" Shakespeare condemns the embellishing tendencies of some of the poets. Here is a well-known quotation which has long been used to characterize the pompous, showy manner of expression.

"Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation:

Figures pedantical; these summer flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:

I do forswear them..."

On the whole the emotive prose of the 16th century had not yet shaped itself as a separate style. Verse and drama predominate among works of belles-lettres. The small amount of prose written, in particular emotive prose, can be ascribed to the general strong tendency to regard the spoken variety of the English language as inferior and therefore unworthy to be represented in belles-lettres. And without speech of characters there can be no true emotive prose. This perhaps explains the fact that most of the prose works of the period were histories, biographies, accounts of travels, essays on different philosophical and aesthetic problems. There were, of course, exceptions like Robert Greene's "Life and Death of Ned Browne" and Thomas Nash's "The Unfortunate Traveller, or The Life of Jack Wilton," the former being a story of crime and the latter an adventure story. These are precursors of the modern novel.

The seventeenth century saw a considerable development in emotive prose and in prose as a whole. It was an epoch of great political and religious strife, and much that was written had a publicistic aim. The decline in drama due to the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1648 may also have had its effect in stimulating the development of emotive prose.

The two contrary tendencies in the use of language means, so striking in the 16th century, assume new forms in the 17th. There was first of all the continuation of the classical tradition, and secondly there was the less scholarly, but more English prose that had been employed by the forty-seven translators of the "Authorized Version" of the Bible. As is known, during the 16th century the English literary language had received large additions from classical Greek and Latin and also.from modern French and Italian. Some writers considered it good style to introduce not only lexical but also syntactical innovations: sentences were often built according to classical patterns. Burton, Browne and others constructed long passages following Latin models. One of the 17th century writers states:

"Many think that they can never speak elegantly, nor write significantly, except they do it in a language of their own devising; as if they were ashamed of their mother tongue, and thought it not sufficiently curious to express their fancies. By means where of, more French and Latin words have gained ground upon us since the middle of Queen Elisabeth's reign than were admitted by our ancestors..."

The two tendencies were combined in the prose works of Milton who, being a Puritan, recognized the Bible as the highest authority in all matters, but who had a deep knowledge of the ancient classics as well.

The influence of the Bible on English emotive prose is particularly striking in the works of John Bunyan. "The Pilgrim's Progress" represents a new trend in the development of emotive prose. Here is an excerpt from the work:

"Now Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence; so when he was gone to bed, he told his wife what he had done, to wit, that he had taken a couple of prisoners and cast them into his dungeon, for trespassing on his grounds. Then he asked her also what he had best to do further to them. So she asked what they were, whence they came, and whither they were bound, and he told her. Then she counselled him, that when he arose in the morning he should beat them without mercy....The next night she talked with her husband about them further, and understanding that they were yet alive, did advise him to counsel them to make away with themselves. So when morning was come, he goes to them in a surly manner, as before, and perceiving them to be very sore with the stripes that he had given them the day before, he told them that since they were never like to come out of that place, their only way would be forthwith to make an end of themselves, either with knife, halter, or poison: for why, said he, should you choose life, seeing it is attended with so much bitterness? But they desired him to let them go....Then did the prisoners consult between themselves, whether it was best to take his counsel or no; and thus they began to discourse: -

Chr. Brother, saidChristian, what shall we do? The life that we now live is miserable. For my part, I know not whether it is best to live thus, or die out of hand. My soul chooseth strangling rather than life, and the grave is more easy for me than this dungeon! Shall we be ruled by the giant? Hope. Indeed our present condition is dreadful,...

Well, towards the evening the giant goes down into the dungeon again, to see if his prisoners had taken his counsel;..."

In this excerpt the main peculiarities of the style of emotive prose of the puritan trend stand out clearly. Simplicity in choice of words and in syntax is the predominant feature of the language of this type of emotive prose. The speech of the characters is mainly shaped in the form of indirect discourse. When direct speech appears, it is arranged as in a play, that is, the speaker is indicated by giving his full name or its contracted form at the beginning of a line. The name is not syntactically connected with the character's utterance. It is interesting to note in passing, that the yet unestablished norms of emotive prose are reflected in a combination of the syntactical arrangement of a play and that of emotive prose, as for example in this passage where the name of the speaker precedes the utterance as in plays, and the same name is mentioned within the direct speech as if it were introduced by the writer.

So there is a kind of mixture of two substyles, emotive prose and drama. However, when incursions of direct speech are short, they are given within the author's narrative, for example,

"...their only way would be forthwith to make an end of themselves, either with knife, halter, or poison: for why, said he, should you choose life, seeing it is attended with so much bitterness? But they desired him to let them go..."

Another peculiarity of the prose of this period is a rather poorly developed system of connectives. The connectives and, sothat, then are used abundantly and often in a way that does not comply with their generally accepted functions.

Bunyan's works have played a considerable role in establishing the most characteristic features of emotive prose.

Imagery, so characteristic of the belles-lettres style in general, begins to colour emotive prose differently from the way used in poetry and plays of the non-puritan trend. The imagery in the "Pilgrim's Progress" is based on allegory. Allegory is akin to metaphor, but it differs from the latter by having a definite symbolic meaning. Allegory in its most common form is a variety of antonomasia. Words denoting abstract notions are used as proper names. So, in the passage quoted above the name of the giant is 'Despair', his wife's name — 'Diffidence', the name of the Castle is 'Doubting Castle', the names of the pilgrims are 'Christian' and 'Hopeful.'

This type of imagery has considerable tenacity in emotive prose and particularly in plays. Tell-tale names for characters are still widely used and should be evaluated as a variety of antonomasia.

The puritan influence on the language of emotive prose at this time displays what may be called an anti-renaissance spirit. This is shown in the disparagement of mythological imagery and any embellishment of language whatever. Bunyan's abstract way of treating ordinary everyday-life events and conflicts led to an abstract manner in depicting his characters. They are, as a rule, devoid of individuality. There is no typification of a character's speech, and therefore there is practically no difference between the language of the author and that of the heroes. A tendency to simplify the literary language, resulting from the derogatory attitude of the puritans to classical learning, is apparent in seventeenth century emotive prose, at least among some writers.

However, the language of emotive prose in this period, as in preceding and subsequent periods, did not progress in one line. The classical tradition and the over-use of embellishments were also alive, and can be seen at any period in the development of the English literary language, and of emotive prose in particular, in a greater or lesser degree right until the beginning of the 20th century.

The struggle between the two opposing tendencies in rendering ideas in the style of emotive prose reflects the political and religious strife between the Puritans and the Cavaliers, who were on the side of Charles I against the Puritan Party during the Civil War of 1642-1652.

Among representatives of the "Cavalier" trend in literature we shall mention Jeremy Taylor, whose works, mainly sermons, are illustrative of this ornamental manner.

"...he strongly resembles Spenser in his prolific fancy and diction, in a certain musical arrangement and sweetness of expression, in prolonged description, and in delicious musings and reveries, suggested by some favourite image or metaphor, on which he dwells with the fondness and enthusiasm of a young poet. In these passages he is also apt to run into excess; epithet is heaped upon epithet, and figure upon figure; all the quaint conceits of his fancy, and the curious stores of his learning are dragged in, till both precision and propriety are sometimes lost."

There was also a third trend in emotive prose which began to develop in the 17th century and which became more apparent in subsequent periods. Representative of this trend are Thomas Sprat, and in particular John Dryden. This trend is responsible for the introduction into writing of common words and phrases known as colloquialisms. True, in 17th century emotive prose these elements were yet few. But this third trend, as it were, broke the ice and a trickle of colloquial words began to flow into emotive prose.

Thomas Sprat raised his voice against luxury and redundance of speech. He beheld "with indignation how many mists and uncertainties these specious tropes and figures have brought on our knowledge." He was all for a "close, naked, natural way of speaking, positive expressions, clear senses, a native easiness." He preferred "the language of artisans, countrymen and merchants before that of wits and scholars."

The models of prose writing at Dryden's disposal were the colloquial manner of Bunyan and similar writers on the one hand and, on the other, the elaborate manner of Lyly, Sidney, Browne, Jeremy Taylor and others. Dryden retained the simple diction, and disciplined the loose everyday expressions of the former, he cut off the awkward Latinisms and long-winded elegance of the latter. The features of Dryden's prose are clarity, simplicity of sentence structure, lack of ornament, fluency and rhythm. The influence of Dryden on both emotive prose and publicistic prose, which began to develop rapidly in the 18th century, was felt throughout the century. Dryden has been called the father of English literary criticism.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 a new trend arose in literature which was also reflected in prose. The critical spirit was more and more taking the place of the imaginative. Emotive prose was becoming a weapon of satire and not simply a means of describing and interpreting the life of the day. This trend, materialized mainly in essays, was outstanding in the prose works of Dryden (his "Essay on Dramatic Poesy" in particular) and continued into the 18th century, where it became conspicuous.

Eighteenth century emotive prose when compared to that of the seventeenth is in its most essential, leading features, characterized by the predominance of the third trend. This third trend, which may justly be called realistic, is not the further development of the puritan tendencies described above, although, doubtless, these tendencies bore some relevance to its typical features. The motto of this trend may be expressed by the phrase "call a spade a spade." By this phrase the adherents of the realistic trend in literature, and in emotive prose in particular, expressed the idea that all things should be called by their right names, that the writers should use plain, blunt words. This was a kind of protest against the complicated and elaborate periphrases by which the most common concepts were often described.

The history of English literature gives their due to such prominent men-of-letters as Defoe, Swift and Fielding who were ardent apologists of this direction in prose writing, and who created fascinating novels, most of which are still reckoned among the masterpieces of English literature. The aim of this new school of writers was to make the language clear, precise, well-balanced, and moderate. They developed a manner of writing which by its strength, simplicity, and directness, was admirably adapted to ordinary every-day needs.

The writers of the 18th century did much to establish emotive prose as an independent form of literary art. Of course the general philosophical and aesthetic views dominating in this period greatly influenced the manner of writing.

Eighteenth century men-of-letters considered that, being educated representatives of their society, it was their' duty to safeguard the purity of the English language. However the principles they followed were obscure and even contradictory. On the one hand, some of them, like Johnson, were against the introduction into literary English of any colloquial elements, regarding the latter as being inferior to the polished language of educated people. On the other hand, many others felt an urgent necessity to bridge the gap between literary and colloquial modes of expression in order to achieve a greater vividness and flexibility of utterance. Therefore, though using the general language of this period, at the same time they sought to subject it to conventional stylistic norms.

These stylistic norms were very rigid. So much so, that the individual peculiarities of the authors were frequently over-weighed by the general requirement of the stylistic norms.

These norms are revealed in the levelling-off of the differences between the literary language and the spoken language of the time. The author's speech and that of the heroes resemble each other, so there is no speech characterization. All the characters speak alike and almost in the same way as the author himself does.

Another stylistic feature of the emotive prose of the 18th century is a peculiar manner of conveying the impression that the event narrated actually occurred, that the narrative possessed authenticity. This manner of writing imparts some of the features of official documents to emotive prose. Some of the works of emotive prose therefore, with their wealth of detail and what seems to be genuine fact, resemble chronicles. When the narrative is written in the first person singular, as it very often is, it reads almost like a diary. The narrative itself is generally impassionate, devoid of any emotional elements, with strict observance of syntactical rules governing the structure of the sentences. In such works there are very few epithets, almost no imagery. Such are most of the novels by Defoe, Swift, Fielding and others.

Illustrative in this respect are the works of Defoe. He really deserves the title of the originator of the "authenticated" manner in emotive prose. His novel "Robinson Crusoe" is written in a language which by its lexical and syntactical peculiarities has very much in common with the style of an official report.

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, whose essays were written for the journals "The Tatler" and "The Spectator" also followed the general stylistic principles of this period. The most striking feature, of course, is the inadequate representation of direct speech. The most lively conversations (dialogues) are generally rendered in indirect speech and only fragments of lively direct intercourse can be found in long passages of the narrative. These are mostly exclamatory sentences, like "Sir Cloudesley Shovel! A very gallant man!" or "Dr. Busby! A great man! He whipped my grandfather; a very great man!"

The 18th century is justly regarded as the century which formed emotive prose as a self-sufficient branch of the belles-lettres style. But still, the manner in which emotive prose used language means and stylistic devices in some cases still resembled the manner of poetic style. At this time also it was difficult to tell a piece of emotive prose from an essay or even from scientific prose. This was mainly due to the fact that the most essential and characteristic features of these styles were not yet fully shaped.

It was only by the end of the 18th century that the most typical features of the emotive prose style became really prominent. Laurence Sterne with his "Tristram Shandy" contributed greatly to this process. Sterne thought that the main task of emotive prose was "...to depict the inner world of man, his ever-changing moods. Therefore at the foundation of his novel lies the emotional and not the logical principle."

With Sterne, emotive prose began to use a number of stylistic devices which practically determined many of its characteristic features. In Tristram Shandy there appear rudimentary forms of represented speech; the speech of the heroes approaches the norms of lively colloquial language; the narrative itself begins to reflect the individuality of the author, not only in his world outlook but, which is very important for linguistic analysis, in his manner of using the language means of his time. He attempts to give speech characteristics to his heroes, uses the different stylistic strata of the English vocabulary widely both in the individual speech of his characters and in the language of the author himself.

The role of Sterne in the shaping of the typical features of emotive prose of the following centuries is underestimated. He was the first to make an attempt to overcome the traditional form of the then fashionable narrative in depicting characters, events, social life and human conflicts. It was necessary to enliven the dialogue and it was Laurence Sterne who was able to do so. The great realistic writers of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries to some extent followed in his footsteps.

Nineteenth century emotive prose can already be regarded as a substyle of belles-lettres, complete in its most fundamental properties as they are described at the beginning of this chapter.

The general tendency in English literature to depict the life of all strata of English society called forth changes in regard to the language used for this purpose. Standard English begins to actively absorb elements of the English vocabulary which were banned in earlier periods from the language of emotive prose, that is jargonisms, professional words, slang, dialectal words and even vulgarisms, though the latter were used sparingly and euphemistically — damn was printed d —; bloody — b —and the like.[32] Illiterate speech finds its expression in emotive prose by distorting the spelling of words, by using cockney and dialectal words; there appears a clear difference between the speech of the writer and that of his characters. A new feature begins to establish itself as a property of emotive prose alone, namely, what may be called multiplicity of style. Language means typical of other styles of literary language are drawn into the system of expressive means and stylistic devices of this particular substyle. It has already been pointed out that these insertions do not remain in their typical form, they are recast to comply with the essential principles of emotive prose.

Here is an example of a newspaper brief found in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair":

"Governorship of Coventry Island.— H. M. S. Yellowjack, Commander Jaunders, has brought letters and papers from Coventry Island. H. E. Sir Thomas Liverseege had fallen a victim to the prevailing fever at Swampton. His loss is deeply felt in the flourishing colony. We hear that the governorship has been offered to Colonel Rawdon Crawley, C. B., a distinguished Waterloo officer. We need not only men of acknowledged bravery, but men of administrative talents to superintend the affairs of our colonies; and we have no doubt that the gentleman selected by the Colonial Office to fill the lamented vacancy which has occurred at Coventry Island is admirably calculated for the post which he is about to occupy."

By the end of the nineteenth century and particularly at the beginning of the twentieth, certain stylistic devices had been refined and continue to be further developed and perfected. Among these must be mentioned represented speech, both uttered and unuttered or inner, and also various ways of using detached construction, which is particularly favoured by present-day men-of-letters. Syntax too has undergone modifications in the emotive prose of the last century and a half.

Present-day emotive prose is to a large extent characterized by the breaking-up of traditional syntactical designs of the preceding periods. Not only detached construction, but also fragmentation of syntactical models, peculiar, unexpected ways of combining sentences, especially the gap-sentence link and other modern syntactical patterns, are freely introduced into present-day emotive prose. Its advance is so rapid that it is only possible to view it in the gross.

Many interesting investigations have been made of the characteristic features of the language of different writers where what is typical and what is idiosyncratic are subjected to analysis. But so far no deductions have been made as to the general trends of emotive prose of the nineteenth century, to say nothing of the twentieth. This work awaits investigators who may be able to draw up some general principles distinguishing modern emotive prose from the emotive prose of the preceding periods.

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