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052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dustin Griffin
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PATRIOTISM AND POETRY
IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
The poetry of the mid and late eighteenth century has long been
regarded as primarily private and apolitical; in this wide-ranging
study, Dustin Griffin argues that in fact the poets of the period were
addressing the great issues of national life – rebellion at home, imperial wars abroad, an expanding commercial empire, an emerging
new “British” national identity. Taking up the topic of patriotic
verse, Griffin shows that the poets, like many contemporary essayists, sermon writers, and political journalists, were engaged in the
century-long debate about the nature of “true patriotism.” Griffin
argues that canonical figures – James Thomson, William Collins,
Thomas Gray, Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith, William
Cowper – along with less canonical writers such as Mark Akenside,
John Dyer, and Ann Yearsley ask how poets might serve and even
save their country, and take their place in a broader tradition of
patriotic verse.
DUSTIN GRIFFIN is Professor of English at New York University. He
is the author of a number of books on Restoration and eighteenthcentury English literature, including Satires on Man: The Poems of
Rochester (1973), Alexander Pope: The Poet in the Poems (1978), Regaining
Paradise: Milton and the Eighteenth Century (1986), Satire: A Critical
Re-Introduction (1994), and Literary Patronage in England, 1650–1800
(Cambridge, 1996).
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Cambridge University Press
052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dustin Griffin
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PATRIOTISM AND POETRY
IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BRITAIN
DUSTIN GRIFFIN
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Cambridge University Press
052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dustin Griffin
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521811187
© Dustin Griffin 2002
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the
Abraham and Rebecca Stein Faculty Publication Fund
of New York University, Department of English.
First published 2002
This digitally printed first paperback version 2005
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Griffin, Dustin H.
Patriotism and poetry in eighteenth-century Britain / by Dustin Griffin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 296) and index.
ISBN 0 521 81118 X
1. English poetry – 18th century – History and criticism. 2. Politics and literature – Great
Britain – History – 18th century. 3. Patriotism – Great Britain – History – 18th century.
4. Political poetry, English – History and criticism. 5. Patriotism in literature.
I. Title: Patriotism and poetry in 18th-century Britain. II. Title.
PR555.H5 G75 2001
821´.509358 – dc21 2001037852
ISBN-13 978-0-521-81118-7 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-81118-X hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-00959-1 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-00959-6 paperback
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052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dustin Griffin
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To the memory of my father
W. L. Hadley Griffin (1918–1997),
who served his country and his city
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052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dustin Griffin
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Of thee more worthy were the task, to raise
A lasting Column to thy Country’s praise;
To sing the land, which yet alone can boast
That Liberty corrupted Rome has lost.
George Lord Lyttelton, Epistle to Mr. Pope (1730)
Lo! patriots, heroes, sages croud to birth:
And bards to sing them in immortal verse!
James Thomson, from Alfred. A Masque (1740)
me, with Britains Glory fir’d,
Me, far from meaner Care or meaner Song,
Snatch to the Holy Hill of Spotless Bay,
My Countrys Poet, to record her Fame.
Alexander Pope, “Fragment of Brutus, an Epic” (1743)
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052181118X - Patriotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain
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Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
page viii
ix
x
Introduction
1
1
The eighteenth-century debate about patriotism
7
2
Patriotic odes and patriot-poets
34
3
James Thomson: “to mix the Patriot’s with
the Poet’s Flame”
74
4 Mark Akenside: “great citizen of Albion”
98
5
119
William Collins: “Virtue’s Patriot Theme”
6 Thomas Gray: “some great and singular service
to his country”
149
7
180
John Dyer: “sedulous for the public weal”
8 Oliver Goldsmith: “half a patriot”
205
9 Christopher Smart and William Cowper:
“Christian patriots”
230
10
Ann Yearsley: “the female patriot”
262
Conclusion
292
296
309
Bibliography
Index
vii
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Illustrations
1 “God Save King George” (1760). By permission of the Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York
2 “The Treacherous Patriot Unmask’d” (1742). By permission of
the British Museum
3 Title page to John Conybeare, True Patriotism. A Sermon (1749).
By permission of the British Library
4 Thomas Rowlandson, “Liberty and Fame introducing Female
Patriotism to Britania,” frontispiece to History of the Westminster
Election, 2nd. edn. (1785). By permission of the British Library
5 Thomas Rowlandson, “The Two Patriotic Duchess’s on their
Canvass” (1784). By permission of the British Museum
6 “Slavery” (1738). By permission of the British Museum
7 “British Liberty,” frontispiece to Ann Yearsley, The Rural Lyre
(1796). By permission of the British Library
page 8
20
23
28
29
46
286
viii
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Acknowledgments
For reading chapters of this book in draft, I thank Linda Colley,
Robin Dix, Roger Lonsdale, James Sambrook, Mary Waldron, Richard
Wendorf, and especially Betty Rizzo. The two anonymous readers for
Cambridge University Press made very helpful comments, both large
and small. For listening to a paper drawn from chapter 2, thanks to the
Eighteenth Century Club in the Department of English at New York
University. For generously replying to inquiries, I thank Rob Hume and
Kit Hume, Michael Schwartz, and Diane Dugaw, and especially Susan
Goulding. For bibliographical suggestions, thanks to Manuel Schonhorn.
I also thank the staffs of the several research libraries in which I have
worked: the New York Public Library, the British Library, Bobst Library
at New York University, and Butler Library at Columbia University.
Illustrations are reproduced with the permission of the British Library,
the British Museum, and the Pierpont Morgan Library.
ix
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Abbreviations
BL
BM
DNB
ECS
ELH
Foxon
JEGP
OED
PMLA
SEL
British Library
British Museum
Dictionary of National Biography
Eighteenth Century Studies
English Literary History
David Foxon, English Verse, 1701 –1750: a catalogue of
separately printed poems with notes on collected editions
(London, 1975)
Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Oxford English Dictionary
Publications of the Modern Language Association
Studies in English Literature
x
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