Graven With Diamonds: The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt: Poet, Lover, Statesman, and Spy in the Court of Henry VIII
In this literary investigation, Shulman appraises not so much the life of Thomas Wyatt (1503–42), credited with importing the sonnet form into English, as the contemporary relevance of his poetry to personalities and events of the court of Henry VIII. Shulman’s title, for example, comes from a poem that some literary sleuths think refers to Anne Boleyn, in whose fall Wyatt was implicated but from whose fate he escaped. Shulman explains that Wyatt’s poems circulated among Henry’s courtiers as currency in acting out the rituals of courtly love. Wherever these might have crossed from conventions to relationships spices Shulman’s interpretations of Wyatt’s verses, and Shulman suggests rather than asserts, conjectures rather than concludes, about the nature of Wyatt’s connection with Boleyn. Through her perceptive interpretations of Wyatt’s poems, Shulman evokes the darkening atmosphere as Henry’s reign ran on. Having survived the Boleyn affair, Wyatt regained favor as a diplomat but was thrown into the tower again in the wake of the fall of Henry’s chief counselor, Thomas Cromwell. Concerned with a nexus of history and literature, Shulman’s sophistication will inveigle readers of both genres. --Gilbert Taylor