JACOBEAN POETRY AND PROSE

JACOBEAN POETRY AND PROSE

INSIGHTS General Editor: Clive Bloom, Lecturer in English and Coordinator of American Studies, Middlesex Polytechnic Editorial Board: Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb, Keith Shand Insights brings to academics, students and general readers the very best contemporary criticism on neglected literary and cultural areas. It consists of anthologies, each containing original contributions by advanced scholars and experts. Each contribution concentrates on a study of a particular work, author or genre in its artistic, historical and cultural context. Published titles Clive Bloom, Brian Docherty, Jane Gibb and Keith Shand (editors) NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: From Poe to Conan Doyle Clive Bloom (editor) JACOBEAN POETRY AND PROSE: Rhetoric, Representation and the Popular Imagination Gary Day and Clive Bloom (editors) PERSPECTIVES ON PORNOGRAPHY: Sexuality in Film and Literature Brian Docherty (editor) AMERICAN CRIME FICTION: Studies in the Genre Jeffrey Walsh and James Aulich (editors) VIETNAM IMAGES: WAR AND REPRESENTATION Further titles in preparation Series Standing Order If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the UK we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.) Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG212XS, England.

Jacobean Poetry and Prose Rhetoric, Representation and the Popular Imagination Edited by Clive Bloom M MACMILLAN PRESS

the Editorial Board, Lumiere (Co-operative) Press Ltd 1988 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-44394-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Jacobean poetry and prose: rhetoric, representation and the popular imagination. -(Insights). 1. English literature-early modem, 1500-1700-History and criticism I. Bloom, Clive II. Series 820'. 9 PR421 ISBN 978-0-333-46538-7 ISBN 978-1-349-19590-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19590-9

Contents Preface and Acknowledgements vii Notes on the Contributors viii 1 Introduction: Authority, Text and the Jacobean Mind 1 Clive Bloom 2 Open and Closed Books: a Semiotic Approach to the History of Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Romance 8 John Simons 3 Nashe, Rhetoric and Satire 25 Neil Rhodes 4 The Luck of the English 44 Valerie Pitt 5 The Borders and their Ballads 57 Stephen Knight 6 The Poetry of John Donne: Literature, History and Ideology 78 William Zunder 7 Donne's Masculine Persuasive Force 96 Helen Carr 8 'In Love with Curious Words': Signification and Sexuality in English Petrarchism 119 Malcolm Evans 9 The White Devil and the Fair Woman with a Black Soul 151 Sylvia Freedman v

vi Contents 10 A King and No King: Monarchy and Royalty as Discourse in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama 164 Robert Giddings 11 Masques and Murderers: Dramatic Method and Ideology in Revenge Tragedy and the Court Masque 194 Darryll Grantley 12 All about Eve: Woman in Paradise Lost 213 John Simons Select Bibliography compiled by Mary Shakeshaft 226 Index 231

Preface and Acknowledgements This volume presents eleven essays on the Jacobean period, plus an Introduction. Each essay combines, in a clear and understandable way, contemporary literary theory and sound practical criticism. Subjects covered include the poetry of John Donne, the theology and impact of the Book of Common Prayer, the politics of Jacobean theatre, the works of Thomas Nashe, the popular fictions and ballads of the period and the theory and practice of poetic production and artistic ideology. The book combines a comprehensive range of literary approaches (Marxist, feminist, post-structuralist) in order to investigate selected aspects of the richly diverse culture of the early seventeenth century. Also included is a select bibliography for further reading. Thanks are due to Brian Docherty for his vigilance and support, to Bob Lee, Darryll Grantley and John Simons for last-minute aid, and to Graham Eyre for his expert advice. C. B. vii

Notes on the Contributors Clive Bloom is Coordinator of American Studies at Middlesex Polytechnic. He is General Editor of the Insights series and the author of books on literary criticism, Romanticism and popular culture. Helen Carr has taught at the University of Essex and at Thames Polytechnic. She is an editor of the feminist arts magazine Women's Review and has published articles on American and English literature. Malcolm Evans teaches at the Polytechnic of North London. He is the author of Signifying Nothing: Truth's True Contents in Shakespeare's Texts and a contributor to Alternative Shakespeares. Sylvia Freedman is a practising solicitor, and the author of Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich, an Elizabethan Woman and the play The Voyage Home about Virginia Woolf. Robert Giddings is the editor of two forthcoming volumes in the Insights series, Literature and Imperialism and Literature and the Media. Darryll Grantley lectures at the University of Kent on English and American literature. He has written several articles on the medieval and Renaissance periods. Stephen Knight is the Robert Wallace Chair of English at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His many publications include work on medieval literature, Chaucer and crime fiction. Valerie Pitt recently retired as head of Humanities at Thames Polytechnic. She has written on a variety of subjects and is a lay member of the Synod of the Church of England. Neil Rhodes lectures at St Andrew's University, Scotland. He is the author of Elizabethan Grotesque and editor of John Donne: viii

Notes on the Contributors ix Selected Prose and is currently working on a book about eloquence in Renaissance literature. Mary Shakeshaft is a Principal Lecturer in English at Middlesex Polytechnic. Her research interests cover Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, religious poetry and children's literature. John Simons is currently Lecturer in English Literature at King Alfred's College, Winchester. Having recently finished an edition of Henry Porter's Two Angry Women of Abingdon in collaboration with M. Jardine, he is now working on a book about Shakespeare and Milton. William Zunder is a Renaissance specialist at Hull University. He has published The Poetry of John Donne and is completing a study of Marlowe.