Revolutionary Politics (Edmund Burke, Percy Shelley, Mary wollstonecraft) Flashcards
2 key contexts
- French Revolution (1789-99)
- followed by Hatian revolution: led by enslaved people
- Peterloo Massacre (August 1819)
“Reflections on the Revolution in France”
The chaos of the French Revolution
All circumstances taken together, the French revolution is the most astonishing that has hitherto
happened in the world. The most wonderful things are brought about in many instances by means the
most absurd and ridiculous; in the most ridiculous modes; and apparently, by the most contemptible instruments. Every thing seems out of nature in this
strange chaos of levity and ferocity, and of all sorts of crimes jumbled together with all sorts of follies.
In viewing this monstrous tragi-comic scene, the most opposite passions necessarily succeed, and
sometimes mix with each other in the mind; alternate contempt and indignation; alternate
laughter and tears; alternate scorn and horror
analysis
- Burke writes about beauty and sublime but also in politics
- for political cause to succeed, needs to be unified in what you’re asking/hoping for
- in French Revolution: finds chaotic feelings where emotion is overtaking thought
- progressive politics: moving things forward
- conservative politics: conserving the things they are, reforming what already exists
- conservative politics as an aesthetic idea:
- beauty in the hierarchy of things
- in S&S, as long as those with power act in a way that’s sympathetic and sensible
- French revolution is ugly in an aesthetic view
- fears:
- don’t know how long it will go on => can descend into anarchy
- afraid same thing will happen in England
- attempt to explain and confine ideas
Inheritance and succession
You will observe, that from Magna Charta to the Declaration of Right, it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity; as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom without any reference whatever to any other more general or prior right. By this means our
constitution preserves an unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We have an inheritable crown;
an inheritable peerage; and an house of commons and a people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties, from a long line of ancestors.
analysis
- inherit what is gained before you
- born in US => inherit Bill of Rights
- entering in a system of rules that already existed
- gradual shift => reforming things from within
Inheritance and family crucial to the English nation
By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern
of nature, we receive, we hold, we transmit our government and our privileges, in the same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and
our lives. The institutions of policy, the goods of
fortune, the gifts of Providence, are handed down, to us and from us, in the same course and order.
Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of
the world, and with the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous
wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay, fall,
renovation, and progression.
Thus, by preserving the method of nature in the
conduct of the state, in what we improve we are
never wholly new; in what we retain we are never
wholly obsolete. By adhering in this manner and on
those principles to our forefathers, we are guided
not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the
spirit of philosophic analogy. In this choice of
inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the
image of a relation in blood; binding up the
constitution of our country with our dearest
domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into
the bosom of our family affections; keeping
inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of all
their combined and mutually reflected charities, our
state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.
analysis
- like how he described bird’s beak & woman’s neck
- beauty is symmetrical, something harmonious
- “unchangeable” = conservative
- family and politics
- idea of emotional attachment to British monarchy
- need to have reverence & respect to status quo
Gothic history
History, who keeps a durable record of all our acts,
and exercises her awful censure over the
proceedings of all sorts of sovereigns, will not
forget, either those events, or the aera of this
liberal refinement in the intercourse of mankind.
History will record, that on the morning of the 6th
of October 1789, the king and queen of France,
after a day of confusion, alarm, dismay, and
slaughter, lay down, under the pledged security of
public faith, to indulge nature in a few hours of
respite, and troubled melancholy repose.
From this sleep the queen was first startled by the
voice of the centinel at her door, who cried out to
her, to save herself by flight—that this was the last
proof of fidelity he could give—that they were upon
him, and he was dead. Instantly he was cut down. A
band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with his
blood, rushed into the chamber of the queen, and
pierced with an hundred strokes of bayonets and
poniards the bed, from whence this persecuted
woman had but just time to fly almost naked, and
through ways unknown to the murderers had
escaped to seek refuge at the feet of a king and
husband, not secure of his own life for a moment.
analysis
- politically charged moment where they’re heading to guillotine
- get us to sympathize monarchs
- portray them as moments of terror, violence than sophisticated political society
- anyone can rise => French revolution ignores that
- sees French revolution as the end of sensibility
- carnage shows society disregards sensibility
Chivalry, nobility, and sensibility
This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its
origin in the antient chivalry; and the principle,
though varied in its appearance by the varying state
of human affairs, subsisted and influenced through
a long succession of generations, even to the time
we live in. If it should ever be totally extinguished,
the loss I fear will be great. It is this which has given
its character to modern Europe. It is this which has
distinguished it under all its forms of government,
and distinguished it to its advantage, from the
states of Asia, and possibly from those states which
flourished in the most brilliant periods of the
antique world.
It was this, which, without confounding ranks, had
produced a noble equality, and handed it down
through all the gradations of social life. It was this
opinion which mitigated kings into companions, and
raised private men to be fellows with kings. Without
force, or opposition, it subdued the fierceness of
pride and power; it obliged sovereigns to submit to
the soft collar of social esteem, compelled stern
authority to submit to elegance, and gave a
domination vanquisher of laws, to be subdued by
manners
analysis
- checks and balances = sense and sensibility
- has conservative nostalgic viewpoint of sense and sensibility => starting to wane
- French revolution = social collapse
- Is Austen writing about something nostalgic? (S&S published 20 years after revolution)
Revolution as violence
Already there appears a poverty of
conception, a coarseness and vulgarity in
all the proceedings of the assembly and of
all their instructors. Their liberty is not
liberal. Their science is presumptuous
ignorance. Their humanity is savage and
brutal.
analysis
- “savage” “brutal” = aesthetic
- differentiated b/twn civilized people
- a certain humanity that’s not human enough => closer to savage and violence
- humanity = reasonable, rational, logical OR something violent, emotional
Peterloo Massacre
- August 1819
- 60K organize: hundreds are injured and 11 died
- “The Mask of Anarchy” originally published as “The Masque of Anarchy”
“The Mask of Anarchy” - Percy Shelley
The prophetic voice
As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea,
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy
- “voice” = wind, idea of corresponding breeze
- sound, voice as a prophecy to come
- a glimpse of what might be on the horizon
Allegory and the real people
I met Murder on the way–
He had a mask like Castlereagh–
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him:
All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.
Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Eldon, an ermined gown;
His big tears, for he wept well,
Turned to mill-stones as they fell.
And the little children, who
Round his feet played to and fro,
Thinking every tear a gem,
Had their brains knocked out by them
Clothed with the Bible, as with light,
And the shadows of the night,
Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy
On a crocodile rode by.
And many more Destructions played
In this ghastly masquerade,
All disguised, even to the eyes,
Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.
Last came Anarchy: he rode
On a white horse, splashed with blood;
He was pale even to the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.
And he wore a kingly crown;
And in his grasp a sceptre shone;
On his brow this mark I saw–
“I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!”
analysis
- embodiments of destruction, anarchy, death => four horsemen
- acknowledging certain people who are active and alive in England => embodiments of abstractions like anarchy
- thinking of hypocrisy & ridiculousness of humans having power that becomes authoritarian
- hiding what they actually are & what they actually want => “disguising”
- pro-porting to be acting for the citizen’s good but really for themselves
Wreaking havoc upon England
And a mighty troop around,
With their trampling shook the ground,
Waving each a bloody sword,
For the service of their Lord.
And with glorious triumph, they
Rode through England proud and gay,
Drunk as with intoxication
Of the wine of desolation.
O’er fields and towns, from sea to sea,
Passed the Pageant swift and free,
Tearing up, and trampling down;
Till they came to London town.
analysis
- apocalyptic wave of what comes next
- desolation, intoxication => tearing down ordinary citizens
- recasting massacre as British militia to quell ambition
- use poetry to recalibrate historical event
- violence is wreaked by militia
- realigns us with revolutionary politics
Poetry’s rallying cry
And Anarchy, the ghastly birth,
Lay dead earth upon the earth;
The Horse of Death tameless as wind
Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
To dust the murderers thronged behind.
A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
A sense awakening and yet tender
Was heard and felt – and at its close
These words of joy and fear arose
As if their own indignant Earth
Which gave the sons of England birth
Had felt their blood upon her brow,
And shuddering with a mother’s throw
Had turned every drop of blood
By which her face had been bedewed
To an accent unwithstood,–
As if her heart had cried aloud:
“Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;
“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.
“What is Freedom? – ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well –
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.
analysis
- disproportionately more people being exploited
- trying to get us to rise => odds are in their favor
- “They are few” => using poetry to wake up the masses
- how to achieve freedom when you are many and they are few
- poetry as an archive for understanding history
- archiving the 11 people who perished
Pacifism
“On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.
“And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,–
What they like, that let them do.
“With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.
“Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.
