Introduction
Alessia Pannese
‘Vides’ means ‘you see’; Vides, however, encourages the reader to transcend the limits
of the visual modality, and to venture into a synaesthetic territory, where any or all
senses – and any or all disciplines – are called upon to produce meaning. The variety in
methodology and subject matter across the articles included in this volume reflects the
epistemic value of this interdisciplinary approach.
Part 1 is dominated by the theme of the appropriation of the past in order to fashion the
present. The four articles in this section present specific case studies in which historical
or mythical traditions have been called upon in order to define or shape identities. In
Anna Brunton’s article, this appropriation is discussed in relation to the Worthies of
Chillingham castle, a set of Jacobean statues reproducing historical figures of the
Christian, Classical, and Old Testament tradition. The paper analyses the symbolism of
the Worthies as steeped in Greco-Roman antiquity, shaped by the Medieval and
Renaissance fascination with conceit, and closely tied to the virtues typically associated
with ideals of kingship, discussing its contribution to the rhetoric of the speeches made
to James I throughout his Scottish tour of 1617. Jackie Colburn’s essay shifts the
historical focus to the post-interregnum period, and considers the role of the past in
relation to the fourth Triumphal Arch, constructed on the occasion of the coronation of
Charles II in 1661. By examining the design of the Arch, built like a theatrical stage prop
and permeated by classical imagery, the essay explores the ways in which references to
classical antecedents served as elements of legitimation for the recently restored
monarchy. A different approach to appropriating the past is presented in Catharine
O’Shaughnessy’s piece about the culture of collecting in the eighteenth-century, and the
history of restoration practices. Through the juxtaposition of two artefacts representing
the Greek god Dionysus, the paper examines how changing approaches to conservation
– which include additions, de-restoration, and re-restoration – can lead to permanent
alterations that reflect the ethos of the period in which they were made. Counterpointing
the discussion about appropriation through addition, Paul Brown’s essay presents an
instance of appropriation through deletion. Contrasting the representation of King Henry
V in Shakespeare’s original play and in subsequent abridged productions, the article
explores how the deliberate removal of critical lines and scenes from the original text
instrumentalised Shakespeare’s work to suit the patriotic rhetoric of World War I.
The theme of creating meaning through the manipulation of sensory experience takes
central stage in Part 2, whose opening essay, by Thomas J. du Plessis, focuses on the
complexity of auditory perception. Drawing on lexical and musical evidence from the Earl
of Rochester’s Epilogue to Love in the Dark and Matthew Locke’s score to Psyche, the
article discusses the interplay between sound and meaning in terms of its epistemic
potential, and as a vehicle for cultural criticism. Transposing the discourse from hearing
to sight, Hannah Sothern’s paper explores the work of British photographer Julia
Margaret Cameron, and its impact on the visual culture of Victorian times. The
discussion identifies links between Cameron’s photographic language and the aesthetics
of the Pre-Raphaelites, and examines their implications in terms of the place of
photography within the hierarchy of the arts. Contrasting photography’s emphasis on the
visual, Muhamet Alijaj’s article on ghost literature questions the informative value of
sight – and of the senses at large – shifting the debate to the realm of the supernatural.
By comparing Mary Louisa Molesworth’s fictional short story The Rippling Train and Ada
Goodrich Freer’s non-fictional investigation The Alleged Haunting of Bellechin House, the
essay explores how late nineteenth-century literature negotiated the difficulties inherent
in any attempt to empirically determine reality. The Victorian taste for the supernatural
also provides the cultural framework for Brynne Laska’s article on children’s literature
and occultism. Through the analysis of E. Nesbit’s novel The Enchanted Castle in the
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context of Nesbit’s membership in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the paper
examines how the imagination of realities beyond the material world acted not only as a
literary creative device but also as an instrument to escape social and political control.
Further expanding on the theme of imagination and control, Alessia Pannese’s essay
explores parallels between the mind-altering effects of opium consumption, as portrayed
in Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, and the imaginary
architecture of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s etching series Carceri d‘Invenzione –
imaginary prisons.
The tension between freedom and restraint is echoed in the opening article of Part 3,
where Ute Oswald questions the conventional perception of the Victorian asylum as a
place of forced confinement, suggesting instead that the institution may also have
offered patients opportunities for socialising and exercising agency. Her argument is
supported through the combined analysis of Charles Dickens’ article ‘A Curious Dance
Round a Curious Tree’ and of a magazine illustration of Christmas celebrations at
London’s St Luke’s asylum, both of which document the use of institutionalised
recreation as part of the treatment of mental illness. The juxtaposition of sacred and
profane appears under a different form in Yvonne Farley’s exploration of the Love-feast,
a Methodist ritual conflating worship and socialising. By comparing a Love-feast hymn by
Charles Wesley and a late eighteenth-century satirical print associating the Methodist
practice with debauchery and excess, the essay exposes discrepancies between the way
in which Evangelical spirituality conceived of itself and the way in which it was received
and understood within Christian society at large. The clandestine mapping expeditions of
the Himalaya during the nineteenth century offer a different case study for the
commingling of sacred and profane. Focusing on the British Indian pundits’ adaptation
and use of the Tibetan prayer wheel as a disguise to conceal and store route-mapping
data, Robert Stanley’s article discusses the appropriation of a religious artefact for
spying purposes, and the ensuing geo-political implications for British India and Tsarist
Russia. The blurring of holy and mundane re-emerges in Julie Whyman’s analysis of the
symbolism of the lily in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s work. Drawing on textual and visual
evidence from Reverend Hilderic Friend’s compendium Flowers and Flower Lore and from
Rossetti’s The Blessed Damozel, the essay explores the Victorian understanding of the
significance of the lily in the context of ancient mythological associations and subsequent
Christian adoption as a symbol of purity and virginity. Further elaborating on the
juxtaposition of sacred and profane, George D. Lee’s piece examines the history of the
Indian club from its early representations as war weapon in the hands of Hindu deities
and Muslim rulers, to its later adoption into British military training, and eventual
adaptation as a fitness implement in European and American physical culture. The
implications of this transformation are discussed in the context of the understanding of
bodily strength as a proxy for spiritual and moral integrity.
The association between bodily and personal traits is boldly challenged in Anne-Noëlle
Pinnegar’s essay on the representation of the disabled body. Opening Part 4, whose
topics gravitate around the themes of embodiment and power, Pinnegar’s article
examines two self-portraits authored by physically deformed but socially successful
individuals – an engraving by German e Matthias Buchinger and an autobiographical
treatise by British politician William Hay – as case studies epitomising the evolving
attitudes to physical disability within eighteenth-century discourse. A different
perspective on the relation of the physical body to social success is presented in Emily
Sargeant’s analysis of Duchess Georgiana of Devonshire in the context of the
Westminster Election of 1784. Focusing on a satirical print by William Dent, portraying
the duchess as engaging in a sexual embrace with prospective voters, the essay
explores the power dynamics surrounding Georgiana’s involvement in the political
sphere, and highlights the duplicitous role of the satirical press as attempting to
downplay her legitimacy as a political actor whilst implicitly acknowledging and
magnifying her political success. The difficulty of reconciling womanhood with power is
pushed to the extreme in the case of a female monarch. Drawing on textual evidence
from ballads and private correspondence representing Queen Mary I, England’s first
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Introduction
queen regnant, Leah Gilliatt’s piece explores the ways in which Mary’s subjects
negotiated the unprecedented challenge of reconciling the perceived vulnerability of the
sovereign’s female body natural with the sacred wisdom and authority of her position as
God’s anointed. The notion of the female body as vulnerable and needing protection is
central to Anna Matei’s analysis of women’s representation in the context of the Indian
Mutiny. By contrasting Tenniel’s cartoon ‘The British Lion’s Vengeance on the Bengal
Tiger’ and Katherine Bartrum’s diary A Widow’s Reminiscences of the Siege of Lucknow,
Matei’s article reflects upon the role of women – real and imagined – in contemporary
meaning-making about the Mutiny. Echoing the political overtones surrounding the
image of the female body in the rhetoric of the Empire, Olivia Bam’s essay brings the
discussion back to domestic policy by focusing on the Victorian preoccupation with
appearance. Through a comparative examination of George Eliot’s Adam Bede and Dante
Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith, the article elaborates upon the dual significance of the
mirror as implement to gain self-knowledge and emblem of vanity and self-absorption.
The notion of appearance – and of its deceptive and ultimately vain nature – is further
developed in Part 5, which opens with Alexandra Abrams’s exploration of the idea of
beauty in eighteenth-century England. Drawing from the ‘Letter to the Ladies’, written
by a physician in 1770, and purporting to dispense advice and recipes aimed at
preserving health and beauty, the essay investigates the preoccupation with appearance
as it manifested itself in material culture, and in the efforts deployed – and dangers
braved – in its pursuit. A vain pursuit; as vain as life itself, as Hannah Yip’s essay
suggests. Bringing together textual and visual evidence from Margaret Cavendish’s poem
‘Of the Shortnesse of Mans Life, and his foolish Ambition’ and Edward Collier’s painting
Still Life with a Volume of Wither’s ‘Emblemes’, Yip’s article discusses the notion of the
ephemerality of earthly life, and its resonance with the historical context of post-regicide
Britain. Moving from the emblematic to the real, Trudie Messent’s paper explores the
theme of the brevity of human life through the sixteenth-century figure of Lady Jane
Grey, executed at the age of seventeen as a result of her father’s actions. The essay
examines Paul Delaroche’s pictorial representation of the moments immediately
preceding the execution, and, drawing parallels between Lady Jane Grey and the
mythical figure of Iphigeneia, discusses Tudor women and familial politics through the
representation of the ‘tragic heroine’. In James Drabble’s article on Sir Thomas
Armstrong’s treason sentence, the focus shifts from impending to effected execution. By
comparing two records of Armstrong’s death, a low-brow ballad and a refined engraving,
Drabble explores the notion of execution as a spectacle, and offers potential
interpretations for the different modalities of its representation as they relate to the
social class of the intended audience. A final reflection upon death suggests a role for it
in the redefinition of life. Contrasting two posthumous representations of John of Gaunt,
a Tudor-era commissioned painting and the deathbed speech from Shakespeare’s
Richard II, Jessica Fure’s essay examines the role of death in the construction of
identities through the blurring of the protean boundaries between history and fiction.
Bracketing death away, and concluding the volume on a playful note, Michael Freeman’s
essay traces the history of Victorian Association Football, from its gentlemanly amateur
origins to its transformation into a predominantly working-class profession, revealing
links between the Football Association Cup, Oxford, and the beginnings of the
Department for Continuing Education.
It is hoped that, through this variety of topics and approaches, Vides will not only
contribute to the understanding of the specific geographically or temporally remote
realities covered in these articles, but also help the reader to ‘see’ – writ large –
meaning and significance in contemporary culture: be it glam rock cross-dressing, or the
donning of the gown as Oxonians of 2015.
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Disce quasi semper victurus
(‘Learn as if you were going to live for ever’)
Attributed to St Edmund of Abingdon
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