Arguably the best-known female writer of the seventeenth century, Aphra Behn (1640–1689) was a prolific and successful playwright and an innovator in developing fictional prose genres and translations. She was, however, first and foremost a poet. It is in her poetry, the smallest category of her oeuvre, that she speaks most revealingly about herself as an author, particularly in her verse epistles. In the poem quoted above she describes her mind “Compos’d […] of Softer Love” and a poetic style of “gentle Numbers.” Rather than merely a decorous pose, these words are precisely chosen to characterize her gender and her art. Aware of her distinction as a female poet and the cultural alignment between the feminine, softness and love, she rather boldly claims a Lucretian origin for her mind composed of love atoms, and she describes her aesthetic of smooth versification and language, the “gentle numbers.” Her self-description has meaning for this quantitative study, as it is likewise concerned with love and numbers, though of a slightly different kind.

Using concordance data on a verified corpus of Behn's literary works, Quantitative Literary Analysis of the Works of Aphra Behn: Words of Passion achieves several goals. First, it provides a statistical overview of all Behn's literary works to get a complete sense of the scope of her writings; the relative size of her poetry, drama and prose and the titles within those categories; the favored words and word patterns within genres and subgenres, and the words and word patterns she prefers as compared to her peers. Second, the book situates Behn's writing within a critical history and uses the statistical data to verify, supplement and redirect critical judgments.

This project began in the early days of 2020 as a short, straightforward snapshot of Aphra Behn's complete oeuvre in statistical terms: length of works, most frequent words (MFW), n-grams, collocates and keywords in comparison to a general reference and a set of peer works. It aimed to be experimental, and it was intended to open the canon of Behn's literary works to more analytical and empirical forms of study. Quantitative Literary Analysis of the Works of Aphra Behn began with a desire to bring digital humanities into literary criticism, to discover if it could, in fact, enhance our understanding and appreciation of literature beyond what is possible in diachronic reading and scholarship less supported by digital means. The events of 2020 changed the direction of the project. The impact of the worldwide pandemic combined with professional leave afforded me an unprecedented period alone with my computer and books, and being engaged in the experimental process, I wrote the book twice. The first draft snapshot provides the bones of the argument, but consistent threads of literary analysis and interpretation now overlay and fill out the structure. The third version of the manuscript comes in response to reader reports, which were generous and helpful. They asked for fewer data and more argument and a clearer explanation of the relationship between quantitative analysis and literary criticism. The final book is rich in close readings and interpretative methods.

In the third iteration of the book, I have removed much of the original framework in discussions of digital humanities research, corpus construction and descriptive statistical data. For those interested precisely in these threads, I refer to a white paper that I’ve written on Developing a Method for Quantitative Literary Analysis, available with the data from the research in the open-access repository.

Significantly, for my work, the quantitative and the discursive scholarship needs to work together to be most effective. Encouraged by the support and feedback of my on-line writing partners, Catherine Ingrassia and Jennifer Keith, I integrated the critical arguments already available to explain Behn's works in my searches and queries. The accumulation of Behn scholarship is immense.

In Aphra Behn's pastoral dialogue celebrating the marriage of the Earl of Dorset, the shepherdess, Aminta, voices a cynical view of love, ruled by random chance in the figure of Cupid. While it was common for early modern cupids to inspire unrequited love with their darts, Behn favors the figuration of the boy Cupid playing havoc with lovers in a chaotic universe. Dismissed by Aminta, the language of love, god, hearts, soul and Cupid himself are recuperated by the shepherd's later defense of the divine consecration of this couple. These words are major players in Behn's preferred vocabulary for poetry, and they regularly populate the landscape of her verse in varied dynamics of enthusiasm and skepticism.

According to Jane Spencer, Aphra Behn was best known as a poet of love, and evidence of this fame appears in many of the commendatory poems prefixed to her poetic collections of the 1680s. Thomas Creech memorably described the author as “Love's great Sultana” in his much noted prefatory poem to Behn's single-author collection Poems Upon Several Occasions (PSO 1684). There is a strong emphasis in the PSO encomiums on the uniqueness of Behn's representation of passionate love. Compared to the obscene satires and Hudibrastic style of masculine coterie verse, Behn's muse of love is refined and remarkably effective. Creech describes it:

Critics have maintained with evidence that Behn's “new way” of love owes chiefly to her female persona openly expressing sexual desire and eroticism. Behn's song “Love Arm’d” and erotic lyrics, “The Disappointment,” “On a Juniper-Tree” and “To the fair Clarinda, who made Love to me, imagin’d more than Woman,” certainly justify the reputation of eroticism for modern audiences.

Based upon a count of words, Quantitative Literary Analysis of the Works of Aphra Behn chronicles Behn's obsession with the mystery and power of love and her unique presentation of early modern passions in poetry, drama and prose. Using concordance data, the book presents two types of evidence: one focused upon her use of small words like thou, sir or said, and the other using data to indicate passages for significant close reading. As a prolific writer of literary work in the late seventeenth century, Behn engaged the language of her time, and her corpus shows evidence of some semantic shifts, such as the expanded use of sir. Her writings provide insight into social values, particularly regard�ing the patriarchy, but they also indicate the ways in which genres follow specific language features. The latter is especially important in the analysis of Behn's experimental development of prose genres, where said and time are top frequent words (MFW). Following the dominant word patterns and interesting data arising from the concordance, the analysis of Behn's poetry, drama and fiction supports four overarching arguments. Based upon her repeated use of soul, believed to be the immortal element of humans given by God, I argue that Behn's work coheres within the reformed Protestant religion of her culture, and though she challenges certain moral mandates, her work invokes Christian orthodoxies regarding passion which need to be appreciated to understand her characters. Behn's works consistently present characters engaged in conflicts of the soul, and while these involve significant male and female characters, such as an Octavio or a Lady Galliard, Behn is unique in creating a series of strong female characters rationally confronting desire, choosing to act and reflecting on the consequences. Her female figures

(Love-Letters Part One pages 262–64).

To the Lady—

Madam,

’TIS not always the divine

graces wherewith Heaven

has adorn’d your resplendent beauties,

that can maintain the innumerable

conquests they gain, without

a noble goodness, which may

make you sensibly compassionate

the poor and forlorn captives you

have undone: But, most fair of

your Sex, ‘tis I alone that have a

destiny more cruel and severe, and

find my self wounded from your

very frowns, and secur’d a slave

as well as made one; the very

scorn from those triumphant stars,

your eyes, have the same effects

as if they shin’d with the continual

splendour of ravishing smiles,

and I can no more shun their killing

influence, than their all-saving

aspects, and I shall expire contented,

since I fall by so glorious a

Fate; if you will vouchsafe to pronounce

my doom from that storehouse

of perfection, your mouth,

from lips that open like the blushing

rose, strow’d o’re with morning

dew, and from a breath sweeter

than holy incense; in order to

which, I approach you; most excellent

beauty with this most humble

petition, that you will deign

to permit me to throw my unworthy

self before the Throne of

your mercy, there to receive the

sentence of my life or death, a

happiness though incomparably

too great for so mean a Vassal,

yet with that reverence and awe

I shall receive it, as I wou’d the

sentence of the Gods, and which

I will no more resist than I wou’d

the Thunderbolts of Jove, or the

revenge of angry Juno: For, Madam,

my immense passion knows

no medium between life and death,

and as I never had the presumption

to aspire to the glory of the

first, I am not so abject as to fear

I am wholly depriv’d of the glory

of the last; I have too long lain

convicted, extend your mercy,

and put me now out of pain: You

have often wreck’d me to confess

my Promethian fire; spare the cruel

Vulture of despair, take him

from my heart in pity, and either

by killing word, or blasting

Lightning from those refulgent

eyes, Pronounce the death of

Madam, Your admiring slave Foscario.

Introduction

This chapter considers the film recording of stories from a conflicted past in a contested present that make up the Prisons Memory Archive (PMA), a collection of audiovisual walk-and-talk recordings at the locations of the Maze and Long Kesh Prison, which held male prisoners, and Armagh Gaol, which held mostly female prisoners. Both prisons operated during the period of political conflict, sometimes known as the Troubles, during the last third of the twentieth century in the North of Ireland. I initiated the project and was involved from research through production to exhibition and have written elsewhere about many aspects of this project.

With the North of Ireland emerging out of violence, there is a general, but not yet officially sanctioned, consensus that storytelling can be one of the ways of addressing the legacy of the conflict in the present. The Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner's We Will Remember Them (1998), the Report of the Consultative Group on the Past (2009), the Hass-O’Sullivan Report (2014), and the Stormont House Agreement (2014), all established by the state, call for oral history/storytelling as part of a range of recommendations requiring government support, yet none have been implemented since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 which consolidated ceasefires by opposing military groups. The PMA is just one of the many initiatives that have addressed this vacuum and been produced by civic and academic communities as part of attempts to find ways to come to terms with our violent past. Brandon Hamber and Grainne Kelly confirm, ‘To date, the most widespread mechanism for “dealing with the past” has been unofficial, decentralized storytelling initiatives.’

The PMA project established early on the need to address the political and psychic sensitivities at work in such contentious locations for both participants and viewers. Ethical protocols of co-ownership, inclusivity and life storytelling were employed in order to address concerns about remembering experiences from a conflict that is within living memory and that continues to produce political instability and occasional spasms of violence. An illustration of ongoing contention can be found with the decision, after initial agreement by the main political parties, to withdraw the proposal to construct a Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Centre at the Maze and Long Kesh site, designed by the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, with the offer of 18 million Euro from the European Union.

Le Bon's book, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, was published in English in 1896 by Macmillan. I will use quotes from that edition in this book. In 1960, an edition of The Crowd was published by the Viking Press with a long introduction by Robert K. Merton, an important sociologist. I will discuss Merton's ideas at the end of this chapter.

Organization of The Crowd

Introduction:

The Era of Crowds

Book I

The Mind of Crowds

Chapter 1

General Characteristics of Crowds

Chapter 2

The Sentiments and Morality of Crowds

Chapter 3

The Ideas, Reasoning Power, and Imagination of Crowds

Chapter 4

A Religious Shape Assume by All the Convictions of Crowds

Book II

The Opinions and Beliefs of Crowds

Chapter 1

Remote Factors of the Opinions and Beliefs of Crowds

Chapter 2

The Immediate Factors of the Opinions of Crowds

Chapter 3

The Leaders of Crowds and Their Means of Persuasion

Chapter 4

Limitations of the Variability of the Beliefs and Opinions of Crowds

Book III

The Classification and Description of the Different Kinds of Crowds

Chapter 1

The Classification of Crowds

Chapter 2

Crowds Termed Criminal Crowds

Chapter 3

Criminal Juries

Chapter 4

Electoral Crowds

Chapter 5

Parliamentary Assemblies

We can see from this table of contents that Le Bon cast a wide net and there aren't many aspects of crowds that he did not consider. For my purposes, some material in his chapters is very important for us to consider and I offer this material in extended excerpts.

I will now discuss some of Le Bon's key ideas and quote some of the most important passages from the 1896 edition of his book.

Le Bon's Definition of Crowds

1.

Le Bon begins chapter 1 of Book I with his definition of crowds (1896: 1,2):

Introduction

We Never Gave Up (2022), the third film in a trilogy, was premiered to the participants from Khulumani Support Group Western Cape (KSG-WC), in Cape Town on 14 March 2022, during a full day's activities, organised by the Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC), acknowledging their collective input to the series and honouring those who had passed away. This was 20 years after the first film We Never Give Up (2002) and 10 years after the second film, We Never Give Up II (2012). The films were produced by the HRMC in collaboration with KSG-WC and follow the experiences of those who had suffered under the racist apartheid regime in South Africa and who subsequently campaigned within and beyond the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC), which followed the transition to parliamentary elections that saw universal franchise for the first time in South African history, bringing the African National Congress (ANC) to power in 1994. KSG-WC is a regional group of the national Khulumani organisation, and has been seeking acknowledgement, reparations and justice, as well as providing support and solidarity for its members, as they negotiate the legacy of one of the most violent and discriminatory regimes in history, which had lasted from 1948 to 1994. I have written elsewhere about the production of the first two films in the series and here focus on the third film, We Never Gave Up (McLaughlin 2010, 65–80; 2013, 10–19).

Human Rights Media Centre

Founded by the current director, Shirley Gunn, the HRMC is based in Cape Town. Shirley, who was imprisoned during the apartheid years, was a commander in uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, that was to the forefront of resistance to the apartheid state. She founded the HRMC in order to address issues of (mis)representation of those who are most affected by injustices both in past and in present political, economic and social conditions. Much of the research and outputs of the HRMC involves working with individuals, communities and organisations that experience injustice, ranging from discrimination based on race, migration and socio-economic conditions to the legacy of apartheid; the latter includes disappearances, physical and mental torture and injuries, loss of work and property and pension rights.

The series Economic Ideas That Built Europe aims at making classical economic texts – first published on the European Continent – available in English. We aim at finding and making available important works that provide insights that are lost in today's mainstream and neoclassical traditions. This tone was set already in the first text published, in 2011: Antonio Serra's A Short Treatise on the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (1613). Serra introduced the dichotomy of increasing and diminishing returns to explain the wealth-creating capacity of manufacturing (operating under increasing returns to scale) and the lack of generalised wealth in countries specialising in activities where one factor of production is limited by nature (agriculture, fisheries, mining) and therefore, after a certain point, are subject to diminishing returns. This counterpoint – a key to understanding the wealth and poverty of nations – is not compatible with equilibrium, and therefore disappeared from mainstream economics in the early 1900s.

We have published first ever English translations of key works on economic policy from Italian, both published in Naples – Antonio Serra (1613) and Carlo Tapia's Treatise on Abundance (1638) – in a period (1503–1707) when the Kingdom of Naples was ruled by the kings of Spain. From German, we published Wilhelm von Hörnigk's highly influential Austria Supreme (if it so wishes) (1684), and from Spanish, Gaspar Melchor Jovellanos’ Report of the Agrarian Law (1795). In addition, we have republished Martin Luther's work On Trade and Usury (1524). The first English translation of Albert Aftalion's Periodic Crises of Overproduction (1913) is forthcoming in this series.

In this volume we combine two small works representing the economics of the 1500s. With a work authored by Barthélemy de Laffemas (1545–1612) we add an important French text, and with Leonhard Fronsperger (ca. 1520–1575) a pioneering German text. Despite their age, these two pragmatic texts still provide important insights.

We are pleased to present the first-ever translation of Barthélemy de Laffemas Reiglement (sic) général pour dresser les manufactures en ce royaume, originally a 40-page booklet, and also a 15-page addition – with questions and answers – entitled Response aux difficultez proposées à l’encontre du règlement général touchant les manufactures. The first work is dated 1597, and Bibliothèque Nationale de France also considers the second work as published in that year.

I can only wonder what Ortega y Gasset would have thought had he been able to observe the divisive and corrosive nature of contemporary American politics and read my book on crowds. He wrote his book in 1932, but his ideas seem oddly relevant today—in part because he recognized the problems generated by the emergence of the “multitudes” or what Le Bon would call the crowd. It was Trump's behavior—and the behavior of his angry followers who attacked the Capitol that led me to write this book. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa conclude their book, Peril, as follows (2021:418):

That is the situation we face now in America as our democratic institutions are in peril from Trump and the Republican Party, which has become an antidemocratic cult of Trump followers—or is the term “worshipers” more accurate?

This book is about the role of crowds in American society, culture, and politics. It offers a detailed description of Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (published in English in 1896 and thus in the public domain), and a discussion of Sigmund Freud's 1921 book on group psychology, among other things.

I use so much from Le Bon that it might be correct to cite him as a coauthor of this book, but I quote him because his ideas are central to my argument and I want my readers to be able to see, in some depth, what he had to say about crowds.

I also make extended use of material from Wikipedia on a variety of topics. I like Wikipedia because it offers valuable overviews and readable discussions on many topics of interest to me in this book. I recognize that some academics frown on using material from Wikipedia, but I have always found its articles extremely useful.

This book deals with some important aspects of American society, politics, and culture. It seeks to answer questions such as what do Trump's followers (his crowds) see in him and why did so many people become insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, and try to prevent the counting of the electoral votes leading to the election of Joe Biden, and attack the Capitol? I also consider crowds and cults and the role of crowds in COVID and vaccine hesitancy and opposition to vaccinations in the United States and elsewhere (Figure 1.1).

In my books, I like to use quotations from authors so that my readers can see how authors expressed themselves. Except for the material from Le Bon's book, and Wikipedia, the quotations in this book are all less than 350 words and thus qualify as fair use, and I give credit to the writers for all materials that I quote. My book has, then, something of a documentary quality about it. We can think of the quotations I use as the equivalent of statements by expert witnesses in a trial.

The classic text on crowds is Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd, first published in 1895 in French and 1896 in English. It is recognized as one of the most important social psychology studies ever published and my book is an application of Le Bon's ideas about crowds to contemporary American society, politics, and culture.

Introduction

At the annual Autumn Fair of 1564 in Frankfurt on the Main the printed catalogue of books presented – the very first of its kind – contained a chapter on ‘German Books on the Holy Bible by the Protestant Theologists’ (‘Deutsche Buecher inn heiliger Schrifft / der Protestierenden Theologen’). In this chapter a booklet is listed with the title ‘On the Praise of Self-Interest’ (‘Von dem Lob deß Eigen Nutzen’). The front page of the booklet depicts self-interest as a person whose chest is emblazoned with the striking claim: ‘Everything in my bag’ (‘Alles in mein Sack’). The author does not belong to the leading Protestant theologists of the time, but rather has a reputation as an experienced writer on warfare. His name is Leonhard Fronsperger, a citizen of the Free Imperial City of Ulm, located in the Upper German part of the Holy Roman Empire. The work is dedicated to the connection between the strife for individual benefit, in particular in economic activities, but also in social and political affairs, and the common good of a society as a whole. It anticipates, by at least 150 years if not longer, two famous theoretical concepts in economic analysis and social ethics that were developed in the eighteenth century by Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith.

This early praise of self-interested behaviour and its positive impact on the common good has been overlooked even in the German-language literature, with very few exceptions. There may be various reasons for the lack of recognition: Fronsperger only wrote this one work on the subject, his authorship is asserted but not finally proven, he wrote in the German language, and there has never been a translation into English or French. However, all these aspects should not obscure the fact that he belonged to a relatively small group of writers in Northern Italy and Upper Germany who developed a revolutionary new concept of selfish human behaviour and its consequences as early as the sixteenth century. The rediscovery of Fronsperger's work has only started a decade ago, but there are still some mysteries to solve concerning its origins and repercussions. And we are sure that the first English translation of the text will very much contribute to a higher international awareness of this unique German contribution to the theory of economic thought.