The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'
Brink’s provocative biography shows that Spenser was not the would-be court poet whom Karl Marx’s described as ‘Elizabeth’s arse-kissing poet’. In this readable and informative account, Spenser is depicted as the protégé of a circle of London clergymen, who expected him to take holy orders. Brink shows that the young Spenser was known to Alexander Nowell, author of Nowell’s Catechism and Dean of St. Paul’s. Significantly revising the received biography, Brink argues that that it was Harvey alone who orchestrated Familiar Letters (1580). He used this correspondence to further his career and invented the portrait of Spenser as his admiring disciple.
Contextualising Spenser’s life by comparisons with Shakespeare and Sir Walter Ralegh, Brink shows that Spenser shared with Sir Philip Sidney an allegiance to the early modern chivalric code. His departure for Ireland was a high point, not an exile.

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The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'
Brink’s provocative biography shows that Spenser was not the would-be court poet whom Karl Marx’s described as ‘Elizabeth’s arse-kissing poet’. In this readable and informative account, Spenser is depicted as the protégé of a circle of London clergymen, who expected him to take holy orders. Brink shows that the young Spenser was known to Alexander Nowell, author of Nowell’s Catechism and Dean of St. Paul’s. Significantly revising the received biography, Brink argues that that it was Harvey alone who orchestrated Familiar Letters (1580). He used this correspondence to further his career and invented the portrait of Spenser as his admiring disciple.
Contextualising Spenser’s life by comparisons with Shakespeare and Sir Walter Ralegh, Brink shows that Spenser shared with Sir Philip Sidney an allegiance to the early modern chivalric code. His departure for Ireland was a high point, not an exile.

37.95 In Stock
The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'

The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'

by Jean R. Brink
The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'

The early Spenser, 1554-80: 'Minde on honour fixed'

by Jean R. Brink

Paperback

$37.95 
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Overview

Brink’s provocative biography shows that Spenser was not the would-be court poet whom Karl Marx’s described as ‘Elizabeth’s arse-kissing poet’. In this readable and informative account, Spenser is depicted as the protégé of a circle of London clergymen, who expected him to take holy orders. Brink shows that the young Spenser was known to Alexander Nowell, author of Nowell’s Catechism and Dean of St. Paul’s. Significantly revising the received biography, Brink argues that that it was Harvey alone who orchestrated Familiar Letters (1580). He used this correspondence to further his career and invented the portrait of Spenser as his admiring disciple.
Contextualising Spenser’s life by comparisons with Shakespeare and Sir Walter Ralegh, Brink shows that Spenser shared with Sir Philip Sidney an allegiance to the early modern chivalric code. His departure for Ireland was a high point, not an exile.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781526151780
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Publication date: 09/08/2020
Series: The Manchester Spenser
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Jean R. Brink is a Research Scholar at Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, and the founding director of the Az Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Lineage and the ‘Nowell Account Book’
2 Spenser’s education and Merchant Taylors’ School
3 Pembroke College (1569–74)
4 ‘Southerne shepheardes boye’ (1574–79)
5 Gabriel Harvey and Immerito (1569–78)
6 ‘Minde on honour fixed’: Spenser, Sidney, and the early modern chivalric code
7 Aprill and November
8 Puzzling identities: From E.K. to Roffy’s ‘boye’ to Rosalind
9 Familiar Letters (1580)
10 Ireland and the preferment of Edmund Spenser (1580)
Conclusion

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