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Nick Flanery

19 April 2016

Uses of Medievalism in Victorian and Great War Literature

The medieval era has long been a source of fascination for scholars, writers, and ordinary

people. Stories of knights in shining armor fighting dragons, venturing on a quest anointed by

God, and saving the princess from the highest room in the tallest tower have invoked a sense of

wonder in people in the following centuries. However, what purpose do these stories serve? Are

they to be taken as allegory? Or were they simply fantastical tales thought up to entertain the

masses? In any case, they have been preserved and in some cases idolized. This holds especially

true for the Victorian era, where the great authors, architects, and public officials would take to

the past to try to understand their present: a time filled with great advances in industry, sprawling

cities, poverty and immense change they had never seen before. This essay will examine the use

of Medieval imagery in Victorian and World War I literature and culture to better understand

why they thought so highly of it.

During the reign of Queen Victoria there was a large resurgence of interest in the Middle

Ages, dubbed medievalism. Many scholars believe this almost nostalgic view of the Medieval era

came about from the Victorian search for affirmation, validation, and criticism of their own

times.1 Victorians explored this topic through poetry and prose, and much of the well-known

literature from the Victorian age comes from these medievalist writers, such as Lord Tennyson,

William Morris, Algernon Swinburne, and Thomas Carlyle. Frequently they would use medieval

1 Florence Boos, History and Community: Essays in Victorian Medievalism (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1992), 3, 38

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topics to critique the government and Victorian society due to a perceived perfection of the

medieval past.2

Much of this interest in medieval history can be attributed to Victorian education. It

focused heavily upon the history and literature of the Classical age, harkening back to the ancient

Greeks and Romans.3 Great Britain was a place of great significance in the middle ages. To this

day, there remain hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings: churches, pubs etc., still standing that

were erected many hundreds of years ago, creating a direct link to the past. This no doubt would

have influenced medievalist adherents, as buildings are what they would see every day, and

buildings do not belay the hardships that were endured in their shadows. Rather, their

architecture reminds people of perceived simpler times.

In fact, this is displayed by the two rules that Augustus Pugin wrote when he began the

period of architecture known as Neo-Gothic: an 18th- and 19th-Century revival of Medieval

architecture. Pugin’s two rules were: 1.) that there should be no features about a building which

are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety, and 2.) that all ornament should

consist of the essential construction of the building.4 This displays a direct relationship to

Victorian beliefs about the Middle Ages: the simple ornamentation means that the people were

not concerned with superficiality, but rather were concerned only with the building’s

functionality; in essence, fewer concerns. This logic makes sense given the amount of weight

that Victorians placed on appearance, be it in clothing or households.

2 Ibid, 153 Ibid, 84 “Pugin and the Gotchic Revival”, Arts and Crafts, accessed 10 May 2016, http://www.artscrafts.org.uk/roots/pugin.html

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Medievalists developed an unrealistic and idealized view of medieval life, idolizing such

figures as King Arthur and romanticizing the era to fit their projections.5 What they sought was

not necessarily an accurate view of the medieval era, but instead one that made their own seem

bad by comparison. In doing so they could try to understand how society came to be in the place

it was in. For Britain, the Victorian era is heralded as a time of great progress and prosperity;

while this is true, there was also widespread poverty. Several cities began noticing large

increases in population: London, Birmingham for example, but the living conditions were often

less-than-ideal for the middle and lower class. Some British medievalists, such as William

Morris, were more in tune with history and instead of imagining fantastical tales, they instead

chose a more realistic approach to their works.

What role did nostalgia for Victorians then? It is similar to how we still feel nostalgia

today: a longing for the “good old days” that of course are never as good as we remember them.

William Stafford addresses this in his essay on British nostalgia “This Once Happy Country:

Nostalgia for Pre-Modern Society”, as part of a collection of essays on nostalgia edited by

Christopher Shaw and Malcom Chase. A major theme of medievalist nostalgia was that even the

poorest of people were treated better than the Victorian lower class. This perception is important

because medievalists recognized that the middle ages had significantly fewer social protections

in place and less technology to work with. By asserting that medieval peasants enjoyed better

living conditions than Victorians in the workhouse, they could vilify problems with the social

welfare system.

5 Lorretta Holloway and Jennifer Palmgren, Beyond Arthurian Romances: The Reach of Victorian Medievalism (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 1

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In medieval times, according to Stafford, churches and monasteries would frequently

take on the role of the poorhouse, responsible for feeding and clothing the poor.6 Medievalists

would believe that the poor were getting quality food and good clothing. This stands in contrast

to the workhouses of Victorian cities: ugly, blocky façades where the people are fed poorly and

clothing was often nothing more than rags or hand-me-downs.7 This is of course rather

inaccurate on the side of the medievalists. However, to them the distinction between romanticism

and nostalgia was basically non-existent. What does this indicate, then? It would seem to point to

the idea that Victorian times were so terrible from a civilian perspective that people became

nostalgic for a period of time that was almost-certainly worse than the one they were living in. It

would be easy to understand why medievalists were so distraught with the state of Britain:

industry forced people off the land and into the cities for work, which were ill-equipped to deal

with the massive influx of citizens arriving causing massive slums and gangs to form as people

struggled to survive. The irony is evident in this when talking about the topic of nostalgia, as to

this day some people look at Victorian Britain with nostalgic eyes.8

Another common theme of medieval nostalgia is a yearning for former pastoral epochs. A

driving factor for this is the difference between subsistence farming and farming for trade

purposes.9 William Cobbett, an advocate for farmers in the early 19th Century, was an adherent to

this belief. Essentially, medievalists view commerce as a bad influence on the people because it

creates a middleman, someone between producer and consumer. This middleman pays the

producer for the goods they sell to them with the money the consumer uses to buy the product.

6 Christopher Shaw and Malcolm Chase, The Imagined Past: History and Nostalgia (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1989), pp. 337 Ibid 348 Dubbed “neo-victoriansim”, it puts a focus on combining Victorian fashion and culture with modern technology and ideals. It is popular enough to have its own publication: Neo-Victorian Studies, published by Swansea University in the UK.9 Ibid 38

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This creates a disconnect where landlords and their tenant farmers exist solely to make profit, not

to live off what they produce. Because Victorian Britain was such a consumer-based society, it is

easy to see why medievalists would yearn for a return to subsistence farming and a society of

lordship.10 Furthermore, Cobbett was opposed to the formation of large cities. He believed that

they removed people from the means of production and that they would lose touch with their

roots, and in this belief he was perhaps correct.11 As will be seen later, Marxists adapted a similar

view about means of production when they started becoming politically relevant.

Artful Depictions of Merrie England

The idea of a “Merrie England” is a pervasive theme in Victorian art. Merrie England

was, in a summarization, the depiction in art of medieval Britain through pastoral idealization

intended to show a simpler way of life seemingly lost to the Victorians.12 Because a common

belief was that Victorian citizens had lost touch with nature, the pastoral view took hold to stand

in contrast with the industry and urbanization that Victorians were experiencing. It also served to

combat what Victorians correctly felt as a growing disconnect between boss and worker, or rich

and poor. People united in common rituals and all eating from the same lands were more inclined

to live and work in harmony and mutual self-interest.

In particular, ritual and tradition were a large part of Merrie England mythology. Rebecca

Easby, in her essay titled “The Myth of Merrie England in Victorian Painting”, points to George

Harvey’s painting Hop Picking: A Composition of Kentish Scenery. Depicting an unadulterated

medieval landscape and a well-dressed populace, it contains strong elements of medievalist

10 Ibid 3811 Ibid 3812 Boos 60

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sentiment. Additionally, peasant children can be seen cleaning the shoes of an upper-class couple

who have just exited a field of hops.13 This ties directly into tradition, as it was, according to the

catalogue of the painting, “an ancient ceremony performed upon all who pass through a hop

field; and the gratuities thereby gained are, at the end of the season, expended on a supper”.14

This demonstrates perfectly the idea that upper and lower class were in tune with one another:

the peasant children clean the shoes, and rich couple gives them compensation for it, out of

mutual understanding for common custom. Medievalists would argue that such a custom would

not have survived in their own time period, as the upper class did not interact with lower class

due to the disconnect between rich and poor that developed as a result of industrialization.

The Victorian fascination with medieval culture extended as far as costuming. In fact, the

first “renaissance festival” was held in Eglinton in 1839.15 Tens of thousands of costumed

Victorians showed up, and a jousting tournament like the perceived days of old was held.16 Many

Victorians, including Thomas Carlyle, thought that clothing directly represented one’s lot in

life.17 An interest in clothing goes back to at least Ancient Rome, where senators and emperors

wore togas with purple linens to denote their social standing.18 Purple was a sign of nobility

because of how time consuming purple dye was to make; consequently only wealthy citizens

could afford it.19 This tradition of tying clothing to social standing carried into the Elizabethan

period of English history: noblemen would wear gaudy outfits, codpiece and all, to show their

wealth. No doubt this continued to influence Victorian sensibilities 200 years later. Thomas

13 Ibid 6114 Ibid 6215 Ibid 2116 Ibid 2517 Helen Roberts, “Victorian Medievalism: Revival or Masquerade?”. Browning Institute Studies 9, (1980) pp 1218 Romans were nothing if not ostentatious at times. Togas of different colors and different materials were necessary for them immediately assess the social standing of another Roman, especially so in a slave-holding society like Ancient Rome (vroma.org)19 Charlene Elliott, “Color Codification in the Ancient World”. Law & Social Inquiry 33, (2008)

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Carlyle once stated “Man’s earthly interests are hooked and buttoned together, and held up, by

clothes”.20 It seems natural then, that Victorians interested in medieval times would have first

attempted to look the part.21 What happened at Eglinton then? The tournament had a great deal of

spectacle; in looking at paintings of the event, without context, one might think they were

medieval images. There was a large feast and ball held as well, in addition to the jousting

tournament. The weather was not in their favor, though. It rained throughout the Eglinton

tournament making the spectators quite uncomfortable; it also messed up the order of events to

take place as the grounds were covered in mud22. However, despite these hitches the event would

be remembered for years even by people who did not attend. It left the Earl of Eglinton in

financial trouble for the rest of his life, though, as he spent £40,000 (approx. $5.3 million today)

on the event.23 The Eglinton tournament would have different implications politically, which

would manifest themselves in Marxist dogma.24

20 Roberts 1221 Ibid 1422 Ibid 2623 Ibid 2624 Boos 141

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top:

The trophy presented to the winner of the Eglinton Tournament (http://modernmedievalism.blogspot.com/2012/08/merry-ole-

england-reborn-part-iii.html)

Bottom: The tournament underway (http://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-disastrous-victorian-

episode-eglinton.html)

Politics and Marxism

Medievalism even worked its way into Victorian politics. Political parties would often

cite medieval styles of governance in an attempt to either justify their viewpoints or insult their

opponent’s.25 Some of the key players in this were the Whigs and the Socialists, who bore

opposing viewpoints.26 Whigs stood primarily for a constitutional monarchy and were more in

line with the views of classic liberalism: little governmental interference and a free economic

market, similar to modern day libertarianism. Their beliefs can be traced back to the Norman

conquest of Britain in the 1060s and the resulting monarchy that was established under William

25 Rosemary Jann, “Democratic Myths in Victorian Medievalism”. Browning Institute Studies 8, (1980)26 Ibid 129

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the Conqueror. They saw the implementation of a monarchy limited by a legislative council,

Parliament in this case, as the best form of government.27 Socialists were on the opposite side of

the pulpit preferring a larger government and social securities guaranteed by that government.

Both sides vying for political control via medievalist philosophies caused an interesting political

climate. Marxists also used medievalism in their propaganda too because it played into a key

belief of theirs: society could only be equal when classes were eliminated and class struggles

were stopped. As mentioned earlier, the Eglinton tournament displayed a vital cultural paradigm:

Victorians, upset with the state of their nation and their culture, would resort to escapism.28

Escapism can best be defined as a method of distraction to temporarily forget about present

issues.29 Marxists would use this to their advantage. As stated on page 144 of the Boos

collection, post- bubonic plague Britain was a common time for Marxists to refer to. After

Europe was ravaged by the Black Death, many laborers under the lordship system were now

free, as their lords had died. This naturally fed into Marx’s idea of a classless society, working

for each other instead of themselves or their masters. It is therefore easy to see how Marxists

could play upon the emotions of downtrodden Victorians: by reverting to a more medieval

society, they would be free from their laborious burdens and constant class struggles. Marxists

referenced not only the period after the plague, but also such events as the 1831 Peasant Revolt

as prime examples of medievalist rhetoric to fit their ideals. This is evident the works of people

such as the famed 19th Century socialist William Morris, in his book A Dream of John Ball.

Socialists such as Morris and Marxists claimed that means of production did not exist in

medieval times for the upper class to use; consequently they could not only exist for their own

profit.30 Basically, this all ties back to a common theme: by disregarding fact, or by virtue of 27 Ibid 13028 Boos 14129 Personal definition30 Ibid 147

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ignorance, medievalists once again twisted the period to fit their ideals. Projection proved a

powerful tool when used to influence groups.31

Through their use of medieval imagery in clothing, art, and politics people were able to

create a caricature of medieval culture. This caricature in turn allowed them to influence

common people to think a certain way. Because of this, certain political ideologies such as

Marxism and socialism were able to gain footholds in British political circles. One should not

come to the conclusion that Victorians were somehow less intelligent for falling victim; after all,

the Victorian Age saw an unprecedented number of scientists and scholars. Instead, their

rationale should be viewed through the lens of education. As discussed earlier, their primarily

classically-focused education influenced their perception of the past and made them more

susceptible to manipulation, especially lower-class working citizens who saw no relief on the

way.

Lord Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur

Arthurian legend plays a huge role in Victorian Medievalism, and Lord Tennyson, one of

the most revered poets of the era, is no exception. His poem Morte d’Arthur invokes many

sentiments of Victorian medievalism, however the following analysis is focused on three stanzas

of one page. Arthur, near death, has just been brought by his knight Bedivere to the boat that will

carry him to Avalon. When Bedivere finally delivers King Arthur, he states “For now I see the

true old times are dead, when every morning brought a noble chance, and every chance brought

out a noble knight”.32

31 Given that education still would not have been up to modern standards, who is to say whether or not there were any sort of “fact checkers”? It seems likely that the average Victorian would have taken this information at face value. People are wont to have confirmation, after all.32 Tennyson 195

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Though Bedivere is talking about Arthur’s passing-on, Tennyson probably meant this as

an allegory; medievalists in Victorian times tried to use medieval themes to reflect upon their

own lives. When taken strictly at face value, Bedivere is simply mourning. However, when

looked at in context, Tennyson is likely trying to say that the death of King Arthur signaled the

end of chivalry, noble intentions, and great battles between Good and Evil. Looking even closer,

Tennyson appears to lament the loss of “true” manhood: “…every morning brought a noble

chance, and every chance brought out a noble knight”.33 Social problems abounded in Victorian

Britain: child labor, unbelievably poor working conditions, poverty, slums, and gangs. Many

people had no hope of escaping this situation, and it could be seen as the “noble chance”

requiring a “noble knight”: someone who would end the cycle, which of course would not stop

until after World War I.

A powerful statement Tennyson makes appears near the very beginning of this page: “…

and the light and lustrous curls that made his forehead like a rising sun high from the dais-throne

– were parch’d with dust”.34 This passage seems to invoke a sense of fallen glory: Arthur’s once

shimmering features now diminished in his near-death state. This could be seen as allegorical to

the medievalist perception of the current state of Britain; once a shining, prosperous nation, the

envy of the world; now reduced to smog and slums. When will the noble knight come to save her

from her fate? Tennyson’s medieval allegory is strong throughout this entire work and truly

epitomizes the sentiments of Victorian medievalists.

Interestingly enough, there is a noticeable shift in poetry written before 1914, like

Tennyson, and poetry written during and after the Great War. For some Victorian writers such as

Tennyson, there was no greater call than the call of a knight, and this imagery was of course

33 Ibid 19534 Tennyson 195

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invoked in the early stages of World War I, inspiring many young Britons to join the British

Expeditionary Force. This could not hold under the horror of the trenches, and men who went to

war writing of noble knights and noble deeds came out of the war writing about shell shock and

destruction. The notions of medievalism all but perished in the dugouts of Flanders and Ypres. It

would be interesting to see how or if Tennyson’s idealism changed at all had he lived long

enough to see the Great War. However, poems and writings from men who lived before, through,

and after the war provide some insight into what this change may have been, even for a staunch

medievalist like Lord Tennyson.

Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory

In 1975, Paul Fussell wrote his well-known and influential monograph The Great War

and Modern Memory. In this book he further explicates the ideas and motivations of men signing

up for the war and how they reacted to it. Ideologies shifted throughout the four-year struggle

which Fussell attempts to prove through literary works written by men in the trenches. To see

how this medievalist ideology was pervasive in the early stages of the war, one need not look far

into the book. It was considered an honorable thing to die in war, such to the point that a 49-

year-old captain “committed suicide by flinging himself under a heavy van… caused by the

feeling that he was not going to be accepted for service…”35 This commitment to serving in an

honorable war hearkens straight back to medievalists sentiments: the soldiers of course being the

knights and Europe being the lady in need of saving. Some men though were not motivated by

these dashing knights. Many fought simply because all their friends had signed up, which

became a large problem in the War as whole towns would enlist at the same time in so-called

“pals’ battalions”, be sent to the front, and then killed. This devastated many small towns in

35 Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 19

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Britain and helped coin the term “The Lost Generation” for the men who fought and died in

World War I.36

Fussell does not go into great depth on this topic, however it is important to realize that

not all men were swayed by medievalist convictions, but rather local pride or a deep sense of

national duty, and in some cases coerced into enlistment because of the infamous Order of the

White Feather: women who went around putting white feathers, traditionally a symbol of

cowardice, on men who had not yet joined the army. The argument could be made that these

women were falling into the trap of medievalist sentiment as well, coercing the men into

enlisting in the army because that was seen as the “manly” thing to do. Since manhood was so

strongly emphasized in the Victorian and wartime period, the men would have felt pressured to

enlist themselves for service in France so as not to be shamed in front of their wives, friends, and

passersby. This is yet another example of medievalism that pervaded British culture in World

War I.

36 Bruce Robinson, “The Pals Battalions in World War One”, BBC, 10 March 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/pals_01.shtml

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Left: WWI propaganda poster depicting the soldier as a knight riding off into battle.

(http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/women-in-world-war-one-propaganda#)

Right: Canadian propaganda poster. The caption reads “YOUR MOTHERLAND WILL NEVER FORGET”.

(http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/women-in-world-war-one-propaganda#)

Swinburne’s “An Appeal”

Algernon Swinburne is one of the most well-known poets of the Victorian era and

was no stranger to medievalists sentiments, utilizing them frequently. His poem An Appeal

makes clear use of medieval revisionism; speaking of England, he writes “Nay, they name from

of old, Mother, was pure…”37 This particular poem was written in 1867, the height of Victorian

industrialism. What Swinburne seems to be referencing is a bygone England, one that was a

stronghold of purity. “Strangers came gladly to thee, exiles, chosen of men, safe for thy sake in

thy shade… so men spake of thee then; now shall their speaking be stayed? Ah, so let it not

be!”38 The implication is that England has lost its prestige; men will no longer come there to seek

refuge as they once did.

Several stanzas later, Swinburne makes a bold statement: “…to be pure from pollution of

slaves, clean of their sins, and they name bloodless, innocent, free; now if thou be not, thy waves

wash not from off thee thy shame”. England is of course known for being one of the earliest

nations to abolish slavery in the western world. However, it is easy to see how Swinburne may

have equated the rampant use of child labor and generally poor working conditions in factories to

slavery. Perhaps what he wanted to say was that England must be rid of its factories if it is ever

to return to the utopia it was perceived to be in medieval times.

37 Swinburne 21238 Swinburne 213

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Swinburne ends the poem on a cautionary note: “Be not as tyrant or slave, England; be

not as these, thou that wert other than they. Stretch out thine hand, but to save; put forth thy

strength, and release; lest there arise, if thou slay, thy shame as a ghost from the grave”.39 The

medievalist sentiment is plain to see in this final stanza. England must once more become the

benevolent land it used to be, free from the corruption that had taken hold in the rest of Europe,

or so Swinburne thought it to be, at least.

Medievalist Historiography: Paul Fussell, Florence Boos, and Use of Literature

Paul Fussell’s seminal work, The Great War and Modern Memory, is a long, sweeping

literary analysis of World War I. In it, Fussell examines many different works of literature,

primarily poems, to find how the trenches altered the state of the human mind. Fussell’s work is

impressive, however he sometimes attempts to fit his own narrative with his analysis. Though he

claims to bring the perspective of the common soldier, he cites people such as Siegfried

Sassoon.4041 He grossly oversimplifies the causes of the war, stating “…eight million people were

destroyed because two persons, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his Consort, had been

shot” .42 This is a complete misrepresentation of the full causes of World War I, totally glossing

over imperialism, militarism, and in some regards medievalism.43

39 Ibid 21440 Sassoon was relatively privileged and respected as a scholar. Though he was in the trenches, his first instinct was to write about it, which would seem to indicate that he was not just a common Tommy. The normal soldier during the war would have had bigger problems to worry about than simply writing poems. Of course, Sassoon may have just been captivated in the trenches in such a way that was his main concern41 That is not to say he does not also cite and discuss normal soldiers too; on the contrary, he has many examples of common soldiers, or officers in any case. However, it would be difficult to determine their social standing without doing extensive background research on them. Possibly they could have come from privileged backgrounds in a similar vein to Sassoon.42 Fussell 8 43 Medievalism may have played a part in the “powder keg” that was the lead-up to the Great War. Many British generals and officers had aspirations of leading their troops in a noble battle against evil very reminiscent of the old knights’ tales. Nearly all officers in the British Army pre-war would have been the sons of army officers too, and would have likely grown up hearing legends of Waterloo and Wellington and waiting for their own chance to seek glory.

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From a literary standpoint, though, Fussell created a driving force of study. When his

prose succeeds, it truly shines. His analysis of things such as the use of threes to represent the

three different lines of defense is something that only a brilliant thinker could have discovered.44

What his analyses found was that soldiers unconsciously divided everything into groups of

threes. His reasoning behind this was because trenches were divided into three separate lines:

front, supply, and reserve.45 Additionally, units would normally spend a third of their time on the

lines, and would split shifts by threes as well. This influence was made evident in writings from

soldiers, for example that of Stuart Cloete, who wrote down his “sequence of desires”: first,

sleep, then food, and third women.46 His work is factually inaccurate in certain regards, and

sometimes teleological in nature, but Fussell’s work fundamentally changed the World War I

narrative. One need simply look at other reviews to see Fussell’s influence. Richard A. Betts of

Penn State wrote “(the book) tells us a great deal about the war, about our culture, about

ourselves, and especially about the sources of that devastating ironic vision…”47

What gives Fussell’s work credibility though? If one were to stop a person walking down

the street if they have heard of Paul Fussell, the answer would likely be a confused look and

resounding “no”. So then, who was Paul Fussell and why should scholars give him his due

consideration? He came from an upper-middle class background in Pasadena, California, where

he was born in 1924. He graduated from Pomona College in 1941 and was drafted into the US

Army in 1943, where he served in France and was injured during his service.48 In a way, he

relished in the irony of war, for example, “the fact that the standard-issue New Testament he had

carried in his left pocket, purely to ward off bullets, also contained the Ten Commandments,

44 Fussell 12545 Fussell 12546 Fussell 12547 Richard Betts, “Review”. College Literature 4, no. 2 (Spring, 1977) pp. 177-17848 “Paul Fussell Obituary”, The Economist, 9 June 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/21556557

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enjoining him not to kill”.49 After the war, he received his masters and doctorate in English from

Harvard,50 and published several books dealing with what he felt was the glorification of war and

eagerness to prove manhood through conflict. These other books include such works as

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, and Doing Battle: The Making

of a Skeptic. He passed away in May of 2012. While Fussell lacked the more polished upbringing

of many scholars, his experiences and schooling enabled him to enter the top echelons of

historiography.

In the early 90s Florence Boos, now a professor of English at the University of Iowa,

collected several different essays and released them in a book called History and Community:

Essays in Victorian Medievalism. This book has frequently been cited by Victorian historians

when discussing medievalism in the Victorian era. It brings to the table a varied mixture of study

on Victorian medievalism. A fascinating topic that Boos discusses in her own essay from the

book deals with the sort of romanticized life that medievalists pictured or wanted to believe in.

However, in contrast with Fussell and the aforementioned medievalists, Boos does not twist

things to fit her narrative for her essay. Her work has more scholarly merit because she avoids

the teleological blunders that Fussell could not.51 There is a surprisingly large amount of

historiography on medievalism and Boos’ work is one of the top contributors.

Her collection benefits from its diversity. It covers a wide range of topics, including

Marxism, William Morris, and the idea of “Merrie England” as depicted in art and paintings.

This also would allow readers to pick up on discrepancies in research and interpretation. Because

49 Ibid50 “Paul Fussell Obituary”, The Telegraph, 24 May 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9288518/Paul-Fussell.html51 That is not to say her work is completely devoid of problem. One critique I would have is that she focuses a little too much on one or two writers to serve her purposes instead of the absolute wealth of Victorian literature available; that is not to say that she does not know about it, but that her sources could have been more varied.

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of this, the book, in my opinion, should absolutely be used as a resource for anyone exploring

this topic, as it covers just about anything someone would need to know about medievalism.

Impressions

Victorians lived in a time of absolutely fascinating social and economic change. Because

it differed so drastically from what they had been accustomed to for generations before, they

needed to find ways to cope or explain these changes. They turned to the medieval era as a

means of escapism. They could try to forget how bad they perceived their current situation to be

by escaping into an imagined past of chivalry. We know today that the narrative of medieval

English exceptionalism is not as the Victorians wanted it to be; for them though, it was a vital

part of their culture. It allowed them to find a temporary reprieve from the factories, pollution,

and poverty juxtaposed with uptight morals that one needed in order to remain “clean”. By

escaping in their heads to a perceived simpler time, they could wallow in their displeasure and

release their frustration about not having a voice. As things moved into the 20th Century and onto

war, Victorians would become more and more disillusioned.

World War I all but shattered the medievalist myths that remained after the death of

Queen Victoria and the ascension of Kings Edward VII and George V. After men saw the true

costs of war, they could no longer look back on the past with rosy eyes; they now understood

how terrible it must have been. This is reflected in their writings from this time period, where

there is a change in style and content: no longer speaking of being knights coming to rescue the

princess, but rather numbers sent to their deaths for a goal they were not even aware of. Paul

Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory is standard fare for entry into this subject matter.

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Medievalism provides an invaluable look into the minds of Victorians and helps us better

understand their motivations, thoughts, and actions. The growing historiography of this field will

prove invaluable in the future as society becomes more and more nostalgic for the past they

could not experience. By having such a large volume of work available, historians, sociologists,

and governments will be able to better explain to people why idealizing the past is a bad idea,

and rather to be happy with the present they are living in. It is better to acknowledge the good

and bad parts of history and learn from them, rather than erase them completely or try to forget

about them as the medievalists often did.

Bibliography

Beets, Richard A. “Review”. College Literature 4, no. 2 (Spring, 1977), pp. 177-178.

This is a book review of “The Great War and Modern Memory” by Paul Fussell.

Boos, Florence. History and Community: Essays in Victorian Medievalism. New York: Garland

Publishing, Inc, 1992.

This is Boos’ collection of essays that relate to Victorian medievalism. It contains many

different sources and topics of interest.

Christopher Shaw and Malcolm Chase, The Imagined Past: History and Nostalgia (Manchester:

Manchester University Press 1989

20

This is an edited collection of essays dealing with the topic of nostalgia as it relates to

history. For this essay I used the second essay which focuses on medievalism and the nostalgia

associated with it.

Elliot, Charlene. “Purple Pasts: Color Codification in the Ancient World”. Law & Social Inquiry

33, no. 1 (Winter, 2008), pp. 173-194.

This article discusses the role of the color purple in historical clothing and fashion.

Fussell, Paul. The Great War and Modern Memory. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Paul Fussell’s seminal work on World War I literature. He analyses poetry written by

soldiers to get into their mind and see how the war changed their writing.

Harrison, Anthony. “The Medievalism of Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, First Series:

Historicity and Erotic Aestheticism”. Papers on Language and Literature, pp. 129-151.

This is talks about the role of medievalism in a select few of Swinburne’s first series of

poems.

Radford, Fred. “The Nautilus and the Tower: John Ruskin and the Victorian Medievalism of

James Joyce”. James Joyce Quarterly 28, no. 3 (Spring, 1991), pp. 595-615.

This article discusses John Ruskin, a Victorian socialist, and James Joyce a writer, and

their use of medieval imagery.

Roberts, Helene E. “Victorian Medievalism: Revival or Masquerade?”. Browning Institute

Studies 8 (1980), pp. 11-44.

This article talks about the depictions of medieval life in Victorian society, eg. The

Eglinton festival, and how it was often farcical or inaccurate

21

Robinson, Bruce, “The Pals Battalions in World War One”, BBC, 10 March 2011,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/pals_01.shtml

Part of a series on World War One by the British Broadcasting Corporation, this

particular article discusses the pals battalions: who they were and why they joined.

Swinburne, Algernon. Swinburne’s Poems Vol. II, Songs Before Sunrise and Songs of Two

Nations, Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd, 1904.

This is a collection of poems by Algernon Swinburne, a famous Victorian poet who

frequently used medievalism in his writing.

Taylor, Beverly. “Browning and Victorian Medievalism”. Browning Institute Studies 8 (1980),

pp. 57-71

This article talks about Robert Browning and his usage of medieval imagery. Browning

was a poet in a similar vein to Tennyson and Swinburne

Tennyson, Alfred Lord. The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Chicago: National Library

Association, 1891.

This is a complete collection of all the poetical writings of Alfred, Lord Tennyson,

perhaps the best-known purveyor of medievalist motifs in Victorian literature.

“Paul Fussell Obituary”, The Economist, 9 June 2012,

http://www.economist.com/node/21556557

This is the obituary that The Economist wrote following the death of Paul Fussell, author

of The Great War and Modern Memory. It goes into detail about his military service and his

personal life

22

“Paul Fussell Obituary”, The Telegraph, 24 May 2012,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9288518/Paul-Fussell.html

This obituary was published in The Telegraph after Fussell passed away. It provides a

great deal of detail on his motivations for writing The Great War and Modern Memory and how

World War II continued to influence Fussell years after it ended.