Sounding Imperial Mulholland, James Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Mulholland, James. Sounding Imperial: Poetic Voice and the Politics of Empire, 1730–1820. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.22480. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/22480 [ Access provided at 25 Sep 2021 10:44 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Sounding Imperial This page intentionally left blank Sounding Imperial Poetic Voice and the Politics of Empire, 1730– 1820 james mulholland The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2013 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363 www .press .jhu .edu Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Mulholland, James, 1975– Sounding imperial : poetic voice and the politics of empire, 1730–1820 / James Mulholland. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 4214- 0854- 5 (alk. paper) ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 4214- 0855- 2 (electronic) ISBN- 10: 1- 4214- 0854- 6 (alk. paper) ISBN- 10: 1- 4214- 0855- 4 (electronic) 1. En glish poetry— 18th century— History and criticism 2. Po liti cal poetry— History and criticism. 3. En glish poetry— 19th century— History and criticism. 4. Politics and literature— History—18th century. 5. Politics and literature— History—19th century. 6. Politics in literature. 7. Imperialism in literature. I. Title. PR571.M85 2012 821.709—dc23 2012027075 A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410- 516- 6936 or [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. Contents List of Illustrations vii A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s i x Introduction: The Global Aesthetics of Poetic Voice 1 1. Thomas Gray, Virtual Authorship, and the Performed Voice 33 Authoring Gray’s “Elegy” 36 • Performing Gray’s “Elegy” 42 Impersonating the Bard? 47 • Wildness and Welsh Prosody 51 Quotation Marks 54 • (Un)Editing the Bards 59 2. Wales, Public Poetry, and the Politics of Collective Voice 67 Bardic Nationalism Reconsidered 69 • The Aboriginal Aesthetics of Iolo Morganwg 75 • Listening to the Welsh Past 83 • Dead Voices Reanimated 90 3. Scotland and the Invention of Voice 93 Primitive Passions, Poetry Addiction, History 96 • Ambiguous Speech 100 Writing, Re- performance, and Restored Voices 105 • Intimate Hailing 109 Ossian’s Afterlife 115 4. Impersonating Native Voices in Anglo- Indian Poetry 120 William Jones and the Fountainhead of Verse 124 • Making the Subaltern Speak 134 Rewriting Gray’s “The Bard” in India 144 • Dislocated Orientalism 150 Coda: Reading the Archive of the Inauthentic 156 Notes 167 Bibliography 193 Index 211 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations 1 Samuel Morland, illustration from Tuba Stentoro- Phonica (1672) 16 2 James Hutton with his ear trumpet, mezzotint by J. R. Smith (1786), after the original by R. Cosway 17 3 Gilbert Austin’s rhetorical notation for Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church- yard” (1806) 43 4 Joshua Steele’s notation system for the performed voice (1775) 45 5 Joshua Steele’s rhetorical markings for a couplet from John Denham’s Cooper’s Hill 46 6 Thomas Gray, the fi rst stanza of “The Bard,” 1757 printing 56 7 Thomas Gray, later excerpt from “The Bard” showing shift from single to double quotation marks 57 8 W. Owen Pughe, the fi rst stanza of “Y Bardd” (1822), his Welsh translation of Thomas Gray’s “The Bard” 75 9 Iolo Morganwg, hand- drawn plan for the gorsedd, a public gathering for Welsh poets 79 10 James Macpherson, the opening two pages of his Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) 102 11 James Macpherson, title page of Fingal, An Ancient Epic Poem . (1762), engraved by Isaac Taylor 112 12 James Macpherson, detail of the title page of Fingal 113 13 Alexander Runciman, sketch for The Blind Ossian Singing and Accompanying Himself on the Harp (1772) 114 14 Mary Potter, “Vinvela and Shilric,” italicized reprinting of James Macpherson’s fi rst poem from Fragments 116 15 Thomas Rowlandson, The Burning System Illustrated (1815) 138 16 Engraving of “Abba Thulle” by Henry Kingsbury (1788) 159 This page intentionally left blank A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Once, in response to a request for advice about how to revise a dissertation, I replied, almost without thinking, “Don’t write lonely.” I certainly never have, at any stage in this project. I remember being told as an undergraduate that study- ing En glish literature could be a solitary occupation, but luckily for me that has proven untrue. This project began as a course paper for Michael McKeon when I was a graduate student at Rutgers University, and I thank him both for encour- aging my initial insights and for generously guiding me since then. Aspiring to the rigor of his thinking and the generosity of his spirit has always improved me as a scholar and a teacher. My committee members at Rutgers University— Michael McKeon, Paula McDowell, Jonathan Kramnick, William Galperin— were a model of how to think about literature. Paula McDowell was a remark- able reader and I greatly appreciate her encouragement since then: it feels as though we have pursued these ideas together. Jonathan Kramnick off ered im- portant advice about writing, academe, and publishing that I vividly remember and often share with others. William Galperin added insight to this project from its beginning and helped me to keep its conclusion in view. Brent Edwards indefatigably pushed the concerns of my dissertation in new directions and brought his incisive perspective to every claim I made. The original contours of this project are indebted to his thinking. John Sitter generously provided his expertise about how to expand and improve my dissertation, which I looked back upon until the completion of this book. My debts to my friends at Rutgers University are too signifi cant to be de- scribed adequately. Graduate school never felt like a lonely place, because Hill- ary Chute, Rick Lee, and Joe Ponce responded with long phone calls, spontane- ous reading sessions, afternoon chai, and celebratory dinners, all of which gives some sense of their investment in my intellectual endeavors. This project ac- quired a lot of its fi rst shape because of their eff orts. Kathy Lubey and Kristin Girten were important fellow travelers during this time and afterward; I x a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s appreciate their tireless ability to see the promise in my work when I was not always sure of it myself. It was at Rutgers that I came to appreciate the insight and advice of Tanya Agathocleous about publishing, teaching, and being a pro- fessor. Asohan Amarasingham, Robert Goldstein, and Andrew Thompson, “an- cient friends,” have ever been ready to talk about literature even if they did not always understand exactly what I was rambling on about. I met Natalie Phillips at the moment when this dissertation started to become a book, and much of this transition was spurred by her attentive reading. Not enough can be said about my colleagues at Connecticut College, where I visited for one year, and at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. All of them pro- vided me with a warm environment within which to complete this book. Thanks are owed to David Greven and Alex Beecroft, who have been great friends and interlocutors on everything. At Wheaton, par tic u lar thanks go to the members of the Wheaton College Faculty Writing Group, past and present— Francisco Fernandez de Alba, Touba Ghadessi, Alizah Holstein, Yu- Gen Liang, Rolf Nel- son, Gail Sahar— who read through this project at many diff erent stages, as well as to Claire Buck, Shawn Christian, Tripp Evans, Paula Krebs, Ellen McBreen, and Josh Stenger. All of them off ered friendship, support, and sharp thoughts, and I will remember my years in Providence, Rhode Island, with fondness. The fellows at the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Em- ory University, where I was in residence during 2009– 2010, and the center’s staff — Keith Anthony, Colette Barlow, Amy Erbil— and director, Tina Brownley, made Emory a wonderful place in which to overhaul my manuscript. That my time at the Fox Center was one of the most productive of my life is a testament to the place. Special thanks must be reserved for Benjy Kahan, whom I met at the Fox Center and who read the manuscript multiple times, always off ering il- luminating thoughts. This book is much better because of our collaboration, and it is hard to imagine its existence without his invaluable comments. While in Atlanta I was happy to become friends with Aaron Santesso and Crystal Lake and to renew my friendship with Paul Kelleher; each of them gave me a new perspective on eighteenth- century studies. Crystal read a number of chapters in their fi nal stages and always supplied insights exactly when I needed them. Several other organizations and fellowships contributed to the completion of this project, including the NYU Long Eighteenth– Century Colloquium (thanks to Paula McDowell and Colin Jennings), Georgia Colloquium in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century Literature (thanks to Chloe Wigston Smith), the Daniel Francis Howard Fellowship at Rutgers University, the David L.