Monograf Journal Edebiyat ve İktidar (2014 / 1) | Page 30

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30 • Anthony P. Pennino
thors was similarly utilized in the furtherance of the cause. Robert G. Hall reports that the poet Thomas Cooper used to perform
dramatic readings for Chartist audiences; the readings included scenes and monologues from Shakespeare. Here is Hall on
the subject: “[Cooper’s] reading of Shakespeare and Sir Walter
Scott, especially the Waverley novels, as well as the ‘rational’ writings of Volney and Elihu Palmer, also clearly informed
and sharpened his approach to, and understanding of, the past.
Drawing on these varied sources of historical knowledge, he entertained audiences in the Shakespearean Room of the Leicester
Chartists with recitations and dramatic readings from Shakespeare, Milton, and Burns” (238-9). The key here I believe is
this notion of “understanding” the past. That Shakespeare is a
titan of literature matters not so much but that he is a “source of
historical knowledge” does. In order to change the society of the
now, the Chartists were reimaging the British past utilizing as
their tools works of literature. Antony Taylor also notes the use
of the canon for historical context, “This body of work provided
a radical literary canon that dignified and elevated the struggle
for reform, and provided a historical and constitutional pedigree
for the popular politics of the nineteenth century” (358). Why
depend on the works of Shakespeare or Milton? Because they
provide “pedigree” or give strength and lend credence to the
Chartist argument. Again, Taylor provides insight: “Moreover
there was an alternative history of England here mirrored in the

The Reconstructed Bard: Chartism and Shakespeare • 31

careers of writers from a plebeian background who came to express the sentiments radicals most admired” (359).This idea of )