From Indifference to Engagement: Arthurian Romance, National Identity and "a world of fine fabling" in the Age of Reason

Abstract

Whilst it is recognised that the mid-eighteenth century saw a significant revival in the appreciation of ‘Gothic’ poetry and romance, the ways in which the work of early eighteenth-century antiquarians and scholars bought about such a change has somewhat overlooked, and the ‘Age of Reason’ is still largely perceived as an era of Neo-Classical hegemony.

This paper will consider how early Hanoverian appropriations of King Arthur and Merlin by Queen Caroline, Jane Brereton, John Dixon, and others combined with Whiggish political sentiment and changing conceptions of the ‘native past’ to create unique and distinctive eighteenth-century appropriations of the medieval past that fostered an environment in which antiquarian interest and patriotic sensibilities could be combined.

By considering the ways in which appropriations of Arthur in the early eighteenth century created an environment that was more responsive to putative medieval ideals and beliefs, I will argue that the early eighteenth century, far from being the nadir of Arthurian romance, provided a historiography that was later developed by mid-century antiquarians such as Thomas Percy and Thomas Warton. This paper will also content that the period demonstrated the critical necessity of historical standards other than those of the Neo-Classical and engendered patriotic cultural memories and passions that laid the foundations for a wider re-emergence of ‘Gothic’ romance.

Keywords: antiquarianism, national identity, romance literature, medievalism, cultural memory