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"A Nut Between Two Blades: the Novels of Charles Robert"

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CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN Not contented with drawing the 1saints 1 down upon him, he has attacked the 1papishes 1 and is now in the condition somewhat of a nut between the two blades of a nutcracker. Dr. Morgan to Cyrus Redding (Cyrus Redding, Yesterday and To -Day, 1 8 6 3, III, 5 3 • ) A NUT BETWEEN TWO BLADES: THE NOVELS OF CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN By PETER MILLS HENDERSON, M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University October, 1974 DESCRIPTION DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1974) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: A Nut Between Two Blades: The Novels of Charles Robert Maturin AUTHOR: Peter Mills Henderson, B. A. (Acadia University) M.A. (Acadia University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. J. Sigman NUMBER OF PAGES: vii, 262 DISSERTATION ABSTRACT A reading of Maturin 1 s six novels makes it necessary to re­ evaluate the general opinion that he is chiefly a gothic novelist. This gothic view of Maturin is founded predominantly upon readings of The Fatal Revenge (1807), his first novel, and Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), his fifth. Although "traditional" gothic devices appear in both these novels, Maturin's searching analysis of Christianity as well as the specifically Irish framework make Melmoth, at least, more of a spiritual and social allegory than a gothic novel. Maturin also published four other novels: The Wild Irish Boy (1808), The Mi1esian Chief (1812), Women, or Pour et Contre (1818), and The Albigenses (1824). The first three of these novels are set in contemporary Ireland and they analyze various conflicting forces which, in Maturin 1s view, retarded the building of a progressive and unified Irish society. In The Wild Irish Boy and The Mi.lesian Chief, for example, Maturin presents two approaches to the problem of Irish leadership, a problem which the Union with Great Britain in 1800 had magnified. In Women, also, he dramatizes particular religious and social tensions in Ireland; but in this case, it is the religious gulf which separates various groups and which the growing power of the Methodist community intensifies. His final novel, The Albigenses, iii likewise reflects religious tensions within Ireland; in this case, he reacts to the renewed threat posed by the native Catholics' quest for emancipation. Those who read these four novels -- Scott, Morgan, Godwin, the Irish Catholics and the Irish Methodists, and other con­ temporaries -- considered Maturin as more than simply a gothic novelist. Furthermore, if his letters to Sir Walter Scott and to Archibald Constable can be relied upon, Maturin regarded himself as a serious commentator upon Ireland's social and spiritual degeneracy rather than as a gothic novelist. Maturin, an Anglo-Irish clergyman who distrusted Catholic and Methodist alike, was a deeply spiritual man. To him, Ireland's civil chaos resulted from the misdirected spiritual energy of these two groups as well as from the presence of irresponsible Anglo- Irish and British social leaders. For him, a solution to these problems could only be created by sincere and devoted Christian living which was most easily gained by following the forms of the Church of England. Throughout his career as a writer, this belief formed the basis of both his sermons and novels alike; and further­ more,it inspired his search for an effective medium through which he could analyze and suggest solutions to the problems which, because of its unique collection of religions and races, existed in Ireland. By reading all his novels, therefore, and by considering them within the Irish context of the social and religious tensions in which he wrote, a view of Maturin emerges which shows him to be not only a gothic novelist, but also an Anglo-Irish controversialist. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the course of my work, I have received valuable assistance from many people. Dr. J. Sigman of the Department of English at McMaster University stands foremost, and to him I am indebted for his introducing me to Maturin's writings and for his in­ valuable advice through all stages of preparation. For the comments and encouragement of Dr. J. Ferns, Department of English at McMaster University, Mr. J. R. Harris, a graduate student of English, University of New Brunswick, and Dr. G. Chapple, Depart­ ment of German at McMaster University, I am also deeply grateful. Without the guidance and example of these four gentlemen, I could not have pursued this project. For help in gathering primary material for this dissertation, I am under obligation to the Department of English and to the Inter­ library Loans Department of the Mills Memorial Library at McMaster University for the money made available to me to examine and to copy Maturin1 s novels, sermons, and letters held in the libraries of the British Museum, Cambridge University, the National Library of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh, the National Library of Ireland, and Trinity College, Dublin. I am also grateful for the courtesy and helpfulness of the staffs of these institutions in locating this material, and am deeply indebted to Mrs. Parker and her staff in the Interlibrary v Loans Department for their determination to obtain copies of this and other material. I owe special thanks to the Rev. Stuart Murray, President of Atlantic Baptist College, to my colleagues, and to the students for their consideration and encouragement during the final year of composition. In the final months of preparation, I am also indebted to May Sproule, whose generosity and patience while typing this dis­ sertation are unexampled. Lastly, to my wife, Judy, for whose encouragement and participation in every stage of preparation, I am all the more indebted. vi CONTENTS DESCRIPTION ii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 I THE FATAL REVENGE 24 II THE WILD IRISH BOY 51 III THE MILESIAN CHIEF 75 N 181 2-1818 110 v WOMEN, OR POUR ET CONTRE 126 VI MELMOTH THE WANDERER 164 VII THE LAST YEARS 193 APPENDIX I 229 APPENDIX II 230 FOOTNOTES 233 BIBLIOGRAPHY 252 vii INTRODUCTION In 1800, the Act of Union transformed Dublin from a metrop­ olis second only to London in the British Isles to a city of the economically, socially, and spiritually dispossessed. The Act was a direct response to Irish nationalism, and both the stimulus and the response derived from the French Revolutionary experience. Bringing the Irish population -- that is one third that of the British Isles -­ under direct control of the English government, it rendered the Irish Catholics -- eighty per cent of the "disaffected" Irish population -- a manageable minority within the larger British political system. It was thereby intended to control some of the dangerous trends which had begun to flourish under the independent Irish Parliament established in 1782. The formation in 1782 of an Irish Parliament in Dublin inde­ pendent of the British Parliament had laid the foundation for channeling many social energies toward one focus, a focus through which remedies to Ireland's numerous problems came to be expected. The Penal Code and Roman Catholic and Presbyterian persecution, colonial economic programs fostered by Westminster, sectarian and decentralized education, and health programs, all received attention from the newly 1 2 established Parliament. Hopes for Irish national unity were aroused. Economic independence from England was fostered. By the 1790's, however, because of the example of the French Revolution, both the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy and the British Government as well as the mod­ erate Catholics became anxious about their future, anxieties which they hoped could be assuaged by Union. The Union was a product of fears, fear of "French invasion, of revolution, of social levelling, and of what a frightened peasantry or 1 an embattled and hysterical ruling class might undertake in terror". To a British government at war with France, the Union promised "to close a dangerous gap in national defense." To moderate Catholics, the Union promised political and civil emancipation. To the Anglo-Irish "Protestant Nation", the Union "promised an end to the blood-red night­ 2 mare of a jacquarie. 11 They hoped that the Union would maintain their prosperity and social dominance; but in order to achieve this, they had to surrender their independence in matters of church and state. The Union, therefore, dissolved Dublin's centralizing function as a capital, and returned Ireland to the fold of the British Empire. Instead of resolving potential civil chaos, however, it precipitated Ireland into the blackest century of its tragic history, and forever isolated it from England. Accelerated politically by the Irish rebellion of 1798, the Union relegated the Anglo -Irish into a second-class citizen status within the 3 Empire, and reinforced the predominant English view that the native Irish were a race of savages to be civilized by the cultivated British. The Union, in spite of its aims, reversed the promising conditions which had been developing in independent Ireland, and established conditions entirely unfavourable for building a civilized state. Political decen­ tralization, personal frustration, and national stagnation all developed from the Union's enactment, and resulted in higher taxes, diminished trade, unemployment, and deterioration of property. It sounded the death knell for the growing sense of Irish unity, and entrenched the several warring factions, most prominent of which were the land-owning Protestants, commonly known as the "Ascendancy" and the Catholics. I Although political expression of Irish identity was stifled, various cultural projects retained some of their earlier momentum, a factor which prompted some individuals to try to identify and to interpret for the English the unifying or disintegrating forces of Irish society. Foremost among these individuals were Irish men of letters. It is in this Ireland and this Dublin that one such artist, Charles Robert Maturin {1780-1824} began his obscure quest for ' literary fame.
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