The poem “The Northern Star” by A. Hill and the development of the Petrine myth in English literature of the 1700s-1720s

Abstract

The paper analyses the main features of Peter I’s image representation in the poem “The Northern Star” (1718) by Aaron Hill, a prominent English poet, playwright and critic of the first half of the 18^th century. The paper considers this problem in the context of general trends in the reception of the Russian monarch’s image in the early Enlightenment literature (in the works of D. Defoe, R. Steele, M. Stringer and others) and in connection with the imagological content of the “Petrine text” in English literature. We study the stable motifs and themes of the poem from the functional point of view together with the elements of imagery that contribute to the creation of Peter the Great image as an enlightened monarch, military leader and civilizator of the “barbaric” Russia and a defender of the Christian world. The paper also considers the artistic means of Peter I’s image deification (the poem’s allusive plane, historical parallels, etc.). The positive reception of the czar’s image in “The Northern Star”, and in English literature of the first decades of the 18^th century in general, affected the hetero-image of Russia valorization and inclusion of new imagemes in its structure, in particular those associated with the country’s messianic role. On the other hand, the reception of Peter I was concerned with myth-making, which resulted in the emergence of a reduced and schematic image of the monarch and a simplified conception of Russian history.