The Scrutiny

Question 1

What literary movement did Lovelace belong to?

Answer 1

Cavalier/ Late English Renaissance

Question 2

What literary concept is The Scrutiny a rejection of?

Answer 2

Courtly love tradition

Question 3

What major war in English history occured in Lovelace’s lifetime

Answer 3

The English Civil War

Question 4

What style of poetry does Lovelace most commonly write?

Answer 4

Carpe Diem Poetry

Seize the day

Question 5

Which side of the civil war was Lovelace on?

Answer 5

The Cavalier/ Royalists (Supporting the king, the losing side)

Question 6

Why does Lovelace write Carpe Diem poetry?

Answer 6

He was supporting the losing side of the war. The royalists were a dying breed

Question 7

What values in particular do the cavaliers not rate at all?

Answer 7

Morality
Work
Fidelity

Question 8

Who does The Scrutiny focus on and how does Lovelace achieve this?

Answer 8

Male experience of a relationship

Masculine rhymes, references to hair in order to diminish the value of women

Question 9

How does Lovelace convey a lack of strong emotion?

Answer 9

Impersonal Language
Carpe Diem language
Diminuative language
Conditionals

Question 10

How does Lovelace subvert courtly convention?

Answer 10

Utilises language of the Chivalric Code as a persuasive device

Question 11

What were the main royalist beliefs?

Answer 11

Traditional hierarchy and old power, the divine right of kings

Question 12

Quotes that diminish the value of women (x2)

Answer 12

“Fond impossibility”

“Brown hair”

Question 13

Quotes which characterise the speakers exploits as a quest (x2)

Answer 13

“Skillful mineralist”

“I laden will return to thee”

Question 14

Quotes about the speakers sexual appetite (x2)

Answer 14

“loved my round”

“sated with variety”

Question 15

Quotes reflecting the carpe diem attitude (x4)

Answer 15

“why should I swear I am forsworn”
“Lady ‘tis already morn”
“I must all other beauties wrong and rob you of a new embrace”
“A tedious 12 hours’ space”

Question 16

What does hair symbolise in The Scrutiny?

Answer 16

The diminishing of women

Sexuality (Something only a lover gets to see down)

Question 17

What is the tone of The Scrutiny?

Answer 17

Hyper-masculine, overconfident,

superficial

Question 18

What are the major emotions conveyed in The Scrutiny?

Answer 18

Obligation,
Indignance,
Conditional lust/ past lust

Question 19

What expectation of women is presented in The Scrutiny?

Answer 19

Women are expected to wait patiently for a man to choose them
Nagging presence- a foil to the man’s happiness

Question 20

Over arching interpretations of The Scrutiny

Answer 20

Ode to a dying way of life,
Rallying cry to sieze the day,
Emotionless engagement in lust- does love exist?
Rejection of courtly love

Question 21

What is the plot of The Scrutiny?

Answer 21

The speaker rebuffing the protest of a woman with whom he has had an encounter. He argues that nothing lasts forever and that he must see all of his alternatives before he can think of choosing her as the best.

Question 22

Critical quotation about masculinity in Lovelace’s poetry

Answer 22

“Lovelace’s poetry conveys a smug male assurance in dallying with love and the emotions of women, but through them there echoes the alternative, but also excessively masculine, martial urgency of the 1640s”

Question 23

Critical quotation about Lovelace’s morality in relation to courtly manner

Answer 23

“(He) exhibits a gentlemanly lightness of touch and the equality of lax morality typical of Cavalier poetry. His politic (sexual as well as national) render him representative of the easy, confident, flirtatious, essentially unearnest world of courtly manner”