UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title “Poetick Rage” to Rage of Party: English Political Verse, 1678-1685 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67k814zg Author McLaughlin, Leanna Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE “Poetick Rage” to Rage of Party: English Political Verse, 1678-1685 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Leanna Hope McLaughlin December 2018 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson Dr. Randolph Head Dr. Patricia Fumerton Copyright by Leanna Hope McLaughlin 2018 The Dissertation of Leanna Hope McLaughlin is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While saving the best for last may seem like a great idea, the acknowledgements are actually some of the harder words I have ever written. How does one put into words the boundless gratitude to the people and organizations that have made this book possible? Still, I must try. This dissertation simply would not have been possible without the patience, encouragement, and guidance of Dr. Thomas Cogswell. In addition to pointing me in the direction of the most delightful and scandalous sources in early modern England, Tom’s help and advice helped me craft the larger argument and his laughter at the content fueled my drive. Thanks to Tom I will eternally move “onward and upward.” I owe Dr. Randolph Head a great deal for his unending support, his uncanny ability to help me see the narrative flow and the bigger picture, and his dogmatic attention to questions of historical practice. Without Dr. Patricia Fumerton I would be lost. Her own work with ballads helped me to make sense of the rabbit’s hole in which I found myself. She also graciously granted me permission to quote her forthcoming book Moving Media, Tactical Publics: The Broadside Ballad in Early Modern England, to be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Simply put, Dr. Joseph Ward inspired me to start this labor of love. Dr. Marc Lerner and Dr. Jeffrey Watt gave me some of the most needed support at the most pressing moment of my life, and they taught me to love history for all of its weirdness and wonder. Dr. Susan Grayzel is who I aspire to be. I am indebted to the University of California-Riverside Graduate Division and History Department for their untiring administrative and generous financial support. UCR taught me how to be a better historian and showed me how to be an even better instructor. iv To Drs. Lynda Bell, Jonathan Eacott, David Gehring, and Vanessa Wilkie, thank you for giving me the opportunity to experience the vicissitudes of teaching. The administrative staff of the UCR History Department—Susan Komura, Iselda Salgado, Deisy Escobedo, and Alesha Jaennette—is unbelievably patient and helped me navigate my way through the entire doctoral process. My research and life experiences were also supported by the assistance of The Huntington Library and The William Andrews Clark Library. While in residence at these two institutions, I had the good fortune to deliver my first conference paper, attend my first colloquia, and engage in an interdisciplinary, bi-continental research group to study “Things: Material Cultures of the Long Eighteenth Century.” In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Steve Hindle for taking me under his wing in a moment of doubt, Scott Jacobs for helping me navigate manuscript research while feeding me chocolate cake (not at the same time), and Drs. Adriana Craciun and Simon Schaffer for their organization of “The Material Cultures of Knowledge, 1600-1830” through the University of California Multi-campus Research Group and Cambridge’s Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. The phenomenal people I met and the conversations I enjoyed are too numerous to mention. I could fill a hundred more pages with just the names of the people I would like to thank for these experiences. I will always cherish the libraries and archives I visited in the course of completing this research. The work of librarians and archivists is so important, and I thank them all, but a few librarians cannot go unnamed: Mark Bainbridge, Assistant Head Library at Worcester College, Oxford, Allee Monheim formerly of the Huntington Library, and Diane Shepelwich at the University of Texas-Arlington; thank you. v The successful completion of this long journey is due to the love, comradeship, and support of my friends and family. I need to specifically thank Audrey Uffner-Lau, Heather Van Mouwerik, Stephen Teske, Jordan Downs, Rachel Purvis, Stephanie McKnight, Amanda Snyder, and Catherine Chou; I cherish you all. To my parents, Mom, Dad, and Micki, thank you for being proud of me. To my grandparents, James and Jewel Davidson, thank you for believing in me. Lastly, but certainly not least, to Lee Johnson, our entire journey has been defined by this endeavor. You have helped me in so many ways that to list them would be an injustice, because I know I would forget something. To all that you are and all that you do, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I cannot wait to start a new chapter in our lives. vi DEDICATION To Rohan and Mia, Keep being amazing humans. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Poetick Rage” to Rage of Party: English Political Verse, 1678-1685 by Leanna Hope McLaughlin Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, December 2018 Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson This dissertation examines the development of English partisanship and political culture from 1678-85 through the lens of political poetry and song. Verses enabled the creation of modern political parties and well-informed public spheres by aiding communication of partisan ideologies throughout the population of England. Historians of Britain have often underutilized this media format, but by exploring the competing narratives poets created, we can better understand what mobilized the population to engage in partisan activity. For two decades of Charles II’s reign, court factions jockeyed for power through highly sexualized manuscript satirical verse. But in 1678, the transformation of political factions into political parties began when explosive claims of a Popish Plot provoked a political crisis in Parliament. In the ensuing legislative upheaval surrounding Exclusion, the Licensing Act, which ensured prepublication censorship of print, lapsed quite unintentionally. The newly created Whig and Tory parties’ ideological platforms developed as they increasingly took to printed political verse to gain public support for their cause and denigrate their opponents. Both parties used libelous and seditious viii rhetoric in political verse to comment on and inform the populace of the affairs of state. Concerned with the growing unrest, the government fought back in the same medium and challenged local authority when it neglected to prosecute radical rhetoric. Upon succession in 1685, James II directed his Parliament to reinstitute the Licensing Act. Despite trying to use verse to craft the narrative in his favor, political verse and song ushered James out in the Revolution of 1688. Ultimately this dissertation will reveal that poetry and verse aided in the emergence of public spheres through the power of an unchecked press, and helped foster a skeptical populace, who became alert to potential challenges to political sovereignty. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Dedication .............................................................................................................................. vii Abstract ................................................................................................................................. viii Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations............................................................................................................. xii Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 I. Historiography ................................................................................................... 3 II. Background of Source Material ........................................................................ 18 A. Preservation ................................................................................................... 18 B. Problems of POASY ...................................................................................... 21 C. The Immensity of Manuscript ........................................................................ 24 D. The Control of Print and the Role of Manuscript ............................................ 26 E. The Significance of Manuscript versus Print Publication ............................... 29 III. Methodology .................................................................................................... 31 A. Definitions and Source Selection ................................................................... 31 B. Materiality of Printed Poems and Songs......................................................... 33 IV. Significance.....................................................................................................