An Anthology of London in Literature, 1558-1914

'Flower of Cities All'

Geoffrey G. Hiller, Peter L. Groves, Alan F. Dilnot, Geoffrey G. Hiller, Peter L. Groves, Alan F. Dilnot

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030056087
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030056094
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: Literature

This book is an anthology of extracts of literary writing (in prose, verse and drama) about London and its diverse inhabitants, taken from the accession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558 to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. The 143 extracts, divided into four periods (1558-1659, 1660-1780, 1781-1870 and 1871-1914), range from about 250 words to 2,500. Each of the four periods has an introduction that deals with relevant social, geographical and historical developments, and each extract is introduced with a contextualizing headnote and furnished with explanatory footnotes. In addition, the general introduction to the anthology addresses some of the literary questions that arise in writing about London, and the book ends with many suggestions for further reading. It should appeal not only to the general reader interested in London and its representation, but also to students of literature in courses about 'reading the city'. 

© The Author(s) 2019

Geoffrey G. Hiller, Peter L. Groves and Alan F. Dilnot (eds.)An Anthology of London in Literature, 1558-1914https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05609-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Period 1: London—Birth of a New Order (1558–1659)

Geoffrey G. Hiller¹ , Peter L. Groves² and Alan F. Dilnot³

(1)

Glen Iris, VIC, Australia

(2)

Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

(3)

Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

End Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This Introduction looks at the growth of London and Westminster from the accession of Queen Elizabeth I (when it was already a busy port and a diverse and cosmopolitan city) to the Restoration of Charles II. It pays particular attention to the lay-out of Elizabethan London, and follows in detail an imaginary time-traveller on her journey from Bedlam, north of the City, down Bishopsgate, southwards past the Royal Exchange and Lombard St, and over London Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe, with some consequent consideration of Elizabethan theatre.

Though archaeological evidence suggests that parts of the Thames estuary may have been settled since the Bronze Age, London itself has a clear point of origin: it was founded (as ‘Londinium’) on the north bank of the Thames near the current City of London by the Romans, a few years after their invasion of Britain in 43 ce. This is perhaps not a surprising choice, given the site’s strategic situation at a bridgeable location near the mouth of a navigable river, and facing the continent of Europe. London entered the historical record in 60 ce as one of the towns sacked by Queen Boudicca of the Iceni,¹ being characterized by the Roman historian Tacitus as “greatly frequented by merchants and their traffic”,² a description that has remained apt for most of its subsequent history. Elizabethan London, “the storehouse and mart of all Europe” [ 1.1 ], was already a busy port, and contemporary views of the city show a great variety of merchantmen, including ocean-going ships, moored just downriver of the Bridge. Like other great trading cities, it was necessarily cosmopolitan, “framed to please / All Nations, Customs, Kindreds, Languages!” [ 1.3 ], since (as in the case of Shakespeare ’s Venice) “the trade and profit of the city / Consisteth of all nations”.³ Not everyone was happy, however, with this ethnic diversity, as suggested by Shakespeare’s scene in the manuscript play Sir Thomas More, where More persuades a reluctant mob to accept Flemish refugees on humanitarian grounds; in 1596, indeed, Elizabeth complained to the Lord Mayor of London that “there are of […] blackmoors [Africans] […] already here too many” (Bartels 2006, 305).⁴

When Euphues observes that “the greatest wealth and substance of the whole realm is couched within the walls of London” [ 1.1 ] he is referring to the City of London , a compact square mile or so circumscribed by the remains of the Roman walls; outside those walls, about one mile to the west, was a second city, Westminster (then as now the seat of government), which included the sprawling 23-acre royal palace of Whitehall , with its many courts and gardens (see [ 1.13 – 1.15 ]). Northwards of these two there was yet little urban encroachment: just beyond the City walls were orchards and cow pastures, and Tottenham Court Rd and Oxford St were broad country lanes, just as the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields , now off Trafalgar Square , really was in the fields between Westminster and the City. We should not be deceived, however, by the fact that most of what we now call Greater London was then rural: there was little open space of any kind within the City itself, and Londoners would have been only too familiar with the noise and smoke of iron-foundries, and industrial kilns for making bricks and quicklime.

The two cities together had a population of about 120,000 at the beginning of Elizabeth ’s reign, swelling to perhaps 400,000 at the restoration of Charles II in 1660. They were connected by that ever-fashionable street the Strand , “Whereon so many stately structures stand” [ 1.3 ]. These included many fine aristocratic residences, such as Leicester (later Essex) House, associated with the two men who were closest to Elizabeth: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and (after his death in 1588) Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. The Strand also boasted Cecil House, from 1560 the grand residence of Lord Burghley (Elizabeth’s closest political advisor), and Arundel House, from 1558 the home of Henry Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. Arundel House had been the medieval pied-à-terre of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, but was seized by Henry VIII, like so much Church property, in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries. Before the Reformation, much of London was owned by the Church and devoted to religious foundations; this land was freed up and distributed among the king’s cronies and his own estate, much of it now forming part of London’s extensive parklands. In 1538, for example, the Dominican priory of Blackfriars (near modern Blackfriars station) was given to Lord Cobham, and eventually provided an indoor theatre for Shakespeare ’s company to stage plays in the winter, from 1608 onwards.

Not all London streets, however, were as commodious as the Strand . More commonly, and especially in the City, they were narrow and crowded laneways lined with wooden buildings, loud with the cries of hawkers, darkened by the ‘jetties’ or ove...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Period 1: London—Birth of a New Order (1558–1659)
• 2. Period 2: London in the Enlightenment (1660–1780)
• 3. Period 3: London—New Riches, New Squalor (1781–1870)
• 4. Period 4: London—Capital of Empire, 1871–1914
• Back Matter