ABSTRACT
Shedding light on the growing emphasis on regional and class variation in Romantic aesthetics, promotes the broader availability of aesthetic judgement. The Beldam's rustic listeners have an integrity and rural independence indicative of both liberty and taste; by implication, the supposedly tasteful members of the beau monde do less to achieve aesthetic judgment and moral sensitivity. Building on the civic humanist position that artistic output and the health of the nation are connected, the Lees and Smith explore the relationship between taste, the individual, and the political. For Owenson, the narrative of taste supports the Gaelic Irish in the form of imaginative ownership. In each case, the tale insists that for the tasteful inhabitant, knowledge of the habits and the history of the nation are necessary. And both the collection and the tale offer a warning: as this sense of belonging should not be denied, neither should the discourse of taste and the ethical imperative of sentiment be separated.
