Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture, 1681-1714

312 Pages·2005·1.88 MB·English

by  Abigail Williams

Poetry and the Creation of a
1681 1714
Whig Literary Culture –
This page intentionally left blank
Poetry and the Creation
of a Whig Literary
1681 1714
Culture –
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Englishpoetry–18thcentury–Historyandcriticism.2.Politicsandliterature–GreatBritain
–History–18thcentury.3.Englishpoetry–Earlymodern,1500–1700–Historyandcriticism.
4.WhigParty(GreatBritain)–History–18thcentury.
5.GreatBritain–Intellectuallife–18thcentury.I.Title.
PR555.P6W552005 821’.509921342–dc22 2004026057
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Inmemoryof my
father, Shaun Williams
Acknowledgements
Ibeganthis projectwiththeassistanceofagrantfromtheAHRB,and
Icouldnothavefinisheditwithoutthetimeandmoneygiventomeby
theOxfordEnglishFacultyandStPeter’sCollege.Beyondthisgenerous
institutional support, I have personal debts of thanks. At the various
stagesofthebook’sdevelopmentIhavebeenencouragedandguidedby
Christine Gerrard, Isabel Rivers, and David Womersley. I am also very
grateful to all the other friends and colleagues who have read sections
and drafts of the book: SharonAchinstein, Matthew Beaumont, Jennie
Barbour, Eleanor Collins, Brean Hammond, Mark Knights, Myfanwy
Lloyd, Steve Pincus, Adam Rounce, Blair Worden, and Brian Young.
I hope I have done some justice to their astute and constructive
comments.
Thanks are also due to those who have shared their unpublished
research with me, in particular Ros Ballaster, Emma Jay, Nick von
Maltzahn, Hannah Smith, and all the participants in the ‘Cultures of
Whiggism’seminarheldinOxfordinApril2001.Thisisundoubtedlya
better book for the numerous discussions at conferences and seminars
that have promptedme to rethink various aspects of myarguments.
And finally, to my friends and family, and especially Giles—thank
you for yoursupportand companionship.
Contents
List of abbreviations viii
Introduction: Rereading Whig poetry 1
1. The Tory critique of Whig literature 22
2. Moderation, fanaticism, and ‘the people’ 1681–1688 56
3. Legitimacy and the warrior king 1688–1702 93
4. Poetic warfare 1702–1714 135
5. The sublime and the liberty of writing 173
6. Patronage and the public writer in Whig literary
culture 204
Conclusion: Whig afterlives 241
Biographical appendix 247
Bibliography 258
Index 296
Abbreviations
Dennis,CriticalWorks TheCriticalWorksofJohnDennis,ed.E.N.Hooker,2
vols.(Baltimore,Md.:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,
1939–43).
Dryden,Works TheWorksofJohn Dryden, ed.E.N. Hookeretal.,20
vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of
CaliforniaPress,1965–2000).
POAS George deF. Lord et al., (eds.), 7 vols. (New Haven,
Conn.:YaleUniversityPress,1963–75).PoemsonAVairs
ofState:AugustanSatiricalVerse1660–1714.
Shadwell,Works TheCompleteWorksofThomasShadwell,ed.Montague
Summers,5vols.(London:Fortune,1927).
TE The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander
Pope, ed. John Butt et al., 11 vols. (London: Methuen,
1939–69).
Introduction:
Rereading Whig poetry
In1694Joseph Addison, ayoung scholar atMagdalenCollege,Oxford,
publishedahistoryofEnglishpoetry,AnAccountoftheGreatestEnglish
Poets. Having progressed through Chaucer, Spenser, Cowley, Milton,
Waller, Dryden, and Congreve, Addison arrives at the present day, and
hisWnalverseparagraphproclaimsthelatestsuccessortothetradition:
I’mtir’dwithrhiming,andwou’dfaingiveo’er,
Butjusticestilldemandsonelabourmore:
ThenobleMontagueremainsunnam’d,
Forwit,forhumour,andforjudgmentfam’d.1
Foratwenty-Wrst-centuryreaderthisisasurprisingmoment.Addison’s
‘greatest English poets’ are the same as those found in countless other
canonical histories of English poetry, until we reach the last named
author. After all the familiar praise of Spenser and Dryden, Addison
presentsapoetthatwehaveneverread,orevenheardof.Theunlikely
WgureofCharlesMontagu,laterEarlofHalifax,ishailedastheculmin-
ationofthenation’sliteraryachievement.Montaguwastheauthorofa
recent panegyric on William III’s victory over James II at the Battle of
the Boyne entitled An Epistle to the Right Honourable Charles, Earl of
Dorset and Middlesex (1690). Addison does not seem to anticipate our
ignorance of his last ‘great English poet’, indeed he describes him as
‘fam’d’forwit,humour,andjudgement.NordoesAddisonpresenthis
admiration of Montagu as purely personal or idiosyncratic. A little
researchinto the reception of theEpistle revealsthat hewas expressing
an opinion that was widely held in the 1690s. The Epistle became
something of an ars poetica for a generation of writers in the post-
Revolution period. It was widely praised as embodying the ‘wonderful
Wre’and‘Raptures’thatweretheveryessenceofpoeticgenius,andwas
1 JosephAddison,AnAccountoftheGreatestEnglishPoets(1694),inTheMiscellaneous
WorksofJosephAddison,ed.A.C.Guthkelch,3vols.(London:Bell,1914),i.34–5.Further
linereferencesinthetextaretothisedition.