UNIT 36 THE VICTORIAN AGE : SELECTED STUDIES

Structure

Objectives Introduction Writing a short essay 36.2.1 'Viclorirui Complacency' Answeiing a Critical Question 36.3.1 "The great Victorians . . . variety of inetllod. Discuss Attempting a teml-paper 36.4.1 'The Religious Temper of the Viclori:~~ Age' Let's Sum Up Ans~vers to Exercises Suggested Rcading

After reading this unit you should be able to:

Q recognise the major,and minor poets of the Victorian Age; '

e examine the cultural background of the Victorian Age: Q answer critical q~iestions on your examination paper in a bccter way; and

write essays or term papers on this course.

36.1 INTRODUCTION - -

I11 t l~c first units of previoi~s blocks we llavc generally discussed the background of the respective periods in detail. However, wc did not tcll jrou l~o\v to answer csamination questions or write essays foryourcounsellors. Some of ~ O L I might need that kind of help. In this ~mi t our focus would be on yrlza. style of writing for your csamincrs.

E

Most of yo11 sliould ,be studying this block in all earnestness in August/Septembet~ wit11 the final csanl just three or four nlo~~ths away. So we have fashioned this unit to

L cater to that need of yours. We are going to present a model s11oi.t essay (or a notc) and an als\vcr of a critical question in this unit. Besides we are also goir~g to providc !IOU with a long essay or term-paper as we espect ~lou to write some. -~eedless to sn!. that in this unit we arc going to preparc you for the final exam with rcspcct to thc Victoria11 Age in British poetry but you will be able to apply Lhe skills jrou acquire here and the insights you gain while reading this unit to the subjects of othcr blocl<s and units of this course.

- -"

36.2 WRITING A SHORT ESSAY

If jfou are asked to write a short essay or a note on oilc of the topics out of thrcc or four given on your question paper then how would you do it '7 You should preparc a number of topics on a given period and try to ilnderstand the focus of such a topic and ~vays and means of developing the central point. You inay havc to subslaiitiate !.our

Kctorinn Poetry point with the help of your arguments, details of events. and esanlples from thc poetry of that period. Below is a short essay on 'Victorian Complacency'. Please go tlirougb it.

36.2.1 Victorian Complacency

The Victorians in general and the mid-Victorians in pal-ticular have been criticised for complacency, self-satisfaction, squeamishness, and snobbery. If thesc were true. there their were good reasons for them. Whcn the great exhibition opened in tlic !.car 185 1, the whole nation suddenly realized that a unique thing had happened. 0b.jccts of art and curiosity fioin the entire world wcre assembled below one roof and London R had become the center of the world, if not the hub of mankind. Tennyson. the poet laureate's lines in 'Locksley Hal ' reflected thc mood of the nation very well:

For I dipt into the future, far as human cye could see Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be. Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of nlagic sails Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down hitdl cost13 bales: Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd In the Parliament of man the Federation of the world.

The Victorians saw that they could call the 'parliament' of the world and prcs~de over the federation of nations.

In architecture itself the C ~ s t a l Palace was a novelty to he built in the fourteentll ycar of Queen Victoria's reign. 'Thackeray, who had expressed his opinion in favour of Republicanism and against Chartism, wrote an ode on the Palace:

As though t'were by a wizard's rod A blazing art of palace bright Raised from the grass to meet the sun.

In many things, the Victoriai~s saw that their dreams and their achicven~e~lts werc beyond the wildest dreams of mankind.

The industrial.revo1ution had brought great wealth for all sectioils of tlic socict~ . Tlic Railways had transformed the country. Tennyson, seated in the first train from Liverpool to Birminghaln wrote:

Let the great world spin for ever, Down the singing grooves of change.

The railways had in fact brought about a great chanse. New houses tnadc of rcd bricks, cement, lime and welsh slate had sprung up; heavy and ugly in look, but nevertheless a proof of England's econon~ic progress.

Victorian complacency comes to the surface when we witness their econo~nic progress not being matched by their sense of beauty and their scientific discoveries not being conlmensurate w'ith their ability to doubt their own ardours. The old light furniture of the eighteenth century, that was undoubtedly a proof of grace, good tastc and social charm was upholstered and puffed up beyond all proportions. Painting and sculpture had devoted its energy a making likenesses but the invention of thc photographic camera, with which they could not compete in portraying likcncsses Jctl them for a time without direction. It was with the experiments of Whistler in thc United States that the Victorians set out to paint Impressionistic paintin&s. 111 nlusic of course the great age found its peers which culminated in the 1870's with the Sullivan operas that made a dig against the peers and ths poor alikc.

The Victorian age was peculiarly religious. Perhaps the age can be uilderstood better by an understanding of their religion and their social and political reforms. Evangelicalisn~ permeated Anglicanism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Catl~olicism, and all alike. The age produced Gladstone, General Gordon and Livingstone all pioneers in different fields but all held by their solid foundations in Christianity. Trevelyan in the last chapter of his English Social History says that the Victoriails were truly Greek or Athenian in their pride and coilfidence in this period of their history and the following lines perhaps best express their self-confidence which in

'

essence is a translation from the Greek writers:

I

i Lct knowledge grow from more to more a 9 But illore of reverence in us dwell

?I That mind and soul according well May inake one music as before

, -\ But vaster.

The Victorians had unbounded faith in their learning and pride in their .

accomplishments. It was not surprisiilg that they believed in a living Deity. The poor (' children in their Sunday Schools read:

A is for angel who praises the lord B stands for Bible that teaches god's word C stands for Ch~lrch to which righteous inen go D stands for devil the cause of d l woe.

These lines leave an impressioil of peculiar conlplacency anlong the poor.

Very much the same irnprcssion can be had from the books of Sanluel Smiles who was the best seller of the year 1859. It was in that year that SelfiHelp was published and 120,000 copies were sold within a few weeks. In the next thirty years about 240,000 copies were sold. His other titles on similar theines were, Cl7aructer; Thrzji and Dzily. The Victorians loved to hear long sernloils in the church and preachings from their authors and the priests and writers of the time gave thein instnlctions in profi~se q~~antities,

This nlood of self-satisfaction was not challenged at first even by the publication of The Origin of the Species of Charles Darwin; published in the same year as Self-Help. Besides socialism Science put forward before the Victorians, a new field of cooperation ~vith Europe. Tennyson in In Memoriam (1 85 1) surveyed the entire history of mankind from the time of creation to the fifty years of progress in the nineteenth century that was behind him. Asserting his faith in the scientists Tennyson wrote :

For they to eye an eye shall look On knowledge; under whose command is earth And earth's; dnd in their hand Is nature like an open book.,

But this joy was punctured soon, by the revolutio~lary ideas on the descent of the human specics on the one hand and the Higher Criticisln of the Bible on the other, The new Lffe ofJesus presented by David Friedrich Strauss in Germany brougllt about a spiritual bewilderment in Victorian England. Tennyson gave voice to this spiritual uncertainty in his pdetry :

, *I

I I falter where I fimlly trod And falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world altar stairs And slope through darkness upto god.

The Victorian Age: I

1 Selected Stutlieb 1

,

I sirctcll lamc hands of faith and grope And garher dust and cliat'fn~ld call To ishat I feel 1s lord of all And faint1 y trust tlic larger llopc

The 11opc now 111 God was wcakcr than bcforc. Tllc coi~fidencc in thc l31blc that tcacl~es God's word was gone.

But it was not in Religioil alone tliat the coiifidence was sllaken. Carlylc slio\\.ccl ]lo\\ the Victorians had bcconie 'Spinning Araclules' and 'building beavers' \\.lie nladc money but at tlic cost of thc selise of vvonder. I-Ie suspcctcd the liberal tcnclc~~cics of his geiicration and like a Hebrew propliet \\:amcd that tlicir regeneration did not I I C in parliame~ltnry reforms but in scarclling out tlieir true god.

hlatthtw ,4rnold. the son of the great head master of Rugb!, sa~v clearl! 111 \\ li~cli sclise his own agc had lost in thc barsain ~vith tlie last. He poliitcd ~t out 111 tlic follo~ving lines of 'Thc Scliolar G>psyq .

0 boll1 in days when wits were frcsll and clear. And life ran gaily on the sparl<liiig Tha~lies: Before this strange diseasc of modcrii lifc.

With its slck 11ur1y its d~vidcd aims, Its head o'crtaxed, its palsied hearts, was rifc -

The co~iiplacenc~ of the previous years came to ail end in 1870 ~vheii in a rosou~lcling victory of Prussia against Francc in the Battle of Sedan tlie emperor Napolct.iil I l l himself beca,rile a prisoner of Bismarck. Now onwards E~igland could .not dare attempt a, victory like that at Criii~ca ( I 854.56) in Europe. In Africa its position \\.as challenged by Germany and the Victorian complacent! was at an end. Bcsidcs Gcrmany, Italy also cmerged from t l ~ e victory at Sedan as a uilificd po\\.cl..firl nation which could cliallengc Francc and England in North Africa. Across thc Atlalitic. thc railways in the Uiiited States and the repealed Corn-law (in 1846) n~adc it ens!. to iIush English ~iiarlccts with cl1ea.p foreign corn and tlireaten English a~riculturc. T11c Industrial Revolution in othcr lands made tlie Victorians review thcir stand o n fruc trade end de~naild fair trade instead. Thc protcct~ve tariff ~\ral.ls in C;cl.n~an! ga\ c. a directio~l to other cou~l~ries on tlie.continei~t and thc scramble for an cmpirc beca~nc :a iintional imperative. The colonics wcre no longer considered mill stows rouncl rhc ucck of the mother countr)i. Thus the Britishers reviewed thc progrcss they had n~aclc in the prcvious twenty years and disapproved of most of it. The Victorians had been somcwhat blilld and comnplaceut but so011 wokc up to reality.

Now that you have read tlic cssay you can iiilagine and then pian 11 hat ! OLI i~ould bc required to do to write some essay of the above typc 011 the Victorian age. or an! other agc for lliat mattcr. You need not panic because such prcparntioils arc often donc on one or t\vo pciiods and good esamincrs makc surc that the!. clo not Ica\ o O L I ~

ally one pcriod on the qucstion papcr. You would bc ab1c to cscl.cisc !bur cho~cc What is- l~owever, required in this case is that you must rcmcmber n feu pnssngch from the poetry of the period you are prcpariiig for !,our final. 1.c. Lclnl cnd csamination.

Now do the esercise givc~i below.

Self-Check Exercisc-f

I . Find out about the Crimean War. What \tfas i t ? Writc in no niore tl~an 15 n ords

-

3. Who was Napolean III?

3. In wliicli year were The Origin of the Species and S e w H ~ l p published and 15.110 wrote tlicm ?

4. Did you discover any difference in the style of a11 essay and a lcsso11'? What arc those?

36.3 ANSWERING A CRITICAL OUESTION

The difference between an essq* and a critical question is in their different focii. Tllc essay lias a ~vell-defined focus of attention vvliicli is dccided up011 by the author (i.c. yo11). In a critical question a poipt of view is provided by thc examiner. Such questions have a few twists and curves it1 them and you ~liust understaild all of thcm and not overlook any in your answer. It is not necessar). cither to agrec or disagrce

'

\\,it11 the point of view of tlle critic. 'However, you nlust substa~ltirxtte your point of vie\\. wit11 suitable examples (i.e. passages from poetry) and short and appropriate quotations. Inapt quotations will danlage thc quality of your answer. Bclow you will read one such answer, Go through it and then ask jroursclf how tlie pretended csaminee has ans~vcred thc critical question and how you would plan your ov\:n answers. Don't ovcrlook thc contcilt eithcr. Ibther. your first reading should bc i'or the cotltent and not the style.

36.3.1 'The great Victo~*iao poets lacked the fire and passion wllricll we find in tE:e poets o f the Romantic Revival, but they exeelted them in breadth of atltlook and variety of method.' Discuss.

Thc great Victorislll poets arc u~~disputedly Tennyson, Browning and Mnttl~cw Anlczltl t -

and tach in 11 i s ow11 \vajr was influenced by the 111asters of thc Rollla~ltic ngc. Earl11 Tcnnyson laas very powerfully uildcr the influence of Kcats and iia certain rcspecls even exccllcd him. Tl~c s~:nsuousnzss tllslt we find in 'moss'd cotlagc tree' of 'Ode to

C

Autunin' beconlcs in 'Ma!*iona7 - 'Thc cluster'd marisli-nzosses crept'. 'The Loti~s- Eatcrs', 'Recollections of the Arabian Nights' and 'Oenone' show Tcnnyson's proljeness for the suave ~ncllifluouslless of Spenser through Kcats. Kcats llnd apprcc~ated the 'Spenseria~ vowels tliat clopc with easc' in his !~outl~ftil 'Epistlc to Chas1c:s Cou'den Clarkc'. Tennyson collstantly also kept working ovcr Ihc sonorousness OF the E~lglisli language a d succceded in exploring thc musical qualit! of his native speech. Keats wrote in a letter to John Hsunilton Rel~nolds aRcr he - abandoned Hyperion - 'English must bc kept'. Wllilc we find tllc inl~uchcc of Mcals on early Tennjson we do not fail to discern the latter's untiring csperinicnt ~vith sound, thc result of ivl~ich was tlie memorable lincs of 'Tlne Brook' \&l~ich as i t wcrc. for its novelt>-: became a type in itself:

I cAme from haunts of coot and 11cn1, 1 make a sudden sally And sparkle out arnotig the fern,

To bicker do~vii tlie valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down, Or slip between the ridges, By twenty thorps a little town,

And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

Lord Tennyson '

. Any one who sets out to cite lines from this poem can hhardly check the temptation of going on. What, however, Tennyson gained in technique - the lines cited convc\. little to our intellect other than the thoughtless rush of the brook on a craggy path - hc lost in the quality of sensuousness that Keats had, While we read lines from

, 'Autunm' we experience the 'ripeness to the core' or taste the grapes b~~rstir~g'a~ninst

our palate or look wit11 attractioil to the 'unravished bride of quietness' or the l~eaving heart of the'beloved's breast in the 'Bright Star' sonnet. To say this is not to ineail that Tenn~lsou provides us ~vith no compensation. Hardly did any Ro~llantic poet. not eben Shelle!. in 'Epipsychedion', atteinpt a variation on the theme of love as we find in 'Enoch Arden'. Words\vorth's 'Michael', if compared with 'Etloch Arden' froin the point of narrative suffers on at least two gro~mds. T11e fonner narrative is less sustai~led and the pl~ilosophy or belicf of Wordsworth is too obtnlsive. As an estension of the range of poet~y Tennyson's achieve~nent in writing on tliemes like IGng Arthur or the Arabian Nigl~ts or the 'Cl~arge of the Light Brigade' is really admirable.

If Talnyson's first poeins were IZeatsian, Browning wrotc his early poeins under the spell of Sl~elle!!. Pn~ctce ls~~.~ and Pnz~lzne are at least two nlost inlportailt poenls of t111s pl~ase Soo11, Bro\\.ning was to become more confident and tl~c liberal ideal. t l~c sc~cntific chnnges and a desirc to explore the English language to its depths: not for the resollance nild il~ellifluousiless as Tennyso~l desired but for a nnkedness of specch of a highly coinpelliilg quality, becanic his all consuining pursuit. Poeins ofMen nnci Women are all representative of this later phase. WhiIe one rcads the accouilt of his wife froin thc Duke of Ferrara, whose picture he got painted by sonlc priest nailled Pandolf in 'My Last Duchess' one is teased into endless thought. Did the Duke get the Duchess murdered ? Was ~t the infidelity of the Duchess that ii~vitcd her elid ? Or. was it thc pr~de -

She thanlced nlen - good! but thanked Son~chobv - I know not honr - as if she ranked, My gift of a ninc-hundred year-old namc With anybody's gift.

- that brought about her end'? T11ese are just sonic of the questions. Inquiries multiply as the pocln unrolls, clothed in a language adequate to the subjcct -

This gre\v;*I gave comi!lands: Then all siniles stopped together. Thcre she stands As if alive.

Even when read in their contests there wilI perhaps be little,in Roillantic poetry that call be read \\:it11 equal thrill than the ha~~ntiiig lines of the Duke :

Oh sir, she si~lilcd, no doubt, Wlieue'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the sanie s~nilc I?

1:

And it was this quality - Immility and culture perhaps - tllat was misi~lterpretted by the Duke with fatal consequcilces for the Duchess. In breadth of vision, in its wider sympathies, in its greater a\xlarcness of the social changes, Browning's poetry far outstrips the poetry of the Ron~ailtic poets. In its manipulation of the dramatic ~i~onologue, Bro\viiing bas hardl?. anvonc to iilatch him. Wordsworth was involved with the earl?. stages of the Freilch Revolution but hardly ally poem stands out froill tllc corpus of his poetry as does 'Home thougl~ts from Abroad' or 'Home thoughts froin Sea'. The Ring and the Book presents one murder from the point of view of nine characters who differ widely among thcmselves.

Compared with Tennysoil Mattllew Arnold presents a mn~~ch sober picture. He, wit11 his sympathy for the classical masters could not love the morc fiery ones arnong thc Romantics. His ideal was Wordsworth :

The Victorian Age: Selected Stutlies

1'11ne inay restore us in his course Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force But where rrrill Europe's latter hour -4gaili find Wordsworth's healiiig power

For Matthew Arnold, with Wordsworth's dezth the 'last poetic voice became c1umb'-

Matthew Arnold

Goethe in Weimar sleeps. and <Cirecce 16 Long since. saw Byron's struggld ccasc.

But onc such death relnai~zcd 10 come:

-- - - - - --

The last poetic voice is dumb - We stand today by Wordsworth's tomb.

The Victoriim Agc: Selected Studics

-This influence was reflected in the serenity of Matthew Arnold's pocms - 'Quiet Work'. 'A Question: To Fausta' and 'S~vitzerland'. But it is much more than \vllat Words~vorth had heard in his 'Intimations of Immortality'- from the winds -

The cataracts blow their tninlpets from the steep; No more shall grief of nline the seasoil wrong; I Ilear the echoes tl~rougll the mountains throng, 'Jle winds coille to ille from the fields of sleep.

Somewhat liltc Sopl~oclcs on the shores of the Aegean. the disillusioned Arnold hears 110 soothing loice while he stands on Dover Bench -

Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought

. Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought Hearing it by this distant nortllern sea.

Thc thought that the souild of waves evoltes is far illore realistic than the winds spr~red in Wordsworth or Keats. T11c latter wrote in The Fbll of'H~pcrion: A L)recrm:

'Or thou might'st better listen to the wind, Whose larlguage is to thee a barren noise, 'Tl~ougll it blows lcgend laden thro' the trees.

Matthew Arnold only heal-d thc 'still sad iilusic of humanity' as Words~vortb migllt have said.

The in tens it^, born out of thc association of the Romantic poets with nature and the individual passions of iilen is not to be found in the poetry of the 'Victorian poets but Tennyson's wider response to a variety of emotions attached with love, war, and inedievalisn1: Bro\vning7s treatment of the themes of patriotism. liberation and the complex psychology of men; and Arnold's criticism of life wit11 its portrait of the Victorian 'Sick hurry and divided aims' or his vision of his generatioil as hanging bet\veen "onc dead and the otl~er po~verless to be born" is not to be found in the poetry of thc Roinailtic Revival. What is also of the highest import is the fact that cxch of tllc Victorian pocts discovered a suitablc medium for himself - Tenn~~son's

. .,xquisitc discovery of the music of the Et~glish language: Brourni~ig's discovery of the draillatic ~l~onologuc and Arnold's revesal to the classical model, thus inflicting a sinlplicity over his medium arc only some of the elements of the expandi~ig range of themes and techniques used by the Victorian poets.

Self-check Exercise-I1

I Who were the inajor Victorian poets a l d who were they illost influenced by ?

," -

2. Namc at least five major minor and two minor Victorian poets.

Yictorian Poetry

-

36.5 ATTEMPTING A TERM-PAPER

In a note (or short essay) on a given topic on a1 eesanii~ation question paper !.ou don't have to give the exact reference such as the page nuinber of your source from which you have cited a passage in prose or verse. We don't do tlzat while tcacl~ing either in a face-to-face situation or tlzrougl~ the distance mode. Ho\vever, j .0~1 11aiw~to cite your sources on a tenn-paper or long essay such as the one on 'Tlw Religio~~s Temper ofthe Victorian Age' that you are now going to read. The st!,le of presentation in the essays that you read earlier and in the one you are now going to read remains more or less the same. However, a terkpaper is written with acciss to books and journals whle you are writing them so you don't have to ren~ember the passages you quote. Tlze danger, however, is to be unable to resist the temptation of copying in exTension and fail to overcome thc attraction of the'passages of other people which will neither advance your argument nor ~rovide another dimc~~sion to your thesis. In sl~ort, they will create a hodge-podge..

On this course we have favoured the idea of writing three term papers becausc n c wish to encourage you to do some research and begin to learn to present your material in 3 schdlarly fashion. This is a inodest beginning but we believe that ~t would be useful for you in fiihire. NOW read the essay attentivel!.

36.4.1 The Religious Temper of the Victorian Age

If we just scan the figures of censuses; the nuinber of cl~urches and chapels that \\.ere built; the money tliat was spent on l~oly activities; ,the bills for the rcform of church that were passed by the parliament; the propigai~da that was cairied out b!. th; various denomination; the tracts loaded with controversies, that canle frequentl!, before the reading public; we will have no doubt left about the estraordinary activity that the ,English people indulged in on the issue of religion in the Victorian period: 111

matters of morality prince Albert was a stickler. and it was he, -\v11o insisted on spotless character, the queen not caring a straw about it". thc Dulce of Wellington told the diarist Charles Greville. Tlze prince was .estremely strait-laced" and ro!,al dinner parties became a conspicuous inodel of decorum. Sunda~, observance" and Bible reading were works in which the whole nation took part. The prosperity of the English merchant was due to his honesty, his shrinking froill ostentztion and his thrifty ways. What he did not spend on pleasure be saved for illvestment in worlts both temporal and divine.

The most iinportant aspect of the religiou3: outlook of thc Victorians \\.as thcir emphasis on conduct. A seilte~lce in the life of Cardinal Maiu~ing (1 808- 1892) b!. Leslie Shane is one that could be repeated mutc~ti,~ ;?7r1tnnrlr',s. of tlic major~t\ of tlic fanous Victoriais :

At Totteridge he learnt of the Book of Jlidgntent, and endeavoured to conccal himself from God under a writing table4.

To a Victorian tradcr, Last Judgment appeared as real as the week's balancc shcct. hell and heaven as certain as tomorrow's sunrise and evangelicalism madc othenvorldliness an everyday proposition, as real as 16s business cnterprtsc.

Let all thy converse be sincere, Thy conscience as the noonday clear; For God's all seeing eye surveys Thy secret thoughts, thy works and ways.'

could have been said by most Victorians.

Evangelicalism, however, was one creed that permeated all denominations. It enlphasized the centrality and authority of the Bible. It laid stress on the faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. It revived the simplicity of the Gospel. The evangelists 111 the nineteenth century were descendants (in a way) of the Methodists in the eighteenth century, although the former was a movement inside the Church and the latter ramified h t o various slllall sects. It was the zealo~~s attitude of the Methodists that all denomii~ations adopted. Antholly Ashley Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shafiesbury ( 180 1-85) inade his contribution to factory reforms, William Wilberforce (1759-1833) to the abolition of slavery and Hannah More (1745-1833) to education. On certain issues they could enlist the support of the entire nation and in this fashion wenta long way in ending cynicism. Very few Victorians could regard the world's wickedness with equanimity. Lord Melbourne and Robert Surtees (1779-1 834) appear rather as survivals from an earlier generation and Disraeli as a brilliant eccentric. This enthusiasm can be seen in certain reforms of Parliament, liberalism of Gladstone and the brilliant foreign policy of Palmerstoil and after him of Disraeli. The above mentioned facts, of course, had other influencing factors, like the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the American and the French revolutions, the European revolution of 1830 and 1848, progress of science in Europe in general and England in particular and Britain's comparative peace and supremacy in Europe. Evangelicalism itself might have been born out of these factors but it contributed aot a little to embolden the society. Perhaps its best specimen is the Claphanl Sect6. The distant influence of the sect can be seen on T.B. Macaulay, Fitzjames and Leslie Stephen. Robert 'and Samuel Wilberforce, and in a later generation, E.M Forster, and Virginia Woolf who were powerfill people in handing down excelle~lce as their inheritance, forcc as their prize, Dr. Jolulson, who died ia 1784, could be takcn as a devout eighteenth-cent intellectual at his best. B~it even he believed with sad sincerity that schemes of improvement are gcnerally absurd. Claphanl in the nineteentll century, though well aware that the world is corrupt, believed that it could be changed.

Thc Victorian Agc: Selectetl Studies

The accent on the Bible as a source of guidance in life, underlitled the in~porta~~ce of authority and an object of worship for all Englishillen. Soi~lchow the Bible could 11ot rcinain as sacrosanct as it was in the llands of the brothers John and Charles Wesley and Gcorge Whitfield in the eightcenth century. The superstructure of a code of coilduct built on the basis of a particular book of the Biblc could clash wit11 a sinlilar one built on t l~e basis of another. For the common man the authority of the Bible appeared confused. Darwin's theories on the origin of species, nat~~ral selection and descent of man on t l ~ c onc hand and the Tubingen school of Higher Criticism on the other, shook the faith ofthe more enlightened public in the Bible as the authentic word of God. Darwin's theory was reduced to the simple controversy over man's dcscent from monkeys. The researches of David Friedrich ~trauss(1808-74) in Germany and Enlest Emert Renail (1823-72) in France shook the foundations on .which the reverence of the people for the Bible stood. The arcl~aeologists a ld althropologists produced evidence from their study of earth formation which revealed the inadequacy of the Biblical story of creation. Renan's extensive researches in Palestine conviilced him that the Bible was no revealed word o i God but the result of an evolutionary growth from primitive mythology and that Christ was an imnhappy deluded man. Strauss's Dn,s Lebnn Jeszi (1 863) was translated into English by George Eliot and of the three words - 'God, Immortality, Duty - She pronounced with terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the.fir,rt, how r~~ibelievable the second and yet how peremptory and absolute the thirdv7. DnQ, as

Victoricm Poetry the Victorians conceived it was a strain in their religious makeup which remaineci even when their faith in Christiaility vanished.

Thc two commandnlents of Christian morality - 'Love tl~y creator' and 'Love th! brothers' - remained important in some ways till the end. The father in the family was a terrible force to reckon with. This we observe in the biographies of the age. It was difficult to disagree with one's father. The second cornma~dinent took a unique expression in the activities of many nonconforn~ist sects. The anti-slavery movement. the poor law, the factory and cllurch rerorms for the promotion of education, philosophic radicalism, Christian Socialism, Guild and Fabiu? Socialisin were all expressions in various forms of the comrnnndmcl~t that exhorts a good Christian to love one's neighbour as oneself.

Late in the century, when disillusionment and pessimisln were fast descending on the once complacent Victorian people and when the elite took refuge in the cult of beauty, or imperialism, ?he moulds remained the same. Their new ideals continued to reinvigorate them and give tbein a sense of purpose with a force that the Bible had done before. The desire to obey the dictates of authority and a streak of sclflcssness was present in the philosophy of the imperialists. When Rndyard Kipling (1 865- 1936) exhorted the Americans in 1899 to take up the 'White man's burden* in thc Philippines, it was not for the benefit of thc Filipinos bilt to test their o w n~al-il~ood.

Take up the White man's burden - Send forth the best yc breed -

Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need:

To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk an wild -

Your new-caugl~t, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.s

He was convinced about the future of the people who were under thc Br~tisll that they would degenerate into chaos just as the British themselves did, after the witJldra~a1 of the Romans, centuries ago. In the 'Recessional' (1897) hc retllernbars tllc days of splendour of the Roman Empire witlz a haunting sense of a part~llel:

Far-called, our navies melt away; . On dune and headland siilks the firc:

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh a d Tyre !"

Rudyard Kipling, William Henlcy (1849-1903) and Sir Henry Nc~vbolt ( 1 H62- 193 8) felt an adoration for some authority. Occasionally it was the queen's but very often it

o"

was a vague ideal of the empire, the interests of the ruled. the Gods of the hosts. the need of conformity to principles even if the rules of the game became an crid in themselves. The 'RecessionaI' is the l~aunting cry of an evangelical sensibility that has lost faith in God but not in the things that wcre tau.ght by his faith.

If, drunk with sigh; of power, we loose Wild tongues that havc not thee in awe,

Such boasting as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the Law - .

Lord God of Hosts, be with US yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget! lo

Kipling was a typical evangelist bonl late. And Kipling's generat~on was a product of the early eva11gelica.l Zeitgeist. There is a thread coimectin~ thc religious activists like Thorns Carlyle (1795-1881) and Charles Kingsley (1829-1936) who did I m e somc

20 faith in some type of God on the one hand wd these stoic activities like Ilenley.

Housman ( 1 859-1 936), Newbolt and Kipling who accepted all tlle paraphernalia of the clder generatioil without, of coursc, the presiding deity 011 the other.

In this respect even the Aesthetes were not different from the others of their timc. T h c ~ . insistcd that technical proccsses were iuore importa~lt than the purpose or content. This is not different froin Kipling's suggestion in 'The Ga1lej.-Slave':

It \\Ins merry in thc galley, for we revelled now and the11 - If thcy wore us down like cattle, faith we fougllt and loved like men! As wve snatchcd her througll the water, so wve snatched a minutc's bliss. And the inutter of thc dying never spoilcd the lover's kiss.

A little latcr IIC says;

Bear witness, oilcc m~ comrades. what a hard hit gang merc wve - The servants of the sweep-head. but the illasters of thc sea I By thc hands tllat drove Ilcr fonvard as she plinged and yawed and sheered. Womau, Man, or God or Dcvil, was tbcre anytl~ins we fearcd '?"

Soiucwhat alike thc gall(;! slaves and soldiers were the men and women i l l tlle plays of Oscar Wilde ( 1854- 1900). Thc \writ con~bats of Wilde's plays appear as an cffort to rcducc all lifc to style where as those in t l~e Restoration comedies they ca1 be seen to bz in reaction to the over religious, even hypocritical ati11osphere of the earlier generation. 'The love of the late Victorians for rules and of the Edwardims as \lilell, for that inatter. was not different in this respect - in the world of attitudes - and was a close cousin of Vict:oricu~ public school civil servicc morality of holding on. The outlook that produced Sir Thomas Arnold a ~ ~ d his sh~dents at Rugby was a part of thc spirit of the age. 111 facc of disgust and disillusioniuent, even a.pparent fi~tility. a IYhite Man had to obej. the commai~ds of the Icader, if the empire was to remaill a reality. 'Rugby Chapcl' is a classic poem oftlle age that presents this outlook at its bcst:

The Victoriat~ Age: Selectetl Studies

Eyes rekindling, and prayers. Fo l .10~ your steps as ye go. Ye fill up thc gaps in our files Strengthen the wa1;ering line, Stablish, continue our march, On, to thc bouild of the waste, On, to the city of God."

The evangelical note of endurance, endeavour, and struggle can be seen coming to fniition in thc late Victorian age anloilg thc itt~perialists and aesthetes. The sentinlc~lt, as it came to sced, is perfectly expressed ill Henley's followving lines from 'England, My Englai~d' :

What have I done for you, Eng!;u~d, my England'?

What is there 1 would not do, Englai~d: illy Owni?'"

Evangclicism. could. of course, not be espected to be the only forcc, no inattcr how popular it uns. The tcndcncics that produccd thc Graveyard scl-1001 of poets, thc C;otllic novel and revivcd tllc incdieval motif in poetry and architecture, ii~lpcllcd religious minds to look for thc roots in religion. In an earlier generation. tkc Methodist fanfare and their drakving thc lots from the Bible could be sccil as a ~ ~ o d u c t of t l~c sailic tendency. In 1833 John Keblc, clcric, poet, mid theologian inaugurated the Oxford Movement by a sermon on 'National Apostsy '. Along ~vith Ilim Kcrc Edwyard Bouvcrie Pusscy (1800-82), Williail~ Gcorge Ward (1803-36). I-r~clcriclc Oakkclcy (1 802-80) alid Isaac Williams (1 802 -- 65) and of course Nc \~man

! .'ictorirm Poetry and Manning. The Tractarian movcmeiit as it was also called - it took its name from the famous Trcrcts.for the Times published in Osford - was a High Church movclncnt inside the cl~urcl~ of England that enlphasizcd tlie iillportance of clcrical ofticc. vestment and ritual. After the publication of tract 90. \\thich tricd to prove that the 30 articIes of the Church of Eilglaiid had nothing contradictory to thc Rolliali Catl~ol~c Church, many left the Anglican faith and joined Ronle. Foremost among them ucrc Newman and Manning. Newman wrote his spiritual biography Apologrrl Pro Vita . \ ' t ~ ~ i

to show how his conversion to Roman Catholicisill was a ilatural prodilct of his spiritual progress. However his conversion in 1845 raised scarcely lcss outcr! tl~an Peel's conversion to fiee trade the following year. Such conversions. howwcr. did not take place on a wide scale, evcn if they were symptomatic of tlie times.

The Tests and Corporations Act ~ ~ a s abolished. the universitlcs wcrc opcncd to tllc dissenters but the growth in the catholic PoPulatioi~ aiid thcir placcs of \~ors l i~p \\as not however due to the popularity of Romc ainong comii~on Qeople. Thc 185 1 census revealed that out of the 5 19,959 Iris11 living in England sevciit!l-five per cent \\ere Roman ~athol ics .

Tile more we analyze the facts with regard to the adl~ereiice to a particular dogma the inore we get tempted to enquire about the eiiiotioiial side of tlic problem. t-lo\\. did a coinnlon man, not very erudite, of middling sensibility. react to thc issucs'? Not mall!. must havc noticed or felt the inorality gap that Tennysoii talkcd about in the scvcntll quatrain of the opening invocatioii,of In M~morimn:

Let kilowledge grow froin more to niore But more of reverence in 11s dwell

That mind and soul, accordiilg well May make one music as before,

But vaster. I'

To these lines Arnold Toynbee wrotc, his ii'ncle Perc! ~\ould have rcactcd -

"Let knowledge grow froin more to more. fill1 mark. A rccitntioil of tlic thrcc lines wouId have madc l~im restive. He would instead havc pullcd Goctlthc out of the shelf and pointed g lec f i~ l l~~ to Faust. part I. lines 1236-37:

Mir hift der Geist ! Auf einmal seli'ichrat Uild schribe getrost: 'Tm Anfang war die tat!

('The spirit succours ine ! All at oncc I see light and \\rite confidentl! : --In the beginning was the deed" 7''

It was late in the day that most people becailie affected by a general loss in faith. The +. fault (in the geological sense of the world) was a typical cntdite discovcr!~.

The hope offered by Clristimity was eroding and being replaced by that pcculiarl~~ Victorian liberal sensibility, but God, despite Danvjn and Tiibiilgcn School of' Higher Criticism was a reality for most Victoriails and Jesus offcred hope tliat \\.as more than a silver.lining in the dark cloud. An ordinary but tlpical Victorian w o ~ ~ l d Iiavc agreed with Browniilg in La Sai.sinz

. . .he at least believed in Soul, was very sure of god1"

and would have criticized his age in the iilallller Browning did in 'Bisliol:, 13lougrni.n'~ Apology':

What have w e gained then by our unbelief Bur a life of doubt diversified by fkith, For one of faith diversified by doubt. We called the ,chess-board white, - we call it black."

I11 this respect perhaps the tweiltietl.1 century was in coiltin~~ation with the nineteenth i n d not a break from it.

ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES

The Victorian A g : Selmted Studies

1 . Encyclopedia Britannicn (1968), vol. 22, p. 1039.

3 . I-Iughes, J . , A Victorian Sunclry, (London: Wayland Publishers, 1972); Taine H., Notes on Englancl, translated with an introductioil by Edward Hyams, London, 1957, p. 29

4. Shane, L.,HenryEalvardMunning(1921),p.8

5 . Eliot, George, Adorn Rede (New York: Collier Books, 1962), p.22

6 . It \\IN a name given to a group of Evangelical &d anti-slave trade philantl~ropists at Clapham. Among its melnbers were William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay (father of Tlloinas Macaullay) and the Tllornton fanily (ancestors of E.M. Forster).

7. Daiches, D., Some Late Victorian Attitzlhs, p. 10. Daiches quotes F. W .H. Meyers's reminiscences of Eliot's remark made in 1873 about God, immortality and duty.

8. Hzu'yard Kipling 's verse: Definitive czition (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940.. . 1 960), 323. This work will hereafter be referred to as RKV

9. RKV, 329

i0. Ibid

12. S'clecte@poenzs ofSMatthew AmoM, Goldcn Treasury Scries (London; Macmilla~i, 19 10): 224

1 3 . Quiller-Gouch, Sir Arthur, The Oxford Book q f EngIisl7 Ver:re (Oxford: At the Clarendoil Press, 1957), No. 855, p. 1029

14. yo em,^ qf'Tennjeon (1830-1 870), cd., T. Herbert Warrcu (London: OUP, 1912.., 1946), 350

15. To! nbcc. A.J., Exyerienc,~ (Osford: OUP, 1969), 301.3 I

16. H~.ownin,q: Poetry and Prose ed., Simon Nowell-Sm~th (London: Rutpert-Davis. 1950), 636

17. Browning 's Men and Women ( 1 855), cd. G.E. Haddow (Oxford: Clareildon Press, 19291, 135

36.6 LET'S SUM UP

Jn this unit you read about the victorian compromise between the various sectiolls of tllc society; tlie major poets - Tennyson, Browning and Arnold - as tl~cy stood with

Victorian Poetry respect to their predecessors, the Roiilantic pocts i.e. Words~~orth. Colesidge and Shelley and finally you read an cssay on the religious tempcr of tlie Victorian a&. In tlic last essay we combined thc influence of religion 01.1 literature. cspcciall!. poctr! and esaiilined how they cvolvcd as the century progressed. However. in this ~lillt JI c discussed how YOU are to prcsent your material for tlie esaminers.

In this connection wc examined three types of scripts - the short essay (or notc). tlic critical question and the long essay or tern1 paper.

36.7 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Self-check Exercise-I

1. (Consult an atlas.) Crimea is a Russia11 peninsula lying between Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The Crimean War (1 854-56) was fought between Russia on tlic one hand and T~~rkcy, France and Britain on the other. However. tlie Eastem Question still remained unresolved even after the War.

2. Nopoleoil I11 (Charles Louis Napoleoiz Bonaparte. 1808-73) was ncplie~\. of Napoleon I (1769-1821). He was elected prcsideiit of the French Republic in 1848 and proclainied eiiiperor four years latcr. His capturc by the Gernls~is at ~lic Battle of Sedan (1870) brought about an end to his career.

3. Charles Darwin (1809-82) wrote On the Origin of'S11ecies by mcnns c!f'Nntz~la/ Selection (1 859) and The Descent qfMan ( 1 87 1). Sainucl Sniilcs (1 8 12- 1904) wrote SelflHelp (1 859).

4. Discuss this with some other friend on the course.

Self-check Exercise-11

1. Broadly speaking, Alfred Teniiyson was influenced by Jo1111 Keats; Robert , Browning by P.B. Shelley; and Matt11ew.Arnold by William Wordsworth.

2. A.E. Housman (1 859-1936) Professor of Latiii at Cambridge wrote A .Sh~ol~.sh~r.c Lad. Edward Fitzgerald (1 809-83) was very popular for his free trailslation of thc Rztbaiyat of Omnr Khajyam (1859). William h~iorris's (1834.96) Thc I<nr.thl~~ Paradise (1868-'70) was hugely popular in its day. You will read illore about tlic Pre-Raphaelite poets Dailte Gabricl Rossetti. William Michael Rossetti slid their I

sister Christina Georgians Rossetti in unit 40 aid Oscar Wilde in Unit 4 I . Yo11 have already read about Thoillas Hardy and Robert Bridges in Understcin~illig Poetry (EEG06). Coveritry Patmore and Arthur Hough Clough may be 9

considered by some as minor poets of the Victorian era.

36.8 SUGGESTED READING

You must have noticed that in this unit we did not teach you facts the way we did in ' units 27,22 or 12. Hence it becomes important for you to consult some book(s) on

history of English literature. English Literature: Its historj, and its signlJicance ... by William Long covers Victorian poetry in the first part of chapter XI, However, he leaves out Arnold altogether. Among the major minor poets Elizabeth Barrett, I

D.G.Rosetti, William Morris and Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837- 1909) have been discussed very briefly. On the whole the treatment is rather sketchy for you.

i 1

Edward Albert in chapter XI of his History ofEnglish Lzternh~re examines Victorian t poetry imabout twenty pages; satisfactory but not eshaustive. Much Inore edlausti~ c I

I L F

Victorim Poetry respect to thcir predecessors, tlie Roniantic pocts i.c. Wordsworth. Coleridge and Shelley and finally you read ail essay on the rzligious tempcr of thc Victorian aye. In the last essay we con~bi~~ed the influence of religion on literature. cspcciall!, poctr!. and examined liow they evolved as the centu~y progressed. However. in this unit c discussed how YOU are to present your n~aterial for the esamincl~s.

In this connection u7c examined three types of scripts - the short essa!. (or notc). thc critical question and thc long essay or term paper.

36.7 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Self-check Exercise4

1. (Consult an atlas.) Crimea is 3 Russian peninsula lying between Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The Crimean War (1854-56) was fought between Russia on tlic one hand and Turkcy, France and Britain on the othcr. However, tlie Eastern Question still remained zlnresolved even after the War.

2. Nopoleon I11 (Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 1808-73) was ncphe\\ of Napoleon I (1769-1821). He was elected president of thc French Republ~c in 1848 and proclainled emperor four years latcr. Flis capture by the Gcrmans at thc Battle of Sedan (1870) brought about an end to his career.

3 . Charles Darwin (1 809-82) wrote On the Orig~n of'S]~ec~es 1,!1 tneons of'Nc~ttlrnl Selection (1859) and The Descant q fk fan ( 1 87 1). Samucl Siniles (1 8 12- 1904)

' wrote Sel/LHelp (1 859).

4. Discuss this with some other friend on the course.

Self-check Exercise-I1

1. Broadly speaking, Alfred Ten~lyson was influenced by John Keats; Robert . Browning by P.B. Shelley; 'and Matthcw Arnold by Willian~ Wordsworth.

2. A.E. Housman (1859-1936) Professor of Latin at Cambridge wrote A Shroprhrr,~ Lad. Edward Fitzgerald (1 809-83) was very popular for his free translation of thc Rzibaijlat of Omar Khaypm (1859). William Morris's (1834-'96) T11c I:'c~rtli/j. Paradise (1868-'70) was hugely popular in its day. You will read nlore about thc Pre-Raphaelite poets Dante Gabricl Rossetti. William Michael Rossetti and tl~cir

k

sister Christina Georgians Rossctti in unit 40 and Oscar Wilde in Unit 4 1 . Yo11 have already read about Thomas Hardy and Robcrt Bridges in Understnr7cirng Poet~j) (EEG06). Coventry Patmorc and Arthur Hougl~ Clough mav be 1,

considered by some as minor poets of the Victorian era.

36.8 SUGGESTED READING

You must have noticed that in this unit we did not teach you facts the way we did in unlts 27,22 or 12. Hence it becomes important for you to consult some book(s) on history of English literature. E~~glish Literatttre: Its /.tistory and ~ t s significance ,. b! William Long covers Victorian poetry in the first part of chapter XI. However. he leaves out Arnold altogether. A!nong the major minor poets Elizabeth Barrett. D,G Rosetli, William Morris and Algernon Charles Swinbur~le (1 837- 1909) l~ave been discussed very briefly. On the whole the treatment is rather sketchy f i r you. Edward Albert in chapter XI of his History ofEngli,sh L~tercihire exattlines Victorla11 poetry in about twenty pages; satisfactory but not exhaustive. Muc11 more ex!lausti\ c:

than citlicr of tliese is a History of English Literature by Emile Legouis. Book VI of part 11 of his book deals with the period 1832-75 and Book VII from 1875 to 19 14. You may pick and choose what is of use to you from these two books.

Olivcr Elton's The English Muse: A Sketch (1950) has long been acknowledged as a labour of love and I would strongly recommend Chapter XVIII, 'The First Victorians', chapter XIX, 'The Mid-Victorians' and chapter XX, 'Later Poetry (I)' to all serious students of Victorian Poetry. From Dickens to Hard)), volume VI of The

- I'elican Gic~cie to English Literature, edited by Boris Ford must be glanced through .for usefill articles on m y topic you propose to write your term paper on.

Among the scholarly works on the age is G.M.Young's Portrait ofan Age: Victorian /:i7,ylcmd. It was first published in 1936 but it is still usefbl though a little outdatcd. G .Kitson Clark's The Making of Victorian Enghnd ( 1 96 1) and Asa Briggs' Victorian People (1955) may be delved into selectively. Basil Willey's essay on Matthew Arnold is a scholarly exploration, in Nineteenth Century Studies (1949). Heavily infonned by the recent trends in literary theory are the studies of Prof, Isobel Armstrong. They deserve serious attention whenever you encounter any of her books and articles on Victorian poetry. One of her essays has been included in this block. Howevcr, don't try to read every-critical work that is mentioned above evcn if you l~ave access to them all for you must remember that you have to concentrate your attention on the texts of the poems prescribed for detailed study.

The Victorian Age: ~c l&ted Stutiks