Seditious Allegories: John Thelwall & Jacobin Writing

318 Pages·2001·0.8 MB·English

by  Michael Henry Scrivener

s e d i t i o u s
a l l e g o r i e s
Image not available
s e d i t i o u s
a l l e g o r i e s
john thelwall
&
jacobin writing
m i c h a e l s c r i v e n e r
the pennsylvania state university press
university park, pennsylvania
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scrivener, Michael Henry, 1948–
Seditious allegories : John Thelwall and Jacobin writing / Michael Scrivener.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-271-02109-8 (alk. paper)
1. Thelwall, John, 1764–1834—Political and social views. 2. Politics and
literature—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. Literature and society—Great
Britain—History—18th century. 4. France—History—Revolution, 1789–1799—
Influence. 5. English literature—French influences. 6. Jacobins—Great
Britain—History. 7. Social problems in literature. 8. Sedition—Great Britain.
9. Radicalism in literature. 10. Allegory. I. Title.
PR3729.T4 Z88 2001
828(cid:2).609—dc21
00-064979
Copyright © 2001 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper for the
first printing of all clothbound books. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
To My Mother
and in Memory of My Father

C o n t e n t s
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
Part 1 Jacobinism 19
1 Defining Jacobinism 21
2 Thelwall’s Replies to Burke 43
Part 2 The Voice of the People 87
3 Thelwall’s Popular Poetry and LCS Culture 91
4 Excursus: Radical Underground: Spence and Wedderburn 129
5 Intemperance, Oratory, and Voicelessness 167
Part 3 Jacobin Allegory 205
6 Peripatetic Imagination 209
7 Against Empire 233
8 Autobiographies 257
Conclusion 289
Index 297

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
Publication of this book has been aided by a subvention from Wayne State
University. For a project that has spanned over a decade I am heavily
indebted to Wayne State University—the English Department, the College of
Liberal Arts, the Graduate School, the Office of Research Sponsored Pro-
grams—which has been generous in giving me a sabbatical (1997), travel
grant (1995), small research grant (1996), and summer grants (1991, 1993,
1997), without which the book could not have been written. I am also
indebted to fellow scholars who commented on conference papers or lectures
I delivered or who provided editorial guidance on my contributions to essay
collections. I wish to thank Stephen C. Behrendt, Michael T. Davis, Peter Kit-
son, Michael Macovski, Paul Magnuson, Peter Manning, Timothy Morton,
Nicholas Roe, G. A. Rosso, Nigel Smith, Judith Thompson, and Daniel P.
Watkins. For offering useful suggestions and criticism at the book’s various
stages I want to thank Gregory Claeys, P. J. Corfield, Damian Walford
Davies, James Epstein, Anne Janowitz, and David Worrall. Among the Eng-
lish Department faculty at Wayne State University who contributed in some
way to my thinking about Thelwall and Jacobinism I want to give special
thanks to my colleague Arthur Marotti. I am grateful as well to the two read-
ers for Penn State Press, Gregory Claeys and David Simpson. Finally, Arthur
Efron and Irving Massey have helped me more than they realize. Without the
assistance and guidance I have received from many people the book would
not have been written, but I take full responsibility for the book’s flaws.
I have used all or part of the following essays and am reprinting them with
permission: “John Thelwall’s Political Ambivalence: Reform and Revolu-
tion,” in Michael T. Davis, ed., Radicalism and the Threat of Revolution in
Britain, 1789–1848 (London and New York: Macmillan and St. Martin’s
Press, 2000), 69–83 (reproduced with permission of Palgrave); “Jacobin
Romanticism: John Thelwall’s ‘Wye’ Essay and ‘Pedestrian Excursion’
(1797–1801),” in Peter Kitson, ed., Placing and Displacing Romanticism
(Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2001); “The Rhetoric and Context of John Thel-