Byron, Shelley and the Neapolitan uprising in 1820

Abstract

This paper focuses on the responses of Byron and Shelley to the Neapolitan uprising in July, 1820 which compelled the Spanish Bourbon King Ferdinand IV (renamed Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies inl816) to accept the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Byron's reaction to this momentous event is mainly recorded in his letters at the time and in his Ravenna Journal. His mood changes from one of cautionary optimism to utter disillusion. Shelley on the other hand wrote two poems: a "Sonnet on Benevento" and a Pindaric "Ode to Naples" to celebrate this historic event and the recovery of Constitutional liberty. This paper also deals with the political aspect of both these poems in which Shelley sought to sensitize the British politicians (especially the Foxite Whigs) to the crisis in the constitutionalists' cause and to enlist support for the liberals. Like Byron Shelley was disillusioned by the eventual outcome of the uprising.