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         The Blithedale Romance as American Baroque

     There are clear limitations to a generalization that
relies on the definition and analysis of concepts such as
baroque: It must not be overdone.

     Baroque is, among other things, a predominance of
ornamentation over structure and function.  The American
Victorian style with its elaborate decorations is an
analogous phenomenon.  The baroque of 17th century Europe
was the concomitant of a counter-reformation.  A counter-
reformation in 19th century America, a revolt against
liberalism and progress, is exemplified by transcendentalism
and Brook Farm as described in Hawthorne's embellished
prose, which strikes me as florid as the gingerbread
cornices of the Victorian houses of the period.

     Baroque is always tempered by constraints.  In Bach's
music the excessive baroque ornamentation is limited by the
plainness of the chorales, by the structure of fugue, and by
forms of musical style such as the concerto, passacaglia,
fantasia etc, and in Bach's vocal music by the discipline
imposed by the text.

     Conservatism, as the belief that the evils of this
world must be accepted, is by definition a denial of
progress, inasmuch as progress does not conserve, or that
progress if it occurs at all, is inward and individual.  The
notion of sin is not uncongenial to the conservative.
Liberalism cherishes the belief that the evils of this world
can be mitigated by social action.

     Economically, baroque is (also) occasioned by a
disproportion between assets and needs.  Man does not know
what to do with his wealth so he lavishes it on decoration,
on frills.  The first half of the 19th century in America
was prosperous enough. The architect on a limited budget
would avoid the baroque.

     Technically baroque is (also) occasioned by a
disproportion between available skills and tasks.  It may
even serve as a social device to offset unemployment. The
early American, Colonial, Federalist styles are more
compelling expressions of architectural necessity.

     There is something baroque also about Emerson's
rhetoric, implying that beautiful language makes thoughts
beautiful, and that expressing beautiful thoughts in
beautiful language is tantamount to making them real.  The
highest function of man is to orate.  The emphasis is on
oration: the lawyer was an orator, so was the statesman,
and even the philosopher. Poetry becomes declamation,
and declamation comes to be poetry, a thesis seemingly
corroborated by Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, and by
Emerson himself.

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