The 'shepheards nation'
Subtitle: Jacobean Spenserians and early Stuart political culture, 1612-1625
By: Michelle O'Callaghan.
Series: Oxford English monographs
Publisher: Clarendon; Oxford University
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: Browne, William, 1590-ca. 1645 -- Political and social views.; Brooke, Christopher, d. 1628 -- Political and social views.; Wither, George, 1588-1667 -- Political and social views.; Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Influence.; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.; Political poetry, English -- History and criticism.; Pastoral poetry, English -- History and criticism.; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1603-1625.
Description: "The 'shepheards nations' is a study of a group of Jacobean Spenserian poets, William Browne, George Wither, and Christopher Brooke, and of the ways in which these writers represented themselves as a distinctive oppositional community in the years 1612 to 1625. This Spenserian community had its social basis in the culture of early modern London and was given physical expression through the practice of collaboration and an innovative use of print. Yet, it was also an 'imagined community' expressed through fictions that drew on common literary and political traditions. The result was a type of literary commonwealth that claimed the authority to engage in public debate on issues of politics and culture. By drawing attention to the relationships between writers and the traditions and environments that enable textual communities, this book provides a new perspective for studying early modern culture."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [242]-266) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 1. The 'Shepheards nation': William Browne, The Shepheards pipe (1614) and George Wither, The shepherds hunting (1615); title: 2. Tyranny, parliament, and the 'country': Christopher Brooke's The ghost of Richard the Third (1614); title: 3. 'Thus dear    Britannia will I sing of thee': William  Browne, Britannia's pastorals; title: 4. George Wither, citizen prophet; title: 5. The 'evill time': Spenserian community in the 1620s; title: Conclusion; title: Appendix 1: Transcripts of the examinations of Wither and the Stationers state papers, domestic; title: Appendix 2: Editions of Wither's     Motto (1621).