Session 15: Medievalism II -- Ruskin and Morris Sara E. Atwood, 1342 West Roadrunner Drive, Chandler, AZ 85248, Satwood8@cox.

net Ruskins Medievalism John Ruskin, like his mentor Carlyle and many others concerned with the condition of England, often looked to the past, especially to the chivalry of the Middle Ages, as a model for social reform. For Ruskin, the medieval period embodied virtues that modern England had abandoned, such as honor, obedience, and dignity. Indeed, the queenly power defined in Of Queens Gardens derives largely from medieval concepts of chivalry. That chivalry, Ruskin wrote, to the abuse and dishonour of which are attributable primarily whatever is cruel in war, unjust in peace, or corrupt and ignoble in domestic relations; and to the original purity and power of which we owe the defence alike of faith, of law, and of love (18:119). Ruskins medievalism was born of his despair in the present age. As he wrote in Modern Painters III: At first, it is evident that the title Dark Ages given to the medieval centuries is, respecting art, wholly inapplicable. They were, on the contrary, the bright ages; ours are the dark ones. I do not mean metaphysically, but literally. They were the ages of gold; ours are the ages of umber . . . . On the whole, these are much sadder ages than the early ones; not sadder in a noble and deep way, but in a dim, wearied way,the way of ennui, and jaded intellect, and uncomfortableness of soul and body (5:321-22). The Guild of Saint George represented Ruskins attempt at establishing a sort of modern medieval guild that might revitalize and renew the weary nineteenth century. In Fors Clavigera Ruskin likens the St. Georges Guild to a White Company, like Sir John Hawkwoods . . . which shall have for its end the wise creating and bestowing, instead of the wise stealing, of money (27:295-6). The laws governing the Guild, Ruskin points out, will be primarily old English laws revived; and the rest, Florentine and Roman (28:423). The Guild was also to extend into Europe in the form of a company called Monte Rosa, whose members were to devote themselves not only to the cultivation and reclamation of the land, but to the thoughtful labour of true education (27:296), which would include the fair arts, order, and obedience, but not at all, necessarily . . . either arithmetic, writing, or reading (27:296). Admitting the romance of his design, Ruskin insists nonetheless that it is not so romantic, nor so difficult, as your now widely and openly proclaimed design, of making the words obedience and loyalty to cease from the English tongue (27:296-7). As Cook and Wedderburn point out, The story of the St. Georges Guild is, in part, a study in Utopia, and, in part, a record of things actually done (30:xxi). A large and picturesque (CW30:xxi) concept, the Saint Georges Company (the name was changed to the Saint Georges Guild in 1877), was part romance, part reality. My paper will examine both aspects of Ruskins ideal societyits romantic medievalism as well as its concrete achievements.