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English Notes Renaissance Literature Notes

Poetry, Patronage And Praise Donne, Daniel And Jonson Notes

Updated Poetry, Patronage And Praise Donne, Daniel And Jonson Notes

Renaissance Literature Notes

Renaissance Literature

Approximately 60 pages

A unique set of renaissance literature notes that cover the less beaten track of revision and exam topics. By combining unusual texts and less common topics, you have an instant advantage in the exams.

Notes on Poetry and Patronage through the letters & poems of Donne, Johnson and Daniel provides an unusual approach to the period allowing you to discuss both linguistic styles of poetry, courtly traditions, historical context and the influence of these writers on each other.

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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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