In the Name of Matilda: Feminine Transgression and Romantic Conceit

Abstract

This essay explores frequent recurrences of the name Matilda throughout the British Romantic Period as a means of defining what I term the Romantic conceit, an idea whose sustained presence becomes a shared cultural construct with special meaning. The essay traces the name to primarily Continental sources, with special emphasis on Dante and Spenser, on members of the British royal family with Continental connections, and on Matthew Lewis's The Monk. The juxtaposition of historical and biographical sources suggests that the Romantics appropriated this name traditionally associated with strength and nobility to transform it into an emblem of feminine transgression and irrational behavior. Romantic Matildas are connected with physical violence, with incest, and with direct challenges to religious and political authority as presented most visibly in Gothic literature. As the Romantic Period progressed, the connotations associated with the name coalesced into a well defined set so that a mere invocation of the name also invoked revolutionary sentiment.