Table Of ContentSebastian Domsch
The Emergence of Literary Criticism in 18th-Century Britain
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Derek Attridge, Elisabeth Bronfen, Ursula K. Heise, Verena Lobsien,
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Volume 47
Sebastian Domsch
The Emergence of
Literary Criticism in
18th-Century Britain
Discourse between Attacks and Authority
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Contents
ANoteonTexts VII
A TheAgeofCriticism
1 Introduction 3
2 ContemporaryDiscussionsofCriticismandtheCritic 12
2.1 DefinitionsandEvaluations:TheStateofCriticism 12
2.2 ImaginingCriticism 22
B TheAuthorityofCriticism
1 CriticalAuthority 49
2 AristocraticAuthority 54
2.1 Court-WitsandGentlemanCritics 55
2.2 ChangesintheSystemofPatronage 71
3 TheAuthorityofSeniority:AncientandModernCriticism 94
4 TheAuthorityofPoeticGenius 115
4.1 ThePoetasCritic 117
4.2 PoetsandEditors 136
5 Learning:KnowledgebetweenAuthorityandPedantry 150
5.1 ThePedantasExemplary 151
5.2 PoliteLearningagainstErudition 157
5.3 SpecializedKnowledge 164
6 RulesandtheCritic 177
6.1 PowerStructures 180
6.2 RulesandReason 193
VI Contents
7 TasteandtheCritic 201
7.1 DebatingTaste 203
7.2 TheTasteoftheAudience 213
7.3 TheStandardofTaste 216
8 Name-Authority:TheCriticasInstitution 229
8.1 TheAnachronisticCritic:JohnDennis 233
8.2 TheInstitutionalCritic:SamuelJohnson 254
9 AuthorityandtheMarketplace 269
9.1 Overproduction 275
9.2 “Thisprocessofchymicalcriticism”:
TheCriticasGate-Keeper 285
10 InstitutionalizingAuthority:AcademiesandReviews 301
10.1 CourtsofCriticismI:TheAcademy 301
10.2 CourtsofCriticismII:TheReviews 312
10.3 “TheTheatreofWar”:AttacksontheReviews 341
C Conclusion
DistanceandDemocracy 359
WorksCited 373
Index 405
A Note on Texts
The basis of this study are the texts of and about literary criticism that were
publishedfromtheendofthe17thtotheendofthe18thcentury,aboutathousand
independently published titles, from pamphlets to multi-volume works, not to
speak of the periodical essays, journal articles, and reviews. Fortunately, new
electronic databases like Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Early English
BooksOnline,Eighteenth-CenturyJournalsandBritishPeriodicals,butalsoGoogle
Books, have made the majority of these texts easily available in their historical
editions,manyofwhichhaveneverseenareprintaftertheiroriginalpublication.
Asthisstudyistryingtorecreatethewaythattheperiodperformedanddebated
criticism, it seemed sensible to stay as close to contemporary sources
as possible. Quotes are therefore, where possible, taken from the editions that
contemporarieswouldhaveused,eveninthosecaseswheremoderneditionsare
available. Though, for example, there are excellent critical editions of the col-
lectedworksofAlexanderPope,thesecannothelpbutunifywhatthe18thcentury
experienced as a very large number of different texts in different editions, the
publication context of most of which is intricately tied to the significance that
contemporariesattachedtothem.FromthefirsteditionoftheEssayonCriticism
in1711,throughthemazeofdifferent(anddifferentlypublished)editionsofthe
Dunciad,totheanxiouslydebatedcollectededitionbyWilliamWarburtonin1751
andthe1797WorkseditedbyJosephWarton,thesebooksshapedtherespective
images of Pope the poet and Pope the critical authority for individual readers.
Followingthesamespirit,quotesfrom18th-centurysourceshavebeenleftunal-
tered in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. For the sake of readability,
aberrant spellings both of words and proper names (such as the contemporary
useof“Shakespear”or“critick”)arenotindividuallynotifiedby[sic].1Toavoid
confusion,twospecialcasesofcapitalizationhavebeenintroducedinthemain
text.Whenevertheterm“Nature”isusedinthe18th-centurysenseasphilosophi-
caloraestheticconcept,itiscapitalizedtodifferentiateitbetterfromotheruses
of the term. Similarly, the capitalized form “Review” is used to denote a review
journalasopposedtoindividualreviewarticles.
1 Sometimes,asinthecaseofShakespeare,variationsinspellingcanevenbeproductivelyread
toillustrateresiduesofconceptualuncertaintyaboutatermorname.
1 Introduction
ItwasverylatebeforecriticismcameintoEngland.(Gildon1721:61)
Among numerous other labels not quite fashionable anymore (like the “Age of
Pope”orof“Johnson”),the18thcenturyhasalsobeencalledthe“AgeofCriticism.”
Thislabelusuallyrefersmainlytoamodeofthinking,butitisalsoapplicabletothe
genre or textual strategy that best expresses this mode of thinking. The will to
question received opinion and to form independent judgments was pervasive
throughouttheperiodandofprimeimportanceforit.JamesEngellhasarguedin
hisimportantstudy,FormingtheCriticalMind,“thatcriticism,exercisedonsucha
massivescale,rankswiththenovelasthemostsignificant‘new’modeofwritingto
enrich English literature between the Restoration of Charles II and the death of
GeorgeIII.”(Engell1989:2)AccordingtoEngell,criticism“becomesamajorbranch
of literature and critics produce much of literary merit” (1989: 3). And indeed,
literarycriticismexistedinEnglandwellbeforetheRestoration,anditcontinuesto
growandchangeinthe19thcenturyandallthewayintothe21st,butitwasbetween
theendofthe17thandtheendofthe18thcenturythatcriticismforthefirsttime
developedgenericformsandinstitutionalcontextsthatarestillrecognizableto-
day, and in which the critic emancipated himself1 into an independent profes-
sional.Simultaneously,literacylevelsrosealongwiththeimportanceofthemiddle
class(cf.Munck2000:46–52andFeather1988:94ff.),thebookmarketexpanded
drastically,2thenumberofjournalsandnewspapersexploded(cf.Bond1957:4ff.
1 Themaleformhereandonlateroccasionsreflectsthetime’sowngenderbias.The18thcentury
overwhelminglyconceptualizedcriticismasamaleactivityandthecriticasaman.AsTerryCastle
writesinherexcellentsurveyofthesubject,“itwascommonlyheldthatliteraryjudgmentwas –or
shouldbe –aprivilegereservedformen”,Castle1997:434.Inthefirsthalfofthecentury,there
wereexceedinglyfewpublishedfemalecriticalvoices,andeveninthesecondhalf,workslikeClara
Reeve’sProgressofRomanceorElizabethMontagu’sEssayontheWritingsandGeniusofShake-
spearearerathertheexception.Asthisstudyattemptstoanalysecontemporaryassessmentsof
criticism,itcannotbutmirrortheirunderrepresentation.Muchislefttobedesiredinmodern
scholarshipaboutfemalecritics.LauraL. Rungehaswrittenthemostthoroughinvestigationto
dateoftheperiod’sfemalecriticsandthegenderingof18thcenturycriticaldiscourse,claimingat
theoutsetthat“genderisaconstitutiveelementofeighteenth-centuryliterarycriticism”,Runge
1997:3.Butthemainpointthatenableshertoseecriticalandgendereddiscourseasconnectedis
thatbothinvolveinherentpowerrelations,cf.Runge1997:6.Thus,itispowerthatisatthecoreof
criticaldiscourse,andgenderedlanguageanotherwaytoexpresspower.Hopefully,thisanalysis
canthereforealsoprovideaproductivestartingpointforfurthersystematicinvestigationsintothe
powerstructuresofcriticismasexpressedandenforcedintermsofgender.
2 ForatableontheaverageannualoutputofnewandreprintedworksinEnglish,sortedby
decade,cf.Munck2000:92.Cf.alsoCollins1927:13andFeather1988:93–105.
4 Introduction
andItalia2005:7ff.),andthelegalbattleforcopyrighttogetherwiththegrowing
economicviabilityandgeneralacceptanceofliteraryprofessionalismhelpedform
a modern conception of intellectual property and authorship.3 In the context of
thesefundamentalchanges,authors,critics,booksellers,andreadersstruggledfor
intellectualandculturaldominanceoverbooksandtextsinawaythatishistori-
callyunique.Andasdominanceovertextsisusuallyassertedthroughtherightand
abilitytoevaluateandtointerpret,thisstrugglebecomesmostvisibleinthefieldof
literarycriticism.
Also,sincecriticism,assoonasitiscommunicated,isnotfunctionalwithout
authority, the question of what will here be called critical authority is always
presentincriticaldiscourseaswellasindiscourseoncriticism.Thetermcritical
authorityshouldinthiscontextbeunderstoodtoworklikeavirtualcurrencyinthe
literary world’seconomy of opinion. It isthe capital, or rather the credit, of the
critic,thewillingnessofarecipienttogivecreditorvaluetoacritic’sevaluative
statements.Ofcourse,authorityalwaysmeansauthorityoversomething,sothe
termfundamentallydescribesapowerrelation.Toanalyzeorevenquestioncritical
authoritymeansaskingforacritic’slegitimizationtojudgeofanother’stext.Who
acceptsthecritic’sjudgmentsastrueandwhy?Whatisthesourceandfoundation
ofhisauthority?Whoinvestshimwithit?Whomightwanttodenyittohim?
This study undertakes, through a systematic and historical analysis of the
conceptofcriticalauthority,towriteahistoryofliterarycriticismfromtheendof
the17thtotheendofthe18th centurythatnotonlytakesthediscursiveconstruc-
tion of its (self)representation into account, but also the social and economic
conditions of its practice. As the analysis will show, this history, rather than
formingonelinearchronologicalline,consistsofseveralparallelandintersecting
historiesordiscoursesbasedonthevariousstrategiesthathavebeenemployed
in the course of the period to create, legitimize, or question critical authority.
Suchstrategies,astheyweredeveloped,debated,andrejectedbycontemporary
authorsandcritics,willthereforebethemainfocusofinterest.Intheirsystematic
andtentativelychronologicalorder,thesestrategieswillrevealdevelopmentsin
theformationofcriticismthatproblematizeandgobeyondpreviousattemptsat
writingahistoryof18th-centurycriticism.
As Philip Smallwood has observed, “histories of criticism are in their own
way creative works. They have a foot in the storytelling tradition, in tragedy,
3 Ontheinfluenceofcopyrightonconceptsofauthorship,cf.Woodmansee1984;Ross1992;and
Rose 1993: 1: “[T]he notion of the author is a relatively recent formation, and, as a cultural
formation,itisinseparablefromthecommodificationofliterature.Thedistinguishingcharacter-
isticofthemodernauthor,Ipropose,isproprietorship;theauthorisconceivedastheoriginator
andthereforetheownerofaspecialkindofcommodity,thework.”
