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82.
Weeks,
Boehme
, pp. 93–98.
83.
Ibid
., p. 97.
84.
Böhme,
Mysterium Magnum
,
VIII
: 745, ch. 68, §6: “As at this very day titulary Christendom is full of such magi as have no natural understanding,
either of God or of nature more among them, but only an empty babbling of a supernatural magic ground … that indeed titulary Christendom’s idols which it maketh to itself might, through nature, be made manifest and known, that man might know in nature the outspoken or expressed formed Word of God, as also the new regeneration, and also the fall and perdition.”
85.
Ibid
. On Böhme’s critique of the “Belly-Servants of the Antichrist,” which he saw in all churches of his age, see Weeks,
Boehme
, pp. 97–98, and G. Haensch, “Gesellschaftskritik und Reformationsidee in der Philosophie Jakob Böhmes,”
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie
36, 1 (
1988
): 66–72.
86.
Böhme,
Mysterium Magnum
,
VIII
: 746, ch. 68, §7.
87.
Jacob Böhme,
Signatura rerum, or, The signature of all things shewing the sign and signification of the severall forms and shapes in the creation, and what the beginning, ruin, and cure of every thing is
, trans. John Ellistone (London: Printed by John Macock for Gyles Calvert,
1651
), p. 53, and Böhme,
De Signatura Rerum
,
VI
: 67, ch. 7, §43.
88.
Donne was the first to use “nocturnal” as a noun to refer to a poem about the night in his “A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day.” See Fitter, “Poetic Nocturne,” paragraphs 24–28, and Clarence H. Miller, “Donne’s ‘A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day’ and the Nocturns of Matins,”
Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900
6, 1 [The English Renaissance] (
1966
): 77–86.
89.
Rzepinska, “Tenebrism,” p. 93. Michel de Certeau’s
The Mystic Fable
, trans. Michael B. Smith (University of Chicago Press,
1995
) focuses on this period as marked by the formation and decline of
mystics
as a discourse. His survey of mysticism from Teresa of Avila to Angelus Silesius opens and closes with authors who used darkness and the night to describe their path to the divine. See pp. 16–26, 75–150.
90.
Certeau,
Mystic Fable
, p. 77. See also Michael Kapeller,
Auch Finsternis finstert dir nicht: ein Versuch über die Nacht des Glaubens und die Reflexion dieser Erfahrung in der Dogmatik
, Theologie der Spiritualität 7 (Münster: Lit,
2004
), pp. 94–95.
91.
Maximilianus Sandaeus,
Pro theologia mystica clavis: elucidarium onomasticon vocabulorum et loquutionum obscurarum
(Louvain: Éditions de la Bibliotheque S.J.,
1963
; facsimile of Cologne: Officina Gualteriana, 1640), pp. 288–89.
92.
“Nox. Multa apud Mysticos indicari possunt metaphora Noctis, qua frequentissimè utitur Iohannes à Cruce, excellens nostri temporis Mysticus, cuius sunt Libri de Asensu Montis Carmeli.”
Ibid
., “Index Vocabulorum.”
93.
Richard Crashaw,
The Complete Poetry of Richard Crashaw
, ed. George Walton Williams (New York: Norton,
1972
), p. 45.
94.
Mary W. Helms, “Before the Dawn: Monks and the Night in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Europe,”
Anthropos
99 (
2004
): 177–91.
95.
Ignatius of Loyola,
The Spiritual Exercises of S. Ignatius of Loyola. Founder of the Society of Jesus
(Saint-Omers: Printed by Nicolas Joseph Le Febvre,
1736
), p. 22. The deliberate use of darkness was integral to Jesuit culture in this period. See below,
chapter 4
,
section 4.2
, “Darkness and the perspective stage.”
96.
Teresa of Avila,
Interior Castle
, in
The Complete Works of St Teresa of Jesus
, ed. and trans. E. Allison Peers (London: Sheed and Ward,
1972
),
II
: 210, 218; Joseph Chorpenning, “The Image of Darkness and Spiritual Development in the
Castillo interior
,”
Studia Mystica
8, 2 (
1985
): 45–58.
97.
John Donne, “A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s Last Going into Germany” (1619), in
John Donne’s Poetry
, ed. Dickson, pp. 154–55. See Jeffrey Johnson, “Gold in the Washes: Donne’s Last Going into Germany,”
Renascence
46, 3 (
1994
): 199–207. For similar comments by Luther and Calvin, see Daniel Ménager,
La Renaissance et la nuit
, Seuils de la modernité 10 (Geneva: Droz,
2005
), pp. 164–65, although these sixteenth-century Protestants describe the spiritual night in more passive terms, in contrast with Catholic baroque references to actively seeking or creating darkness and the night for spiritual benefit.
98.
Note that the sermon was preached “in the evening.” John Donne,
Complete Poetry and Selected Prose
, ed. Charles M. Coffin (New York: Random House,
1978
), p. 629.
99.
Ibid
., p. 585.
100.
Francis Quarles,
Emblemes by Fra. Quarles
(London: Printed by G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at Iohn Marriots shope,
1635
), p. 131.
101.
Paul Gerhardt, “Abend-Lied,” in
Gedichte des Barock
, ed. Ulrich Maché and Volker Meid (Stuttgart: Reclam,
1980
), pp. 174–75:
Nun ruhen alle Wälder /Vieh / Menschen / Städt und Felder /Es schläfft die gantze Welt:Ihr aber meine Sinnen /Auf / auf ihr solt beginnenWas eurem Schöppfer wol gefällt.
See Martha Mayo Hinman, “The Night Motif in German Baroque Poetry,”
Germanic Review
42, 3 (
1967
): 83–95.
102.
Gerhardt, “Abend-Lied,” p. 175. Almost as an afterthought, Gerhard offers in the penultimate stanza a more traditional prayer for protection from “Satan.”
103.
See Stuart McClintock,
The Iconography and Iconology of Georges De La Tour’s Religious Paintings, 1624–1650
, Studies in Art and Religious Interpretation 31 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press,
2003
), and Paulette Choné, ed.,
L’âge d’or du nocturne
(Paris: Gallimard,
2001
).
104.
Georges de La Tour (1593–1652),
The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame
,
c
. 1638–40. Painting, oil on canvas, 46 1/16 × 36 1/8 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
105.
See Choné,
L’Atelier des nuits
, and her articles on “La lanterne et le flambeau,” in
Georges de La Tour, ou, La nuit traversée
, ed. Anne Reinbold (Metz: Éditions Serpenoise,
1994
), pp. 145–58, and on “Exégèse de la ténèbre et luminisme nocturne: les ‘nuits’ lorraines et leur contexte spirituel,” in
Les signes de Dieu aux XVIe et XVII siècles
, ed. Geneviève Demerson and Bernard Dompnier (Association des Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Clermont-Ferrand,
1993
), pp. 89–99.
106.
Dorothy L. Latz, ed.,
Glow-Worm Light: Writings of 17th Century English Recusant Women from Original Manuscripts
, Salzburg Studies in English Literature 92: 21 (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg,
1989
), p. 70.
107.
Donne’s maternal grandfather John Heywood died a recusant in Flanders in 1578.
108.
Latz, ed.,
Glow-Worm Light
, p. 142.
109.
Blaise Pascal,
Pensées
, ed. and trans. Roger Ariew (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett,
2005
), p. 225. In this passage Pascal balanced darkness with the traditional value of light: “if there were no illumination, man would not hope for a remedy.”
110.
John of the Cross,
Ascent of Mount Carmel
, in
Complete Works
, trans. and ed. Peers, p. 69.
111.
Ibid
., p. 92.
112.
George Herbert,
The Complete English Poems
, ed. John Tobin (London: Penguin Books,
1991
), p. 191. The poem was composed before 1633.
113.
Claude Hopil,
Les divins eslancemens d’amour exprimez en cent cantiques saints en l’honneur de la Tres-saincte Trinité
(Paris: S. Hure, 1629). For an introduction to Hopil, see François Bouchet, “Claude Hopil ou l’éclat des ténèbres,”
Conférence
1 (
1995
): 155–91.
114.
Translated from the modern edition: Claude Hopil,
Les divins élancements d’amour
, ed. F. Bouchet (Grenoble: Millon,
2001
), canticle 41, 4. See Werner Indermühle,
Essai sur l’oeuvre de Claude Hopil
(Zurich: Juris-Verlag,
1970
), pp. 21–31.
115.
Hopil,
Divins élancements
, canticle 74, 1:
Mon Esprit s’eslevant aux cachots magnifiquesDans le rayon divin des tenebres mistiques,Tout confus & ravy,Je vy ce qu’on ne peut penser ny moins escrire,Ainsi je vous du tout en ne pouvant rien dire:De tout ce que je vy.
116.
Ibid
., canticle 31, 10.
117.
Ibid
., canticle 96, 3.
118.
Ibid
., canticle 54, 8. Hopil describes prayer at night in canticles 49, 54, 72, 74, 75, 89, and 91.
119.
Dorothy S. Packer, “Collections of Chaste Chansons for the Devout Home (1613–1633),”
Acta Musicologica
16, 2 (
1989
): 175–216, here 178. In contrast with John of the Cross, Hopil scarcely mentions the ascetic night. The painful passages through the darkness of the senses and spirit central to John’s encounter with the night seem to play no role in Hopil’s mysticism.
120.
Andreas Gryphius, “Über die Geburt Jesu,” in
Gedichte des Barock
, ed. Maché and Meid, p. 113:
Nacht / mehr denn lichte Nacht! Nacht / lichter als der Tag /Nacht / heller als die Sonn’ / in der das Licht geboren.…O Nacht, die alle Nächt’ und Tage trotzen mag!
See Vereni Fässler,
Hell-Dunkel in der barocken Dichtung. Studien zum Hell-Dunkel bei Johann Klaj, Andreas Gryphius und Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg
. Europäische Hochschulschriften 44 (Berne: Lang,
1971
), pp. 47–68.
121.
Latz, ed.,
Glow-Worm Light
, p. 81.
122.
Blaise de Vigenère,
A discovery of fire and salt discovering many secret mysteries, as well philosophicall, as theologicall
, trans. Edward Stephens (London: Printed by Richard Cotes, and are to be sold by Andrew Crooke,
1649
), p. 24. First edn. (posthumous), Paris, 1618.
124.
Graeme J. Watson makes a similar point in his “The Temple in ‘The Night’: Henry Vaughan and the Collapse of the Established Church,”
Modern Philology
84, 2 (
1986
): 144–61, in reference to the Cudamore illustration.
125.
Daniel Cudmore,
Euchodia. Or, A prayer-song; being sacred poems on the history of the birth and passion of our blessed Saviour, and several other choice texts of Scripture
(London: Printed by J.C. for William Ley in Paul’s Chain,
1655
). Note that the reference to “Iohn 20. 5” in the frontispiece corresponds to John 19:5 (“Behold the man”) in modern editions of the text.
126.
John Milton,
Paradise Lost
, ed. David Scott Kastan and Merritt Yerkes Hughes (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett,
2005
), p. 50;
II
.263–68.
127.
William Flesch, “The Majesty of Darkness,” in
John Milton
, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House,
1986
), pp. 293–311.
128.
Milton,
Paradise Lost
, ed. Kastan and Hughes, p. 94;
III
.375–80.
129.
John of the Cross,
Dark Night of the Soul
, in
Complete Works
, trans. and ed. Peers, p. 396.
130.
Ibid
., pp. 419–20.
131.
In the seventeenth-century English translation: Dorothy L. Latz, ed.,
The Building of Divine Love, As Translated by Agnes More
, Salzburg Studies in English Literature. Elizabethan and Renaissance Studies 92: 17 (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg,
1992
), pp. 48, 81.
132.
For example, John’s works were used extensively by the influential Francisan spritual writer Juan de Los Angeles (d. 1609). See Irene Behn,
Spanische Mystik: Darstellung und Deutung
(Düsseldorf: Patmos-Verlag,
1957
), pp. 160–68.
133.
Johann Arndt,
Vier Bücher von wahrem Christenthumb: die erste Gesamtausgabe (1610
), ed. Johann Anselm Steiger, Johann Arndt-Archiv 2 (Hildesheim: G. Olms,
2007
), book 3, pp. 48–49.
134.
Hopil,
Divins élancements
, canticles 74, 1 and 75, 1.
135.
Ibid
., canticles 66, 11 and 86, 1.
136.
Rzepinska, “Tenebrism,” pp. 97–100.
137.
Angelus Silesius,
The Cherubinic Wanderer
, trans. Maria Shrady (New York: Paulist Press,
1986
), pp. 71–72.
138.
On subjectivity see Patricia Fumerton,
Unsettled: The Culture of Mobility and the Working Poor in Early Modern England
(University of Chicago Press,
2006
), pp. 3–5, 47–59, Gen Doy,
Picturing the Self: Changing Views of the Subject in Visual Culture
(London: I. B. Tauris,
2005
), pp. 35–62, Lyndal Roper,
Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe
(London: Routledge,
2003
), pp. 1–36.
139.
Daniel Drovin,
Les Vengeances divines, de la transgression des sainctes ordonnances de Dieu
(Paris: J. Mettayer,
1595
), fos. 108v–109r (= 189v–190r), as quoted in Clark,
Thinking with Demons
, p. 137, and Louis LeRoy,
Of the interchangeable course, or variety of things in the whole world and the concurrence of armes and learning … Written in French by Loys le Roy called Regius: and translated into English by R.A
. (London: Printed by Charles Yetsweirt,
1594
), as quoted in Clark,
Thinking with Demons
, p. 55.
140.
Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas, seigneur (1544–90),
La Semaine
(1578); complete English translation by Joshua Sylvester,
Devine Weekes and Workes
(1605), here from the 1621 edition (London: Printed by Humphray Lownes,
1621
), p. 12. See Michel Braspart, ed.,
Du Bartas, poète chrétien
(Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé,
1947
), p. 86.
141.
Rainer Decker, “Der Brillen-Traktat des Michael Stappert,” Introduction to Hermann Löher,
Hochnötige Unterthanige WEMÜTIGE KLAGE der Frommen Unschültigen
(Amsterdam,
1676
), ed. Thomas P. Becker, online at
http://extern.historicum.net/loeher
.