The Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns Criticism
The Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns was a notable intellectual and literary debate in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, primarily in France and England. This dispute centered on the question of whether the classical works of Greek and Roman antiquity were superior to contemporary writings. The Ancients revered the classical era as the pinnacle of human achievement, advocating for the imitation of its wisdom and artistry. In contrast, the Moderns argued for the progression of knowledge and the refinement of taste, considering contemporary works as improvements upon the past. As noted by Joseph M. Levine, these debates often focused on differing assessments of Homer’s works.
The roots of this quarrel can be traced back to the Renaissance, when renewed interest in classical texts led to a heightened historical consciousness and debates over the value of change versus tradition. This period saw discussions about language superiority, religious values, and the nature of human intelligence. By the seventeenth century, the dispute had expanded to encompass broader concerns, including the establishment of literary standards and the role of rhetoric, as discussed by Barbara Warnick.
In France, the quarrel erupted in 1687 with Charles Perrault's Le Siècle de Louis le Grand, which praised modern achievements and criticized ancient works, leading to a literary battle involving notable figures like Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux. The conflict produced significant works such as Perrault's Parallèle des anciens et des modernes. Meanwhile, in England, the Battle of the Books began with Sir William Temple's defense of the ancients, challenged by William Wotton and Richard Bentley's modern critical methods. Jonathan Swift famously entered the fray with satirical works like A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, which sharply critiqued the Moderns, as explored by Richard N. Ramsey.
The debate resurfaced in the early eighteenth century, focusing again on Homer, with works by Anne Lefèvre Dacier and Alexander Pope. As Douglas Lane Patey notes, the quarrel contributed significantly to the development of literary criticism. Although the intensity of the dispute has diminished, its underlying issues continue to provoke discussion in literary circles today.
Contents
- Representative Works
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Criticism: Overviews
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The Battle of the Books and the Shield of Achilles
(summary)
In the following essay, Levine examines the debate between ancients and moderns in Great Britain and France in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, focusing particularly on the two sides' differing assessments of Homer.
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Ancients and Moderns
(summary)
In following essay, Patey delineates the history of the English Battle of the Books and the French Quarrel between Ancients and Moderns in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, arguing that the intellectual debate contributed to the development of literary criticism.
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The Battle of the Books and the Shield of Achilles
(summary)
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Criticism: Renaissance Origins
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Ancients and Moderns Reconsidered
(summary)
In essay below, Levine traces the origins of the English Battle of the Books to disputes among Renaissance humanists.
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Humanist Attitudes to Convention and Innovation in the Fifteenth Century
(summary)
In following essay, Gravelle discusses the arguments of several fifteenth-century humanists on the subject of ancients versus moderns, particularly regarding questions of language.
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Ancients and Moderns in the Renaissance: Rhetoric and History in Accolti's Dialogue on the Preeminence of Men of His Own Time
(summary)
In the essay that follows, Black analyzes Benedetto Accolti's Dialogue, one of the first long pieces about the quarrel between ancients and moderns. Placing this work within the history of the dispute, the critic considers the Dialogue a forerunner of the development of the quarrel in the later Renaissance.
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Ancients and Moderns Reconsidered
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Criticism: The Quarrel Between The Ancients And The Moderns In France
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Boileau, the Moderns, and the Topinamboux
(summary)
In essay that follows, Lein examines two epigrams Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, an Ancient, directed against the Moderns, noting the “potency of the invective” Boileau employed.
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The Old Rhetoric vs. the New Rhetoric: The Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns
(summary)
In the essay that follows, Warnick seeks to provide an account of the major issues in the Quarrel as they relate to the function and status of rhetoric in French society in the eighteenth century.
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Recognizing Differences: Perrault's Modernist Esthetic in Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes
(summary)
In the following essay, Berg contends that the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns was “not only a literary debate, but also the manifestation of a political position regarding the status of women and their right to participate in the culture of their society.”
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Dialogue and Speakers in Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes
(summary)
In the following essay, Howells analyzes the significance of Charles Perrault's construction of the Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes, as a dialogue between the Président, the Abbé, and the Chevalier.
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Boileau, the Moderns, and the Topinamboux
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Criticism: The Battle Of The Books In England
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Jonathan Swift's Battle of the Books: Its Background and Satire
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In the following essay, Dahiyat summarizes the background of the Battle of the Books, primarily in England, and analyzes Swift's book within this context.
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Swift's Strategy in The Battle of the Books
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In the essay that follows, Ramsey discusses why Jonathan Swift entered the Battle of the Books, the tactics he used, what role his book of the same name played, and how Swift's arguments were indicative of his future philosophical direction.
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Ancients and Moderns in Defoe's Consolidator
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In the essay below, Shaw interprets Daniel Defoe's Consolidator as a part of the Battle of the Books, judging it 'Defoe's first extended contribution to the battle of the ancients and moderns.'
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The Splitting of Humanism: Bentley, Swift and the English Battle of the Books
(summary)
In the following essay, Tinkler discusses the roles of Richard Bentley and Jonathan Swift in the Battle of the Books, arguing that their dispute is best understood in the context of the “splitting of humanist scholarship and humanist literature into separate literary genres” rather than in “the context of the commonplace debate between ancients and moderns.”
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Jonathan Swift's Battle of the Books: Its Background and Satire
(summary)
- Further Reading