Dodona's Grove

Dendrologia: Dodona's Grove, or the Vocal Forest was a poem by James Howell published in 1640,^[1] which launched Howell's literary career. It was published in English in multiple editions and was translated into French^[2] and Latin.^[3]

Description

Dodona's Grove is an allegory of Europe, particularly England, depicting events between 1603 and 1640.^[3] Dodona, in the title, refers to the ancient Hellenic oracle of Zeus in Epirus.^[4]

Covered in the poem are the Spanish match, the Gunpowder Plot, the murder of Thomas Overbury, and the assassination of Buckingham.^[5] The political criticisms in Dodona's Grove may have contributed to Howell's imprisonment in 1643.^[3]

In the poem, plants represent prominent persons.^[6] The British oak tree in Dodona's Grove represents the Stuarts.^[7]

Impact

Historian Henry Hallam criticized the work harshly, calling it "clumsy", "unintelligible", "dull", and "an entire failure".^[8] Despite its shortcomings, it is speculated to have been an influence on James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana.^[2] Bibliographer Albrecht von Haller was tricked into including Dodona's Grove in his Bibliotheca Botanica.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Moulton, Charles Wells (1901). 1639-1729. The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Moulton publishing Company. pp. 186–187. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
^ ^a ^b Howell, James; Jacobs, Joseph (1892). Epistolae Ho-Elianae: The Familiar Letters of James Howell : Historiographer Royal to Charles II. David Nutt. p. 55. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hansche, Maude Bingham (1902). The Formative Period of English Familiar Letter-writers and Their Contribution to the English Essay. Haskell. pp. 37–38. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
^ Major, Philip (2010). "'To wound an oak': the Poetics of Tree-felling at Nun Appleton". The Seventeenth Century. 25 (1): 143–157. ISSN 0268-117X. ProQuest 845502450.
^ Wright, Louis B. (1937). "The "Gentleman's Library" in Early Virginia". Huntington Library Quarterly. 1: 15. ISSN 0018-7895. JSTOR 3815892.
^ McKenzie, Kenneth (1944). "Some Remarks on a Fable Collection". The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 5 (4): 142. doi:10.2307/26400862. ISSN 0032-8456. JSTOR 26400862.
^ Hamrick, Wes (2013). "Trees in Anne Finch's Jacobite Poems of Retreat". SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900. 53 (3): 542.
^ Hallam, Henry (1880). Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. A. C. Armstrong and son. p. 376. Retrieved 3 February 2021.

External links

Dodona's Grove from The Abraham Cowley Text and Image Archive

[moulton-1] Moulton, Charles Wells (1901). 1639-1729. The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Moulton publishing Company. pp. 186–187. Retrieved 3 February 2021.

[howell-2] Howell, James; Jacobs, Joseph (1892). Epistolae Ho-Elianae: The Familiar Letters of James Howell : Historiographer Royal to Charles II. David Nutt. p. 55. Retrieved 3 February 2021.

[hansche-3] Hansche, Maude Bingham (1902). The Formative Period of English Familiar Letter-writers and Their Contribution to the English Essay. Haskell. pp. 37–38. Retrieved 3 February 2021.

[4] Major, Philip (2010). "'To wound an oak': the Poetics of Tree-felling at Nun Appleton". The Seventeenth Century. 25 (1): 143–157. ISSN 0268-117X. ProQuest 845502450.

[5] Wright, Louis B. (1937). "The "Gentleman's Library" in Early Virginia". Huntington Library Quarterly. 1: 15. ISSN 0018-7895. JSTOR 3815892.

[6] McKenzie, Kenneth (1944). "Some Remarks on a Fable Collection". The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 5 (4): 142. doi:10.2307/26400862. ISSN 0032-8456. JSTOR 26400862.

[7] Hamrick, Wes (2013). "Trees in Anne Finch's Jacobite Poems of Retreat". SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900. 53 (3): 542.

[8] Hallam, Henry (1880). Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. A. C. Armstrong and son. p. 376. Retrieved 3 February 2021.

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