Oxford and Donne: Elizabethan Literature for ever and with no end

Modern Philology, 2019

1996

John Donne (1572-1631) “committed ” a mistake that neither his contemporaries nor later critics would forgive him: being born in the age of the greatest master of English Literature, William Shakespeare. Donne himself was aware of the oddity of the situation, as well as of the totally new kind of poetry he was creating, utterly different from what had been previ ously made by, namely, Sidney and Spenser. His conception of poetry also differed a great deal from that of his contemporaries: he sup posed that his poetry would be understood only by those friends for whom he wrote, and even in 1614, when he was thinking of publishing his poems, this was to be not for a public view, but a few copies at his own cost. Donne himself was, therefore, aware of the difficulty that his poetry con veyed; however, far from choosing a tendency towards simplification, he would continue to create poetry for an elite of educated people trained in the same tradition as his. Any twentieth-century reader w...

Revue d'études augustiniennes et patristiques, 1993

The idea of a "renaissance" in English literature has long been recognized as problematic. While we may grant that the creative brilliance of Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare and their contemporaries marks an important new departure in the cultural life of the English nation, it is more difficult to say how this insular achievement was related to the Italian and Continental discovery of classical antiquity, or to the larger literary and educational phenomenon known since the nineteenth century as Renaissance humanism. «The more we look into the question», wrote C. S. Lewis at the start of his magisterial survey of English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, «the harder we shall find it to believe that humanism had any power of encouraging, or any wish to encourage, the literature that actually arose» in Englandi. As a caution against exaggerated estimates of literary classicism in the age of Shakespeare, this statement retains its value. It should not, however, be allowed more than corrective force. Lewis had a particular interest in native traditions of English literature ; continuities of that kind would more readily discerned if the concept of "renaissance" were downplayed. Relevant, too, is the fact that his brief extended only to 1600. Hard as it may be for us to take a positive view of the influence of humanism on English literature when confronted with Golding's Ovid, the Elizabethan version of Seneca's tragedies, and other «drab translations from the classics» (Lewis), the use made of classical models by such later writers as Ben Jonson and John Milton, both of whom actively promoted humanist educational ideals, requires more An earlier version of this article was read at a conference on Augustine's De doctrina Christiana held at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, in April 1991, under the direction of Charles Kannengiesser. I am greatly indebted to Professor Kannengiesser for his support and encouragement of this research. In revising the original paper for publication I have also benefitted from the advice of my colleague, Paul G. Stanwood. To both my thanks. 1. English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (Oxford, 1954), p. 2.

A review essay and user's guide to May and Ringler's massive 3-volume resource dedicated to Elizabethan verse

2011

The identity of Shakespeare, the most important poet and dramatist in the English language, has been debated for centuries. This historical work investigates the role of Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, establishing him as the mostly likely candidate for authorship of Shakespeare's literary oeuvre. Topics include an historical overview of English literature from 1530 through 1575, major contemporary transitions in the theatre, and an examination of Oxford's life and the events leading to his literary prominence. The sonnets, his early poetry, juvenile pre-Shakespeare plays, and his acting career are of particular interest. An appendix examines the role of the historical William Shakespeare and how he became associated with Oxford's work.

The Dordrecht Bible Commentary [Statenvertaling] has blessed the universal church for 400 years. With its tried and true translation and revered running commentary it provides a most informative, inspirational and reliable study of all 66 books of the Bible by the godly pastor-theologians of the 17th Century Golden Age. While the confessional traditions of Dordrecht 1618 and Westminster 1645 are harmonious, this historic document is the only one which was a joint production lauded by the divines of both assemblies. The exegetical and expositional expertise is readily evident and fully accessible not only to scholars and pastors, but also to informed armchair theologians in the pews. Retained is the original Henry Hill text of 1657, but added are introductions to each volume, fresh outlines of every book of the Bible, art galleries and searchable indices. This article provides an historical and technical analysis of the work, along with a list of contemporary scholars who assisted in the historic project.

Review of English Studies, 2021

It is remarkable that a monograph on such a fundamental issue had not been written before now. 1 Students of fourteenth-and fifteenth-century English literature are fortunate that it was Daniel Sawyer who wrote it. Sawyer intervenes in two areas of existing scholarship. First, Reading English Verse supplements pan-European book history. Second, the book hails scholars of English poetics, who will be less familiar with, say, the mechanics of fifteenth-century bookmarks. Sawyer explores what these two research grooves have to offer one another, and what they have both missed. Through intensive and extensive attention to manuscripts containing poetry in English, with comparisons to the Continent and to prose, Sawyer delineates readerly competence, the expectations that readers of poetry carried with them at this time. It is against these expectations that extraordinary effects of bookmaking and poetic making are to be gauged. Reading English Verse brings out the dialectical play of norms and exceptions in 'the how of reading' (1). The introduction and five chapters proceed efficiently in order of increasing formal particularity. The introduction grapples with the period 1350-1500 as a trough in the history of European reading, after the standardization of book design in the twelfth century but before the normalization of print in the sixteenth. Sawyer highlights what the history of reading can add to literary interpretation. A premise of the book is that a manuscript is an experience to be had, not a meaning to be gleaned. The anti-hermeneutical, almost phenomenological bent of this book curbs the inclinations of literary studies. Chapters 1-4 dissect poetic reading with focus on the Prick of Conscience and Speculum Vitae, widely disseminated northern tetrameter poems of religious instruction