Mystic Excess: Extravagance and Indecorum in Richard Crashaw

This essay, a re-evaluation and partial justification of the traditionally controversial eccentricities of Richard Crashaw's poetry, examines the function of 'excess' in his work. 'Excess' is taken to mean both stylistic extravagance and transgression of the normal boundaries of decorum. The first section characterises Crashaw's stylistic extravagance, partly in terms of 'revisional flux', and explores Pseudo-Dionysian semiotics and the notion of 'incongruity'. The second section introduces George Bataille's theory to explain the extravagance in erotic and mystical terms. The third section moves on to 'indecorum' of several kinds, including the use of financial and appetitive, or sensual, imagery. The final section offers observations about Crashaw's tonal ambiguity, use of irony, and combination of wit with seriousness.