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Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

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<strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g to him and his readers than <strong>the</strong> simpler view <strong>of</strong> au<strong>the</strong>nticity taken by<br />

Oldbuck’s generation.<br />

The Antiquary captured most exactly <strong>the</strong> prevalent image <strong>of</strong> late-Georgian<br />

antiquarianism and rema<strong>in</strong>ed a model for <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> period. There were variations,<br />

however. In E W Cooke’s popular pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g ‘The Antiquary’s Cell’ [fig: 7], not least <strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> word ‘cell’, <strong>the</strong>re is a suggestion <strong>of</strong> a more impos<strong>in</strong>g semi-mystical figure,<br />

<strong>the</strong> magus, or at least <strong>the</strong> alchemist, h<strong>in</strong>ted at already by Adamson. At <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>the</strong><br />

Figure 7 The Antiquary's Cell, by E.W.Cooke, 1835<br />

antiquary might also still, as L<strong>in</strong>gard discovered, be seen as a political and religious<br />

subversive. And while <strong>the</strong> old associations l<strong>in</strong>gered <strong>the</strong>re was potential to colonise a new<br />

and specifically romantic social type, <strong>the</strong> Bohemian. E H Langlois was one who did.<br />

These, however, are subjects for later chapters. Meanwhile <strong>the</strong> antiquary <strong>in</strong> his more<br />

usual variant forms was now pretty well established <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> public m<strong>in</strong>d.<br />

Thomas Rowlandson’s satire on social types, The English Dance <strong>of</strong> Death, with<br />

verses by William Combe, appeared <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> same year as Scott’s novel. It features Fungus<br />

<strong>the</strong> Antiquary among <strong>the</strong> characters <strong>of</strong> modern life about to meet his end [fig: 8]. The<br />

Dance <strong>of</strong> Death was a popular subject for antiquarianism <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> period, both Langlois and<br />

27

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