University of Wollongong Thesis Collections University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Year The Wanderer’s Guilt-Burden John Lees University of Wollongong Lees, John, The Wanderer’s Guilt-Burden, PhD thesis, School of English Literatures, Philos- ophy and Languages, University of Wollongong, 2004. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/344 This paper is posted at Research Online. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/344 The Wanderer’s Guilt-Burden A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by John Lees, BA Hons SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LITERATURES, PHILOSOPHY AND LANGUAGES 2004 Certification I, John Lees, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Languages, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. John Lees 11 December 2004 Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Godwin’s St Leon : The Supernatural Wanderer 25 Chapter 2 Shelley as St Leon: A Real-Life Wanderer 53 Chapter 3 Wordsworth’s “Poet-Wanderer” 76 Chapter 4 Byron and Childe Harold : Mortal Wanderers Over Eternity 108 Chapter 5 The Vampyre’s Empty Soul 159 Chapter 6 Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer 193 Conclusion 233 List of Works Cited 246 i Abstract This thesis examines the development of the male Wanderer figure by prominent writers of the Romantic Period - in prose, poetry, and in their self-portrayals. The major texts which it examines are: Godwin’s St Leon (1799); Wordsworth’s The Prelude (1805) and The Excursion (1814); Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818); Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819); and Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). By focussing on the Wanderer’s guilt-burden - an essential element in these constructions - it shows to what extent the Wanderer reflected the social conscience of his time. To that end, the thesis argues that the guilt borne by the Wanderer of the Romantic Period was primarily a guilt-burden of privilege. The burden of a social conscience is what made the Wanderer pertinent to an age with egalitarian aspirations. It was this guilt-burden which lent the figure its vitality and significance. In that sense, the Wanderer of the Romantic Period should not be considered merely as a type or version of the Wandering Jew; rather, the figure was primarily a secular construction which, if anything, replaced the religious guilt of the older myth with the increasing social concerns of that revolutionary age. ii Acknowledgements The pleasant, accommodating manner of all the staff in the English Department of the University of Wollongong has been a considerable blessing; I could not have asked for a more supportive environment. Dr. Anne Collett’s appreciative knowledge of the Romantics - graciously conveyed - has been a valuable resource; her insightful conversation has often kept me inspired. Most of all, I would here like to acknowledge the kindly support of Dr. Anne Lear, whose wisdom, humour and dedication to scholarship and teaching have provided me - for quite some time now - with much needed encouragement. Thanks to the University of Wollongong for awarding me a scholarship, without which I could not have begun my candidature. My beloved parents, Walter and Irene, have patiently borne with me through these years, providing all manner of undeserved assistance for which I will always be grateful. 1 Introduction The male Wanderer is a recurring image in the English fiction of the Romantic Period. For just over two decades writers of the time successfully incorporated this compelling figure into their work. The public’s enthusiastic response to the Wanderer is demonstrated by the prolonged popularity of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, a major work of Byron’s which, as it was written and published in three instalments (1812, 1816 and 1818), consolidated an image of the author himself as an “immortal” Wanderer. And there were real immortal Wanderers too - at least in fiction. At a time when the aristocratic vampire first wanders into literature, the supernatural creations of William Godwin and Charles Maturin leave an equally impressive mark. Endowed with preternatural powers, these privileged beings are formidable in their lone, suffering stature, forever set apart from the rest of humanity. So persuasive was the figure of the Wanderer that the most popular and influential poets of the age, Wordsworth and Byron, chose to adopt this persona when presenting a self-image; they were also compelled, at one time or another, along with Shelley, to actually envisage themselves in a Wanderer’s role. But beyond the inherently Romantic appeal of the Wanderer’s defiant despair and isolated individuality, there was, it would seem, a more significant element in the on-going construction of the figure during this period - the possession of a guilt-burden. Why though should this particular characteristic of the Wanderer hold such an appeal to writers and readers of the so-called Romantic era? This thesis attempts to account for the persuasive power of the Wanderer’s guilt-burden, finding its source in the emerging social conscience of the time. The discussion begins by showing how the notion of a guilt- burden played an important role in the egalitarian social philosophy of the 1790s. It then examines the different ways in which writers of the ensuing period incorporated this guilt-burden into their portrayals of the Wanderer. William Godwin’s novel, St Leon (1799), sets an important precedent in this regard, as Godwin himself was a prime conveyer of the egalitarian ideas which his novel sought to impart. With the character of St. Leon, an immortal aristocrat, Godwin established a 2 supernatural portrayal of the Wanderer that was to remain influential. Some twenty years later, the idea of a supernatural Wanderer with an immortal guilt-burden reached its most developed form in Charles Maturin’s novel, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). As the thesis concludes with Maturin’s text, it will be seen to what extent the enlightenment strategies of earlier egalitarian thinkers continued to influence the development of the Wanderer figure. Before that, however, Chapter 2 considers the very immediate impact that Godwin’s ideas have upon the young Percy Shelley, showing how this revolutionary aristocrat’s self-conscious reading of St Leon leads him on a real-life Wanderer’s quest to Ireland in 1812. There Shelley was able, albeit for a short while, to fulfil the Wanderer’s role which, after reading Godwin’s philosophy and fiction, he envisaged for himself. With an eye to the self-image of the Wanderer which so possessed him, the discussion evaluates Shelley’s mission in light of what Godwin had perhaps intended for the figure. The first part of Chapter 3 examines the genesis of Wordsworth’s Poet-Wanderer. With comparative reference to the poetry of Coleridge as well, it traces what can be called a Poet’s “nagging sense of privilege,” showing how that may become a guilt-burden of sorts. In Wordsworth’s case, he is able to transform this burden into worthy labour for the Poet, creating in due course the Poet-Wanderer - a figure that reconciles the privileged role of the Poet with a wider social conscience. It was in the unpublished text of The Prelude (1805) that Wordsworth first envisaged himself in this role. However, it was not until in The Excursion (1814), published some ten years later, that Wordsworth revealed himself to the public as the Wanderer figure to which he aspired. The ambitious scope of this text allowed him to perform the type of work for which The Prelude had provided a prospectus. The second part of Chapter 3 considers whether or not Wordsworth achieved his conscientious aims; for the social role which the Poet-Wanderer performs in The Excursion is markedly different from that which was earlier conceived for him. A short poem by Robert Southey, “The Complaints of the Poor” (1798), which employs a Poet-Wanderer figure in a similar strategy, allows us to see how Wordsworth may have strayed somewhat from what he earlier deemed in The Prelude to be his solemn social duty. 3 It was Byron’s Childe Harold, though, who managed to possess the public imagination as the foremost Wanderer of the period. From the outset of his writing career, Byron recognized the Wanderer’s guilt- burden as an appealing trait which would continue to fascinate an eager audience. But the guilt which Byron’s Wanderer bore had little or no associative link to the social conscience which gave the trope its life. Nevertheless, because the appeal of the Wanderer’s guilt-burden had already been established, it could be left to Byron to develop and manipulate its aesthetic rather than its social significance. Guilt, for Byron, played a central role in the development of a “dark-in-soul” image. Chapter 4 evaluates this on-going construction through the course of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812 - 1818). That two of the most significant poets of the age, Byron and Wordsworth, chose to image themselves through the Wanderer, attests to the enormous appeal of this trope to the period’s sensibility. The Wanderer’s guilt-burden was, however, becoming increasingly emptied of its weight, until Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) removed it altogether. This short story is remarkable for its comment upon Byron’s fashionable guilt: an empty guilt which Polidori’s immortal Wanderer cynically employs. Chapter 5 explores The Vampyre’s sophisticated mis- placement of the Wanderer’s burden, a treatment which had left the figure looking somewhat shallow.