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Chapter 4 - “Architect of Wonders”

Creation in Cavendish, Du Bartas, Hutchinson, Denham, and Marvell

from Part II - Imagined Worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2023

Katherine Calloway
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
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Summary

This chapter considers seventeenth-century poetic works that take various positions, implicitly or explicitly, on the question of the relationship between human and divine creation: Margaret Cavendish’s prose fiction Blazing World, biblical creation epics by Guillaume Du Bartas and Lucy Hutchinson, and topographical poems by Sir John Denham and Andrew Marvell. Cavendish and Marvell suggest that it is prideful and misleading to assume that humans can discover truth about divine creation by natural means; Du Bartas and Denham, by contrast, tend to collapse the distance between humans and God, frequently casting God as an “architect” or other type of human creator. Situated between these two groups is Hutchinson, who believes humans can gain insights into God’s ways by looking at our own—but these insights are only ever shadowy and partial and frequently need to be supplemented by divine revelation.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • “Architect of Wonders”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.008
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  • “Architect of Wonders”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.008
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “Architect of Wonders”
  • Katherine Calloway, Baylor University, Texas
  • Book: Literature and Natural Theology in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 07 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415231.008
Available formats
×