Acknowledgements

I first started work on the poets laureate as a BA student, when I wrote my dissertation on Robert Southey’s appointment to the post. Back then, I considered Southey a laughably obscure poet; my original idea had been to write something on Wordsworth’s 1807 Poems, in Two Volumes, due to how much I had enjoyed studying Lyrical Ballads in A-Level English. I must therefore thank the teachers and schoolmates at Ravenscroft who steered me towards history and literature in the first place. In particular, my English teacher Ms Button was the one who introduced me to classic novels, poetry and the Romantics; and it was one of my oldest friends, Meqdad Jawid, whose homework on Alfred the Great made me realize that I ought to be taking an A-Level in History, rather than the Advanced GNVQs in Applied Science and Business Studies that I had signed up for. If I had not been enticed by the warm crackle of burning buns over that of Bunsen burners, things would have panned out very differently.

Over the course of my university career, many people have supported my work on the poets laureate. Jonathan Conlin agreed to supervise my BA dissertation at Southampton, accommodated my hopes of writing something interdisciplinary, and made the suggestion that I find a more neglected subject than Wordsworth. His supervision and subsequent advice over the years have been immeasurably helpful; without them, that dissertation’s mutation into a journal article would never have been possible, and that focus on the laureateship would never have developed into a PhD thesis and monograph. Alex Barber then supervised my MA dissertation on the later Stuart poets laureate at Durham, and his generous references helped me into a funded PhD place at Exeter. I am also thankful to my upgrade examiners, Hester Schadee and Richard Ward, and my PhD examiners, Tony Claydon and Henry Power, for their constructive feedback. Tony encouraged me to develop my own definitions of the court and the public rather than following other scholars’ definitions, and I hope he will not be too disappointed in the results.

Particularly effusive thanks must go to my doctoral supervisors. Martha Vandrei, my History supervisor, was my initial contact at Exeter, and her help was essential in securing me a funded PhD place; she was a friendly and fiercely ambitious supervisor thereafter. Since the completion of my PhD, she has provided the support, advice and encouragement essential for navigating postdoctoral academic life. It was Martha who recommended that I submit my work for publication in the New Historical Perspectives series, and read my application draft. Without her, this book would not exist and I probably would not have been able to find any postdoctoral job at all.

I was equally fortunate in my English Literature supervisors. Nick Groom was a source of endless information, suggestions and insights, and first brought my attention to many of the works referenced in the following pages. Stephen Bygrave’s suggestions regarding my work’s overall structure and concepts have been highly important, both to the doctoral thesis and to the monograph that followed on from it. Nick and Stephen each read my thesis at various stages of its composition and gave far-reaching feedback, constantly guiding and challenging my work, and have continued to support my work since the completion of my PhD. The fact that my time at Exeter was possible, and that such an excellent team of supervisors (spanning disciplines and universities) was assembled, was due to the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for whose funding and help I am hugely grateful.

While working on the poets laureate, I have been lucky to make a number of academic friends whose companionship has made difficult times bearable and good times good. If I started naming friends from Exeter, the list would either be overly long or unfairly selective, so I will have to confine myself to thanking anyone who ever shared a walk, board game session, football match, pub night or trip to the beach with me. Beyond Exeter, it has always been a great pleasure to meet up with the ‘Merry Gang’ of Clara, Hannah and David at conferences and elsewhere. Edward Taylor has been particularly liberal with his help and advice. With his expertise on politics, periodicals and Neo-Latin in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain, and his Georgian geniality, his friendship has always fulfilled the ancient dictum of mixing the utile and the dulci.

I am likewise lucky to have been given such a warm reception by everyone at the Royal Historical Society and University of London Press, and especially by Philip Carter, Elizabeth Hurren, Jane Winters, Emma Gallon, Jamie Bowman and Lauren De’ath. They have made the publication process easy, and have aided me in making the book as good as it can be. So too has Stephen Conway, who read and discussed the first draft, providing me with both specific and general points that have been very helpful. And the diligence of Robert Davies and Karen Francis ensured that the copyediting stage was smooth and productive.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family. Mum, Dad, Grandma and Owen have all, in their different ways, provided a constant bedrock of support and motivation, without which none of this would have been possible. If they take any pride or pleasure in seeing this project come to fruition, then it will have been worthwhile.

Leo Shipp
Exeter
November 2021