The Chorus of History : Literary-Historical Relations in Renaissance Britain, 1485-1558

Dust jacket unclipped in clear protective sleeve, slightly faded. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 31 Illustrations on Plates. 329 pages clean and tight. The seventy-three years separating the Wars of the Roses from the accession of Elizabeth I embrace an era well explored by historians but too often passed over by literary critics, possibly because it did not witness the creation of any really major works or the establishment of firm standards of poetic achievement. Now that the old antithesis between "medieval" and "renaissance" is becoming blurred, it may be more easily perceived from the literature of the early Tudors how classical, medieval and humanist influences worked together in the experimental climate of the time. The author has set himself to examine various aspects of a period when relations between history, particularly social history, and literature were exceptionally close, for many members of the literary "chorus" were themselves men who played significant roles in public affairs and in the several movements towards reappraisal and reform in England and Scctt'.a 1 i. As English developed into a language of description and philosophical disquisition mparable with Italian and French and fit to supplant Latin, the conditions essential for the flowering of Elizabethan letters were gradually created; just as in civil, political and ecclesiastical matters a new order of government, its power vested in the person of the sovereign, evolved out of the anarchy of the previous century. The Chorus of History (1485-1558) forms the third volume of a series on History and Literature of which the General Editor is R. W. Harris. Size: 8vo.…