Title: A Note on One of the Earliest Gothic Ballads: Frank Sayers's "Sir Egwin"
Abstract: Frederick S. Frank--Fred to all who knew and learned from him-- explored minor manifestations of Gothic spirit with as much relish and attention to detail as his important work on its major authors. Whether tracking down illustrations from Gothic chapbooks or uncovering Gothic elements in Asian writers, Fred worked tirelessly and with his characteristic enthusiasm to expand our understanding of reach of Gothic (and it is worth emphasizing that he paved way for today's growing interest in International Gothic). As I worked on this essay concerning minor Gothic figure--and reluctant one at that--I kept thinking, What would Fred think, what would he have to say? These kind questions indicate that Fred's spirit of inquiry will live on in writing of those of us fortunate enough to have known and worked with him. In July of 1796 Robert Southey expressed fascination, as did many of his contemporaries, (1) with appearance of two translations of Gottfried August Burger's ballads in Monthly Magazine, Lenora and Lass of Fair Wone (from German Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain)--poems that would exert tremendous influence on short-lived craze for Gothic balladry at end of eighteenth century. Although both were published anonymously, Southey soon learned identity of translator, William Taylor of Norwich, and wrote to Grosvenor Charles Bedford seeking information about him: Who is this Taylor? I suspected they were by (Collected Letters [31 July 1796]). Southey refers here to Frank Sayers (1763-1817), close friend of Taylor's and, at this time, better-known author of Dramatic Sketches of Northern Mythology (1790) and Poems (1792), latter of which contains one of earliest published ballads in German style, Sir Egwin. Following lead of Thomas Percy's Five Pieces of Runic Poetry and Thomas Gray's northern Odes, Sayers wrote that Dramatic Sketches aimed to invoke the splendid and sublime religion of our Northern ancestors and to recommend a freer introduction of its imagery into poetry of English nation (Preface 20-21). Southey knew Sayers's work well, claiming that Dramatic Sketches was the first book I was ever master of money enough to order at country bookseller's (Robberds 1: 447). Given what we would now term Gothic imagery and modality of some of Sketches and Sir Egwin--a descent into gloomy underworld to force prophecy from new slain cor[p]se; an erring bride punished by having to drink from skull of her murdered lover--one can understand why Southey would think that Lenora came from pen of Sayers. Southey would later meet two men, form productive literary friendship with them, and, following their lead, pen his own Gothic ballads. The little notice taken of Sayers by critical tradition mainly concerns his place in that almost famous literary society of Norwich, his well-documented influence on Southey, and, in historical accounts of prosody, his revival of blank verse in sections of Dramatic Sketches.2 Still, Sayers deserves to be recognized for minor role he played in story of meteoric rise and fall of Gothic ballad in 1790s, both as one of its earliest practitioners and as an author who would come to regret and renounce his association with poetry of terror. Frank Sayers may have superseded William Taylor to press with his Gothic ballad Sir Egwin, but in every other respect Taylor led way as, in words of George Borrow, the founder of Anglo-German school in England (318). Taylor met Sayers when two attended Barbaulds' Palgrave Academy, both of them members of Dissenting community that had its own interesting affiliations with story of Gothic ballad in England.3 After leaving Palgrave in 1779, Taylor travelled widely in Europe, learning French and Italian, and then went on to Germany where, according to his biographer J. …
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-03-22
Language: en
Type: article
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