18th Century Literature

In all, let Nature never be forgot. But treat the Goddess like a modest fair, Nor over dress, nor leave her wholly bare (Pope, Epistle to Burlington)

Do eighteenth-century texts prefer Nature to be modest?

Hogarth's Boys Peeping At Nature, the ticket for the graphic satire The Harlots Progress, firmly situates Nature as a figure for common observation; Hogarth's engraving, furthermore, establishes Nature as an image open to the interpretation of the arts. Yet, perhaps most significantly, Hogarth introduces modesty as a primary concern by depicting a Nature whose lower section is covered with drapery. This theme, together with the industrious figures that are producing various representations of Nature, creates an image of satire aimed at the manipulation of Nature by Art. Practices such as landscape gardening dressed Nature with aesthetics of unity and proportion, adorning her with the nicer elegancies of art. Furthermore, developments in the eighteenth century, such as Newton's laws, resulted in an enlightened comprehension of Nature: 'Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:/God said, Let Newton be! And all was light!' wrote Alexander Pope. As the critic Wiley suggests, people felt there was 'a synthesis of the great and the little'. This scientific cohesion of man's laws and logic with Nature is reflected in the aesthetic practice of landscape gardening. This propensity to embellish Nature was reflected in the texts of the era; their aim was to embellish Nature without succumbing to complete artificiality. Pope in The Epistle to Burlington describes this state as "modesty". Texts by poets such as Pope and Thompson explore this concept of Nature, and, whilst Pope does propose some advantages of a modest Nature, neither poet displays any particular preference for the state. Female-figured Nature appears to be as changeable as Pope's ladies (who are likened to the 'variegated tulip'), and one could therefore suggest that texts prefer to see Nature as similarly transient, and under no obligation to the whims or preferences of man. The Nature they envisage is too changeable and powerful a figure to be pinned for too long under the highly structured and socialised term 'modest'.

Hogarth's Nature is perhaps the most literal image of Pope's definition of modesty: 'Not over dress[ed]' nor 'wholly bare', visually a perfect example of this balance, the goddess is here delineated as a three quarter bust, her lower regions covered with fabric. However, Hogarth's pictorial text suggests this is a tentative stability; Boys peeping at Nature is undeniably an ambiguous image. The 'reader' is given full reign by Hogarth to view the engraving as a preference to the 'modest nature' created by the arts. Yet, as a ticket for the Harlot's Progress (the epitome of the movement from chasteness to immodestly), one might argue that the plate is a rejection of modesty. Indeed this essay intends to suggest that there is a close resemblance between Hogarth's Nature and the figure of Moll in plate three of The Harlot's Progress, and that this demonstrates a preference for a return to Nature free from social niceties such as modesty. The engraving at least in part suggests that texts may prefer Nature to be modest. The boy on the left hand side of the image, for example, has chosen to represent Nature in an even greater state of modesty than she appears before him. Gazing directly at Nature, he has not only removed the covered genital area, but also reduced the multibreasted torso down to a chaste three. The second figure similarly strives to preserve Nature's modesty by preventing the satyr from discovering the mystery beneath her skirts. However, other features in the engraving suggest an alternate reading: the detailing of Nature's accoutrements, for example, gives the impression that her modesty is not assured. The drapery laced around and obscuring from sight the Goddess' reproductive organs is tied by a single bow, and the material cascades downward in a way that suggests movement. Newtonian nature, it seems, is at play here, and the material, particularly when combined with the fumblings of the satyr, appears poised to fall. On the subject of potential exposure, Nature's bow, as a singular clasp, is significantly similar to the 'single pin' (i.80) which holds Griselda Murray's night-gown closed in Epistle from Arthur Gray the footman after his Condemnation for attempting a Rape. The tentatively secure state of Nature's modesty is under as much potential danger as Montagu's heroine. Whilst one figure in the print seems to be in the act of hindering the satyr's curiosity, the unveiling of the potentially improper subject is certainly not entirely precluded. Caught in a frame of movement, the 'reader' of Hogarth's engraving is left unsure as to the way in which the actions will unfold. Whilst Nature is literally embodying Pope's definition of modesty at this captured moment, Hogarth provides us with the satiric suggestion that all will not remain modest for long.

As previously suggested, a connection may be found between the third plate in The Harlot's progress, and Nature in Boys Peeping. This is a similarity that could inform interpretations of Nature as modest or immodest, and thus enlighten us to the preference of such texts. Rather than the generally assented view that Boys Peeping is a comment on the Harlot's progress, the view may be taken that the series in fact informs a reading of the ticket image. The correlation between the figures of Moll and Nature can be seen as a satiric comment on preferences for a modest Nature, and suggests that such modesty can only be sustained for a limited time. In both plates, the corresponding the action of the frames, the 'peeping' and touching of skirts aligns the characters. The satyr is replaced in the third plate by the curious cat, and the boy's hand on the skirts of Nature is here the hand of Moll. In both texts, the attention of the 'reader' is thus drawn by these actions to the obscured female genitalia. Having associated Nature's genitalia with that of a prostitute and thus with exposure, it is justifiable to suggest that Nature is negated as a modest form. On a similar note, Moll's breasts in plate three have been revealed by her loose fitting dress, and as in Boys peeping, the use of light draws awareness to this particular detail. As an allusion to the multibreasted figure of Nature, one is alerted to a different, less acceptable form of the same exposure. This instance of partial clothing, rather than suggesting the fertility of a goddess, is suggesting the debauchery of a common whore. Pope's descri ption of modesty becomes somewhat flawed when considered in the humanised form of Nature and in light of the series of plates this form precedes. The similarity of the female pair suggests that to concede that the text prefers modesty based on the figure's state of partial dress ('Nor over dress, nor leave her wholly bare'), would be to miss the comic suggestion that like a prostitute, Nature is 'by nature' immodest. Whilst Nature appears to sustain a state of modesty in Boys peeping, the aesthetically similar image in plate three suggests that any preferences to keep Nature this way will be disappointed. Moll's possession of a watch arguably introduces the idea of time into the engraving, and the placement of this pocket-watch is very telling. Moll's bare breasts are perhaps the most obvious connection to Nature, and thus the placing of the watch in close proximity to them links the progression of time with Nature's progress away from modesty. The shadow made by Nature on the wall behind her in Boys Peeping supports this notion; the shadow of time, falls on all but the face of nature and the words around it ('Antiquam exquirite Matrem': seek out your ancient mother). In other words, time has left only the face of nature, and a suggestion to 'return to your roots' untouched. All man's efforts to cover nature, to embellish nature and create a chaste nature are overshadowed in this text. Hogarth's engravings thus satirically expose an era's preference for a modest nature as insignificant. Informed by The Harlot's progress, the text suggests that time will reveal nature as something upon which human ideals of modesty cannot adhere to, regardless of human or artistic preference.

Due to the penchant for Landscape Gardening during the eighteenth-century, texts are undeniably concerned with what Pope defines as a 'modest Nature'. However, as Hogarth's texts have proved, this does not necessarily entail preference. Indeed, increasingly, there seems to be a collective plea for a moderation of this modesty or even dissolution of it altogether. Many poets join Addison of the Spectator in his 'plea for the beautiful wildness of nature' as against 'the nicer elegancies of art'. Modesty, for Pope at least, is achieved in the amalgamation of Nature's beauty with human art. As Sambrook clarifies, 'Landscape Gardeners [.] pursued the more exhalted aim of creating ideal Nature out of the forms of common Nature. Of teaching Nature in Switzer's words, even to excel herself'. This construction of modesty and its adoption into the bosom of the arts is supported by Wiley, who states 'Art completes what nature leaves imperfect; Nature offers a brazen world- the poets only deliver a golden.' Yet, Wiley's 'golden' world of modest nature, although adopted by landscapers and suchlike, appears to achieve exaltation only briefly in the poetry of the time. The Epistle to Burlington suggests an admiration of this modest Nature as 'a work to wonder at'; indeed, Pope's scarcely concealed sexual metaphor of 'parts answering parts' (i.65) sliding 'into a whole' (with its pun on 'whole'), presents the idea of this balanced state of modesty as a dynamic and fertile interaction. However, whilst the results of such nature may be wondered at, this fashionable modesty is also the origin of negativity. Yew trees planted in replacement of less fashionable species become a 'mournful family' (i.95) in Pope's epistle, and what was a modest improvement upon Nature to please the viewer mutates to form 'inverted nature', a sight which pains the 'suffring eye'. The fertile relationship between man and nature swiftly becomes stale, even destructive. Rather than the union causing things to 'start' (or quicken in the womb), the treatment of Nature like a 'modest fair' results in a hellish landscape devoid of water or shade. The work of man becomes sterile and 'swallows roost in Nilus' dusty urn' (i.126). Wharton similarly defends the 'simple charms of Nature' free from this 'taste corrupt'; he refutes not only the imposition of man upon raw nature as a false and unfruitful act, but also suggest that terms such as modesty when applied to nature are essentially as false an artifice as the 'clothed' nature itself. Nature is inherently immodest, he points out, and 'boldly scorns/ Formality and method.' Pope has tarnished Wiley's golden world, and the modest fair that he first envisaged has become a figure of vain 'pride' and ridicule. This text mirrors Warton's plea in The Enthusiast to lead him 'from gardens deck'd with art's vain pomps'. 'Modesty', as Pope points out, is laughable when it is devoid of 'use' and 'sense'.

Nature and women, goddesses alike in Eighteenth century texts are depicted as creatures that should to a degree be embellished, Swift's mocking poem ' A beautiful nymph going to bed' laughs at the artistic improvements women apply to themselves but his extremely visual and tactile language renders the bare un-dressed natural body of women as 'a dreadful sight'. Whilst Nature is rarely presented in its bare form as quite so grotesque the onus is often looks at men's propensity to refine Nature, a process Pope qualifies as modesty. Many writers recognise a cultural preference for a modest Nature, yet do not hold this view themselves; indeed the texts frequently render such preferences as liable to comic scrutiny. This essay has shown how poets and artists alike consider Nature to be an entity upon which an imposition of social mores can never stick. Whilst texts are sanctified in preference for modest women, Nature: merely humanised by art, is thus excused.

Word count 1879

1979 1870

Bibliography

Primary texts - Fairer, David, Gerrard, Christine (ed), Eighteenth-Century Poetry The Annotated anthology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004) - Hogarth, William, Boys Peeping at Nature, Eighteenth-Century Literature Core Module Handbook 08-09 (Leeds: School of English, 2008)

Secondary Texts

- Dwyer, John, The Age of the Passions (London: Tuckwell Press, 1998) - Feingold, Richard, Nature and Society (Cambridge: The Harvester Press, 1978) - Keith, W.J, The Poetry of Nature (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980) - Reynolds, Myra, The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry (. New York: Gordian press inc, 1966) - Sambrook, James, The Eighteenth Century The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature (London: Longman group UK limited, 1993)