Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture by Paul Goring

Abstract

88 these pages. Staying current even toward the end, in May 1711 Walsh offered the first English publication of work from the recently arrived Georg Frideric Handel, ‘‘The Famous mock Song . . . Sung by Signra Boscchi’’ in Pyrrhus, which makes fun of the performance given by the great castrato Nicolini in an opera the previous season (no. 352). Much theater history can be mined from these pages. For whom was The Monthly Mask intended ? The original sheets assumed an audience who wished to read and play contemporary music, of which this was the first published form for many pieces. Consumers must have appeared, or Walsh would have discontinued the periodical much earlier. Single issues of four songsheets cost 6d., half the price of a seat in the upper gallery at the theater ; but sets could also be bound with a decorative title page. Pictures of several such title pages are included. Collectors , as opposed to casual purchasers, were predictably assumed to be upperclass , as the vocabulary of putti, herms, nymphs, astrological signs, trophies, masks, and altars shows. Only a handful of songs are in Italian, which did not become the language of opera in London until 1710. Still, the changes happening in native music, as well as outside criticism , had their effect. Expanding the Collier controversy in his Great Abuse of Music (1711), Arthur Bedford complained that young ladies who read the Monthly Mask were ‘‘furnished every Month with new Matter for Debauchery .’’ Some bawdy songs do indeed appear , but they are not all that obvious and certainly do not predominate. (For one example, see ‘‘The British Accountant ’’ (!), No. 317.) The editors suggest that the ‘‘huge success’’ of Handel’s Rinaldo, beginning in February 1711, turned Walsh away from the diminishing profits on songs for a general audience and toward publishing operatic music. Commentary in this edition is kept to a bare minimum and largely concerns facts. Not every song receives a comment , leaving users free to evaluate the inclusion of ‘‘A Catt Catch’’ (No. 214) or a horse race catch for four (No. 329) along with Handel. I could have wished for a subject index, but there are indices of first lines, titles, composers, singers, authors, and stage works and odes, as well as appendices that cover publication dates, reuse of the plates by Walsh before 1730, and surviving copies. Reproduced from clear exemplars drawn from many libraries, the large-format individual songs are unusually easy to read. The handsome, if pricey, BaldwinWilson edition should inspire much more attention to this valuable resource, previously so difficult of access. Judith Milhous Graduate Center, City University of New York PAUL GORING. Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. London: Continuum , 2008. Pp. viii ⫹ 158. $20. Part of Continuum’s ‘‘Introductions to British Literature and Culture,’’ Mr. Goring’s textbook provides undergraduate students more information than usual regarding historical and literary developments and strikes a sound balance between breadth and depth. His study is divided into three areas: ‘‘Historical, Cultural, and Intellectual Context,’’ ‘‘Literature in the Eighteenth Century,’’ and ‘‘Critical Approaches.’’ ‘‘Resources for Independent Study’’ includes a chronology of important historical events, set alongside a publishing 89 history of key literary texts, a Glossary of terms and concepts, and a Bibliography . A book like Roy Porter’s English Society in the 18th Century (1990) is a better resource for contextual information, but its length, nearly 400 pages, proves difficult to manage in a course focused on literature rather than history. Mr. Goring’s, by contrast, is refreshingly concise. His overview of critical debates regarding canon formation, the development of a literary marketplace, and authorship—including female participation in that marketplace, Britishness, and the role literature played in the movement to abolish slavery—will be useful to students. Mr. Goring’s scope and depth, nevertheless , could be enriched. Literary periods are, of course, arbitrary, and Mr. Goring provides good arguments for starting with the dates that demarcate his sense of the period. But since his conception of ‘‘eighteenth century’’ begins with the ‘‘Glorious Revolution’’ in 1688, he might have considered going back to 1660, the starting point for the period in most anthologies and survey courses. This is particularly true of eighteenth-century theater. While Mr...