Crashaw and the Baroque,

by Marc F Bertonasco

Description

"In this, the full-scale reading of Richard Crashaw in the context of his time and with adequate knowledge of his intellectual and literary background, a poet emerges who is not repugnantly un- English, not narrowly Roman Catholic, not Ignatian, but rather the embodiment of an English tradition shared by many Protestants and even some Puritans. Dr. Linda Van Norden, an authority on both emblem literature and Crashaw, has declared: 'Crashaw's indebtedness to emblem literature has been noted show more by many of his critics, but so far as I know, Dr. Bertonasco is unique in his detailed demonstrations of how Crashaw has applied emblematic material and emblematic method and of what he has done with it. Dr. Bertonasco shows how Crashaw has applied the Salesian-as opposed to the Ignatian-procedure of meditation, and here too Dr. Bertonasco improves on his predecessors... He shows not only that but also how Salesian meditation is exemplified in the tone, mood, and disposition of images in Crashaw's major poems.' Through step-by-step explication of Crashaw's most famous-and notorious-major poems, The Weeper, Dr. Bertonasco illustrates the operation of all the elements in the poet's arsenal of device, and makes us see, for the first time clearly, the peculiar genius of an artist too inseparable from the peculiarities of his own time to rank with the greatest of poets, perhaps, but a poet to reckon with, indeed."- Mark F. Bertonasco. show less