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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2009

        The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland

        The 1590s crisis

        by John McGurk

        This book is about the impact of the Nine Years' War on central and local government and society in the English and Welsh shires in the 1590s. It contains fascinating new insights into the centrality of Ireland to England's problems in the crucial last decade of Elizabeth I's reign. However, this is in no sense a conventional military history, but rather a history of the social impact of the war and the strains it put upon the Elizabethan government. Based on painstaking primary research, it also covers the recruitment of levies for Ireland, their shipping, their service in Ireland and the limited extent of aftercare given to the sick and the wounded. The book therefore helps towards an understanding of why the Elizabethan conquest took so long to complete and why it proved to be more severe than at first intended. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature: history & criticism
        September 2016

        Spenserian allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis

        A context for The Faerie Queene

        by Series edited by J. B. Lethbridge, Margaret Christian

        Edmund Spenser famously conceded to his friend Walter Raleigh that his method in The Faerie Queene 'will seeme displeasaunt' to those who would 'rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large'. Spenser's allegory and Elizabethan biblical exegesis is the first book-length study to clarify Spenser's comparison by introducing readers to the biblical typologies of contemporary sermons and liturgies. The result demonstrates that 'precepts ... sermoned at large' from lecterns and pulpits were themselves often 'clowdily enwrapped in allegoricall devises'. In effect, routine churchgoing prepared Spenser's first readers to enjoy and interpret The Faerie Queene. A wealth of relevant quotations invites readers to adopt an Elizabethan mindset and encounter the poem afresh. The 'chronicle history' cantos, Florimell's adventures, the Souldan episode, Mercilla's judgment on Duessa and even the two stanzas that close the Mutabilitie fragment, all come into sharper focus when juxtaposed with contemporary religious rhetoric.

      • Trusted Partner
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        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2022

        The early modern English sonnet

        Ever in motion

        by Laetitia Sansonetti, Rémi Vuillemin, Enrica Zanin

        This volume questions and qualifies commonly accepted assumptions about the early modern English sonnet: that it was a strictly codified form, most often organised in sequences, which only emerged at the very end of the sixteenth century and declined as fast as it had bloomed, and that minor poets merely participated in the sonnet fashion by replicating established conventions. Drawing from book history and relying on close reading and textual criticism, this collection offers a more nuanced account of the history of the sonnet. It discusses how sonnets were written, published and received in England as compared to mainland Europe, and explores the works of major (Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser) and minor (Barnes, Harvey) poets alike. Reflecting on current editorial practices, it also provides the first modern edition of an early seventeenth-century Elizabethan miscellany including sonnets presumably by Sidney and Spenser.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2016

        The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England

        By George Peele

        by David Bevington, Charles Forker, Charles R. Forker, Richard Dutton, Alison Findlay, Helen Ostovich

        Forker's critical edition fills the need for a fully annotated, historically contextualised and modernised text of the most important Elizabethan chronicle play apart from Shakespeare and Marlowe's Edward II. Now attributed definitely to George Peele, this drama helped to establish a major theatrical genre, raising contemporary political and religious issues through the dramatisation of medieval history in a compelling and popular fashion. A major source for Shakespeare, it throws new light on the bard's adaptation of earlier drama and helps to illustrate his working methods. With the full introduction and generous notes this Revels Plays edition will be the first port of call for students and enthusiasts of Elizabethan and early modern drama. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2002

        Leicester and the court

        Essays on Elizabethan politics

        by Simon Adams, Peter Lake, Anthony Milton, Jason Peacey, Alexandra Gajda

        Now back in print, this comprehensive collection of essays by Simon Adams brings to life the most enigmatic of Elizabethans--Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Adams, famous for the unique depth and breadth of his research, has gathered here his most important essays looking at the Elizabethan Court, and the adventures and legacy of the Earl. Together with his edition of Leicester's accounts and his reconstruction of Leicester's papers, Adams has published much upon on Leicester's influence and activities. His work has reshaped our knowledge of Elizabeth and her Court, Parliament, and such subjects of recent debate as the power of the nobility and the noble affinity, the politics of faction and the role of patronage. Sixteen essays are found in this collection, organized into three groups: the Court, Leicester and his affinity, and Leicester and the regions. This volume will be essential reading for academics and students interested in the Elizabethan Court and in early modern British politics more generally. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2018

        All Fools

        By George Chapman

        by Charles Edelman, David Bevington

        Of all the poets Francis Meres names in his famous Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury (1598), just two rate a mention as being both 'our best for tragedy' and 'the best poets for comedy': William Shakespeare and George Chapman. All Fools, written in 1599, is the only Elizabethan comedy based directly on the plays of Terence. By taking episodes and characters from two brilliant works, The Self-Tormenter and The Brothers, Chapman creates something that is distinctly Elizabethan while remaining faithful to the spirit of the great Roman master. In this edition, an extensive introduction and commentary show how Chapman combines the literary and theatrical traditions of ancient Rome with everyday life in his own time to fashion a sparkling and innovative comedy that will delight audiences today as much as it did those of 1599.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2019

        The art of The Faerie Queene

        by J. B. Lethbridge, Richard Brown

        The Art of The Faerie Queene is the first book centrally focused on the forms and poetic techniques employed by Spenser. It offers a sharp new perspective on Spenser by rereading The Faerie Queene as poetry which is at once absorbing, demanding and experimental. Instead of the traditional conservative model of Spenser as poet, this book presents the poem as radical, edgy and unconventional, thus proposing new ways of understanding the Elizabethan poetic Renaissance. The book moves from the individual words of the poem to metre, rhyme and stanza form onto its larger structures of canto and book. It will be of particular relevance to undergraduates studying Elizabethan poetry, graduate students and scholars of Renaissance poetry, for whom the formal aspect of the poetry has been a topic of growing relevance in recent years.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        September 2020

        The art of The Faerie Queene

        by Richard Danson Brown, Joshua Samuel Reid

        The Art of The Faerie Queene is the first book centrally focused on the forms and poetic techniques employed by Spenser. It offers a sharp new perspective on Spenser by rereading The Faerie Queene as poetry which is at once absorbing, demanding and experimental. Instead of the traditional conservative model of Spenser as poet, this book presents the poem as radical, edgy and unconventional, thus proposing new ways of understanding the Elizabethan poetic Renaissance. The book moves from the individual words of the poem to metre, rhyme and stanza form onto its larger structures of canto and book. It will be of particular relevance to undergraduates studying Elizabethan poetry, graduate students and scholars of Renaissance poetry, for whom the formal aspect of the poetry has been a topic of growing relevance in recent years.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        August 2022

        All Fools

        George Chapman

        by Charles Edelman

        Of all the poets Francis Meres names in his famous Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury (1598), just two rate a mention as being both 'our best for tragedy' and 'the best poets for comedy': William Shakespeare and George Chapman. All Fools, written in 1599, is the only Elizabethan comedy based directly on the plays of Terence. By taking episodes and characters from two brilliant works, The Self-Tormenter and The Brothers, Chapman creates something that is distinctly Elizabethan while remaining faithful to the spirit of the great Roman master. In this edition, an extensive introduction and commentary show how Chapman combines the literary and theatrical traditions of ancient Rome with everyday life in his own time to fashion a sparkling and innovative comedy that will delight audiences today as much as it did those of 1599.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2021

        The art of The Faerie Queene

        by Richard Danson Brown

        The Art of The Faerie Queene is the first book centrally focused on the forms and poetic techniques employed by Spenser. It offers a sharp new perspective on Spenser by rereading The Faerie Queene as poetry which is at once absorbing, demanding and experimental. Instead of the traditional conservative model of Spenser as poet, this book presents the poem as radical, edgy and unconventional, thus proposing new ways of understanding the Elizabethan poetic Renaissance. The book moves from the individual words of the poem to metre, rhyme and stanza form onto its larger structures of canto and book. It will be of particular relevance to undergraduates studying Elizabethan poetry, graduate students and scholars of Renaissance poetry, for whom the formal aspect of the poetry has been a topic of growing relevance in recent years.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2016

        Doubtful and dangerous

        The question of succession in late Elizabethan England

        by Susan Doran, Peter Lake, Paulina Kewes, Anthony Milton, Jason Peacey, Alexandra Gajda

        Doubtful and dangerous examines the pivotal influence of the succession question on the politics, religion and culture of the post-Armada years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Although the earlier Elizabethan succession controversy has long commanded scholarly attention, the later period has suffered from relative obscurity. This book remedies the situation. Taking a thematic and interdisciplinary approach, individual essays demonstrate that key late Elizabethan texts - literary, political and polemical - cannot be understood without reference to the succession. The essays also reveal how the issue affected court politics, lay at the heart of religious disputes, stimulated constitutional innovation, and shaped foreign relations. By situating the topic within its historiographical and chronological contexts, the editors offer a novel account of the whole reign. Interdisciplinary in scope and spanning the crucial transition from the Tudors to the Stuarts, the book will be indispensable to scholars and students of early modern British and Irish history, literature and religion. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 1999

        The Shoemaker's Holiday

        by Thomas Dekker

        by David Bevington, Robert Smallwood, Stanley Wells, Richard Dutton, Alison Findlay, Helen Ostovich

        Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday is one of the most popular of Elizabethan plays, entertaining, racy and vivid in its characterisation. Revealing a vital portrait of Elizabethan London and the interaction of social classes within the city, its social commentary is on the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has had a lively history of performance on both the professional and amateur stage; the roles of Simon and Madgy Eyre in particular have proved worthy vehicles for the talents of such performers as Sir Donald Wolfit and Dame Edith Evans, and a notable production was directed by Orson Wells. The editors offer a study of the text; a historical and critical introduction, which includes a study of the play's relationship with contemporary life and drama and of its place in Dekker's work; a stage history' a detailed commentary and a reprint of source materials. ;

      • Trusted Partner
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      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 1999

        Campaspe and Sappho and Phao

        John Lyly

        by David Bevington, G.K. Hunter

        One of a series of play texts by Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists other than Shakespeare, this volume discusses the plays "Campaspe" and "Sappho and Phao" by John Lyly. The series aims to throw light on the plays and to offer views of the plays that have been neglected in the past. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700
        May 2013

        War and politics in the Elizabethan counties

        by Neil Younger

      • Trusted Partner

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