Page 36 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

nationalism 1337

Excerpt from Edmund Spenser's “The Faerie Queen” (1590)

In this extract from his epic poem, Edmund Spenser The comely virgins came, with girlands dight,
(1552/53—1599) extols the glory of England, its roy- As fresh as flowres in medow greene do grow,
alty, and its mythology When morning deaw vpon their leaues doth light:
And in their hands sweet Timbrels all vpheld on
Forth came that auncient Lord and aged Queene,
hight.
Arayd in antique robes downe to the ground,
And sad habiliments right well beseene;
And them before, the fry of children young
A noble crew about them waited round
Their wanton sports and childish mirth did play,
Of sage and sober Peres, all grauely gownd;
And to the Maydens sounding tymbrels sung
Whom farre before did march a goodly band
In well attuned notes, a ioyous lay,
Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd,
And made delightfull musicke all the way,
But now they laurell braunches bore in hand;
Vntill they came, where that faire virgin stood;
Glad signe of victorie and peace in all their land.
As faire Diana in fresh sommers day
Beholds her Nymphes, enraung'd in shadie wood,
Vnto that doughtie Conquerour they came,
Some wrestle, some do run, some bathe in christall
And him before themselues prostrating low,
flood.
Their Lord and Patrone loud did him proclame,
Source: Spenser, E. (1590).The faerie queen (Book 1, Canto XII).
And at his feet their laurell boughes did throw.
Soone after them all dauncing on a row

largely formed in the nineteenth century—they did so as first year of the Peloponnesian War. So we will need to
parts of a larger nation, Britain. The monarchy, shared look at the possibility of earlier—and perhaps non-
political institutions, and a common written language European—forms of nationalism shortly.
were important unifying factors. So too was Protestant-
ism, and as this became less important in the nineteenth Why Nationalism?
century, it was replaced by a shared imperial mission. Whether or not there are premodern examples, there is
The story so far focuses on England and later Britain. little doubt that nationalism reached its zenith in the
Many (Greenfeld 1992, Hastings 1997) have argued that modern world.Why has the modern world been so hos-
England led the way into nationalism. And even Marx pitable to nationalism? There are four interrelated fea-
(2003), who places Spain first in the queue, with France tures of the modern world that were conducive to the
and England close competitors, concedes that the nation- emergence of nationalism:
alist project was more successful in early modern Eng-
land than elsewhere. However, this leaves open the issue Politics
of whether there were even earlier forms of nationalism, Nationalism is, as both Breuilly and Marx emphasize, a
perhaps elsewhere than in Europe. Hastings makes the political project. This suggests that we need to examine
interesting suggestion that Israel as depicted in the Old the emergence of nationalism in the context of changes
Testament served as a model for the early nationalist in the nature of state power. The most obvious of these
depictions of England. Certainly, the combination of cul- is centralization: the attempts by the early modern state
ture, divine election, and political claims made on behalf to establish its position as the sole source of power
of the Israelites has much in common with later nation- within an increasingly clearly defined territory. Of almost
alism. So too do the claims that Thucydides has Pericles equal importance was the expansion of the role of the
make on behalf of Athens in his Funeral Oration after the state in social life. It acquired a range of administrative,