Spenserian Satire: A Tradition of Indirection - Paperback

by Rachel Hile (Author)

Scholars of Edmund Spenser have focused much more on his accomplishments in epic and pastoral than his work in satire. Scholars of early modern English satire almost never discuss Spenser. However, these critical gaps stem from later developments in the canon rather than any insignificance in Spenser's accomplishments and influence on satiric poetry. This book argues that the indirect form of satire developed by Spenser served during and after Spenser's lifetime as an important model for other poets who wished to convey satirical messages with some degree of safety. The book connects key Spenserian texts in The Shepheardes Calender and the Complaints volume with poems by a range of authors in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including Joseph Hall, Thomas Nashe, Tailboys Dymoke, Thomas Middleton and George Wither, to advance the thesis that Spenser was seen by his contemporaries as highly relevant to satire in Elizabethan England.

Front Jacket

Spenserian satire examines the satirical poetry of Edmund Spenser and argues for his importance as a model and influence for younger poets writing satires in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The book focuses on reading satirical texts of the period in relation to one another, with specific attention to the role that Edmund Spenser plays in that literary subsystem, in order to address several distinct audiences. For Spenser scholars, who recognize Spenser's supremacy in "serious poetry" of the period and have carefully studied his influence on epic, pastoral and lyric poetry, the analysis of Spenser's reputation as a satirical poet will contribute to a fuller understanding of Spenser as "the poet's poet." For scholars of satire, the book offers a more detailed discussion and theorization of the type of satire that Spenser wrote, "indirect satire," than has been provided elsewhere. Spenser's satire does not fit well into the categories that have been used to taxonomize satirical writing from the classical era up to the eighteenth century, but including him with the complaint tradition is also imprecise. A theory of indirect satire benefits not just Spenser studies, but satire studies as well. For scholars of English Renaissance satire in particular, who have tended to focus on the formal verse satires of the 1590s to the exclusion of more indirect forms such as Spenser's, this book is a corrective, an invitation to recognize the influence of a style of satire that has received little attention

Back Jacket

Spenserian satire examines the satirical poetry of Edmund Spenser and argues for his importance as a model and influence for younger poets writing satires in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The book focuses on reading satirical texts of the period in relation to one another, with specific attention to the role that Edmund Spenser plays in that literary subsystem, in order to address several distinct audiences. For Spenser scholars, who recognize Spenser's supremacy in "serious poetry" of the period and have carefully studied his influence on epic, pastoral and lyric poetry, the analysis of Spenser's reputation as a satirical poet will contribute to a fuller understanding of Spenser as "the poet's poet." For scholars of satire, the book offers a more detailed discussion and theorization of the type of satire that Spenser wrote, "indirect satire," than has been provided elsewhere. Spenser's satire does not fit well into the categories that have been used to taxonomize satirical writing from the classical era up to the eighteenth century, but including him with the complaint tradition is also imprecise. A theory of indirect satire benefits not just Spenser studies, but satire studies as well.

For scholars of English Renaissance satire in particular, who have tended to focus on the formal verse satires of the 1590s to the exclusion of more indirect forms such as Spenser's, this book is a corrective, an invitation to recognize the influence of a style of satire that has received little attention

Author Biography

Rachel E. Hile is Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne