Aspects of Piety 09
Style 1c
There is evidence that Adams had read the works of several of his predecessors and contemporaries and he has been compared with nearly all the writers we have named. His scholarship reminds the reader of that ‘great gulf of learning’ Bishop Andrewes. (Though Adams is often compared with Taylor, Andrewes and Donne [see pic], a scholar like Seaver is still clear on the difference between ‘a witty sermon preached by Lancelot Andrewes or John Donne’ and ‘one in the plain style of Richard Sibbes or Thomas Adams’. Cf Seaver, p 181).
In sketching a character he is not inferior to Overbury or Earle. In fearless denunciations of sin, in pungency and pathos, he is sometimes equal to Latimer (1485-1555, Protestant Reformer and martyr. See pic of him preaching.) or to Richard Baxter. For fancy, we may, after Southey, compare him for imagination, with Taylor; for wit, with Fuller. In one sermon at least, that on the Temple, there is an occasional grandeur that brings to memory the kindred treatise of Howe. Joseph Hall is probably the writer he most resembles in richness of scriptural illustration and in fervour of feeling; in soundness of doctrine he is certainly equal; in learning, and power, and thought, he is superior. (Angus, xxi)
To the names mentioned here perhaps we could add those of the early Puritans Greenham and Smith. (Henry Smith was a disciple of Richard Greenham (1531-1591) who laboured for 20 years in the village of Dry Drayton and became famous for his counselling work). William Haller writes of the characteristic of Greenham and Smith’s sermons as being ‘plain and perspicuous’ in that they are composed in straightforward lucid sentences not without wit but avoiding preciosity and the ostentation of erudition.
They were also influenced by the mediaeval tradition of making war on wickedness ‘by attacking its several varieties’, leading to ‘more or less realistic description of actual manners and morals’, the creation of ‘characters’ and the portrayal of social types. Haller goes on to say that these traits in Greenham and Smith are also found, in varying degrees, in other Calvinists and Puritans of the time. Alluding to Southey’s statement, he cites Adams as 'No Shakespeare but a late and extreme though brilliant example of the persistence of these traditions'. (William Haller, Rise of Puritanism, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972, pp 30, 31).
To the names mentioned here perhaps we could add those of the early Puritans Greenham and Smith. (Henry Smith was a disciple of Richard Greenham (1531-1591) who laboured for 20 years in the village of Dry Drayton and became famous for his counselling work). William Haller writes of the characteristic of Greenham and Smith’s sermons as being ‘plain and perspicuous’ in that they are composed in straightforward lucid sentences not without wit but avoiding preciosity and the ostentation of erudition.
They were also influenced by the mediaeval tradition of making war on wickedness ‘by attacking its several varieties’, leading to ‘more or less realistic description of actual manners and morals’, the creation of ‘characters’ and the portrayal of social types. Haller goes on to say that these traits in Greenham and Smith are also found, in varying degrees, in other Calvinists and Puritans of the time. Alluding to Southey’s statement, he cites Adams as 'No Shakespeare but a late and extreme though brilliant example of the persistence of these traditions'. (William Haller, Rise of Puritanism, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972, pp 30, 31).
No comments:
Post a Comment