PHILHELLENISM OR TRADE? THE CASE OF WILLIAM GODWIN

Byron's involvement in the Greek cause, his death at Missolonghi in 1824 are wellknown and have been told and retold. William Godwin's position is perhaps lesser known. It may unexpectedly be found in the pedagogical part of his work, written "for the use of schools and young persons". In 1822, Godwin published History of Greece : from the earliest Records of that Country to the Time in which it was reduced into a Roman Province. This was to be his last production for the Juvenile Library. It seems difficult to ascertain whether the book was the contribution of a philhellene or of a clever publisher fully aware of what could benefit the trade! In the preface to the book, dated November 1821, Godwin wrote : 

"At the present moment, when the Greeks are engaged, unsupported and alone, in a gallant struggle for their liberties against the Turks, by whom they have been chained in the most galling and abject slavery for almost four centuries, the following short recapitulation of the various claims that Greece has upon our sympathy, prompting us to recollect the ancient and departed days of that wonderful country, cannot be unacceptable". 

That long, patriotic passage thus somewhat abruptly ends in an appeal to the prospective customer! Six years later, for the second edition of the book (1828) which no longer bears the "M.J. Godwin" imprint, Godwin altogether rewrote the preface in quite a different strain. The Greek War of Independance then belonged to the past, and the writer was 72 years old (he speaks of "various circumstances [a probable allusion to the 1825 bankruptcy] and, more than all, increasing years"). The above passage was excised from the new preface, which assumed the form of a "congé". Godwin chose to write in the third person, still determinedly sheltered under his usual pseudonym : 

"Mr. Baldwin proposes with the present volume to take his final leave of that class of young persons for whose amusement and instruction his publications were intended". 

The end of the tether!...     

1st edition, preface

2nd edition, preface