Slowed-Down Time and the Fear of History: The Medievalist Visions of William Blake and William Morris

JEMCS 2. 1 (Fall/Winter 2002) Slowed-DownTime and the Fear of History: The MedievalistVisions ofWilliamBlake and WilliamMorris MartinBidney threatening, alienating effects oftheever-accelerating pace oflifesincetheonsetoftheIndustrial Revolution havegiven risetoa widespread form ofimaginative compensation: thestrategyofan idealizing historical nostalgia.Theseeming comforts of nostalgia makeita nearly unavoidable temptation in thewriting ofsocialand culturalhistory, and in thereconstruction ofthat history through poeticimagination. I willfocushereon tworepresentative nineteenth-century1 poetswhoseidealizing historical nostalgia embodied itself concretely inreveries ofa slowed-down, pleasantly pacedMiddle Agestocounterbalance their incisive critiquesofindustrial capitalism.I willuse contextual background suppliedbyhistorian E. P. Thompson, biographer and criticof thesepoets,a thinker whois alertto theirproblematic uses of nostalgia - and whois also, I think, trying to combatanalogous allurements in his own writing. But beforewe look at the medievalizing Utopiasofthetwopoets,itwillbe helpful tooffer a moregeneralbrief introduction to theproblematics ofhistorical nostalgia insomeclarifying remarks byWalter Benjamin. The seventhand ninthofthe"Theseson the Philosophy of History" neatly focusBenjamin's argument, thelatter thesisserving as metaphoric commentary on the former.In Thesis VII Benjamin arguesthatto"blot out"whatever weknowof"thelater courseofhistory" in orderto "relive" an earlierera morepurely andvividly inourimaginations is really, though paradoxically, an admissionofan "indolence oftheheart," symptomatic ofa deep "sadness."Toblockoutthelaterevents weknowso wellisunwittingly to admitan unacknowledged melancholic and escapist Bdney 101 weak-mindedness, for whatweareblocking outisthefact thatthe production ofthe"cultural treasures" weso greatly valuehas been inseparable from multifarious abuses ofpower.Thesetreasures mustbe viewed"with cautiousdetachment," forthey"owetheir existence notonly totheefforts ofthegreat mindsandtalents who havecreatedthem,butalso totheanonymous toiloftheircontemporaries . Thereis no document ofcivilization whichis notat thesame timea document ofbarbarism" (Benjamin 256). As I wouldsumup Benjamin's argument, in proportion as weforget, repress, orblockoutthistragic underside ofanyand every period of culturalhistory, to thatprecisedegreewe indulgein a regressive idealizing nostalgia. Benjaminexpressesthesame idea withmetaphoric gracein ThesisIX. First hequotesa quatrain aboutnostalgic escapismby Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem, whichI wouldtranslate as follows: Mywings arequiteprepared for flight AndbackI nowwouldfly. Whatwoulditmeantostayand fight? Illluckforsuchas I.2 Benjamin thenexpandsthelyric withhelpfrom thepainting thatevidently inspired it: AKleepainting named"Angelus Novus"showsan angellookingas though heis abouttomoveawayfrom something heis fixedly contemplating.His eyes are staring, his mouthis open,his wingsare spread. This is howone picturesthe angelofhistory.His faceis turned toward thepast. Where weperceive a chainofevents, he sees one singlecatastrophe whichkeepspilingwreckage uponwreckage and hurlsitin front ofhis feet. The angelwouldliketo stay,awakenthe dead,and makewholewhathas beensmashed. Buta storm is blowing from Paradise,ithas gotcaughtinhiswingswith suchviolence thattheangelcan no longer closethem. This stormirresistibly propelshimintothe future to whichhis backis turned, whilethepileofdebrisbefore himgrows skyward . Thisstorm is whatwecallprogress. (Benjamin 257-58) The angelofhistory is beingcompelled to moveforward, to becometheangelofprogress, butwhathe wouldprefer, in the paradoxically compassionate yetultimately escapistweaknessof his fantasizing nostalgia, wouldbe to facebackwards, to tryto 102 TheJournal for Early Modern Cuttuml Studies "awaken thedead," retrospectively to "makewholewhathas been smashed." How could the angel of historybringabout a retrospectiveresurrection ?This can onlybe done throughan idealizing nostalgicreimagining thatwould blot out the barbaricpower abuses which at everystage contaminatecultural history.3 We will see that such an idealizing tactic is preciselywhat poets WilliamBlake and WilliamMorrisattemptin wishfully(reconstructing a fantasizedMiddleAges. Mygoadhere is to clarify the transitionfromlate Romanticto earlyVictorianliterary psychology byshowinghow representative poets fromthetwoeras imaginatively attempt,withsome desperation ,tocope withthevexingtempooflivedhistory broughton by theadvance ofindustrialcapitalism. I willsuggestthatRomantic poet WilliamBlake and Victorianpoet WilliamMorriscounteract the seemingthreatofa relentlessspeedingup ofmodernindustrial time by nostalgicallyenvisioninga dreamlike slow-motion medieval world where time is comfortingly relaxed, or even broughtto a halt.4 Both the historical,socioeconomic problem and its attemptedpoetic solution can be expressed in termsof ontologicalpsychology5 as involving each poet's attempttoprotect himselfagainst the overwhelming pressures ofchaotic Becoming by imagininga more blissfulalternativeconditionofpurer,simplerBeing . The paradoxical trapis that such an imaginedfreezing of lifeand action in static Being makes palpable the even gravermenace ofa deadeningNothingness. The historical-ontological desperationof the young Morrisis moreobviousthan thatofthematureBlake; in fact,thechiefreason formyselectionofthesetwopoets forcomparativestudyis to showhowtheimmobilizing deadness thatinvadesand weakensthe twopoets' visionsdoes so in different degreesbecause itis largely repressedin Blake but comes clearlyto consciousness in Morris. Byexamining certainemotionally fraught passages inthetwomen's workI will seek to uncoverwithinthe Romanticbard's escapist, nostalgic medievalismthe roots, or seeds, of the medievalizing Victorian poet'sfull-blown poeticpathology offearand enervation whatBenjaminso accuratelycalled "sadness" and "indolenceofthe heart." In myview,whatmakes Blake and Morrisso usefullyrepresentativeofthe transitionfromlate Romanticto earlyVictorian imagining is thatthenostalgically medievalizing tendencyso pervasiveinVictorian imaginative culture(particularly amongthegentry and upper classes) is, like the transitionfromBlake to Morris,a gradualbringing to consciousness,as wellas an increasingly elaborate social manifestation, of the escapist tendencyinherentbut morerepressedin Romanticpoems and poets. Bdney 103 E. P. Thompson, the...