Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb - cehum - Universidade do Minho

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GEORGINA ABREU
stability of the monarchy is to me? Why am I anxious to interpose in its
behalf?’ (BD, vol. v: 300) reveals the radicals’ discomfort, but it also hints at
the publicity gains inherent in the royal quarrel.
Carlile was the fi rst radical journalist to perceive the import-ance of
the Caroline aff air in February 1820. Although in February 1820 he voiced
the same embarrassment: ‘as Republicans, we should not deign to meddle
with this question, if the rights of royalty were the only matter in dispute,’
he recognized the moral, political, and social issues at stake: ‘but as men
struggling to be free, we feel it an imperative duty to support this injured
woman – this victim, fi rst to unbridled lust, and now to despotism [...] this
innocent, injured, and unfortunate Princess’ (R, vol. ii: 189). In the R of
16 June, Carlile reasserted the earlier commitment to defend the Queen, a
‘much injured and grossly insulted woman’, exposed to the persecution of a
‘gang of villains’ (R, vol. iii: 253-4). Th e King’s treatment of his wife became
the central issue of political and cultural assertion in the radical periodicals
before the beginning of the proceedings in the House of Lords.
Wooler exposed the conduct of the King towards his wife, as selfi sh
and unscrupulous in the distinctive mock-satiric tone of the BD. Th e letter
to the editor by the invented reader ‘Peter Dolike’, entitled ‘Justice! Mon!
Justice!’ published in the edition of 5 July, is a good example of the use of
satire as a polemical mode. Th e mock-justice demanded in the letter was
immediately compared to the kind of justice off ered to the Queen. Ridicule
originated by the discrepancy between the low social condition of the
author (revealed by his bad English) and the sophistication of the original
parodied (George IV):
Why, would ye think it, sur? Here be I in the House of Correction, and all
for what? Because I don’t like my wife, and am determined not to live wi her
any longer. [...] But our minister be such a queer chap, that instead of taking
my part, he has taken hers, and has got me put into gaol, only for just serving
my wife as other folks serve theirs! As you live in town, will ye be kind enough
to ask Lord Eldon about it for me: and get me a bill of divorce seat down as
speedily as possible, that I may be my own man again, like other great folks
(BD, vol. v: 31).
Th e debasement of the fi gure of the King was represented in various
ways. One of the most successful was his representation as a willing
cuckold. In ‘A Queer Story’ (BD, vol. v: 454-55) Lincoln, another invented
reader, writes to the ‘Black Dwarf ’ telling the strange story of a man who
Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb 164 05-01-2012 09:38:28