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Some Aspects of the Conservative Attitude toward Poetry in English Criticism, 1798-1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William S. Ward
William S. Ward*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
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Extract

So reactionary was Lord Liverpool, whose Cabinet was formed in 1812 and lasted until 1827, that a French critic remarked that had Lord Liverpool been present on the first day of creation he would have cried out, “Mon Dieu, conservons le chaos.” Though this remark was aimed at one man, quite as appropriately it could have been directed at most of the gentlemen of the periodical press between 1798 and 1820; for this period, like many another era in time of national crisis, made literary criticism the handmaiden of politics, religion, and morality. During few periods have the review and literary departments of the magazines been so full of banal religious and political cant as during the first two decades of the nineteenth century. The ink might scarcely have been dry on Lyrical Ballads and the Preface, but so disturbed was the national state that everything conspired to bring about a thoroughly uncritical outlook and to make the age a most unpropitious one for launching a new literary system. In this short study the fortunes of Wordsworth and the “new poets” cannot be examined, but some of the forces of reaction with which they had to contend, at least as reflected in the periodicals, can be made clear.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 1945 , pp. 386 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1945

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References

Note 1 in page 386 E. L. Woodward, The Age of Reason, 1815–1870 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938), p. 51.

Note 2 in page 387 A review of William Lisle Bowles's Song of the Battle of the Nile, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, January, 1799 (28:110).

Note 3 in page 387 A review of Nicholas John Halpin's An University Prize Room, on his Majesty King George III having completed the Fiftieth Year of his Reign, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, September, 1811 (66:110).

Note 4 in page 387 For typical examples see reviews of (1) the anonymous Ode to the King of Great Britain, in the Critical Review, January, 1799 (s2, v. 25:112); (2) the anonymous Patriotic Effusions, resulting from recent Events, and from Circumstances of the Times, in the Literary Journal, a Review of Literature, December, 1803 (2: 730); (3) John Taylor's Poems on Several Occasions, in the Satirist, or Monthly Meteor, May, 1812 (10: 373–379); (4) Mrs. Mary Anne M'Mullan's The Crescent, a National Poem; to Commemorate the glorious Victory of Algiers, in the Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, May 10, 1817 (no. 16: 244).

Note 5 in page 387 A review of the anonymous (John Wilson Croker's) The Battles of Talavera, in the Quarterly Review, November, 1809 (2:427).

Note 6 in page 388 A review of Samuel Jackson Pratt's Bread; or, the Poor, a Poem, in the Edinburgh Review, October, 1802 (1:108).

Note 7 in page 388 A review of Samuel Jackson Pratt's Bread; or, the Poor, a Poem, in the Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, 1801 (1:441).

Note 8 in page 388 La Belle Assemblée, December, 1818 (ns, v. 18:272).

Note 9 in page 388 A review of The Poetical Works of Eaglesfield Smith, in the Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, 1802 (2: 433–434).

Note 10 in page 388 Typical is the review of Childe Harold, in the British Review, and London Critical Journal, February, 1817 (9:1–23).

Note 11 in page 388 A review of George Taylor's The Spirit of the Mountains; with other Poems, in the British Critic, February, 1807 (29:201).

Note 12 in page 388 A review of Thomas Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming: a Pennsylvanian Tale, in the British Critic, October, 1809 (34:366–372).

Note 13 in page 389 A review of Joel Barlow's The Columbiad, in the Edinburgh Review, October, 1809 (15:29).

Note 14 in page 389 A review of Leigh Hunt's Foliage; or, Poems original and translated, in the New Monthly Magazine, September, 1818 (10:162).

Note 15 in page 389 A review of William Peebles' The Crisis; or, the Progress of Revolutionary Principles, in the Eclectic Review, July, 1805 (1:524).

Note 16 in page 390 See, for example, the Critical Review, the Annual Review; and History of Literature, the British Critic, the British Review and London Critical Journal, and the Eclectic Review.

Note 17 in page 391 Edinburgh Renew, October, 1821 (36: 53).

Note 18 in page 391 A review of the anonymous (John Corry's) A Satirical View of London at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century, in the Universalist's Miscellany or Philanthropist's Museum, October, 1801 (5:395).

Note 19 in page 391 A review of the anonymous Thoughts on Happiness; a Poem in four Boohs, in the Annual Review; and History of Literature, 1802 (1: 658).

Note 20 in page 391 A review of the anonymous The Infidel and Christian Philosophers; or the last Hours of Voltaire and Addison Contrasted, in the Antijacobin Review, November, 1802 (13: 304).

Note 21 in page 391 A review of Miscellaneous Pieces of Poetry, by a Mechanic, in the Evangelical Magazine, April, 1803 (11:167).

Note 22 in page 391 See, for example, a review of Mrs. Felicia Hemans' The Skeptic; a Poem, in the British Critic, April, 1820 (ns, v. 13: 440).

Note 23 in page 391 See, for example, reviews of (1) John Dudley's The Metamorphosis of Sona, a Hindu Tale, in the Eclectic Review, May, 1811 (7:433); (2) Lord Byron's The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, in the Reasoner; or Controversial Magazine, October, 1813 (1: 254); (3) James Montgomery's The World before the Flood, in the Baptist Magazine, July, 1814 (6:290–292).

Note 24 in page 392 A review of Ingram Cobbin's Philanthropy; a Poem, with Miscellaneous Pieces, in the Christian's Pocket Magazine, December, 1819 (1: 478–480). See also reviews of (1) Lord Byron's Hebrew Melodies, No. II, in the Theatrical Inquisitor, June, 1816 (8: 443); (2) John Stewart's The Resurrection, a Poem, in the Oxford Review, or Literary Censor, March, 1808 (3: 279); (3) the anonyomus (Edward Smedley, Jr.) Religio Clerici, a Churchman's Epistle, in the British Critic, April, 1818 (ns, v. 9: 438); and (4) James Edmeston's Sacred Lyrics, in the Monthly Magazine, April, 1820 (49:261).

Note 25 in page 392 A review of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Fears in Solitude, during the Alarm of Invasion, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, May, 1799 (29: 43).

Note 26 in page 392 “The Inspector,” in the Universal Magazine, April, 1804 (ns, v. 1: 381).

Note 27 in page 392 See an article on “Elegiac Poetry,” in the Non-Descript, October 19, 1805 (1: 86).

Note 28 in page 392 See, for example, reviews of Lord Byron's The Corsair, a Tale, in the Christian Observer, April, 1814 (13: 253) and the European Magazine, February, 1814 (65: 135).

Note 29 in page 393 A review of William Lisle Bowles's Coombe Ellen, in the Monthly Magazine, Supplement for 1798 (6:514).

Note 30 in page 393 A review of William Lisle Bowles's Coombe Ellen, in the Monthly Mirror, December, 1798 (6:347).

Note 31 in page 393 A review of Thomas Gisborne's Poems, Sacred and Moral, in the British Critic, September, 1799 (14:232).

Note 32 in page 393 A review of Josiah Walker's The Defence of Order, a Poem, in the Edinburgh Review, July, 1803 (2:421).

Note 33 in page 393 A review of Thomas Moore's Epistle, Odes, and other Poems, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, September, 1806 (51:70).

Note 34 in page 393 A review of Margaret Holford's Poems, in the Scourge; or, Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, April, 1811 (1:330).

Note 35 in page 393 A review of the anonymous (William Mackenzie's) The Sorrows of Seduction, with other Poems, in the Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, &c., May, 1810 (3: 316).

Note 36 in page 393 A review of William Wordsworth's The Excursion: being a Portion of the Recluse, a Poem in the Philanthropist, 1815 (no. 20:343).

Note 37 in page 393 A review of the Reverend W. P. Macdonald's The Moneiad; or, the Power of Money, in the Literary Journal, and General Miscellany, April 19, 1818 (1: 53). For other examples similar to those above see reviews of (1) the pseudonymous (Thomas Beck's) The Age of Frivolity, in the Gospel Magazine and Theological Review, March, 1807 (ns, v. 2: 119); (2) James Grahame's British Georgics, in the Beacon Light, or Occasional Researches, November 3, 1810 (1: 30); (3) Thomas Gilbank Ackland's Miscellaneous Poems, in the Satirist, or Monthly Meteor, August, 1812 (ns, v. 1: 163–165); (4) Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, in the Christian Observer, June, 1812 (11:383); (5) James Fitzgerald's Poetical Pastimes, in the Critical Review, September, 1811 (s. 3, v. 24:66); (6) The Poetical Works of Charles, Earl of Crawford, in the Augustan Review, August, 1815 (1:373); (7) Samuel Whitchurch's David Dreadnought; or, Nautical Tales and Adventures in Verse, in the Baptist Magazine, February, 1816 (8:80); (8) the pseudonymous A Familiar History of the Lives, Loves, and Misfortunes of Abeillard and Heloisa, in La Belle Assemblée, July, 1819 (ns, v. 20: 32–33); (9) Charles Lloyd's Desultory Thoughts in London, Titus and Gisippus, with other Poems, in the Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, December 30, 1820 (no. 206: 835–836); (10) T. Furlong's The Misanthrope: an Epistle; with other Poems, in the Dublin Magazine; or General Repertory, January, 1820 (1: 45); and (11) “Portraits of the Metropolitan Poets. No. I. Mr. Leigh Hunt,” in the Honeycomb, July 15, 1820 (1:34).

Note 38 in page 394 “On Poetry,” in the Miniature Magazine, August, 1820 (1:110–112).

Note 39 in page 394 “Lyceum of Ancient Literature, No. XX,” in the Monthly Magazine, February, 1809 (27:19).

Note 40 in page 395 For other magazines that require that poetry both please and amuse, see as typical the following reviews of (1) Charles Verral's The Pleasures of Possession; or, the Enjoyment of the present Moment contrasted with those of Hope and Memory, a Poem, in the Universal Magazine, October, 1810 (ns., v. 14:296); (2) George Crabbe's Tales, in the Eclectic Review, December, 1812 (8: 1241); (3) Lord Byron's The Siege of Corinth, a Poem; Parisina, a Poem, in the Stage, March, 1816 (ns., v. 1: 169).

Note 41 in page 395 A review of Walter Scott's The Bridal of Triermain, in the Eclectic Review, October, 1813 (10:373).

Note 42 in page 395 A review of John Joshua Proby's Dramatic and Narrative Poems, in the British Critic, July, 1810 (36:52).

Note 43 in page 395 A review of Bernard Barton's Poems, in the Edinburgh Review, November, 1820 (34:349).

Note 44 in page 395 For additional references similar to those noted above, see reviews of (1) Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iii, in the Portfolio; Political and Literary, November 30, 1816 (no. 5: 102); (2) Lord Byron's Don Juan, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, August, 1819 (5: 512–522); (3) Lord Byron's Don Juan, in the New Bon Ton Magazine, August, 1819 (3: 234–239); (4) Lord Byron's Don Juan, in the New Monthly Magazine, August, 1819 (12:75–78 .

Note 45 in page 396 A review of Joseph Russell's Poems, in the Evangelical Magazine, and Missionary Chronicle, October, 1820 (28:422).

Note 46 in page 396 A review of W. F. Sullivan's The Test of Union and Loyalty, or the long-threatened Invasion, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, November, 1803 (42:328).

Note 47 in page 396 A review of William Smith's English Lyrics, Part II, in the Annual Review; and History of Literature, 1805 (4:613).

Note 48 in page 396 A review of the anonymous Mary the Osier-Peeler, a simple but true story, a Poem, in the Critical Review, December, 1798 (s. 2, v. 24:469).

Note 49 in page 396 A review of the anonymous An Occasional Ode, in the Antijacobin Review, November, 1810 (37:309).

Note 50 in page 396 A review of Select Pieces in Verse, by Clericus, in the Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, October, 1809 (60:215).

Note 51 in page 396 Monthly Review, or Literary Journal, February, 1809 (58:212).

Note 52 in page 396 Literary Panorama, June, 1810 (8:229).

Note 53 in page 397 A review of Lord Byron's The Corsair, a Tale, in the Critical Review, February, 1814 (s. 4, v. 5:155).

Note 54 in page 397 A review of Lord Byron's The Corsair, a Tale, in the Satirist, or Monthly Meteor, March, 1814 (ns., v. 4:246).

Note 55 in page 397 A review of Lord Byron's Manfred, in the Knight Errant; a Literary Miscellany, July 19, 1817 (1:46).

Note 56 in page 397 For examples additional to those noted above see reviews of (1) Lord Byron's The Bride of Abydos, a Turkish Tale, in the British Review, and London Critical Journal, February, 1814 (5: 393); (2) T. H. Merivale's Orlando in Rouncevalles, in the British Critic, September, 1814 (ns., v. 2: 256); (3) Thomas MacCarthy's Montalto; or, the Heart Unveiled: a Poem, in the Literary Journal, and General Miscellany, February 27, 1819 (2: 134).