Rapin, Hume and the identity of the historian in eighteenth century England

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Abstract Paul de Rapin-Thoyras's History of England (1725–1731) has hitherto occupied a marginal position in most accounts of eighteenth-century historiography, despite its considerable readership and influence. This paper charts the publication history of the work, its politics and style, and the methods through which Rapin's British translators and booksellers successfully proposed the work as the model for new historical enquiry, and its author as the model for a modern historical writer. It is further argued that David Hume's writings and letters relating to his History of England (1754–1763) suggest a direct and critical engagement with Rapin's work, and with the identity of the historian, as it had been constructed through Rapin's success. By focussing on the mechanisms of production and circulation, and the impact which these had on the practice of historical writing in the eighteenth century, the paper aims to demonstrate the value of applying social–historical methods to the study of historical writing. ☆ This article is based on a paper delivered to the Leeds Eighteenth Century Studies Seminar, and is in turn based on my Ph.D. thesis, Historiography and Visual Culture in Britain 1660–1783, University of Leeds, 1998. My thanks to John Robertson, Malcolm Baker, Diana Douglas, Alisia Weisberg-Roberts, Adrian Wilson, Anthony Wright, W.A. Speck and Carolyn Sargentson, all of whom commented on the paper in its various forms, and made useful criticisms and suggestions. Keywords: HumeRapinHistoriographyPerformativityMaterial culture Notes ☆ This article is based on a paper delivered to the Leeds Eighteenth Century Studies Seminar, and is in turn based on my Ph.D. thesis, Historiography and Visual Culture in Britain 1660–1783, University of Leeds, 1998. My thanks to John Robertson, Malcolm Baker, Diana Douglas, Alisia Weisberg-Roberts, Adrian Wilson, Anthony Wright, W.A. Speck and Carolyn Sargentson, all of whom commented on the paper in its various forms, and made useful criticisms and suggestions. 1 ‘Letter to Abbé le Blanc’, July 1757, in J.Y.T. Grieg (Ed.), The Letters of David Hume, Vol. 1 (Oxford 1932), p. 258. 2 The approach draws upon Robert Darnton's ‘communications circuit’ (‘What is the History of Books’, Daedalus (Summer 1982), pp. 65–83), and G. Deleuze and F. Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. B. Massumi (London 1988), particularly ‘Chapter One: Rhizome’. 3 History was not a university discipline in England until the middle of the nineteenth century. There was a Camden chair at Oxford in the seventeenth century but it was for the study of classical history. Two chairs of history at Oxford and Cambridge, instituted by George I in the 1720s, were sinecures and no works of history were produced by their occupiers. See A. Marwick, The Nature of History (London 1970), p. 33, and R. Porter, Edward Gibbon: Making History (London 1990), ‘The Uses of History in Georgian England’, pp. 15–41. 4 For Oxford historical studies during this period see D. Douglas, English Scholars (London 1939), D. Fairer, ‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’ and S. Piggott, ‘Antiquarian Studies’ in L.S. Sutherland and L.G. Mitchell, The History of the University of Oxford: The Eighteenth Century, Vol. V (Oxford 1986), pp. 807–830, 757–778. 5 J. Feather, A History of British Publishing (London 1988), passim. 6 Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (Oxford, 1702–1704), G. Hickes, Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaelogicus (Oxford, 1703–1705). 7 [J. Oldmixon] The Critical History of England, Ecclesiastical and Civil (London 1726), p. vii, 148, 157. 8 Details of Rapin's life can be found in P. de Rapin-Thoyras, The History of England as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, trans. N. Tindal (London, 1725–1731), unpag., ‘Some Particulars of Mons Rapin's Life in a Letter to ****’ in Rapin, The History of England, trans J. Kelly (London 1732), pp. i–vi, M. Raoul de Cazenove Rapin-Thoyras, Sa Famille, Sa Vie, et Ses Oevres (Paris 1866), F. Waddington (Ed.) Memoires Inédits et Opuscules de Jean Rou, Vol. 2 (Paris 1857), H. Trevor-Roper ‘A Huguenot Historian: Paul Rapin’ in I. Scoulaudi (Ed.) Huguenots in Britain and their French Background 1550–1800 (Basingstoke, 1987), pp. 3–20, and P. Hicks, Neoclassical History and English Culture: From Clarendon to Hume (Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 146–150. Rapin's own political objectives in the writing of his history are not the subject of this paper, although the Huguenot circles in which he moved are well-documented in Cazenove and Rou. An overview is given in my entry on Rapin for the New DNB. 9 P. de Rapin-Thoyras ‘Letter to J. Robethon’, May 1717, BL Stowe MS 230, f. 117–121. 10 See for instance Rapin Hist. Eng., Vol. I, p. 50 and p. 75. For a more general discussion of the popularity of gory stories of the period see F.W. Chandler, Literature of Roguery (London, 1907), I. Watt, The Rise of the Novel (London, 1957), pp. 35–39, and J. Richetti, Popular Fiction before Richardson: Narrative Patterns 1700–39 (Oxford, 1969), pp. 24–26. 11 J. Lockman, New History of England by Question and Answer. Extracted from the most celebrated historians; particularly M. de Rapin-Thoyras, written principally for the instruction of youth (London, 1729). 12 The 1735 edition in the Bodleian, from which the above quotations are taken (pp. 2–20), contains the handwritten names of pupils at a school in Norwich, who were clearly still using the text in 1818. 13 The third edition was in English and French (Nouvelles Histoire d’Angleterre. par Demandes et Responses (1736)). This text was the subject of an agreement between Paul Vaillant and John Nourse in 1740, Original Assignments of Copy-rights of Books and Other Literary Agreements between Various Publishers from 1712 to 1822 Collected by William Upcott of the London Institution 1825, BL Add. MS 387030, f. 35. 14 Rapin Hist. Eng., trans. Kelly, pp. i–vi. 15 Rapin History of England, continued from the Revolution to the Accession of George II by N. Tindal (London, 1732). 16 Rapin History of England. Translated into English by J. Kelly to which is added critical and explanatory notes. Continued by Thomas Lediard (London, 1732–1737). 17 In 1736 the Knaptons published George Vertue's engravings of The Heads of the Kings of England Proper for Mr Rapin's History, translated by Nicholas Tindal (London, 1736) with engravings of Rapin and Tindal and an account of the visual sources for the engravings of the heads of the monarchs. In 1743 the Knapton's monumental third edition contained Vertue's engravings as well as the Metallick History of the Reigns of William III [to] George III. illustrated with maps, genealogical tables, etc. (London, 1743–1747). 18 A Summary of Rapin de Thoyras's History of England, and Mr Tindal's Continuation… illustrated with medals, plans of battles, towns and sieges (London, 1751). 19 An Abridgement of the History of England, being a summary of Rapin's History and Tindal's continuation (London, 1747). 20 R.M. Wiles, Serial Publishing in England before 1750 (Cambridge, 1957), p. 96. 21 Anon, A Defence of English History against the Misrepresentations of M. de Rapin-Thoyras in his History of England, now publishing weekly (London, 1734), p. 2. Philip Hicks suggests a print run of 18,000 copies, Neoclassical History, p. 147. 22 Wiles Serial Pub., p. 10. 23 See ‘Appendix B: the Knapton Trade Sale Catalogue (25 Sept. 1755)’ a facsimile of BL: C.170.aa.1 (67), In D.W. Nichol (Ed.), Pope's Literary Legacy: The Book Trade Correspondence of William Warburton and John Knapton with Other Letters and Documents 1744–1748 (Oxford Bibliographical Society 1992), p. 184. The estimate of £400 is from T. Belanger ‘Publishers and Writers in Eighteenth Century England’ in I. Rivers (Ed.), Books and their Readers in Eighteenth Century England (Leicester, 1982), p. 17. 24 Rapin History of England with the reign of George II by Tobias Smollett, 5 vols. (1784–1789). Smollett died in 1771, this ‘continuation’ was probably lifted from Smollett's own Complete History of England, see below. 25 Rapin Hist. Eng., third ed., vols. I and III. 26 [Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke] Remarks on the History of England from the Minutes of Humphrey Oldcastle, serialized in The Craftsman, 5th September 1730 and 21st May 1731 (no. 218–255). These were later bound into a single book (London, 1752), references are to this text. 27 Lord John Hervey Ancient and Modern Liberty (London, 1734), pp. 50–1, The Daily Gazeteer, no. 64 (11 September 1735), quoted in I. Kramnick Bolingbroke and His Circle; The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole (Oxford, 1968), p. 181. Tellingly, The Craftsman's defence of Rapin was that ‘no historian was ever so universally read’, The Craftsman, no. 497 (10 Jan. 1736); no. 500 (31 Jan. 1736) quoted in Kramnick, p. 181. 28 M. Harris ‘Print and Politics in the Age of Walpole’ in J. Black (Ed.), Britain in the Age of Walpole (London, 1984), pp. 195–196. See also S. Varey (Ed.), Lord Bolingbroke's Contributions to the Craftsman (Oxford, 1982). 29 J. Wilkes, The History of England From the Revolution to the Accession of the Brunswick Line (London, 1768), p. 8. 30 John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England (London, 1796). See E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (London, 1963), pp. 86–88 and pp. 152–157. 31 J. Oldmixon, The History of England Under the Royal House of Stuart (London, 1730), pp. i–xiv. Atterbury responded in I Have Lately Seen An Extract of Some Passages (Paris, 1731). For a full account of the scandal see G. Roebuck Clarendon and Cultural Continuity (London, 1981), pp. 163–176. 32 G. Lyttleton, Letters from a Persian in England to a Friend at Ispahan, second edition (London, 1735). Lyttleton's Persian makes numerous comments on the study of English history, and the Saxon and Gothic inheritance, see pp. 179–184. 33 Rapin Acta Regia; Or, an Account of the Treaties, Letters and Instruments Between the Monarchs of England and Foreign Powers Published in Mr. Rymer's Foedera (London, 1726). The text was also published in weekly parts in 1732–1733, see Wiles Serial Pub., p. 97. 34 Rapin Hist. Eng., 1728, vol. I, ‘Preface’, unpag. 35 Anon, A Defence of English History, p. 69. 36 Rapin's Hist. Eng., ‘Preface’, unpag. 37 In the Public Advertiser, 9 June 1758, quoted in L.M. Knapp, ‘The Publication of Smollett's Complete History and Continuation’, Library, fourth series, Vol. XVI (Oxford, 1936), p. 298. Smollett himself wrote to John Moore in September 1758 that ‘you will not be sorry to hear that the weekly sale of the History has increased to above ten thousand’, L.M. Knapp (Ed.), The Letters of Tobias Smollett (Oxford, 1970), pp. 72–74. 38 ‘Letter to William Huggins’, April 13 1756, Knapp (Ed.), Letters of TS, p. 55. 39 Although even at the height of its popularity the copyright was only fractionally more valuable than Rapin's fifty years before. At the sale of Messrs Vernor, Hood and Sharpe in December 1805 Hume's History of England could be bought for £21 for one sixty-fourth (£1344), Upcott., BL MS 38730, f. 35. 40 See, for example, S.K. Wertz ‘Hume, History and Human Nature’ in D. Livingston and M. Martin (Eds.), Hume as a Philosopher of Society, Politics and History (Rochester, 1991), N. Phillipson Hume (London, 1989), D. Forbes Hume's Philosophical Politics (Cambridge, 1975); I. Coltman-Brown ‘Hume's Scepticism and the Weight of History’, History Today, 31 (August 1981) and H. Trevor-Roper ‘Hume as an Historian’ in D.F. Pears (Ed.), David Hume: A Symposium (London, 1963), pp. 90–100. For an account of Hume's historiographical politics see E.C. Mossner, ‘Was Hume a Tory Historian? Facts and Reconsiderations’ in Livingston and Martin Hume, see also M. Greene in the same edition. 41 ‘Letter to Andrew Millar’, Dec. 1754, in J.Y.T. Greig (Ed.), The Letters of David Hume (Oxford, 1932), p. 217. 42 References here are to D. Hume ‘On the Study of History’ in Essays Moral, Political and Literary, edited by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, Vol. 2, 1898. John Robertson has pointed out to me that this work was subsequently withdrawn from the Essays after 1760, and scholars tend to discount its significance as a result. Whatever Hume's later view on the work, however, the Essay seems to accord with Hume's stated intentions when he embarked on his History, and deserves attention as such. 43 Hume ‘On the Study of History’, p. 390. 44 ‘Letter to William Strahan’, April 1755, Greig Letters of DH, p. 222. 45 ‘My Own Life’, 1776, appended to D. Hume, The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 (London, 1848), p. x. 46 ‘Letter to Abbé le Blanc’, September 1754, Greig Letters of DH, p. 193. 47 ‘Letter to Horace Walpole’, August 1758, Ibid., p. 285. 48 ‘Letter to James Oswald of Dunsikier’, June 1753, Ibid., p. 179. 49 Rapin had also tried his hand at poetry and satire previous to his historical endeavours, some of these works are reprinted in Cazenove ‘Recueil de Lettres et Fragments Poetiques de Rapin-Thoyras’, Rapin-Thoyras, pp. xliv–xlv. 50 Rapin Hist. Eng., Vol. I (1728), pp. 94–95. One of the first representations I know of this scene appeared in a headpiece to the Knaptons third edition of Rapin in 1743, p. 30. A much larger version was executed by Nicholas Blakey in 1751 for a series of prints entitled English History Delineated (BM 1877-6-9–1706, No. 4), and Angelica Kauffman showed a large painting of the subject at the Royal Academy in 1770. 51 W. Guthrie Esq, A General History of England (London 1744), Vol. I, pp. ii–iii. 52 ‘Letter to James Oswald’, Greig Letters of DH, p. 179. 53 ‘Letter to William Strahan’, April 1755, Greig Letters of DH, p. 122. 54 ‘Letter to Matthew Sharp’, February 1754, Greig Ibid., p. 185. 55 ‘Letter to Mrs Dysart of Eccles’, October 1754, Ibid., p. 196. 56 ‘Letter to William Robertson’, February 1759, Ibid., p. 299. For a comparative study of Hume and William Robertson, whose History of Scotland (1759) was one of the most popular histories of the eighteenth century, see D.R. Raynor ‘Hume and Robertson's Histories of Scotland’ British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 59–63. 57 W. Tytler, An Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Evidence Produced by the Earls of Murray and Morton Against Mary Queen of Scots. With and Examination of the Rev. Dr Robertson's Dissertation and Mr Hume's History, with Respect to that Evidence (Edinburgh 1760). 58 ‘Letter to John Clephane’, September 1752, Greig Letters of DH, pp. 170–171. 59 ‘Letter to William Strahan’, September 1756, Ibid., p. 235. 60 W. Guthrie, Proposals for Printing by Weekly Subscription, at Six Pence Each Number, A New General History of England from the Invasion of the Romans Under Julius Caesar to the Late Revolution in 1688 (London 1743), unpag. 61 See Porter, Edward Gibbon. 62 Hume, ‘My Own Life’, p. vi. 63 My thanks to Diana Donald for drawing my attention to this fact. 64 J.B. Bury (Ed.), Autobiography of Edward Gibbon as Originally Edited by Lord Sheffield (Oxford 1931), p. 106, also quoted in Porter Edward Gibbon. 65 ‘Letter to J. Wilkes’, October 1754, Greig Letters of DH, p. 205. 66 ‘Letter to Gilbert Elliot of Minto’, September 1764, Ibid., p. 470. 67 The works on which Hume's philosophical reputation rests, the Treatise on Human Nature and the Essay on Human Understanding, received limited success on initial publication and remained obscure until the last years of the nineteenth century. After its initial flop in 1739–1740 the Treatise was reprinted twice in 1817 and not again until 1888, whilst the Essay had to wait until 1894 for a second edition.