10 ‘The insane enthusiasm of the time’
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Edward Vallance
Abstract
Edward Vallance studies the representation of three English regicides, John Dixwell, William Goffe and Edward Whalley, in early nineteenth-century British fiction via the treatment made of them in late eighteenth-century histories and biographies. Vallance raises the question of what provoked this flurry of literary interest in the three regicides and suggests that the main explanation is to be found in the fit between the story of Dixwell, Goffe and Whalley and the Romantic sensibility. Their story seemed to combine elements traditionally associated with Romantic aesthetic. Vallance then explores the impact of historians’ accounts of the three regicides on the Romantic imagination. Sympathizing with the fate of the radicals did not entail endorsing either their political or religious views, or the act of regicide itself. But by presenting the regicide as an act of madness, writers of fiction ultimately diminished its political threat.
Abstract
Edward Vallance studies the representation of three English regicides, John Dixwell, William Goffe and Edward Whalley, in early nineteenth-century British fiction via the treatment made of them in late eighteenth-century histories and biographies. Vallance raises the question of what provoked this flurry of literary interest in the three regicides and suggests that the main explanation is to be found in the fit between the story of Dixwell, Goffe and Whalley and the Romantic sensibility. Their story seemed to combine elements traditionally associated with Romantic aesthetic. Vallance then explores the impact of historians’ accounts of the three regicides on the Romantic imagination. Sympathizing with the fate of the radicals did not entail endorsing either their political or religious views, or the act of regicide itself. But by presenting the regicide as an act of madness, writers of fiction ultimately diminished its political threat.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
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PART I Radical language and themes
- 1 Community of goods 41
- 2 Thomas Paine’s democratic linguistic radicalism 60
- 3 English radicalism in the 1650s 80
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PART II Radical exchanges and networks
- 4 Secular millenarianism as a radical utopian project in Shaftesbury 103
- 5 The diffusion and impact of Baron d’Holbach’s texts in Great Britain, 1765–1800 125
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PART III Radical media and practices
- 6 The parliamentary context of political radicalism in the English revolution 151
- 7 Toasting and the diffusion of radical ideas, 1780–1832 170
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PART IV Radical fiction and representation
- 8 Contesting the press-oppressors of the age 193
- 9 Ways of thinking, ways of writing 211
- 10 ‘The insane enthusiasm of the time’ 229
- Select bibliography 251
- Index 270
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
PART I Radical language and themes
- 1 Community of goods 41
- 2 Thomas Paine’s democratic linguistic radicalism 60
- 3 English radicalism in the 1650s 80
-
PART II Radical exchanges and networks
- 4 Secular millenarianism as a radical utopian project in Shaftesbury 103
- 5 The diffusion and impact of Baron d’Holbach’s texts in Great Britain, 1765–1800 125
-
PART III Radical media and practices
- 6 The parliamentary context of political radicalism in the English revolution 151
- 7 Toasting and the diffusion of radical ideas, 1780–1832 170
-
PART IV Radical fiction and representation
- 8 Contesting the press-oppressors of the age 193
- 9 Ways of thinking, ways of writing 211
- 10 ‘The insane enthusiasm of the time’ 229
- Select bibliography 251
- Index 270
