On To Friendship

Excerpt from To Friendship by Charlotte Smith:

[...] Like the fair moon, thy mild and genuine ray
Through Life's long evening shall unclouded last;
While Pleasure's frail attachments flee away,
As fades the rainbow from the northern blast!
[...]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (henceforth OED), at the time of Charlotte Smith's writing of To Friendship in the mid-late eighteenth century, friendship was defined as "affinity, correspondence, [and] aptness to unite." In other words, friendship was the relationship and interaction of two people in a social, platonic manner -- possibly maintained in spite of geographic separation through written communication. Charlotte Smith's To Friendship is an English/Italian mixed-form sonnet that discusses the nature of friendship and explains them for the lay reader. While the passage preceding the selected stanza describes the elite and elusive nature of friendship for the lay reader, the selected passage from To Friendship elaborates on the superiority of friendship to passion, and the persistent nature of friendship throughout life.

As part of the mixed-form sonnet, which bears the rhyming pattern "A B A B C D C D E F G E F G", the selected passage follows the form "C D C D", with each line strictly regimented to 10 syllables. In the selected stanza, being no exception to the remainder of the remainder of the sonnet, Charlotte Smith personifies friendship fondly, praising its attributes and taking note of its steadfast perseverance. Smith also uses this stanza to betray her perspective on friendship and pleasure, with meaning that is central to the understanding of the entire sonnet.

The first line of this passage requires an understanding of language at the time to perceive more accurately. Primarily of note are the terms "mild" and "genuine", which are now seldom used to describe a person or personified thing, as the former now more commonly describes the intensity of flavor in salsa while the latter is a common label for manufacturers to distinguish between products they produce and counterfeit knockoffs. The OED states that at the time of Smith's writing, a mild person or personified thing was said to be "gentle, moderate, [or] measured" in nature, while a genuine person or personified thing was "free from affectation or hypocrisy". Additionally, the choice of simile likening friendship to a ray of clear, white moonlight in the dark of night suggests that friendship is a steadfast beacon in a sea of less-desirable forms of relationship and interaction. In layman's terms, this means that friendship is in the minority compared to other forms of relationships, and that friendship is not extravagant or put on as a show. Smith is praising the nature of friendship as pure and true interaction between two people, without strain or weight of encumbrance.

While the second line is more obviously-straightforward than the first, the OED provides confirmation of its understanding. The two main phrases of note in this line are "Life's long evening" and "shall unclouded last". The OED confirms that in this case (at the time of Smith's writing), the long evening of life is "the closing or declining period of a person's life" -- in chronological terms, this is latter portion of life, or the term of life remaining following a last major achievement. The OED also states that the common usage of "unclouded" at the time described something as being "not darkened or obscured". The OED also suggests that at the time the moon was seen as "an observer or overseer of human affairs", and that it was removed from more intimate interactions with humanity. More commonly, these interpretations show Smith stating that the nature of friendship described in the previous line ("mild and genuine") would (or could) hold true of a friendship between two people throughout the end of their lives without suffering distortion ("darkening or obfuscation") due to the positioning of the two people involved such that they would not suffer the ill effects of Earthly interactions. With the second line paired to the first, Smith is continuing to witness the perseverant and persistent nature of friendship by saying that a friendship between two people is established in such moderation that it can last virtually endlessly.

In the third line of the selected passage from To Friendship, Smith begins to contrast friendship with pleasure. The OED provides insight here, stating that at the time of Smith's writing, pleasure was a reference to "the indulgence of physical, esp. sexual, desires or appetites; sensual or sexual gratification". The OED also states that at the time, frailty was a colloquial euphemism for a person who was "morally weak; unable to resist temptation", while attachment was "affection, devotion, [or] fidelity". According to these definitions, Smith saw pleasure (sex, love, etc.) as a fleeting fancy or a passing passion. In turn, this implies that in contradiction to pleasure, friendship must be platonic and/or intellectual. This aligns well with the interpretation of the previous line, such that friendship is likened to the moon and thus removed from the effects regular to more intimate affairs. Smith is thus comparing the weakness and inevitable-exhaustive nature of pleasure to the everlasting nature of friendship.

The fourth and final line of this passage continues in the same contrasting vein as the previous sentence, though with less obfuscated meaning. Using very clear language to clarify herself through simile, perhaps in an effort to remove any confusion from the minds of her audience, Smith reiterates the contrast between pleasure and friendship. She states that relationships of pleasure are doomed to exhaustion just as a rainbow is dissipated by an approaching storm ("northern blast") -- a striking comparison, likening the warm and fuzzy feeling evoked by a beautiful rainbow to a lustful relationship of pleasure and comparing the inevitable exhaustion of passion to the cold front of a menacing winter storm. Thus, while a stable friendship lasts through the evening of life, a relationship of pleasure fails in the winter quarter and leaves its participants out in the cold. In this final line, Smith is driving home the point that regardless of the gales and storms that blow fiercely through life, friendship will remain strong and true, while relationships forged on passion will inevitably fail.

Charlotte Smith's choice to contrast friendship and pleasure so severely seems to betray her personal opinions on the matter. It is worth remembering that Smith's husband left their marriage, and so she was jaded regarding pleasure and relationships with a basis in pleasure or love. Also, since Smith later discusses a female friend, Anna, perhaps the perspective laid down in the central stanza of this sonnet discussed herein implies that Smith was conflicted regarding her sexuality in a time when such considerations were socially inappropriate. In that vein of consideration, perhaps the strong assertion of the superiority of friendship in the central stanza is a window to Smith's struggle to solve her internal conflict; the assertions could be attempts to assure herself of a solution to her conflict in that friendship is a stronger and more true bond between two people than a relationship of pleasure.

The four lines comprising the stanza selected for this analysis are highly central to the comprehension of this entire sonnet. Smith appears to use this stanza as an opportunity to share her passionate beliefs on pleasure, and to send a message that publicizes her perspective on friendship. She uses a strictly-structured sonnet to reinforce her perspective and galvanize her audience, and she personifies friendship fondly, praising its presence throughout life and its persistence as an everlasting relationship with another person, while simultaneously defending her position against pleasure.

Reference

Smith, Charlotte. To Friendship. (1784).

Citation

Eckert, Daniel C. Close Reading: To Friendship. (2009, September 11).