Byron, poetics, and history

269 Pages·2002·1.437 MB·English

by  Byron, George Gordon Byron, Stabler, Jane, Byron, George Gordon Byron

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM 
BYRON, POETICS AND HISTORY
JaneStableroffersthefirstfull-scaleexaminationofByron’spoetic
form in relation to historical debates of his time. Responding to
recentstudiesofpublishingandaudiencesintheRomanticperiod,
Stabler argues that Byron’s poetics developed in response to con-
temporaryculturalhistoryandhisreceptionbytheEnglishreading
public.DrawingonextensivenewarchiveresearchintoByron’scor-
respondenceandreading,Stablertracesthecomplexityoftheinter-
textualdialoguesthatrunthroughhiswork.Forexample,Stabler
analysesDonJuanalongsideGalignani’sMessenger–Byron’sprincipal
source of news about British politics while in Italy – and refers
tohithertounpublishedlettersbetweenByron’spublishersandhis
friendsrevealingapowerfulimpulseamonghiscontemporariesto
directhiscontroversialpoeticstyletotheirownpoliticalends.This
fascinatingstudywillbeofinteresttoByronistsand,morebroadly,
toscholarsofRomanticismingeneral.
 isLecturerinEnglishattheUniversityofDundee.
SheistheauthorofTheLongmanCriticalReaderonByron()and
BurketoByron,BarbauldtoBaillie–().

   
Generaleditors
ProfessorMarilynButler ProfessorJamesChandler
UniversityofOxford UniversityofChicago
Editorialboard
JohnBarrell,UniversityofYork
PaulHamilton,UniversityofLondon
MaryJacobus,UniversityofCambridge
KennethJohnston,IndianaUniversity
AlanLiu,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara
JeromeMcGann,UniversityofVirginia
DavidSimpson,UniversityofCalifornia,Davis
This series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging
fields within English literary studies. From the early s to the early s
a formidable array of talented men and women took to literary composition,
not just in poetry, which some of them famously transformed, but in many
modes of writing. The expansion of publishing created new opportunities for
writers,andthepoliticalstakesofwhattheywrotewereraisedagainbywhat
Wordsworthcalledthose‘greatnationalevents’thatwere‘almostdailytaking
place’: the French Revolution, the Napoleonic and American wars, urbanisa-
tion, industrialisation, religious revival, an expanded empire abroad and the
reform movement at home. This was an enormous ambition, even when it
pretended otherwise. The relations between science, philosophy, religion and
literaturewerereworkedintextssuchasFrankensteinandBiographiaLiteraria;gen-
derrelationsinAVindicationoftheRightsofWomanandDonJuan;journalismby
CobbettandHazlitt;poeticform,contentandstylebytheLakeSchoolandthe
CockneySchool.OutsideShakespearestudies,probablynobodyofwritinghas
producedsuchawealthofresponseordonesomuchtoshapetheresponsesof
modern criticism. This indeed is the period that saw the emergence of those
notionsof‘literature’andofliteraryhistory,especiallynationalliteraryhistory,
onwhichmodernscholarshipinEnglishhasbeenfounded.
ThecategoriesproducedbyRomanticismhavealsobeenchallengedbyrecent
historicistarguments.Thetaskoftheseriesistoengagebothwithachallenging
corpusofRomanticwritingsandwiththechangingfieldofcriticismtheyhave
helpedtoshape.AswithotherliteraryseriespublishedbyCambridge,thisone
willrepresenttheworkofbothyoungerandmoreestablishedscholars,oneither
sideoftheAtlanticandelsewhere.
Foracompletelistoftitlespublishedseeendofbook.

BYRON, POETICS
AND HISTORY
JANE STABLER

ThePittBuilding,TrumpingtonStreet,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom
  
TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridge,UK
WestthStreet,NewYork,NY-,USA
WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia
RuizdeAlarco´n,Madrid,Spain
DockHouse,TheWaterfront,CapeTown,SouthAfrica
http://www.cambridge.org
(cid:1)C JaneStabler
Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout
thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
TypefaceBaskervilleMonotype/.pt SystemLATEXε []
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Stabler,Jane.
Byron,poetics,andhistory/JaneStabler.
p. cm.–(CambridgestudiesinRomanticism;)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.

.Byron,GeorgeGordonByron,Baron,––Knowledge–History.
.Literatureandhistory–GreatBritain–History–thcentury. .Byron,GeorgeGordon
Byron,Baron,–.DonJuan. .Historicalpoetry,English–Historyandcriticism.
.DonJuan(Legendarycharacter)inliterature. I.Title. II.Series.
. 
(cid:2).–dc 
hardback
ForNHR
andMGQR
allthesethings–likemostthingsarealottery–itmaybeaswellat
leasttohavetheticketdrawn.
(, ,pp.–)
Contents
Acknowledgements pagex
Noteontexts xii
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction:Byronandthepoeticsofdigression 
 ‘Scorchinganddrenching’:discoursesofdigressionamong
Byron’sreaders 
 ‘Breachesintransition’:eighteenth-centurydigressions
andByron’searlyverse 
 ErringwithPope:HintsfromHoraceandthetrouble
withdecency 
 Uncertainblisses:DonJuan,digressiveintertextualityand
therisksofreception 
 ‘Theworstofsinning’:DonJuan,moralEnglandand
femininecaprice 
 ‘Betweencarelessnessandtrouble’:Byron’slastdigressions 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 
ix
Acknowledgements
My work has involved many debts of gratitude and it is a pleasure to
acknowledgethemhere.Iamgratefultothestaffofthefollowinginsti-
tutions:theBibliothèqueInteruniversitaireofLille,theBibliothèqueNa-
tionaleinParis,theBritishLibrary,theBodleianLibrary,theBrotherton
Library, Dundee University Library, Edinburgh University Library,
Glasgow University Library, the House of Lords Record Office, the
National Library of Scotland, Stirling University Library, St Andrews
University Library, the Special Collections Department, University of
StAndrews.LikemanyotherpeoplewhohaveworkedonByron,Iam
indebted to Virginia Murray for her kind help in locating manuscripts
and I would like to thank   for permission to consult and
quote from material in the John Murray Archive. I would also like to
thank the Earl of Lytton for permission to consult and quote from the
LovelacePapersdepositedintheBodleianLibrary.
A section of Chapter Two appeared in Essays in Criticism .
(October ), –, and is reprinted by permission of Oxford
UniversityPress.AversionofthefirstpartofChapterThreeappeared
inTranslation&Literature(),–,andisreprintedbypermission
oftheeditorsandEdinburghUniversityPress.Aversionofonesection
of Chapter Four appeared in The Byron Journal  (), – and is
reprintedbypermissionoftheeditor.
Ihavereceivedkindlyencouragementandadvicefrommanyfriends
andcolleaguesduringthewritingofthisbook.Iwouldparticularlylike
to thank Alex Alec-Smith, Michael Alexander, Bernard Beatty, Alison
Chapman,PeterCochran,RobertCrawford,RichardCronin,Jonathan
Cutmore, Tom Duncan, Peter Easingwood, Fiona Gaman, Marilyn
Gaull, Jo-Anne George, Jill Heydt-Stevenson, Abi Holt, Gwen Hunter,
Peter Isaac, Molly Lefebure, Ralph Lloyd Jones, Malcolm Kelsall,
Sally Kilmister, Peter Kitson, Gregory P. Kucich, Michael O’Neill,
Sarah Poynting, David Robb, Andrew Roberts, Bill Ruddick, Victor
x