Hybrid Philosophers: Cavendish’s Reading of Hooke’s Micrographia

Abstract

The animals which appear in Robert Hooke's Micrographia (1665) and Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World (1666)1 illustrate the two authors' very different ideas about the relationship humans have with nature. In this paper I will argue that the human-animal hybrid characters who are a memorable part of Cavendish's story were in fact a response to and parody of Hooke's drawings and descriptions of insects enlarged with a microscope. The two lots of creatures can be seen as emblems of conflicting ideas about the correct methodology for natural philosophy.