Some Current Publications

Abstract

Some Current Publications Garth Libhart ________ ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA Chan, Chris. “Anne Finch’s ‘Contemn’d Retreat’ and the Politics of Lyric.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 53, no. 3, Spring 2020, 463–80 pp. Chan analyzes Finch’s poem “Upon the Hurricane” (1713) in order to question two prevailing models for understanding the development of English lyric poetry: the romantic model, which emphasizes a turn from public to private and a retreat into nature that began in the eighteenth century, and what Chan calls the “transhistorical” approach, which understands lyric poetry as a cohesive form across time that is grounded in the expression of interiority. The critical reception of Finch’s poetry, Chan suggests, has exemplified the romantic model, stressing its introspective focus and disentanglement from public and political life. Such an approach, according to Chan, ignores the material conditions surrounding Finch’s poetic production, particularly the poet’s forced exile. After discussing how William Wordsworth’s celebration of Finch’s originality set the stage for later critics to see her work as removed from the political concerns of her day, Chan demonstrates how Finch’s “Upon the Hurricane” complicates this view: for example, the poem uses politically charged images like the oak tree to symbolize Stuart strength against an onslaught of political challenges, such as the Popish Plot and the 1688 Revolution. What is more, the poem avoids using the first-person pronoun, which Chan sees as characteristic of Finch’s “impersonal lyricism,” a strategy she deploys as a Stuart sympathizer writing in tumultuous times (473). At the same time, the poem references its speaker’s “contemn’d retreat,” signaling Finch’s bitterness over her exile and reasserting her authorial presence. Chan concludes that Finch’s poem requires a rethinking of lyric theory, for it shows that even poems with speakers who present themselves as exiles nevertheless maintain the ability to engage with the sociopolitical circumstances of their day. Kairoff, Claudia and Keith, Jennifer, editors. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea: Later Collections, Print and Manuscript, Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. This volume of Anne Finch’s writing, edited by Claudia Kairoff and Jennifer Keith, follows the 2019 publication of Volume 1. Together, the two volumes form the first complete critical edition of Finch’s works, the culmination of a 17-year undertaking that brings together Finch’s writing in one set. Whereas Volume 1 concentrates on Finch’s early manuscript texts, such as Poems on Several Subjects Written by Ardelia (pub. 1713), Volume II covers later works from both print and manuscript, including the Wellesley Manuscript, additional poems, and correspondence. The volume also contains introductions to Finch’s life and work by Kairoff and Keith, as well as several essays that provide an account of Finch’s textual life and afterlife: for instance, R. Carter Hailey offers an analysis of textual variants in Finch’s authorized publication, and Rachel Bowman contributes an account of the reception and transmission of Finch’s work from the eighteenth to early twentieth century. See also ARTS & VISUAL CULTURE (Erwin) ANNE KILLIGREW See ARTS & VISUAL CULTURE (Erwin) MARY BEATRICE OF MODENA See ARTS & VISUAL CULTURE (Erwin) APHRA BEHN Bowditch, Claire and Elaine Hobby. “Aphra Behn at Her 350th Anniversary.” Women’s Writing, vol. 27, no. 3, 2020, pp. 265–74. Bowditch and Hobby’s essay is the introduction to a special number of Women’s Writing marking the 350th anniversary of the staging of Behn’s first play, The Forc’d Marriage (1670, published 1671). In this essay, Bowditch and Hobby reassess the circumstances surrounding the play’s theatrical run(s) by analyzing the questionable aspects of John Downes’ account. Downes, the prompter of the Duke’s Company, writes in his memoirs that the poet Thomas Otway acted as the King in the play during its initial six-day run. However, Bowditch and Hobby note that Otway still would have been a student at Oxford in 1670, making it unlikely that he acted the part at a later date than Downes claims. The essay goes on to consider additional developments in theater history and Behn studies to conclude that, while scholars can...