English-language Poetry from Wales 1789-1806

Elizabeth Edwards

Description

This new selection of Anglophone Welsh poetry presents a range of literary responses to the French Revolution and the ensuing wars with France, a period in which Wales and its history became prime imaginative territory for poets of all political sympathies.
Introduction Texts Editorial Principles Notes to the Texts

Sujets

• Irish
• English
• Poetry
• European
• Welsh
• Scottish

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780708325698
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Wales and the French Revolution

English-Language Poetry from Wales 1789–1806

Elizabeth Edwards

University of Wales Press

WALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

General Editors: MaryAnn Constantine and Dafydd Johnston

For Matthew, Rufus and Jemima

WALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

EnglishLanguage Poetry from Wales 1789–1806

ELIZABETH EDWARDS

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS CARDIFF 2013

© Elizabeth Edwards, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9780708325681 eISBN 9780708325698

The right of Elizabeth Edwards to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt Printed CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

‘one of these excursions, travelling . . . [t]hrough Wales’ William Wordsworth,The Prelude, Book XIII.

WALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The French Revolution of 1789 was perhaps the defining event of the Romantic period in Europe. It unsettled not only the ordering of society but language and thought itself: its effects were profoundly cultural, and they were longlasting. The last twenty years have radically altered our understanding of the impact of the Revolution and its aftermath on British culture. In literature, as critical attention has shifted from a handful of major poets to the noncanonical edges, we can now see how the works of women writers, selfeducated authors, radical pamphleteers, prophets and loyalist propagandists both shaped and were shaped by the language and ideas of the period. Yet surprising gaps remain, and even recent studies of the ‘British’ reaction to the Revolution remain poorly informed about responses from the regions. In literary and historical discussions of the socalled ‘four nations’ of Britain, Wales has been virtually invisible; many researchers working in this period are unaware of the kinds of sources available for comparative study. The Wales and the French Revolution Series is the product of a fouryear project funded by the AHRC and the University of Wales at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. It makes available a wide range of Welsh material from the decades spanning the Revolution and the subsequent wars with France. Each volume, edited by an expert in the field, presents a collection of texts (including, where relevant, translations) from a particular genre with a critical essay situating the material in its historical and literary context. A great deal of material is published here for the first time, and all kinds of genres are explored. From ballads and pamphlets to personal letters and prizewinning poems, essays, journals, sermons, songs and satires, the range of texts covered by this series is a stimulating ref lection of the political and cultural complexity of the time. We hope these volumes will encourage scholars and students of Welsh history and literature to rediscover this fascinating period, and will offer ample comparative scope for those working further afield.

MaryAnn Constantine and Dafydd Johnston General Editors

List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Texts

Editorial Principles

Contents

xi xiii xv xvii

5

1

9

1. David Samwell (Dafydd Ddu Feddyg), ‘Ode for the New Year MDCC,XC. As it was intended to have been rehearsed this Day at St. JAMES’s’ 61

2. William Sotheby, ‘A Tour Through Parts of South and North Wales’ (extract) 63

3. Anon., ‘An Ode to Commerce. Inscribed to John Wilkinson, Esq. the distinguished iron master’ 68

4. Richard Llwyd, ‘An Ode for the New Year [1791], Inscribed to Paul Panton, of Plasgwyn, Esq.’ 72

5. Richard Llwyd, ‘Ode, for the Anniversary of St. David [1792]’

7

5

6. David Thomas (Dafydd Ddu Eryri), ‘The Banks of the Menai. An Ode’ 77

7. David Samwell (Dafydd Ddu Feddyg), ‘The Resurrection of Rhitta Gawr’ 79

8. George Richards, ‘The Captivity of Caractacus’ (extract)

8

4

9. William Sotheby, ‘Llangollen. Written at the close of the Autumn 1792’ (extract) 88

10. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Winter Incidents, Written in 1777’ 91

viii

CONTENTS

11. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Solitude. From the Welsh. Written in 1789’ 95

12. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Ode; Imitated from the Gododin of Aneurin, an ancient British Bard, who wrote about the Year 550’ 97

13. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF WALES. Exhorting them to emigrate, with WILLIAM PENN, to Pennsylvania’ (extract) 102

14. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘The Horrors of War, a Pastoral’ 112

15. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Ode on Converting a Sword into a Pruning Hook’ 117

16. Jane Cave, ‘THOUGHTS O NTHE PRESENT TIMES; Written some Time after the PROCLAMATION for the late General FAST’ 122

17. Hester Piozzi, Untitled [‘Can impious France, though frantic grown’] 125

18. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Church and King rampant or Satan let loose for a thousand years’ 126

19. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘John Bull’s Litany’

20. Joseph Hucks, ‘On the Ruins of Denbigh Castle, in North Wales’

130

136

21. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Song. Bella! horrida Bella! Written r in Nov 1794’ 138 22. David Samwell (Dafydd Ddu Feddyg), ‘Ode, Written on a long and uncommonly tempestuous cruise with a Squadron of Men of War in about r 63˚ North Latitude, Dec 24 1794’ 140

23. Hester Piozzi, ‘See, see the mad Marauders come!’

144

24. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘Newgate Stanzas’ 145 25. Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), ‘TRIAL BY JURY, The Grand Palladium of B RITISH L IBERTY ’ 147

26. Anon., ‘For the Chester Chronicle’

27. Thomas Ryder, ‘Introductory Ode for the Cambrian Register’

149

151

28. ‘Eliza’, ‘Sketched on a Party down the River Wye, from Ross to Monmouth’  155

29. Anna Seward, ‘Llangollen Vale, Inscribed to the Right Honourable Lady Eleanor Butler, and Miss Ponsonby’ (extract) 158