Henry Lloyd's Rhapsody and the crisis of 1779
Date
2002
Authors
Lowe, Adrian Frederick
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Abstract
The Rhapsody of Henry Lloyd, written in 1779, was composed at a time of extreme military and political crisis in Britain, when the government of Lord North seemed on the verge of collapse and the country as a whole faced invasion. Written in direct response to this atmosphere of danger, and intended to diagnose the particular military and political ills which afflicted Britain, the Rhapsody provoked a dramatic government response: Lloyd was convinced to abort publication, and to destroy whatever copies had already been produced.
This thesis will consider Lloyd's Rhapsody in its historical context, examining the main themes which dominate the work, and how the relationship between circumstances and content made the Rhapsody so dangerous a prospect to the British government of the day. Relying on published collections of contemporary correspondence as well as more recent secondary studies, this thesis will consider the life and character of Henry Lloyd himself, whose story is inseparable from that of his Rhapsody; the dominant features of Britain' s military predicament in 1779; and the character of political events to which the Rhapsody was ultimately to fall prey. In addition, an examination of previously unpublished letters preserved in the British Public Record Office has made it possible to trace Lloyd's movements during the momentous summer when the Rhapsody was conceived, as well as the exchanges between Lloyd and the British commander-in-chief Lord Amherst which determined the Rhapsody's fate. As such, this thesis will be the first study to chronicle in detail the process which led to the suppression of the original Rhapsody in the last weeks of 1779. The sad fact was that Great Britain in late 1 779 was neither effectively mobilized nor guided; one must view the suppression of Lloyd's Rhapsody as just another symptom of the country's unpreparedness for war, and the misjudgments of the government which had reduced the country to such a sorry state.