En Angleterre, à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, le débat sur l’éducation des pauvres s’intensifie. La pauvreté, grandissante, est vue comme une menace pour la sécurité publique. L’éducation apparaît alors comme un moyen de la réguler et de résoudre les problèmes moraux qu’elle engendre. William Godwin, écrivain, philosophe et éducateur, prend part à ce débat qui articule éducation, pauvreté et politique. Ce travail se fixe pour objectif de réaliser une lecture de la philosophie politique et éducative de William Godwin à partir des positions qu’il a tenues sur la question de la pauvreté. Bien qu’il n’ait jamais explicitement indiqué que sa pensée éducative et sa pensée politique étaient destinées aussi aux couches défavorisées de la société, nous faisons l’hypothèse qu’une lecture cohérente de son œuvre peut être réalisée si on le suppose. Pour définir sa contribution au débat sur l’éducation des pauvres, réaliser un état des lieux du système éducatif existant a été nécessaire. Dans un second temps, a été menée une analyse du plan d’éducation godwinien qui s’oppose nettement à cette éducation. Axé sur l’égalité naturelle, le potentiel de progrès et le développement des différentes dimensions humaines, un tel projet éducatif permet à chacun d’atteindre l’autonomie et de vivre harmonieusement avec ses semblables. Enfin, éduquer, c’est former de nouveaux hommes capables de vivre dans une nouvelle société. Pour Godwin, la société du futur est une société où les hommes seront suffisamment éduqués et autonomes pour se passer d’État. Au terme de ces analyses, il apparaît légitime d’affirmer qu’il n’y a pas, chez Godwin, une société pour les riches ou une société pour les pauvres ni une éducation pour les riches et une éducation pour les pauvres, mais bien, une éducation et une société pour tous. / In England, at the end of the eighteenth century, the debate on the education of the poor gets stronger. Poverty is increasing and it is perceived as a threat to people’s safety. In that context, education appears as a means to regulate and solve the moral problems it triggers. William Godwin, a writer, a philosopher but also an educator takes part in the debate which articulates education, poverty and politics. The present research aims at carrying out a reading of William Godwin’s political and educationnal philosophy from the views he expressed, separately, on the issue of poverty.Though he never clearly mentioned that his educational and political thinking was also meant for the lower ranks of society, we believe that a coherent reading of his work can be performed if we suppose that his thinking was effectively destined for the poor. Defining Godwin’s contribution to the debate on education for all first implies to propose a description of the educational system in Godwin’s time. Then, an analysis of his educational plan that stands in total opposition to the education of his time has been suggested. Based on equality among men, their potential of progress and the developement of all human qualities, it intends to form independent human beings able to live harmoniously with other people. Eventually, educating means forming new men able to live in a new society. To Godwin, the new society is a place where people are educated and autonomous enough to get rid of the state. At the end of our study, it seems legitimate to assert that, in Godwin’s thinking, there is neither a society for rich people or a society for the poor, or an education for the rich and another one for the poor but rather an education and a society for everybody.

Durant des siècles, la noblesse britannique a défendu une hiérarchie fondée sur la lignée et la généalogie, qui s’inscrivait dans la tradition occidentale de l'ordre universel. En 1735, cependant, l'Homo sapiens de Linné marque le début d'un nouveau discours sur les hiérarchies humaines, désormais fondées sur la « variété » physique. Cette étude veut cerner l’influence de la tradition noble sur les conceptions de la race, en Grande-Bretagne et en Irlande, au cours du long XVIIIe siècle. Nous examinons un ensemble de textes de nature diverse, dans l'espoir de mettre en lumière la continuité des hiérarchies généalogiques à travers plusieurs disciplines et sur plusieurs centaines d'années. La première partie retrace l'histoire du privilège héréditaire comme « identité généalogique » à partir d’œuvres comme A British Compendium, or, Rudiments of Honour (1725-7) de Francis Nichols et l’Essay on Man (1734) d’Alexander Pope. La seconde partie réexamine ces mêmes traditions sous l'angle de la théorie de la race au XVIIIe siècle. Elle s'intéresse aux idées de la race et du breeding dans le roman anonyme, The Lady’s Drawing Room (1744), et à la rhétorique de la variété humaine dans plusieurs ouvrages d’histoire naturelle, dont A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774) d’Oliver Goldsmith. La troisième partie étudie l'influence des Lumières et de la Révolution française sur l’idée de « race noble » telle qu'elle apparaît dans les Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) d'Edmund Burke, ainsi que le rôle de la « noblesse naturelle » dans des œuvres abolitionnistes, notamment Slavery, or, the Times (1792) d’Anna Maria Mackenzie. Ainsi, cette étude entend démontrer que la tradition de la « race » noble a été, et demeure, une composante fondamentale dans la construction d'un concept de « race » humaine, qui fait de la pureté du sang, de la supériorité des mœurs et de l’anatomie des principes définitoires de la hiérarchie humaine. / For centuries, British nobility promoted an elite hierarchy based on genealogical precedence within the greater Western tradition of universal order. In 1735, however, Carolus Linnaeus’s Homo sapiens signalled the beginning of an entirely new discourse of human hierarchy based on physical ‘variety’. This study aims to identify how noble tradition influenced conceptions of race in Great Britain and Ireland during the long eighteenth century. Tracing the persistence of a ‘pureblood’ model of human superiority in the West, it traverses a vast range of historical material in order to highlight the continuity of genealogical hierarchies across multiple disciplines and over hundreds of years. The first section reviews the history of hereditary privilege as a backdrop to noble culture in eighteenth-century Britain: examining works such as Francis Nichols’s British Compendium, or, Rudiments of Honour (1727-7) and Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1734), it considers how nobility as a genealogical identity was accommodated in the ‘Great Chain of Being’ understanding of human hierarchy. The second section considers these same traditions in terms of the eighteenth-century ‘race’ construct: it considers the notion of ‘breeding’ in works such as the anonymous The Lady’s Drawing Room (1744) and the rhetoric of human variety in naturalist texts such as Oliver Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774). The third and last section considers the influences of Enlightenment and the French Revolution on ideas of noble race in Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), and the role of ‘natural’ nobility in abolitionist texts such as Anna Maria Mackenzie’s Slavery; or, the Times (1792). In short, this study demonstrates that the tradition of noble ‘race’ was, and is, a fundamental component of the human ‘race’ construct, asserting blood purity, anatomical superiority, and inimitable excellence as defining principles of human hierarchy.

(Jose Antonio) Carlos de Seixas (1704-1742) is an important figure in the European keyboard music of the beginning of the 18th-century. He composed around 700 sonatas for keyboard, of which only around 105 are known today. They demonstrate a high execution level that can be compared with J. P. Rameau (1683-1764), J. S. Bach (1685-1750), Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783) and other important composers of his time. Like Scarlatti and Soler, Carlos Seixas is positioned in an important transitional period in the history of music. He and his contemporaries are situated between true giants of Western Art Music: before and, in part, during Seixas's life time lived G. F. Haendel (1685-1759) and J. S. Bach (1685-1750); and after Seixas came F. J. Haydn (1732-1809), W. A. Mozart (1756-1791), and L. van Beethoven (1770-1827). During this transitional time in the first half of the eighteenth century, from the baroque to the classical eras, several stylistic trends coexisted--- the baroque, the new galant style, the empfindsamer Stil, and the pre-classical. This essay is divided into four chapters. In Chapter One I discuss the sources for Seixas scholarship followed by a historical overview of seventeenth- and eighteenth- century Portugal as well as a brief biographical sketch of Seixas's life. Chapter Two includes a discussion of Seixas's musical style and form. I examine various facets of his compositional style, including some commonalities found in many composers' works during the transitional period between the Baroque and pre-Classical. I also explore other facets of his keyboard writing such as the use of violin idioms, folkloric sounds, and symphonic textures. In Chapter Three I examine in greater detail Seixas's keyboard writing. I start with descriptions of the instruments that Seixas may have used and of his keyboard writing. I also examine available scholarship for guidelines on performing early eighteenth-century keyboard music in general--including specific approaches to ornaments, articulation, improvisation, rubato, and the like--before turning to Seixas's keyboard sonatas in particular. The last chapter, Chapter Four, includes elements for the analysis of Seixas's sonatas; I choose four of these sonatas for more in-depth analysis of formal and tonal structure. The four selected sonatas represent different formal schemes and stylistic characteristics, which demonstrate the variety within Seixas's solo keyboard pieces. They show great contrasts in form, relationship of movements, and thematic treatment: Sonata No. 16 in C minor presents only one movement in free binary form; Sonata No. 27 in D minor has three movements with no evident relationship among them and toccata elements in the first movement; Sonata No. 42 in F minor also has three movements but the last two movements relate thematically and the first movement presents imitative counterpoint; and Sonata No. 59 in A major represents pre-classical tendencies in texture and structure, presenting three movements connected as a whole through cyclical thematic ideas in the outer movements and a second movement, in A minor, that links to the last movement by means of an open ending. In addition, Chapter Four includes pedagogical insights from an analytical standpoint and annotations for the use of Seixas's sonatas as teaching resources. As part of this chapter's pedagogical resources, I also list additional sources for understanding performance practice of eighteenth-century music, review the available editions of Seixas's solo keyboard compositions, and list the primary performers of his keyboard works. Finally, the appendices to this essay include two cataloguing tables: the first (Appendix A) catalogues a selected group of Seixas's sonatas with detailed descriptions of their technical difficulties, and the second (Appendix B) catalogues all eighty sonatas according to level of difficulty. In addition, the scores of all four sonatas analyzed in Chapter Four are provided in two forms: Appendices C, D, E, and F contain the original Seixas score as edited by Seixas's preeminent scholar Santiago Macario Kastner; Appendices G, H, I, and J contain my performer's scores for the same four sonatas, that is, annotated versions of Kastner's editions.

This thesis examines the intellectual foundation of the London Corresponding Society’s (LCS) efforts to reform Britain's Parliamentary democracy in the 1790s. The LCS was a working population group fighting for universal male suffrage and annual parliaments in a decade that was wrought with internal social and governmental tension. Many Britons, especially the aristocracy and those in the government, feared the spread of ideas of republicanism and equality from revolutionary France and responded accordingly by oppressing the freedom of speech and association. At first glance, the LCS appears contradictory: it supported the hierarchical status quo but fought for the voice and representation of the people; and it believed that the foundation for rights was natural but also argued its demands for equal rights were drawn from Britain’s ancient unwritten constitution. This thesis contextualizes these ideas using a contemporary debate, the Burke-Paine controversy, as Edmund Burke was the epitome of eighteenth century conservative constitutionalism in Reflections on the Revolution in France while Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man represented a Lockean interpretation of natural rights and equality. Thus using Reflections and Rights of Man as a framework, this thesis demonstrates that the LCS thoroughly understood its demands for parliamentary reform and uniformly applied its interpretation of natural rights and equality to British constitutionalism and the social and governmental hierarchies.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 258 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The overarching goal of this study is to suggest that Alexander Pope did not abandon his project for a "system of ethics in the Horatian way," but rather that in his final days he did find a way to unite the parts at hand into a viable whole. Constructing such an argument, however, requires a similar building up from the parts, and so the core focus becomes a study on the way the image of an arch can serve as a metaphor for Pope's reconciliation scheme in his Moral Essays as he "steers betwixt" seeming opposites. To justify this approach, I note the works of critics who have studied Pope's use of the sister arts, the works of architectural theorists and historians, as well the works of critics who focus on various reconciliatory strategies. Perhaps more importantly, I look back to Pope's correspondence and Joseph Spence's record to establish not only Pope's interest in architecture, but also his actual architectural endeavors. / ABSTRACT: From this foundation, I relate Pope's intentions for his opus magnum and indicate the connections that can be drawn between the four epistles of Essay on Man and the four epistles that Pope selected to comprise the "death-bed" edition of his ethic work, namely To a Lady, To Cobham, To Bathurst, and To Burlington. Finally, I examine Pope's method of reconciling the extremes he presents by exemplum in the Moral Essays by comparing the personal and societal pressures that form the basis of Pope's satire to the vertical and lateral thrusts that enable an arch to stand, even as they threaten its destruction should the forces become unbalanced. From such an architectural perspective, one can trace Pope's conception of man in his middle state as he makes the transition from the abstract plan established in Essay on Man, through the pendentive formed by the arches of the Moral Essays, and ultimately to the ideal state of existence that is represented by the dome. / ABSTRACT: The final result can be conceived of as no less than a monument to Pope's life and art. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Castrati were without doubt, an extraordinary phenomenon in the vocal world. Four centuries of history exist from the first evidence of their presence in music, dating from the 1550s, and the death of the last castrato Allessandro Moreschi, in 1922. A tradition almost solely practiced in Italy, the castrati experienced their halcyon days in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. At first, they were recruited and castrated as young boys to sing in the soprano sections of the church choirs. They enjoyed an extensive training in specialized conservatorios and grew to be the most accomplished vocalists the world had known thus far. Inevitably, their art was noticed by opera composers of the time. They flourished and were celebrated in Italy and abroad. Their vocal technique and artistic skills dictated the bel canto style for nearly two hundred years. At the end of the eighteenth century, the growing awareness in moral philosophy, and a series of political shifts in Europe put an end to the overwhelming success of the eunuchs. Yet their influence on opera composition of the time and of the subsequent decades was of immense consequence. An important question should be raised when performing the opera roles written for castrati nowadays. Who will sing the castrato roles? As a logical solution, women or countertenors should adopt these roles into their repertoire. A study of opera roles written for castrati by a baroque master in the genre, Georg Friedrich Handel, sheds some light on the music for these rare birds. The castrato role-study encompasses Handel’s operas written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728). By disclosing some particular aspects in the music and the drama, it becomes clear what voice type should be singing these roles in present day Handel opera production. / text

This dissertation deals with how the concept of virtue (dygd) is used in Swedish occasional poetry addressed to merchants before 1780. Occasional poetry was the major kind of literature in Sweden in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, and usually addressed to the nobility and other dominant groups. As a part of the elites’ conspicuous consumption, and mainly aimed to demonstrate the addressees’ virtue, it played an important role in legitimising the social and political dominance of the elite. Merchandise, however, was regarded with moral suspicion. The main purpose of the thesis is to study the argumentative strategies the poets use to honour merchants, and to determine in what ethical traditions they have found the arguments to back up their reasoning. It is thereby possible to detect subtle changes in how they use the concept of virtue. These strategies and arguments are seen from a rhetorical point of view; the poets’ main purpose was to praise the tradesmen persuasively. The dissertation consists of three parts, dealing with, respectively, the period before 1650, the years 1670–1680 and the period 1770–1780. Each part is divided into three chapters: a brief presentation of the main ethical discussion of the period, a concise examination of the occasional poetry written for groups other than merchants, and an analysis of the argumentative strategies used in honouring tradesmen. The earliest merchant prints are constructed as defences rather than actual complimentary poems. Whereas the poems written for other addressees mainly make use of an Aristotelian concept of virtue, focusing on the services done for society and on the honour that follows from this, the merchant poems take a Lutheran law conception of ethics as their starting point. The key point is to claim that the merchant in question has not broken the Ten Commandments, or any other law belonging to man. Neither has he ever done any harm to his neighbours. In the 1670’s, this argumentative strategy is still abundant, but the poets also claim that the merchants have contributed to society, either through Christian charity or, with an allusion to mercantilism, by always trading with the aim of enriching their fatherland. In some cases, economic success in itself is regarded as a ground for honouring the merchant, the claim being that this was necessary for his charity, or by reference to the Lutheran ethics of calling or vocation. A main point is that the poets sometimes use the word virtue to describe these qualities, thereby in effect widening the concept itself. In the 1770’s, all earlier argumentative strategies are still used by the poets. In some cases, however, the texts consist in an attack on the Aristotelian concept of virtue. The poets argue that virtue is an inner, almost invisible quality having nothing to do with performing an occupation or belonging to a special social stratum. Instead they focus on sincerity as a quality essential to real virtue and as an important virtue in itself, thereby also claiming that virtue and glory could and should be separated.

This thesis is an investigation of the Philanthropic Society (est. 1788) and Refuge for the Destitute (est. 1804), two subscription charities established to prevent crime and reform members of the “criminal underclass” in London, England. This thesis engages the perspectives of both benefactors and beneficiaries, arguing that beneficiaries (or “objects”) were not passive participants in the charitable exchange, but actively sought to manipulate the institutions’ systems to secure their own desires —desires which did not always align with those of their benefactors. The introductory chapter explores the social, economic, and political conditions which led benefactors to create the institutions and which informed their aims and methods. The first chapter examines the strategies used by objects to secure charitable aid on their own terms. The post-institutional conduct of beneficiaries is the focus of the final chapter. Despite the intensive reformatory regimen of the Philanthropic and Refuge, a significant proportion of beneficiaries —at least one third— refused to fulfill benefactors’ expectations that they become law-abiding, industrious, and pious citizens. From the day of their application to the institutions to long after their departure, objects’ actions were informed by their own expectations and desires. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

This thesis investigates the representation of social reality that can be reflected by folk belief and the supernatural within mythic worlds created in epic poetry. Although the society, itself, can be regarded as the creator of its own myth, it may still be subjected to the impact of the synthesized mythic world, and this study seeks to address the roles of the society in the shaping of such mythic worlds. The research is inspired by an innovative approach, using James Macpherson’s Ossian (1760-63) and Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala (1835-49) as epic models that benefit from mythical traditions. Through the examination and the comparison of these two epic collections, both of which seem to have a close association with social reformation and restructuring, the study explores the universality of human nature. It also reveals the extent mythic worlds may exhibit the ‘realities’ of their source-societies and how mythical tradition may become a reflection of a society’s transforming past modes of thinking. Moreover, the study devotes special attention to the influence of mythic heritage on national awakening and the construction of national identities. The research treats Macpherson as the re-inventor of Gaelic oral tradition with his Ossian, where he portrays a Romanticized image of a gallant past according to the norms of the eighteenth century. Therefore, the mythic world of the epic can be seen as a combination of an ancient heroic past and the aesthetic refinement of a polished age. In this framework, as the product of a society going through a transition period from traditional to modern, Ossian seems to reflect the society’s changing world-view, both celebrating, and mourning for a culture on the verge of extinction. Focusing on the Kalevala, the study analyzes its portrayal of Finnish folk belief. The Kalevala, like Ossian, is an attempt to recover ancient tradition, which seems to revolve around supernatural and divine elements, with hopes to establish a common social reality. It is an expression of Finnish language, belief and culture, whose production was prompted by the looming Finnish nationalism. Therefore, the evolving mode of thought represented in the mythic world of Kalevalaic poems, is expected and favoured by the society, enabling the epic to encourage a social reformation.

Among the existing body of literature on J.S. Bach’s massive compositional output, a scarce percentage of this research is dedicated specifically to the study of French Baroque court dances and their influence on Bach’s solo vocal repertoire. This study presents secular and sacred solo vocal works by J.S. Bach that were influenced by popular French court dances of the eighteenth century. The study explores musical and dance traits extracted from some of the most popular French Baroque court dances and incorporated into solo vocal repertoire. The intent of this paper is to provide a resource from a performer’s perspective that serves as an informative guide for vocalists, vocal coaches, and voice instructors. It includes biographical information about J.S. Bach, an historical overview of five of the most popular eighteenth-century French court dances, and it features five solo vocal works by Bach whose conception was influenced by French Baroque court dances. The overall goal of this study is to inform the reader about the influences and relationships between French Baroque dance and solo vocal works by J.S. Bach. This study is unique in that it is limited only to those solo vocal works which share a relationship with eighteenth-century French court dances.