ROMANTIC PERIOD WRITINGS 1798– 1832: AN ANTHOLOGY While the ‘Revolution Debate’ of the 1790s has been extensively covered by scholars and critics, less attention has been given to the period which bridges the gap to the Victorian era. Yet this was a period of crucial social, economic, political and cultural change. Romantic Period Writings 1798–1832 provides a valuable insight into the condition of Britain in the early part of the nineteenth century. It includes original documents from a range of disciplines and discourses. Among the material assembled in the anthology are writings by previously neglected or underrepresented women, working-class men, black radicals, and conservative and evangelical polemicists, as well as several unfamiliar texts by canonical writers. The writings are organised into sections on: • Radical journalism • Political economy • Atheism • Empire and race • Nation and state • Gender • Literary institutions Each section includes a scholarly introduction, select bibliography and annotations. Contributors include Ian Haywood, John Seed, Martin Priestman, Kate Teltscher, Simon Edwards, Susan Matthews, Catherine Boyle and Zachary Leader. Zachary Leader and Ian Haywood both teach in the English Department of the Roehampton Institute, London. ROMANTIC PERIOD WRITINGS 1798–1832: AN ANTHOLOGY edited by Zachary Leader and Ian Haywood London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1998 the authors; reprinted material, see individual acknowledgements The right of Zachary Leader and Ian Haywood to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Romantic period writings 1798–1832: an anthology/[compiled by] Zachary Leader and Ian Haywood. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Great Britain—History—1800–1837—Sources. 2. Romanticism— — Great Britain—Sources. I. Leader, Zachary. II. Haywood, Ian, 1958– DA535.R66 1998 941.081– dc21 97–48907 CIP ISBN 0-203-97987-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-15782-X (pbk) ISBN 0-415-15781-1 (hbk) CONTENTS List of plates vi List of contributors viii Acknowledgements ix Editorial note x GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 1 RADICAL JOURNALISM, 5 Ian Haywood 2 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 31 John Seed 3 ATHEISM, 55 Martin Priestman 4 EMPIRE AND RACE, 77 Kate Teltscher 5 NATION AND STATE, 104 Simon Edwards 6 GENDER, 125 Susan Matthews 7 LITERARY INSTITUTIONS, 152 Catherine Boyle and Zachary Leader Notes 180 Index 217 PLATES 1 Front page of T.J.Wooler, Black Dwarf, Vol. 3, no. 34 (25 August 15 1819) (by kind permission of the British Library; PP3612ac) 2 Title page of Richard Carlile, An Address to Men of Science 69 (1821) (by kind permission of the British Library; 8309bbb24) 3 Front page of The Isis. A London Weekly Publication (1832) (by 73 kind permission of the British Library; PP5809) 4 Frontispiece of The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. XCII, Part Two 147 (July 1822) (by kind permission of the British Library; PP6004gzb) 5 George Cruikshank, ‘Making Decent’ (1822) (copyright British 148 Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings) 6 Title-page of Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap-Book: With Poetical 168 Illustrations by L.E.L. (1832) (by kind permission of the British Library; PP6930) 7 ‘Furness Abbey’, Plate 33, ibid. (by kind permission of the 169 British Library; PP6930) 8 ‘The African’, Plate 35, ibid. (by kind permission of the British 170 Library; PP6930) 9 ‘The House in which Roscoe was born’, Plate 41, ibid. (by kind 173 permission of the British Library; PP6930) 10 ‘Macao’, Plate 42, Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap-Book: With 175 Poetical Illustrations by L.E.L. (1833) (by kind permission of the British Library; PP6930) 11 ‘The Chinese Pagoda’, Plate 49, ibid. (by kind permission of the 177 British Library; PP6930) CONTRIBUTORS Catherine Boyle is a research student at Roehampton Institute London, where she is completing a thesis on Shelley and radical publishing. Simon Edwards is Principal Lecturer in English at Roehampton Institute London. He has written and spoken widely on Scott and Dickens, and is currently completing a book on the historical novel and the formation of nationalist politics. Ian Haywood is Principal Lecturer in English at Roehampton Institute London. He is the author of Faking It: Art and the Politics of Forgery (1987), The Making of History: A Study of the Literary Forgeries of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton (1987), The Literature of Struggle: An Anthology of Chartist Fiction (1995) and Working- Class Fiction: from Chartism to Trainspotting (1997). Zachary Leader is Professor of English Literature and Convener of the MA programme in ‘Literature and Politics 1776–1832’ at Roehampton Institute London. He is the author of Reading Blake’s Songs (1981), Writer’s Block (1991) and Revision and Romantic Authorship (1996). Susan Matthews is Senior Lecturer in English at Roehampton Institute London. She is the author of essays and articles on the period, including a contribution to the Open University reader Romantic Writings (1996). Martin Priestman is Reader in English Literature at Roehampton Institute London. His books include Cowper’s ‘Task’: Structure and Influence (1983), Detective Fiction and Literature: The Figure in the Carpet (1990) and Crime Fiction from Poe to the Present (1998). John Seed is Senior Lecturer in History at Roehampton Institute London. He is author of numerous essays and articles on Unitarianism and middle-class culture in this period, including a book written with Janet Wolff, The Culture of Capital (1988). Kate Teltscher is Lecturer in English Literature at Roehampton Institute London. Her book India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India. 1600–1800 was published in 1995. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book has been produced by tutors from the English and History Departments of the Roehampton Institute, London. It grew, in part, out of work on Roehampton’s interdisciplinary MA course ‘Literature and Politics 1776–1832’. The editors would like to thank Isobel Armstrong, Marilyn Butler, John Lucas, Anne K.Mellor and Keith Nield, who offered crucial assistance at the planning stages of the anthology; Mark Storey, who helped in the deciphering of previously unpublished correspondence with Clare; Jane Pringle, of the Department of English at Roehampton, who helped in the preparation of the manuscript; and Talia Rodgers of Routledge, who has been a supporter of the anthology from its inception. Thanks are due to Pickering and Chatto Publishers Ltd, for their permission to use William Godwin’s essay ‘Of Religion’ from Mark Philp, ed., Political and Philosophic Writings of William Godwin, Vol. 7: Religious Writings (1993). The four letters of John Clare taken from The Letters of John Clare edited by Mark Storey, are reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London (copyright Eric Robinson 1985). Thanks to the staff at the British Library reproductions department who provided images for inclusion in this book.