Anne Stott
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199274888
- eISBN:
- 9780191714962
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274888.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals ...
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Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals of the late Georgian period, including David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and the women of the bluestocking circle. Following her religious conversion she became a friend of William Wilberforce and the members of the Evangelical Clapham sect. Her career as playwright, bluestocking, educationalist, anti-slavery campaigner, political writer, and novelist made her one of the most influential women of the period. Using previously unpublished sources, in particular her letters, this book shows that Hannah More was a complex and contradictory figure, a conservative who was accused of political and religious subversion, an ostensible anti-feminist who opened up new opportunities for female activism.Less
Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals of the late Georgian period, including David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and the women of the bluestocking circle. Following her religious conversion she became a friend of William Wilberforce and the members of the Evangelical Clapham sect. Her career as playwright, bluestocking, educationalist, anti-slavery campaigner, political writer, and novelist made her one of the most influential women of the period. Using previously unpublished sources, in particular her letters, this book shows that Hannah More was a complex and contradictory figure, a conservative who was accused of political and religious subversion, an ostensible anti-feminist who opened up new opportunities for female activism.
WILLIAM J. ASHWORTH
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259212
- eISBN:
- 9780191717918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259212.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Economic History
Robert Walpole's appointment as First Lord of the Treasury enabled him to recapture public confidence in the credibility of the government's financial dealings and preserve the central aim of the ...
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Robert Walpole's appointment as First Lord of the Treasury enabled him to recapture public confidence in the credibility of the government's financial dealings and preserve the central aim of the South Sea Company's scheme, namely, the conversion of a large portion of the long-term national debt into a redeemable stock. From now on the most important elements of future dealings were social as well as economic budgeting, which involved the skilful management and courtship of the money market and ensuring the efficient gathering of revenue. Walpole was adept at this important aspect of political maneuvering, which, in turn, enabled a long period of financial consolidation and relative stability. This chapter shows that at the heart of Walpole's administrative fiscal policy was the excise.Less
Robert Walpole's appointment as First Lord of the Treasury enabled him to recapture public confidence in the credibility of the government's financial dealings and preserve the central aim of the South Sea Company's scheme, namely, the conversion of a large portion of the long-term national debt into a redeemable stock. From now on the most important elements of future dealings were social as well as economic budgeting, which involved the skilful management and courtship of the money market and ensuring the efficient gathering of revenue. Walpole was adept at this important aspect of political maneuvering, which, in turn, enabled a long period of financial consolidation and relative stability. This chapter shows that at the heart of Walpole's administrative fiscal policy was the excise.
Anne Stott
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199274888
- eISBN:
- 9780191714962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274888.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses Hannah More's transition from playwright to Evangelical activist. She was now part of the bluestocking circle, a friend of Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Carter, and was ...
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This chapter discusses Hannah More's transition from playwright to Evangelical activist. She was now part of the bluestocking circle, a friend of Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Carter, and was depicted in Richard Samuel's The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (1779) as Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. The Bas Bleu, her poem that celebrated the bluestockings, was praised by Johnson. She became one of the many female friends and correspondents of Horace Walpole and her Bishop Bonner's Ghost was the last work to be printed by his Strawberry Hill press. She also tried to rescue a madwoman known as ‘Louisa’ or ‘the Lady of the Haystack’. Her patronage of Ann Yearsley, the ‘Bristol milkwoman’ was an ignominious failure. Her purchase of Cowslip Green near Wrington in Somerset was a sign that she was turning her back on fashionable Society.Less
This chapter discusses Hannah More's transition from playwright to Evangelical activist. She was now part of the bluestocking circle, a friend of Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Carter, and was depicted in Richard Samuel's The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (1779) as Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. The Bas Bleu, her poem that celebrated the bluestockings, was praised by Johnson. She became one of the many female friends and correspondents of Horace Walpole and her Bishop Bonner's Ghost was the last work to be printed by his Strawberry Hill press. She also tried to rescue a madwoman known as ‘Louisa’ or ‘the Lady of the Haystack’. Her patronage of Ann Yearsley, the ‘Bristol milkwoman’ was an ignominious failure. Her purchase of Cowslip Green near Wrington in Somerset was a sign that she was turning her back on fashionable Society.
Richard Kieckhefer
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195154665
- eISBN:
- 9780199835676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154665.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The kinetic dynamism of a classic sacramental church, with its longitudinal space for processions, is exemplified by the design and the use of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The tendency of ...
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The kinetic dynamism of a classic sacramental church, with its longitudinal space for processions, is exemplified by the design and the use of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The tendency of longitudinal space to become partitioned with screens and other barriers is discussed with reference to Saint Albans Cathedral, in England. The possibility of reconceiving and revitalizing classic sacramental space is demonstrated by the case of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, in San Francisco. The central plan is shown to be a variation on the longitudinal design. The verbal dynamism of a classic evangelical church, with auditorium seating on a ground floor and in a gallery, is exemplified by the early Congregational Chapel in Walpole, England. The tendency toward hybrid arrangements is shown in the Westerkerk at Amsterdam, which, though fundamentally Protestant, retains certain features of medieval design. The use of a modern communal church for gathering of the congregation is illustrated by the Methodist church at Northfield, Minnesota. Problems in the modern communal tradition are discussed with reference to the Church of the Autostrada outside Florence, Italy.Less
The kinetic dynamism of a classic sacramental church, with its longitudinal space for processions, is exemplified by the design and the use of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The tendency of longitudinal space to become partitioned with screens and other barriers is discussed with reference to Saint Albans Cathedral, in England. The possibility of reconceiving and revitalizing classic sacramental space is demonstrated by the case of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, in San Francisco. The central plan is shown to be a variation on the longitudinal design. The verbal dynamism of a classic evangelical church, with auditorium seating on a ground floor and in a gallery, is exemplified by the early Congregational Chapel in Walpole, England. The tendency toward hybrid arrangements is shown in the Westerkerk at Amsterdam, which, though fundamentally Protestant, retains certain features of medieval design. The use of a modern communal church for gathering of the congregation is illustrated by the Methodist church at Northfield, Minnesota. Problems in the modern communal tradition are discussed with reference to the Church of the Autostrada outside Florence, Italy.
James Noggle
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199642434
- eISBN:
- 9780191738579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199642434.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The landscape garden was considered a uniquely English, uniquely modern art form—a uniqueness derived in part from the intensity of immediate tasteful experience that places like Stowe elicited. The ...
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The landscape garden was considered a uniquely English, uniquely modern art form—a uniqueness derived in part from the intensity of immediate tasteful experience that places like Stowe elicited. The first of three sections shows that William Gilpin’s Dialogue Upon the Gardens of…Stow seeks to join spontaneous pleasure at Stowe with sense of nationalistic destiny, but comes to recognize the gap between them can never be quite closed. The second demonstrates that Joseph Warton’s poem The Enthusiast uses Stowe to represent the corrupting history of British taste, yet his alternative, the sensory immediacy provided by nature, gains meaning only within the corruption narrative that Stowe helps him tell. The third section argues that while Horace Walpole only indirectly looks at Stowe in his seminal History of the Modern Taste in Gardening, it models an immediacy of affect for all modern gardens that distorts and finally demolishes his attempt to narrate their past, present, and future.Less
The landscape garden was considered a uniquely English, uniquely modern art form—a uniqueness derived in part from the intensity of immediate tasteful experience that places like Stowe elicited. The first of three sections shows that William Gilpin’s Dialogue Upon the Gardens of…Stow seeks to join spontaneous pleasure at Stowe with sense of nationalistic destiny, but comes to recognize the gap between them can never be quite closed. The second demonstrates that Joseph Warton’s poem The Enthusiast uses Stowe to represent the corrupting history of British taste, yet his alternative, the sensory immediacy provided by nature, gains meaning only within the corruption narrative that Stowe helps him tell. The third section argues that while Horace Walpole only indirectly looks at Stowe in his seminal History of the Modern Taste in Gardening, it models an immediacy of affect for all modern gardens that distorts and finally demolishes his attempt to narrate their past, present, and future.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines ...
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This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines the inter-relationship between patriotism, politics, and poetry in the period 1724-1742. It investigates the growing Patriot opposition during the Walpolian oligarchy, and asks whether a broad credo united all of Walpole's political opponents, or whether there was a distinction between Whig and Tory Patriots. The role of Frederick Prince of Wales as the campaign's cultural and political figurehead is discussed, as are the poetry and drama of such authors as James Thomson, Alexander Pope, and the young Samuel Johnson, who were all drawn to the heady idealism of the young Boy Patriots. Thomson's Rule Britannia and Johnson's London exploit the appeal to British history so central to the emotive propaganda of the Patriot campaign. Drawing on the literature, prints, architecture, and statuary of the 1730s, the book also discusses two of the decade's most powerful romantic patriotic myths — Gothic liberty, and Elizabethan greatness — and reveals that in its nationalistic emphasis upon Nordic and Celtic traditions, the figure of the ancient British Druid, and native ‘bards’, Patriot literature anticipates the ‘Gothic’ strain emerging in the poetry of Gray, Collins, and the Wartons only a few years later.Less
This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines the inter-relationship between patriotism, politics, and poetry in the period 1724-1742. It investigates the growing Patriot opposition during the Walpolian oligarchy, and asks whether a broad credo united all of Walpole's political opponents, or whether there was a distinction between Whig and Tory Patriots. The role of Frederick Prince of Wales as the campaign's cultural and political figurehead is discussed, as are the poetry and drama of such authors as James Thomson, Alexander Pope, and the young Samuel Johnson, who were all drawn to the heady idealism of the young Boy Patriots. Thomson's Rule Britannia and Johnson's London exploit the appeal to British history so central to the emotive propaganda of the Patriot campaign. Drawing on the literature, prints, architecture, and statuary of the 1730s, the book also discusses two of the decade's most powerful romantic patriotic myths — Gothic liberty, and Elizabethan greatness — and reveals that in its nationalistic emphasis upon Nordic and Celtic traditions, the figure of the ancient British Druid, and native ‘bards’, Patriot literature anticipates the ‘Gothic’ strain emerging in the poetry of Gray, Collins, and the Wartons only a few years later.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book deals with patriotism, politics, and poetry in the age of Robert Walpole. It is especially concerned with the activities and writings of the dissident, or ‘Patriot’ Whigs, Walpole's most ...
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This book deals with patriotism, politics, and poetry in the age of Robert Walpole. It is especially concerned with the activities and writings of the dissident, or ‘Patriot’ Whigs, Walpole's most vigorous critics in parliament and the press in the years after 1725. It explores the broader currents of national feeling enshrined in the Patriots' distinct brand of oppositional poetry and drama: a body of literature which played a vital role in shaping the way in which poets (and, indeed, less elevated mortals) from the 1740s onwards conceived of themselves as uniquely British. It was James Thomson, one such poet, who produced ‘Rule, Britannia’ for his royal masque, Alfred, written for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Patriots' political figurehead. When Alfred's venerable British Bard, ancient and blind, first stepped across an open-air stage to Arne's swelling tune and spoke those memorable lines one warm night in August 1740, Britain was basking in Admiral Vernon's recent victory at Porto Bello. National pride was at its height, and ‘Rule, Britannia’, which began life as a potent piece of opposition propaganda, soon became the unofficial national anthem.Less
This book deals with patriotism, politics, and poetry in the age of Robert Walpole. It is especially concerned with the activities and writings of the dissident, or ‘Patriot’ Whigs, Walpole's most vigorous critics in parliament and the press in the years after 1725. It explores the broader currents of national feeling enshrined in the Patriots' distinct brand of oppositional poetry and drama: a body of literature which played a vital role in shaping the way in which poets (and, indeed, less elevated mortals) from the 1740s onwards conceived of themselves as uniquely British. It was James Thomson, one such poet, who produced ‘Rule, Britannia’ for his royal masque, Alfred, written for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the Patriots' political figurehead. When Alfred's venerable British Bard, ancient and blind, first stepped across an open-air stage to Arne's swelling tune and spoke those memorable lines one warm night in August 1740, Britain was basking in Admiral Vernon's recent victory at Porto Bello. National pride was at its height, and ‘Rule, Britannia’, which began life as a potent piece of opposition propaganda, soon became the unofficial national anthem.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Eighteenth-century patriotism once seemed a relatively straightforward phenomenon. Recent cultural and historical research has rendered it more interesting and (inevitably) infinitely more ...
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Eighteenth-century patriotism once seemed a relatively straightforward phenomenon. Recent cultural and historical research has rendered it more interesting and (inevitably) infinitely more complicated. The same may be said of the transformations which revisionist historians of the last two decades have made to the landscape of early Hanoverian party politics. In both Parliament and the press, Robert Walpole faced a heterogeneous body of political adversaries, a ‘hybrid’ opposition. The Tories, consigned to near-permanent opposition after the Hanoverian accession in 1714 and the onset of single-party Whig government, formed the largest and most consistent opposition element in the Commons. They were joined by a number of ‘independents’ (though their number is debatable) and by a series of dissident or Patriot Whigs who switched from supporting to opposing the Whig administration. The dissident Whig element became a consistent feature of opposition politics only after Walpole achieved a virtual monopoly on power in Britain in the early 1720s.Less
Eighteenth-century patriotism once seemed a relatively straightforward phenomenon. Recent cultural and historical research has rendered it more interesting and (inevitably) infinitely more complicated. The same may be said of the transformations which revisionist historians of the last two decades have made to the landscape of early Hanoverian party politics. In both Parliament and the press, Robert Walpole faced a heterogeneous body of political adversaries, a ‘hybrid’ opposition. The Tories, consigned to near-permanent opposition after the Hanoverian accession in 1714 and the onset of single-party Whig government, formed the largest and most consistent opposition element in the Commons. They were joined by a number of ‘independents’ (though their number is debatable) and by a series of dissident or Patriot Whigs who switched from supporting to opposing the Whig administration. The dissident Whig element became a consistent feature of opposition politics only after Walpole achieved a virtual monopoly on power in Britain in the early 1720s.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter examines the Elizabethan revival of the Robert Walpole era. Surprisingly little scholarship exists on one of the most inescapable features of this period: the widespread cult of ...
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This chapter examines the Elizabethan revival of the Robert Walpole era. Surprisingly little scholarship exists on one of the most inescapable features of this period: the widespread cult of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's reign supplies the focal point for Bolingbroke's major political writings of the 1730s and historians have duly examined its significance. But most readings are confined to equating Bolingbroke's Elizabethan ‘nostalgia’ with his reactionary conservatism. The Elizabethan cult of the 1730s found expression in a wide variety of media, from the plethora of pamphlets generated by popular pressure for war with Spain, through to drama, painting, poetry, and statuary. For the aggressive, expansionist Protestant mercantilism associated with the victories of Cadiz and the Armada, an Elizabethanism shaped above all by pressure for war with Spain. But war with Spain was only one source of the complex patriotic manipulations of Elizabeth's golden age. Both Patriot Whigs and Court Whigs, operating from within a shared Protestant Hanoverian idiom which stressed the continuity of Protestant freedoms, competed over rival claims to represent ‘Elizabethan’ values.Less
This chapter examines the Elizabethan revival of the Robert Walpole era. Surprisingly little scholarship exists on one of the most inescapable features of this period: the widespread cult of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's reign supplies the focal point for Bolingbroke's major political writings of the 1730s and historians have duly examined its significance. But most readings are confined to equating Bolingbroke's Elizabethan ‘nostalgia’ with his reactionary conservatism. The Elizabethan cult of the 1730s found expression in a wide variety of media, from the plethora of pamphlets generated by popular pressure for war with Spain, through to drama, painting, poetry, and statuary. For the aggressive, expansionist Protestant mercantilism associated with the victories of Cadiz and the Armada, an Elizabethanism shaped above all by pressure for war with Spain. But war with Spain was only one source of the complex patriotic manipulations of Elizabeth's golden age. Both Patriot Whigs and Court Whigs, operating from within a shared Protestant Hanoverian idiom which stressed the continuity of Protestant freedoms, competed over rival claims to represent ‘Elizabethan’ values.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to ...
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By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to broad-bottom principles in pursuit of government places. Some of the most scathing definitions of Patriots, patriotism, and Whigs are supplied by Samuel Johnson. Patriot Whiggery and Jacobitism deployed overlapping sets of images and metaphors, especially those of redemptive kingship. But Patriot Whigs were rarely Jacobites. Patriot Whigs were remarkably consistent with their support for the House of Hanover, even if that support focused on the heir to the throne rather than its present occupant. This is not to deny that a few figures involved in Patriot politics later dabbled with Jacobite intrigue. But the fundamental tenet cherished by most opposition Whigs — defence of the Protestant succession — was ultimately irreconcilable with Jacobitism. Johnson's unusual oscillation between Whig Patriot idealism and stubborn Jacobite resentment was also characteristic of Richard Savage, perhaps the dominant influence on the young Johnson during his first years in London.Less
By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to broad-bottom principles in pursuit of government places. Some of the most scathing definitions of Patriots, patriotism, and Whigs are supplied by Samuel Johnson. Patriot Whiggery and Jacobitism deployed overlapping sets of images and metaphors, especially those of redemptive kingship. But Patriot Whigs were rarely Jacobites. Patriot Whigs were remarkably consistent with their support for the House of Hanover, even if that support focused on the heir to the throne rather than its present occupant. This is not to deny that a few figures involved in Patriot politics later dabbled with Jacobite intrigue. But the fundamental tenet cherished by most opposition Whigs — defence of the Protestant succession — was ultimately irreconcilable with Jacobitism. Johnson's unusual oscillation between Whig Patriot idealism and stubborn Jacobite resentment was also characteristic of Richard Savage, perhaps the dominant influence on the young Johnson during his first years in London.
Elizabeth R. Napier
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128601
- eISBN:
- 9780191671678
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128601.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto is, in its exaggerated, frenzied atmosphere of medievalism, romance, and the supernatural, Walpole’s triumphant ...
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This chapter discusses The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto is, in its exaggerated, frenzied atmosphere of medievalism, romance, and the supernatural, Walpole’s triumphant assertion of his own privileged immunity from censure, evidence of the tenuous connectedness he had with the ‘real’ world that was a source in life of his despair, his cynicism, and his solace.Less
This chapter discusses The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto is, in its exaggerated, frenzied atmosphere of medievalism, romance, and the supernatural, Walpole’s triumphant assertion of his own privileged immunity from censure, evidence of the tenuous connectedness he had with the ‘real’ world that was a source in life of his despair, his cynicism, and his solace.
Howard Erskine-Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121770
- eISBN:
- 9780191671296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121770.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be ...
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The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be changed: the fall of a Favourite or a revolution brought about by military invasion. Johnson employs the literary mode of oblique allusion, practised by Dryden and Pope, to reflect on the British experience of the 1740s. The Vanity of Human Wishes is not a poem of generality in the sense that it excluded recent historical events, but is comprehensive in assimilating them to famous examples of the past. The long view thus constructed displays not least the vanity of human wishes as the tragedy of political hope. It is a vision of the world from which one may turn either to Stoic or Christian doctrine to find a faith with which to live. Johnson's text turns to the Christian religion, though he has at least in common with Juvenal the rejection of chance and the advocacy of virtue.Less
The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be changed: the fall of a Favourite or a revolution brought about by military invasion. Johnson employs the literary mode of oblique allusion, practised by Dryden and Pope, to reflect on the British experience of the 1740s. The Vanity of Human Wishes is not a poem of generality in the sense that it excluded recent historical events, but is comprehensive in assimilating them to famous examples of the past. The long view thus constructed displays not least the vanity of human wishes as the tragedy of political hope. It is a vision of the world from which one may turn either to Stoic or Christian doctrine to find a faith with which to live. Johnson's text turns to the Christian religion, though he has at least in common with Juvenal the rejection of chance and the advocacy of virtue.
Robert Harris
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203780
- eISBN:
- 9780191675973
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203780.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book studies the polemical press of the 1740s, and provides an investigation of the politics of the Pelham regime. It examines the vigorous and wide-ranging debate in tracts and periodicals ...
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This book studies the polemical press of the 1740s, and provides an investigation of the politics of the Pelham regime. It examines the vigorous and wide-ranging debate in tracts and periodicals about the principal issues of the day — the fall of Walpole, the influence of Hanover, the Forty-Five, and the War of the Austrian Succession. This book's detailed analysis of the confusing and fragmented politics of the 1740s sheds important light on patterns of change and continuity in the political culture of mid-18th-century English politics.Less
This book studies the polemical press of the 1740s, and provides an investigation of the politics of the Pelham regime. It examines the vigorous and wide-ranging debate in tracts and periodicals about the principal issues of the day — the fall of Walpole, the influence of Hanover, the Forty-Five, and the War of the Austrian Succession. This book's detailed analysis of the confusing and fragmented politics of the 1740s sheds important light on patterns of change and continuity in the political culture of mid-18th-century English politics.
Frances Harris
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202240
- eISBN:
- 9780191675232
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202240.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was a woman with a ‘passion for government:’ a compulsion to wield power not only in her own family but in public affairs as well. She was the favourite of Queen Anne, ...
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Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was a woman with a ‘passion for government:’ a compulsion to wield power not only in her own family but in public affairs as well. She was the favourite of Queen Anne, the devoted wife and political associate of the Queen's most powerful subject, the passionate ally or bitter enemy of most of the leading public figures of her day, and in her widowhood the effective head of one of England's great families. Despite her stormy relationship with the architect Vanbrugh, she played a major role in the building of Blenheim Palace, one of England's most splendid houses. Born in 1660, she succeeded during the course of her long life in overcoming many of the contemporary constraints on her sex. Her sheer force of personality made her one of the most influential, as well as one of the most loved and hated, of Augustan women. This is the first complete scholarly biography of the Duchess of Marlborough. The book makes full use of recently available manuscript sources to tell the colourful story of a woman at the centre of power, whose life spanned more than eighty years from the Restoration to the fall of Walpole. The book sets Sarah's life and personal relationships in the context of her time, drawing a vivid portrait of a woman whose character and life are as fascinating and contentious today as they were to her contemporaries.Less
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was a woman with a ‘passion for government:’ a compulsion to wield power not only in her own family but in public affairs as well. She was the favourite of Queen Anne, the devoted wife and political associate of the Queen's most powerful subject, the passionate ally or bitter enemy of most of the leading public figures of her day, and in her widowhood the effective head of one of England's great families. Despite her stormy relationship with the architect Vanbrugh, she played a major role in the building of Blenheim Palace, one of England's most splendid houses. Born in 1660, she succeeded during the course of her long life in overcoming many of the contemporary constraints on her sex. Her sheer force of personality made her one of the most influential, as well as one of the most loved and hated, of Augustan women. This is the first complete scholarly biography of the Duchess of Marlborough. The book makes full use of recently available manuscript sources to tell the colourful story of a woman at the centre of power, whose life spanned more than eighty years from the Restoration to the fall of Walpole. The book sets Sarah's life and personal relationships in the context of her time, drawing a vivid portrait of a woman whose character and life are as fascinating and contentious today as they were to her contemporaries.
FRANCES HARRIS
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202240
- eISBN:
- 9780191675232
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202240.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
As Sarah was facing the effects brought on by old age, she also experienced a severe case of ‘gout’ — seemingly a form of arthritis or rheumatism which was further worsened by scurvy — which left her ...
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As Sarah was facing the effects brought on by old age, she also experienced a severe case of ‘gout’ — seemingly a form of arthritis or rheumatism which was further worsened by scurvy — which left her unable to walk for weeks and she was therefore suffering from progressive disability. Although she appeared to have recovered over the summer of that year from all the usual winter illnesses, her limbs were getting weaker and the attacks seemed to be lasting longer. However, Sarah still had an interest in political issues and believed that Walpole possessed a distorted perception of Whig principles.Less
As Sarah was facing the effects brought on by old age, she also experienced a severe case of ‘gout’ — seemingly a form of arthritis or rheumatism which was further worsened by scurvy — which left her unable to walk for weeks and she was therefore suffering from progressive disability. Although she appeared to have recovered over the summer of that year from all the usual winter illnesses, her limbs were getting weaker and the attacks seemed to be lasting longer. However, Sarah still had an interest in political issues and believed that Walpole possessed a distorted perception of Whig principles.
ROBERT HARRIS
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203780
- eISBN:
- 9780191675973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203780.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the influence of the ideology of patriotism on the political role of the press of the 1740s, showing that conflict between patriotism and the court superseded and blurred ...
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This chapter examines the influence of the ideology of patriotism on the political role of the press of the 1740s, showing that conflict between patriotism and the court superseded and blurred Whig–Tory rivalry. The Whig–Tory polarity became submerged in the patriot — ministerial division, seeking to identify themselves with the patriot cause. One other feature of the conflict between patriotism and court was the decline of patriotism, a consequence of Pulteney's ‘great betrayal’ of the patriot cause following Walpole's fall. Among the essay papers of 1740s, by far the most influential were the Old England Journal and the Westminister Journal. Patriotism's greatest beneficiaries were neither the Tories nor the opposition Whigs, but the Pelhams. The decline of patriotism, under the stimulus of successive betrayals and the '45, was largely the ministry's gain.Less
This chapter examines the influence of the ideology of patriotism on the political role of the press of the 1740s, showing that conflict between patriotism and the court superseded and blurred Whig–Tory rivalry. The Whig–Tory polarity became submerged in the patriot — ministerial division, seeking to identify themselves with the patriot cause. One other feature of the conflict between patriotism and court was the decline of patriotism, a consequence of Pulteney's ‘great betrayal’ of the patriot cause following Walpole's fall. Among the essay papers of 1740s, by far the most influential were the Old England Journal and the Westminister Journal. Patriotism's greatest beneficiaries were neither the Tories nor the opposition Whigs, but the Pelhams. The decline of patriotism, under the stimulus of successive betrayals and the '45, was largely the ministry's gain.
ROBERT HARRIS
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203780
- eISBN:
- 9780191675973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203780.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the question of British and Hanoverian responsibility for Austria's plight that came to dominate press debate as 1741 progressed. The impact on domestic politics of the early ...
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This chapter examines the question of British and Hanoverian responsibility for Austria's plight that came to dominate press debate as 1741 progressed. The impact on domestic politics of the early stages of the war of the Austrian Succession did not receive the attention that it merits, due to the role the war played in forcing Walpole from power and intrusion into press debate, under the stimulus of the Hanoverian neutrality, of the alleged Hanoverian control of British foreign policy. At the end of 1742 the award of British pay to 16,000 Hanoverian troops was to unleash anti-Hanoverianism. This chapter shows that the fact the issue had already been firmly raised by the neutrality was an important factor in shaping the popular and press response to the war over the next two years.Less
This chapter examines the question of British and Hanoverian responsibility for Austria's plight that came to dominate press debate as 1741 progressed. The impact on domestic politics of the early stages of the war of the Austrian Succession did not receive the attention that it merits, due to the role the war played in forcing Walpole from power and intrusion into press debate, under the stimulus of the Hanoverian neutrality, of the alleged Hanoverian control of British foreign policy. At the end of 1742 the award of British pay to 16,000 Hanoverian troops was to unleash anti-Hanoverianism. This chapter shows that the fact the issue had already been firmly raised by the neutrality was an important factor in shaping the popular and press response to the war over the next two years.
ROBERT HARRIS
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203780
- eISBN:
- 9780191675973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203780.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Widespread concern was inevitable once Carteret committed Britain in the second half of 1742 to providing Austria with direct military support and financial and diplomatic aid. It then came to ...
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Widespread concern was inevitable once Carteret committed Britain in the second half of 1742 to providing Austria with direct military support and financial and diplomatic aid. It then came to dominate all levels and aspects of press and public debate during 1743 to 1744. This chapter presents the result of a combination of domestic and foreign circumstances, amongst which were the role of the 16,000 Hanoverian troops taken into British pay in 1742, and the direct intervention in the press of a number of opposition Whigs who found themselves excluded from the political settlement that followed Walpole's fall. The opposition Whig intervention in the press between 1743 and 1744 was primarily responsible for ensuring that Hanover's role in the war remained at the forefront of popular and press concern for most of this period.Less
Widespread concern was inevitable once Carteret committed Britain in the second half of 1742 to providing Austria with direct military support and financial and diplomatic aid. It then came to dominate all levels and aspects of press and public debate during 1743 to 1744. This chapter presents the result of a combination of domestic and foreign circumstances, amongst which were the role of the 16,000 Hanoverian troops taken into British pay in 1742, and the direct intervention in the press of a number of opposition Whigs who found themselves excluded from the political settlement that followed Walpole's fall. The opposition Whig intervention in the press between 1743 and 1744 was primarily responsible for ensuring that Hanover's role in the war remained at the forefront of popular and press concern for most of this period.
John Cannon
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204527
- eISBN:
- 9780191676321
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204527.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
Johnson came up with perhaps his best remembered observation that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Johnson's own position changed considerably between the 1730s, when he was a staunch ...
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Johnson came up with perhaps his best remembered observation that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Johnson's own position changed considerably between the 1730s, when he was a staunch member of the opposition to Walpole, and the 1770s, when he had become, however unreliably, a supporter of government. Contemporary usage can be illustrated from among Johnson's fellow members of the club. The concept of nationalism has been almost as troublesome to historians as the practice of it has been to rulers. If nationalism is basically a feeling, or state of mind, it follows that it will be fitful, and that the development of national consciousness can hardly be a regular process. Time and place intervene. It would be surprising were there not to be signs of advance in English nationalism during the hundred years war against France.Less
Johnson came up with perhaps his best remembered observation that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Johnson's own position changed considerably between the 1730s, when he was a staunch member of the opposition to Walpole, and the 1770s, when he had become, however unreliably, a supporter of government. Contemporary usage can be illustrated from among Johnson's fellow members of the club. The concept of nationalism has been almost as troublesome to historians as the practice of it has been to rulers. If nationalism is basically a feeling, or state of mind, it follows that it will be fitful, and that the development of national consciousness can hardly be a regular process. Time and place intervene. It would be surprising were there not to be signs of advance in English nationalism during the hundred years war against France.
CHRISTINE GERRARD
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198183884
- eISBN:
- 9780191714122
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183884.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The chapter discusses the author's interest on Aaron Hill, which began when he was a graduate student in mid-1980s, working on the relationship between patriotism and poetry in the Walpole era. Hill ...
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The chapter discusses the author's interest on Aaron Hill, which began when he was a graduate student in mid-1980s, working on the relationship between patriotism and poetry in the Walpole era. Hill seemed to be an ambivalent figure, linked to Pope in his prognostications of cultural doom and national decline, yet wedded to an entirely different poetic derived from a critically marginalized tradition of enthusiasm and sublimity: a poetic associated before the middle of the 18th century with writers such as John Dennis, Isaac Watts, and James Thomson. Critical scholarship of the 1980s and beyond has challenged and reconfigured the so-called ‘Augustan’ literary canon, shedding light on neglected authors and scrutinising the processes of canon-formation which shape our perception of 18th-century writing. Brean Hammond's Professional Imaginative Writing questioned Pope's own adjudication of literary values, particularly his suspicious dismissal of professional writers such as Colley Cibber, Eliza Haywood, and Aaron Hill.Less
The chapter discusses the author's interest on Aaron Hill, which began when he was a graduate student in mid-1980s, working on the relationship between patriotism and poetry in the Walpole era. Hill seemed to be an ambivalent figure, linked to Pope in his prognostications of cultural doom and national decline, yet wedded to an entirely different poetic derived from a critically marginalized tradition of enthusiasm and sublimity: a poetic associated before the middle of the 18th century with writers such as John Dennis, Isaac Watts, and James Thomson. Critical scholarship of the 1980s and beyond has challenged and reconfigured the so-called ‘Augustan’ literary canon, shedding light on neglected authors and scrutinising the processes of canon-formation which shape our perception of 18th-century writing. Brean Hammond's Professional Imaginative Writing questioned Pope's own adjudication of literary values, particularly his suspicious dismissal of professional writers such as Colley Cibber, Eliza Haywood, and Aaron Hill.
