Table Of ContentMANUSCRIPT VERSE COLLECTORS AND THE
POLITICS OF ANTI-COURTLY LOVE POETRY
This page intentionally left blank
Manuscript Verse
Collectors and the
Politics of
Anti-Courtly Love
Poetry
JOSHUA ECKHARDT
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwidein
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi
NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
Withofficesin
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
intheUKandincertainothercountries
PublishedintheUnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork
qJoshuaEckhardt2009
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2009
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover
andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009921239
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk
ISBN978–0–19–955950–3
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Slim
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgements
Anyone whoworks on early modern English manuscripts owes a great
debttothescholarswhohavemadethemnavigable,andtotheinstitu-
tionsthatkeepthemavailable.Ispreadoutmythanksfortheirinvalu-
able, necessary help throughout the footnotes and endmatter of this
book.Yetmygratitudetoanumberofindividualsexceedstheboundsof
such bibliographical citations. Achsah Guibbory gave me the distinct
advantage of beginning work on this book under the direction of the
most encouraging graduate advisor I have ever even heard of, and she
continuestooffersupportandadvicewithcharacteristicgrace.Zachary
Lesserreadmultipledraftsoftheentiretypescript,eachtimeimproving
it with his detailed and incisive comments. Peter Beal and Henry
Woudhuysen generously shared their time and expertise over a year’s
fellowship in London, effectively providing the finest training in Re-
naissance manuscript studies that I can imagine; moreover, they have
since offered the direction necessary to get the book into its present
form,forwhichIremainimmenselygrateful.AdamSmythandCurtis
Perry each showed me how to reconceptualize the book at a crucial
stage.BrianVickersalsoofferedtimelyencouragement.AndrewMcRae
bravelyextendedaninvitationtohisconferenceonlibelsbasedonlyon
a chance meeting at the Huntington, and subsequently published an
early incarnation of my third chapter in Huntington Library Quarterly.
AniaLoomba andTim Dean read the dissertation version, andhelped
put me on track to turn it into a proper book. Dayton Haskin, Lara
Crowley,TomCogswell,andCharlotteMorsealsotookonentiredrafts.
Alun,together with Carol,Fordhas supportedtheprojectas librarian,
manuscriptexpert,neighbor,host, andfriend. SimonHealygaveme a
parliamentman’sperspectiveonlibels,andsponsoredajollytriptothe
Leicestershire Record Office. Chris and Anne Muskopf routinely pro-
vided a home away from home within walking distance of the
Houghton; Chris has influenced my intellectual development since
before preschool, not least by spending hours reading poetry with me
andLaddSuydaminhighschool.Finally,theliteratureeditorsatOUP
viii Acknowledgements
have forced me to reconsider my disbelief in ideal readers, for they
locatedtwoofthem.
Two department chairs, Marcel Cornis-Pope and Terry Oggel, gen-
erously arranged for me to devote my second year at Virginia Com-
monwealth University to writing the book. Marcel also read and
commentedonacompletedraft,whileTerryandNickSharpexhibited
the understanding that perhaps only bibliographers could provide for
thisproject.TheCollegeofHumanitiesandSciencesatVCUsupplied
researchtravelfunds,someofthemintheformofa‘careerscholarship
enhancement award.’ The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the
Institute ofHistorical Research atthe University of Londonsupported
a formative year of dissertation research. The Graduate College of the
University of Illinois funded my first whirlwind tour of archives. And
theIllinoisProgramforResearchintheHumanitiesgavemethetime,
space, and resources to begin work on the project during a graduate
fellowship.TheHuntingtonLibraryandUniversityofCaliforniaPress
haveallowedmetoreprintarevisedversionof‘‘‘Love-songweeds,and
Satyrique thornes’’: Anti-Courtly Love Poems and Somerset Libels,’
Huntington Library Quarterly, 69/1 (2006), 47 66. While these insti-
tutions and people have greatly improved the quality of this book,
working on manuscripts multiplies the opportunities for error, and
anyremainingmistakesarenobody’sfaultbutmine.
Mostimportantly,Ithankthepeopleathomewhohaveprovidedthe
resources, time, and peace to get an education: first my parents and
especiallyrecentlymymom,whoseemstobewatchingSilas,andnow
helping with Ira, at every major phase of this book’s completion; and
ultimatelySarah,whohasbeensupportingmyworkonadailybasisfor
years,anddoingsobytheuncommonmeansavailableonlytoagenuine
researcher, a tough critic, a firm believer, an exquisite beauty, and a
devoteeofpeaceandmercy.
Contents
ListofAbbreviationsandConventions x
1. TheLiteraryandPoliticalActivityofManuscript
VerseCollectors 1
2. ThePoliticsofCourtlyandAnti-CourtlyLovePoetry
intheHandsofCollectors 33
3. ‘Love-songweeds,andSatyriquethornes’:
Anti-CourtlyLovePoetryandSomersetLibels 67
4. TheSpanishMatchandtheHistoryofSexuality 93
5. VerseCollectorsandBuckingham’sAssassination 132
Epilogue:RedeployingAnti-CourtlyLovePoetry
AgainsttheProtectorate 162
Appendix1:SelectedVerseTexts 173
Appendix2:ManuscriptDescriptions 207
IndexofManuscriptsCited 281
ListofPrintedWorksCited 287
GeneralIndex 301
Description:This book reappraises the work of early-seventeenth-century collectors of English Renaissance poetry in manuscript. The verse miscellanies, or poetry anthologies, of these collectors have long attracted the attention of literary editors looking for texts by individual, major authors, and they have m
