Poetry and sovereignty in the English Revolution /
Allsopp, Niall,1989-author.
"This book presents a new interpretation of the poetry of the English Revolution, by focusing on royalist poets who left royalism behind following the execution of the king. These poets reimagined the traditional language of allegiance, articulating a flexible yet absolute form of sovereignty, applicable to a republic, or even to a Cromwellian monarchy. This sovereignty was artificial, and generated through the poetic imagination. Several chapters chart the poets' close acquaintance with Thomas Hobbes, offering new readings of the reception and adaptation of Hobbes's ideas in contemporary poetry. This context yields new insights into well-known poems by Andrew Marvell, Edmund Waller, and John Dryden. But it also newly opens up major works that have been neglected, including the two original English epics of the Commonwealth period, by William Davenant and Abraham Cowley, along with the early career of Margaret Cavendish, and the plays of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. A final chapter traces how the poets survived the restoration of Stuart monarchy, showing how they continued to apply their ideas in the heroic drama of the 1660s. The book builds on recent work in both literary criticism and the history of political thought, to contextualize the poets within a distinctive strain of absolutism inflected by reason of state, neostoicism, scepticism, and anti-clericalism. It demonstrates a vivid poetic effort to imagine the expanded state delivered by the English Revolution"--Publisher's description.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Davenant: imagining sovereignty in Gondibert -- Marvell: action and obedience -- Cavendish: ceremony and coercion -- Cowley: oblivion and obedience -- Davenant and the Protectorate: sovereignty and civility -- Restoration: clemency and contingency.
"This book presents a new interpretation of the poetry of the English Revolution, by focusing on royalist poets who left royalism behind following the execution of the king. These poets reimagined the traditional language of allegiance, articulating a flexible yet absolute form of sovereignty, applicable to a republic, or even to a Cromwellian monarchy. This sovereignty was artificial, and generated through the poetic imagination. Several chapters chart the poets' close acquaintance with Thomas Hobbes, offering new readings of the reception and adaptation of Hobbes's ideas in contemporary poetry. This context yields new insights into well-known poems by Andrew Marvell, Edmund Waller, and John Dryden. But it also newly opens up major works that have been neglected, including the two original English epics of the Commonwealth period, by William Davenant and Abraham Cowley, along with the early career of Margaret Cavendish, and the plays of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery. A final chapter traces how the poets survived the restoration of Stuart monarchy, showing how they continued to apply their ideas in the heroic drama of the 1660s. The book builds on recent work in both literary criticism and the history of political thought, to contextualize the poets within a distinctive strain of absolutism inflected by reason of state, neostoicism, scepticism, and anti-clericalism. It demonstrates a vivid poetic effort to imagine the expanded state delivered by the English Revolution"--Publisher's description.
Sovereignty in literature.
English poetry
Political poetry, English
Politics and literature