Unpublished full length verse epic poem on the subject of the Duke of Wellington’s decisive defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. Although Waterloo became the subject of short poems written in its aftermath by writers such as Walter Scott and Lord Byron, we can find no similar enterprise to George Allsop’s full length treatment of the battle. In this ambitious literary project Allsop has adopted the conventions of epic poetry by depicting two heroes of national, almost legendary importance, a vast setting, and using a formal, dignified style or mostly unrhymed iambic pentameter. In some ways it is hard to credit that no other such epic treatment exists of the decisive European battle of the 19th century. And we can find no trace of the publication of this manuscript, nor can we confirm George Allsop’s identity although he was writing in the 1850s and 1860s, highly educated, and might be a member of the Burton on Trent brewing dynasty.
Contained within a small pine box, fitted out for the job, Allsop’s poem actually exists in two versions, one complete in Ten books; a second, still more ambitious breaks off at Book 21 with the battle still in full swing. Whereas the first version confines itself to events on the battlefield, the second version has a much wider scope, beginning with an invocation to the muses and dedication, summarised in the ‘Argument’ as ‘The subject proposed. Invocation to the Muse. To Queen Victoria, Royal Consort and Family’ and locating Book I in the ‘General Peace, after the Expatriation of Napoleon Bonaparte to the Island of Elba’, Bonaparte being stirred into action by a ‘Martial Genius’ (spirit) which appears to him on Elba, Napoleon responding in soliloquy, giving voice to his new ambition to ‘embark upon the momentous enterprise’. In the first version Battle is joined at Hougoument in Book IV: ‘Shell, grape, and terror through the welkin runs;/ Red carnage shrieks, the shatter’d vitals hurl’d/ With men on men in horrid fracture whirl’d/ To sight and soul, one fearful havocs spread’. Allsop navigates the complicated series of engagements, relishing the military confrontation; as the Allies face defeat before the arrival of Blucher and has his Wellington address the British generals mid battle: ‘Forth pour the vollies, thus nor life, no hope/ Affront or flanking, independent flame,/ Then Charge for England and her proudest fame...’ (IX 245) In this first draft of the poem, Book X deals with the charge of the Imperial Guard, its repulse and the rout of the French forces, ‘concluding with the overthrow, thereby of the French Empire, in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte.’
Written in iambic pentameter, mostly unrhymed, Draft 1 runs to some 10,000 lines with another 8000 lines in the second incomplete draft. In this second draft we only reach the eve of the Battle in the final books, with both Napoleon and Wellington found soliloquising in the manner of Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt, Napoleon working himself into a frenzy of hatred against his English foes: ‘Implacable Briton, most tenacius foe,/ Well know’st thy deep and searching shape, induct/ Nor earth, nor Sea, tho this round globe affords,/ The dual Empire of our rival thrones.’
DESCRIPTION: Contained within a small pine box with a hessian hinge, seemingly lined to fit this manuscript. Both drafts are written in hand-sewn fascicles on thin blue paper with a title on the cover of each, followed by a leaf stating the book number. A prefatory ‘Argument’ precedes each Book with the text written in a minute script on rectos only, lined in pencil, c45 lines per page. There are sporadic corrections but the contents of the fascicles are a fair copy - in addition to the draft sheets which are also present.
Version I: Book I (2500 lines!) III-VI; V-VI; VII-VIII x2; IX-X
Version II: Books I-III; draft of IV, dated 1860; IX, XI-XVII, XVII & XXI fragmentary
Drafts: small sheaf of draft sheets together with some high level ‘Mathematical Exercises’ on ‘Smith and Allnutt 1828’ watermarked paper.
