The Boy in the Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, and Children's Poetry in Poems on Several Occasions

The Boy in the Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, and Children’s Poetry in Poems on Several Occasions This paper reconsiders the work of Dublin poet Mary Barber, whose collection of poems appeared in 1733/34. There she acknowledges the assistance of Jonathan Swift, and frames her poetry as a pedagogical aid to her children’s education—particularly that of her eldest son, Constantine. Barber’s relationship with Swift has received much critical attention, as has her focus on her own motherhood—sometimes in critiques that suggest both of these hampered the quality and scope of her work. This paper asks readers to look at her poetry as the children’s literature she claimed it was, as well as being crossover literature aimed at more than one generation, published with the hope of the kind of success that Jonathan Swift (and John Gay, and Daniel Defoe) achieved by reaching more than one generation of readers.

The Russian Fate of John Gayʼs Fables

The article, in a pioneering effort, offers to consider the history of the Russian reception of the fable creativity of the English writer John Gay (1685–1732), from its beginnings to the present day. It is noted that close attention to the fables of J. Gay in the last quarter of the 18th century, this was largely due to the interest of the Russian society in novelties in French books; as a result, prosaic translations of poetic texts from an intermediary language prevailed, against which the poetical readings of English originals created by I. Ilyinsky were undoubtedly more successful. The subsequent “surge” of interest in J. Gayʼs fable heritage at the end of the XIX century connected with the demand of society for the works of foreign authors, accessible to the mass, common reader, focused on the traditional culture of their countries. In the Soviet period, J. Gayʼs fables found themselves on the periphery of the preferences of translators and critics who interpreted mainly the writerʼs dramatic texts (“The Beggarʼs Opera”, “Polly”). The research of A.I. Zhilenkov and the translations of E.D. Feldman, published in recent decades, marked a new stage of the Russian reception, characterized by the identification of the artistic originality of Gayʼs fables, the desire for the most complete, holistic perception of the heritage of the Gay-fabulist, taking into account ancient and English literary traditions.

The Bourgeois Revaluation of Tragedy

This chapter continues the argument begun in the Introduction, proposing a revised, reparative approach to the earliest bourgeois tragedies. It focuses especially on George Lillo’s landmark drama, The London Merchant (1731), and examines its unique re-interpretation of neoclassical theories of tragedy and poetic decorum. This chapter narrates its debut alongside burlesques and satires on the middle and lower sorts by Edward Ravenscroft, John Gay, William Hogarth, Henry Fielding, and John Kelly, making a case for Lillo’s radical valorization of ordinary life and a new aesthetic of identification. Its argument thereby describes the beginnings of a new appreciation for the trials of these social ranks in the era’s art, and offers a substantive reading of the text and its paratextual apparatus in light of this shift.

“The Beggar’s Opera”: the Genre Specifics and the Concept

В данной статье Опера Нищего Гэя Пепуша рассматривается сама по себе и как модель для Трехгрошовой оперы Брехта Вайля и Оперы Нищей Бриттена Гатри. Три версии Оперы принципиально неравны и представлены в тексте как явления культуры, жанрово ориентированные на широкую публику. In this article I describe John Gay and Johann Pepuschs The Beggars Opera by itself and as a model for Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weills The Threepenny Opera and Benjamin Britten and Tyrone Guthries The Beggars Opera. There are three fundamentally unequal different versions of this spectacle, which the article shows as the cultural manifestations appealing to a broad public.

Gay, Tucker, Paley, and Bentham

This chapter discusses the views on self-interest and morality of four key figures in the British utilitarian tradition. The associationist theory of virtue of John Gay (1699–1745) is outlined. It is shown how psychological and rational hedonism are combined with utilitarianism in the work of Abraham Tucker (1705–74). The largely instrumental view taken by William Paley (1743–1805) of the rules of common-sense morality is described, and it is demonstrated how he sometimes slides into a non-instrumental position. The ‘split-level’ act utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) is placed within his largely legislative project. A conclusion outlines several philosophical themes running through the ethics of the period discussed in the book, and the importance of that period as an influence on, and a source for, contemporary ethics.