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Society, politics and culture. Studies in early modern England
Book Reviews
129
historical interest, but Roberts does not show how it ‘contributed to his later development as a mature poet’ as she announces and as her general thesis requires. Her treatment of Kipling is happier. She shows how crucial freemasonry was to the man and to his ethos, supplying the notion of ‘the law’ and reinforcing the value of work and of ritual. More particularly, the lodge was a model for his ideal Empire, at once hierarchical and fraternal. Kipling moreover used masonic terms and imagery in his verse in a spontaneous and successful way, for example in ‘The Widow of Windsor’ and ‘My NewCut Ashlar’. The secret society is even more salient in the case of Yeats. In his quest for the secret truth of life and art, he belonged for nearly thirty years to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The experience contributed to the formation of his private mythology, and Rosicrucian and other occult influences are obvious in his poetry. In his best work however they are changed into something of another order by a process which Roberts does little to elucidate. The conclusion must be that secret societies took different forms and fulfilled very different functions at different times in British history and that the involvement of poets in them mirrored this broad sociological variety rather than pointing to any hidden essential ‘poetic’ potential in the secret society as such. Individual poets belonged to the societies for personal reasqns and if they used the mythology in their poetry they did SO like Yeats in a personal way in which it was ‘ transformed utterly’. Stephen Wilson University of East Angiia
Society, Politics and Culture. Studies in Early Modern England, Mervyn James, Past and Present Publications (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; first paperback edition 1988), vii and 485pp., 215.00, $19.95. This collection brings together nine essays which Mervyn James has written on various aspects of Tudor history over the last twenty-five years. Most of the essays are already well-known. They include his famous Past andpresent studies of the Lincolnshire Rebellion (1536), the concept of order and the Northern Rising (1569), the Corpus Christi plays in the late medieval town, and a long exploratory essay on the changing concept of honour in English politics between 1485 and 1642, which first appeared as a Past and Present Supplement. Three other essays probe the changing nature of social, cultural and political relationships in the Tudor north by taking as their focus certain key individuals-Henry Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, Henry Clifford, first earl of Cumberland, and Thomas, First Lord Wharton-whilst Wharton appears again alongside William Lord Dacre in a fascinating comparative study of the two funerals of these very different types of Tudor peers. The collection contains one new essay-a study of the Essex Revolt (1601)-and there is an introduction which not only attempts to draw the themes of the different essays together, but also addresses some of the criticisms James’s writings have received over the years (most particularly with regard to his interpretation of the Lincolnshire Rebellion). All of these essays reflect what has become a central preoccupation of James’s scholarship: the exploration of the ways in which early modern England changed from a ‘lineage society’, bound by ties of kinship and the extended family, with political loyalities centring on the aristocratic household, to a ‘civil society’, bounded by law, humanistic wisdom, and the Protestant religion, with loyalties centring on the state. The old attitudes and relationships lasted longest in the north, on the great estates of the Percies, Nevilles, Cliffords or Dacres, families of ancient blood, with their clienteles of dependent gentry. These were ‘communities of honour’, where lord and tenant were drawn together by
130
Book Reviews
reciprocal bonds of good lordship and faithful service, and where loyalty to the crown took second place in the event of a conflict with the interests of the lineage. Yet even here, as James demonstrates with marvellous subtlety and clarity, the old lineage society was dying out, eroded by social, economic and cultural changes, and increasingly under attack through the gradual but inevitable ‘Tudor revolution in the north’. Wharton represents the beginnings of the new order, a man of modest gentry stock, who has risen to power and prominence as the result of his service to the Crown, and who belonged to a community of publicly-spirited, gentry administrators, obedient to central authority. James’s concern with the politics of dissidence also fits into this general schema. By analysing the causes of rebellions, and the extent of their failure or success, much light is cast on the tensions between central and regional loyalities, on the stresses and strains which were undermining the ‘honour ethos’ of the old lineage society, and on the emerging new ideas about the legitimacy of the state and the appropriate expression of political dissent. Many of these themes are brilliantly worked out in the chapter on the Essex Revolt, the last of the honour rebellions. Its significance, James shows us, lies not so much in its failure but in the fact that the earl of Essex, after his condemnation, and with the honour community of which he was the centre disintegrating around him, abandoned the honour code, made an abject confession of his faults, and so ‘identified himself with the religio-providentialist view of the state on which the legitimacy of the Elizabethan regime had always rested’ (p. 417). The fact that many of the essays dwell on the same general themes (albeit such important ones) does lead to a certain amount of repetition. Moreover, the reader does not really gain an appreciation of the way the author’s ideas on these themes have developed over time, since the decision was taken to present the essays in their historical sequence, rather than in the order of composition. Even this minor quibble, however, is somewhat unfair, since few (apart from reviewers) will read this volume as if it were a book; instead, most will delve into the discrete but overlapping essays as they find appropriate, and it has to be acknowledged that James is a true master of the genre of the historical essay. My personal favourite remains the study of the Lincolnshire Rebellion which, despite the criticisms it has drawn, stands as a marvellously textured case study, offering a sophisticated, multi-layered analysis of a complex event. All students of Tudor history-and many more besides-will want to own this volume, and Cambridge University Press are to be congratulated for bringing it out in paperback. Tim Harris Brown University
Aristocratic (Cambridge
Century: University
The peerage of eighteenth-century England, John Cannon Press, 1987; First pub. 1984), x+ 193 pp., S8.95/$13.95.
The republication, in the prestigious Cambridge Paperback Library series, of John Cannon’s Wiles Lectures, first published in 1984, hardly requires justification. They combine urbanity, clarity, a pleasing humour and substance. Moreover, a quinquennial retrospect can only underline the soundness of Professor Cannon’s conclusions. Lest this appear too deferential to one of historiography’s aristocrats, let us re-examine Cannon’s theses in this context. Two propositions are advanced: that a small number of peers controlled the commanding heights of English political and social life throughout the period, and that aristocrat prestige, influence and exclusiveness strengthened as the century progressed. Examining the political, economic and ideological exercise of their power, their recruitment, marriage, education and religion, Cannon reveals a remarkably exclusive, rather than open, elite; one convinced of their duty, ability and right to rule and
129
historical interest, but Roberts does not show how it ‘contributed to his later development as a mature poet’ as she announces and as her general thesis requires. Her treatment of Kipling is happier. She shows how crucial freemasonry was to the man and to his ethos, supplying the notion of ‘the law’ and reinforcing the value of work and of ritual. More particularly, the lodge was a model for his ideal Empire, at once hierarchical and fraternal. Kipling moreover used masonic terms and imagery in his verse in a spontaneous and successful way, for example in ‘The Widow of Windsor’ and ‘My NewCut Ashlar’. The secret society is even more salient in the case of Yeats. In his quest for the secret truth of life and art, he belonged for nearly thirty years to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The experience contributed to the formation of his private mythology, and Rosicrucian and other occult influences are obvious in his poetry. In his best work however they are changed into something of another order by a process which Roberts does little to elucidate. The conclusion must be that secret societies took different forms and fulfilled very different functions at different times in British history and that the involvement of poets in them mirrored this broad sociological variety rather than pointing to any hidden essential ‘poetic’ potential in the secret society as such. Individual poets belonged to the societies for personal reasqns and if they used the mythology in their poetry they did SO like Yeats in a personal way in which it was ‘ transformed utterly’. Stephen Wilson University of East Angiia
Society, Politics and Culture. Studies in Early Modern England, Mervyn James, Past and Present Publications (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; first paperback edition 1988), vii and 485pp., 215.00, $19.95. This collection brings together nine essays which Mervyn James has written on various aspects of Tudor history over the last twenty-five years. Most of the essays are already well-known. They include his famous Past andpresent studies of the Lincolnshire Rebellion (1536), the concept of order and the Northern Rising (1569), the Corpus Christi plays in the late medieval town, and a long exploratory essay on the changing concept of honour in English politics between 1485 and 1642, which first appeared as a Past and Present Supplement. Three other essays probe the changing nature of social, cultural and political relationships in the Tudor north by taking as their focus certain key individuals-Henry Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, Henry Clifford, first earl of Cumberland, and Thomas, First Lord Wharton-whilst Wharton appears again alongside William Lord Dacre in a fascinating comparative study of the two funerals of these very different types of Tudor peers. The collection contains one new essay-a study of the Essex Revolt (1601)-and there is an introduction which not only attempts to draw the themes of the different essays together, but also addresses some of the criticisms James’s writings have received over the years (most particularly with regard to his interpretation of the Lincolnshire Rebellion). All of these essays reflect what has become a central preoccupation of James’s scholarship: the exploration of the ways in which early modern England changed from a ‘lineage society’, bound by ties of kinship and the extended family, with political loyalities centring on the aristocratic household, to a ‘civil society’, bounded by law, humanistic wisdom, and the Protestant religion, with loyalties centring on the state. The old attitudes and relationships lasted longest in the north, on the great estates of the Percies, Nevilles, Cliffords or Dacres, families of ancient blood, with their clienteles of dependent gentry. These were ‘communities of honour’, where lord and tenant were drawn together by
130
Book Reviews
reciprocal bonds of good lordship and faithful service, and where loyalty to the crown took second place in the event of a conflict with the interests of the lineage. Yet even here, as James demonstrates with marvellous subtlety and clarity, the old lineage society was dying out, eroded by social, economic and cultural changes, and increasingly under attack through the gradual but inevitable ‘Tudor revolution in the north’. Wharton represents the beginnings of the new order, a man of modest gentry stock, who has risen to power and prominence as the result of his service to the Crown, and who belonged to a community of publicly-spirited, gentry administrators, obedient to central authority. James’s concern with the politics of dissidence also fits into this general schema. By analysing the causes of rebellions, and the extent of their failure or success, much light is cast on the tensions between central and regional loyalities, on the stresses and strains which were undermining the ‘honour ethos’ of the old lineage society, and on the emerging new ideas about the legitimacy of the state and the appropriate expression of political dissent. Many of these themes are brilliantly worked out in the chapter on the Essex Revolt, the last of the honour rebellions. Its significance, James shows us, lies not so much in its failure but in the fact that the earl of Essex, after his condemnation, and with the honour community of which he was the centre disintegrating around him, abandoned the honour code, made an abject confession of his faults, and so ‘identified himself with the religio-providentialist view of the state on which the legitimacy of the Elizabethan regime had always rested’ (p. 417). The fact that many of the essays dwell on the same general themes (albeit such important ones) does lead to a certain amount of repetition. Moreover, the reader does not really gain an appreciation of the way the author’s ideas on these themes have developed over time, since the decision was taken to present the essays in their historical sequence, rather than in the order of composition. Even this minor quibble, however, is somewhat unfair, since few (apart from reviewers) will read this volume as if it were a book; instead, most will delve into the discrete but overlapping essays as they find appropriate, and it has to be acknowledged that James is a true master of the genre of the historical essay. My personal favourite remains the study of the Lincolnshire Rebellion which, despite the criticisms it has drawn, stands as a marvellously textured case study, offering a sophisticated, multi-layered analysis of a complex event. All students of Tudor history-and many more besides-will want to own this volume, and Cambridge University Press are to be congratulated for bringing it out in paperback. Tim Harris Brown University
Aristocratic (Cambridge
Century: University
The peerage of eighteenth-century England, John Cannon Press, 1987; First pub. 1984), x+ 193 pp., S8.95/$13.95.
The republication, in the prestigious Cambridge Paperback Library series, of John Cannon’s Wiles Lectures, first published in 1984, hardly requires justification. They combine urbanity, clarity, a pleasing humour and substance. Moreover, a quinquennial retrospect can only underline the soundness of Professor Cannon’s conclusions. Lest this appear too deferential to one of historiography’s aristocrats, let us re-examine Cannon’s theses in this context. Two propositions are advanced: that a small number of peers controlled the commanding heights of English political and social life throughout the period, and that aristocrat prestige, influence and exclusiveness strengthened as the century progressed. Examining the political, economic and ideological exercise of their power, their recruitment, marriage, education and religion, Cannon reveals a remarkably exclusive, rather than open, elite; one convinced of their duty, ability and right to rule and