1 1 1 1 Wordsworth and later eighteenth-century concepts of the reading experience 1 1 by 1 Gordon Tweedle © A thesls submltted to the Faculty of Graduate Studles and Research ln partial fulfllment of the 1 requlrements for the degree of PhD. 1 1 J Gordon TweedÏf~ Dept. of English 1 McGl1i University Montreal. P. a. March.1991 1 J 1 1 J 1 1 1 1 Abstract 1 Wordsworth and later eighteenth-century concepts of the reading experience 1 Gordon Tweedie PhD., Department of Enghsh McGiII University 1 March, 1991 1 Inlluentiallater eighteenth-century cr:lics and philosophers (Stewart, Knight, Alison, Jeffrey, 1 Godwin) argued that poetry's moral and practical beneflts derive from "ana1ytical" modes of reading, rather than trom the poet's instructive intentions. Frequently explolting the phllosophleal "language 1 of neeesslty," Wordsworth's essays and prefaces (1798-1815) protested that poetry dlrectly improves t,le reade(s mOial code and etl1ical conduct. This dissertation discusses Wordsworth's cntlclsm ln the 1 context of analytical pnnclples of interpretation current in the 1790s, providing terlT's for exploring the - ln 1 theme of readrng early mss of Peter Bell and The Bujned Cottage (1798-1799), the 1798 ~ Ballads, and later poe ms such as "A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags," "Resolution and 1 Independence," "Eleglac Stanzas," and The Prelude (Book V). 1 These poems anticipate Wordsworth's presentation of reading as the "art of admiration" in the "Essay, Supplementary" to the 1815~, and indicate a sustained search for alternatives and 1 correctives to detached investigative approaehes to the aesthetie experienee. Attempting to reconcile the extremes of the credulous or fanciful response, reflectiiIQ a ehildlike desire to be tree 1 from ail constralOts, and the analytieal response, fuelled by perceptions of contrast between poetic illusion and reality, Wordsworth's cnticism and poetry dt:pict the reader as the "auxlliar" of poetic 1 geOlus. The purpose, tradltionally underrnined by cnties as peremptory and egotistical. was to challenge readers to examine their baSIC motives in seeking poetie pleasure. , j 1 1 Résumé 1 Wordsworth et la notIon de lecture à la fin du dIx-hUItième sIècle 1 Gordon Tweedle Doctorat de TroisIème Cyel'" Département de littérature AnglaIse 1 Unrversité McGill, MarS,1991 1 À la fin du dIx-huitième sIècle, les cntlques et philosophes qUI font authonté (Stewart, Knlght. 1 Alison, Jeffrey, Godwm) maintiennent que le progrès moral et pratique procuré par la poésIe est le fruIt d'une lecture "analytique" plutôt que de la volonté dIdactique du poète. MaIS Wordsworth, pUisant 1 abondamment dans le lIlangage de la néceSSIté" philosophIque, récuse cette notion dans ses essais et préfaces (1798-1815), soutenant que la poéSIe amende de façon directe la morale et la condUite 1 du lecteur La présente thèse traIte de la critIque formulée par Wordsworth, dans le contexte des 1 critères d'Inlerprétatlon analytIque ayant cours vers 1790, et fournit les termes qUi permettent d'étudier le thème de la lecture dans les premiers manuscnts de ~.6.e.ll et de The Rumed Cottage 1 (1798-1799). dans les Lydcal Ballac;ls (1798), puis dans les poèmes posténeurs, entre autres "A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags," "Resolution and Independence,lI lIEleglac Stanzas" et ill 1 Prelude (livre V). 1 Ces poèmes annoncent l'interprétation que donnera Wordsworth de la lecture - "l'art de l'admiration" - dans "Essay, Supplemenlary" des ~ de 1815, el sIgnaient une recherche étendue 1 de formules susceptibles de se substituer aux méthodes d'analyse du sentrment esthétique, ou de les corriger. S'efforçant de conCIlier d'une part la réaction crédule ou fantaISIste, qui témOIgne du déSir 1 enfantm de se dégager de toute contrainte, et, à l'autre extrême, le Jugement analytique, qu'alImente la perceptIon de l'opposition entre illusion pOt.~tique et réalité, Wordsworth dépeint le lecteur, dans sa 1 cntique et sa p'Jésie, comme "l'aUXIliaire" du génie poétique. Son propos, que les cntiques ont 1 traditionnellement taxé de péremptoire et d'égoïste, est d'engager le lecteur à étudIer les motIfs profonds qui le poussent à rechercher le plaisir poétique. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Acknowledgments t 1 1am grateful to McGl1I Profs. C. Heppner and 1 Gopnik for their mvaluable comments on my dissertation during Its formative stages. The timely encouragements, 1 mSlghts, and editonal expertise of my thesis supervisor, Prof Kerry McSweeney, are the fmer spint shapmg thls project. More th an the poets and sages, Susan ~als Tweedle 1 has taught me the strength that hes in the "soft Impulse." 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 J . 1 1 1 1 1 Table of Contents 1 IntroductIon ........ .. .......... ....... 1 1 Chapter 1. .............................. 20 1 Chapter 2 .................................... '" .. 46 Chapter 3 ....................................... '" ... 72 1 Chapter 4 ...................................................... .. 100 Chapter 5..... ................ ............................ .. .......... .. 146 1 Epilogue ................................................. .. 188 Notes .............................. 204 1 Bibliography ...................... .. .. .. 226 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 1 ) 1 .J 1 List of Abbrevlatlons A ArchIbald Alison, Essays on the Nature and Pdncjples of 1aste, 1 (1790; Hartford, Conn .. G Goodwin, 1821) f William Godwin, The EngUirer. Reflectjons on EducatIon. Manners, and Ltlerature, (1797. New York' Augustus M. Kelly, 1965). 1 J FranCIS Jeffrey, Contnbutlons to the Edinburah Beyjew (PhIladelphia' Carey and Hart, 1846). 1 K Richard Payne Knlght, An Analvtjcallngujry joto the PnpClples ofTaste, 2nd. ed (London, 1805~. eJ. William Godwin, Pohtlcal Justice, ed. K. Codel! Carter 1 (1793. Oxford. Clarendon, 1971) EY:i WIlliam Wordsworth, The Prose WOrks of Wjl!jam Wo~, 1 3 vol., ed. W. J B Owen and Jane W. Smyser (Oxford: Clarendon, 1974) Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philoscphy of the Human Mjnd, l (1792; New York. Garland, 1971) 1 J 1 1 1 1 J ) 1 1 Introduct!""n 1 A Battle Wlthout Enemles 1 1. 1 My approach to Wordsworth's poetry IS via hls essays and prefaces, watten between 1798 and 1815 DISCUSSions of Wordsworth's cnticism have usually focussed on hls theones of ooetlc language ln 1 Wordsworth as CritlC (1969), W J B Owen argued that the "main obJect of the Preface of 18001510 1 defme and dE'fend a partlcular rhetonc. to assert the poetlc value of a selection of the reallanguage of men ln a state of vlvld sensation and of the language of prose" He concluded Ihat "10 Ihls 1 comprehensive motive behmd the Preface ail other motives suggested by Wordsworth, and more especlally by hls cnt,cs, are eventuafly subordlnate ,,1 ThiS dld not accurately reflect Ine diverse 1 interests of the "Preface" One of the most Visible of Wordsworth's "other motives" was the 1 improvement of the readlng habits of hls audience Three years before OWen's text appeared, Paul M Zall had polnted out that Wordsworth's 1 cnticism was "Iess concerned wlth settlng up a consistent aesthetle system than wlth explalnlng the practlcal powers of poetry to a practlcal-mlnded pubhc,',2 WQrdsworth's comments on the nature and 1 effects of readmg address a vanety of Issues concemed wlth poetry's SOCial and moral relevance 1 However, It 15 sometlmes difflcult to see Wordsworth's handhng of these Issues as sen,.lng the dlslnterested, pedagoglcal purposes suggested by Zall. Wordsworth began hls "explalnlng" by 1 snubbing the cnties ("Advertlsement" ta the 1798 LyncalBallads), ended It by bltterly assaulling thelr inco."petence and narrow-mlndedness ("Essay, Supplementary" ta the 1815 PQems), and 1 repeatedly suggested that the hterary establishment was incapable of understandmg hls revolutlOnary theones A number of Wordsworth's contemporary revlewers considered hls cntlClsm to be arrogant 1 and antiSOCial The poetic countenance of ois "egotlsm," as descnbed by Hazlitt and subsequently 1 many others, was "sublime," but his cnticlsm, especially the "Essay, Supplementary ," was seen as seH-serving and narcissistic.3 1 1 p', 1 2 1 ln "Wordsworth, the Public, and the People" (1956), Patnck Crul1well observed that 1 dehberately antagonlzlng elements ln the essays and prefaces were aimed at others besldes entlCs. Makmg "blandly egolstlc Identifications between a IIklng for hls poetry and a taste for any poetry, and 1 between a lack of taste for por.try and a general moral dehnquency," Wordsworth deplcted the enUre readlng public as "corrupted, morally and totally" Cruttwell argued that this "fine sweepmg nonsense" 1 was hlstoncally Important Wordsworth was not the flrst poet to imagme a "dream-public . who se taste was, mlraculously, both unlettered and correct," but he was the first to "declde that the taste of the 1 /lterary was corrupt because they were hterary," and to "tum from them to the unllterary" on that basis 1 Cruttwell's explanatlon of why Wordsworth spurned the Iiterati - he was "hurt" by the negatlVe revlews of hls poems - was not new, and can be traced back to Hazlitt, who beheved that Wordsworth's 1 soeiablhty had been soured by the "undeserved ridicule" of cntics.4 Wordsworth's comments on readmg taste and habits refleet dismterested motives, theoretical and practlcai, but al50 a "biting 1 contempt for the hterary world of hls tlme ,,5 1 The recent preoccupation of cntlCS wlth reader-response theones has created a cllmate tavourable to reassessmp.nts of Wordsworth's views on reading. Don Blalostosky's MaklOg Tales: The 1 Poetjcs of Wordsworth's Narrative Expedments (1984) used