-
- Lidia De
Michelis
-
- "LIVES", "MEMOIRS" AND
"TRUE ACCOUNTS": BIOGRAPHY AS PROPAGANDA IN SOME EARLY
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAMPHLETS1
-
-
-
- Focusing on Defoe's
Historical Account, Theobald's Memoirs and Sewell's
Tragedy featuring the life of Sir Walter Raleigh in the
wake of the Anglo-Spanish hostilities of 1718-20, this paper aims
to highlight the sophisticated rhetorical and formal devices by
means of which apparently distinct authors - each according to his
own discoursive strategy - appropriated the figure of the
Elizabethan courtier and recast him as a national icon by
inscribing his biography within a homologous imperialistic
discourse.
- I shall try to suggest,
likewise, that the built-in schematizing bias of such propaganda
contributed to developing and formalizing effective approaches to
biographical sketching which eventually found their way into the
wider canon of biography as an accomplished eighteenth-century
genre.
- It is worth noticing that not
until 1736 did Raleigh's first extended biography appear. Although
it still lacks the introspective emphasis which after Johnson was
soon to become the most essential feature of the genre, William
Oldys's Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, prefixed to the 1736
edition of The History of the World, is the earliest one to
strike us as recognizably "modern".
- Not only does it prove
innovative as it leaves the beaten tracks of the annalistic and
exemplary minor life narratives and histories of the seventeenth
century (major contributions, such as those by Hutchinson, North,
Walton, Baxter and Clarendon obviously tell a different
tale)2. Its most outstanding appeal to "modernity" is
indeed to be found in its deep imprinting with the new cultural
background which in the early decades of the eighteenth century
caused the most responsive professional agents in the literary
arena to take side with the "Moderns" in order to spread the still
tentative nationalistic agenda of instituting a distinctly British
intellectual identity.
- Discarding the short pamphlet
format it had maintained over most of the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries (a notable exception was Shirley's
Life of 1677, which - beside laying new emphasis on the
Elizabethan as a champion of aggressive foreign trade3
- incorporated substantial excerpts from Raleigh's Apology
and from the minutes of his trials), Raleigh's life narrative
was expanded to reach 232 close type in folio sheets in
Oldys's work. So huge an extension cannot be properly understood
unless it is related to the biographer's scholarly commitment to
restore Sir Walter Raleigh as a "British Author" in full relief,
redeeming his memory from selective and partizan appropriations as
the author, basically, of The History of the
World.
- Himself a minor playwright and
shortly to be known as one of the erudite compilers (with Edmund
Curll) of The History of the English Stage, from the
Restoration to the Present Time (1741), Oldys (1696-1761)
ostensibly appears to share in the fecund rage for authorship and
textuality4 characterizing the decade between Pope's
edition of Shakespeare's works in 1725 and the much discussed one
by Theobald of 1733.
- His wholehearted support to
the cultural revolution then paving the way to principles of
intellectual property and propriety which conflated the ideas of
individual genius and of "Genius of the Nation" within a single
nationalist agenda5 is clearly to be seen in his
biography of Sir Walter Raleigh. Beside relying to an
unprecedented extent on first-hand scrutiny of all the best known
seventeenth-century authorities cited in previous "Lives" of the
Elizabethan courtier, Oldys's text embraces and explores Raleigh's
manifold literary voices, concerning itself with assessing the
authorship of recent and still controversial attributions
(Raleigh's corpus had been greatly increased in the decades
after his death, as exhaustively discussed by Anne Beer
[1997]), and even contributing to identifying a few
lyrics6.
- At the same time this work -
conceived over the years between Walpole's peaceful arrangement
with Spain of 1732, which had caused vociferous Patriot
opposition, and the outbreak of a new war in 1739 - stands out for
its overt reliance, by means of long encomiastic quotations, on
earlier anti-Iberian propaganda and imperialist tenets explicitly
appropriated from the three 1719 texts making up the subject of
this study.
- Quite deservedly, Theobald's
Memoirs - which under close scrutiny turn out to be but an
abridged and largely unoriginal paraphrase of Shirley's
biography7, probably written in the wake of the
unexpected success of Sewell's Tragedy and in order to gain
from the current anti-Iberian atmosphere - are referred to but
twice and scantily. That happens even as their author - a fellow
scholar and a personal acquaintance of Oldys's, who refers to him
in the incipit as to an anonymous "late collector of his
memoirs"8 (Oldys, 1829: I, 4) - is more appreciatively
mentioned as a provider of unknown texts9 and for his
references to Raleigh, in his edition of Shakespeare, concerning
the dating of Twelfth Night 10.
- Theobald's Memoirs -
that we shall later examine in greater detail as the selected
target of Defoe's methodological sallies - are indeed more
noteworthy as a beacon of future achievements than as biographical
writing, while even their frail propagandistic texture appears to
rely mostly on fashionable anti-Iberian stereotypes, such as the
demonization of the Spanish Ambassador, Count
Gondomar.
- Tailoring Shirley's
Life to suit his own youthful interest in forensic matters
and adult involvement as an actor, performer, editor, critic and
playwright, Theobald characteristically chooses to highlight
emotionally charged and pathetic episodes, such as Raleigh's
secret love for Elizabeth Throckmorton, his dying addresses from
the scaffold, and the most theatrical phases of his
trials.
- Within this framework,
Theobald's erudite bias for meticulous sifting of his (or rather
Shirley's) sources is also conspicuous, as in the following
passage, advocating textual evidence in order to refute the common
wisdom of Raleigh's familiarity with legal studies: "Sir
Walter, upon his Arraignment, in a reply to the
Attorney-General, lays a heavy imprecation upon himself, if
ever he read a Word of the Law, or Statutes, before he was a
Prisoner in the Tower" (Theobald, 1719: 5). Even more
meaningful is his long digression questioning current tales about
Raleigh burning his own sequel to the History of the
World:
-
- For my own part, I have too
great an Opinion of Sir Walter's Wisdom, to suppose he
would so rashly have rob'd his Executors of such a Treasure,
upon a single Person's complaining of a Loss from the ill Sale
of the first Volume. It seems a Fable copy'd out of another
concerning Virgil, who would have burnt his
Aeneis, to which he had not put the last hand, lest it
should survive to the Injury of his Reputation
(17)11.
-
- To which he adds, before
lavishly quoting from The Premonition to Princes and from
the final address of the History, "I think besides, there
is no better way of interpreting for an Author than from his own
Words" (ibid.)
- Yet, the most noticeable
insight in this pamphlet - the one that Oldys singles out and
elaborates on as a preamble to his own Life of Sir Walter -
is no doubt to be found in the long and sustained simile which
makes up the rich opening of the text, where Theobald's aesthetic
concerns about biographical and historical writing are
assessed:
-
- To treat of a Man like Sir
Walter Raleigh, of such approve'd Sufficiency, and of so
diffusive a Praise, so equally great in so many different Parts
of Life, is like attempting a Landschap from a high
Hill, where the Variety and Extent of the
Prospects serve rather to confound, than
entertain the Eye, and call for judgement to correct the
Fancy, which is too apt to run riot, and especially when
employ'd on too many Objects (3; my italics).
-
- Not only does this passage
immediately call forth the strikingly similar rhetorical opening
of Theobald's "Preface" to the Works of Shakespeare a few
years later:
-
- The Attempt to write
upon Shakespeare is like going into a large, a
spacious, and a splendid Dome thro' the
Conveyance of a narrow and obscure Entry (...) The
Prospect is too wide to come within the Compass of a
single View: 'tis a gay Confusion of pleasing Objects,
too various to be enjoyed but in a general Admiration; and they
must be separated and ey'd distinctly, in order to give the
proper Entertainment (Theobald, 1733: I, 1; my
italics).
-
- It elaborates, likewise, on
Shirley's preliminary consideration, referring to time and
history, that
-
- Distance of time doth
sometimes, like some mediums, make the
straightest Actions seem crooked, and sometimes
gives them the advantage of Landscapes, which appear
taking and agreeable afar off, tho' when nearly
search'd, and pry'd into by a curious and intelligent Eye, they
seem rude, harsh, and unpleasant (Shirley, 1677:
6-7; my italics)12.
-
-
- Although obviously triggered
by its source, Theobald's simile consciously discards the moral
overtones and the urge to discriminate between truth and deceitful
vision apparent in Shirley's words, quite discernibly superseded
by Augustan principles of balance and decorum in the later work.
The whole sentence, indeed, seems to be heading towards its final
appeal to foregrounding "Judgement" in order to curb "Fancy",
which - thus echoing Dryden's words that describe it as "so wild
and lawless that like an high-ranging spaniel it must have clogs
tied to it, lest it outrun the judgement" (Dryden: 1664,
"Epistle to Lord Orrery", my italics) - is consistently denounced
as "too apt to run riot".
- "Judgement" - and the
unmentioned convenience of passively following Shirley's well
documented tracks, with but minor additions from Raleigh's
writings - warn Theobald to inform the reader that the "best
Method" to do Raleigh
-
- the most Justice, and make
him the least a Sufferer by my own Inability is, in his Rise
and Actions, his Advancements and Struggles, to follow the best
Accounts of his times, and to let the Character of his Wit and
Learning stand on the Credit of his own History, and
those Remains of His which are happily transmitted to us
(Theobald, 1719: 3-4).
-
- Yet, such a judicious and
humble claim fails to deceive Oldys who, after quoting Theobald's
incipit, immediately adds "Many guides may indeed appear to
lead us through this wilderness" (and that's the end of Theobald's
"Variety and Extent of Prospects"!). "But numerous as the authors
are who mention him", continues Oldys, "they contain but fragments
of his story" (Oldys, 1829: I, 4):13 a criticism - as
we shall see later - he seems to pick up from Defoe's ferocious
slanting of the Memoirs as "a few Fragments skimm'd from
the Froth of common Fame" (Defoe, 1719:
5)14.
- Much more appreciative are
Oldys's references to "the ingenious Dr Sewell's Tragedy of Sir
Walter Raleigh ", which "of late years did much to revive the
public regard" (Oldys, 1829: I, 451-52)15 to the
Elizabethan's character and works. Although sincerely appreciating
Sewell's poetical achievement, Oldys is obviously aware of its
divulgative and propagandistic import, as made apparent in a
laborious footnote:
-
- Considering under what
disadvantages that dramatic performance appeared - he observes
- as written by a poet who had no practice or fame in this kind
of writing; one insufficiently read in the personal story of
his hero, to form that plot, and enliven it with those
characters, and incidents, whereof it was capable (...)
Considering all this, and, notwithstanding, how many nights
this tragedy successively drew a noble and numerous audience,
and how many editions of the copy soon passed the press; we may
perceive (...) how inclinable we are to clear ourselves of the
imputation many times thrown upon us of alienating our
encomiums, and transferring the honours which are due to the
worthies of our own island, upon examples of heathen or foreign
histories (ibid.).
-
- So much emphasis on Sewell's
literary inexperience sounds unnatural, especially if we remember
that, beside publishing a successful biography, The Life and
Character of Mr John Philips, in 1712, he had also contributed
a seventh volume of poems to Pope's edition of Shakespeare of
1725. Conversely, one might feel justified to infer that no
particular insight into Raleigh's life were needed to weave what
little plot Sewell chose to bring on stage.
- In full compliance with
Aristotelian rules and Augustan decorum, he confines his
subject to the last few hours preceding Raleigh's execution. With
very little action and in the restricted setting of the Court and
the Tower, the drama indeed consists of a series of sustained
monologues uttered by a handful of exemplary characters. Howard,
Lady Raleigh, Sir Walter are opposed to Salisbury and Gondomar
(Gondamor in the text) - thus staging out Roman virtues of faith
and honour against current dependence on cunning, greed and
intrigue -, while an unlikely subplot features a doomed love
affair between Salisbury's even more unlikely daughter, Olympia,
and a bashful young Carew Raleigh16.
- Although a veil of Roman
greatness is spread over Raleigh's detached stoicism and his
wife's combativeness - at times, indeed, she is made to resemble a
kind of virago-like Volumnia -, there is no misunderstanding the
propagandistic purpose of this text, especially as images of
Romanism were currently circulated as metaphors for Britain's
rising imperial appetite, moral superiority and civilizing
perspectives17.
- If Addison's Cato
(1713), a work much praised by Sewell and definitely an
international bestseller, could be singled out as the
outstanding example of such attitude, King George's "Speech from
the Throne" on 23 november 1719 (the same year as Sewell's
Tragedy was performed) is even more to the
point:
-
- All Europe, as well as
these Kingdoms, are on the point of being delivered (...) by
the influence of British arms and counsels. (...) the Unanimity
of this Session of Parliament must establish, with the Peace of
all Europe, the Glory and Trade of these Kingdoms, on a lasting
Foundation: all I have to ask of you is, that you will agree to
be a great and flourishing People (Carswell, 1960:
98).
-
- To clear up all doubt, the
paratext is quite explicit about Sewell's aims: the dedication is
addressed to James Craggs the younger - the son of the Postmaster
General and himself Secretary of War in 1717, Secretary of State
in 1718 and one of the main actors in the South Sea Bubble -
precisely on the ground of his resemblance to Sir Walter Raleigh,
notoriously "jealous (...) of the Greatness of Spain"
(Sewell: 1719, II).
- "The same Zeal", continues
Sewell, "the same Love of Honour and Great Britain, breaths
in your late 'Letter' to the Spanish Ambassador. We have seen
Plots, Rebellions, and Gundamors too, in our
Days" - the hint is to the aborted attempt to restore the Old
Pretender with Spanish support in the spring of that year -; "but
thank Heav'n we have a Monarch too Wise, and a
Ministry too vigilant, to suffer them to succeed"
(III).
- Sewell's encomium is then
transformed into an appeal in Major Richardson Pack's prologue to
the tragedy, whose conclusion, conflating the military and the
cultural agenda in one empathic plea, is reported also by Oldys
"as containing a most notable admonition to succeeding times"
(Oldys, 1829: 566):
-
- Britain, by this Example
Taught, Unite.
- Wound not the Publick
out of Private Spight.
- To great Achievements
just Rewards allow;
- Nor tear the Lawrel from
the Victor's Brow.
- Exert your Vigour in the
Nation's Cause;
- But grudge no Rival his
Deserv'd Applause.
- Safely We may Defy
MADRID and ROME,
- If no Sly GUNDAMOR
prevails at HOME.
- (Sewell, 1719:
"Prologue", 2).
-
- The overt reference to 1719
Anglo-Spanish hostilities underlying the depiction of the jarring
relationship between the two nations one century earlier, is
hammered home once again in the final lines of the play, lamenting
Raleigh's death:
- Arms are no more; the
Soldier's Friend is lost.
- Be idle then, my Sword,
till happy Time
- Shall bid thy Country
arm; then shine again,
- Wave on the Deck, or
glitter on the Plain,
- Revenging
Raleigh's Loss on guilty Spain
(63).
-
- Inflaming allusions to current
feelings and events are likewise voiced throughout the text, most
often in the form of Raleigh's celebrations of England's imperial
mission. "My native Land, whom Heav'n design'd, / By her
Plantation in the watry Deep, / To mix with every Nation of the
Earth." (45) is one such address, shortly matched by the following
scornful lines to Gondamor:
-
- Nor launch'd we
privately, with sordid Views:
- The world beheld us, and
approv'd our Deeds
- As fair and equal in
bright Honour's Eye,
- And squaring with the
common Rights of Men.
- (...)
- When thy proud Master
humbl'd all his Sails,
- Implor'd the Water,
Tempests, and the Rocks,
- To hide his Shame, and
save him from the Hand
- Of Britons
fighting in their Country's Cause (46).
-
- England's greatness is also
celebrated by Howard, who refers to it as the "Queen of Isles"
(26)18, "To which all Nations of the World pay Homage"
(35)19.
- Yet, the tragedy mainly hinges
on negative propaganda, as its most pervasive opinion-rousing
device consists of the sustained and hyperbolic slanting of
Gondamor as a fiendish and crooked mind. It is no coincidence that
- whereas Raleigh's entrance is delayed until the beginning of Act
II - the very first scene begins by a description of the Spanish
Ambassador by Carew and Sir Julius Caesar. Dubbed with demoniac
epithets, such as "cunning Minister of Hell" (2), characterizing
villains in the purest Machiavelian tradition, Gondamor is also
described by Howard as a "subtle Spaniard" who "feeds on Poison /
And Death disguis'd sits grinning at my Table" (3)20,
or introduced by Julius Caesar as a "busie Statesman" whose "Art/
Is working up some cursed Scene of Woe" (1).
- More pointedly, his
statesmanship is compared to effeminate behaviour, an enervating
disease liable to infect all the British Court - newly bent, under
a weak King, on unnatural political practices - unless it is
curbed by faithful subjects. Such is the description of Gondamor
and Salisbury parting at the end of the first
scene:
-
- (CAR.) - He whispers
Salisbury; see, they squeeze,
- And sign some bloody
Bargain with that Kiss. -
- (HOW.) - Blue Pestilence
and Poison blast their Lips!
- O! How I hate this Tribe
of kissing Courtiers.
- There is some Flavour in
a Woman's Breath;
- And Nature bids us meet
it with a Gust.
- But these new Kissers,
with their Spanish Air,
- Make Perjury conclude
where Lust begins (7).
-
- Homosexual overtones likewise
distinguish all the meetings between the two courtiers, as in Act
III, scene 2, when Gondamor cries out
-
- Now thou art honest
Salisbury again,
- And I could hug thee to
this ancient Bosom,
- (...)
- Give me then your Hand.
(Puts a Ring on his Finger).
- This to be Token of our
plighted Loves,
- The Seal of
Raleigh's Fate (30),
-
- and again in Act IV, scene I
("You seem disturb'd, my Lord, now when our Joys / Should rise at
highest, like encount'ring Tides, / Meeting each other with a
strong Embrace") (39)21.
- In the light of all this, it
is not surprizing that The Tragedy of Sir Walter Raleigh,
with its stirring mix of imperial euphoria and anti-Iberian cant,
unhappy romantic love and lascivious intimations of disapproved
behaviour should draw, in Oldys's words, "a noble and numerous
audience" in the surge of warlike spirit of 1719. On close
scrutiny, the play turns out to be a lavish compound of
nationalist pride and drives, whose predictable dynamics just
happen to take the shape of Raleigh's life, held up as a suitable
emblem.
- Neither is it surprising that
- notwithstanding its success - it should go unmentioned in the
Historical Account of the Voyages and Adventures of Sir Walter
Raleigh, an anonymous pamphlet by Defoe22 -
notoriously averse to the theatre - issued later in 1719, possibly
in January 1720.
- A worse fate befell Theobald,
whose Memoirs are referred to in the very first paragraph
as
-
- so superficial, so empty,
so imperfect, that they did but little more than revive the
Memory of the Man, and put People in Mind that such a Person
had been in the World, without giving so much as a Historical
Insight into the glorious Actions of one of the most
illustrious Commoners that England, or perhaps the whole
World ever bred (Defoe, 1719: 3-4).
-
- From a formal viewpoint, the
Account - whose title-page ushers in Raleigh's life as a
tale of epic deeds and conquests, ending up by an appeal to the
South Sea Company to resume his example23 - concocts
such an intriguing mix of biography and propaganda that it may
rightly be considered relevant to the development of both
modes.
- By criticizing Theobald, the
text - which stands out for its attempt at methodological
exactness - simultaneously discusses and condemns the way
historical writing is currently structured, just as its tone of
relentless anti-Iberian propaganda is somewhat offset by its
strong utopian drive: this is especially apparent in the last
pages, where past facts and visions of the future overlap as the
biographer identifies with his hero24. As the
Account unfolds, it becomes increasingly evident that the
biographical approach is but a function of a wider plot: it is, in
fact, a kind of tentative subplot, precariously poised
between epos and tragedy, by which means the author stakes
his hopes to see his projects carried out on his own rhetorical
skilfulness and persuasiveness.
- To signify that the work is no
mere biography, Defoe chooses to discard titles such as "memoirs",
"life" or "true history", which he ranks as distinctly inferior to
"compleat history", as pointed out by Novak (1964:
650-68)25. More neutrally, he calls his text an
"account" (according to the OED "a particular statement or
narrative of an event or thing; a relation, report or
description"), thus allowing for greater topical and structural
flexibility, even as the adjective "historical" sets uncertain
claims for consistency and discoursive coherence.
- Other title-page devices -
such as the recurrence of the term "account", the emphasis on the
factual features of deeds and narrative alike ("particular", "the
Reality of the Thing itself"), the crowding up of nouns signifying
actions ("Voyages", "Adventures", "Discoveries", "Conquests",
"Attempts", "Miscarriage") - all contribute to inscribing the text
within the field of historical writing, just as they
simultaneously alert the reader to the underlying view that a
man's life is ultimately self-contained in his
actions.
- Moreover, "Scheme" and
"Design" - the only terms, referring to Sir Walter's aborted
conquest of Guiana, pertaining to the subjective sphere - are made
to sound more factual as the final address to the South Sea
Company conjures up the dream they might be on the verge of coming
true, and an "Immense Wealth and Encrease of Commerce might be
rais'd from hence" (ibid.).
- Against such contrast between
rumour and evidence, between inferring and knowing, without ever
mentioning his rival's name Defoe plays out his methodological
assault on Theobald, provocatively denouncing his work as a "Peice
of Dramatick Drollery" (5) cunningly tailored out of Jacobean
courtiers' gossips.
- Against Theobald's alleged
shallowness, he sets his own higher standards of historicity,
while describing the Account as but a link in a chain of
ever perfectible investigation which will eventually lead to a
"compleat" biography of Sir Walter Raleigh, and help erect "a
Monument more durable than a Statue of Wast-paper" (ibid.)
for a man "whose Actions, for want of faithful Historians are
already almost turn'd into Romance" (ibid.), and compared
to those of "some giant, that did Wonders"
(ibid.).
- What he especially blames on
Theobald is his lack of ideological motivation, his unguarded
reliance on commonplace accounts, tailored according to merely
aesthetic concerns. Indeed, Defoe purposefully rejects the myth of
the historian's presumed impartiality, to which he opposes his own
utilitarian view of history as a form of civic and religious
commitment, a providential magistra vitae whose very aim is
to propagate ideology and foster political action.
- Nowhere is this more apparent
than in his use of quotations. Unlike Theobald - who, referring
but vaguely to his sources, mainly reports glamorous or pathetic
passages, thus touching on the reader's subjectivity and eliciting
an emotional response -, Defoe resorts to a variety of neatly
detailed printed texts - ranging from travel accounts to private
letters and State papers -, all of them exclusively concerning the
core topic of Raleigh's voyages and discoveries.
- Rejecting Theobald's elitarian
view of knowledge as a scholarly prerogative, he asserts his
protestant and journalistic belief in the free circulation of news
and ideas which can be easily apprehended through the written page
and whose truthfulness can be directly assessed by their
recipients in the light of the reported evidence. As a biographer,
that is, he chooses at times to renounce his omniscient
perspective and to address his readers as if he were on a level
with them.
- This preferential angle -
meant to pave the way to the final appeal to the South Sea
Company, democratically addressed as "a Society of Men qualified
to engage in such an Undertaking, (...) which would be too much
for any other Body of Merchants in the World" (41) - is apparent
from the very first paragraph of the Account. There - in
sharp contrast with Shirley and Theobald (and later with
Oldys),26 who took pains to refute this assertion as an
insulting gossip - Raleigh is introduced as "one of the most
illustrious Commoners that England, or perhaps the whole
World ever bred" (4); and, later on, he is again extolled as one
"who even in his private Capacity, made larger Conquests and
Additions to the British Empire than all the Kings of this Island
since the Conquest" (5).
- This propagandistic opening,
which unequivocally sets the tone of the whole work, is followed
by a few pages devoted to Raleigh's education and training.
Written in a conventional biographical mode, they are worth
noticing for their strong resemblance with Defoe's first soundings
of the genre in unorthodox contemporary biographies27,
such as The Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1719) and
The Memoirs of A Cavalier
(1720)28.
- Raleigh's unprecedented
achievements are not related mythically: rather, they appear as
painstakingly founded on the dissenting educational pattern Defoe
never ceases to uphold. Combining theoretical and empyrical
knowledge to refine the original "Extensiveness of his Parts" (8)
and sharpening his civic virtues through the practice of warfare
and statesmanship alike, Raleigh is portrayed - like the "compleat
English gentleman" and Colonel Jack - as feeding on the travel
accounts and histories "that took up his early Reading, and that
on all Occasions were the Subject of his ordinary Discourses while
he was but a young Man" (9). Far from fostering but youthful
daydreaming - and duly checked by means of thorough questioning of
expert "Sailors or Pilots and Ship-masters" (10) -, such readings
are depicted - thus paralleling the function of Defoe's Account
- as channeling Raleigh's desire into well-pondered adventure:
"having in his working Head digested these Things, and brought his
Thought to such Consistency, as to Depend upon the Certainty of
it, he resolv'd upon the Discovery" (11).
- Skimming over the well-known
facts of Raleigh's life unrelated to discovery and expansion (even
to the point of neglecting The History of the World, while
lavishly quoting The Discovery of Guiana), the
Account determinedly narrows down its focus to lay out a
very selective picture of Sir Walter, drawing more on the
schematism of epics than on the complexity of biography. Raleigh's
actions and drives are increasingly described as functional to his
imperialistic quest, in which ideas of nationhood and courtly love
conflate, through the cult of Queen Elizabeth, to prompt deeds to
be pursued "for the Glory of his Queen, and the Advantage of his
Country" (12).
- Unlike Theobald and Sewell, by
offsetting the role of Gondomar as Raleigh's arch-enemy Defoe
chooses to portray the Elizabethan as defying Spain almost
single-handed. Yet - subject, in Frye's words, "both to social
criticism and the order of nature" (Frye's, 1973: 34)29
-, having been denied cultural communion and ideological support
under a new, much weaker King, the epic hero Raleigh impersonates
is bound to give in, at last, to the cunning and baseness of the
antagonizing nation.
- His death, however, by no
means implies giving up the pursuit of his quest, which Defoe
invites his own readers - and, hopefully, the South Sea Company -
to resume, by reporting Raleigh's impassioned words from the
Prologue to The Discovery of Guiana. They signify,
meanwhile, Defoe's self-identification with Sir Walter, his deeply
interiorized drive to advertize his own dreams (the establishing
of twin British colonies in Patagonia and Chile, with their
unprecedented train of maritime exchanges)30 by staging
out the deeds of a hero unsuccessful "merely because Unfortunate"
(Defoe, 1719: 36).
- Just as Sir Walter ends by
praying God, who is "King of all Kings, and Lord of all Lords
(...) to put it into her Heart, who is Lady of Ladies" (54) to
possess Guiana; and adds "if not, I will judge those men worthy to
be King thereof, and by her Grace and Leave, will undertake it for
themselves" (ibid.); so, against the political background
of a still shaky Hannoverian monarchy and a government saddled
with a staggering public debt, Defoe's merchants and investors -
come together as an "Encorporated Society" (42)31 - are
held up in the final appeal as a forceful emblem of nationhood,
perfectly suited to an increasingly powerful trading and imperial
culture.
- Pursuing his own fertile view
of history writing, Defoe too ends by urging the Company to act
and offering to contribute, in case, plans and charts of his own
making. But, "If the Company decline it", he goes on, thus again
echoing Raleigh,
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- 'tis then humbly proposed
that they will give Leave to a Society of Merchants to
undertake it, under the Company's License, and on such
Conditions, as may be thought reasonable, of which more
shall be said when such a Proposal shall be
entertained by the Company (55, my italics).
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- By resorting to the future
tense, in his last words he strikes a note consistent with the
initial sequence "perfect", "more perfect", "abler", "to bring the
Attempt to Perfection", "compleat" (3), thus handing down his
faith in men's relentless effort at comprehending the past in
order to affect the future.
- Perhaps he was right, as
Oldys's text once again proves. The Account, referred to at
least a dozen times as "history"32, is the one tract
that sets the tone for the imperialist strain in the later
biography, as its final words - extensively quoted to signify
Oldys's wholehearted appropriation of Defoe's discourse - are
borrowed to convey stirring intimations of Britain's imperial
future:
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- Another modern author, in
his address to the South Sea Company, observing this Attempt of
Sir Walter to have been the greatest enterprise that ever was
undertaken by any private person; how much it would be to the
glory of the said company to bring it to perfection; how much
it was to the infamy of that age in which this great man
suffered, that such an enterprise was not only discouraged, but
even betrayed to the Spaniard, and this gallant gentleman
exposed to ruin; also how just a reproach to this nation ever
since, that such a part of the world, so timely and so
effectively discovered to us, has not been made our own, and
all those nations, who would submit to us, and be assistant to
the great work, be taken into protection, confederated and made
use of in subjecting that inexhaustible treasure to be found
there, to the crown of Great Britain (Oldys, 1829: I, 546-47).
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