Romantics and Renegades: The Poetics of Political Reaction

277 Pages·2003·1.583 MB·English

by  Charles Mahoney (auth.)

Romantics and Renegades
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Romantics and Renegades
The Poetics of Political Reaction
Charles Mahoney
Associate Professor of English
University of Connecticut
© Charles Mahoney 2003
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First published 2003 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-42855-7 ISBN 978-0-230-59762-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230597624
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A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mahoney, Charles, 1964–
Romantics and renegades: the poetics of political reaction / Charles Mahoney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English poetry – 19th century – History and criticism – Theory, etc.
2. Politics and literature – Great Britain – History – 19th century.
3. France – History – Revolution,1789–1799 – Literature and the revolution.
4. Political poetry, English – History and criticism – Theory, etc. 5. Coleridge,
Samuel Taylor 1772–1834 – Political and social views. 6. Wordsworth,
William, 1770–1850 – Political and social views. 7. Southey, Robert,
1774–1843 – Political and social views. 8. Hazlitt, William, 1778–1830 –
Knowledge– Literature. 9. Criticism – Great Britain – History – 19th century.
10. Romanticism – Great Britain. I. Title.
PR585.H5 .M34 2002
821’.709358–dc21 2002025149
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
For Thomas and Ursula Mahoney
v
The moral interest of the fable which is so powerfully sus-
tained by the sufferings and endurance of Prometheus, would
be annihilated if we could conceive of him as unsaying his
high language, and quailing before his successful and
perfidious adversary.
Shelley, Preface to Prometheus Unbound
But say I could repent and could obtain
By act of grace my former state; how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore; ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
Milton, Paradise Lost, IV.93–7
vi
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations x
Introduction: On the Discrimination of Apostasies 1
1 ‘The Laureate Hearse Where Lyric Lies’:
The Making of Romantic Apostasy 13
2 The Mausoleum of Independence 33
3 ‘Lawless Sway,’ Pendulous Politics 80
4 Facing the Past: Spectral Apostasies 123
5 Upstaging the Fall: The Spectacle of
Romantic Apostasy 143
6 Criticism on the Verge 167
Appendix: Overview of The Complete Works
of William Hazlitt 198
Notes 201
Bibliography 247
Index 258
vii
Acknowledgements
This book had its beginnings in my preoccupation with one word,
apostasy. Subsequently, as I found myself returning to and renegotiat-
ing my critical bearings via this word and the multitude of tropes it
invariably seemed to set in motion, it evolved into a study of the most
prominent critic of romantic apostasy, William Hazlitt. From there, it
took up the subjects of Hazlitt’s criticisms under this heading: Edmund
Burke, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
John Philip Kemble’s Coriolanus. Throughout, I have returned time
and again to the multifarious valences of a word which, although it
denominates a standing-away (Gk.: apo-away; stasis-stand), repeatedly
violates the conditions of its own etymology. In doing so, it delineates
the political as well as rhetorical cadences of falling – or, as Hazlitt
understood, of the ways in which the language of poetry can be seen to
fall in with the language of power. What follows here is an attempt, if
not to arrest, then at least to temporize that fall and to chart its impli-
cations for our understanding of the politics of romantic writing.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge many obligations. My greatest
single debt is to the generosity and sharp critical intelligence of Ross
Hamilton; without his repeated and prescient interventions, this
study would lack whatever critical finish it might now presume to
claim. At Cornell University, where this study began, I am
significantly indebted to the guidance and encouragement provided
by Reeve Parker, as well as by Cynthia Chase, Neil Saccamano, and
Gordon Teskey. At the University of Connecticut, I have relied on
the support of John Abbott, Ross Miller, Richard Peterson, and Tom
Riggio. James Chandler and Orrin Wang reviewed the manuscript
with unusual generosity and insight. Indeed, I have received shrewd
and critical advice from many, including Ian Balfour, Alan Bostick,
Jeffrey Cox, William Galperin, Kenneth Johnston, Misha Kavka,
Allen Kurzweil, Marc Redfield, Willard Spiegelman, Stephen Turner,
Deborah Elise White, and Duncan Wu. These readers and others
have prevented me from making many mistakes. Those that remain
are my own – …il n’y avait plus rien à faire que s’excuser, sans se mettre
hors de cause.
The completion of the manuscript was made possible by a
Chancellor’s Research Fellowship from the University of Connecticut.
viii
Acknowledgements ix
An alternative version of Chapter 1 appeared as ‘“The Laureat Hearse
Where Lyric Lies”: Hunt, Hazlitt, and the Making of Romantic
Apostasy, 1813’ in Nineteenth-Century Contexts 24.3 (2002). Sections of
Chapters 2 and 6 appeared previously in the Romantic Circles Praxis
Series as, respectively, ‘The Multeity of Coleridgean Apostasy’ (‘Irony
and Clerisy,’ August 1999): <http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/irony/
mahoney/stasis.html> and ‘Periodical Indigestion: Hazlitt’s
Unpalatable Politics’ (‘Romanticism and Conspiracy,’ August 1997):
<http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/conspiracy/mahoney/palate2.html>.
An earlier version of Chapter 5 appeared as ‘Upstaging the Fall:
Coriolanus and the Spectacle of Romantic Apostasy’ in Studies in
Romanticism38.1 (1999): 29–50. I thank the editors of these print jour-
nals and of the Romantic Circles Website, <http://www.rc.umd.edu/
praxis>, as well as Taylor & Francis Ltd. and the Trustees of Boston
University, for their permission to reprint these materials here.
Charles Mahoney
Old Turnpike
October, 2001