The National (Hippo)Drama: Empire and the Nineteenth-Century Scottish Touring Circus

Abstract

This article demonstrates how nineteenth-century Scottish touring circus sits at the intersection of the National Drama and the imperial spectacle of the circus. It offers a timely analysis of how Scottish (inter)nationalism and nation formation were interwoven with imperialist discourse in popular public imaginaries. By analysing the deployment of and investment in Unionist-nationalist Scottish imagery in playbills, newspapers, and life-writing accounts, and in archives this article newly brings to light, I argue two things: firstly, that the continuities between rural touring and metropolitan permanent circuses helped bridge the historic cultural and ethnic divide between Highland and Lowland communities; and secondly, that this creation of a unified Scottish identity engendered and reflected an (inter)nationalist and imperial sentiment in diverse Scottish audiences. This article, therefore, complicates current conceptions and historiographies of Scottish nationalism which overlook how commitment to Unionism and the empire was often a prerequisite for nationalist feeling.