Eighteen Hundred and Eleven: Poetry, Protest and Economic Crisis (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, Series Number 116)

351 Pages·2017·5.308 MB·English

by  E. J. Clery

i
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND ELEVEN
In 1811 England was on the brink of economic collapse and revolu-
tion. Th e veteran poet and campaigner Anna Letitia Barbauld pub-
lished a prophecy of the British nation reduced to ruins by its refusal
to end the interminable war with France, titled E ighteen Hundred and
Eleven . Combining ground- breaking historical research with incisive
textual analysis, this new study dispels the myth surrounding the hos-
tile reception of the poem and takes a striking episode in Romantic-
era culture as the basis for exploring poetry as a medium of political
protest. Clery examines the issues at stake, from the nature of patriot-
ism to the threat to public credit, and throws new light on the views
and activities of a wide range of writers, including radical, loyalist
and Dissenting journalists, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey and
Barbauld herself. Putting a woman writer at the centre of the enquiry
opens up a revised perspective on the politics of Romanticism.
E. J. Clery is a professor of English Literature at the University of
Southampton. Her publications include Th e Rise of Supernatural
Fiction, 1762– 1800 (Cambridge, 1995), W omen’s Gothic from Clara
Reeve to Mary Shelley (2000), Th e Feminization Debate in Eighteenth-
Century England (2004) and J ane Austen: Th e Banker’s Daughter (2017).
In 2013 she was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major Fellowship for the
project ‘Romantic- Era Women Writers and Economic Debate’. She
lectures and broadcasts on eighteenth- century and Romantic litera-
ture, book history and the cultural history of economics.
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
ii
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM
Founding editor
Professor Marilyn Butler , U niversity of Oxford
General editor
Professor James Chandler , U niversity of Chicago
Editorial Board
John Barrell , U niversity of York
Paul Hamilton , U niversity of London
Mary Jacobus , U niversity of Cambridge
Claudia Johnson , P rinceton University
Alan Liu , U niversity of California, Santa Barbara
Jerome McGann , U niversity of Virginia
David Simpson , U niversity of California, Davis
Th is series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fi elds
within English literary studies. From the early 1780s to the early 1830s a formi-
dable 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 writ-
ing. Th e expansion of publishing created new opportunities for writers, and the
political stakes of what they wrote were raised again by what Wordsworth called
those “great national events” that were “almost daily taking place”: the French
Revolution, the Napoleonic and American wars, urbanization, industrialization,
religious revival, an expanded empire abroad and the reform movement at home.
Th is was an enormous ambition, even when it pretended otherwise. Th e rela-
tions between science, philosophy, religion, and literature were reworked in texts
such as Frankenstein and Biographia Literaria; gender relations in A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman and D on Juan; journalism by Cobbett and Hazlitt; poetic
form, content and style by the Lake School and the Cockney School. Outside
Shakespeare studies, probably no body of writing has produced such a wealth
of comment or done so much to shape the responses of modern criticism. Th is
indeed is the period that saw the emergence of those notions of “literature” and of
literary history, especially national literary history, on which modern scholarship
in English has been founded.
Th e categories produced by Romanticism have also been challenged by recent
historicist arguments. Th e task of the series is to engage both with a challenging
corpus of Romantic writings and with the changing fi eld of criticism they have
helped to shape. As with other literary series published by Cambridge, this one
will represent the work of both younger and more established scholars, on either
side of the Atlantic and elsewhere.
For a complete list of titles published see end of book.
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
iii
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v
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED
AND ELEVEN
Poetry, Protest and Economic Crisis
E. J. CLERY
University of Southampton
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
vi
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title:  www.cambridge.org/ 9781107189225
DOI: 10.1017/9 781316987278
© E. J. Clery 2017
Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2017
Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Clery, E. J., author.
Title: Eighteen hundred and eleven : poetry, protest and
economic crisis / E. J. Clery.
Description: Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2017. |
Series: Cambridge studies in Romanticism ; 116 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017003099 | I SBN 9781107189225 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743–1825. Eighteen hundred
and eleven. | Politics and literature – Great Britain – History –
19th century. | Protest poetry, English – History and criticism. |
English poetry – 19th century – History and criticism.
Classifi cation: LCC PR4057.B7 E3733 2017 | DDC 821/.6–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003099
ISBN 978- 1- 107- 18922- 5 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URL s for external or third- party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
i
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND ELEVEN
In 1811 England was on the brink of economic collapse and revolu-
tion. Th e veteran poet and campaigner Anna Letitia Barbauld pub-
lished a prophecy of the British nation reduced to ruins by its refusal
to end the interminable war with France, titled E ighteen Hundred and
Eleven . Combining ground- breaking historical research with incisive
textual analysis, this new study dispels the myth surrounding the hos-
tile reception of the poem and takes a striking episode in Romantic-
era culture as the basis for exploring poetry as a medium of political
protest. Clery examines the issues at stake, from the nature of patriot-
ism to the threat to public credit, and throws new light on the views
and activities of a wide range of writers, including radical, loyalist
and Dissenting journalists, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey and
Barbauld herself. Putting a woman writer at the centre of the enquiry
opens up a revised perspective on the politics of Romanticism.
E. J. Clery is a professor of English Literature at the University of
Southampton. Her publications include Th e Rise of Supernatural
Fiction, 1762– 1800 (Cambridge, 1995), W omen’s Gothic from Clara
Reeve to Mary Shelley (2000), Th e Feminization Debate in Eighteenth-
Century England (2004) and J ane Austen: Th e Banker’s Daughter (2017).
In 2013 she was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major Fellowship for the
project ‘Romantic- Era Women Writers and Economic Debate’. She
lectures and broadcasts on eighteenth- century and Romantic litera-
ture, book history and the cultural history of economics.
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
ii
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM
Founding editor
Professor Marilyn Butler , U niversity of Oxford
General editor
Professor James Chandler , U niversity of Chicago
Editorial Board
John Barrell , U niversity of York
Paul Hamilton , U niversity of London
Mary Jacobus , U niversity of Cambridge
Claudia Johnson , P rinceton University
Alan Liu , U niversity of California, Santa Barbara
Jerome McGann , U niversity of Virginia
David Simpson , U niversity of California, Davis
Th is series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fi elds
within English literary studies. From the early 1780s to the early 1830s a formi-
dable 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 writ-
ing. Th e expansion of publishing created new opportunities for writers, and the
political stakes of what they wrote were raised again by what Wordsworth called
those “great national events” that were “almost daily taking place”: the French
Revolution, the Napoleonic and American wars, urbanization, industrialization,
religious revival, an expanded empire abroad and the reform movement at home.
Th is was an enormous ambition, even when it pretended otherwise. Th e rela-
tions between science, philosophy, religion, and literature were reworked in texts
such as Frankenstein and Biographia Literaria; gender relations in A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman and D on Juan; journalism by Cobbett and Hazlitt; poetic
form, content and style by the Lake School and the Cockney School. Outside
Shakespeare studies, probably no body of writing has produced such a wealth
of comment or done so much to shape the responses of modern criticism. Th is
indeed is the period that saw the emergence of those notions of “literature” and of
literary history, especially national literary history, on which modern scholarship
in English has been founded.
Th e categories produced by Romanticism have also been challenged by recent
historicist arguments. Th e task of the series is to engage both with a challenging
corpus of Romantic writings and with the changing fi eld of criticism they have
helped to shape. As with other literary series published by Cambridge, this one
will represent the work of both younger and more established scholars, on either
side of the Atlantic and elsewhere.
For a complete list of titles published see end of book.
(cid:19)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:17)(cid:10)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:1)(cid:15)(cid:14)(cid:12)(cid:11)(cid:14)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:6)(cid:21)(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:5)(cid:13)(cid:6)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:8)(cid:1)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:11)(cid:20)(cid:8)(cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:11)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:1) (cid:16)(cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:17)
iii
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