Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance

David Norbrook

ISBN 10: 0199247188 / ISBN 13: 9780199247189

Published by Oxford University Press, GB, 2002

About this Item

For this edition David Norbrook has provided an extensive introduction which gives an overview of developments in methodology and research since the first edition in 1984, responds to some criticisms, and points the way to further inquiry. Footnotes have been updated to take account of the current state of knowledge, and a chronological table has been provided for ease of reference. Norbrook brings out the range and adventurousness of early modern poets' engagements with the public world. The first part of the book establishes the more radical currents of thought shaping Renaissance poetry: civic humanism and apocalyptic Protestantism. Norbrook then shows how such leading Elizabethan poets as Sidney and Spenser, often seen as conservative monarchists, responded powerfully though sometimes ambivalently to more radical ideas. A chapter on Fulke Greville shows how that ambivalence reaches an extreme in some remarkable poetry.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780199247189

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, GB
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199247188
• ISBN 13: 9780199247189
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 646 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Renaissance English poetry was closely involved with affairs of state: some poets held high office, others wrote to influence those in power and to sway an increasingly independent public opinion. In this revised edition of his groundbreaking study, David Norbrook offers a clear account of the issues that engaged the passions of such leading figures as Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, and John Milton, and provides introductions to a host of neglected writers.

About the Author

David Norbrook is a Professor of English Literature, University of Maryland.