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Unit 17: The Triumph of Romanticism (Elements of Medievalism, Escapism and Supernaturalism)

Samuel C. Chew observes about the romantics’ interest in the middle Ages: “With such currents of Notes
thought and feeling flowing, it was natural that the middle Ages were regarded with a fresh
sympathy, though not, be it said, with accurate understanding. It is true that there were those who,
like Shelley, seeking to reshape the present in accordance with desire, did not revert to the past but
pursued their ideal into a Utopian future. But to others the Middle Ages offered a spiritual home,
remote and vague and mysterious. The typical romanticist does not ‘reconstruct’ the past from the
substantial evidence provided by research, but fashions it a new, not as it was but as it ought to
have been. The more the writer insists upon the historical accuracy of his reconstruction the less
romantic is he.” Thus some romantics who love the middle Ages not only try to escape from the
real and present world but from the real medieval world too; they fashion it a new as it ought to
have been, ignoring its unpalatable features known to all historians. They glorify its splendour
and chivalry and forget its dirt, disease, squalor, superstition, and social oppression.

Pater’s Explanation

As to what led most romantic poets to make their spiritual home in the Middle Ages is explained
by Walter Pater in the following words: “The essential elements of the romantic spirit are curiosity
and the love of beauty, and it is as the accidental effect of these qualities only, that it seeks the
Middle Ages, because in the overcharged atmosphere of the Middle Ages there are unworked
sources of romantic effect, of a strange beauty to be won by strong imagination out of things
unlikely or remote.” Romanticism is interpreted by Pater as the addition of the sense of strangeness
to beauty. “Strangeness” implies the combination of the emotional sense of wonder and the
intellectual sense of curiosity. Both these senses are gratified by the romance-clad, remote, and
mysterious middle Ages.

Not All Romantic Poets are Medievalists

In spite of the views of Heine and Beers already referred to, medievalism is not an essential feature
of all romantic poetry, even though it be one of the hallmarks of the Romantic Movement in
England. Many important poets did not, for different reasons, evince much interest in the middle
Ages; but they were “romantics” all the same. Among such poets must be mentioned the names of
Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. Wordsworth found a constant spiritual anchor in Nature. He
was as keenly dissatisfied with the world of humdrum reality as any other romantic poet. But
whereas others escaped to the remote in time and space, Wordsworth found in the healing power
of Nature a balm for all his pains and frustrations. Why should he have looked to the middle Ages
when the panacea for all his ills was present right in front of him? There is not any strong element
of romantic agony and earning in Wordsworth’s poetry as Nature led him “from joy to joy.”
Medievalism for Wordsworth, then, was an utter irrelevancy. As regards Shelley, the absence of
interest in the middle Ages may be explained by his persistent “futurism.” He found his spiritual
home not in the supposedly near-ideal bygone ages but in the golden age to come. He looked
“after” rather than “before”; the unborn tomorrow appealed to him as more real than the dead
yesterday. He, however, did love to dwell upon mystery, spirit foreign lands, and remote times.
At any rate, the love of the middle Ages does not manifest itself as a specific and noteworthy
element in his poetry. Byron’s temper and approach were in many respects quite different from
those of most romantic poets. But the love of the remote was equally shared by him with others.
However, he was much more interested in the Orient than in medieval Europe. His “Oriental
Tales”-77ze Giaour, the Bride of Abydos (both 1813) and The Corsair (1817) have for their
background the world of Oriental romance; however, their interest resides not in the romantic
atmosphere but the personality of the hero in each case. Only in Lara (1814) do we find Byron
employing, to quote-Samuel C. Chew, “the Gothic mode for the delineation of the Byronic hero.”
Thus, on the whole, Byron manifests little interest in medievalism.

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