The Maid's Tragedy by Beaumont & Fletcher

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Maid's Tragedy (1619)
Context

• Publication: First performed 1610-11, by the King's Men, probably at the Blackfriar's, then at court. Fletcher is believed to have written 2:2, 4:1, 5:1-2, several notable for their sudden reversals. Registered to Richard Higgenbotham (2) and Francis Constable in 1619. There are two issues of the first edition, varying by the imprint: Higgenbotham (2) or Constable. DEEP has six editions. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the representations of courtly politics and tyranny in the play, as well as the development of the tragi-comedy under Beaumont & Fletcher.
• Why I'm reading it: The counter-canon, ekphrasis, the court, tragicomedy, women.

Content

• Form: Play in five acts.
• Genre: Courtly/romantic tragedy.
• Conceit: Melantius returns from war to Rhodes, only to find that the King has given the hand of his sister Evadne to his friend Amintor, a courtier. The problem is that Amintor had already promised to marry Aspatia, daughter of old lord Calianax. Aspatia grieves, Calianax insults Melantius, and all watch a masque--the king bids Amintor to father a great warrior, and wishes all a good night. Evadne prepares for bed accompanied by Aspatia, who kisses Amintor while leaving. As Amintor regrets his reversal, Evadne reveals that she will never share her bed with him. Under threat from Amintor, she admits to being the queen's kept woman. Amintor will make the king's bastards appear to be legitimate children. Amintor sleeps on the floor to maintain the illusion.
  Aspatia commends her servants to never give away their hearts. For her broken heart, Calianax vows revenge. Vengeful Amintor casts aspersions on Evadne to Melantius, and makes the king doubt Evadne's loyalty as a kept woman. Amintor admits that Evadne has been faithful to the king, and vows non-violent vengeance. Amintor shares the truth with Melantius, who had just brushed off a threat from Calianax. Melantiaus threatens Amintor with death for this slander, which Amintor welcomes. Melantius is disabused, though Amintor threatens in order to die. They reconcile and plot against the king. Covertly, they plot with Calianax to secure the fortress as a faithful citadel. Melantius threatens Evadne into confessing her tryst, and she swears to kill the king. She reconciles with Amintor. Calianax leaks the plan to the king, who summons the conspirators. On the strength of his reputation, Melantius convinces the king that Calianax is a fool. They win control of the fortress, and Melantius persuades Amintor not to harm the sacred body of the king. Instead, Evadne puts the king in bondage, kills him with a knife, and forgives him.
  The king's brother Lysippus regroups to the citadel, under Melantius' control. Melantius and Lysippus agree to amnesty. Aspatia duels Amintor in disguise, on the pretense of avenging Aspatia's (her own) honor. Amintor stabs her, and Evadne enters with a bloody knife. She asks to be his wife, but he leaves in disgust. Evadne stabs herself and dies. Aspatia reveals her true identity before dying, and Amintor--bereft of all hope--kills himself. The bloody scene is uncovered by Melantius, Calianax, and Lysippus. Melantius tries to kill himself; Calianax stops him, and they are reconciled; Lysippus vows to be a chaste king.
• Sudden reversals by Fletcher:
• 4:1 Melantius pulls a double-reverse on Calianax before the king.
• 5:1-2 The bloody end.

• Other notes: In an extended ekphrastic section, Aspatia amends a number of classical allusions to make them match her sorrow.
• Mneumonic: Mel(antius) Ev(adne) Am(intor) Asp(atia) Cal(ianax) Lys(ippus)
  Melting evidence amounts (to) aspermous calamitous licensciousness.

Poetry (1) by Thomas Wyatt

PRIMARY SOURCE: (1557)

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes” 
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”

Context

• Publication: Wyatt was born c. 1503 to a Privy Councillor and Tudor loyalist. Wyatt studied at St. Johns College, Cambridge.  He married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Lord Cobham, c. 1520, though he divorced her c. 1525 on charges of adultery--around the same time he seems to have interested in Anne Boelyn. Asked to translate Petrarch in 1527, around the same time Henry VIII was interested in Anne Boelyn. Committed briefly to the Fleet for a brawl with the Sergeants of London in 1534. Imprisoned  to the Tower, probably as an ally of Anne, upon Suffolk's suggestion in 1536. After diplomatic missions 1539-40' is arrested in 1541 for association with Cardinal Pole. After a long life of public office in Kent, Wyatt is seized with fever after hard riding and dies at Sherbone. Wyatt's poetry circulated in manuscript, then published in A Booke of Ballets and Certain Psalms. Richard Tottel published 47 of Surrey's poems alongside 90 by Wyatt in the 1557 Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Wyatt's early adoption of the sonnet, his role in politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs.

Content

• Form:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Roughly a Shakespearean sonnet, variable meter.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Iambic trimeter, eight-line stanza, ababacac.

• Genre:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Petrarchan boat poem.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Petrarchan lament

• Conceit:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Sailing-by-starlight metaphor for a Stoic lament.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: A synesthetic inventory of lament results in an aestheticized sadness, and thanks to Fortune for the song.

Poetry by Henry Howard

PRIMARY SOURCE:

• "I never saw my lady lay apart"
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green"
• "London! hast thou accused me"
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest" 

Context

• Publication: Surrey was born eldest son of Thomas Howard and Elizabeth Stafford (daughter to Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), entitled Earl of Surrey at age 7 when his father ascended to Duke of Norfolk upon his father's death, and raised alongside Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, from age 12. Surrey spent a year at the French court, returning for Anne Boelyn's wedding. Surrey wed Frances de Vere, daughter to the Earl of Oxford, in 1532. The Seymours conspired against Surrey at court, eventually resulting in Surrey's imprisonment in Windsor. He returned to favor, but was imprisoned in Fleet for drunken rioting, where he composed "London hast thou accused me." Despite his service in war, the Seymours won a campaign to have Surrey convicted of treason. Among other reasons, Surrey displayed the royal quarterings on his shield. Surrey's poetry circulated in manuscript long after his death, and Richard Tottel published 47 of them alongside 90 by Wyatt in the Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Surrey's early adoption of the sonnet, in his Ovidianism, his erotic politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs, heraldry.

Content

• Form:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Iambic pentameter. Shakespearean rhyme scheme.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Iambic pentameter. abab
• "London! hast thou accused me": Iambic tetrameter. abab
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Iambic pentameter. abab
• Genre:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Sonnet.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Lover's lament.
• "London! hast thou accused me": Satiric jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Elegy and encomium.
• Conceit:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": The speaker can't see his Petrarchan lover through her hairpiece.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": A pathetic environment mourns the speaker's spurning by his lady.
• "London! hast thou accused me": The speaker hides his unruly behavior with a feigned jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": The speaker anatomizes Wyatt's corpse to praise his virtues.

Poetry by Thomas Carew

PRIMARY SOURCE: "An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr. John Donne" and "To Ben Jonson" (1640)

Context

• Publication: Carew wrote throughout the 20s and 30s, and associated with the Jonson circle in the Caroline court. Carew was made gentleman of the Privy Chamber Extraordinary and Sewer in Ordinary to the King (dining planner). Carew's courtly output was mixed: he borrowed from Giordano Bruno's philosophy for Coelum Britannicum, and translated nine Psalms, despite his reputation for witty society poems and libertine ethics. Poems printed by John Dawson for Thomas Walkley in 1640. Quarto. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Carew's drawn attention as a master of late Caroline courtly poetry, a successor to Jonson and Donne, and an earlier commentor on contemporary English poetry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, formalism.

Content

• Form: Iambic pentameter couplets.
• Genre: 
• Elegy. 
• Ode.
• Conceit:
• The elegy begins with a lament and memento mori based on Donne's passing. The poem then praises Donne's rhetorical powers of convention and invention. Ultimately, the poem praises Donne as a priest of both Apollo and God.
• The ode begins by praising Jonson's powers as a censor to bad poetry, but then switches to praising the harmony in his lines and characters: all showing the same mind, but all different. Other poets aspire to match his craft, but he is justly greater than them.

Philaster by Beaumont & Fletcher

PRIMARY SOURCE: Philaster (prod. 1609)
Context

• Publication: Printed in 1620 by Nicholas Okes for Thomas Walkley. Transferred to Hawkins in 1638, and then quickly to Mead & Meredith, then Leake. Printed in 7 quartos total. The 1620 title page exists in two states. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Philaster as the first tragicomical collaboration between Beaumont and Fletcher. Fletcher is believed to have turned the play into a tragicomedy, "not so called in respect of mirth and killing, but in respect it wants deaths, which is enough to make it no tragedy, yet brings some near it, which is enough to make it no comedy, which must be a representation of familiar people, with such kind of trouble as no life be questioned" (quoted in Strauss).
  Scholars also like to compare Philaster to Cymbeline, Arcadia, and Othello.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, illustrated title page, the court, formalism.

Content

• Form: Mixed prose with iambic pentameter. Five acts. 
• Genre: Tragicomedy.
• Conceit: The King of Calabria has deposed the King of Sicily, but the heir to the Sicilian throne, Philaster, remains at court. Brash Philaster is supported the people and the courtiers Lord Dion, Cleremont, and Trasilene. The King of Calabria has no male heir, but plans to marry his daughter Arethusa to Pharamond, a Spanish prince. Arethusa loves Philaster and hates Pharamond, who is conceited. Philaster sends his servant, Bellario, to serve Arethusa and to carry their romance.
  Pharamond "attempts the virtue of Galathea" (Strauss), and while she leads him on, she refuses the rude stuff. Arethusa exposes Pharamond's affair with a loose courtier, Megra. Pharamond spreads the rumor that Arethusa has an affair with Bellario. Philaster is fooled by Pharamond's rumor, so during a hunt, he stabs Arethusa. A passing country gentleman discovers them. He fights Philaster, and they wound each other. Other nobles from the court discover Arethusa. Arethusa and Philaster recover.
  Philaster is discovered and sentenced to death. The King puts Philaster under Arethusa's guardianship.  Arethusa marries Philaster, so the King orders both to be executed.
  The citizens rebel and capture Pharamond. Bellario reveals herself to be Eufrasia, Lord Dion's daughter in love with Philaster. Pharamond leaves for Spain. Philaster is now the King's heir, and is restored to the crown.
• Other notes: Okes used a highly unique woodcut on the cover, depicting the scene of Philaster in the forest, ready to duel the gentleman.
• Mneumonic: Si(cily) Ca(labria) Phar(amond) Are(thusa) Phi(laster) Bell(ario) Eu(fasia) Meg(ra)
  Since callous pharoahs are fickle, belles utilize megalomania.

(NB: written with notes.)
Strauss, Gerald H. "Philaster." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2013.

Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum by Aemelia Lanyer

PRIMARY SOURCE: Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611)
Context

• Publication: SDRJ was the first overt bid for patronage from an Englishwoman. After the death of Alfonso Lanyer (1613), Aemelia seems to have spent some time in the house of Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland. "The Description of Cookham" predates "To Penshurst" in publication (Greenblatt and Abrams 1314). EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars read Lanyer's poetry both for the origins of country house poetry and for a women's history of literature. Lanyer participates in the so-called querelle des femmes, especially on the matter of Eve's sin and the virtue of women (Greenblatt and Abrams 1314).
• Why I'm reading it: The counter-canon, women's writing, rhetorical figures, country house poem, the court.

Content

1.[Prefatory poems]

1. "To the Queenes Most Excellent Majestie"
2. "To the Lady Elizabeths Grace"
3. "To All Vertuous Ladies in Generall"
4. "To the Ladie Arabella"
5. "To the Ladie Susan"
6. "The Authors Dreame to the Ladie Marie"
7. "To the Ladie Lucie"
8. "To the Ladie Margaret"
9. "To the Ladie Katherine"
10. "To the Ladie Anne"
11. "To the Vertuous Reader"

• Form: Varied. Mostly iambic pentameter verse with alternating rhyme. "To Queenes" alternates single lines with five-line stanzas. Stanzas often have a rhymed volta.
• Genre: Dedication.
• Conceit: An appeal to a different interpretive audience with each dedication.
• Lanyer invites Anne to read Eve's apology.
• Lanyer compares the "first fruits" of her writing to Elizabeth's youth and potential.
• Lanyer alludes to her own scandald with Hundson while commending the courtiers to live purely.
• Lanyer praises Arabella for her powers of re-birth: Arabella is an enfant terrible for the Stuarts.
• Lanyer claims her poetry is a reflection of Susan's virtue.
• Lanyer addresses Marie in an ellaborate dream vision, without interpretation, as recognition for Mary Sidney's poetic powers.
• Lanyer implies that Lucie can accept these poems as she accepts Christ.
• Lanyer juxtaposes Margaret's inheritance with her own status as an aspiring poetess.
• Lanyer seems to have mercenary motives towards Katherine, but also pursues Katherine's daughters as an audience.
• Lanyer claims the book is a mirror to Anne's virtue, as with Susan.
• Lanyer addresses to virtuous women some remarks on women's virtue, both in these poems and in Biblical history.

2. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

• Form: Iambic pentameter. ABABABCC.
• Genre:  Religious argument, political essay, polemic.
• Conceit: A woman's history of the passion
• invocation of Margaret ("from the Court to the Countre . . . retir’d")
• defense of Women ("faire Virtues" over Helen's beauty)
• the Passion (betrayal by an inner circle)
• tears of daughters of Jerusalem ("Poore women seeing how much they did transgresse, ... labour still these tyrants hearts to move")
• sorrow of the Virgin
• Pontius Pilate (Pilate's wife defends Christ)

3. "The Description of Cooke-ham"

• Form: Iambic pentameter, couplets.
• Genre: Country-house poem
• Conceit: Frequent references to proto-feminist themes: Philomela, equality in grace, the dowry. The poem is about the estate where Lady Anne of Pembroke stayed while fighting for her daughter's inheritance.
• Other notes: Extensive use of the pathetic fallacy.

4. "To the Doubtfull Reader"

• Form: Brief essay.
• Genre: Address to the reader.
• Conceit: Dream-vision (origin of title)

(NB: written with anthology notes.)
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012. Print.

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Faerie Queene (pub. 1590-6)
Context

• Publication: The Faerie Queene was written in Ireland, first, during the employ of Lord Grey of Wilson, then, in Kilcolman castle in Munster; partially published (three books) in 1590; rewarded with a pension from the Queen of fifty pounds per year; more fully published (six books with the Mutability Cantos) in 1596; ultimately published (seven books) in a 1609 edition (Greenblatt and Abrams 706). EEBO link 1, 2, and 3,
• Scholarship: Scholars read the poem for the complexity of its allegory, for the tension between its prophetic message and political production, for the formal inspiration taken from the Tasso and Ariosto, for the representation of Ireland and imperialism.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, book history, formalism, tapestries, and ekphrasis.

Content

• Form: 
• Spenserian stanza: eight lines iambic pentameter with an alexandrine, rhymed ababbcbcc. 
• Forty-eight stanzas per canto (432 lines per canto [12^2 x 3 = 4^2 x 3^3]), twelve cantos per book (5184 lines per book [72^2], 576 stanzas per book), and twelve announced books. 
• Genre: Epic. Moral allegory.
• Conceit: Six private virtues, six public virtues. Private virtues: Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy (mneumonic: Horses Try Chewing Fake Jello Carrots). Knights: Redcrosse, Guyon, Britomart, Campbell & Triamond, Artegall, and Calidore (mneumonic: Rudolf Gently Bathes Conneticut Army Captains).
• Other notes: 

Knight	Maid	Quest	Enemy	Squire / Ally
Redcrosse, of Holiness	Una (truth)	Free Una's parents from the dragon	Archimago & Duessa (idolatry & false faith)	Arthur (Britain is the ally of Holiness)
Guyon, of Temperance	Medina (moderation)	Destroy Acrasia's Bower of Bliss	Cymochles & Pyrochles (indecision & temper)	Palmer (trustworthy pilgrim)
Britomart, of Chastity	Artegall (like Arthur)	Return Amoretta to Scudamore	Malbecco, Busirane (jealousy, the captor of hearts)	Glauce (elderly woman)
Campbell & Triamond, of Friendship	Canacee & Cambina (healing & concord)	Aid the honor of Canacee & Cambina	Blandamour, Paridell, Duessa, & Ate (jealous friends, false faith & strife)	Each other
Artegall, of Justice	Eirene (peace)	Rescue Eirene from Grantorto	Grantorto (great wrong is the enemy of justice)	Talus (iron justice)
Calidore, of Courtesy	Pastorella (shepherdess courtier)	Slay the Blatant Beast	The Blatant Beast (slander)	Tristram (noble lineage)

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012. Print.

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: As You Like It (perf. 1598-1600)
Context

• Publication: Published in 1623 Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies folio by Blount, Edward; Smethwick, John; Jaggard, Isaac; Aspley, William. "This edition exists in three distinct states: the first does not contain Troilus and Cressida; the second contains Troilus and Cressida but without its prologue and with a redundant final page of Romeo and Juliet crossed out by the printer; the third contains Troilus and Cressida with its prologue, which replaces the redundant page of Romeo and Juliet" (DEEP). EEBO link.
  • Aug 4, 1600(?): "as yow like yt: / a booke ... to be staied".
  • Nov 8, 1623: Entered to Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard: "Comedyes. ... As you like it".
  • Jun 19(?), 1627: Transferred from the widow of Isaac Jaggard to Thomas Cotes and Richard Cotes: "her parte in Shackspheere playes."
  • Nov 16, 1630: Transferred from Edward Blount to Robert Allott, by a note of 26 June: "As you like it."
  • Jul 1, 1637: Transferred from the widow of Robert Allott to John Legat (2) and Andrew Crooke (1) (by order of a court): "saluo Iure cuiuscunque ... Shakespeares workes their Part."
• Scholarship: The scholarship addresses the treatment of the pastoral, both critiquing the court and affirming just power; the treatment of the forest as allusive to social injustice, by way of Robin Hood; Petrarchan love; cross-dressing, and the implications for essentialist philosophies. 
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, the pastoral.

Content

• Form: Five acts and an epilogue. Soliloquies in blank verse.
• Genre: Comedy; performed by the Chamberlain's Men.
• Plot: The Banished Duke lives a pastoral life in the Forest, while his daughter Rosalind stays at court under the protection of Celia, daughter of the usurping brother Frederick. Frederick tries to embarrass Orlando through a wrestling match with his champion, but Orlando wins and impresses Rosalind. Frederick banishes Rosalind, who leaves with Celia and Touchstone the jester. Rosalind takes the identity Ganymede, and Celia, Aliena. Orlando flees from his brother with his servant Adam. Orlando attacks the Banished Duke in desperation, but the Duke instead provides hospitality to Orlando and Adam. Orlando writes poems to Rosalind on trees, but Ganymede discovers them, meets Orlando, and instructs him in how to woo Rosalind. Touchstone shows his wit in response to Orlando's poems, and then woos Audrey. Silvius falls in love with Phebe, who falls in love with Ganymede. Orlando travels to visit Ganymede, but along the way saves sleeping Oliver from a snake and a lioness, ready to strike. Oliver and Orlando are reconciled. Orlando is wounded by the lioness and sends Oliver with a bloody handkerchief to Ganymede. Ganymede feints, and Aliena falls for now-compassionate Oliver. They agree to be married, inspiring Orlando to marry Rosalind. Ganymede promises to produce Rosalind for Orlando. Frederick marches into the forest to capture and kill the Banished Duke and his followers, but is dissuaded by an old hermit. Rosalind exposes herself as Ganymede and engineers four marriages for the same day: Orlando and Rosalind; Oliver and Celia; Silvius and Phebe; Touchstone and Audrey. Frederick takes religious orders and returns the dukedom to the Banished Duke.
• Other notes:
• Notable characters: The Banished Duke, brother of Frederick; Frederick, instigator against Orlando; Orlando, son of Rowland de Boys, brother of Oliver, and lover of Rosalind; Rowland de Boys, ardent supporter of the banished duke; Oliver, oldest son of Rowland but negligent guardian of Orlando; Rosalind, daughter of the Banished Duke, Celia, daughter of Frederick; Touchstone the jester, champion of courtly wit; Silvius;  shepherd; Phebe, shepherdess.
• The forest can be treated as both an idyllic space and the space of poverty and vagrancy. 
• Touchstone can be both aggressive and compassionate. 
• Rosalind produces all of the crucial plot points.
• Touchstone and Rosalind critique the Petrarchan traditions of Orlando's poetry and performance.

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)
Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks. Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed18 January 2013. <http://deep.sas.upenn.edu>.