The Age of Virtue: British Culture from the Restoration to Romanticism

339 Pages·2000·37.024 MB·English

by  David Morse (auth.)

THE AGE OF VIRTUE
Also by David Morse
AMERICAN ROMANTICISM (2 volumes)
ENGLAND'S TIME OF CRISIS: From Shakespeare to Milton
HIGH VICTORIAN CULTURE
PERSPECTIVES ON ROMANTICISM
ROMANTICISM: A Structural Analysis
The Age of Virtue
British Culture from the
Restoration to Romanticism
David Morse
Lecturer in English and American Studies
University of Sussex
ffi
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
& MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-76031-X
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
« ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-22353-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morse, David.
The age of virtue : British culture from the Restoration to
Romanticism / David Morse.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-312-22353-^6
1. English literature— 18th century—History and criticism.
2. Virtue in literature. 3. English literature—Early modern,
1500-1700—History and criticism. 4. Didactic literature, English-
-History and criticism. 5. Great Britain—Civilization— 18th
century. 6. Ethics, Modern—18th century. 7. Romanticism—Great
Britain. I. Title.
PR448.V57M67 1999
820.9'353-dc21 99-18157
CIP
© David Morse 2000
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criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fulyl managed and
sustained forest sources.
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
For Annabelle
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Virtue's Vicissitudes 26
3 Virtue Excluded 47
4 Virtue from Below 110
5 Provincial Virtue 176
6 The Romantics and Virtue 236
Notes 312
Select Bibliography 321
Index 327
vn
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my Sussex colleagues Vincent Quinn, An
gus Ross and Norman Vance for reading and commenting on
sections of the manuscripts. I owe a particular debt to Siobhan
Kilfeather for putting me in touch with some Irish materials di
rectly relevant to the topic.
vm
1
Introduction
This is a study of eighteenth-century culture and of the role that
the idea of virtue played within it, but it is by no means my
intention to suggest that the age itself was particularly virtuous;
rather, as is so often the case, the invocation of virtue tended to
be associated with the concern that it was more likely to be absent
than present. In one of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories,
'The Three Tools of Death' the worthy priest throws out the
enigmatic suggestion that it is because the murder weapon is so
large that it has not been noticed. The earth was the 'weapon' -
since the body had been thrown out of a window. Similarly in
the reign of Anne and three subsequent Georges the allusions to
virtue are so thickly strewn that they are likely to go both unnoticed
and undeciphered. It is as if, in the vicinity of a country house,
you take it for granted that there are gravel-walks and would
think it distinctly odd if there were not; whereas in another con
text gravel-walks would stick out like a sore thumb, indeed might
even lead one to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Equally, this
very familiarity may lead us to believe that all talk of virtue is
bound to consist of sanctimonious platitudes - especially since
we are rarely prone to speak of virtue ourselves - whereas these
were in fact questions which were taken intensely seriously. So
the intention of this book likewise is to take virtue seriously; to
chart like the sightings of a great whale both its longtime promi
nence and subsequent disappearance, to try to grasp it in all its
diverse manifestations.
Not only is virtue's most congenial habitat the eighteenth
century, it is also plausible to suggest that it flourishes most
abundantly between 1700 and 1800. In the morally relaxed and
generally cynical atmosphere of Charles ITs court virtue was
scarcely a word to galvanise men into activity. Its special prov
ince was the grandiose world of the heroic play; where royal
heroes were as magnificently noble and virtuous as they were
1
D. Morse, The Age of Virtue
© David Morse 2000