That Man I Would Have Him To Be: Public Relations and Peasant Poetry

Abstract

It is roundabout nine in the evening on 16 February 1821. It had promised to be a bright, moonlit night but by now the fog is coming down and rolling around. Two men ride up to the Chalk Farm Tavern, out Hampstead way. They give their horses to the ostler and go inside. They are twitchy and do not stay long, saying that they will be back to finish their drinks in a while. The servants at the tavern know exactly what game is afoot since Chalk Farm is duelling country: the equivalent of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris where Mr Rochester, a Regency rake whose name also harks back to excesses of the Restoration period, fights a duel. It is only a matter of time before pistol shots are heard ringing out.