John Hookham Frere and The Monks and the Giants
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a period commonly known as the Romantic Period,
the literary form of satire was in constant discourse with the Romantic literary form.
In this period, a new form of author began to emerge, an author defined by the likes of
Keats and Coleridge and Byron. The author became more then the scop or playwright of yore;
whether because of social and technological change, the influence of the great writers of
this period, or some combination thereof, the perception of the author began to shift
(Foucault 108). A concept of the author as hero quickly flowered, as can be seen
in the sensational lives of authors such as Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Given this rich
historical setting and the eminence of several specific authors, it is no wonder that the
scholarship in this field has focused on an elite set of authors and a defined canonical form,
to the exclusion of many worthwhile authors. John Hookham Frere
is one of the best examples of these marginalized authors. He
was an author and satirist who considered himself to be "of the old tradition" ("The Works" 474),
was a well respected man of literature, and his position as both a literary and satirical
figure make an excellent study for the relationship and co-dependency of literature and
satire in the Romantic period. Specifically, Frere's work
The Monks and the Giants,
a piece of merit as both a literary and satirical work, is the perfect text to study this
crossing of social and satirical, because both the work and its author embody the full
range of Romantic literature and satire. The Monks and the Giants captures the spirit
of the time as a piece of literary satire written to influence the poets of the period.
The preceding paragraph outlines my argument about Frere and his The Monks and the Giants.
If you are unable to restrain your curiosity, please feel free to e-mail me
and I'd be happy to get back to you with more information.
As it is likely that you are here for research purposes, allow me to direct you to the bibliography
and partial annotations that I made in my own work. Hopefully this will help you in your own
research pursuits. In addition to the bibliography, you might also find some of these informational links useful:
John Hookham Frere
The Monks and the Giants
Anti-Jacobin
ottava rima
Best of luck!