Troy, Carthage and the Victorians: The Drama of Classical Ruins in the Nineteenth-Century Imagination

Description

Playful, popular visions of Troy and Carthage, backdrops to the Iliad and Aeneid's epic narratives, shine the spotlight on antiquity's starring role in nineteenth-century culture. This is the story of how these ruined cities inspired bold reconstructions of the Trojan War and its aftermath, how archaeological discoveries in the Troad and North Africa sparked dramatic debates, and how their ruins were exploited to conceptualise problematic relationships between past, present and future. Rachel Bryant Davies breaks new ground in the afterlife of classical antiquity by revealing more complex and less constrained interaction with classical knowledge across a broader social spectrum than yet understood, drawing upon methodological developments from disciplines such as history of science and theatre history in order to do so. She also develops a thorough critical framework for understanding classical burlesque and engages in in-depth analysis of a toy-theatre production. Cover Half-title page Frontispiece Title page Copyright page Contents List of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgements Prologue 1 Introduction: The Ruins of Troy and Carthage ‘Still Flaming to the Imagination’ in the Nineteenth Century Why the Nineteenth Century? Why Troy and Carthage? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Troy and Carthage in the Nineteenth Century ‘The Golden Stream’ and ‘Classical Reception’: A ComplexWeb of Sources Chapter Overviews 2 ‘An Imaginary Troy’: Homeric Pilgrimage, Topography and Archaeology ‘Scholars, in Their Zeal’: The Antiquaries vs ‘The Taxpayer’ ‘The Battle of Bunarbashi’ (1795–1804): A Modern TrojanWar ‘Ingenious Travellers’: Scepticism vs Romantic Imagination ‘Consecrated Ground’: Higher Criticism vs the Proof of the Spade ‘An Archaeological Joke’: Responses to Schliemann’s ‘Disconveries’ ‘In the Trenches of Hisarlik’ or ‘Among the MusesWho Dwell on Olympus’? 3 ‘Not Classic, but Quite Correct’: The Trojan War at the Circus ‘Simple Minds in Every Rank of Life’: Cross-Class Audiences at the Circus The 1833 Siege of Troy at Astley’s: The Giant Horse of Sinon The 1854 Siege of Troy at Astley’s: The Miss-Judgment of Paris ‘Not All Strictly Greek and Trojan’: Recreating Antiquity at the Circus 4 ‘Freely Perverted from Classic Texts’: The Iliad and Aeneid Burlesqued ‘Those Who Are Best Acquainted with Homer’: Deconstructing Knowing, Confused and ‘Classically Minded’ Audiences ‘Too Classical’? Collapsing Distinctions Between Primary Sources and Secondary Burlesques ‘Aeneas Familiar with Cigars’: Burlesques as Part of the Contemporary Landscape of Classics ‘Surprise!’ Dramatising Tensions Between a Real or Imagined Troy 5 ‘Sitting Among the Bricks of Covent Garden’: Carthage and the Future Ruins of the Nineteenth Century ‘England and Carthage’: Translatio Imperii and the Classical Heritage ‘Scipio Burst into a Passion of Tears’: The Roman Conqueror Weeping ‘Marius Sitting amid the Ruins of Carthage’: A Roman Consul in Exile ‘A Nation’s Sepulchre’ as ‘Profitable Lesson’: Marius in the Cityscape of Carthage ‘London in the Twenty-Ninth Century’: Imagining the Future Ruins of Modern Cities Epilogue: Troy and Carthage as ‘A Beacon and a Warning’ Appendix A List of Burlesques Appendix B Select Chronology References Index