A consideration of the antiquarian and literary works of Joseph Strutt, with a transcript of a hitherto inedited manuscript novel
Abstract
The first part of this thesis considers Joseph Strutt's
life, and his place in antiquarian 8tudieo. Strutt (1749-
1802) was trained as an engraver. Some of his early
commissions introduced him to the illuminated, manuscripts of
the British Museum, and led to the serie8 of illustrated
volumes on antiquarian subjects which he published between
1773 and. 1778 (the Regal and. Ecclesiastical Antiquities, the
Manners and Customs, the Chronicle of England.). The next
fifteen. years were devoted to engraving and related work,
including an extens ively-researched biographical dictionary
of engravers: this aspect of Strutt's work is not covered by
the present study. In the 1790's, Strutt pubLished two more
work6 of antiquarian research, the Dress and Habits and the
ports and Pastimes. A number of literary works were
published posthuniously:two plays (Ancient Times and The Test
of Guilt); a mock-epic poem (The Bumpkins' Disaster); and. a
four-volume novel set in the fifteenth century (Queenhoo-wall).
A further prose work survives in manuscript. The literary
works are studied. in the second part of the thesis, and a
transcript is given of the unpublished maiuscript.
This study attempts to show how Strutt's interpretation
of the early periods of English history and literature helped
to form the pre-Romantic taste for the medieval. The plates
of his antiquarian works, taken almost exclusively from
manuscripts contemporary with the subjects described,
familiarised his audience with what had formerly been strange
to all but the specialist. His works of fiction are attempts
to do the same thing by literary means. Walter Scott was
employed. to edit the incomplete manuscript of Queenhoo-JTall:
be was encouraged by Strutt's example to take up his own
writing of historical fiction.
Authors
Hough, Brenda LilianCollections
- Theses [3834]