The Political and Social Satire of Thomas Love Peacock
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THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SATIRE OF THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK A THESIS submitted in partial fulfilment for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS by JEAN ALICE GOULD LUMSDEN Montreal 1944 INDEX INTRODUCTION. Page 10 CHAPTER I. ARTS AND LETTERS. Page ZZ* CHAPTER II. RELIGION. Page 45. CHAPTER III. EDUCATION. Page 61. CHAPTER IV. POLITICS AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. Page 72. CHAPTER V. RACIAL PREJUDICES. Page 102. CONCLUSION. Page 115. INTRODUCTION Thomas Love Peacock was born at Weymouth in October, 1785. His father was Samuel Peacock, a glass-merchant, carry ing on his trade in St. Paul's Churchyard. Nothing of any interest seems to be known of his family or himself. That he was in business in 1768 is certain, for many years later his son, Thomas, wrote the rough copy of a.farce, The Three Doc tors, on the blank pages of an old account book, whose cover was marked with the words "Day Book: 1768: Saml. Peacock". One of these pages indicates that Peacock, the author, was one day suffering from an attack of indolence or distraction, or that he had momentarily lost the urge to write. It is covered with scrawls of all sorts, capital letters, curves and other marks which make little or no sense. In the cor ner of the left margin, however, there is inscribed: "T. L. Peacock - 1811 1768 n ~45 " This not only furnishes evidence that The Three Doctors was written in 1811, but also contains what is probably the second- best autograph to be found in the manuscripts. One may pre sume that Samuel Peacock was still in business in 1785, for at the end of that year his son was baptised in London. About three years later the father died. 1 A. M. Freeman. Thomas Love Peacock (London: Martin Seeker, 1911) p. 130. 2 The mother of Peacock was Sarah, daughter of Thomas Love, a naval captain. She survived her husband by thirty- five years, and was, throughout that comparatively long time, her sonfs best and most intimate friend. f,He loved her", says the writer of an article in the North British Review, written just after Peacock's death, "with a love beyond that of common natures". Her loss affected him more profoundly than any other event of his life. So strong was her influence upon him that he consulted her judgment in all that he wrote, and it is recorded that some time after her death he remarked to a friend that he had never written with any zeal since. From then on he wrote very little that was of any length, but was inclined to restrict himself largely to magazine articles. Many of the fragmentary beginnings of satires and romances belong to that period, and it was very likely owing to the want of her encouragement that they were left unfinished. After the death of his father, Peacock and his mother went to live with her father in Chertsey. It was here that the boy no doubt heard daily talk of the sea, not only from Captain Love, his grandfather, but from his mother as well, whose brother and nephew were also in the navy. Letters from them must have been fairly frequent, affording the most interesting and welcome topic of conversation. These 3 letters gave rise to questions by his mother and explanations by his grandfather, constituting his early education in mari time affairs. Thus the environment of his early years, to which was added the influence of heredity, produced in Pea cock a keen interest in every form of seamanship, a passion for which he provided an outlet at all times of his life, taking advantage of whatever scope and vehicle chance threw in his path. While in his grandfather's company at Chertsey, Pea cock must have been entertained with many an unusual anec dote from the store of the old man's experience. It may safely be assumed that these stories had a considerable inf luence on the tastes and abilities developed in his maturer years. If we are to believe the authorities, he may be said to have begun to collect material for his novels at the age of three. As was natural for a boy of his age, he quite likely accepted as true certain fanciful statements which passed as facts of natural history. These took firm root in his impressionable mind, and later he incorporated them in a satirical romance. The original of Captain Hawltaught in Mellncourt is none other than Captain Love, Peacockfs grandfather. He certainly did not make much use, however, of what must have been unusually rich opportunities. The account of the old captain is vivid enough, but it is 4 remarkable only as an "in memoriam", thus giving the im pression that the sole motive for inserting it in the novel was the desire to perpetuate his memory. It is related that a dangerous wound compelled the old captain to renounce his ddtoliiigg element, and lay himself up in ordinary for the rest of his days. He retired on half-pay and the produce of his prize-money to a little village in the west of England, where he employed himself very assidu ously in planting cabbages and watching the changes of the wind. This description is indeed applicable to Captain Love who, as master of H. M. S. "Prothee", had lost a leg in an action against the French in 1783; but it could also fit scores of retired sailors similarly situated. The clue is to be found farther on: the old captain was fond of his bottle of wine after dinner, and his glass of grog at night. Oran was easily brought to sympathise in this taste; and they have many times sat up together half the night over a flowing bowl, the old captain singing "Rule Britannia", "True Courage", or "Tom Tough", and Oran accompanying him on the French horn . The old captain used to say that grog was the elixir of life; but it did not prove so to him; for one night he tossed off his last bumper, sang his last stave, and heard the last flourish of his Oran's horn. 2 Herein the captain is chiefly remarkable for his devotion to the bottle, a feature which in itself does not distinguish him from a multitude of others; while it is altogether un likely that Peacock inserted him in one of his novels merely to 2 T. L. Peacock, Melincourt (London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1903) chap. VI. 5 commemorate his habitual intemperance. The important thing to note is that it was Captain Hawltaught who introduced Oran to Forester: "During a summer tour in Devonshire, I called upon my old friend Captain Hawltaught, and was intro duced to Mr. Oran;"3 and if we bear in mind the fact that he represents Peacock in the novel, just as Captain Hawltaught means Captain Love, it is not difficult to see in the two pages of the novel in which he appears,an indirect acknow ledgement of the fact that Captain Love made Peacock acquaint ed with the sailors' tales and legends about Oran. In any event, Captain Hawltaught is not necessary either to the story, the theories, or the satire, and is brought in merely because he first introduced Oran to civilisation and to Mr. Forester. Peacock's life may well be compared with the course of a remote and lonel3r stream, approachable only at certain points, the greater part of its channel being hidden in impen etrable mystery. He was much too reticent to write anything about himself which might create amusement for the critics or delight for posterity. Yet in Some Recollections of Childhood. written when he was about fifty, there are recorded some of his impressions at the beginning of his school-days. A descrip tive sketch called The Last Day of Windsor Forest is another of his finished writings which may be considered remarkable as 3 loc. cit. 6 being ostensibly autobiographical, though even here his utterances are not absolutely personal and intimate. His recollections are hot so much of his own childhood as child ish memories of other people and external things. One small chapter of the Recollections concerned some of those early impressions which he later reproduced in his novels. His description of the Abbey House, together with its gardens, at once brings the reader into the familiar atmosphere, reminding him of the introductory chapter to either Headlong Hall or Nightmare Abbey. There is no mistaking the style: the house had been built near the site of those ancient abbeys, whose demesnes the pure devotion of Henry Till transferred from their former occupants (who foolishly imagined they had a right to them, though they lacked the might which is its essence) to the members of his convenient parliamentary chorus, who helped him to run down his Scotch octave of wives. * At the back of the house was a dark grove of trees. To Peacock, aged seven, this grove had a mysterious appearance, and one day he was enraptured to discover that it contained a ghost. The news was communicated and the whole house assembled to investi gate the scene of the apparition. No ghost, however, was found. A tall lily, growing just beyond the trees, was gently swaying to and fro in the wind, so that from the point where the child had stood it was alternately visible and hidden. Another incident recorded by Peacock was actually 4 A. M. Freeman, op. cit., p. 25. 7 reproduced in one of his novels. Charles, the son of the house, had been confined to his room for being impolite to an elderly relative; I found him in his chamber [says PeacockJ sitting by the fire with a pile of ghostly tales, and an accumulation of lead which he was casting into dumps in a mould .