Most readers and critics believe Madoc to be a poetic materialization of a Pantisocracy, a utopian community based on the principles of egalitarianism and Aspheterism that Southey and Coleridge unsuccessfully strived to establish on the banks of river Susquehanna in America. Strains of their Pantisocratic vision are visible in the initial drafts of Madoc, where the Welsh contingent, headed by prince Madoc settles among the ‘noble savages’ in Peru forming an egalitarian republic.
But the final published version of Madoc presents a very different, convoluted version of the Pantisocracy first portrayed in the initial draft, with the ‘Britons’ establishing a ‘peaceful colony’ in North America only after dominating the ‘weak’ Hoamen and the ‘evil’ Azteca tribes, leaving Madoc as the ‘sole Lord of the land’. While critics like Ernest Bernhardt- Kabisch believe that the distortion of Pantisocracy occurs only in the second section of Madoc in Azltan, writers like Nigel Leask consider Madoc to be a poem about ‘new liberal imperialism’, combining the idea of Pantisocracy with colonization.
However, after analyzing the gradual poetic movement of Madoc along its twenty-seven volumes, it seems that Madoc not only blatantly supporting colonization but was also initially composed keeping in mind a very distorted image of Pantisocracy. This dissertation chapter aims to identify this colonial dream in Madoc with emphasis on the position of human equality and religion while . Initially, it does seem that Madoc sails the oceans to establish a Pantisocracy on foreign land when Cadwallon proposes to him the idea of finding ‘some happy isle, some undiscovered shore, some resting place for peace’ on ‘nobler shores’.
However, the intention behind finding a ‘resting place’ on a ‘foreign shore’ is only for purposes of colonial acquisition as indicated in a stanza present in the 1794-95 manuscript, which was later removed from the 1805 edition. ‘Ill fall the evil minded man whose wiles embroils his country. Conscience shall enfix Her scorpion sting in his dark brooding breast Who from her Hamlet haunt scares Peace away With Wars shrill clarion. Drenching the red earth With human blood to aggrandize himself. So did not Madoc. Him wave-wandering chief Guiding his prow where never mariner
Rushed thro the deep, and on the distant shore Far over the ocean rearing Cambrias flag’ ‘The evil minded one’ is Madoc’s brother who drenches ‘the red earth with human blood’ by waging wars of familial accession for the Welsh throne. Madoc is the speaker of this short stanza and he stands against his brother’s tyranny and strives for peace. However, he does not exile himself through his voyage but chooses to extend his empire ‘far over the ocean’ by ‘rearing Cambrias flag’. Therefore, the intention behind Madoc’s journey is not merely to establish an equal society but to conquer a foreign shore.
However, Southey calls Madoc a ‘blameless warrior’ in the same stanza, indicating that the fault of colonization lies not within Madoc but in his external environment, which forces him to establish his own kingdom on foreign shores. Another indication within the 1794 manuscript of Madoc’s colonial interests is his return from his American colony, giving reason to Southey’s geographic division of the poem. Much like all quests of colonial acquisition in history, Madoc too plunders the wealth of the foreign colony and brings it back to Wales to mark the success of his conquest.
This is apparent when he says, In search for peace, return I. not forlorn In poverty but bearing store of gold The liberal produce of that happy clime. ’ Therefore, it is unquestionable that Madoc was composed keeping the Occident’s colonial aspirations in mind. However, it cannot be denied that while these strains of thought exist in the earlier manuscript, Southey removed them from the final published version in 1805. Despite this, Southey did not fill the narrative gaps after the removal of these stanzas with any different poetic lines, thus allowing the poetic narrative to merely indicate its ties to colonial thought but not explicitly state it.
Another symptom of Madoc’s colonial ambition along with its removal from any Pantisocratic ideal is reflected in the first meetings between the American Indian tribes of the Hoamen and the Aztecs with the Welsh contingent, led by Madoc. In both the scenarios, the native Indians assume that the Welsh belong to a superior race than themselves, removing from the poetic narrative any inkling of an egalitarian society. This is first distinct when the high priest Ayayaca tells Madoc that the Welsh ‘were children of a race, mightier than they, and wiser, and by heavens beloved more.
Similarly, when Madoc meets the Aztec King he is asked twice if he is ‘more than man’, an assumption which he does not fully deny while also accepting that their Christian God is more powerful. Carol Bolton explains this moral and religious supremacy of the Welsh to be a ‘familiar vindication for many colonized projects’ made necessary through the recognition of this status by the colonized themselves. By making the native Indians acknowledge their lower status themselves, Southey justifies the Occident’s imperialistic ambitions.
This method of treating the Orient has been accurately analyzed by Alan Turner and Chris Lawson where they state, ‘Colonialism as an operation of discourse interpellates colonial subjects by incorporating them in a system of representation. ’ Although Southey wanted to construct a society of equals, his was confusing as he wanted to establish a society where all men are equal yet he wanted to build this society by using slaves.
This idea is reflected in a letter he wrote concerning Pantisocracy in December, 1793: fancy only me in America; imagine my ground uncultivated since the creation, and see me wielding an axe, now cut down the tree, and now the snakes that nestled in it. Then see me grubbing up the roots, and building a nice snug little diary with them: three rooms in my cottage, and my only companion a poor negro whom I have brought on purpose to emancipate…till at last comes an ill-looking Indian with a tomahawk and scalps me, a most melancholic proof that society is very bad, and that I shall have done very little to improve it.
This imperialistic ideology found in Madoc is also reflected in one of Southey’s correspondences, where he says that his ‘own firm belief is that there are but two methods of extending civilization—conquest and conversion’. Marlon Ross argues that through this gradual change ‘in a very real sense the Romantics… help prepare England for its imperial destiny. They help teach the English to universalize the experience of I. ’
The 1805 version of Madoc deeply stresses on the inclusion of Christianity in the Welsh expedition as Madoc informs the Azteca king that he ‘comes to do God’s holy bidding’ by freeing the Aztecas from their sacrilegious religious practices by making them adopt Christianity. When the Azteca king retaliates by saying that their Gods of ‘irresistible might’ are not ‘feeble’, Madoc declares war on their tribe so that the Aztecas may accept the Christian God who ‘they know not, but who is also their own’.
Therefore, the Welsh bring the American Indian tribe under their tyranny by utilizing Christianity as an imperialistic weapon. Also, by stating that the American Indian tribe is unaware of the nature of their own Gods, the Welsh, who are representatives of the Occidental world, trivialize the religious faith of the Aztecas by implying that they have more knowledge about the Aztec faith and are therefore, religiously superior. Edward Said in Orientalism uses Foucault’s discourse on power and control to explain the Occident’s assertion of supremacy through its accumulated knowledge about the Orient.
By equalizing knowledge with power, the Occident justifies its colonialism by declaring that ‘the subject races did not have it in them to know what was good for them. ’ Therefore, the Occident, in this case the Welsh contingent claim control over the American Indians through knowledge. ideas of Christian militarism are visible in Southey’s declaration at the very outset of the poem, where he states, Come, listen to my Lay, and ye shall hear How Madoc from the shores of Britain spread The adventurous sail, explored the ocean paths
And quelled barbarian power, and overthrew The bloody alters of idolatry, And planted in its fanes triumphantly The Cross of Christ. Come listen to my Lay! The term ‘barbarian power’ is attributed to the Aztecas not only because they do not fit into the British idea of ‘civilized’ despite being organized into a well structured society with its respective customs, beliefs and knowledge, but also because Southey uses the term keeping in mind its ancient connotation of not belonging to the Christian civilization.
However, the same term is not used for the other American Indian tribe of the Hoamen as they readily accept Christianity. The Eclective Review declared that they were ‘sickened at every page’ at Southey’s portrayal of Christianity and deplored ‘such deification of a maurauder, possibly almost as savage as the Indians themselves. ’
