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The Pavonian Shelley: a Study of Shelley in the Novels of Peacock

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The Pavonian Shelley: a Study of Shelley in the Novels of Peacock The Pavonian Shelley: a study of Shelley in the novels of Peacock Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Perper, Marion Eileen Bowman, 1922- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 22:40:14 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317937 THE PAVONIAN SHELLEY: A STUDY OF SHELLEY IN THE NOVELS OF PEACOCK by Marion Eileen Perper A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1966 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of require­ ments for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library„ Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permissiong provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, . however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: "M e- ^ 7 a % GERALD MC NIECE / Date _ _ P ro fesso r of English TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ^ 5 JL C # 1JL* oooooo o o ooo ooooooooooo ooooooooooooooo ooo ooogo oo IV INTRODUCTION O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0.0 O O O 0-0 o o o o o o o o o o o o ooooo o PEACOCK AND SHELLEY 000 0 0 00000000000000000000 0 0 00-0 0 00 0 H E A D L O N G H j A l T. oooooooooooooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooo-oo-o 21 M E L I N C O U R T o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o .o o o o o o o o o o o o o«3 o 3 o o o e e o o N 1G H 1 E A B -B II) "Y* oooooododoooo ooeoooooo-ooooooooooooooooo 48 G R Y L L Cjl^i ooooooo oo oooo, o "00.000000 000000 O O OOO OOOOOOOOO © 67 CON CLUSION 000000000000 oooooooooooooo. 0000000000000000000 77 UTERATURE ClrTIijD © o. o o © o o. ©. o o* © o o o © © © © o o © ©,0 o © o o o o o © o © © © o- © © o 8^1 ABSTRACT 1 Percy Bysshe Shelley was not only Thomas Love "Peacock 1 s friend; he was also the prototype for a main character in four of Peacock 11 s novels? each of which reveals a -slightly different view of Shelleyo That Peacock made use of his personal knowledge of Shelley's life and .mind in creating his heroes can be documented by references to letters 9 biographical sources 9 and the poet's works o I*1 Headlong Hallg M r,. Foster entertainingly exhibits the young Shelley's optimistic views on the perfectibility of mankind and his naivete concerning methods of achieving such improvement 0 . M r0 F o rester 9 in Me line our ts rather tediously expounds Shelley's ideas on the evils inherent in the political and social system of his day and introduces the Shelleyan quest for ideal beauty 0 The hero of Nightmare Abbey is an extravagantly romantic youth whose problems parallel Shelley's difficulties with Harriet and Mary 0 Gryll Grange 9 written many years after Shelley's death * presents in M r 0 Falconer a review of Shelley's characteristic attitudes 0 Peacock's inimitable wit enabled him to convert Shelley's virtues and absurdities into gently satiric comedies which reveal rather than exploit the friendship between the two men0 iv \ INTRODUCTION Thomas Love Peacock's caricature of Percy Bysshe Shelley in Nightmare Abbey is generally considered amusing and highly inaccu- ra te 0 The portrayal of Shelley in Peacock's other novels has been largely ignored or deniedo An examination of the relationship between the men,. an appraisal of the acts, opinionsa and characteristics of Peacock's heroes, and an understanding of Peacock's literary techniques present an interesting, if limited, view of the Shelley that Peacock knew. Of Peacock it has usually been held, even by his devoted admirers, that he was not particularly inventive. Although his early poetry had had.some little success, he soon turned to comedy and the novel, for he recognized his lack of poetic creativity. Rather than genius, he possessed a fine wit, good judgment, a distaste for stupidity, vulgarity and pretension, and an irrepressible sense of the comic. In his novels his deficiency is irrelevant, for they depend upon neither originality of plot nor development of fully rounded characters. Two of his novels,. Maid Marian and The Misfortunes of Elphin, are derived frorn folktales, British and Welsh, The other five follow a persistent pattern--the gathering in a country house of a group of persons,, each of whom is the embodiment of an idee fixe. The subsequent activity 9 although neat and ingeniouss matters far less than the always unresolved arguments and exchanges of opinions incorporated in some of the best dialogue ever written. The ideas are not new; they are the rational and irrational notions prevalent in the early 19th century. The expounders of these views are only in part the product of the author's imagination; they are fictional presentations of a facet of actual individuals known in varying degrees to Peacock, Identification of Peacock 1 s dramatis personae is s in many cases, relatively easy and persuasive if one does not demand an exact corres­ pondence between the historical person and his fictional counterpart. In no case was Peacock endeavoring to present a total personality. His interest was in singular characteristics, acts, or enthusiasms which he found essentially ludicrous or annoying. From such slight bases he constructed his characters, and they somewhat resemble figures in a comic morality play which really has no moral. Effective satire requires that its objects and incidents be immediately recognizable; effective comedy does not. For the reader who can identify the characters, there are copious hints in reiterated catch phrases easily associated, exact quotations, and parodies of expression; for the reader who cannot make out the name tags, there is sufficient wit and farce to satisfy. The targets of Peacock's satire included straw-man versions of literary personages (Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, Byron, and Shelley)s political figures {'Canning, Gifford,. and Crokef), and some who, if at all known today, are chiefly remembered as adherents to particular theories f'Jo. F» Newton, Humphrey Repton,. and Sir Uvedale P rice), It is agreed by most critics that Percy Bysshe Shelley was the original for several of the characters in Peacock's novels. Of the previously mentioned prototypes, Shelley was the only one whom Peacock knew as an intimate friend. The relationship between Peacock and Shelley has been much discussed,, and the comment often made that it is surprising.that men so different in temperament should have maintained so close a friendship, . Peacock, the elder by seven years, is generally credited with having provided Shelley with congenial companionship, encouraged in him an interest in Greek language and literature, performed innumerable chores of a financial, practical, and diplomatic nature, and acted as a curb on some of Shelley's wilder flights of fancy. Direct traces of Peacock's influence on Shelley's works are few and largely inconsequential. His association .with Shelley in no way diminished Peacock's slight poetic gifts, but it is probable that the contact with a man whom he recognized to be a genius made him increasingly aware of his own inadequacies. In the youthful Shelley he also saw rampant some of the radical ideas he had previously entertained, albeit in lesser degree, and without Shelley1's extravagent sense of commitment-. Always in Peacock lurked the knowledge that extremes in either action or belief tended to end in tragedy or absurdity. In the life of his'friend. Peacock was a first hand observer of both tragedy and absurdity. In his fictional depictions of Shelley,. Peacock, in keeping with his basic sympathy for the man, utilized the eccentrici­ ties without jeering, and transformed the emotional dramas into light comedy. For a bitter satirist,. Shelley would have provided more than adequate material for scornful cruelty, but Peacock never employed such tactics on him. That he was capable of grossly unfair handling is demonstrated in his treatment of Southey as Mr. Feathernest, or • Coleridge as Mr. Mystic in. Melincourt. Peacock,, almost invariably a man of good taste, was never guilty of telling all he knew about Shelley. He could, and did, make fun of his friend, but the important point is that what he did make was fun, and Shelley remained his friend. PEACOCK ANB SHELLEY The life of Shelley is so well known that it is unnecessary to recount it. The life, however, of the man Shelley and his friends called II Pavone, is less familiar, except for the instances when the lesser known man was intimately involved in Shelley's affairs.
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