Romantics and Renegades: The Poetics of Political Reaction

277 Pages·2002·1.2 MB·English

by  Charles W. Mahoney

Romantics and Renegades
The Poetics of Political Reaction
Charles Mahoney
Romantics and Renegades
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10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
Romantics and Renegades
The Poetics of Political Reaction
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Charles Mahoney 3-
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Associate Professor of English 11-
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University of Connecticut ct - 2
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10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
© Charles Mahoney 2003
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 3-1
Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. 1-0
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication 20
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. ct -
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The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this n
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. eC
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First published 2003 by gr
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Pal
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and o -
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 m
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Companies and representatives throughout the world. Tr
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave ket i
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Macmillan division of St Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. ot
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom bli
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and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European ets
Union and other countries. sit
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ISBN 0–333–96849–2 niv
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This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and o
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. ed t
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A catalogue record for this book is available ce
from the British Library. m - li
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data co
ct.
Mahoney, Charles, 1964– ne
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Romantics and renegades: the poetics of political reaction / Charles Mahoney. o
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p. cm. ve
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Includes bibliographical references and index. gr
ISBN 0–333–96849–2 pal
1. English poetry – 19th century – History and criticism – Theory, etc. ww.
2. Politics and literature – Great Britain – History – 19th century. m w
3. France – History – Revolution,1789–1799 – Literature and the revolution. o
4. Political poetry, English – History and criticism – Theory, etc. 5. Coleridge, al fr
Samuel Taylor 1772–1834 – Political and social views. 6. Wordsworth, eri
William, 1770–1850 – Political and social views. 7. Southey, Robert, mat
1774–1843 – Political and social views. 8. Hazlitt, William, 1778–1830 – ht
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Knowledge– Literature. 9. Criticism – Great Britain – History – 19th century. yri
10. Romanticism – Great Britain. I. Title. op
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PR585.H5 .M34 2002
821’.709358–dc21 2002025149
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
For Thomas and Ursula Mahoney
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10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
The moral interest of the fable which is so powerfully sus-
tained by the sufferings and endurance of Prometheus, would
be annihilated if we could conceive of him as unsaying his
high language, and quailing before his successful and
perfidious adversary.
Shelley, Preface to Prometheus Unbound 18
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But say I could repent and could obtain algr
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By act of grace my former state; how soon o -
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Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay m
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What feigned submission swore; ease would recant et i Tr
Vows made in pain, as violent and void. ek
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Milton, Paradise Lost, IV.93–7 bli
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10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
Contents
Acknowledgements viii 18
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Abbreviations x 1
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Introduction: On the Discrimination of Apostasies 1 ect -
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1 ‘The Laureate Hearse Where Lyric Lies’: C
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The Making of Romantic Apostasy 13 gra
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2 The Mausoleum of Independence 33 o -
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3 ‘Lawless Sway,’ Pendulous Politics 80 Tro
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4 Facing the Past: Spectral Apostasies 123 ek
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5 Upstaging the Fall: The Spectacle of bi
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Romantic Apostasy 143 sitet
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6 Criticism on the Verge 167 ni
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Appendix: Overview of The Complete Works d t
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of William Hazlitt 198 en
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Notes 201 m - li
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Bibliography 247 ect.
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Index 258 ec
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Acknowledgements
This book had its beginnings in my preoccupation with one word, 18
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apostasy. Subsequently, as I found myself returning to and renegotiat- 1-0
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ing my critical bearings via this word and the multitude of tropes it 20
invariably seemed to set in motion, it evolved into a study of the most ct -
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prominent critic of romantic apostasy, William Hazlitt. From there, it on
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took up the subjects of Hazlitt’s criticisms under this heading: Edmund ve
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Burke, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, algr
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John Philip Kemble’s Coriolanus. Throughout, I have returned time o -
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and again to the multifarious valences of a word which, although it m
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denominates a standing-away (Gk.: apo-away; stasis-stand), repeatedly et i Tr
violates the conditions of its own etymology. In doing so, it delineates k
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the political as well as rhetorical cadences of falling – or, as Hazlitt bli
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understood, of the ways in which the language of poetry can be seen to s
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fall in with the language of power. What follows here is an attempt, if sit
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not to arrest, then at least to temporize that fall and to chart its impli- niv
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cations for our understanding of the politics of romantic writing. o
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It is a pleasure to acknowledge many obligations. My greatest se
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single debt is to the generosity and sharp critical intelligence of Ross ce
Hamilton; without his repeated and prescient interventions, this m - li
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study would lack whatever critical finish it might now presume to ct.c
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claim. At Cornell University, where this study began, I am n
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significantly indebted to the guidance and encouragement provided ec
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by Reeve Parker, as well as by Cynthia Chase, Neil Saccamano, and gr
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Gordon Teskey. At the University of Connecticut, I have relied on w.p
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the support of John Abbott, Ross Miller, Richard Peterson, and Tom w
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Riggio. James Chandler and Orrin Wang reviewed the manuscript o
with unusual generosity and insight. Indeed, I have received shrewd al fr
eri
and critical advice from many, including Ian Balfour, Alan Bostick, at
m
Jeffrey Cox, William Galperin, Kenneth Johnston, Misha Kavka, ht
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Allen Kurzweil, Marc Redfield, Willard Spiegelman, Stephen Turner, yri
p
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Deborah Elise White, and Duncan Wu. These readers and others C
have prevented me from making many mistakes. Those that remain
are my own – …il n’y avait plus rien à faire que s’excuser, sans se mettre
hors de cause.
The completion of the manuscript was made possible by a
Chancellor’s Research Fellowship from the University of Connecticut.
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10.1057/9780230597624 - Romantics and Renegades, Charles Mahoney
Acknowledgements ix
An alternative version of Chapter 1 appeared as ‘“The Laureat Hearse
Where Lyric Lies”: Hunt, Hazlitt, and the Making of Romantic
Apostasy, 1813’ in Nineteenth-Century Contexts 24.3 (2002). Sections of
Chapters 2 and 6 appeared previously in the Romantic Circles Praxis
Series as, respectively, ‘The Multeity of Coleridgean Apostasy’ (‘Irony
and Clerisy,’ August 1999): <http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/irony/ 18
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mahoney/stasis.html> and ‘Periodical Indigestion: Hazlitt’s 1-0
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Unpalatable Politics’ (‘Romanticism and Conspiracy,’ August 1997): 20
<http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/conspiracy/mahoney/palate2.html>. ct -
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An earlier version of Chapter 5 appeared as ‘Upstaging the Fall: on
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Coriolanus and the Spectacle of Romantic Apostasy’ in Studies in ve
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Romanticism38.1 (1999): 29–50. I thank the editors of these print jour- algr
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nals and of the Romantic Circles Website, <http://www.rc.umd.edu/ o -
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praxis>, as well as Taylor & Francis Ltd. and the Trustees of Boston m
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University, for their permission to reprint these materials here. et i Tr
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Charles Mahoney bli
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Old Turnpike s
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October, 2001 sit
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