Poets and Criticisms in 18th Century England

Nature, Old Ballads, Forgeries and Controversies

Oct 7, 2009

At the beginning of the 18th century, writers of prose and poetry were adhering to rigid rules and forms later described as feeble correctness.

English Poets Pope and Wordsworth

The principles followed were that poetry had to be correct in matter and form. To be natural was, in the considered opinion, vulgar. In England, Alexander Pope was acknowledged as the most adherent to the form.

There was ongoing criticism and debate about the correctness of the heroic couplet used by Pope. The question was whether poetry should be written according to the artificial rules from the classics.

Writing in later years, poet William Wordsworth deliberately criticized Pope’s artificial correctness. Considered one of the greatest poets of his time, Pope’s work received considerable criticism in later years. Wordsworth thought his style was archaic. He called for writers to discard the stiff and worthless rules and express their truths naturally.

Samuel Johnson Against Archaic Language

Samuel Johnson believed that a good poem incorporated new and unique imagery. He disagreed with usage of purposefully archaic language. He preferred contemporary language that presented new and unique imagery and could be easily read and understood.

Yet later, Johnson introduced a style that was of a more artificial, inflated style. A strongly opinionated man, he presented sincerity and vigor that was not to be ignored.

Natural World and Ballad Collections

Poets such as William Cowper (The Poplar Field) and James Thomson (The Seasons) exemplified the turn to the natural world. With the renewed love of nature, there was a growing dislike for the artificial civilization that prevailed. There was a real need to return to simpler lives.

In 1765, Thomas Percy published Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a collection of native ballads. Though not the first such collection, Percy’s book inspired contemporary poets to compose their own ballads in imitation. The book also helped bring about a change from use of the perceived purity of classical Greek and Roman writings.

As a result of the great interest in the old writings, and the revival of old forms of literature, several forgeries appeared.

Chatterton and Macpherson Forgeries

Prince Vortigern, a tragedy that a man named Ireland said was written by William Shakespeare was proven to be a forgery

Thomas Chatterton composed some poetry using disguised spelling and obsolete words.He claimed the poems were written in the 15th century by the fictitious monk Thomas Rowley and others. Described as a ‘precocious genius’, he committed suicide at age eighteen.

James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian was the most notable of the forgeries. Using fragments of Gaelic traditional poetry, he claimed the poems were written by a bard of the 3rd century. The work had some influence on poets of France and Germany who thought it was legitimate.

An extensive inquiry by linguist William Shaw with Samuel Johnson and others determined that Macpherson’s poems were forgeries. Controversy around their authenticity continued well into the 19th century.

The World’s History and Its Makers by E. Sanderson, J. P. Lamberton, J. McGovern, O. H. G. Leigh, University History Publishing Company 1901

The Making of History: A Study of the Literary Forgeries of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton in Relation to Eighteenth-Century Ideas of History and Fiction by Ian Haywood, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986

The copyright of the article Poets and Criticisms in 18th Century England in British Poetry is owned by Kathleen Airdrie. Permission to republish Poets and Criticisms in 18th Century England in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.