'Ungainefull arte' : poetry, patronage, and print in the early modern era / Richard A. McCabe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCabe, Richard A. (Richard Anthony), 1954- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authors and patrons--Europe--History.

Authors and patrons.

Literature, Modern--15th and 16th centuries--History and criticism.

Literature, Modern.

Literature, Modern--17th century--History and criticism.

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English literature.

Italian literature--History and criticism.

Italian literature.

History.

Europe.

Physical Description:

xii, 376 pages, 23 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

From antiquity to the Renaissance the pursuit of patronage was central to the literary career, yet relationships between poets and patrons were commonly conflicted, if not antagonistic, necessitating compromise even as they proffered stability and status. Was it just a matter of speaking lies to power? The present study looks beyond the rhetoric of dedication to examine how traditional modes of literary patronage responded to the challenge of print, as the economies of gift-exchange were forced to compete with those of the marketplace. It demonstrates how awareness of such divergent milieux prompted innovative modes of authorial self-representation, inspired or frustrated the desire for laureation, and promoted the remarkable self-reflexivity of Early Modern verse. By setting English Literature from Caxton to Jonson in the context of the most influential Classical and Italian exemplars it offers a broad comparative reassessment of patronage both as practice and a literary theme. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Theory and Practice

1 Of Followers and Friends: Problems of Definition 15

2 Visions of Laurel: Classical Exemplars 29

3 The Arts of Magnificence: Early Modern Exemplars 45

4 Economies of Script and Print 57

5 The Rhetoric of Paratexts 73

6 The Protocols of Presentation 88

II Italian Literary Patronage

7 Petrarch and the Renaissance of Patronage 107

8 Ariosto: Laureate or Poligrafo? 123

9 Tasso: Patronage and Imprisonment 135

III English Literary Patronage, 1500-1625

10 Print and Patronage in the Early Tudor Age 149

1 Caxton: Print, Patronage, and Canonicity 149

2 Pressed Laurels: Skelton 153

3 Reforming Patronage 159

11 Elizabeth I and Court Patronage 172

1 The Lettered Queen: Fashioning a Royal Patron 172

2 Patronage and Precedence 181

12 Courts and Coteries 199

13 The Elizabethan Marketplace 214

14 Career Trajectories 229

1 Gascoigne, the Soldier Poet 229

2 Spenser, the Colonial Poet 239

3 Daniel, the Court Poet 253

15 Egerton: A Patron's 'Canon' 271

16 The Courts of King James and Prince Henry 288

1 Laureate King and King's Laureate 288

2 Prince Henry: The Rival Court 302.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780198716525

0198716524

OCLC:

942849192