POETRY,
PATRONAGE
AND
PRAISE:
DONNE,
DANIEL
AND
JONSON:
Discuss
the
self--portrayal
of
the
poet
as
lover
in
the
light
of
the
statement
that
'Archetypally,
the
relationship
between
Elizabeth
and
her
courtiers
reflected
a
moment
in
which
a
courtship
had
been
artificially
frozen
----
in
which
the
"lover"
and
"beloved"
stood
permanently
on
the
threshold
of
a
sexual
relationship
which
would
never
be
realized'
(Catherine
Bates)
LOVER
+
PATRON
"Literary
patronage
was
viewed
by
many
writers
as
a
tyranny;
but
so
was
the
market"
PATRONAGE
+
TYRANNY
I have
too
oft
preferred
Men
past
their
terms,
and
praised
some
names
too
much,
But
'twas
with
purpose
to
have
made
them
such.
(Ben
Jonson)
Would
any
leaden
Midas,
any
mossy
patron,
have
his
ass's
ears
deified,
let
him
but
come
and
give
me
some
pretty
sprinkling
to
maintain
the
expenses
of
my
throat,
and
I'll
drop
out
such
an
encomium
on
him
that
shall
immortalize
him
as
long
as
there
is
ever
a
bookbinder
in
England'
(The
Pilgrimage
to
Parnassus).
MOTIVES
OF
PATRONAGE
Now
as
herself
a
poem
she
does
dress,
And
curls
a
line
as
she
would
do
a
tress;
Powders
a
sonnet
as
she
does
her
hair,
Then
prostitutes
them
both
to
public
air.
(Richard
Lovelace)
PUBLIC
WRITING
AS
CHEAP
"Complaints
and
praises
everie
one
can
write,
/And
passion--out
their
pangs
in
statelie
rimes,"/
But
of
loves
pleasures
none
did
ever
write
/
That
hath
succeeded
in
these
latter
times
(NASHE)
Do
you
agree?
POETRY
/
PRAISE
VS
REAL
LOVE
If
you
can
thinke
these
flatteries,
they
are,
For
then
your
judgement
is
below
my
praise,
If
they
were
so,
oft
flatteries
work
as
farre
As
Counsels,
and
as
farre
th'endeavour
raise.
Examine
some
of
the
literary
consequences
of
that
"busy
mart
of
bargain
and
exchange
that
constituted
the
sixteenth
century
patronage
system
(Catherine
Bates)
MARKET
/
LITERARY
EFFECTS
"When
poets
wrote
about
love
they
were,
as
often
as
not,
writing
about
what
really
concerned
them,
namely
their
prospects
of
advancement
at
court.'
PATRONAGE
AND
LOVE
'That
man
who
dwells
upon
himself,
who
is
always
conversant
in
himself,
rests
in
his
true
centre'
(John
Donne).
SELF
PRESENTATION
+
DONNE
"I
would
fain
do
something,
but
that
I
cannot
tell
what,
is
no
wonder.
For
to
choose,
is
to
do;
but
to
be
no
part
of
any
body,
is
to
be
nothing...Men
of
wit
and
delightful
conversation,
[are]
but
as
moles
for
ornament,
except
they
be....incorporated
into
the
body
of
the
world
(John
Donne,
letter
to
Sir
Henry
Goodyer)
DONNE
IN
SOCIETY
'Donne's
motivation
for
writing
poetry
was
undoubtedly
various,
responding
to
intimately
personal
and
intellectual
impulses
as
well
as
to
professional
advancement.'
PATRONAGE
+
ADVANCEMENT
What
would
you
identify
as
the
main
'personal
and
intellectual
impulses'
motivating
Donne
as
a
writer
of
poetry
and
or
prose?
this
new
man,
not
least
by
his
desperate
search
for
a
closer
and
more
equal
love'
(KELEN
CARR)
Catherine
Bates:
Poetry,
Patronage
and
The
Court
1. WHY
A)
Newly
invented
printed
press:
*
*
*
*
*
Disseminating
texts
at
V
high
rate
?
BUT
writers,
editors,
translators
and
compilers
did
not
earn
living
from
their
labours.
Receving
a
single
payment
for
their
manuscripts
but
no
royalties
after,
writers
remained
dependent
as
ever
on
patrons
from
employment
+
retainerships
+
cash
PAMPHLET
or
small
volume
of
poetry
in
Eliz
period
=
40
shillings
-
only
dramatists
made
profit
(but
it
was
specifically
the
performance
and
not
the
publication
that
netted
an
income)
see
Shakespeare
with
share
in
theatre,
company
etc)
Publish
did
NOT
equal
profit
-
the
days
when
a
writer
might
make
a
fortune
off
his
pen
and
claim
like
Pope
to
be
"Above
a
Patron"
were
long
off.
Literture
?
written
at
behest
of
patron
/
to
attract
/
praise
them
=
LITERATURE
which
explores
the
vagaries
/
difficutles
/
compromises
of
PATRON
SYSTEM
=
much
writing
of
16
C.
B)
Politics
+
Power
Tudors
used
patronage
as
a
way
of
regulating
flow
of
gifts
in
order
to
implement
their
overall
policy
of
centralizing
political
power
* sly
distribution
of
titles,
lands,
livings,
offices,
sinecures
etc
they
successfully
transformed
what
has
once
been
an
overweening
nobility
into
a
"set
of
shameless
mendicants"
Lawerence
Stone
(1965)
(The
Crisis
of
Aristocracy,
1558--1641)
* Patronage
extended
in
a
pyramid
fashion,
all
the
way
down
social
hierarchy
-
favoured
nobles
/
gentry
themselves
bestowing
positions
and
living
that
were
within
their
gift
-
but
the
monarch
remained
at
the
apex
-
perceived
as
ultimate
source
of
bounty
and
munificence.
* Court
was
centre
of
literary
+
cultural
patronage
owed
much
to
the
Tudor
flair
for
publicity
and
a
shrewd
recognition
that
writers
could
serve
a
royal
turn.
E.g
Henry
VII
was
first
king
to
appoint
official
King
Poet
Henry
VIII
continued
the
tradition
his
father
put
in
place
in
1512
and
appointed
Skelton
to
the
post
of
King's
Poet
-
gathered
around
his
scholars,
lettered
men
of
the
younger,
humanist
generation
E.g
Admiring
Erasmus
compared
the
royal
court
to
a
university)
e.g
BUT
Writing
from
(what
he
thought
was
the
more
niggardly)
Eliz
period,
Puttenham
recalled
how
Henry
VIII
"for
a
few
Psalms
of
David
turned
into
English
Metre
by
Sternhold,
made
him
groom
of
his
privy
chamber
and
gave
him
many
other
good
gifts"
(Arte
of
P.
1589)
Not
entirely
true
Eliz
did
pay
Spenser
PS50
for
The
Faerie
Queene
*
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