Abstract
Because no great poet of English Romanticism was drawn to ballet, it seldom figures in discussions of that movement. Even so, while the ballet in London lacked a chronicler as thorough and knowledgeable and eloquent as Theophile Gautier, it occasionally caught the attention of Leigh Hunt. Hunt's general culture and intelligence, if not his talent, bear comparison with the Frenchman's, although their ballet criticism is hardly commensurate in scope and significance. I propose therefore to examine their differing responses to the art so as to throw light on what I believe to be a characteristically "primitivist" note in English Romanticism. Even though Hunt's interest in the ballet appears to have been fitful and a touch patronising, he was an authoritative critic of the drama, one of the first to review plays independently of management. And even his casual obiter dicta are worth analysing for the light they throw on his assumptions about the dance. Theodore Fenner has produced a satisfying overview of Hunt's ballet criticism, but whereas he uses the reviews to glean more information about the Romantic ballet per se, I shall focus instead on what Hunt's dance criticism tells us about Hunt in particular, and about English Romanticism in general.
Recommended Citation
Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning
(1995)
"Leigh Hunt, Theophile Gautier, Primitivism and the Romantic Ballet,"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 23:
No.
2, Article 10.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol23/iss2/10
