The English Baroque: The Logic of Excess in Early Modern Literature

Abstract

This dissertation argues that early modern English literature was an essential part of the first global aesthetic movement—the baroque. While the baroque remains a foundational concept for other European traditions, scholars have largely elided the word from English literary history. By emphasizing multilingual and cross-confessional relations, I show why the baroque is a better concept for understanding early modern English literature than more isolated terms like metaphysical. “The English Baroque” begins by presenting a new theory of the baroque based on its etymology in a thirteenth-century poem by the English logician William of Sherwood. A mnemonic device for remembering logical syllogisms, William’s poem gives the name Baroco to a syllogism notorious for its excessive complexity. Based on this philology, I argue that the baroque is best understood as a logic of excess—a process of thought that pushes systems toward complexity, confusion, and the sublime. I trace the development of this logic of excess in early modern English poetry, prose, and performance, including works by Margaret Cavendish, Abraham Cowley, Richard Crashaw, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, and William Shakespeare. “The English Baroque” not only demonstrates the relevance of early modern English literature to the global baroque, but also supports the emergence of a new baroque style that affirms excess as an aesthetic form of freedom.