Literature and Politics in the 1620s

Literature and Politics in the 1620s

Also by Paul Salzman READING EARLY MODERN WOMEN S WRITING (2006) LITERARY CULTURE IN JACOBEAN ENGLAND: READING 1621 (2002)

Literature and Politics in the 1620s Whisper d Counsells Paul Salzman Professor, La Trobe University, Australia

Paul Salzman 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-30597-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-45498-3 DOI 10.1057/9781137305985 ISBN 978-1-137-30598-5 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.

For Susan, Imogen, Joseph and Charles

scarce you heare a publike voyce alive, But whisper d Counsells, and those only thrive. Ben Jonson, An Epigram, The Underwood

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations viii ix x Introduction 1 Part I Imaginings 1 Drama 17 2 Poetry 49 3 Narrative 99 Part II Religion 4 Sermons 121 5 Pamphlets/Doctrine 137 Part III News 6 Newsbooks/papers and Pamphlets 159 7 Public/Private 185 Conclusion: Reading/Interpreting 202 Bibliography 211 Index 223 vii

List of Illustrations 1 Eleanor Davies, from A Warning to the Dragon, by permission of the British Library 155 2 Thomas Scott, frontispiece to The Second Part of Vox Populi, by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University 176 3 Thomas Scott, frontispiece to Vox Dei, by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University 178 viii

Acknowledgements This book was made possible by a Discovery Project Grant for 2012 14 from the Australian Research Council. I am extremely grateful to the ARC for providing the kind of funding necessary to undertake substantial book projects such as this one, as universities these days simply cannot on their own provide the time required. I am also grateful to my colleagues at La Trobe University for their encouragement and support, especially those who offered feedback on the project at various stages: Sue Martin, Kylie Mirmohamadi and Rob Conkie. Work on this project coincided with work on early modern women s writing which provided invaluable insights into the contexts for writing in the 1620s. Members of the Network for Research on Early Modern Women could be relied on to boost my morale: Rosalind Smith, Patricia Pender, Sarah C. E. Ross, Kate Lilley, Susan Wiseman and Michelle O Callaghan. I owe a particular debt to Ros and Trisha for introducing me to the work of Matt Cohen. Queries about a variety of topics were answered by Ruth Connolly, Susan Wiseman and Andrew McRae. Thanks also to the efficient editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan, especially to Monica Kendall for exemplary copy-editing. Much of my primary research was undertaken at the British Library, which was a model of efficiency. I would also like to thank the Bodleian Library and, for hospitality in Oxford, Tiffany Stern and Richard A. McCabe. The La Trobe University Library has been a wonderful resource, especially the Interlibrary Loan Team, who were, at times, inundated with requests from me. Some ideas in this book were tested as papers delivered at conferences held by: The Renaissance Society of America; The Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies; The Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association; Shakespeare s Spaces Symposium at the 2010 Australian Shakespeare Festival; and The Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association. The three illustrations in the book are reproduced by permission from the British Library (Eleanor Davies), and the Houghton Library, Harvard University (two pages from Thomas Scott). Finally, thanks to my family, who always make life interesting. ix

List of Abbreviations ELH English Literary History ELR English Literary Renaissance ESTC English Short Title Catalogue HLQ Huntington Library Quarterly JEGP Journal of English and Germanic Philology MLR Modern Language Review N&Q Notes & Queries ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography RES Review of English Studies RQ Renaissance Quarterly SB Studies in Bibliography SEL Studies in English Literature 1500 1900 SP Studies in Philology YES Yearbook of English Studies x