William Godwin, chivalry, and Mary Shelley's The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck

Papers on Language and Literature, Spring 1999 by Brewer, William D

Godwin and Shelley recognize, however, that despite its emphasis on the "private affections," chivalry endorsed violence; as Shelley observes, the knight's "trade was murder." Significantly, both writers use "trade," a word associated with capitalism, to describe what for them is chivalry's most negative feature: its militarism. Thus even their critique of knighterrantry is implicitly anticapitalist. St. Leon declares that the carnage at the siege of Pavia "should be enough" to lead "a man . . . to abjure the trade of violence for ever, and to commit his sword once more to the bowels of the earth, from which it was torn for so nefarious a purpose." But "The force" of his education is "too strong": "The horror which overwhelm[s]" him subsides, "and the military passion return [s] upon [him] in its original ardour" (24). Later in the novel, the stranger who instructs St. Leon in alchemy exploits his chivalric yearning for glory and power. When St. Leon tells the stranger that he cannot keep his teachings a secret from Marguerite, the alchemist responds contemptuously, calling St. Leon a "Feeble and effeminate mortal" who is "neither a knight nor a Frenchman!" (126). In a futile attempt to regain the "illustrious . . . station" (127) of a French knight, St. Leon unchivalrously sacrifices his relationship with Marguerite and, because he must lie about the source of his wealth, ceases to be a man of honor.

"[N]urst in war" (196), Richard of York also engages in "the trade of violence." As Betty T. Bennett contends, he is "the product of erroneous education-a man of intelligence, grace, and ability, whose indoctrination into belief in the supreme rights of monarchs causes him to generate destruction `from mistake"' (365). Lord Surrey argues eloquently against Richard's attempt to reignite the War of the Roses:

My lord, the Roses contended in a long and sanguinary war, and many thousand of our countrymen fell in the sad conflict.... want, famine and hate ravaged the fated land.... now that I see plenty and peace reign over this fair isle, even though Lancaster be their unworthy vicegerent, shall I cast forth these friends of man, to bring back the deadly horrors of unholy civil war? (Perkin Warbeck 195)

It is clear that Surrey's speech reflects Shelley's pacifistic sentiments: she writes in a letter dated 16 January 1833 that "War not Kings is the fleau [scourge] of the world-War is the companion & friend of Monarchy" ( The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 2: 183). Despite Surrey's impassioned words, however, Richard continues to mount expeditions against King Henry. He uses the rhetoric of chivalry to justify his actions, arguing that "his honour call [s] on him to maintain his claims." But while honor is "a magic word" (196) to Richard, to Katherine it is "a barren word, on which her life and happiness [are] to be wrecked" (303). His belief that he occupies the moral high ground is undermined by the fact that he, like Henry Tudor, is willing to sacrifice the lives of others in order to obtain power for himself