Classical Culture and the Idea of Rome in Eighteenth-Century England (PDF)
Synopsis
This book is the first to look at the aristocratic adoption of Roman ideals ineighteenth-century English culture and thought. Philip Ayres shows how, in
the century following the Revolution of 1688, the ruling class promoted-by
way of its patronage-a classical frame of mind embracing all the arts, on the
foundations of 'liberty' and 'civic virtue'. The historical fact of a Roman
Britain lent the endeavour an added authenticity, and it was partly out of an
attachment to that past that a new 'Roman' present was constructed by Lord
Burlington and his circle. Ayres's study shows that the propensity to adopt the
self-image of virtuous Romans was the attempt of a newly empowered oligarchy
to dignify and vindicate itself by association with an idealised image
of republican Rome. This sense of affinity with the ideals of the free Roman
Republic gave British classicism an authenticity impossible under the various
versions of absolutism on the continent. Its discourse precluded any more
thorough-going revolution by suggesting that Britain's liberty had been won
by an 'oligarchy of virtue' which now defended, defined and emblematised
the nation.
Book details
- Author:
- Philip Ayres
- ISBN:
- 9780521105798
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Pages:
- N/A
- Reading age:
- Not specified
- Includes images:
- No
- Date of addition:
- 2019-06-14
- Usage restrictions:
- Copyright
- Copyright date:
- 1997
- Copyright by:
- Philip Ayres
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Categories:
- History, Language Arts, Law, Legal Issues and Ethics, Literature and Fiction, Nonfiction, Philosophy