Two Worlds (no longer) Apart

Map-making in the 16th century provided intellectuals with a new range of artistic territory to explore, incorporating the new scientific discoveries into their art. Hence, John Donne’s poetry reflects the cartographical trends of the early modern period. Yet others, such as Samuel Daniel, were distrustful of the eager reliance on maps: “Nor must we thinke, viewing the superficial figure of a region in a Mappe that wee know strait the fashion and place as it is.” Samuel Daniel’s attitude embodies Michel de Montaigne’s idea of empirical skepticism- a suspension of judgment until convinced by overwhelming evidence. In light of his warning against blindly accepting the constructed reality of a place based on a map, the main characters in Edmund Spenser's “A View of the Present State of Ireland” maneuver through conceptions and biases about Ireland’s terrain. As they discuss political strategy for reconstructing Ireland, there is a tonal shift, and Eudoxus gains tonal authority after a map is introduced into the dialogue, therefore challenging Daniel’s statement (Avery 263). Spencer explicates the role of cartography in 16th century colonialism by proposing the map as a symbol for power. In context of the new age of reason and modern sciences, Spencer’s work appears to be dissecting the validity of experience and science, and how one reaches an objective truth. Maps were used to construct a reality beyond conventional borders, and accompanying the expansion of space, maps became a tool to understand and broaden perceptions of life, sometimes to an abused and detrimental power. The map as a metaphor for power is used to represent larger societal and humanistic themes during the time of scientific discovery. Seen through Edmund Spencer’s “A View of the Present State of Ireland” and John Donne’s poetry, the map’s power of visibility enables it to construct and validate a place, but consequently can also be turned into a detrimental instrument of colonialism. 

The representation of Ireland on maps in the 16th Century lends a metaphorical view of the sovereignty of British colonial rule. Scholar Bernard Klein remarks on the ability of  Irish maps to “construct an image of the internal dynamics of a political space,” which is evident in Spencer’s “View of the Present State of Ireland” (Klein 12). The duality of Irish and British identity is seen throughout Irenius’s dialogue about the issues of an underdeveloped, rebellious state unwilling to conform to imperial rule. For example, the first map of Ireland, Baptista Boazio’s Irelande, can be seen as a “the claim to English supremacy over Irish soil” with “St. George's flag at the top, two majestic English ships sailing the Irish coastline, a dedicatory address to the queen in the bottom left-hand corner crowned by the royal coat of arms” (Klein 16). The appearance of English ships and coat of arms on the map is a subtle, yet audacious remark on the inferior status of Ireland. Another example is Christopher Saxon’s maps where "all words and images are the king's" (Avery 271). The image of Ireland that the map portrays is reliant upon British stereotypes and domination. In light of Samuel Daniel’s own defense against map-making, there is a fault in the inherent subjectivity in viewing a place, that also echoes larger political and historical themes. The map becomes the physical encapsulation of Ireland’s otherness and Britain's colonialism. The beginning of Eudoxus’ dialogue, he lays forth their aims to utilize Ireland’s good soil while “reducing that salvage nation to better goverment and civillity” (Spencer). As Irenius starts to “declare the evills” of the land from his own experience, his inherent biases are hideously apparent in his descriptions of Irish culture (Spencer). Because of map-making, a land’s identity becomes a tangible feature- one that can be molded and distorted by the powerful hands that construct it. 

As the dialogue in “A View of the Present State of Ireland” progresses, the dynamics between the two characters shift when a map is introduced. Since maps were used as “tools both for the expansion of empire and the fostering of a nationalistic attachment to territory,” Eudoxus gains authority in judging the state based off of the map (Avery 263; Turner 414). Eudoxus takes out the map to aid his judgement of Irenius’s plan to divide up garrisons: “yet I will take the mapp of Ireland before me, and make my eyes in the meanwhile my schole-maisters, to guid my understandinge to judge of your plott” (Spencer). The shift in tone after the map is introduced into the dialogue lends explanation to the role of cartography in qualifying knowledge or authority. As Irenius is basing his evidence on experience, Eudoxus references the map as a source of understanding to question Irenius’ ideas (Avery 265). Eudoxus’s tonal shift mirrors the authority of experience Irenius channels prior to the map appearing, which suggests the map as an instrument of power. This contradicts Samuel Daniel’s view that one does not know a place based on the map, but sheds light on the knowledge a map can provide about a place. Not only does Eudoxus gain tonal authority, but Irenius’s plan for Ireland becomes more controlled and detailed after the map is introduced (Avery 271). For example, Irenius goes straight into describing how he would divide up the garrisons and replace the Irish with British landlords (Spencer). These plans are synonymous with the imperial borders drawn on the map, therefore conglomerating Irenius’s strategy with Eudoxus’s perspective. This suggests that Ireland becomes “a territorial extension of the national sphere...negotiating the political accommodation of Irish cultural difference into a British framework” (Klein 4). The map becomes a tool for Eudoxus to exercise his opinion on Ireland and plans to adjust it it into the ‘British framework’. This melding of perspectives into one overarching view highlights the map as an instrument of colonialism by its capacity to represent and forge a dominating view of a place even amongst differing opinions. 

The map is used as a tool of colonialism by melding differing perspectives into one authoritative voice. Eudoxus exhibits a “position of home authority” as he is the colonial expert and questions Irenius simple view, “a vaine conceipt of simple men,” which speaks to the authority of maps (Avery 267; Spencer). Nevertheless, Eudoxus’s critique of Irenius’s simple observations relates back to idea of empirical skepticism, which suggests that observation is not sufficient evidence to decide what a place is, but the map provides this direction. The map is seen as an instrument of colonialism because Eudoxus, the representative of Britain’s imperial rule, equals the knowledge and authority of experience by using the map as a resource alone (Breene 47). Samuel Daniel warned against this type of attitude because maps are inherently subjective, therefore misrepresentative of a place. Although Euxodus challenges Daniel’s statement by gaining authority and knowledge from the map, the map’s constructed reality is deceiving and promotes stereotyped views that endorse Britain's agenda. For example, in the end of the dialogue, they decide to replace the Irish names on the map with English ones, so that the Irish people will “shall in shorte tyme learne quyte to forgett this Irish natyon” and their names be “utterly forbiden and extinguyshed” (Spencer). The map is used as a tool to solidify the English domination on Irish soil. The varying descriptions of the Irish that Irenius flushes out appear to be validated by the map alone, that “the state grants them no right to visibility until they take up a fixed space on the Eudoxan map” (Avery 268). The notion of visibility is imperative to Britain’s sovereignty over Ireland; once visible on the map, they are able to rewrite Ireland’s culture with their own. Spencer writes: “the Irisheman, I assur?e yow, feares the gouernment noe longer then he is within sight or reach.” It is the act of being seen and traced on a map that allows the British to exert their authority. The map is seen as a powerful instrument of colonialism because through it the British empire can control the perceived reality of their subjects. 

In addition to the map representing a mode of colonialism, it is also seen as a source of power in the poetry and playwrights of the time. In John Donne’s poetry “we see most clearly both the sense of genuine novelty that accompanied changes in cartographic representation” (Turner 415). For example, in “Good Morrow” the two lovers represent the “multiplicity of worlds” shown on cordiform maps (Sharp). The beginning of the poem introduces the lovers in a type of unreality: “I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I/ Did, till we loved?... If ever any beauty I did see,/ Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.” It is not until their love that they “possess one world,” like the “sea-discovererers” finding their own “new worlds” (Donne). It appears that their love for one another has transformed them into a place- two hemispheres that equal ‘one world’. Their love is legitimized by their metaphorical location on the map; the dream-like world before was a shadow of the reality they now encompass, represented by the physical encapsulation of their love on the map. The map becomes a metaphor for their love, but also represents the power of maps to legitimize a place, to construct a new reality. In the same way, the map in Spencer’s work is used to validate the new constructed reality of Ireland. Like the lovers in Donne’s poem, Ireland too becomes a real place in the eyes of the British once drawn onto a map, and open to evidence of subjugation. Both Donne and Spencer recognize the ability of maps to shape a place and validate it in the world. 

In another one of Donne’s poems, “To His Mistress Going to Bed”, the lovers mirror the relationship between tyrannical Britain and Ireland. While encouraging his mistress to undress, he writes: “Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering, But a far fairer world encompassing” (Donne). The woman’s body is a metaphor of a new land, and he is the discoverer prepared to chart the new territory. John Donne’s poetry highlights the domination and exploitation of colonialism through linking sexuality to cartography. In the end of the poem he concludes:

“O, my America, my Newfoundland,

My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd, 

My mine of precious stones, my empery

  How am I blest in thus discovering thee !

To enter in these bonds, is to be free ;

Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.”  

This passage reiterates the speaker’s domination over the woman; she is now the property of the discoverer, as tradition, and should be “mann’d” by “one man” to ensure his solitary control. Interestingly, Donne remarks that entering into the affair “is to be free.” In sight of colonialism and map-making, the charting of new territory encompasses the ability to make a place. Not only is he discovering and exploiting new territory, but also puts her on the map- a gesture that implies distributing importance and an added validity. Once on the map, she can become a “real” place, brought into his world, which may indeed be the freeing that Donne references. Again, the notion of visibility on a map as validating a territory in the world reflects the importance of the map in Spencer’s View and Donne’s poetry. Along with Spencer’s work, John Donne’s poems represent the map and charting of new territory as an instrument of domination, colonialism, but also validation of a place.

On the subject of maps, in The Boke Named the Gouernor, Thomas Elyot wrote “I can nat tell, what more pleasure shulde happen to a gentil witte, than to beholde in his owne house euery thynge that with in all the worlde is contained.” The consolidation of a place onto a hand held paper resulted had an astronomic influence on the modern world, increasing access to and knowledge about a place while opening up scientific and artistic realms of discovery. As convenience was a benefit of the maps, Spencer’s “A View of the Present State of Ireland” disrupts the notion that one’s experience was imperative to knowing a place- the very concept Samuel Daniel warns about. Instead, through Irenius and Eudoxus’s dialogue, and the shifting dynamic with the presentation of the map, it is clear that the Map has the power and authority of experience. Since it encompasses the quality of making a place visible and validating a place, it is also vulnerable to be used as an instrument of Colonialism. Eudoxus and Irenius prove the power of the map as Britain’s device to maintain sovereignty over Ireland, questioning the validity and knowledge of practical experience and shifting reliance to the map. Yet, Samuel Daniel’s warning against knowing a place based off of the map is applicable to Spencer’s work, as the map provides means for an oppressive rule. 

Word Count: 2152

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