“Loot, lechery and the political game”: the Prince Regent and some contemporary writers

Abstract

This article explores some of the links between literature and politics during the period of the Regency, with particular emphasis on some of the contrasting relationships between the Prince Regent (later George IV) and some of the major writers of the period. The Prince Regent sought to establish a climate in which literature and the arts could flourish, but, because of his disorderly private life, his lavishly wasteful use of public funds, and his involvement in party-politics, he was often in conflict with contemporary writers. Leigh Hunt's strictures on the Regent earned him a two-year prison sentence, much to the indignation of many of his fellow writers. By contrast, the poet laureate Robert Southey had a complicit and compromised relationship with the Regent that had as much if not more to do with politics than it did with literature. Yet others, such as Walter Scott, who shared much of the Regent's political outlook, maintained friendly relations with him that were largely or entirely untainted. On the other hand, Jane Austen expressed her dislike of the Regent, and her unwillingness to dedicate Emma to him in the tightly rigid formulation of the Dedication. Finally, two poets who were also friends, Byron and Thomas Moore, expressed a covert but growing contempt for the Regent.