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The title page of ,"Doctor Syntax in search of The Picturesque."
This is the second volume of a series of 18th century books edited by Ben Wiebracht and his students. Ben’s idea is that his pre university students, are as capable of serious research as an undergraduate or post graduate student. In the process Ben has taught his students how to research, reading original documents to support their ideas,provide information and illustrate their viewpoints. Negotiating a university library and being able to find the texts you need for your research, reading the texts and making notes and then turning them into clearly explained text and presenting their ideas are valuable skills preparing his students for academic research when they do attend a university in the future. His approach to teaching and providing problems and purposeful tasks is a brilliant way of engaging his students which can only enthuse and make their studies meaningful.
The first volume in this series Ben and his students edited was, “Bath: An Adumbration In Rhyme by John Matthews.” That piece of research started life as an article written by Ben and his students published in Vic Sandborn’s blog, Jane Austen’s World. The idea for this second volume came from an article, again in Jane Austen’s World,written by Brenda Cox about, Dr Syntax and Jane Austen. Brenda has written a book about the clergy in Jane Austen’s time entitled,”Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. Fashionable Goodness.” Her knowledge of the 18th century clergy has informed Ben and his student’s research.
This new edition has two essays that provide in depth analysis , firstly a ,”Biographical Essay:William Combe (1742-1823),” and secondly a contextual essay explaining,”The Picturesque,”in the 18th century, primarily described by William Gilpin. The article also explains how the narrow and sometimes inhuman view of The Picturesque that Gilpin promoted in his writing was sometimes mocked by Combe. Jane Austen has a more nuanced viewpoint about the picturesque than Combe that includes the economic and lower class aspects of the countryside. Both adapt Gilpin.
William Combe 1742-1823.
William Combe was a bit of an oddball. He was the son of a tradesman, an ironmonger. He himself wanted to be a leisured gentleman which he tried to portray to the world.He made people think that he wrote occasionally and went to great lengths to portray a leisured image to the world. To earn enough money he actually wrote an enormous amount. He didn’t put his name to most of his writing so that he wouldn’t be found out. Journalism , stories and this long poem about the adventures of Dr Syntax, which because of its enormous popularity, made him a lot of money. He was very successful.
It seems to me a shame that he denigrated his background. His father being an ironmonger, must have been a member of the Ironmongers Guild , one of the great livery companies of the City of London. His father would have completed a seven year apprenticeship which did not only focus on ironmongery but would have taught him to be a businessman and an adventurer and sometimes a diplomat, having to negotiate trade in foreign countries. It was the livery companies such as the Ironmongers who financed the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War ending in the execution of Charles Ist. They wanted to get rid of the monarchy and make England a more egalitarian country. Members of the guilds invested in the East India Company, which traded in the Far East with all the domineering elements of colonialism. They invested and became traders in the Levant Company which traded in Northern Europe for furs and timber and also the Royal African Company which traded in slavery from West Africa and hence also traded in sugar and many other commodities. A senior member of one of the livery companies could become very wealthy, many of them did. The Lord Mayor of London was elected from among their numbers. Some were knighted by the King. Many charitable establishments such as almshouses , accomodation for the poor, were set up by members of the livery companies. For instance ,Robert Geffrye, the head of the ironmongers in the late 1600s, after The Great Fire of London, had the Ironmongers almshouses built just north of the City on the Kingsland Road. There appears to be no need for William Gilpin to underplay or reject his past. The United Kingdom is a class based society even today. In William Combes time it would have been more so. But it was the tradesmen who created the wealth of the nation. The aristocracy , with their individual wealth could not support the modernising and development of Britain. Attitudes trailed behind the reality. There was a double standard. It was still esteemed to be a nobleman , a member of the gentry, or a gentleman as Combe felt and believed he wnated to be. Jane Austen however shows her admiration for those in trade. There is a sub plot in most of Jane Austen’s novels where those in trade are shown their importance.
William Gilpin 1724-1804.
The second essay discusses ,”The Picturesque.”
William Gilpin describes ,”The Picturesque,” as scenes of rugged beauty, often with ruined castles, cottages and abbeys within the scene. He shows no sympathy for the human cost of suffering that might have been connected to those places. He suggests the artist , if those types of ruins were not in his view, adding them creatively and imaginatively to get the desired affect. Gilpin advocates leaving any sign of the workers i the fields and their abodes out of the picture.Combe ridicules this doctrinaire approach within his book but mostly agrees with the principles Gilpin advocates bout the picturesque. Jane Austen on the other hand who incudes picturesque scenes within her novels has a more revolutionary approach to the picturesque. In one scene from Emma, that Ben mentions in his essay, Austen describes the picturesque scene,in Emma, from Donwell Abbey and includes the sight of Abbey Mill Farm in the distance. The lower class Mr Martin farms there. She wants to combine within the picturesque Gilpin’s rugged and well formed scene with the reality of the working people. In essence she is saying its all part of the whole. I think there is another angle to the picturesque too. William Wordsworth is known along with his friend Samuel Taylor Colerdige as the instigators of Romanticism in art and poetry. In Wordsworths poetry and the diaries of his sister Dorothy we have the Gilpin rugged scene and we have Austen’s inclusion of the working man but Wordsworth goes further he wants to recognise and explore the poverty and hardship of working people’s lives. He noticed, minutely, the poor people of The Lake District (Syntax’s Cumberland) and it really affected him. Like in all things when you make the world aware of the plight of others that’s when action begins. What of the Enlightenment then, occuring at the same time,, the apparent antithesis of The Picturesque and Romanticism, it’s offshoot. Science, mathematics and the study of nature, by people like the Hampshire curate Gilbert White, the emotions of the Picturesque and of Romanticism are just different parts of the whole.
So we come to Dr Syntax our comic curate who we can empathise with and enter into his travails as well as his travels. He too was in search of ,”The Picturesque,” an innocent, an idealist in search of Gilpinesqueness. Combe based his story on a series of drawings that Thomas Rowlnadson had sold to the publisher, Rudolph Ackerman.
Thomas Rowlandson 1757- 1827.
Syntax is a poor curate who teaches pupils alongside the duties of his parish. He is often berated by his wife who seems to bully him. The cause of this familial aggression is the dear Doctors lack of wealth. This story is a journey in search of The Picturesque and using drawings and writing the dear Doctor does along the way he wants to publish a book about The Picturesque. He intends to make his fortune.
Doctor Syntax by Rowlandson, lost on his journy in search of The Picturesque.
I started reading the text of the poem and I almost immediately was hit by a warm emotion of recognition. The gentle rhythm of rhyming couplets took me back to my childhood. Rhyming couplets are a simple technique that have a lightness about them. They carry the reader along on a gentle wave. You may ask what this sudden nostalgic feeling was all about. Rupert Bear. A children’s story set in the rural England of the 1920s. It is still being published by the Daily Express Newspaper today. Rupert and his friends come across criminals, magicians, Chinese scientists, and many more diverse characters. The characters are generally anthropomorphic although some of the characters are human. The connection between Doctor Syntax and Rupert are that both are adventurous, take chances, befall mishaps and are generally loveable. The rhyming couplets and themes are extraordinarily similar in both.
Doctor Syntax being rescued by some fair maids after being held up and tied to tree by highway robbers.
The pages of this edition of Dr Syntax text are generally laid out with the original text of the story on the left hand page with annotations on the right hand page. The annotations often come in two columns. The first column provides extensive detailed definitions for archaic words and phrases in the text. There is often more detailed information about a historical place or institution included too where it is necessary. A second column makes connections with moments, and characters in Jane Austen’s novels. This format makes understanding and making connections easy to follow. Many academic texts put foot notes either at the bottom of a page or in a glossary at the end of a book. Finding the notes to a particular reference can then sometimes be laborious.
The notes are impressive and show the thorough detailed research Ben’s students have done. An example of the annotations include, in canto IX
rick:Stack of hay or corn.
The definition is next to the line with the word in it. This makes for more fluent reading of the text. Also found in Canto IX an explanation of the text is also given for the following phrase,
A castle, and a ruin too: Castles and other architectural ruins were common destinations in picturesque tours.
The phrase itself can be understood easily enough but its deeper meaning connected to the theme of this poem, The Picturesque, might be lost without the further explanation. There is , in this case a further column on the right which makes the connection to Jane Austen’s writings about abbeys and ruins. Ben and his students here make the link to Jane Austen’s juvenile History of England where she mentions the dissolution of the monasteries but there is also of course Catherine Morland’s expectations of Northanger Abbey.
These are two examples of the research carried out that deepens our understanding of the text.
The Tour of Doctor Syntax, has connections with other literature. Within the story of this journey there are references made to Don Quixote , his horse and Sancho Panza which was written by Cervantes, first published in 1605. Reading the ,”Tour,”I also thought about John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, a journey of a ,”Christian,” through the hardships of the world. Later on in the 19th century there was of course Charles Dickens ,"Pickwick Papers," a humorous account of a group of friends travelling around Southern England and all the mishaps and joys and pains they encountered along the way. Dickens took the genre to another level. He in essence invented situation comedy.
Doctor Syntax having trouble with The Picturesque.
The journey that Doctor Syntax goes on around a large part of England provides experiencess that cover the whole gamut of 18th century life. He goes horse racing in York.He attends art galleries and the theater in London, where Syntax encounters a critic. Combe and Syntax give critics short shrift. Highway robbers and landladies in inns, quack doctors and lords and squires are all encountered.He meets mad bulls in fields and gravediggers in graveyards, ruined castles and attends military reviews. He visits Castle Howard in Yorkshire and most pleasantly for Syntax, The Lakes in Cumberland. Auspiciously he makes friends with Squire Worthy while in The Lakes
Doctor Syntax loses money on the races at York.
Loosely connecting Doctor Syntax to the area around Chawton where Jame Austen lived in Hampshire for the last eight ears of her life , the Reverend Gilbert White, also a curate,like our dear Doctor Syntax, lived in a village called Selborne.He of course is famous as a naturalist who wrote the Natural History of Selborne. In connection with them both being curates it is interesting to point out that it was curates and local country vicars who were often the historians, writers of journeys and the innovative scientists of the 18th century. Doctor Syntax was in good company.
The part of the story I found most engaging is the surreal, Battle of The Books, Canto XXV.Doctor Synatx has a dream or it could be described as an hallucination. Syntax in his dream sees devils and angels in the forms of the books of the learned at war against the ledgers of the bankers and the tradesmen. The books of philosophy and learning win out just as he has won by selling his book of his ,"Picturesque," journey, to the publisher who at first rejected him. A friendly Lord put a word in for Syntax. The London Iinstitute, in Syntax’s tale, where the books of learning and philosophy are destined to be housed, is close to the financial heart of the city in Coleman Street. The heart of learning set within the heart of trade.This is not lost on Ben and his erudite students. The London Institute today has become The London University of The Arts set over six campuses around London and one of the foremost Art colleges in the world.
Syntax is near the end of his journey and things have worked out for him. The book about The Picturesque he has been writing on his long journey has been sold for £300 (£24000 in todays money using the National Archive currency calculator). He is rich.
In a kind of not so hidden subtext this tale is about marriage. At the beginning of the tale Syntax is a poor clergyman who does some teaching to make extra money and is beaten by his wife.
The relationship with his wife does not appear to be good at times. When he has the lightbulb idea to go on a journey in search of the picturesque and to write a book about his experiences he firmly believes that he will make money from the venture. Off he goes and his wife doesn’t apparently give him another thought. A city curate is engaged to carry out her husbands duties and she gets on with beating the school boys. Syntax sends his wife letters on occasion during his journey. He hints at his fondness for her. Towards the end of the tale Combe, rather abruptly tells us that Syntax has sent a letter to his wife informing her of his return.
Syntax arrived back at home to his sensorious wife.
When he arrives home Doctor Syntax says nothing at first of the wealth he has made from selling his book. She berates him for laziness and wasting his time and informs him of all the bills he has to pay. He sits there calmly and nonchalantly produces a £20 note . She is amazed. Her attitude changes immediately. He tells her that more £20 notes are where that comes from. Suddenly she becomes the doting wife. Right at the end of the story he is provided with his own parish by Squire Worthy from Cumberland, who he has befriended on his journeys and impressed by his knowledge and humility and love for his fellow man. The parish role will provide him and his wife with a good income. Cumberland is an area of the country that Syntax loves. It is the quintessential picturesque landscape of course, the home also of William Wordsworth.Their relationship becomes amorous and there is talk of their sexual appetite returning and desire for a child is discussed. A complete transformation. Syntax is a happy man even though he knows the harsh unforgiving side of his wife. Money has made all the difference. You wonder if William Combe is saying that a husbands income makes for a happy marriage? When you look at the marriages at the end of a Jane Austen novel all the happy couples are well off. Some more than others but all are in a good financial situation. Only George Wickham and Lydia are in straightened circumstances and that is mainly because of Wickhams profligacy. So Jane Austen is probably saying the same thing. A happy marriage is a marriage based on good finances.
The map showing the route through The City of London, The Battle of The Books took place.
There are two maps included in the text. One shows the journey around England Doctor Syntax makes showing a circuitous route from Syntax's home near Bath on to Oxford, then northwards to York and across to Cumberland and The Lakes then south to Liverpool and onwards to London before returning home. The other, a map of London shows the route the books in The Battle of the Books take.Today you or I can follow that same London route along the same roads and streets. It is a part of London that covers at least two thousand years of history and events. But to keep it to the time of William Combe and Doctor Syntax we can explore those places. Doctor Johnson, William Blake, Lord Byron , Jane Austen and a little more recently Charles Dickens are all connected to this same part of London. I can’t leave out mentioning Dickens because The City , the Inns of Court such as the Inner temple, are integral to so many of Dickens novels. The Battle of The Books, would make a great walk in London today. There is so much to discover., streets and alleywas to explore, hidden courtyards, all mentioned in Doctor Syntax.
As an aside,the Corporal punishment Doctor Syntax and his wife administered to their pupils was regarded as a legitimate way to get pupils to learn in the 18th century. As a 21st century teacher that approach is obviously anathema. It is difficult to imagine the type of human being corporal punishment would help develop. Maybe , as always, the politicians and the famous of the time might be examples.
This book is an informative and very entertaining read. We can laugh and cry along with Doctor Syntax. Although on the surface it appears to be a comedy, like all comedy it has pathos, and makes deep observations about life.
You can buy the book in the UK on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1737033054?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
