Criticism and Compliment examines the poems, plays and masques of the three figures who succeeded Ben Jonson as authors of court entertainments in the England of Charles I. The courtly literature of Caroline England has been dismissed by critics and characterised by historians as propaganda for Charles I's absolutism penned by sycophantic hirelings. Kevin Sharpe questions the assumptions on which these evaluations have been based. Challenging the traditional argument for a polarity between court and country cultures in early Stuart England, he re-reads the plays, poems and masques as primary documents of political attitudes articulated at court. Far from being confined to a decade or a party, the courtly literature of the 1630s is relocated within the broader humanist tradition of counsel. Through the language of love - a language, it is argued, that was part of the discourse of politics in Caroline England - the court poets criticised fundamental premises of the King's political ideology, and counselled traditional and moderate modes of government.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'... a masterly study, one which opens up new perspectives on politics, literature, and kingship in early modern England.' The English Historical Review
'Sharpe's book, as might be expected of this lively, hard-hitting author, is provocative and challenging ... Sharpe's exciting and innovative book can be warmly recommended to those interested in the re-mapping of the familiar territory of early Stuart political history.' The Historian
'An illuminating study of Caroline court culture that provocatively challenges received ideas about the relationship of culture to politics in early Stuart England ... His sophisticated and intelligent discussion of the Caroline masques is probably the best essay yet produced on the topic ... Sharpe's book ... is also written with enviable boldness and clarity. No student of Stuart literature or politics can afford to neglect it.' Modern Europe
'Sharpe's book, as might be expected of this lively, hard-hitting author, is provocative and challenging ... Sharpe's exciting and innovative book can be warmly recommended to those interested in the re-mapping of the familiar territory of early Stuart political history.' The Historian
'An illuminating study of Caroline court culture that provocatively challenges received ideas about the relationship of culture to politics in early Stuart England ... His sophisticated and intelligent discussion of the Caroline masques is probably the best essay yet produced on the topic ... Sharpe's book ... is also written with enviable boldness and clarity. No student of Stuart literature or politics can afford to neglect it.' Modern Europe
Book Description
Criticism and Compliment examines the poems, plays and masques of the three figures who succeeded Ben Jonson as authors of court entertainments in the England of Charles I. The courtly literature of Caroline England has been dismissed by critics and characterised by historians as propaganda for Charles I's absolutism penned by sycophantic hirelings.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Historians and literary scholars seldom meet on the same ground (almost never at the same conference or seminar). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
cavalier drama, attractive mildness, fair favourite, depraved lovers, cavalier mode, verse compliment, cavalier poetry, puritan followers, courtly mode, platonic love, uncorrupted nature, court masque, royal slave, cavalier poets Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Inigo Jones, Dramatic Works, Coelum Britannicum, Ben Jonson, Henrietta Maria, Albion's Triumph, Salmacida Spolia, Thomas Carew, Britannia Triumphans, Shorter Poems, Tempe Restored, Sir William Davenant, Aurelian Townshend, Golden Age Restor'd, The Shepherd's Paradise, Caroline England, The Unfortunate Lovers, Dramatic Records of Herbert, King of Sweden, Sir John Suckling, History of England, English Renaissance, James Shirley, Poems of Carew, Van Dyck New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Historians and literary scholars seldom meet on the same ground (almost never at the same conference or seminar). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
cavalier drama, attractive mildness, fair favourite, depraved lovers, cavalier mode, verse compliment, cavalier poetry, puritan followers, courtly mode, platonic love, uncorrupted nature, court masque, royal slave, cavalier poets Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Inigo Jones, Dramatic Works, Coelum Britannicum, Ben Jonson, Henrietta Maria, Albion's Triumph, Salmacida Spolia, Thomas Carew, Britannia Triumphans, Shorter Poems, Tempe Restored, Sir William Davenant, Aurelian Townshend, Golden Age Restor'd, The Shepherd's Paradise, Caroline England, The Unfortunate Lovers, Dramatic Records of Herbert, King of Sweden, Sir John Suckling, History of England, English Renaissance, James Shirley, Poems of Carew, Van Dyck New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 93
books:
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47
books
cite this book:
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- The Court Masque (Revels Plays Companion Library) by David Lindley on 8 pages
- The Jonsonian Masque by Stephen Orgel on 7 pages
- Aubrey's Brief Lives (Nonpareil Books, No 77) by John Aubrey on 5 pages
- Faction and Parliament: Essays on Early Stuart History (University Paperbacks) by Kevin Sharpe on 5 pages
- The New Inn: By Ben Jonson (Revels Plays) by Michael Hattaway on 4 pages
See all 93 books this book cites
- Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait, and Print, 1645-1661 by Laura Lunger Knoppers on 5 pages
- The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I by Thomas N. Corns on 5 pages
- Literature, Satire and the Early Stuart State by Andrew McRae in Front Matter, page 183, and Back Matter
- Leviathan after 350 Years (Mind Association Occasional) by Tom Sorell on page 82, and page 83
- Sermons at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean Preaching (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History) by Peter McCullough in Front Matter, and Back Matter
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