Poetry and the Realm of Politics: Shakespeare to DrydenThis is a major study of the relation between poetry and politcs in sixteenth and seventeenth century English literature, focusing in particular on the works of Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton, and Dryden. Howard Erskine-Hill argues that the major tradition of political allusion is not, as has often been argued, that of the political allegory of Dryden's Absalom and Architophel, and other overtly political poems, but rather a more shifting and less systematic practice, often involving equivocal or multiple reference. Drawing on the revisionist trend in recent historiography, and taking issue with recent New Historicist criticism, the book offers new and thought-provoking readings of familiar texts. For example, Shakespeare's Histories, far from endorsing a conservative Tudor myth, are shown to examine and reject divine-right kingship in favour of a political vision of what the succession crisis of the 1590s required. A forgotten political aspect of Hamlet is restored and an anti-Cromwellian strain is identified in Milton's Paradise Lost. Again and again, Professor Erskine-Hill is able to show how some of the most powerful works of the period, works which in the past have been read for their aesthetic achievement and generalized wisdom, in fact contain a political component crucial to our understanding of the poem. |
From inside the book
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Page 121
... Rome , recalls two ancient empires , ' Babel , Empresse of the East ... And second Babell , tyrant of the West [ Rome ] ' , each fallen through its pride , now replaced by a third : Fayre Venice , flower of the last worlds delight , And ...
... Rome , recalls two ancient empires , ' Babel , Empresse of the East ... And second Babell , tyrant of the West [ Rome ] ' , each fallen through its pride , now replaced by a third : Fayre Venice , flower of the last worlds delight , And ...
Page 126
... Rome quenched the freedom and virtú of the world through drawing it all into one mighty domination . This perhaps is the case with Spenser's Sonnet 8. Sonnet 18 registers Rome's evol- ution from kingdom to republic , and thence to ...
... Rome quenched the freedom and virtú of the world through drawing it all into one mighty domination . This perhaps is the case with Spenser's Sonnet 8. Sonnet 18 registers Rome's evol- ution from kingdom to republic , and thence to ...
Page 137
... Rome ' ( 1. 138 ) , by virtue of his ancestry and a Sibylline prophecy . This is not an isolated moment in the play ; the royal aspirations of Lentulus are a minor motif through the whole work . There is ferocious irony in the way ...
... Rome ' ( 1. 138 ) , by virtue of his ancestry and a Sibylline prophecy . This is not an isolated moment in the play ; the royal aspirations of Lentulus are a minor motif through the whole work . There is ferocious irony in the way ...
Contents
List of Illustrations བ | 11 |
Introduction I | 11 |
The First Tetralogy and King John | 46 |
Copyright | |
9 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Aeneas Aeneid Almeyda Annals Arden argument Arthur Ben Jonson Benducar Bodin Bolingbroke Book Cambridge Camden Catholic Catiline Christian chronicle civil claim commonwealth contemporary Coriolanus Cromwell crown Darnley death deposed Don Sebastian Dorax drama Dryden Duke Earl Edward Elizabeth Elizabethan England English epic Erskine-Hill Essex example favour figure France Hamlet Hayward's Henry IV Henry VI Henry's Jacobite James James VI John Dryden John Milton Jonson jure King Henry kingdom kingship later Lord marriage Mary military Mortimer murder narrative Oxford Paradise Lost Parliament perhaps poem poet poetry political allusion prince Prose Protestant Queen of Scots rebellion reign republic Republica Anglorum republican Restoration Revolution Richard Richard II Roman Rome royal royal monarch Samson Agonistes Satan scene seems Shakespeare Shakespeare's Histories Six Livres sonnet speech Spenser Stuart succession tetralogy Thomas thou throne tion tragedy tyrant usurpation Venetian Venice Virgil vision Wentworth William words York