Description
Book Synopsis1611: Authority, Gender, and the Word in Early Modern England explores issues of authority, gender, and language within and across the variety of literary works produced in one of most landmark years in literary and cultural history.
- Represents an exploration of a year in the textual life of early modern England
- Juxtaposes the variety and range of texts that were published, performed, read, or heard in the same year, 1611
- Offers an account of the textual culture of the year 1611, the environment of language, and the ideas from which the Authorised Version of the English Bible emerged
Table of ContentsPreface ix
Acknowledgements x
List of Illustrations Chronology of Selected Historical, Cultural and Textual Events in 1611
Introduction: ‘The omnipotency of the word’ 1
1 Jonson’s Oberon and friends: masque and music in 1611 24
2 Aemilia Lanyer and the ‘first fruits’ of women’s wit 44
3 Coryats Crudities and the ‘travelling Wonder’ of the age 68
4 Time, tyrants and the question of authority: The Winter’s Tale and related drama 91
5 ‘Expresse words’: Lancelot Andrewes and the sermons and devotions of 1611 112
6 The Roaring Girl on and off stage 132
7 ‘The new world of words’: authorising translation in 1611 151
8 Donne’s ‘Anatomy’ and the commemoration of women: ‘her death hath taught us dearly’ 174
9 Vengeance and virtue: The Tempest and the triumph of tragicomedy 192
Conclusion: ‘This scribling age’ 211
Appendix: A List of Printed Texts Published in 1611 219
Bibliography 225
Index 244
