Anti-Jacobin - Individuals Satirized By The Anti-Jacobin

Individuals Satirized By The Anti-Jacobin

Many poets and intellectuals were attacked by the Anti-Jacobin because of their pro-French position. Also, the Anti-Jacobin satirized individuals who were considered to have disturbed the Popean didactic poem. The following works were satirized by the Anti Jacobin: The Botanic Garden (1792) written by Erasmus Darwin, The Progress of Civil Society, a Didactic Poem in Six Books (1796) by Richard Payne Knight, Godwin who was a philosopher and novelist. In the Anti-Jacobin, Godwin is depicted as “Mr. Higgins of St. Mary Axe’. “Mr. Higgins, poet and dramatist, supposedly writes some of the major parodies of the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin: (The Progress of Man, The Loves of the Triangles, The Rovers). This figure is used to represent an individual who utilizes literature (didactic poetry) to enhance the Jacobin's cause.

According to David A. Kent and D. R. Ewin's book, Romantic Parodies' 1797-1831, “The Anti-Jacobin is now remembered for its parodies of Robert Southey more than for its journalism, patriotic verse, or Latin imitations”. Southey was the victim to four parodies written in the Anti-Jacobin because of his usage of experimental meters in poetry and sympathies in politics towards the republicans. Three poems that were made into parodies by the Anti-Jacobin were, Southey’s “Inscription”, “The Widow”, and “The Soldier’s Wife”. Canning scripted “For the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prentice-cide, was confined previous to her Execution” which was a response to Southey’s lines from “For the Apartment in Chepstow Castle where Henry Marten the Regicide was imprisoned for thirty years”. This piece had been regarded to be an idealistic, republican, and well-written Jacobin piece. Canning replaces the main character, Marten, with the character Elizabeth Brownrigg, who was popularized by the work the Newgate Calendar. In this piece of literature, Brownrigg is depicted as a villain who awaits screams, curses, and demands for a strong drink before her execution. A comparison of the two pieces are written below:

Southey wrote:

“For thirty years secluded from mankind
Here Marten linger’d. Often have these walls
Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread
He pac’d around his prison: not to him
Did Nature’s fair varieties exist;
He never saw the sun’s delightful beams;
Save when through you high bars he pour’d a sad
And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime?
He had rebelled against a King, and sat
In judgment on him: for his ardent mind
Shap’d goodliest plans of happiness on earth,
And peace and liberty. Wild dreams! but such
As Plato lov’d; such as with holy zeal
Our Milton worshipp’d. Blessed hopes! A while
From man with-held, evn to the latter days
When Christ shall come, and all things be fulfilled.”

Canning wrote:

“For one long Term, or e’er her trial came,
Here BROWNRIGG linger’d. Often have these cells
Echoed her blasphemies, as with shirll voice
She screamed for fresh Geneva. No to her
Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy street,
St. Giles, its fair varieties expand;
Till at the last in slow-drawn cart she went
To execution. Dost thou ask her crime?
SHE WHIPP’D TWO FEMALE ‘PRENTICES TO DEATH,
AND HID THEM IN THE COAL-HOLE. For her mind
Shap’d strictest plans of discipline. Sage schemes!
Such as LYCURGUS taught, when at the shrine
Of the Orthyan Goddess he bade flog
The little Spartans; such as erst chastised
Our MILTON, when at College. For this act
Did BROWNRIGG swing. Harsh Laws! But time shall
Come
When France shall reign, and Laws be all repealed!

Through parodies like, “For the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the Prentice-cide, was confined previous to her Execution,” Canning and other contributors felt that they were deciphering the French revolutionary.s principles and motifs.

Another Southey work that was satirized by Canning, Frere, Gifford and Ellis through the piece called Poetry of the New Morality. This piece was included in the last periodical of the Anti-Jacobin. The purpose of this poem was to satirize in a style known as Dunciad. This piece also calls upon the resurrection Pope’s style of writing. “Like that of Byron after them, the parody and satire of the contributors to the Anti-Jacobin is the voice of a vibrant neo-classicism, engaging in debate with the new spirit of age”.

Although the Anti-Jacobin satirized many famous poetic works of the time, some works benefited more than others. According to Dorothy Marshall, Erasmus Darwin’s “Love of the Vegetables”, and Payne Knight's “Progress of Civil Society” would most likely have been lost in history if the Anti-Jacobin's witty satire had not been written. “The Botanic Garden”, written by Erasmus Darwin, was mocked by Frere and Canning (who wrote two lines) poem “The Love of the Triangles”.