Autobiography and Authorship in Renaissance Verse

Chronicles of the Self

E. Heale

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781403932693
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Modern Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The advent of relatively cheap editions in the mid-sixteenth century produced an explosion of verse, much of which represented the first person speaker as a version of the author. This book examines ways in which writers, often seeking advancement in their careers, harnessed verse for self-promotional purposes. Texts studied include a manuscript autobiography by Thomas Whythorne, printed verse by a woman, Isabella Whitney, travel and war narratives, as well as canonical texts by Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 ‘To mạk my self to be known of many’: miscellanies and the well-formed gentleman
• 2 The ‘outward marks’ and the ‘inward man’: Thomas Whythorne’s ‘songs and sonetts’
• 3 Narratives of experience
• 4 Spenser as Orpheus
• 5 Passionate ejaculations and thepoetics of presence: Gascoigne’s ‘The Adventures of Master F.J.’ and Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella
• 6 ‘My name is Will’: Shakespeare’s Sonnets
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index