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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.
Featuring over two hundred nature-themed texts spanning the
disciplines of literature, science and history, this sourcebook
offers an accessible field guide to the environment of Renaissance
England, revealing a nation at a crossroads between its pastoral
heritage and industrialized future. Carefully selected primary
sources, each modernized and prefaced with an introduction, survey
an encyclopaedic array of topographies, species, and topics: from
astrology to zoology, bear-baiting to bee-keeping, coal-mining to
tree-planting, fen-draining to sheep-whispering. The familiar
voices of Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, and Marvell mingle with a
diverse chorus of farmers, herbalists, shepherds, hunters,
foresters, philosophers, sailors, sky-watchers, and duchesses - as
well as ventriloquized beasts, trees, and rivers. Lavishly
illustrated, the anthology is supported by a lucid introduction
that outlines and intervenes in key debates in Renaissance
ecocriticism, a reflective essay on ecocritical editing, a
bibliography of further reading, and a timeline of environmental
history and legislation drawing on extensive archival research.
Featuring over two hundred nature-themed texts spanning the
disciplines of literature, science and history, this sourcebook
offers an accessible field guide to the environment of Renaissance
England, revealing a nation at a crossroads between its pastoral
heritage and industrialized future. Carefully selected primary
sources, each modernized and prefaced with an introduction, survey
an encyclopaedic array of topographies, species, and topics: from
astrology to zoology, bear-baiting to bee-keeping, coal-mining to
tree-planting, fen-draining to sheep-whispering. The familiar
voices of Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, and Marvell mingle with a
diverse chorus of farmers, herbalists, shepherds, hunters,
foresters, philosophers, sailors, sky-watchers, and duchesses - as
well as ventriloquized beasts, trees, and rivers. Lavishly
illustrated, the anthology is supported by a lucid introduction
that outlines and intervenes in key debates in Renaissance
ecocriticism, a reflective essay on ecocritical editing, a
bibliography of further reading, and a timeline of environmental
history and legislation drawing on extensive archival research.
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