Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen______ Literaturwissenschaft Herausgegeben von Reinhold Viehoff (Halle/Saale) Gebhard Rusch (Siegen) Rien T. Segers (Groningen) Jg. 19 (2000), Heft 1 Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften SPIEL Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft SPIEL: Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft Jg. 19 (2000), Heft 1 Peter Lang Frankfurt am Main • Berlin • Bern • Bruxelles • New York • Oxford • Wien Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Siegener Periodicum zur internationalen empirischen Literatur­ wissenschaft (SPIEL) Frankfurt am Main ; Berlin ; Bern ; New York ; Paris ; Wien : Lang ISSN 2199-80780722-7833 Erscheint jährl. zweimal JG. 1, H. 1 (1982) - [Erscheint: Oktober 1982] NE: SPIEL ISSNISSN 2199-80780722-7833 © Peter Lang GmbH Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2001 Alle Rechte Vorbehalten. Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft SPECIAL ISSUE / SONDERHEFT SPIEL 19 (2000), H. 1 Historical Readers and Historical Reading Historische Leser und historisches Lesen ed. by / hrsg. von Margaret Beetham (Manchester) & Sophie Levie (Utrecht) Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft Contents / Inhalt SPIEL 19 (2000), H. 1 Margaret Beetham (Manchester) and Sophie Levie (Utrecht) Introduction 1 Frédéric Barbier (Paris) History, the Historian and Reading 4 Stephen Colciough (London) Recording the Revolution: Reading Experience and the History of the Book 36 Berry Dongeimans (Leiden) and Boudien de Vries (Leiden) Reading, Class and Gender: the Sources for Research on Nineteenth Century Readers in the Netherlands 56 Margaret Beetham (Manchester) In Search of the Historical Reader; the Woman Reader, the Magazine and the Correspondence Column 89 Titia Ram (Utrecht) The Gentleman's Magazine; or Speakers’ Corner 105 Marita Keiison-Lauritz (Amsterdam) Towards a History of Gay Reading: A Study of Two Early Twentieth Century Periodicals 126 Laurel Brake (London) Gender and the Historical Reader: The Artist and Cleveland Street 141 Lledeke Plate (Utrecht) Women Readers Write Back: Rewriting and/as Reception 155 10.3726/80987_105 SPIEL 19 (2000), H. 1, 105-125 Titia Ram (Utrecht) The Gentleman’s Magazine; or Speakers’ Corner Das Londoner The Gentleman’s Magazine (1731-1914) wurde gegründet von Edward Cave, einem Provinzler aus Rugby, Warwickshire, der Anfang 20 war, als er nach London kam, um dort als Drucker zu arbeiten. Das Magazin kombiniert ein ganz neues Format mit den alten Werten des herrschenden literarischen Establishments. Als eine Art Reader’s Digest “avant la lettre”, eine Sammlung von Zusammenfassungen und Übersetzungen aus anderen Zeitschriften und Zeitungen begonnen, entwickelte es sich bald zu einem Forum zeitgenössischen Gedankenguts, geschrieben hauptsächlich von seinem eigenen Lesepublikum. Mit außergewöhnlichem Gespür für die neuen Anforderungen der periodischen Presse, gründete Cave mit The Gentleman ’s Magazine das erste moderne Periodikum, in dem die Rolle des Beiträgers und des (provinzialen) Lesers so drastisch verändert waren, dass es beträchtlichen Einfluss auf die Demokratisierung des Lesepublikums im allgemeinen ausübte. Der vorliegende Aufsatz will eine Übersicht über die Erforschung und Identi­ fizierung des lesenden und schreibenden Publikums geben und eine Reihe neuer Schlussfolgerun­ gen hinzufugen. Dabei stützt er sich auf eine Analyse der Anzeigen auf den Umschlägen des Perio­ dikums, einen Index der Anfangszeilen aller Gedichte der Jahrgänge 1731 bis 1754 und auf Hin­ weise im Periodikum selbst. The London miscellany The Gentleman’s Magazine (1731-1914) was established by Edward Cave, a provincial from Rugby, Warwickshire, who came to work in London as a printer in his early 20s. It was the first “magazine” in terms of a miscellany in which many different subjects were discussed. It combined this radically new format with the old values of the reigning literary establishment. Cave was a cunning business-man who made use of laws in the printing trade, his provincial network of business-contacts, and his job with the General Post Office to make his periodical the cheapest of its kind. His tactics totally alienated him from the London printing-trade, but made The Gentleman’s Magazine the most popular periodical within a matter of a few years. It started out as a collection of summaries and translations from other periodicals and newspapers, but soon developed into a platform for contemporary thought, with contributions written mainly by its own readers. In the identification of this reading public, and thus its writers, many problems arise because we are dealing with an eighteenth-century periodical, in which 90 percent of the poems and articles were contributed anonymously or pseudonymously. Nevertheless, extensive research made it possible to draw several conclusions regarding the identity of its audience (cf. Ram 1999). 106 Titia Ram Edward Cave When Edward Cave established The Gentleman’s Magazine in February 1731, he launched what would soon become England’s most popular and influential eighteenth- century monthly periodical. Its force was twofold. On the level of its contents, it was its representativeness and its conservativeness rather than its innovativeness which ensured its popularity. On the level of organisation, however, its unprecedented and progressive policy was what made it commercially feasible and with 15,000 copies monthly, the best­ selling miscellany within a matter of a few years. The Gentleman’s Magazine soon be­ came an institution in the cultural field which was of influence on the shaping of the eighteenth-century canon, and which prompted lasting transformations in the periodical press. Cave was of considerable influence in the cultural opening up of the provinces, and an instigator of changes in the intellectual world. The Gentleman’s Magazine was a peri­ odical in which old values, prodesse & delectare, and the force of the old establishment were still very powerful. But at the same time, new laws, sharp commercial insight, and the principle of quick and easy accessibility were what shaped this new type of periodi­ cal, and gradually took over domination in the literary field from the old establishment. With extraordinary insight in the new demands in the periodic press, Cave founded The Gentleman’s Magazine, the single most important embodiment of the modem periodical, in which the role of the contributor and the (provincial) reader was altered so drastically, that it was of considerable influence on the democratization of the reading audience in general. Edward Cave, who was the eldest son of a cobbler from Rugby, Warwickshire, was not a very amiable person. He was authoritative and demanding, and did not tolerate any leadership but his own. After he had moved to London where he began his career as a licensed printer, he envisioned his plan to begin a revolutionarily new type of periodical, based on commercial motivations and the conviction that he could outwit his London colleagues in trade, who wanted to have nothing to do with this country upstart. With the establishment of The Gentleman’s Magazine, he used several laws in the printing trade to his own advantage and the ruin of his colleagues, such as the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, the passing of the Copy Right Act (Act for the Encouragement of Learning) of 1709, and the Stamp Acts of 1712. After 1695, when printing was no longer restricted to London and the university cities, printing-presses were set up throughout the country, and Cave set up an impressive network of provincial contacts, with whom he traded in news from the provinces (Barker 1981, 28 ff.; Carlson 1938, 8 ff). A loop-hole in the Copy Right Act, which did not provide for summaries and translations, became the foundation of his periodical, as the entire format of The Gentleman’s Magazine was based on it, and its huge success was a direct result of it. In its first decade or so, it consisted in its en­ tirety of summaries and translations. As such, The Gentleman’s Magazine started out as a kind of Reader’s Digest “avant-la-lettre”. Everything in it had been printed earlier else­ where, and because of this, Cave could make smart use of different Stamp Acts issued after 1712. These caused an increase in the price of all newspapers and periodicals be­ cause any publication carrying news was obliged to be printed on paper carrying a Id. stamp per sheet, per copy (Harris 1978, 84), which could only be bought at one central The Gentleman’s Magazine; or Speakers’ Comer 107 issuing point, the London Warehouse of the Commissioners of Stamps, at Serle Court, Lincoln’s Inn. This made is difficult for printers from the provinces to run a newspaper and the Acts caused several newspapers and periodicals to become bankrupt. However, this actually made The Gentleman’s Magazine even cheaper than it already was, since it consisted of earlier published material in its entirety, therefore did not contain any “news”. It thus did not have to be printed on stamped paper, and could be sold for a price which was relatively