Romanticism and Popular Magic: Poetry and Cultures of the Occult in the 1790s

307 Pages·2019·2.66 MB·English

by  Stephanie Elizabeth Churms

ROMANTICISM AND
POPULAR MAGIC
Poetry and Cultures of
the Occult in the 1790s
Stephanie Elizabeth Churms
PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT,
ROMANTICISM AND CULTURES OF PRINT
Series Editors: Anne K. Mellor and Clifford Siskin
Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment,
Romanticism and Cultures of Print
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Department of English
University of California
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Clifford Siskin
Department of English
New York University
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Stephanie Elizabeth Churms
Romanticism and
Popular Magic
Poetry and Cultures of the Occult in the 1790s
Stephanie Elizabeth Churms
Independent Scholar
Surrey, UK
Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print
ISBN 978-3-030-04809-9 ISBN 978-3-030-04810-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04810-5
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For Tom
A
cknowledgements
The completion of this book would not have been possible without the
help of several people. I am indebted to Professor Damian Walford Davies.
His unwavering support and encouragement have been invaluable. I also
owe thanks to Professor Richard Marggraf Turley, who has been a con-
stant source of advice and guidance. I also wish to acknowledge the mem-
bers of the Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative
Writing, both academic and administrative, who have all provided endless
support, not only over the course of my PhD, but throughout the years I
spent studying at Aberystwyth.
I have been lucky to have benefited from dialogues with academics in
my field at conferences and seminars, and I am grateful for all the com-
ments and suggestions I have received. I am especially grateful to Paul
Cheshire for his assistance in tracking down the evasive second volume of
The Conjuror’s Magazine. I have received the help of several institutions
over the course of my research, and I wish to thank the staff at Hugh
Owen Library, The National Library of Wales, The British Library and
Glasgow University’s Special Collections Library, for their kind assistance.
I also wish to acknowledge the financial support I received from the
Aberystwyth University Department of English and Creative Writing in
the form of a departmental scholarship.
My greatest debt is to those who have provided love and support
throughout the completion of my research. I am grateful to my friends
and fellow PhD students for providing me with a strong network of assis-
tance and advice. I especially want to thank my partner, Tom Huxley, for
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
his love, encouragement and patience. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my
gratitude to my family – their guidance and support will always be
appreciated.
A version of my discussions of political jugglery in Chap. 3, and of John
Thelwall and Poems, Chiefly Written in Retirement in Chap. 4, was pub-
lished as: Stephanie Churms, ‘“There was One Man at Llyswen that could
Conjure”: John Thelwall – Cunning Man’, Romanticism, Vol. 19, No. 2
(2013), pp. 197–206.
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
Engaging the Romantic Occult 2
Critical Limits 5
The 1790s Occult: Historical and Literary Contours 11
2 A Profile of Romantic-Period Popular Magic: Taxonomies
of Evidence 17
First-Hand Experiences of Popular Magic: The Paucity of
Evidence 25
Case Study 1: Writing Cunning Men 32
Case Study 2: Didacticism – Educating Readers Out of
Superstition 42
Case Study 3: Starry Sedition and The Conjuror’s Magazine 54
3 Adjacent Cultures and Political Jugglery 81
The Proximity of Popular Prophecy 86
Astrology and Political Prognostication 90
Discourses of the Revolution Controversy 92
4 John Thelwall’s Autobiographical Occult 109
Geographies of Difference 111
Occult Oration 120
Enchanted Spaces 124
ix
x CONTENTS
5 L yrical Ballads and Occult Identities 131
Lyrical Ballads 1798: A Grimoire 133
‘The Thorn’: Gossip and the Literary Marketplace 140
Forsaken Indian/British Women 143
‘The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Women’: A Spell Poem
Manqué 145
‘The Mad Mother’: Transatlantic Negotiations of Popular Magic 152
6 Coleridge and Curse 165
Bristol’s Radical Circles: Prophets, Astrologers and
Revolutionaries 166
‘The Three Graves’ and Wordsworthian Inheritances 172
‘The Three Graves’ and ‘Christabel’: Coleridge’s Enslaving
Superstition 177
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Wordsworthian Genetics 189
A Platform for Debate 193
The Quarto: Recantation 201
7 Robert Southey’s Conservative Occult 215
‘We Were Altogether Displeased’: Southey’s Response to Lyrical
Ballads 216
Problematising ‘The Witch’ 223
Imposed Occult Identities: ‘The Cross-Roads’ and ‘The Mad
Woman’ 227
‘The Ballad of a Ballad-Maker’: Southey’s Remedial Rewritings
of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ 232
Southey’s Orientalism: Thalaba the Destroyer 235
8 Conclusion 263
Bibliography 273
Index 299