Cadenus and Vanessa: The Self-Conscious Muse

Daniel Cook

Cadenus and Vanessa: The Self-Conscious Muse

Daniel Cook

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Readers have always viewed Cadenus and Uinessa as an uncomfortable poem.
Much of the unease surrounding the text, even now, concerns the ten-line passage in which the speaker ever so coyly hints at the sexual union of Swift and Esther Vanhomrigh: "But what Success Uinessa met, / Is to the World a Secret yet." Lord Orrery, among others, interpreted this as an attack on Esther's honour, whereas more recent critics have dismissed it as a non-conclusion. This essay revisits the textual, critical, and emotional issues long associated with the passage. In particular, it suggests that Swift attempts to deconstruct the inefficacy of conventional love-language and, in its place, outlines a fortifed rhetoric of friendship.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Reading Swift
Subtitle of host publication	Papers from the Sixth Münster Symposium on Swift
Editors	Kirsten Juhas, Hermann J. Real, Sandra Simon
Place of Publication	Munich
Publisher	William Fink
Pages	401-416
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Print)	9783770554300
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2013

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title = "Cadenus and Vanessa: The Self-Conscious Muse",

abstract = "Readers have always viewed Cadenus and Uinessa as an uncomfortable poem. Much of the unease surrounding the text, even now, concerns the ten-line passage in which the speaker ever so coyly hints at the sexual union of Swift and Esther Vanhomrigh: {"}But what Success Uinessa met, / Is to the World a Secret yet.{"} Lord Orrery, among others, interpreted this as an attack on Esther's honour, whereas more recent critics have dismissed it as a non-conclusion. This essay revisits the textual, critical, and emotional issues long associated with the passage. In particular, it suggests that Swift attempts to deconstruct the inefficacy of conventional love-language and, in its place, outlines a fortifed rhetoric of friendship.",

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ER -

Cadenus and Vanessa: The Self-Conscious Muse

Abstract

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