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First collection devoted to the Poly-Olbion, bringing out in
particular its concerns with nature and the environment.
Poly-Olbion (1612-1622), the collaborative work of the poet Michael
Drayton, the legal scholar John Selden, and the engraver William
Hole, ranks among the most remarkable literary productions of early
modern England, and arguably among the most important. An ambitious
and idiosyncratic survey of the history, topography, and ecology of
England and Wales - ranging in its preoccupations from the
supernatural conception of Merlin to the curious habits of beavers,
and from celebrations of martial glory to laments over the
diminishment of woodlands - the book seems determined to pack all
of national and natural history between its covers. In the course
of thirty songs, Drayton's Muse traverses a varying landscape in
which personified rivers, hills, and forests sing of past glories
and disasters, pursuing local and regional rivalries whilst
propounding a heterogeneous vision of Britain. However, perhaps
because of its very uniqueness, it has received relatively little
critical attention. This is the first ever volume of essays on
Poly-Olbion, and a reflection of the work's increasing prominence
in scholarship on the literature and culture of early modern
England: the poem has long been central to critical studies of
early modern nationhood and nationalism, but in the last decade it
has also assumed a central place in discussions of pre-modern
approaches to ecological sustainability and environmental
degradation. The contributors here address questions about the form
and purpose of Poly-Olbion, as well as engaging with these dominant
critical debates, reflecting the extent to which the preoccupations
of Drayton and his collaborators have become our own.
This book examines conceptions of authority for and in Shakespeare,
and the construction of Shakespeare as literary and cultural
authority. The first section, Defining and Redefining Authority,
begins by re-defining the concept of Shakespeare's sources,
suggesting that 'authorities' and 'resources' are more appropriate
terms. Building on this conceptual framework, the remainder of this
section explores linguistic and discursive authority more broadly.
The second section, Shakespearean Authority, considers the
construction, performance and questioning of authority in
Shakespeare's plays. Essays here range from examinations of
monarchical authority to discussions of household authority,
literary authority and linguistic ownership. The final part,
Shakespeare as Authority, then traces the increasing establishment
of Shakespeare as an authority from the eighteenth to the
twenty-first century in a series of essays that explore
Shakespearean authority for editors, actors, critics, authors,
readers and audiences. The volume concludes with two essays that
reassess Shakespeare as an authority for visual culture - in the
cinema and in contemporary art.
In Defiance of Time explores the emergence of antiquarianism in
early modern England, from its first flourishing in the mid-Tudor
period through to its seventeenth-century heyday. A vibrant
antiquarian culture emerged, which reached beyond scholarly and
historical circles, and had a profound influence on the literature
and thought of the period. Examining the influences on that
development of that culture, this book argues that the origins of
English antiquarianism need to be found in the methods and
practices of continental (and especially Italian) humanism. It
shows that, like the humanists, the early antiquaries had the
essentially imaginative aim of resurrecting and recomposing the
past and past societies 'in defiance of time'. The antiquaries
conceived of themselves and their activities as bridging the gap
between past and present, affording 'olden time' presence in this
way so that it might speak to and inform present circumstances. At
the heart of this book is the argument that the antiquarian project
depended on the antiquaries' capacity to restore-in their
imagination at least-the fragments of the past, to imagine those
remnants of history 'which have casually escaped the shipwreck of
time' made whole once again. In Defiance of Time traces these
arguments through a range of authors and material, both printed and
in manuscript. Chapters advance original readings of important
authors such as Leland, Stow, Spenser, Camden, Drayton, and Selden,
as well as shedding light on institutions such as the Elizabethan
Society of Antiquaries and reviewing the wide range of activities,
interests, and concerns that came under the antiquarian purview.
Antiquarianism is thereby shown to be integral to early modern
literary and intellectual culture.
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