This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. BLAKE, WORDSWORTH AND LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RADICALISM by Paul Fauvet Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lhiversity of Feele December 1979 ABSTRACT This thesis aims to locate the work of two poets, William Blake and William Wordsworth, within the spectrum of late eighteenth century radicalism. The first section of the thesis examines the radicalism of the 1790s. It con­ trasts the radicalism of bodies such as Grey's Association of the Friends of the People with mass organisations such as the London Corresponding Society, and its Sheffield and Norwich counterparts, rooted among the country*s artisans. It traces the politics and composition of this popular radicalism, and its retreat into conspiratorial activity, in the face of repression, in the second half of the decade. It then considers the two poets. For Blake, the thesis first of all examines his conditions of production as an engraver, and the constraints he faced because of the characteristics of the eighteenth century art establish ment and art market. It hen considers his poetry; firstly, tracing Blake*s revolutionary politics in early poems relating to the American War of Indepen­ dence through to works dealing with the French Revolution and the European wars of the mid-1790s. Secondly, Blake*s poetry is looked at as a response to certain changes in the ideological apparatuses of his day. The section on Wordsworth is ordered differently: a strict chronological account of Wordsworth's development is given which enables us to trace the rise and fall of his radical sentiments during the decade. An examination of his well-to-do Cumberland background and education is followed by a consideration of his visit to France in 1792 and its impact« His 1793 republicanism and his retreat from it in the following years is detailed, and the section ends with a reading of the political implications of Wordsworth*s contributions to lyrical Ballads. A final chapter contrasts the radicalism of the two poets, placing them within different strands of 1790s radical thoughto Note on Périodisation A few words should he said about the périodisation of the work. For both poets the key period chosen for investigation is the 1790s. But since history does not divide itself neatly by decades, it has, of course, been necessary to overflow in both directions. This is more so in Blake*s case than in Wordsworth*s. It has been consciously decided to leave the great bulk of Wordsworth*s poetry outside the scope of this thesis. This is because the political curvature that this thesis deals with was completed by 1798: most of Wordsworth*s poetry is after this date. It is not my intention to trace Wordsworth*s future and consistent development towards the right, up to his death as a High Tory in 1850o The examination of this political descent, and its accompanying poetical decline, would be out of place here. Blake, however, some thirteen years older than Wordsworth, wrote most of his mature poetry in the 1790s; but since Blake does not have a clearly defined radical period, but remained a radical throughout his life, it is not possible to establish any definite cut-off date. No detailed reading t is given of the major Prophetic texts (The Four Zoas. Milton and Jerusalem) - such a task is quite beyond the scope of the present work. But material from the first decade of the nineteenth century is used, particularly to illustrate Blake*s relationship to the artistic establishment of his time. Examples are also drawn from later works, such as Milton, of Blake*s attitude towards industrialisation and war. ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations are used: Add. Mss. - Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum H.O. - Hone Office Papers in the Public Records Office p.C. - Privy Council Papers in the Public Reords Office T.S. - Treasury Solicitor's Papers in the Public Records Office All references to the writings of William Blake are taken frcm the Oxford Uhiversity Press edition of the Complete Writings, edited by Geoffrey Keynes (London 1966) and are indicated by the letter K followed by the page nurrfoer. CONTENTS Chapter 1. IATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RADICALISM i) . Introduction 1. ii) Respectable Radicalism 5. iii) Plebeian Radicalism 20. iv) Violence, the Constitution and the Popular Societies .45. v) From Mass to Conspiratorial Radicalism 56. vi) Relations between Respectable and Plebeian Radicalism. 65. Chapter 2. BIAKE i) Blake and the Art Market 70. ii) The Critique of Politics 115. iii) The Critique of Ideology 160. Chapter 3. WORDSWORTH i) Education and the Inpact of France 225. ii) The Retreat from the Revolution 251. Ill) Somerset and Lyrical Ballads. 281. Chapter 4. CONCLUSION 316. Bibliography 345. -1- 1. LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURA RADICALISM i) Introduction This chapter analyses late eighteenth century radicalism, and attempts to distinguish two major strands in the phenomenon - which I have labelled ’respectable’ and 'plebeian* radicalism. The former has its major political locus in bodies such as Grey’s Association of the Friends of the People, the latter in the Corresponding Societies. A few words are appropriate here as to the choice of the terms ’respectable’ and ’plebeian’. I use these terms essentially because other possibilities seem highly un­ satisfactory. To describe the Friends of the People and similar phenomena as ’middle class’ radicalism Cas opposed to a ’working class’ radicalism in the Corresponding Societies) seems quite slipshod. 'Middle class' is in itself an undesirable term whose very vagueness allcws its user to avoid analysis. If it means anything, it must refer to social groups whose position is intermediate between the ruling class, or the power bloc, and the most oppressed sectors of society. These middle strata in late eighteenth century England would clearly include small masters, a consider­ able section of the artisanate, and a case could be made out for extending the term to cover at least some sectors of industrial capital, not yet integrated into a ruling bloc still essentially based on land. This, however, is not the class picture of Grey's association, nor of similar phenomena: instead we find in such bodies a large number of liberal landed gentry, peers of the realm, MPs of considerable substance - all of whom clearly have class allegiances within the ruling bloc. Of course, people from the middle strata do play a role in this form of radic­ alism: but many of them are also to be found, taking up far more advanced positions, in the ranks of the Corresponding Societies. Outside London, even some representatives of industrial capital - particularly in Birmingham -2- and Manchester - were to be found in these societies. Even stronger objections can be raised against using the term 'bourgeois radicalism', partly because the phenomenon is far from the exclusive work of the bourgeoisie, partly because some personnel from the most dynamic sector of the bourgeoisie - industrial capital - are to be found in the Corresponding Societies, but most important of all, because in terms of their political programmes both forms of radicalism can be described as 'bourgeois'. The Corresponding Societies did not, contrary to their opponents' propaganda, advocate the overthrow of private property: at most they argued for a redistribution and, like the Montagnards in France, against excesses of wealth. There is very little that can be described as ' socialist ' in their writings and demands : cne or two of their members, notably Thomas Spence, occasionally wrote works of a proto-socialist nature. But these were very much the exception. Of course, to say that both types of radicalism were 'bourgeois ' is not to obliterate the vitally important distinctions between them. To take a parallel from France, all the successive groupings during the Revolution - the Feuillants, the Girondins, the Montagnards, the Hebertistes, and even the Enrages - can, by virtue of their demands and political programmes, be described as 'bourgeois'. None of them advocated serious measures of socialisation, and the only challenge to capitalist relations of production was a regressive one - a Utopian demand for a commonwealth of small producers. Only with Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals does socialism finally enter the French Revolution. What differentiates, say, the Montaganrds (and even more so the Enrages) from the Feuillants, is the formers' democracy - that is, their involvement with and frequent reliance on the popular nesses of Paris. Similarly in England, the essential difference between Grey's Association -3- and the Corresponding Societies was that the latter were mass phenomena, and as such were intensely democratic. The form of State desired by the Societies may still have been under the domination of the bourgeoisie - but it would have been a democratic republic with universal suffrage, and not a conservative monarchy with the popular masses excluded from the political process. For political organisations are not simply ’represent­