Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain (Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters)

Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain examines ways in which British writers and readers used the idea of the Middle Ages to challenge contemporary political structures and to claim historical national rights at a time when fears that Britain would follow the example of the French Revolution caused the British government to undermine individual and collective rights. Through the consideration of canonical authors such as Blake, Scott, and Wordsworth and of lesser-studied works such as radical press writings and popular drama, this study suggests that the imaginative appeal to the social structures and literary forms of the Middle Ages served as a powerful means of raising awareness of Britain’s past and the tradition of freedom. Coverpage......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Introduction: Popular Medievalism and the Romantic Ethos......Page 14 1 Rite and Rights: The Topography of Ancient British Law......Page 30 2 Taking Medievalism Home: The National Melody......Page 70 3 Medievalism Onstage in the French Revolutionary Era......Page 94 4 The Radical Bestiary......Page 118 5 Buried Alive: Gothic Reading and Medievalist Subjectivity......Page 154 6 Scottish Lawyers, Feudal Law......Page 180 Epilogue: Medievalism Becomes Expensive......Page 204 Notes......Page 208 Works Cited......Page 226 Index......Page 238 Through the consideration of canonical authors such as Blake, Scott, and Wordsworth and of lesser-studied works such as radical press writings and popular drama, this study explores the imaginative appeal of the social structures and literary forms of the Middle Ages, and how they raised awareness of Britain's tradition of freedom.