The Romantics - Liberty (BBC Documentary)

on the morning of the 21st of January 1793 a large Cloud filled this Square in the heart of Paris in the center of the square was erected a Contraption known simply as the machine it was invented by Joseph guillotin at around 10:00 that morning a man lowered his head into the machine the Executioner Chari s pulled the Rope the blade sliced down but lodged itself in the fat neck of the victim sarau hoisted the blade for a second attempt this time the head was severed from the victim's body it tumbled into the basket in front

of the machine a guard picked it out and showed it to the crowd it was the head of Louis the 16th the king of France this is a story of revolution of Bloodshed and political upheaval it inspired a radical change in the way we perceive the world and the greatest outpouring of creativity in the history of the English language The Story begins some 40 years before the killing of the king in a world based upon the twin principles of authority and hierarchy only nobility and clergy had personal Liberties all others had no rights only duties

at the heart of this old order was Paris the Paris Police Force was the largest in Europe with one member for every 545 parisians those undesirable to the state would simply disappear in 1742 two young men met in this city and became great friends they would sit at the cafes of the Left Bank to play chess here they had ideas that became the seeds of the Romantic Revolution the names of these two men were Deni dero and Jean jaac Russo they were philosophers with very different beliefs but they were United against the existing order dero

was convinced that the future would be built on reason the finest privilege of our reason consists in not believing in anything by the impulsion of a blind and mechanical instinct man is born to think for himself but Russo championed feeling over thought he was freely emotional plunging himself into moods of the deepest dejection and the most Serene happiness he cried openly and often to feel is to exist and our feelings come most incontestably before our thoughts both these men believe the system of control in France to be inhuman both were preaching freedom and liberty for

the individual they were playing a dangerous game on the 24th of July 1749 dero was woken at 7:30 in the morning by a loud knocking on the door of his apartment in the rud de lrad this set off a chain of events that would lead to the greatest revolution in human history the visitors were the police Dido's crime was that he was thinking differently imagining a new world different from that of the established order he was being arrested for writing a book it was a great Encyclopedia of all useful knowledge dedicated to the ideas of

progress and of science he was making a map of human understanding the encyclopedia had more than 70,000 articles and nearly 3,000 diagrams illustrating every conceivable subject from asparagus to the Zodiac in this Manifesto of pure reason there was no place for God man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest dero believed that Civilization had usurped the place of God with the power of Science and classification everything in the world could be explained and understood his words were tantamount to heresy and high treason the old structure

of Europe relied on the existence of a god everyone's place in society was divinely ordained but if God did not exist what then every concept of order and of authority would be thrown into doubt these were incend ideas for the authorities deo's books were the work of the devil and he would pay dearly he was imprisoned in the notorious dungeons of the shadow of Ven his encyclopedia was banned yet he was not the only one in Chains one day in October 1749 as Russo walked to visit his friend in his cell he had a revelation

that every human being lives their life in a prison man was born free and everywhere he is in Chains all at once I felt my mind dazzled by a thousand lights crowd of Splendid ideas presented themselves to me civilized man is born and dies a slave the infant is bound in swaddling clothes the corpse is nailed down in a coffin all his life man is imprisoned by our institutions life is not breath but action the use of our senses our minds every part of ourselves luo had experienced a vision that would become the single most

important inspiration of the English Romantic Poets he had seen that emotion could unlock the prison of civilized society for him the key to Freedom lay in individual will and feeling Russo believed that man in his natural state is essentially good that science is wicked that Civilization is harmful and that all cultures are corrupt nature never deceives us it is we who deceive ourselves our greatest evils flow from our elves man confuses and confounds time place and natural conditions the more we are masked together the more corrupt we become Russo was calling for the end of

civilization itself it would not be long before he was forced out of France the old regimes of Europe would never accept the revolutionary ideas of dero and rouso only a new generation could put them into practice in a new world that new world already existed thousands of ships had carried immigrants to its Shores it was called America America was an experiment in living religious radicals and political refugees had come here to create their own communities in the wilderness these disaffected Europeans had embraced ideas of self-government and of Liberty on November the 30th 1774 a young

English idealist arrived in America after a series of misfortunes in his old country including bankruptcy and the death of his first wife once here he became a journalist his name was Thomas pay this new world hath been the Asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe they fled not from the tender Embraces of the mother but from the cruelty of the monster and it is so far true of England that the same tyranny which drove the first immigrants from home pursu ose their descendants still P was one of

many new Americans who reacted strongly and violently to the imposition of taxes upon them by their English rulers inspired by the ideals of dero and rouso Payne wrote a pamphlet entitled Common Sense he attacked the idea of monarchy and praised the notion of a new Civil Society his was the fuel that would fire the American Revolution where say some is the king of America I'll tell you friend he reigns above and does not make Havoc of mankind like the Royal brute of Britain in America the law is King the publication of Common Sense led to

the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 this land was on its way to becoming a nation of the free for the first time the people had Advanced the cause of a Nation without a king without an aristocracy without a National Church all men are created equal all men have an equal right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness this was the beginning of modern democracy and it was a Clarion call for revolution in Europe news of the American Revolution exhilarated the young radicals of Britain but new ideas of Liberty would do more than undermine

respect for the king and the existing political order they would also bring about an entirely new way of looking at the world the Romantic Revolution was underway at the Forefront of this Revolution was a Londoner named William Blake he saw the events in America as a great prophecy of a future world red rose the clouds from the Atlantic in vast wheels of blood the king of England looking westwards trembles at the vision let the slave grinding in the mill run out into the fields let him look up into the heavens and laugh in the bright

air for Empire is no more in 1779 at the age of 21 Blake was being instructed by the greatest British Artist of the period sir Joshua Reynolds Reynolds was what we now describe as the ultimate establishment figure Rich respected and eminent he believed in an ideal art based upon study and the classical principles of order un Harmony and rationality Blake believed the opposite that the imagination was the force that made great art he rebelled against his teacher this man was hired to depress art I say taste and genius are not teachable or acquirable but are

born with us Reynolds says the contrary such artists as Reynolds are at all times hired by the satans for the depression of Art a pretense to Art to destroy art Blake was an instinctive libertarian who sought freedom from the system that enslaved him he eventually abandoned the teachings of Reynolds and became an independent artist he poured his radical Visionary ideas into poetry drawing and Engravings in 1780 Blake completed a design for a print that he entitled albian Rose it is a young man with with his arms outstretched in a gesture of Liberation there is such

a look of energy and exaltation upon his face that some people believe it must be a self-portrait Blake lived in Poland street with his wife Catherine and his younger brother Robert all three United in a life of constant Financial struggle their home was at number 28 now home to a hairdressing Salon Blake had very few readers and was obliged to publish his own work himself but it remains as a great document of the Revolutionary anger of a new generation in an oppressive City I wander through each charted Street near where the charted temps does flow

and Mark in every face I meet marks of weakness marks of Woe in every Cry of every man in every infant's Cry of Fear in every voice in every ban the Mind forged manacles I he the Mind forged manacles that Blake perceived were the prisons of custom and of habit no one could escape from the dreary round of Duty and obedience demanded by the old order of society the will and Imagination of each person person were locked away life itself had become a prison man was born free and everywhere he is in Chains Blake like

Russo and pay before him saw human beings as Shackled and chained in their daily lives it was an idea that was slowly spreading through the radicals of Europe these radicals derided and exiled often found themselves in Blake's neighborhood of Soho in London a shadow area considered exotic and disreputable a Haven for the free thinkers of Europe one French radical came to Soho in November 1783 he lived off Newman passage his name was jacqu Pierre bro here he could safely publish French anti-monarchist propaganda for distribution in his native country bro wrote a radical Journal called Universal

correspondence in it he attacked the inherent decadence and Corruption of the old regime in Paris he was calling for Bloodshed he was calling for revolution in his own country if blood must be shed in order to be free then let it be the blood of time parents those who have the arrogance to tell us that they are our masters when you think that one tenth of the nation oppresses all the others for five sue a day there is nothing left to say bro and other radical journalists firmly believed that they would bring down the French

state with their words on the 19th of May 1784 bro returned to Paris to raise more funding for his London printing place he arrived back in France full of Hope but soon after his arrival in Paris he was arrested he was thrown into the bastile prison charged with the publication of lials against the French Queen bro remained in the bastile for 2 months but just outside its walls the radical press of France was becoming ever more daring and ever more popular it was these revolutionary words that would Inspire the French people to seek their Liberty

the people is the foundation of the state the people is everything it is in the hands of the people that National Power resides the main focus of attack was the corrupt and secretive old regime with the royal family at its head King Louis V 16th and his Austrian wife Maria an or as the literature referred to her the Austrian [ __ ] salacious pornographic Prince represented Mar anet in a series of sexual Liaisons with the king's brother and various Court officials the people hated those in power change had to come on the morning of the

14th of July 1789 thousands of parisians gathered on the city's streets they were fearful that the king's armies were marching upon the city to impose martial law it was a day that would change the course of world history a day that would redefine the possibilities of human nature every people's revolution of the last 200 years owes its debt to this day it will never be forgotten on what is now a roundabout stood the bastile a 14th century Fortress with walls 80 ft in height it was the mob's destination the bastile was more than a fortress

here people were imprisoned in solitary confinement without trial rumors of torture abounded it represented all the inhumanity of the state which the revolutionaries were fighting to overthrow man was born free and everywhere he is in Chains the governor of the prison had no choice in the face of such overwhelming Force he opened the gates and the crowd surged in the bastile was taken the governor was killed and beheaded his head was placed upon a pike after the 14th of July 1789 Europe was never the same human beings were never the same dero and Russo's revolutionary

ideas were coming of age the individual would Define the future as the sun came up in London the day after the storming of the bastile everything seemed possible the French people had unlocked the prison of their history now it was time for the British to do the same revolutionary slogans began to appear all over the country radicals such as the London revolutionary Society met in ins and coffee houses out of this revolutionary fervor would emerge a great romantic whose writing would have a profound effect upon on literature and Upon Our perception of human life his

name was William woodsworth it was a time when Europe was rejoiced and France standing on the top of golden hours and human nature seeming Born Again Bliss was it in did not dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven for woodsworth the revolution seemed one of the greatest events in history promising the future freedom of the human race it was this spirit that Drew him to France to be near the true forces of Liberty his experiences of Revolution would Mark him for life and would transform his art I stared and listened for

the strangers ears to Hawkers and Harang and hissing factionists with Ardent eyes in knots or peirs or single anlik swarms and Builders and subverters every face that hold for a could put on I saw the Revolutionary power tossed like a ship at anchor rocked by storms woodsworth was alive to the new possibilities of life he fell deeply in love with a young frenchwoman named Annette valon oh happy time of youthful lovers thus my story began oh bmy time when the love knot on a lady's brow is fairer than the fairest star of Heaven Anette gave

birth to a baby girl a child for a new age the future was Wordsworth to Fashion as he liked together with Annette and their daughter kolene but the Revolution was careering out of control as debates raged in Paris about how French society should be reorganized there was fear of a foreign Invasion and talk of French royalists masquerading as revolutionary sympathizers this fear erupted into an outbreak of Butchery and bloodshed that threatened the very possibilities of Liberty priests and nuns were viciously slaughtered for refusing to agree to a republican oath for Wordsworth The Savage violence would

destroy all hope for a new world the Jacobin the revolutionary group in control of Paris killed the king this was the beginning of the great Terror they instituted a regime in which any of the king's supporters would be summarily executed by giltin at the best it seemed a place of fear here defenseless as a Woodward Tiger's Rome slowly the Jacobin rule reached the state of paranoia anyone who disagreed with them on any matter would die in ever increasing numbers the citizens of Paris were tried for crimes against the revolution from the conciergerie prison hundreds wrote

their last letters Philipe Rigo wrote to his wife in a few moments dear wife I shall appear before my God my pen is trembling in my hand and my tears cover the paper I'm sending you the only sh that still belongs to me it is a TFT of my hair when you look at it think sometimes of one who loved you well my heart is full I cannot say more farewell yes farewell the next morning weo was put in a cart called a tumil and hauled through jeering crowds along the r santon to the gillotin

many of those who went to the guillotine were great supporters of Liberty in the panic and paranoia the Revolution was devouring its own children the corpses piled up and the stench became unendurable it represented the decay of hope the Headless bodies were loaded back into carts leaving Blood Stained Trails across the city to be dumped in stinking pits in the suburb of pikus surrounded by modern flats and office blocks lies a small patch of the past in two huge mass Graves under these Gardens lie the remains of 1,36 victims of the guillotine among them are

a young chambermaid named Louise Cecile Kuan Char ad a wine merchant Martin aom an apprentice hairdresser Louie Bodo a surgeon and a dress maker called Marie in the midst of the terror France was a dangerous place for Britain and Britain a dangerous place for the French William Wordsworth found himself heading home forced to leave his great La Anette and their little daughter behind his revolutionary Faith had been shaken Wordsworth was learning a hard but salutary lesson one man's idea of Liberty is another man's idea of tyranny most Melancholy at that time were my day thoughts

my dreams were miserable through months through years long after the last beat of those atrocities I speak bare truth as if to thee alone in private talk I had scarcely one night of quiet sleep such ghastly Visions had I of Despair and tyranny an Implement of death Annette wrote to Wordsworth but the Revolutionary authorities seized her letters come my love my husband and receive the tender Embraces of your wife of your daughter she grows more like you every day I seem to be holding you in my arms her little heart often beats against my own

and I seem to feel her father's these words never reached Wordsworth he became a Wanderer looking for a new direction in which to pursue his vision to wander without destination to seek out new territories was itself a revolutionary act for woodsworth the wild Uncharted landscape was a place of contemplation and of healing where he could be most natural and most himself but it was his encounters with the people in the landscape that restored his faith in human nature I began to inquire to watch and question those I met and held familiar talk with them the

lonely roads were schools to me in which I daily read with most Delight the passions of mankind woodsworth began to write poems about his encounters with the downtrodden the same kind of people to whom the revolution in France had given a voice but it was another chance meeting with a man in Bristol one August evening in 1795 that changed the course of his life above the corn Market this man gave rousing lectures on revolutionary politics in rooms that are now vacant Council offices his name was Samuel Taylor kid the example of France is indeed a

warning to Britain a nation wading to its rights Through Blood and marking the track of Freedom by Devastation French freedom is a beacon which while it guides to equality should show us the dangers that throng the road together woodsworth and cdge would Salvage the ideals of Romanticism from the chaos of the French Revolution Wordsworth was staying in number 7 great George Street in the center of Bristol he read to CID one of his poems entitled the female vagrant it was the story of a woman who on the death of her husband and children becomes a

vagrant and an outcast the pains and plagues that on our heads came down disease and famine Agony and fear in wood or Wilderness in Camp or town it would thy brain unsettle even to hear all perished all in one remorseless year she ceased and weeping turned away as if because her tail was at an end she wept because she had no more to say of that Perpetual weight which on her spirit lay a bond between Wordsworth and cdge was forged that would last a lifetime they wanted to change the world by diverting their Revolution Zeal

into poetry they moved to the Quanto Hills in Somerset kidge and his family settled in the village of nether stoy woodsworth and his sister Dorothy rented a nearby house the now neglected Al Foxton but this house is one of the most important places in the history of English literature it is here that kidge and woodsworth would collaborate on a collection of poems that would define the Romantic age as the two men wrote the whole country was gripped by fear and paranoia fear that the revolution that had struck France would engulf Britain next a government agent

named James Walsh was sent to spy on them he interviewed several locals regarding the strange new people at Al Foxton Charles MOG says he was at Al Foxton Thomas Jones informed Moog that some French people had got in possession of the mansion house Christopher Tricky told MOG that the French people had taken the plan of all the places around that part of the country the French people inquired of tricky whether the brook was navigable to the Sea as Mr MOG is by no means the most intelligent man in the world I thought it my duty

to send you the whole of his story the way he related it I shall await your further orders the locals told Walsh that the wordsworth's had visitors late at night they were frequently on the Heights in darkness they kept a portfolio in which they made notes they were continually writing things down on pieces of paper they said that their work was almost finished there was no evidence to arrest Wordsworth and cdge but although their actions were not political in any obvious sense their words began a revolution no less profound they had almost finished a volume

that would have more lasting effects than a thousand political manifestos it was the book for a new age it was called the lyrical ballads taking its name from the popular forms of song and verse the lyrical ballads was a collection of intimate accounts of rustic lives told in simple language it is a pure expression of romantic ideals when it was published in 1798 woodsworth and colage withheld their names from it they were proclaiming a new poetic Faith which they believed to be Beyond individual authorship a neighbor in farmer who had been forced to sell off

his animals to feed his family became the subject of one poem called the last of the flock in distant countries I have been and yet I have not often seen a healthy man a man full grown weep in the public RS alone this Lusty lamb of all my store is all that is alive and now I care not if we die and perish all of poverty woodsworth and cdge were relocating dignity in the Common Place restoring Grace and significance to ordinary lives where Saints and heroes walk unannounced and unknown their writing had the same purpose

as the French Revolution to create a democratic World in which outcasts had as much right to be heard as anyone else in which women and children also had a voice theirs was poetry of the individual conscience and the individual Consciousness people ceased to be subjects and became citizens and the poems invested them with a soul as well everyone was different everyone was unique the French Revolution had proclaimed the liberty of every citizen even the very poorest but it had descended into Madness by making art out of revolutionary philosophy Wordsworth and CD succeeded where the revolution

had failed they gave politics a human face the lyrical ballads was a revolution in 23 poems at its heart was a tale of visionary captivating Force the rhyme of the Ancient Mariner has become one of the great poems in the English language during a visit visit to the Harbor Town of watchet woodsworth conceived the idea of a mariner who shoots an albatross CD began writing out wordsworth's story and soon took over the narrative in the rhyme of the Ancient Mariner the Voyager who has been touched by Madness sees Into the Heart of life and death

I pass like night from land to land I have strange power of speech the moment that his face I see I know the man that must hear me to him my tale I teach in the poem the ancient Mariners ship is driven off its course towards the South Pole the ice was here the ice was there the ice was all around it cracked and growled and roared and howled a wild and ceaseless sound at length it cross an albatross through the fog it came as though it were a Christian Soul we hailed it in God's

name but then the Ancient Mariner commits an arbitrary and irrational crime God save the Ancient Mariner from the fiends that plague thee thus why look thou so with my crossbow I shot the albatross as a result the ship is pursued by Phantoms that destroy the rest of the crew the prees blew the white foam flew The Farrow followed free we were the first that ever burst into that silent sea the Ancient Mariner is allowed to survive and is compelled to tell his cautionary tale a warning that man must respect his fellow creatures with this poem

Colwich had begun a journey that would take the romantics far beyond the domain of politics in their search for Freedom this new quest for Liberty would take them into the very heart of the natural world alone alone all all alone alone on the white white sea and Christ would take no pity on my soul in agony so many remain so beautiful and they all dead did lie and a million million slimy things lived on and so did I another episode of this program airs next week on TVO find out more about some of the poets

and poems featured in this series with a free booklet from the open University to order call 0870 90031 hear more of the romantics poetry at bbc.co.uk Romantics