Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure (Romanticism in Perspective)

236 Pages·2001·1.96 MB·English

by  Ayumi Mizukoshi

Keats, Hunt and the
Aesthetics of Pleasure
Ayumi Mizukoshi
Romanticism in Perspective: Texts, Cultures, Histories
General Editors: Marilyn Gaull, Professor of English, Temple University/New
York University; Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor of English Language and
Literature, University of Glasgow
This series aims to offer a fresh assessment of Romanticism by looking at it from
a wide variety of perspectives. Both comparative and interdisciplinary, it will 8
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Titles include: Co
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Toby R. Benis
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ROMANTICISM ON THE ROAD
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The Marginal Gains of Wordsworth’s Homeless
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Frederick Burwick
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THOMAS DE QUINCEY
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Knowledge and Power
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Richard Cronin (editor)
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1798: THE YEAR OF THE LYRICAL BALLADS
ets
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Péter Dávidházi
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THE ROMANTIC CULT OF SHAKESPEARE
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Literary Reception in Anthropological Perspective
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Charles Donelan
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RAO MMaArkNeTtaIbClIeS MVi cAeN
D MALE FANTASY IN BYRON’S DON JUAN
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Tim Fulford
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ROMANTICISM AND MASCULINITY
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Gender, Politics and Poetics in the Writings of Burke, Coleridge, Cobbett,
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Wordsworth, De Quincey and Hazlitt
gra
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David Jasper
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THE SACRED AND SECULAR CANON IN ROMANTICISM
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Preserving the Sacred Truths
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Malcolm Kelsall
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JEFFERSON AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ROMANTICISM
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Folk, Land, Culture and the Romantic Nation
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Mark S. Lussier
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ROMANTIC DYNAMICS
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The Poetics of Physicality

Andrew McCann

CULTURAL POLITICS IN THE 1790s

Literature, Radicalism and the Public Sphere

10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
Ayumi Mizukoshi

KEATS, HUNT AND THE AESTHETICS OF PLEASURE

Ashton Nichols

THE REVOLUTIONARY ‘I’

Wordsworth and the Politics of Self-Presentation

Jeffrey C. Robinson

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RECEPTION AND POETICS IN KEATS
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‘My Ended Poet’
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ABAnCyaC THaUylSo IrN
ROMANTIC ENGLAND
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Writers and Drink, 1780–1830
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Nicola Trott and Seamus Perry (editors)
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1800: THE NEW LYRICAL BALLADS
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Michael Wiley
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ROMANTIC GEOGRAPHY
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Wordsworth and Anglo-European Spaces
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Eric Wilson
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EMERSON’S SUBLIME SCIENCE
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John Wyatt
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WORDSWORTH’S POEMS OF TRAVEL, 1819–42
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‘Such Sweet Wayfaring’
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Romanticism in Perspective yri
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10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
Keats, Hunt and the

Aesthetics of Pleasure

Ayumi Mizukoshi 8
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Lecturer 03-
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10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
© Ayumi Mizukoshi 2001
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Mizukoshi, Ayumi, 1967– c
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Keats, Hunt, and the aesthetics of pleasure / Ayumi Mizukoshi. av
p. cm. — (Romanticism in perspective)
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Based on the author’s thesis (doctoral—Oxford).
w.p
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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ISBN 0–333–92958–6
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–1E.n Kgelaantsd, —JoHhnis, t1o7ry9—5–1198t2h1 —cenAteusrtyh. e3t.i cEsn. g2l.i sLhit peroaetturrye— an1d9 tsho ccieenttyu–r y– erial fr
–History and criticism. 4. Hunt, Leigh, 1784–1859—Friends and at
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associates. 5. Hunt, Leigh, 1784–1859—Aesthetics. 6. Aesthetics, ht
British—19th century. 7. Social classes in literature. 8. Romanticism– g
–England. 9. Pleasure in literature. I. Series. pyri
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Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
Contents

Acknowledgements vii

1 Introduction: A Problem of Interpretation 1
3-18
A problem of pleasure 1
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ATh per oCbolcekmn eoyf preovliivtiacls 46

ect - 20
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2 The Bourgeois Cultural Revolution 10
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The ethics of luxury 10
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The aesthetics of pleasure 13
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The question of morality 21
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The question of vulgarity 25
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Culture, commerce and commercialism 29
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3 The Aesthetics of Nature 39
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Nature for conspicuous consumption 39
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The suburban gardenesque 43
ersit
The charge of Cockneyism 50
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Hunt's version of pastoral 54
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The Bower of Bliss: Spenser commodified 61
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4 Classicism as Cultural Luxury 71
m - li
The Greek revival 71
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The rise of nationalism 73
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The rise of the popular 75
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The attack on Cockney classicism 81
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Classicism for bourgeois consumption 86
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The politics of pagan pleasure 95
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5 `A Leafy Luxury': Poems (1817) 104
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A problem of canonisation 104
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`A love of sociality ': epistles and sonnets 109
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Leafy luxury: Spenser suburbanised 117
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6 `Wherein Lies Happiness?': Endymion (1818) 131
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Leafy luxury extended 131

The aesthetics of Beauty and Truth 141

7 `Visions of Delight': Lamia (1820) 148

Metamorphosis incomplete 148

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10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
vi Contents
A poet of sensation 160

A problem of popularity 171

8 Conclusion: The Return of the Aesthetic 180

Notes 184

Index 222
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10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
Acknowledgements

This book is based on my doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford, and
8
I wish to thank all those who have contributed generously to its evolu- 3-1
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tion in the course of the last ten years. I would first like to thank Teikyo 11-
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Uwnhiivcher esintya bilne dT mokey too, cJaopmapnl,e tfoe rm tyh ed oacwtaorrdat eo.f Ia anm O imkinmaegnas eSlcyh ionladresbhtiepd, nect - 2
n
to my supervisor Professor Robert Young for his intellectual guidance Co
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throughout my uphill struggle. I am also grateful to my DPhil examiners av
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Professor Nicholas Roe for his constructive criticism and Dr Jon Mee Pal
for his sympathetic advice and subsequent support. Professor Stephen o -
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Prickett encouraged me to publish the thesis, for which I am deeply o
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thankful, and his energy and enthusiasm sustained me during the stress- et i
ful days of endless revisions. Thanks also go to Eleanor Birne, Lucy otek
Qureshi and Ruth Willats for their editorial help. Last but not least, bibli
I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of the following libraries: ets
the Bodleian Library, the British Library, Keats House, London Metro- ersit
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politan Archives and above all, Teikyo Heisei University Library whose Uni
staff kindly and most efficiently obtained the piles of inter-library loans d to
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without which this book could not have been what it is now. ns
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vii
10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
1

Introduction: A Problem of

Interpretation

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A problem of pleasure o -
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It is generally accepted that Keats's struggle towards the end of his life to et i Tr
produce poetry of high moral seriousness secured him a place in the ek
ot
literary canon. In perceived contrast, Keats's early productions have bli
bi
been considered problematic, or even as something of an embarrass- ets
ment to modern scholars, for in these poems the poet seems to be in ersit
unashamed pursuit of aesthetic pleasure, wallowingin unreflected sen- niv
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suous delight without showing any moral concerns. Twentieth-century d to
Keatsians customarily divide the poet's short poetic career, spanningless se
n
tyhmainon f i(v1e8 1y8ea) rws, eirnet op rtohdeu ceeadrl,y apnhda steh,e i nla twehr isctha gPeo, edmusr i(n1g8 1w7h) iacnhd K Eenadts- m - lice
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proved himself academically respectable (that is, `canonical') in his last ct.c
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Lamia volume (1820). Indeed, the history of twentieth-century Keats nn
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criticism may be seen as the history of how modern critics overcame a ec
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feelingof unease to transform Keats the sensualist into Keats the poet- gr
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moralist. w.p
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In fact, this feeling of uneasiness about Keats's (seemingly natural) w
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mdisopsot stiteilolinn gtor epmleaarskusr ew deartee sm farodme btyh eK eeaartlsy's npineerstoeennatl ha ccqenutauinryta. nTchees erial fro
(who were then branded as Cockney writers). In 1824, three years after mat
Keats's death, William Hazlitt compiled `a Body of English Poetry' from ht
g
Chaucer to his own time.1 The avowed purpose of this anthology was to pyri
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`satisfy individual curiosity and justify our national pride'.2 Hazlitt's C
selections ranged from `the four great English poets' (Chaucer, Spenser,
Shakespeare and Milton) and `the second class of poets' (Dryden and
Pope), to what we now call the Romantics (Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Byron, Shelley and Keats).3 It is evident that Hazlitt was presenting
1
10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi
2 Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure
something like a prototype of the modern canon. However, Keats was
not at that time established as a high Romantic, but regarded as a
Cockney, or at best, a poet of `promise'. Hazlitt's critical remark on the
late Keats vividly reveals the contemporary view of the poet:
He gave the greatest promise of genius of any poet of his day. He
displayed extreme tenderness, beauty, originality and delicacy of 3-18
fancy; all he wanted was manly strength and fortitude to reject the 1-0
1
temptations of singularity in sentiment and expression.4 ct - 20
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In 1828, even Keats's former mentor Leigh Hunt commented that `Mr. on
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Keats's natural tendency to pleasure, as a poet, sometimes degenerated, ave
by reason of his ill health, into a poetical effeminacy'.5 Some Victorian algr
P
readers felt stronger repulsion towards the luxurious (hence enervat- o -
s
ing and effeminising) aspect of Keats's poetry. `It is impossible,' as om
Gerard Manley Hopkins put it, `not to feel with weariness how et i Tr
his verse is at every turn abandoningitself to an unmanly and enervat- ek
ing luxury.'6 Thomas Carlyle was even more relentless, depicting bliot
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Keats as `a miserable creature, hungering after sweets which he can't ets
get; going about saying, ``I am so hungry; I should so like something ersit
pleasant''.'7 Algernon Charles Swinburne, though associated with niv
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the Pre-Raphaelites who idolised Keats, also opposed his excessively d to
sensuous quality, referring to the poet as `the most exclusively se
n
raeecsothrdet'.i8c and the most absolutely non-moral of all serious writers on m - lice
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On the other hand, the Victorian period witnessed the increasing ct.c
popularity of Keats as a poet of sensuous beauty.9 By transforming nne
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Keats from a Cockney rhymester to a Roman god in Adonais (1821), ec
v
a
Shelley was already preparing the way for the positive revaluation and gr
al
popularisation of Keats. Moreover, Shelley's own death in 1822 (with w.p
w
Keats's last volume in his pocket) led to a fraternal couplingof the two w
m
tpyopeetss ionf tthhee pyuobulnicg mgeinnidu.1s 0 wBhooth d wieedr ed iisnacprpeaosiinntgeldy iind oelixsieled, aasn pdr othtois- erial fro
helped decontextualise Keats the Cockney poet, and considerably con- mat
tributed to his posthumous popularity. Arthur H. Hallam, in reviewing ht
g
Tennyson's Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), categorised Keats, Shelley and pyri
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Tennyson as `poets of sensation' as opposed (and also superior) to C
Wordsworthian poets of `reflection'.11 Within a decade of his death,
Keats had thus been reinvented as a true artist: someone for whom the
only valid motive ought to be `the desire of beauty'.12 YoungTennyson
was the first Victorian successor to Keats. By his intrinsic disposition to
10.1057/9780230285903 - Keats, Hunt and the Aesthetics of Pleasure, Ayumi Mizukoshi