St. Alban's Abbey, A Metrical Tale
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| St. Alban's Abbey | |
|---|---|
| by Ann Radcliffe | |
 Title page of the 1826 collection of Ann Radcliffe's posthumous works | |
| Written | 1808-9 |
| Meter | iambic tetrameter |
| Rhyme scheme | variable; primarily couplets |
| Publication date | 1826 |
St. Alban's Abbey, A Metrical Tale is a poem by Ann Radcliffe, likely composed between 1808 and 1809, and first published posthumously in 1826. It is Radcliffe's longest poem, and is followed by extensive antiquarian footnotes, which link the poem's events and scenes to artifacts Radcliffe saw on historical sightseeing trips to St Albans Abbey.
In the frame story, the poem's narrator gazes on the ruins of the abbey and imagines how the building's occupants experienced the First Battle of St. Alban's in 1455. One of the poem's ten cantos describes the battle itself, while the others describe the anxious preparations at the abbey and the sad aftermath. The hero of the poem, a fictional Lancastrian named Baron Fitz-Harding, hides from Richard of York in the abbey and thus cannot be found by his wife or father, both of whom fear he has been killed; he also fears that his father has been killed, and they all search for each other among the wounded and dead. The poem ends with their bittersweet reunion and the capture of Henry VI.
Reviews of Radcliffe's posthumous works had limited praise for the poem. A few particularly emotional scenes attracted positive comment, but several reviewers considered the overall poem too long and poorly crafted. More modern analysis of Radcliffe's works tends to overlook the poem entirely, and modern biographers of Radcliffe have dismissed it as an over-long and poorly-crafted work which is not representative of Radcliffe's literary skills.
The poem is prefaced with an apostrophe invoking the "Spirit of ancient days" as a Muse.[1][2] This forms part of a frame narrative, in which the poet visits St Albans Abbey in the early nineteenth century and imagines how it was lived in hundreds of years ago. The main narrative of the poem is set at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, at the time of the 1455 First Battle of St. Alban's.[3] Canto I, "The Abbey", describes the abbey's physical buildings in the eighteenth century as a mix of historical and modern features and invites the reader to imagine how it was used in the distant past, emphasizing the abbey's role as an intellectual and social hub of its community.[4]
The narrative begins in Canto II, "The Night Before the First Battle", in which monks and knights nervously anticipate the next day. The poem's hero is a fictional Lancastrian, Baron Fitz-Harding.[5] In addition to military scenes, the poem describes how the monks at the Abbey care for the wounded, and follows Fitz-Harding's wife Lady Florence on a dangerous journey in disguise to find her husband.[6] Canto III is "The Day of the First Battle"; Canto IV, "The Hour After the Battle"; Cantos V and VI are "The Evening After the Battle", set outside the castle's walls and within the town and abbey, respectively.
In Canto VII, "Scene in the Monastery", Fitz-Harding secretly takes shelter in the abbey buildings at night while Richard of York seeks him. He travels through the abbey's buildings disguised as a monk in Canto VIII, "Solemn Watch Within the Abbey", seeking his father among the wounded and dead, without success. In Canto IX, "Among the Dead", Fitz-Harding watches other mourners arrive with the dawn, including his wife Lady Florence looking for him in her own disguise. They reunite, in Canto X, also titled "Among the Dead", the two find Fitz-Harding's father alive. The narrative ends with Richard's capture of Henry VI. The poem concludes with the narrator's farewell to the "Norman shade" (i.e., the ghost of the abbey) which had temporarily animated the abbey buildings with the story of its past.
Style
Just where nave, choir, and transept met,
And Death with splendour was beset,
Fitzharding stood and looked below
O'er all the scene of varied woe.
And thus it lay beneath his sight—
The western aisles were stretched in night,
Save the shrined transept's rays
Threw the full splendour of its blaze
'Thwart the choir-steps and 'slant the nave.
There, every altar-tomb and grave,
As that long line of glory fell,
Showed its dead warrior, all too well.
St. Alban's Abbey is Radcliffe's longest poem,[7] running to more than three hundred pages in its first edition.[8][9] All of Radcliffe's previous poetry consisted of short poems inserted into her novels, ostensibly written by her characters.[10] Its stanzas, which vary in length, are grouped into ten cantos.[11] There is no consistent rhyme scheme, though it tends toward heroic couplets.[12][13] The narrative pacing is influenced by Walter Scott's new and popular historical fiction; as in his writing, St. Alban's Abbey moves frequently between scenes of simultaneous events that make up multiple interconnected storylines.[14] After the poem, Radcliffe includes 61 pages of endnotes that contextualize its fiction through an antiquarian historical lens.[14] These notes include information gathered from her historical sightseeing trips, as recorded in her journal at the time.[5]
Composition and publication
Ann Radcliffe was a successful writer of Gothic novels, gaining fame for a series of five novels published between 1789 and 1797.[15] These novels were set outside of England in the historical past, and featured vulnerable young women under threat.[16] Radcliffe was one of the most popular and highly-paid novelists of her day, until she ceased publishing after 1797 to live privately the rest of her life.[16][17]
According to Radcliffe's biographer Rictor Norton, St. Alban's Abbey was most likely composed in 1808 to 1809.[14] The poem's setting was inspired by Radcliffe's sightseeing trips with her husband in the south of England, especially her exploration of the cathedral for which the poem is named.[18] They visited St. Alban's several times, including trips in 1802 and 1808.[13] On the latter visit, they were shown a helmet which appears in the poem as the "golden damasked helmet" belonging to the hero's father.[5][13]
Nineteenth-century rumours suggest that Radcliffe intended to publish the poem and began negotiations with a publisher, but withdrew it from publication due to ill health.[19] These reports, published in 1824 and 1826, don't mention a specific date for the potential publication, saying only that it was planned "some years ago".[19] Ultimately, like everything Radcliffe wrote after her enormously successful final novel The Italian (1797), St. Alban's Abbey was not published until after her death in 1823.[20] The poem formed part of a four-volume collection of posthumous works published in 1826.[21] The collection was published by Henry Colburn and included a biography of Radcliffe by Thomas Noon Talfourd.[22][23] The title page of the first volume reads: Gaston de Blondeville, or The Court of Henry III. Keeping Festival in Ardenne, A Romance. St. Alban's Abbey, A Metrical Tale; With Some Poetical Pieces. By Anne Radcliffe, Author of "The Mysteries of Udolpho", "Romance of the Forest", &c. To Which is Prefixed a Memoir of the Author, With Extracts from Her Journals.[23] The poem was split across volumes three and four of the set.[23][24] The internal title page for the poem itself gives it the subtitle A Political Romance, rather than A Metrical Tale.[25]
