View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Nottingham Trent Institutional Repository (IRep) 1 A STUDY OF JOHN CLARE IN HIS HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT YVONNE JAYNE A THESIS, SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARTS, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE ENGLISH DIVISION COMPLETED MAY 2004 POSTHUMOUSLY SUBMITTED BY YVONNE JAYNE‘S SUPERVISORS, JUNE 2006 [Authorised by Professor John Goodridge, Director of Studies; Emeritus Professor John Lucas, second supervisor) 2 CONTENTS Abstract Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Historical and Political Background 2.1 Introduction 2.2 General Unrest 2.3 The Wars with France, 1793-1815 2.4 Poverty 2.5 Reform 2.6 The Monarchy 2.7 Corruption 2.8 Religion 2.9 Education Chapter 3: The Making of a Poet 3.1 Stamford 3.2 Patronage and Patrons 3.3 Octavius Graham Gilchrist (1779-1823) 3.4 John Taylor (1781-1864) 3.5 Hon. William Waldegrave, first Baron Radstock (1753-1825) 3.6 Mrs Eliza Emmerson (1782-1847) 3.7 The Revd Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844) 3.8 The Fitzwilliam Family Chapter 4: Enclosure Chapter 5: Social Change Chapter 6: Clare and Religion 3 ABSTRACT Scope As the title indicates, the basis of the thesis is to set John Clare‘s life and work within the context of the social and political history of his time. It is a study that is long overdue. The manner in which topical and political matters were mediated to him and were reflected in his work are analysed. His introduction to the literary and social worlds of Stamford and London is evaluated, and the advantages and disadvantages of patronage assessed. The active and complex political culture of Stamford has been taken into account as this may have affected his later political statements and a growing awareness of his audience. His antagonism to enclosure and the social changes that it engendered are considered. Three major questions that arise from this are addressed. Method The two local newspapers that Clare is known to have read are used throughout. His correspondence with friends, colleagues and casual correspondents has provided valuable insights as have his poetry and prose writings. Research in the Northamptonshire Record Office has revealed important new information in the form of one book of Enclosure Commissioners‘ Minutes dated 1809-14, the first five years of the enclosure of Helpstone, Clare‘s native village. 4 Chapter 1: Introduction The aim of this thesis is to set the thirty-seven years of John Clare‘s active working life, and his work, in its historical and political framework. The contemporary scene during these years, 1793-1830, coincided with a period of far-reaching change in this country, which becomes apparent when reading the newspapers of the time. The thesis is not put forward as evidence that Clare was writing directly about these events as a chronicler but that he assimilated many items of news and reproduced them, often at a later stage, in his poetry and prose, because they were appropriate emphases when needed. Such newspapers brought to Clare‘s attention many aspects of day-to-day life; matters that the average farm worker, probably illiterate, would not have encountered. Some two hundred years later we are privileged to be able to read copies of some of those local papers that we know the poet read, namely the Stamford Mercury and Drakard’s Stamford News. These papers have been used as part of the source material, as well as Clare‘s out-going correspondence, and his incoming correspondence contained in the Egerton MSS 2245-49. The fortuitous discovery by an archivist in the Northampton Record Office of one book of Commissioners‘ Minutes has proved invaluable. This covers the period 1809-1814 and includes the Helpstone Enclosure. This facilitates the examination of three important questions concerning this enclosure that have not hitherto been addressed, namely (a) why was there so long a delay between the submission of Claims and the grant of the Awards, (b) why was there apparently no opposition or protest concerning the enclosure, and (c) why was Clare, a landless labourer with no commoning rights, involved in the outcry against the enclosure? Copies of the Claims and the Awards have also supplied additional and valuable material. As a young and new reader Clare was liable to be affected by much that he read but perhaps the opinions reported in Drakard’s Stamford News were the most influential. This was a paper of news as compared with the Stamford Mercury, a business paper which carried very little editorial comment on current events. Little credit has, to date, been ascribed to the first editor of the News, one John Scott, whose writing and influence on that paper has been commended: ‗Scott‘s vigorous, straightforward attacks upon abuses of power, his championing of the oppressed, and his outspoken advocacy of parliamentary reform had attracted wide attention.‘1 This could account for some of Clare‘s above-average general knowledge, It is evident from his letters that he was ready to comment, in his letters, on a wide range of subjects with such well- informed men as John Taylor and James Hessey, his publishers, and Thomas Pringle, Secretary 5 of the Anti-Slavery Society. In 1820 Scott moved to London to become editor of the London Magazine and Clare, in the year that his first volume, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, was published, encountered Scott‘s work for a second time. He was sent copies of the London Magazine by his publishers, Taylor and Hessey, on a fairly regular basis. The political turbulence caused up and down the country by the effects of the French Revolution, can be clearly detected in the News. A government that was dogged by fear of a similar uprising in this country resorted to repression as the most effective means of avoiding it. The slightest sign of seditious activity was severely dealt with. Legislation was introduced that affected aspects of Clare‘s life in the approach to his work by both his publishers and his patrons. General dissatisfaction with the Government was illustrated by the plots and violence that were made public. The Prime Minister was assassinated in 1812, the Peterloo massacre took place in 1819, and the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820. The imprisonment of John Drakard, owner, printer and publisher of Drakard’s Stamford News, on a charge of inciting the Army to revolt, made a significant impression in Stamford, illustrated by the size of the subscription raised for him by his sympathisers.2 The impact of the French Revolution cannot be underestimated. The cost of the wars with France was not allowed to pass unnoticed. Attention was frequently drawn to this in the News and Clare was ever-conscious of the suffering of the average man and woman. The return of the troops led to unemployment and the rise in prices was followed by starvation in some parts of the country. Such poverty could only add to the general dissatisfaction that was prevalent; the lack of Government support for the needy was noticeable and was commented on in the News. Crime increased and figures for its detection and punishment were published. With a Government that was considered to be corrupt and uncaring there was a general call for the Reform of Parliament which continued for some years. The monarchy was not held in high repute or regard largely due to the lifestyle of the future king, the Prince Regent, Religion was a subject that was also commented on without restraint in the News: the Established Church was also held in disrepute at this time. The question of education for the working classes was also beginning to be discussed and was referred to in the News. These subjects are examined in detail in Chapter Two. The influence of Clare‘s literary and financial patrons is fully discussed in Chapter Three. Patronage, which had largely passed to institutions by 1820, had also become the province of an increasingly erudite public. To Clare, several of the patrons to whom he had been introduced or had met, were of doubtful advantage to him in some ways. His literary patrons became his greatest support and source of education. It can be clearly seen however that patronage that extended to intervention in his private life was in many ways a distraction and a hindrance. 6 Financial support, initially provided by Lord Radstock, the Earl of Exeter, and the Fitzwilliam family, he undoubtedly needed and appreciated. However, direct interference and attempts to supervise his lifestyle, his religion, and political opinions, he found increasingly unacceptable. Admonitions, homilies, ‗improving books‘, and letters containing moral injunctions were poured on his head by his early patron Lord Radstock, the well-meaning, dictatorial, aristocratic evangelical. Clare, writing from his knowledge and observation of country life and customs, also fell foul of the delicate social conventions of many of his readers. Their two worlds were miles apart and the effort to square this circle was at the cost of wrangling between Clare, his publisher who was also his literary mentor, and the Earl. He seems to have been drawn into suspicion of possible radicalism, a serious and dangerous offence in a sensitive political era, and thus into greater efforts on his part to try to anticipate the audience who might come into contact with his work. This at times compounds the difficulty of interpreting the significance of his poetry, prose, and correspondence. Nevertheless he soon learned that involvement in politics could only hinder his advancement in the circles on which he relied for support and he struggled to placate his patrons, but not without resentment.