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Sebastian Domsch The Emergence of Literary Criticism in 18th-Century Britain Buchreihe der ANGLIA/ ANGLIA Book Series Edited by Lucia Kornexl, Ursula Lenker, Martin Middeke, Gabriele Rippl, Hubert Zapf Advisory Board Laurel Brinton, Philip Durkin, Olga Fischer, Susan Irvine, Andrew James Johnston, Christopher A. Jones, Terttu Nevalainen, Derek Attridge, Elisabeth Bronfen, Ursula K. Heise, Verena Lobsien, Laura Marcus, J. Hillis Miller, Martin Puchner Volume 47 Sebastian Domsch The Emergence of Literary Criticism in 18th-Century Britain Discourse between Attacks and Authority For an overview of all books published in this series, please see http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/36292 ISBN 978-3-11-035616-8 e-ISBN 978-3-11-036206-0 ISSN 0340-5435 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents ANoteonTexts VII A TheAgeofCriticism 1 Introduction 3 2 ContemporaryDiscussionsofCriticismandtheCritic 12 2.1 DefinitionsandEvaluations:TheStateofCriticism 12 2.2 ImaginingCriticism 22 B TheAuthorityofCriticism 1 CriticalAuthority 49 2 AristocraticAuthority 54 2.1 Court-WitsandGentlemanCritics 55 2.2 ChangesintheSystemofPatronage 71 3 TheAuthorityofSeniority:AncientandModernCriticism 94 4 TheAuthorityofPoeticGenius 115 4.1 ThePoetasCritic 117 4.2 PoetsandEditors 136 5 Learning:KnowledgebetweenAuthorityandPedantry 150 5.1 ThePedantasExemplary 151 5.2 PoliteLearningagainstErudition 157 5.3 SpecializedKnowledge 164 6 RulesandtheCritic 177 6.1 PowerStructures 180 6.2 RulesandReason 193 VI Contents 7 TasteandtheCritic 201 7.1 DebatingTaste 203 7.2 TheTasteoftheAudience 213 7.3 TheStandardofTaste 216 8 Name-Authority:TheCriticasInstitution 229 8.1 TheAnachronisticCritic:JohnDennis 233 8.2 TheInstitutionalCritic:SamuelJohnson 254 9 AuthorityandtheMarketplace 269 9.1 Overproduction 275 9.2 “Thisprocessofchymicalcriticism”: TheCriticasGate-Keeper 285 10 InstitutionalizingAuthority:AcademiesandReviews 301 10.1 CourtsofCriticismI:TheAcademy 301 10.2 CourtsofCriticismII:TheReviews 312 10.3 “TheTheatreofWar”:AttacksontheReviews 341 C Conclusion DistanceandDemocracy 359 WorksCited 373 Index 405 A Note on Texts The basis of this study are the texts of and about literary criticism that were publishedfromtheendofthe17thtotheendofthe18thcentury,aboutathousand independently published titles, from pamphlets to multi-volume works, not to speak of the periodical essays, journal articles, and reviews. Fortunately, new electronic databases like Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Early English BooksOnline,Eighteenth-CenturyJournalsandBritishPeriodicals,butalsoGoogle Books, have made the majority of these texts easily available in their historical editions,manyofwhichhaveneverseenareprintaftertheiroriginalpublication. Asthisstudyistryingtorecreatethewaythattheperiodperformedanddebated criticism, it seemed sensible to stay as close to contemporary sources as possible. Quotes are therefore, where possible, taken from the editions that contemporarieswouldhaveused,eveninthosecaseswheremoderneditionsare available. Though, for example, there are excellent critical editions of the col- lectedworksofAlexanderPope,thesecannothelpbutunifywhatthe18thcentury experienced as a very large number of different texts in different editions, the publication context of most of which is intricately tied to the significance that contemporariesattachedtothem.FromthefirsteditionoftheEssayonCriticism in1711,throughthemazeofdifferent(anddifferentlypublished)editionsofthe Dunciad,totheanxiouslydebatedcollectededitionbyWilliamWarburtonin1751 andthe1797WorkseditedbyJosephWarton,thesebooksshapedtherespective images of Pope the poet and Pope the critical authority for individual readers. Followingthesamespirit,quotesfrom18th-centurysourceshavebeenleftunal- tered in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. For the sake of readability, aberrant spellings both of words and proper names (such as the contemporary useof“Shakespear”or“critick”)arenotindividuallynotifiedby[sic].1Toavoid confusion,twospecialcasesofcapitalizationhavebeenintroducedinthemain text.Whenevertheterm“Nature”isusedinthe18th-centurysenseasphilosophi- caloraestheticconcept,itiscapitalizedtodifferentiateitbetterfromotheruses of the term. Similarly, the capitalized form “Review” is used to denote a review journalasopposedtoindividualreviewarticles. 1 Sometimes,asinthecaseofShakespeare,variationsinspellingcanevenbeproductivelyread toillustrateresiduesofconceptualuncertaintyaboutatermorname. 1 Introduction ItwasverylatebeforecriticismcameintoEngland.(Gildon1721:61) Among numerous other labels not quite fashionable anymore (like the “Age of Pope”orof“Johnson”),the18thcenturyhasalsobeencalledthe“AgeofCriticism.” Thislabelusuallyrefersmainlytoamodeofthinking,butitisalsoapplicabletothe genre or textual strategy that best expresses this mode of thinking. The will to question received opinion and to form independent judgments was pervasive throughouttheperiodandofprimeimportanceforit.JamesEngellhasarguedin hisimportantstudy,FormingtheCriticalMind,“thatcriticism,exercisedonsucha massivescale,rankswiththenovelasthemostsignificant‘new’modeofwritingto enrich English literature between the Restoration of Charles II and the death of GeorgeIII.”(Engell1989:2)AccordingtoEngell,criticism“becomesamajorbranch of literature and critics produce much of literary merit” (1989: 3). And indeed, literarycriticismexistedinEnglandwellbeforetheRestoration,anditcontinuesto growandchangeinthe19thcenturyandallthewayintothe21st,butitwasbetween theendofthe17thandtheendofthe18thcenturythatcriticismforthefirsttime developedgenericformsandinstitutionalcontextsthatarestillrecognizableto- day, and in which the critic emancipated himself1 into an independent profes- sional.Simultaneously,literacylevelsrosealongwiththeimportanceofthemiddle class(cf.Munck2000:46–52andFeather1988:94ff.),thebookmarketexpanded drastically,2thenumberofjournalsandnewspapersexploded(cf.Bond1957:4ff. 1 Themaleformhereandonlateroccasionsreflectsthetime’sowngenderbias.The18thcentury overwhelminglyconceptualizedcriticismasamaleactivityandthecriticasaman.AsTerryCastle writesinherexcellentsurveyofthesubject,“itwascommonlyheldthatliteraryjudgmentwas –or shouldbe –aprivilegereservedformen”,Castle1997:434.Inthefirsthalfofthecentury,there wereexceedinglyfewpublishedfemalecriticalvoices,andeveninthesecondhalf,workslikeClara Reeve’sProgressofRomanceorElizabethMontagu’sEssayontheWritingsandGeniusofShake- spearearerathertheexception.Asthisstudyattemptstoanalysecontemporaryassessmentsof criticism,itcannotbutmirrortheirunderrepresentation.Muchislefttobedesiredinmodern scholarshipaboutfemalecritics.LauraL. Rungehaswrittenthemostthoroughinvestigationto dateoftheperiod’sfemalecriticsandthegenderingof18thcenturycriticaldiscourse,claimingat theoutsetthat“genderisaconstitutiveelementofeighteenth-centuryliterarycriticism”,Runge 1997:3.Butthemainpointthatenableshertoseecriticalandgendereddiscourseasconnectedis thatbothinvolveinherentpowerrelations,cf.Runge1997:6.Thus,itispowerthatisatthecoreof criticaldiscourse,andgenderedlanguageanotherwaytoexpresspower.Hopefully,thisanalysis canthereforealsoprovideaproductivestartingpointforfurthersystematicinvestigationsintothe powerstructuresofcriticismasexpressedandenforcedintermsofgender. 2 ForatableontheaverageannualoutputofnewandreprintedworksinEnglish,sortedby decade,cf.Munck2000:92.Cf.alsoCollins1927:13andFeather1988:93–105. 4 Introduction andItalia2005:7ff.),andthelegalbattleforcopyrighttogetherwiththegrowing economicviabilityandgeneralacceptanceofliteraryprofessionalismhelpedform a modern conception of intellectual property and authorship.3 In the context of thesefundamentalchanges,authors,critics,booksellers,andreadersstruggledfor intellectualandculturaldominanceoverbooksandtextsinawaythatishistori- callyunique.Andasdominanceovertextsisusuallyassertedthroughtherightand abilitytoevaluateandtointerpret,thisstrugglebecomesmostvisibleinthefieldof literarycriticism. Also,sincecriticism,assoonasitiscommunicated,isnotfunctionalwithout authority, the question of what will here be called critical authority is always presentincriticaldiscourseaswellasindiscourseoncriticism.Thetermcritical authorityshouldinthiscontextbeunderstoodtoworklikeavirtualcurrencyinthe literary world’seconomy of opinion. It isthe capital, or rather the credit, of the critic,thewillingnessofarecipienttogivecreditorvaluetoacritic’sevaluative statements.Ofcourse,authorityalwaysmeansauthorityoversomething,sothe termfundamentallydescribesapowerrelation.Toanalyzeorevenquestioncritical authoritymeansaskingforacritic’slegitimizationtojudgeofanother’stext.Who acceptsthecritic’sjudgmentsastrueandwhy?Whatisthesourceandfoundation ofhisauthority?Whoinvestshimwithit?Whomightwanttodenyittohim? This study undertakes, through a systematic and historical analysis of the conceptofcriticalauthority,towriteahistoryofliterarycriticismfromtheendof the17thtotheendofthe18th centurythatnotonlytakesthediscursiveconstruc- tion of its (self)representation into account, but also the social and economic conditions of its practice. As the analysis will show, this history, rather than formingonelinearchronologicalline,consistsofseveralparallelandintersecting historiesordiscoursesbasedonthevariousstrategiesthathavebeenemployed in the course of the period to create, legitimize, or question critical authority. Suchstrategies,astheyweredeveloped,debated,andrejectedbycontemporary authorsandcritics,willthereforebethemainfocusofinterest.Intheirsystematic andtentativelychronologicalorder,thesestrategieswillrevealdevelopmentsin theformationofcriticismthatproblematizeandgobeyondpreviousattemptsat writingahistoryof18th-centurycriticism. As Philip Smallwood has observed, “histories of criticism are in their own way creative works. They have a foot in the storytelling tradition, in tragedy, 3 Ontheinfluenceofcopyrightonconceptsofauthorship,cf.Woodmansee1984;Ross1992;and Rose 1993: 1: “[T]he notion of the author is a relatively recent formation, and, as a cultural formation,itisinseparablefromthecommodificationofliterature.Thedistinguishingcharacter- isticofthemodernauthor,Ipropose,isproprietorship;theauthorisconceivedastheoriginator andthereforetheownerofaspecialkindofcommodity,thework.”

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