Book contents
- Sympathy in Early Modern Literature and Culture
- Sympathy in Early Modern Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Texts
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘A sympathy of affections’
- Chapter 2 ‘Compassion and mercie draw teares from the godlyfull often’
- Chapter 3 ‘Grief best is pleased with grief’s society’
- Chapter 4 ‘O, what a sympathy of woe is this’
- Chapter 5 ‘Soveraignes have a sympathie with subjects’
- Chapter 6 ‘As God loves Sympathy, God loves Symphony’
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - ‘As God loves Sympathy, God loves Symphony’
Sympathy at a Distance in Caroline England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2023
- Sympathy in Early Modern Literature and Culture
- Sympathy in Early Modern Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Texts
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘A sympathy of affections’
- Chapter 2 ‘Compassion and mercie draw teares from the godlyfull often’
- Chapter 3 ‘Grief best is pleased with grief’s society’
- Chapter 4 ‘O, what a sympathy of woe is this’
- Chapter 5 ‘Soveraignes have a sympathie with subjects’
- Chapter 6 ‘As God loves Sympathy, God loves Symphony’
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter demonstrates that the affective meanings of sympathy and sympathize persisted during the Caroline period, despite a renewed interest in the quasi-scientific conception of sympathy. The chapter opens with a wide-ranging discussion of Francis Bacon’s Sylva sylvarum (1626), along with other works that debated the magical properties of the weapon-salve – which could allegedly cure wounds without touching them – including William Foster’s Hoplocrisma-spongus (1631) and Robert Fludd’s Doctor Fludds answer unto M. Foster (1631). The chapter argues that several plays from this period offer a highly sceptical response to the weapon-salve, in particular Henry Glapthorne’s The Hollander (1635–6). It then considers the increasing sophistication of conceptions of sympathy in religious discourse, and focuses on Charles Fitzgeffry’s Compassion towards captives (1637), which describes the ‘Sympathy or Compassion’ we should feel for those in bondage in terms that anticipate modern conceptions of empathy. In this way, the Caroline fascination with natural sympathy does not diminish or displace the affective model but rather increases its complexity.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sympathy in Early Modern Literature and Culture , pp. 215 - 252Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023