Thoth distribution@thoth.pub Google 20260513T044214

urn:uuid:4608b634-7f41-4a5c-a670-6ae203b78b1b 03 15 9781914477324 00 EB E107 10 01 01 The Poets Laureate of the Long Eighteenth Century, 1668–1813 Courting the Public 1 A01 Leo Shipp Leo Shipp is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Galway, working on Professor David O'Shaughnessy's ERC-funded project, 'Theatronomics: The Business of Theatres, 1732-1809', researching the finances of eighteenth-century Drury Lane and Covent Garden. He teaches on the early modern period and the long eighteenth century in University of Galway's History department. 01 eng 00 232 03 12 HBTB 10 HIS015050 23 History ⇒ Social and Cultural History 23 poet laureate 12 DSC 23 eighteenth century 10 LAN005070 23 court 23 culture 23 spatiality 23 poetry 23 public reception 01 06 03 00 The office of the poet laureate of Britain was a highly prominent, relevant and respectable institution throughout the long eighteenth century. First instituted for John Dryden in 1668, the laureateship developed from an honorific into a functionary office with a settled position in court (c.1689–1715), and was bestowed upon Robert Southey in 1813, whose tenure eventually transformed the office. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines the office’s institutional changes and public reception, the mechanics of each laureate’s appointment, and the works produced by the laureates before and after their appointments. It argues that the laureateship played a key part in some of the most vital trends in eighteenth-century culture.The conclusion is arrived at by employing a new research paradigm that it calls the conceptual geography of culture. It shows that Britons routinely used spatial concepts to understand culture throughout the period, which became increasingly abstract over time. As part of this, the court evolved from a concrete space in London to an abstract space capable of hosting the entire British public. The laureateship was a dynamic office positioned at the interface of court and public, evolving in line with its audiences. An important intervention in eighteenth-century historiography, this book presents a nuanced understanding of eighteenth-century culture and society, in which the laureateship exemplified the enduring centrality of the court to the British conceptual geography of culture. 04 00 Introduction. 1. Patronage Asserted: The Formation of the Laureateship, 1668–1715 2. Loyalty Marketed: The Works of the Early Hanoverian Laureates, c.1700–1730 3. Merit Rewarded: The Hanoverian Appointments, 1715–1813 4. Parnassus Reported: The Public Laureate, c.1757–1813 5. “But Odes of S----- almost choakt the way”: Laureate Writings of the Long Eighteenth Century Conclusion. University of London Press 01 University of London Press 04 01 20220831 02 WORLD 06 15 9781914477300 06 15 9781914477294 06 15 9781914477324 06 15 9781913002091 06 15 9781914477331 WORLD 09 University of London Press 20 01