Post, Andy2014-05-012014-05-012014-05-01http://hdl.handle.net/10222/50412A close reading of an all-but-forgotten Arthurian play as an allegory against the Divine Right of Kings.In 'Political Atheism vs. The Divine Right of Kings,' I build on Thompson and Scrivener’s work analysing John Thelwall’s play 'The Fairy of the Lake' as a political allegory, arguing all religious symbolism in 'FL' to advance the traditionally Revolutionary thesis that “the King is not a God.” My first chapter contextualises Thelwall’s revival of 17th century radicalism during the French Revolution and its failure. My second chapter examines how Thelwall’s use of fire as a symbol discrediting the Saxons’ pagan notion of divine monarchy, also emphasises the idolatrous apotheosis of King Arthur. My third chapter deconstructs the Fairy of the Lake’s water and characterisation, and concludes her sole purpose to be to justify a Revolution beyond moral reproach. My fourth chapter traces how beer satirises Communion wine, among both pagans and Christians, in order to undermine any religion that could reinforce either divinity or the Divine Right of Kings.enJohn Thelwall (1764-1834)RomanticismRomantic literatureRomantic poetryRomantic nationalismRomantic medievalismRomantic antequarianismSaxon antequarianismNorse/Viking antequarianismCeltic antequarianismWhig historyJacobinismpolitical allegorycloset dramaEarly Modernatheism irreligion materialism stereotypeChristianityChurch of EnglandAnglicanismLoyalismGermanic paganismAnglo-SaxonEnglandBritainWalesFrench RevolutionGlorious RevolutionEnglish Civil WarKing James I &VIJohn MiltonAlgernon SidneySamuel Taylor ColeridgeWilliam WordsworthRobert SoutheyEdmund BurkeSimon CottleTorquato TassoEddaNorthern AntiquitiesKing ArthurArthurianSir Walter ScottClassical republicanismrepublicanismradicalismanti-monarchismfirewaterbeercwrwwassailEucharistCommunionGothicDivine Right of KingsPolitical atheismJudith ThompsonMichael Scrivener