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The general aim of this thesis is to further undermine the convention that British moral philosophy of the early eighteenth century is best conceived as a struggle between rationalist and sentimentalist epistemologies. I argue that the philosophers considered here (Samuel Clarke, Francis Hutcheson, Gilbert Burnet, John Balguy and John Gay) situated their moral epistemologies within the wider framework of an attempt to prove the ‘reality' of virtue in terms of virtue being an achievable, practical endeavour. To this end, they were as much concerned with the attributes that motivated or caused God to create in the way that he did – his communicable attributes - as they were with our own natural moral abilities. I maintain that this concern led Clarke, Burnet and Balguy to look beyond a rationalist epistemology in an attempt to account for the practical possibility of moral action. I claim that it led Hutcheson to develop a moral theory that reflected a realist theistic metaphysics that went some way beyond an appeal to providential naturalism. I argue that it led Gay to try to synthesise the approaches of rival moral schemes in order to offer a unified account of agency and obligation. The thesis has three key objectives: 1) to examine the relationship of rationalism to obligation and motivation in the work of Clarke, Burnet and Balguy, and 2) to explore the relative roles of sense and judgment in the moral epistemologies of Hutcheson, Burnet, Balguy and Gay and to (re) examine the nature of Hutcheson's moral realism, and 3) to investigate the theistic metaphysical claims made by all parties with respect to their arguments about moral realism.

The eighteenth century is famous for producing literary satire, primarily in verse (and later prose) form. However, during this period, a new dramatic form also arose of which satire was the controlling element. And like the writers of prose and verse satires, playwrights of dramatic satire claimed that their primary aim was the correction of moral faults and failings. Of course, they did not always succeed in this aim. History has shown a few, however, to have had a significant impact on the ideas and lives of their audiences. This thesis is an attempt to demonstrate how these satiric dramas achieved their reformative aims by tracing the theatrical experience of an eighteenth-century audience through Victor Turner's stages of liminality. Turner explains the different ways in which specific genres of theatre (1) create a performance space that is apart from, but still draws symbolically on, the outside world, (2) invite the participation of their audiences in that space, and (3) urge audiences to act in different ways as they leave the theatre space. By examining plays in these ways, we can see how the plays affected the ideas and outlooks of audience members. Because satiric drama invited a high level of participation from audience members, because it invited them into a very "liminal" space, it frequently served to sway audience members' tastes, and in some cases even helped to revolutionize social and literary institutions.

O presente estudo examinou a trajetória literária do autor inglês John Gay sob o viés da sua correspondência, com o objetivo de encontrar exemplos de seu processo de criação nas suas cartas. Selecionou-se um corpus composto de cartas escritas por e para John Gay, famoso pela criação da ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, escrita em 1728. Dentre os seus mais importantes correspondentes, destacam-se os escritores Alexander Pope e Jonathan Swift. A análise das cartas mostrou que seu objetivo ia muito além da simples comunicação. Foi possível examinar algumas etapas do processo de criação do escritor através de trechos de poemas, alusões literárias e informações de fontes contidas nas cartas. Tais descobertas servem para afirmar o caráter literário da correspondência, que pode servir como espaço de expressão artística e território da criação. O questionamento decorrente dessa afirmação é acerca dos limites que separam os dois gêneros, literário e epistolográfico. / This study examined the literary career of the eighteenth century writer John Gay from the point of view of his letters, with the aim of finding examples of his creation process in his correspondence. A corpus consisting of letters written by and to John Gay, who is famous for his ballad opera The Beggar's Opera written in 1728, was selected. Among his most important correspondents were the famous writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The analysis of the letters showed that their aim reached beyond communication. It was possible to examine some stages of the author's creation process through lines of his poems, literary allusions and sources expressed in his letters. These findings affirm the literary character of the correspondence, as a way of artistic expression and territory of creation. This statement raises a question about the border between literary genre and correspondence.

O presente estudo examinou a trajetória literária do autor inglês John Gay sob o viés da sua correspondência, com o objetivo de encontrar exemplos de seu processo de criação nas suas cartas. Selecionou-se um corpus composto de cartas escritas por e para John Gay, famoso pela criação da ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, escrita em 1728. Dentre os seus mais importantes correspondentes, destacam-se os escritores Alexander Pope e Jonathan Swift. A análise das cartas mostrou que seu objetivo ia muito além da simples comunicação. Foi possível examinar algumas etapas do processo de criação do escritor através de trechos de poemas, alusões literárias e informações de fontes contidas nas cartas. Tais descobertas servem para afirmar o caráter literário da correspondência, que pode servir como espaço de expressão artística e território da criação. O questionamento decorrente dessa afirmação é acerca dos limites que separam os dois gêneros, literário e epistolográfico. / This study examined the literary career of the eighteenth century writer John Gay from the point of view of his letters, with the aim of finding examples of his creation process in his correspondence. A corpus consisting of letters written by and to John Gay, who is famous for his ballad opera The Beggar's Opera written in 1728, was selected. Among his most important correspondents were the famous writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The analysis of the letters showed that their aim reached beyond communication. It was possible to examine some stages of the author's creation process through lines of his poems, literary allusions and sources expressed in his letters. These findings affirm the literary character of the correspondence, as a way of artistic expression and territory of creation. This statement raises a question about the border between literary genre and correspondence.

O presente estudo examinou a trajetória literária do autor inglês John Gay sob o viés da sua correspondência, com o objetivo de encontrar exemplos de seu processo de criação nas suas cartas. Selecionou-se um corpus composto de cartas escritas por e para John Gay, famoso pela criação da ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, escrita em 1728. Dentre os seus mais importantes correspondentes, destacam-se os escritores Alexander Pope e Jonathan Swift. A análise das cartas mostrou que seu objetivo ia muito além da simples comunicação. Foi possível examinar algumas etapas do processo de criação do escritor através de trechos de poemas, alusões literárias e informações de fontes contidas nas cartas. Tais descobertas servem para afirmar o caráter literário da correspondência, que pode servir como espaço de expressão artística e território da criação. O questionamento decorrente dessa afirmação é acerca dos limites que separam os dois gêneros, literário e epistolográfico. / This study examined the literary career of the eighteenth century writer John Gay from the point of view of his letters, with the aim of finding examples of his creation process in his correspondence. A corpus consisting of letters written by and to John Gay, who is famous for his ballad opera The Beggar's Opera written in 1728, was selected. Among his most important correspondents were the famous writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The analysis of the letters showed that their aim reached beyond communication. It was possible to examine some stages of the author's creation process through lines of his poems, literary allusions and sources expressed in his letters. These findings affirm the literary character of the correspondence, as a way of artistic expression and territory of creation. This statement raises a question about the border between literary genre and correspondence.