William Morris
In Our Time: Culture
BBC
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 July 2018
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of William Morris, known in his lifetime for his poetry and then his contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement, and increasingly for his political activism. He felt the world had given in to drudgery and ugliness and he found inspiration in the time before industrialisation, in the medieval life which was about fellowship and association and ways of working which resisted the division of labour and allowed the worker to exercise his or her imagination. Seeing a disconnection between art and society, his solution was revolution which in his view was the only way to reset their relationship.
The image above is from the Strawberry Thief wallpaper design by William Morris.
With
Ingrid Hanson Lecturer in 18th and 19th Century Literature at the University of Manchester
Marcus Waithe University Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Magdalene College
And
Jane Thomas Professor of Victorian and Early 20th Century Literature at the University of Hull
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:02.0 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:05.0 | There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC in our time. |
| 0:12.0 | I hope you enjoy the programs. |
| 0:14.0 | Hello, William Morris 1834 to 1896 is best known now as a designer of wallpaper |
| 0:20.0 | and for his advice to have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful |
| 0:24.5 | or believe to be beautiful. Look beneath that wallpaper and you'll find a Victorian |
| 0:29.1 | socialist appalled by the lives of factory workers. He contrasted their conditions with the medieval world |
| 0:34.1 | where he pictured craftsmen taking pleasure in their work and working for pleasure. |
| 0:38.1 | For him the aesthetic was political. He thought if workers were more aware of beauty and its value they would agitate them and make them notice what the rich had in abundance and which they too might have if a revolution came. We'd be to discuss William Morris, Marcus Waith, University's serious senior |
| 0:57.4 | lecture in English literature at the University of Cambridge and fellow Moreland College. |
| 1:01.8 | Ingrid Hanson lecture in 18th and 19th century literature |
| 1:04.6 | at the University of Manchester, |
| 1:05.9 | and Jane Thomas, professor of Victorian and early 20th century |
| 1:09.5 | literature at the University of Hull. |
| 1:12.1 | Marcus Waite, can you tell us about William Morris' early life? |
| 1:15.0 | Yes, Morris was born in 1837. Both of his parents were of Welsh extraction. Morris became very aware and proud of that heritage as his life proceeded. |
| 1:28.0 | He was born in Wolfhamstowe, now East London, and he was born into a very wealthy upper middle class background. |
| 1:39.2 | His father was a stockbroker but he also bought some shares in a mining company called |
| 1:46.5 | Devon Great Consoles which was mining copper and those shares grew in value |
| 1:51.8 | tremendously and the family were able to move to a very |
| 1:56.8 | grand mansion with quite a lot of land around it called Woodford Hall. The figure of the capitalist looms large in Morris's life in the |
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