‘The Rule of Men Entirely Great’: Republicanism, Ritual, and Richelieu in Melville’s ‘The Two Temples’

This article explores the complex and multifarious reasons behind Herman

Melville’s decision to refer to the English playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s

1839 work Richelieu, or The Conspiracy in his 1854 diptych ‘The Two Temples’.

It responds to a critical tradition that has seen the reference merely as a

sarcastic attack on William Macready (whose rivalry with the American actor

Edwin Forrest was the nominal cause of the bloody 1849 Astor Place Riot

in New York), by contextualizing the play within traditions of antebellum

American Anglophilia. By using a combination of new critical work on Anglo-

Americanism and anthropological ritual theory, I show how Bulwer-Lytton’s

play was significant to Melville’s artistic development. In particular, I show

how the play influenced his increasing engagement with republican and

theatrical forms of expression that emphasized the importance of filial relationships

between America and Britain in a period of increasing hostility

between the two nations.