‘The Rule of Men Entirely Great’: Republicanism,Ritual, and Richelieu in Melville’s ‘The Two Temples’

Abstract

This article explores the complex and multifarious reasons behind Herman Melville’s decision to refer to the English playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1839 work Richelieu, or The Conspiracy in his 1854 diptych ‘The Two Temples’. It responds to a critical consensus that has seen the reference merely as a sarcastic attack on William Macready (whose rivalry with the American actor Edwin Forrest was the nominal cause of the bloody 1849 Astor Place Riot in New York), by contextualizing the play within traditions of antebellum American Anglophilia. By using a combination of new critical work on Anglo-Americanism and anthropological ritual theory, I show how Bulwer-Lytton’s play was significant to Melville’s artistic development. In particular, I demonstrate how the play influenced his increasing engagement with republican and theatrical forms of expression that emphasized the importance of filial relationships between America and Britain in a period of increasing hostility between the two nations.     

“逐去其君，削去尊贵爵位”：蠡勺居士革命思想管窥

蠡勺居士1873年翻译并发表了英国小说家爱德华·布韦尔-利顿的小说《夜与晨》,译名《昕夕闲谈》。译者借翻译之便在小说中介绍法国革命爆发的原因和拿破仑的政治改革为巴黎带来的新风气,说明社会变革的基础在于启蒙教育,强调文人著书立说在法国革命过程中所起的积极作用,指出革命成功的手段是"逐君"和"削爵"。他向国人展示了法国革命的成果,"人人自由平权",国家"恍如新例之国"。蠡勺居士在翻译中受原著作者布韦尔-利顿的影响,利用小说传递新思想,以法国革命的成功为例给晚清提出革命性启示,也为中国近代社会变革提出理论和实践指导方策。