Performing Majesty and National Identity: The Case of Illuminations, c. 1780–1810.

This essay explores how Britishness was performed in the streets of eighteenth-century Britain during the festive spectacles associated with the "majesty" that Linda Colley has powerfully identified as an agent of national identity in Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837. I examine the significance of patriotic illuminations as performances of national identity. Throughout the eighteenth century, the revelry surrounding illuminations was a persistent feature of British political and popular culture. Illuminations, I argue, were complicated instances of local and national celebration that divided communities in as many ways as they united them. Teasing out this relationship is central to our understanding of how Britishness was navigated in a socially stratified society. Drawing primarily on the newspapers of the period, this essay explores the contexts of royal illuminations, the nature of the disorders that often accompanied illuminations, and the content of the devices used in illuminations in order to unpack the significance of this important, but relatively neglected social practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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