Victorian Sappho

294 Pages·1999·16.178 MB·English

by  Yopie Prins

^
VICTORIAN SAPPHO

VICTORIAN SAPPH'
89088
Yopie Prins
P R I N C E T ON U N I V E R S I TY P R E SS
P R I N C E T O N, N EW J E R S EY
COPYRIGHT © 1999 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BYPRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET,
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IN THE UNTIED KINGDOM. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGINGIN-PUBUCATION
PRINS, YOPIE.
VICTORIAN SAPPHO / YOPIE PRINS.
P. CM.
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES (P. ) AND INDEX.
ISBN 0-691-05918-7 (CLOTH : ALK. PAPER).—ISBN 0-691-05919-5
(PBK : ALK. PAPER)
I. ENGLISH POETRY—GREEK INFLUENCES. 2. LOVE POETRY, GREEK-
TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH—HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 3. HOMOSEXUALITY
AND LITERATURE—ENGLAND—HISTORY—19TH CENTURY 4. SAPPHO—
CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION—HISTORY— 19TH CENTURY. 5. SAPPHO—
TRANSITIONS INTO ENGLISH—HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 6. FEMINISM AND
LITERATURE—ENGLAND—HISTORY—19TH CENTURY 7. LOVE POETRY, GREEK-
HISTORY AND CRITICISM—THEORY, ETC. 8. WOMEN AND LITERATURE—
ENGLAND—HISTORY—19TH CENTURY. 9. ENGLISH POETRY—19TH CENTURY-
HISTORY AND CRITICISM. 10. WOMEN AND LITERATURE—GREECE—HISTORY.
II. SAPPHO—APPRECIATION—ENGLAND. 12. SAPPHO—INFLUENCE.
13. POETICS. I. TITLE.
PR129.G8P75 1999 821'.809—DC21 98-28067
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To my loved ones
elq, |iia, ev

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
AcKNOWlMDGMENTS xi
INTRODUCTION
Declining a Name 3
The Victorian Legacy of Sappho 3
Who Wrongs Sappho1? 8
Who Writes Sappho1? 13
ONE
Sappho's Broken Tongue 23
The Sapphic Riddle 23
Tongue Is Broken 28
Afterlife in Translation 40
Wharton 's Rend(er)ings 52
TWO
Sappho Doubled: Michael Field 74
Sly Scholars 74
The Double Signature 80
We Cross and Interlace 88
A Metaphorical Field 94
THREE
Swinburne's Sapphic Sublime 112
Loose Limbs, Mutilated Fragments 112
The Sapphic Scene of Instruction 121
Suffering Meter 140
Recollections of Swinburne 156
FOUR
P.S. Sappho 174
Writing as Postscript 174
Sappho's Leap 185
Personifying the Poetess 209
Woman's Cause 225
CONCLUSION
Epitaph 246
WORKS CITED 253
INDEX OF SAPPHIC FRAGMENTS AND TESTIMONIA 269
GENERAL INDEX 271

ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE 1: Frontispiece from Wharton's Sappho,
fourth edition (1898)
55
FIGURE 2: Sappho and Alcaeus, Sir Laurence
Alma-Tadema (1881)
57
FIGURE 3: Appendix from Wharton's Sappho,
fourth edition (1898)
71
FIGURE 4: Front cover of Long Ago, Michael Field (1889)
81
FIGURE 5: Miniature portrait of Edith Cooper
by Charles Ricketts (1901)
83
FIGURE 6: Frontispiece from Long Ago, Michael Field (1889)
111
FIGURE 7: Draft of "Anactoria," Algernon Swinburne (1863)
118
FIGURE 8: Excerpt from "Algernon's Flogging" in The Flogging Block,
Algernon Swinburne (1862-1881)
154
FIGURE 9: "Algernon Reading 'Anactoria' to Gabriel and William,"
MaxBeerbohm (1922)
161
FIGURE 10: Frontispiece from World-Noted Women,
Mary Cowden Clarke (1857)
186
FIGURE 11: Etching of Sappho by Queen Victoria (1841)
187
FIGURE 12: Illustration in The Poetical Works ofL.E.L.,
William Bell Scott (1873)
196
FIGURE 13: Frontispiece from The Dream and Other Poems,
Caroline Norton (1840)
211