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Meter and National Identity in Sir Walter Scott Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons English: Faculty Publications and Other Works Faculty Publications Spring 2001 "We Are Five-and-Forty": Meter and National Identity in Sir Walter Scott John Kerkering Loyola University Chicago, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/english_facpubs Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kerkering, J. "'We Are Five-and-Forty': Meter and National Identity in Sir Walter Scott." Studies in Romanticism 40(1), 2001. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English: Faculty Publications and Other Works by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. © Boston University, 2001. JACK KERKERING are "We Five-and-Forty": Meter and National Identity in SirWalter Scott SCOTT INITIATED A VIGOROUS DEFENSE OF SCOTTISH NATIONAL WALTER identity after the British Parliament responded to the 1825 financial an 1826 panic with currency reform: throughout Great Britain, small bank notes would henceforth be replaced by specie.1 Scottish opponents of the were to reform claimed that small banknotes crucial economic prosperity, and while Scott himself also spoke of these notes as "nearly indispensable to the carrying on of business of almost any kind in Scotland," his contribu tion to the debate involved not somuch a discussion of currency theory as creation a in a the of persona, Malachi Malagrowther, the speaker series of letters to the editor of the Edinburgh Weekly foumal.2 Occupying the posi tion of antiquarian cultural nationalist (Scott's foumal describes him as "an uncompromising right forward Scot of the Old School"3), Scott's Mala as growther condemns the currency reform much for its blatant "national insult" (735) as for its flawed monetary policy. But as his foumal entries the in sentiment was some show, upsurge national caused by the letters thing Scott greeted with considerable ambivalence: while he "rejoicfed]" to see "a scene of insurrection or . general expression of national feeling" (97), he also, as a supporter of the British Union, hoped to stop short of genuine rebellion. "It is difficult to steer betwixt the natural impulse of one's National feelings setting in one direction and the prudent regard to the interests of the empire and its internal peace and quiet recommending less vehement expression. Iwill endeavour to keep sight of both" (98?99). i. J. G. Checkland, Scottish Banking: A History, i6g3~ig7j (Glasgow: Collins, 1975) 436. 2. on Walter Scott, Lettersfrom Malachi Malagrowther, Esq. theProposed Change ofCurrency, 1 The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, vol. (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1847) 742. This is one of to set many titles given the of three letters that appeared in the Edinburgh on Weekly foumal February 21, February 28, and March 7 of 1826. Iwill refer to them collec as tively Letters ofMalachi Malagrowther; subsequent references will be to this edition and will be cited parenthetically in the text. 3. Walter Scott, The foumal of Sir Walter Scott, ed. W. E. K. Anderson (Oxford: Claren don, 1972) 99. Hereafter cited parenthetically in the text. SiR, 40 (Spring 2001) 85 This content downloaded from 147.126.10.123 on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 20:54:35 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 86 JACK KERKERING To "steer betwixt" nation and empire while keeping sight of "both" is the challenge Scott must negotiate in his Letters ofMalachi Malagrowther, and my concern here is less Scott's admittedly substantial role in defeating the currency reform than the larger question of how pursuing this end induces a him to formulate the "both" of nation and empire in new?and particu larly literary?way. In the pages that follow I will demonstrate that Scott's Letters ofMalachi Malagrowther and his contemporary fiction ground national in a and meter is to inso identity national meter, national, according Scott, as as a to far it functions "summons" Scottish national identity: it assembles as a demonstrates Scotland's the Scottish people people and thereby ongo as a In Scott's metrical ing integrity nation. reconstructing the logic of summons to not as a account of my aim is emphasize its suitability general poetics but its functionality as a vehicle for Scott's very particular politics? his defense of Scottish national autonomy within Britain. i. National Impress Malachi as As he argues against the currency reform, Scott's Malagrowther serts see no reason on that "Ministers why any law adopted this subject [i.e. banknote restrictions] should not be imperative over all his Majesty's do minions, including Scotland, for uniformity'ssake" (730). This pursuit of "uniformity" as an end in itself (728) betrays theministers' larger ambition to "assimilate" (726) Scotland within Britain's one "general system" (730), a goal that threatens "to annul and dissolve all the distinctions and peculiar ities" (748-49) that make Scotland Scotland. "For God's sake, sir," Malagrowther counters, us as and Scotch let remain Nature made us, Englishmen, Irishmen, our several countries men, with something like the impress of upon or more mem each! We would not become better subjects, valuable bers of the common empire, ifwe all resembled each other like so . The between many smooth shillings. degree of national diversity an which Na different countries is but instance of that general variety ture seems to as a all her as have adopted principle through works, to as modern statesmen to anxious, apparently avoid, enforce, any thing like an approach to absolute "uniformity." (749) invokes less as medium than as Here Malagrowther currency metaphor: as a so just as an "impress" gives silver bullion its identity shilling, "Nature" gives imperial subjects a national impress, imparting to Britons their respec as and Scotchmen." The tive national "variety" "Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotsmen as is the impress that marks Scotsmen, Malagrowther suggests, small so the to end that long-standing practice of issuing banknotes, plan practice brings Scottish national identity thatmuch closer to smooth impe This content downloaded from 147.126.10.123 on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 20:54:35 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions METER AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SCOTT 87 a won't affect the value of British rial "uniformity." Such change subjects more a affects its value as silver bul (any than the smoothness of shilling lion), but it undermines the identityof Scotland, placing at risk "the well being, nay, the very being, of our ancient kingdom" (737). of Protecting the national "variety" Scotland, then, requires protecting to so turns to a "verse its national impress, and do Malagrowther ultimately an that serves as a "motto" for the second letter: from old song" (739) When the pipes begin to play Tutti taittieto the drum, wi' Out claymore, and down gun, to And the rogues again. (739n)4 Describing himself as "desirous, by every effort in my power, to awaken [my countrymen] to a sense of their national danger" (739), Malagrowther summons sees this song verse as one means to that end, for it is "the which to a my countrymen have been best accustomed obey" (739). As "sum to motto is intended to awaken mons" addressed "my countrymen," the the Scottish people to vigilant protection of their national impress. But even as seems to seems to en it protect the national impress of Scots, it also danger neighboring Englishmen, the "rogues" under attack. Aware of this to concerns: potential reading of the motto, Malagrowther hopes allay any motto sound a little warlike. But it is not a "The of my epistle may . .To I in hostile signal towards you [i.e. England] my countrymen speak are not to the language of many recollections, certain they likely be excited beyond the bounds of temperate and constitutional remonstrance" (739). verse Despite these assurances, the song generated such alarm among Eng a to a lish readers that later edition relegated it footnote, "some cautious friends," the note explains, "thinking it liable tomisinterpretation" (739n). as seems To interpret the song "hostile" and "warlike" almost inevitable given themilitary circumstance it depicts. But such a literal reading of the song envisions victory for only one side, so it fails to "keep sight of both" amounts to a man nation and empire. If this misinterpretation, then what ner motto to as of interpretation would permit the function Malagrowther as a imagines, gesture that both protects Scotland's national impress and avoids hostility toward England? One possibility is to read the story the not as a as an song tells literal call for violence but allegory for the currency 4. This song verse can be traced to two prominent collections published in Scott's life time. The first is James Johnson's The ScotsMusical Museum: 1787-1803, vol. 1 (Amadeus P, 1991) 178; the second is James Hogg's Thefacobite Relics of Scotland (1819) (New York: AMS no?11. to Press, 1974) Thanks Tony Inglis and Caroline M. Jackson-Houlston for help in identifying these sources. This content downloaded from 147.126.10.123 on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 20:54:35 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 88 JACK KERKERING reform. In such an the interpretation Highlanders' preference for claymores over and down wi' to con guns ("Out claymore, gun") might correspond Scotsmen's for old over re temporary preference banking methods English forms: out small notes and down with coins. This allegorical interpretation moves on the terrain of economics, where the aim is not a "warlike" revolt but a continuity of effectivemonetary policy, and this continuity of bank notes?Scotland's national impress?protects Scottish identity while avoid ing "warlike" hostility toward England.
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