THE FLEECE THE FLEECE A POEM IN FOUR BOOKS (1757) John Dyer Edited by John Goodridge Nottingham Trent University Juan Christian Pellicer University of Oslo Usk Electronic Editions 2019 Copyright 2019 (c) John Goodridge and J.C. Pellicer The rights of the authors have been asserted. This edition may be downloaded only for research, teaching and personal study purposes. Published online by Usk Electronic Editions, c/o Professor John Goodridge, 42A Borough St., Castle Donington, Derby DE7 2LB, UK For Rose and Frankie, and for Elias and Helene CONTENTS Preface and acknowledgements Introduction Sources and further reading Abbreviations The Fleece Book I Book II Book III Book IV Editorial emendations PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This‖edition‖of‖John‖Dyer’s‖The Fleece, first devised to reprint the poem in 2007 on the 250th anniversary of its first publication, makes available a rich annotation developed by the editors over a number of years. The poem has never been adequately annotated before, though it is richly intertextual in its sources and ambitiously interdisciplinary in its concerns. In recovering the poem from relative critical neglect, both these aspects of it need attention, and we thought the most effective way to offer this was to catalogue in the notes both‖Dyer’s‖sources‖and‖his‖contributions‖to‖social,‖economic‖and‖cultural‖life.‖ The notes also identify stylistic points of interest, since the poem has had little critical discussion of this sort. Our text is that of the first edition, the only text seen through the press by its author, with a small number of authorial and typographic corrections (these are listed at the back of the book). The present electronic edition was prepared by John Goodridge. John Goodridge would like to thank Juan Pellicer for joining forces to bring the edition to press, and for his encouragement and kindness; Gill Goodridge for extensive and invaluable help with the annotation; Meggie Goodridge and Strawberry Roth for help on textile history; Alison Ramsden for her support over many years. Others who kindly shared ideas or offered support include John Barrell, Howard Erskine-Hill, Tim Fulford, John Gilmore, Belinda Humfrey, Bridget Keegan, Claire Lamont, Donna Landry, John‖Lucas,‖and‖Dyer’s‖descendants‖Fabian‖T.‖Smith‖and‖Violet‖Smith. Among those who are no longer with us, Pete Goodridge (1955-2017), always the best and most stimulating and supportive of brothers, provided the vital spark that ignited our research on agricultural history in The Fleece, and his voice may be heard in many of the footnotes to book I on this subject. Another family member, the late Revd Ernest Goodridge (1921-2001) helped out‖on‖the‖analysis‖and‖annotation‖of‖Dyer’s‖spirirual‖beliefs.‖Dr‖Robin Dix, who‖worked‖on‖Dyer’s‖friend and advisor Mark Akenside, and Professor Sandra Harris, formerly Dean of Humanities at Nottingham Trent University, also lent their support. Juan Christian Pellicer would like to thank his co-editor for years of encouragement and generosity. He is also grateful for the help and kindness of Christine Gerrard, John Gilmore, Tom Keymer, Merete Ruud, Maren-Sofie Røstvig, and Bjørn Tysdahl. The editors owe particular thanks to David Fairer, who in addition to his many other kindnesses generously undertook to read the manuscript for us, and to Peter Widdowson and the Cyder Press who first took on this project. We also thank the staffs of the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Durham Cathedral Library; the John Rylands University Library, Manchester; the National Library of Wales; and Nottingham‖Trent‖University.‖Materials‖from‖Dyer’s‖notebooks‖are‖ reproduced by permission of The National Library of Wales/ Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. INTRODUCTION The Fleece has been described by the critic John Barrell as the most comprehensive and well-informed poem of its kind in English. This kind is the georgic, a form of didactic verse that follows the conventions of the Roman‖poet‖Virgil’s‖four-book agricultural poem, the Georgics (c. 36-29 BCE). Before embarking on the Georgics, Virgil had written the Eclogues (completed 37 BCE). This collection of ten poems transplanted and refined aspects of an earlier‖Greek‖model,‖the‖Sicilian‖poet‖Theocritus’‖Idylls (third century BCE), and established the pastoral tradition in Western literature. If this tradition represents human life through its founding fiction of the reflective life of shepherds,‖sometimes‖linked‖to‖a‖‘golden‖age’,‖then‖georgic‖represents‖life‖ through its own, rather sterner founding fiction, which is that of being non- fiction. It typically gives instructions on the practical tasks of farmers, and describes‖the‖rural‖world‖from‖a‖scientific‖perspective.‖Just‖as‖Virgil’s‖Eclogues drew on a Greek precursor, so the Georgics naturalised into Roman culture that‖most‖ancient‖of‖Greek‖poems,‖Hesiod’s‖Works and Days (eighth century BCE). Virgil’s‖‘proem’‖to‖the‖Georgics (I, 1-42) not only sets out his topics— tillage, the training of trees and vines, the care of domestic animals, and bee- keeping—but invokes a host of mythological figures associated with the countryside, and links these with Caesar (i.e. Octavian, the soon-to-be emperor Augustus, 63 BCE-14 CE), thus implying deep continuities between the rustic, imperial, and divine worlds. Virgil composed the Georgics in hopeful anticipation of a new era of peace and prosperity under Augustus, to heal the wounds of a country that had suffered nearly a century of civil wars and political turbulence. In the Georgics, the hard toil of agriculture is the vital precondition—and not a simple guarantee—of whatever good society may achieve (I, 118-59). At the end of Georgics I, Virgil imagines future farmers ploughing up relics of the long since forgotten civil wars—rusty javelins and helmets—and gazing with wonder at the giant human bones they have turned up (493-9).‖But‖that‖is‖still‖far‖in‖the‖future:‖even‖in‖the‖poem’s‖present,‖ reflecting the earlier period of its composition, Italy is still troubled by wars. Pruning hooks are still being forged into swords (I, 505-8). In‖the‖eighteenth‖century‖Virgil’s‖Georgics was imitated because it offered a model for understanding the workings of a national economy. By emphasizing the beneficial effects of industriousness throughout the network of labouring and commercial communities (which in georgic defines the nation), the georgic promised to prevent the social corruption associated with luxurious wealth. Georgic was revived and revitalized as poets boldly extended the form to include new topics, ranging from cider-making to sugar-production, hunting to botany. The Fleece is concerned with the wool trade,‖and‖follows‖the‖progress‖of‖the‖fleece‖from‖the‖sheep’s‖back,‖through‖ the various processes of textile manufacture, to its exportation abroad along the arteries of global commerce. Book I introduces the reader to shepherding and the rural world, Book II discusses the treatment of wool and surveys the history of the woollen industry, Book III describes textile manufacture, and Book IV explores the network of trade routes across both hemispheres. Along the way there are numerous digressions. For instance, we learn about shearing festivals on the banks of the river Severn (I, 601-720), about Jason and the Golden Fleece (II, 212-310), about a Yorkshire workhouse equipped with the very latest textile-processing machinery (III, 259-302), and about the heroic voyages of Captain George Anson (IV, 599-653). The poem is driven forward by an urgent, self-confident didacticism. Unlike its cousin the pastoral, which while focusing on the reflective life of shepherds is less concerned to provide detailed descriptions of their labours, georgic is centrally preoccupied with work, which it depicts as a morally and socially progressive activity. Dyer has little doubt that productive labour is the most important remedy for social and economic ills, or that commerce is the glue that holds civilisation together. He can see nothing wrong in the workhouse where children labour through the day (III, 281-5), and nothing right‖in‖the‖lifestyle‖of‖the‖nomadic‖people‖of‖western‖Siberia‖he‖calls‖the‖‘lazy‖ Ostiacs’‖(IV,‖453-63). Three centuries on we are unlikely to share his certainties, but we can still learn much from his practical-minded idealism, his willingness‖to‖engage‖with‖topics‖often‖thought‖too‖‘low’‖for‖poetry,‖and‖ the fascinating detail his painterly hand gives to much of what he describes. Like‖the‖‘Lunar‖Men’‖of‖the‖next‖generation‖who‖would‖dream‖up‖many‖of‖ the inventions of the modern world, Dyer in The Fleece shows the eighteenth century in its boldest and most creative mood, full of enlightenment confidence in the perfectibility of human experience. John Dyer was born on 13 August 1699 in Carmarthenshire, described in The Fleece in pastoral‖language‖as‖‘that‖soft‖tract‖/‖Of‖Cambria,‖deep-embay’d,‖ Dimetian‖land,‖/‖By‖green‖hills‖fenc’d,‖by‖ocean’s‖murmur‖lull’d;‖/‖Nurse‖of‖ the‖rustic‖bard,‖who‖now‖resounds‖/‖The‖fortunes‖of‖the‖fleece’‖(III,‖436-40). He claims Flemish ancestry in the passage that follows this. There may be some truth in this, but the Dyers were an old Anglo-Welsh family that had produced two mayors of Kidwelly/ Cydwelli.‖Dyer’s‖father‖was‖a‖successful‖ lawyer, and the family had acquired the house at Aberglasney whose setting inspired‖Dyer’s‖most‖famous‖poem,‖‘Grongar‖Hill’‖(1726),‖and‖which‖has‖ fairly recently been restored and opened to the public. He was educated at Westminster School, but instead of going on to Oxford like his brothers, he returned home to learn his father’s‖profession.‖Law‖did‖not‖suit‖him,‖ however,‖and‖on‖his‖father’s‖death‖he‖went‖to‖London‖to‖study‖as‖a‖painter‖ under Jonathan Richardson.