18th Century
Introduction: The 1700s witnessed significant bohemian evolution in both the pictographic realm William Hogarth paves the way for future satirists like Thackeray, and the literary realm possibly the most defined bohemian club arose, lead by Samuel Johnson and inspired by the most elusive and ostensibly most bohemian of all British literary characters, Richard Savage.
(see
picture page 2 for illustration)
The
18th century also witnessed one of the clearest social
reverberations of the bohemian culture: women protesting male behavior. For the
topics on which the married, female population was able to reach a consensus,
several petitions were drawn up. In one specific petition, entitled The Ladies
of London and Westminster to the Honourable House for Husbands these women
express their opinion of Wills coffee house: Younger sons of the upper and
middling classesshowed an aversion to the squalling of children, and rocking
cradles, though the sot can sit a whole day at Wills amidst the eternal
quarrels of the no-wits, and the endless disputes of the no-politicians. [1]
In another, similar document, these women take the argument even further,
specifying their grouse, one might say, by blaming the coffee houses for
detrimental effects on mens sexual functions. One sees clearly that, at least
socially, urban bohemia was no undetected, underground movement in fact, it
had wide ranging implications. Before we move off the subject of 18th
century women, it seems appropriate to mention a rather minute yet telling
detail of French influence on British culture: Right around the turn of the
century, British women began to make their hair puffy, imitating the French
fashion of the time. French Bohemianism would have had no place influencing the
British art scene without a firm grip on other, even less trivial cultural
elements.[2]
Another, indeed more obvious, implication of French
influence is the British sway towards more radical thinking. In the context of
bohemianism, William Hogarth (active from 1720 1764), another coffee drinker,
could not capture this trend more vividly. With transparently prescriptive
intentions and an obvious thesis, Hogarth etched his view of England: a polite
and rational elite standing on a boisterous, brutal foundation. [3]
This recurring view, consistently suggested by authors and artists of the time,
is voiced most poignantly by his portraits of the dirty side of society,
brutal engravings such as Gin Lane (see below) and the Harlots Progress,
whos names speak for themselves. One of Hogarths best-known collections, the
Prentice Series (see below) takes a bitter bite out of societys intense
hatred of sloth.
Gin Lane
In depicting what could nearly be called idealized depravity Hogarths sharp expos is
Idle Prentice
Included
below are two additional sketches characteristic of Hogarths style., both
reflecting his satiric look at the debauched underbelly of British society.
A man seldom
thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has
not the art of getting drunk.
-S.J.
Unquestionably the most influential of what we are calling bohemian writers, Samuel Johnsons accomplishments in the literary universe are unmatched: This is the man who defined Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw as metaphysical poets for their rejection of the poetic and their emphasis on striking imagery over correct verse. But whats impressive is that this is also the man for whom the driving force behind the majority of his work was urgent monetary necessity;[4] this is the man whos love of leisure led to such atypical comments as A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. A quick glance at the majority of Johnsons work will reveal its eclectic nature: the man wrote a Dictionary! Whiling away his days at Wills, urgent monetary necessity. Johnsons career maintained a clear distance from the novelists of the 18th century (i.e. Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollet): after writing one quasi-novel Rasselas (1759), he simply wrote whatever the public seemed to demand (which, at the moment, did not include serious novels). He published poetry collections, the aforementioned Dictionary (1755), Irene (1736) an unsuccessful tragedy, an informal essay collection entitled The Rambler, and the odd articles or review for one magazine or another. Johnsons very predicament is well expressed over a century later in Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray: I should like to write a novel certainly, a novel that would be as lovely as a Persian carpet and as unreal. But there is no literary public in England for anything except newspapers, primers, and encyclopedias. Of all people in the world the English have the least sense of the beauty of literature.[5]
Although he lived most of his life in relative
poverty, Johnsons artistic spirit was unquenchable. For example, in one magazine article, for which he was
recording Parliamentary proceedings, he fabricated the majority of the
speeches. It is this charming, free-roaming personality that won him such great
company in his Literary Club. This organization, founded in 1764 as The Club,
was made possible by a pension under George III that relieved Johnson somewhat
from life as a struggling artist. The club originated in The Turks Head, a
tavern in Soho, but soon decentralized. Johnsons followers and fellow club
members were abundant and diverse. His closest club ties included: Oliver
Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, (who continue to evidence the diversity of
thought within the Bohemian framework) and James Boswell (all writers) as well
as Sir Joshua Reynolds and David Garrick. As for a typical
tidbit of Club repartee: Boswell: That, Sir, was great
fortitude of mind. Johnson: No, Sir, stark insensibility.[6]
In his newfound leisure time, he published both Lives of the English Poets
and The Life of Richard Savage.