우리의 고요한 나날들 (Our Halcyon Days) : 찰스 1세 시대의 평화주의와 토머스 캐리의 작품

Abstract

Though in the past many literary critics have criticized Caroline literature as idle gentlemens flippant entertainment, or worse, shameless flattery, mostly referring to historical studies that criticizes Charles Is dysfunctional reign, some recent historiographies describe the period as culturally rich and economically stable. When we reconsider the period, Cavalier poetry, and in particular, Thomas Carews works can be reevaluated again. This article examines two representative pieces of Carews political literature in the 1630s, In Answer of an Elegiacall Letter Upon the death of the King of Sweden from Aurelian Townshend and Coelum Britannicum, and argues that Carews vindication of Caroline pacifism in these works shows the poets consistent aesthetic vision and his conviction in the superiority of England over Europe in the period. In the elegy, being asked to mourn the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphs, the great Protestant hero who died in 1632, Carew reassesses the kings military achievements, comparing them with peaceful lives and entertainments at the English court. After pointing out that blind glorification of Adolphs numerous battles misses the dismal state of Europe that was left after his death, Carew carefully distinguishes the state of England from that of Europe. Additionally, the poet proposes a morally superior, aesthetically attractive, and practically less disastrous world of pastoral that Caroline literature and culture frequently created, and he also persuades his addressees, including Townshend, to enjoy the peaceful state of their own country. Utilizing effectively various literary and theatrical conventions of masque, a representative genre of court entertainments, and particularly using two complementary voices of Momus and Mercury, in Coelum Britannicum Carew positions an idealized version of Caroline England as the climatic point in historical and cultural progress. While as a court poet Carew does not neglect to praise the royal couple in this piece, his vision of a morally reformed and aesthetically refined world at the end of the masque makes this work as a masterpiece of the genre and testifies Carews artistic maneuver.