‘Poetry and fiction intermixt with our history’

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the boundaries between historical and political argument. It discusses the different ways that British antiquity could be politicized by historical writers of the eighteenth century. However, despite this, Boudica maintained a patriotic detachment from party fracases in prose literature. This is compared to her presentation in Richard Glover’s new play of 1753. Aside from questions of patriotism, Glover’s play brings to the fore drama’s relationship to history, and especially the fidelity to human nature that was demanded of both genres. Glover’s inability to accurately capture the spectrum of human emotions attracted extensive criticism, demonstrating another measure of ‘accuracy’ contemporaries applied to historical writing. With regards to Boudica herself, this chapter begins to consolidate the argument that Boudica’s reputation was rather more durable and positive than previous scholars have allowed.