Royal Mourning and Regency Culture: Elegies and Memorials of Princess Charlotte

289 Pages·1997·23.025 MB·English

by  Stephen C. Behrendt

Royal Mourning and
Regency Culture
Elegies and Memorials of Princess Charlotte
Stephen C. Behrendt
ROYAL MOURNING AND REGENCY CULTURE
Also by Stephen C. Behrendt
THE MOMENT OF EXPLOSION: Blake and the Illustration of
Milton
SHELLEY AND HIS AUDIENCES
READING WILLIAM BLAKE
INSTRUMENTS OF THE BONES (poetry)
A STEP IN THE DARK (poetry)
HISTORY AND MYTH: Essays on English Romantic Literature
(editor)
ROMANTICISM, RADICALISM, AND THE PRESS (editor)
APPROACHES TO TEACHING SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN
(editor)
P. B. SHELLEY, ZASTROZZI AND ST IRVYNE (editor)
Royal Mourning and
Regency Culture
Elegies and Memorials of
Princess Charlotte
Stephen C. Behrendt
9A
First published in Great Britain 1997 by
« MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-69580-1
m
First published in the United States of America 1997 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-21049-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Behrendt, Stephen C, 1947-
Royal mourning and Regency culture : elegies and memorials of
Princess Charlotte / Stephen C Behrendt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-21049-3
1. Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Great Britain, 1796-1817—Death
and burial. 2. Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Great Britain,
1796-1817—Public opinion. 3. Mourning customs—Great Britain-
-History—19th century. 4. Popular culture—Great Britain-
-History—19th century. 5. Elegiac poetry, English—History and
criticism. 6. Princesses—Great Britain—Public opinion.
7. Monarchy—Great Britain—Public opinion. 8. Great Britain-
-History—1789-1820. 9. Regency—Great Britain. I. Title.
DA538.A4B44 1997
941.07'3'092—dc21 97-22795
CIP
© Stephen C. Behrendt 1997
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 permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
for Patricia Flanagan Behrendt
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Plates xi
1 Introduction 1
2 The Image of a Princess 34
3 The First Poems 78
4 Women's Responses 122
5 The Holy Lesson 155
6 The Merchandising of Mourning 177
7 'Some Glorious Phantom': Buried in Myth 213
Notes 237
Index 258
Vll
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Acknowledgements
The publication of this book marks the culmination of a project
that has been supported and assisted in many ways, by colleagues
and friends, as well as by institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.
For their help in bringing this project to fruition I wish to express
my thanks to Stuart Curran, whose interest in and enthusiasm
for this project have been there from the start, and to Esther
Schor and Loraine Fletcher, who read and commented on portions
of the manuscript. I thank also the staffs of numerous British
institutions, including the British Library and the Department of
Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; the Victoria and
Albert Museum (especially Wendy Hafford), and the Royal
Collections and Archives at Windsor Castle. The five illustrations
based on materials in the Royal Collections, as well as the quotation
from Robert Huish's letter in Chapter 6, appear by gracious
permission of Her Majesty The Queen. I thank also the Herbert
Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry (especially Elizabeth Read),
and the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and Museums at Brighton.
Special thanks go to the Royal Archives, by whose permission I
am able to quote in Chapter 6 from a letter written by Robert
Huish. I thank, too, the University of Nebraska Research Council
for travel and study grants in support of my research, and the
National Endowment for the Humanities for a Summer Stipend
in connection with this project. Thanks also to Dawn Vernooy
for her assistance in preparing the index. Finally, I thank my
wife, Patricia Flanagan Behrendt, who contributed in so many
ways to this book, listening to ideas, reading portions of the
manuscript, suggesting useful perspectives, and in every possible
way helping me to think through what became an increasingly
complicated - and therefore an increasingly interesting - project.
For her unfailing support, I can only express my gratitude - and
my love.
IX