Who ransack’d Kingdoms, and dispeopl’d Towns.
The Pict
and Painted Britain, Treach’rous Scot,
By Hunger, Theft, and Rapine, hither brought.
Norwegian
Pirates, Buccaneering Danes,Whose red-hair’d Offspring ev’ry where remains.
Who join’d with Norman-French, compound the Breed
From whence your True-Born Englishmen proceed.’
‘The
True-Born Englishman. A Satire’
Daniel
Defoe
1701
At first glance, it is difficult to know what to
make of this poem. In its earliest
stages the poem positively fumes acid from the earnest bigotry with which Defoe
constructs stereotypes for just about every kind of nationality that existed at
the time. Readers be reassured, however:
this text was in fact intended as a critique of the racist elements of English
society who thought the ‘True-Born Englishman’ was a being altogether superior
to the rest of humanity. He does this by
first listing all the faults that such racist detractors might identify with
these supposedly inferior nationalities, and then by pointing out that the
‘True-Born Englishman’ of the title is in fact descended from all these various
nations through Britain’s mottled history of invasions, raids, violence, and
intermarriage (or similar). Thus he
asserts the fundamental absurdity of claiming that any Englishman is
‘True-Born’, as they are all basically descended from what the racists would
term ‘foreigners’. To avoid the risk of misinterpretation, Defoe provides the helpful pointer in his Preface that he is ‘one that would be glad to see
Englishmen behave themselves better to Strangers’ (with 'strangers' in this context meaning foreigners).
 |
| Daniel Defoe, engraving by M. Van der Gucht, after a portrait by J. Taverner, first half of the 18th century. This copy was, er, 'borrowed' from the Encyclopædia Britannica. The earliest image of Defoe was recently discovered by Joseph Hone, and is an illustration on a pack of playing cards (in which Defoe is depicted being pilloried as punishment for penning some political pamphlets). |
Indeed, the importance of this Preface as a means
of interpreting the poem would seem to be very great. At the Defoe Society’s
biennial conference this week, Andreas Mueller gave a very interesting talk on
later reprints of the text, in particular American reprints; somewhat
amusingly, an abridged version was published in Philadelphia around the time of
the British occupation of that same city during the American Revolutionary
War. The removal of the Preface was one
of various alterations which, Muller showed, had reconstructed the text as a
depiction of the ‘True-Born Englishman’ as a somewhat vain and inglorious
individual. Defoe would probably have
been horrified.
For the aim of his original poem would seem to
have been to promote racial integration rather than to just annoy
everyone. Defoe claims in his poem’s Preface
that ‘The End of Satire is Reformation’, referring here to the reform of absurd
or offensive ideologies; in particular, he is keen to whip up support for the
Dutch King William of Orange (the Protestant William III who, together with his
wife Mary, had just usurped the English throne from Mary’s father James
II). Yet the sense that this is
primarily a piece of political propaganda is perhaps dispelled by considering
the broader attitude towards foreigners that is featured across Defoe’s
writings. As Angela Gehling demonstrated
in her conference talk, Defoe was somewhat unique in his depiction (across various
works) of Spaniards as paragons of honesty and courteousness. At the time, Spaniards were often regarded as
being the complete opposite of this (a stereotype which Gehling demonstrated
still features in popular culture today).
These are complex issues and this is a complicated
poem, but don’t let this put you off: it is also an enormously engaging and
thought provoking text, and the issues it deals with surrounding racism and
politics remain vividly relevant in today’s political arena. Frankly, this is a poem that everyone should
read, whether or not they regard themselves as ‘True-Born’ English.
Happy reading!
As always, feel free to ask questions and leave comments!
You can
find this poem:
(a digital edition of the original, first edition
of Defoe’s poem, compiled by Luke Dawson; a very concise, useful, and free way
to enjoy this text)
(a new printed version of the book… a word to the wise, though, don’t bother reading the Amazon reviews. One of them claims that this is ‘Austen from a man’s point of view’, and I have to admit it has been a very long time since I read a sentence that was such complete tosh!)
(This is a short extract from the poem on Poetry Foundation, which omits the most vitriolic aspects of the poem. It is nonetheless interesting if you just want a quick snapshot of the style of the piece)
About the
Defoe Society Conference:
The Defoe Society ( http://www.defoesociety.org/ ) was
established in 2006 to promote research upon, and interest in, the works of
Daniel Defoe, and to basically just spread the word about what a masterful and
engaging writer he is. This week’s
conference was an opportunity for Defoe scholars from all over the world to
come together and exchange ideas; the people I’ve referenced in my discussion
above are only a very small sample of what was a vibrant and absorbing array of
academic knowledge. To gain access to a
broader range of the thoughts and ideas that were being mooted, search for the
hashtag #Defoe15 on Twitter to look back over the excellent live-tweeting of
Stephen Gregg ( @gregg_sh ) during the conference.
Because literary research is for everyone, not just academics!
You can
find out more about Defoe:
(The Defoe Society website pages have lots of fascinating info)
(Wikipedia!!)
Encyclopædia
Britannica (a more sophisticated, and perhaps more reliable, form of Wikipedia)
