Table Of ContentTHE POETIC ENLIGHTENMENT: POETRY AND
HUMAN SCIENCE, 1650–1820
The Enlightenment World
Series Editor: Michael T. Davis
Series Co-Editors: Jack Fruchtman, Jr
Iain McCalman
Jon Mee
Paul Pickering
Lisa Rosner
Advisory Editor: Hideo Tanaka
Titles in this Series
1 Harlequin Empire: Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular
Enlightenment
David Worrall
2 Th e Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1776–1832
Michael Scrivener
3 Writing the Empire: Robert Southey and Romantic Colonialism
Carol Bolton
4 Adam Ferguson: History, Progress and Human Nature
Eugene Heath and Vincenzo Merolle (eds)
5 Charlotte Smith in British Romanticism
Jacqueline Labbe (ed.)
6 Th e Scottish People and the French Revolution
Bob Harris
7 Th e English Deists: Studies in Early Enlightenment
Wayne Hudson
8 Adam Ferguson: Philosophy, Politics and Society
Eugene Heath and Vincenzo Merolle (eds)
9 Rhyming Reason: Th e Poetry of Romantic-Era Psychologists
Michelle Faubert
10 Liberating Medicine, 1720–1835
Tristanne Connolly and Steve Clark (eds)
11 John Th elwall: Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon
Steve Poole (ed.)
12 Th e Evolution of Sympathy in the Long Eighteenth Century
Jonathan Lamb
13 Enlightenment and Modernity: Th e English Deists and Reform
Wayne Hudson
14 William Wickham, Master Spy: Th e Secret War against the French Revolution
Michael Durey
15 Th e Edinburgh Review in the Literary Culture of Romantic Britain:
Mammoth and Megalonyx
William Christie
16 Montesquieu and England: Enlightened Exchanges, 1689–1755
Ursula Haskins Gonthier
17 Th e Sublime Invention: Ballooning in Europe, 1783–1820
Michael R. Lynn
18 Th e Language of Whiggism: Liberty and Patriotism, 1802–1830
Kathryn Chittick
19 Romantic Localities: Europe Writes Place
Christoph Bode and Jacqueline Labbe (eds)
20 William Godwin and the Th eatre
David O’Shaughnessy
21 Th e Spirit of the Union: Popular Politics in Scotland
Gordon Pentland
22 Ebenezer Hazard, Jeremy Belknap and the American Revolution
Russell M. Lawson
23 Robert and James Adam, Architects of the Age of Enlightenment
Ariyuki Kondo
24 Sociability and Cosmospolitanism: Social Bonds on the Fringes of the
Enlightenment
Scott Breuninger and David Burrow (eds)
25 Dialogue, Didacticism and the Genres of Dispute: Literary Dialogues in the
Age of Revolution
Adrian J. Wallbank
Forthcoming Titles
British Visions of America, 1775–1820: Republican Realities
Emma Macleod
Representing Humanity in the Age of Enlightenment
Alexander Cook, Ned Curthoys and Shino Konishi (eds)
www.pickeringchatto.com/enlightenmentworld
THE POETIC ENLIGHTENMENT: POETRY AND
HUMAN SCIENCE, 1650–1820
edited by
Tom Jones and Rowan Boyson
PICKERING & CHATTO
2013
Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH
2252 Ridge Road, Brookfi eld, Vermont 05036-9704, USA
www.pickeringchatto.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without prior permission of the publisher.
© Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd 2013
© Tom Jones and Rowan Boyson 2013
To the best of the Publisher’s knowledge every eff ort has been made to contact
relevant copyright holders and to clear any relevant copyright issues.
Any omissions that come to their attention will be remedied in future editions.
british library cataloguing in publication data
Th e poetic Enlightenment : poetry and human science, 1650–1820. – (Th e
Enlightenment world)
1. Literature and science–Great Britain–History–18th century. 2. Poetry,
Modern–18th century–History and criticism. 3. Poetry–Social aspects–Great
Britain–History–18th century. 4. Enlightenment--Great Britain. 5. Great Britain
–Intellectual life–18th century.
I. Series II. Jones, Tom, 1975– editor of compilation. III. Boyson, Rowan editor
of compilation.
809.1’033-dc23
ISBN-13: 9781848934047
e: 9781781440360
∞
Th is publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American
National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Printgroup
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
List of Contributors xi
General Introduction – Tom Jones and Rowan Boyson 1
I Poetic Knowledge and the Knowledge of Poetry
1 Introduction – Avi Lifshitz 11
2 Samuel Johnson and the Science of Literary Criticism
– Nicholas Hudson 15
3 Prosody, Knowledge and Humanity in Enlightenment Language
Science – Tom Jones 29
4 Ferguson’s School for Literature – Stefan Uhlig 43
II Poetic Th eories of the Social Self
5 Introduction – Christopher J. Berry 59
6 Hobbes and Davenant: Poetry as Civil Science – Philip Connell 63
7 Facing the Misery of Others: Pity, Pleasure and Tragedy in Scottish
Enlightenment Moral Philosophy – Christian Maurer 75
8 Poetical Stoical Shaft esbury – Rowan Boyson 89
9 Morality as a Discourse of the Imagination – Christopher Tilmouth 105
III Enlightenment and Romantic Poetologies
10 Introduction: Poetry and/or Enlightenment – Maureen N. McLane 121
11 James Th omson’s Th e Seasons and the Transformative Potential of
Poetry in the Early Scottish Enlightenment – Pierre Carboni 127
12 ‘Furnishing Light’: Wordsworth, Poetry and the Science of Man in
Enlightenment Scotland – Catherine Packham 139
13 Wordsworth, Kant, Fanaticism and Humanity – Simon Swift 153
Notes 169
Index 201
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Th is book is the result of a project which took shape during a year-long post-
doctoral research fellowship Tom Jones spent at PHIER (Philosophies et
rationalités, EA3297), a research centre in the department of philosophy at Uni-
versité Clermont-Ferrand II (Blaise Pascal). Both editors, but Tom in particular,
extend thanks to all colleagues at the centre whose intellectual and social hospi-
tality played such a large part in bringing about this publication. Th e chapters
gathered here were all presented at a series of workshops held between April
2010 and June 2011, at Clermont-Ferrand, St Andrews and King’s College,
Cambridge. Th e editors would like to thank all three of these institutions for
fi nancial support, and support in kind, which made the workshops possible. We
would also like to thank other participants at the workshops who gave papers,
acted as respondents, introduced more formal discussion sessions and provided
the rich dialogue that characterized each of the events: Laurentiu Andrei, Laura
Berchielli, Pete de Bolla, Emanuel Cattin, Robert Crawford, Howard Erskine-
Hill, Penny Fielding, Sébastien Gandon, Julie Giangiobbe, Laurent Jaff ro, Susan
Manning, Neil Pattison, Alain Petit, Élisabeth Schwartz, Craig Smith and Mike
Sonenscher all deserve special mention. Th e editors brought together contribu-
tions from the workshops and commissioned the introduction to each section,
in two cases off ered by participants in one of the workshops whose papers had
already been committed to publication elsewhere. We would like to thank the
authors of the section introductions for their attentiveness to writing in such
a constrained genre. Catherine Packham acted in an editorial capacity with
respect to the chapters by the two editors and the introduction and she has our
warm thanks for doing so, and for giving so generously of her time to this pro-
ject. Th e editors would also like to thank Mark Pollard and the editors of Th e
Enlightenment World series at Pickering & Chatto for their enthusiasm and
responsiveness towards the project.
As this book was going to press the editors learnt of the death of Susan Man-
ning. Many of the following essays record the great personal and scholarly debt
researchers in our fi eld owe to Susan and her work. Th e editors and contributors
express their sadness at the loss of a warmly loved and admired colleague.
– ix –
