Romantic poetry and the standardization of English An uniformity of pronunciation throughout Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, as well as through the several counties of England, would be a point much to be wished; as it might in great measure contribute to destroy those odious distinctions between subjects of the same king, and members of the same community, which are ever attended with ill consequences, and which are chiefly kept alive by difference of pronunciation, and dialects.2 Sheridan argues that “pronunciation, and dialects,” more than any other factors, distance people from one another, and hopes that imposing a standard will allow those in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to believe that they are really “members of the same community.” One might have imagined that such factors as religion or economic disparity would be treated as far greater roadblocks to unity, but Sheridan concentrates on language alone There was an obvious reason for this focus: of all possible modes of creating national unity, linguistic standardization seemed the most achievable The institutional infrastructure necessary for such standardization, including a functioning public sphere, a book trade that reached throughout Great Britain, a widespread system of education, and a commitment to the liberty of the press, made Sheridan’s vision seem not like a utopian dream but a practical goal While many languages were spoken in Great Britain during this period, English dominated print: no utopian upheavals were needed to create print monolingualism This pervasiveness of English grew even as other aspects of reading changed J Paul Hunter has noted that by the beginning of the eighteenth century, authors wrote as if they had to make up for the lack of a previous connection with their readers, through such devices as introductions, direct addresses, and appeals to common interest.3 As other sources of common ground between writers and readers faded, English was left to become the chief and possibly the only bond that authors could assume they would share with readers Instead of writing for particular readers, authors faced a more amorphous general public, of whom little could be known beyond the fact that it read in English As a result, the stakes in believing that a common linguistic ground really existed became more important than ever before, and the standardizers of English worked hard to make it a reality Nothing better attests to the perceived political urgency of developing standardized English than the energy and dedication with which eighteenthcentury writers tackled the project John Walker, in his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (1791), noted that “the greatest abilities in the nation have been exerted in cultivating and reforming [English]; nor have a thousand minor critics been wanting to add their mite of amendment to their native tongue.”4 77 Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008