A Nineteenth-Century Woman's Manuscript Response to The Pilgrim's Progress: Louisa Marian Waterman's 'The Pilgrim's Progress, Versified in the Quaint Style of John Bunyan'

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 21; pp. 73 - 95
• Main Author: Hause, Marie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2017
• Subjects: 19th century; Adaptations; Allegory; Allusion; Authenticity; Authority; Authorship; Biographies; British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Christianity; Emotions; English literature; Epic literature; Exegesis & hermeneutics; Historical text analysis; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary devices; Narrative techniques; Professional identity; Publishing; Publishing industry; Text analysis; Writers; United Kingdom > UK; England
• ISSN: 0954-0970

[...]though Waterman includes even the smallest details of the five illustrations she copies from H. C. Selous and Paolo Priolo, she omits the illustrators' and engravers' signatures, leaving those spaces blank. [...]the use of red ink for Bunyan's name and Scripture references suggests that Waterman grants herself the same level of authority. Both the original 'Sleeping Portrait' and the version in the Cassell edition declare Bunyan's status as a visionary; he is a melancholic dreamer in a world of allegory, connected with such inspired figures as Daniel or Saint Jerome.12 The Linton portrait, in removing the den of Bunyan's prison and replacing it with books, including the very book that the portrait decorates, further emphasizes Bunyan's status as a respected author, not just a divine dreamer. Roger Chartier suggests that early modern authors' portraits function 'to reinforce the notion that the writing is the expression of an individuality that gives authenticity to the work'.15 If this is so, then the hand-painted Waterman portrait, in addition to placing Waterman's authority on the same level as Bunyan's, marks the intimate nature of her connection with her text in a way that a mass-produced engraving does not. The initial description of Christiana in Part Two provides typical examples of added details describing the characters' emotions, as well demonstrating the standard layout of a page of verse in Waterman's manuscript (see Figure 6).20 Where Christiana is described as shedding 'many a tear' once in the matching Bunyan passage (p. 231), Waterman's Christiana sheds '[t]ears often,' and spills 'contrite tears' (p. 2:7).