Description
Book SynopsisIn From Princes to Pages, Gavin Schwartz-Leeper provides a wide-ranging assessment of early modern literary characterizations of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s chief minister from 1515-1529. Called the ‘other king’, Wolsey became a contested symbol of the English Reformation through diverse literary depictions that demonstrate the transformative pressures of this complex period. The author traces the development of these characterizations from the satires of John Skelton to Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Henry VIII, and offers new considerations of canonical and lesser-known texts by George Cavendish, John Foxe, and Raphael Holinshed. This study brings together multidisciplinary analyses to demonstrate how Wolsey’s literary lives reveal much about the contemporary shaping of this period, and argues for new ways to understand uses of the past in early modern England.
Table of ContentsList of Images Acknowledgements Introduction Speaking nothing but truth: Problems, Structure, and Subject Chapter I Rayling and Scoffery: Henrician Portrayals of Cardinal Wolsey Against Venemous Tongues and Magnyfycence: early anti-Wolsey texts After Magnyfycence: Speaking Parrots, Everymen, and the Alter Rex 1522: Reversals, Capitulations, and the Question of Wolsey’s Patronage Godly Queene Hester: The Codification of Early Tudor Anti-Wolsey Satire Hester in Context: Heritage and Effect Chapter II “A vysage of trwthe”: George Cavendish’s Characterizations of Wolsey The Metrical Visions: Rota Fortuna and Wolsey’s Lamentations Cardinal Wolsey in the Metrical Visions Le Historye in Context Placing the Visions The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey Chapter III “The history of a certaine ridiculous spectacle”: Literary Representations of Cardinal Wolsey in John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments The First Four English Editions: A Brief Overview A Ridiculous Spectacle “See a butchers dogge” The King’s Great Matter The Significant Death Chapter IV ‘Handling This Story Effectualie’: Editorializing Wolsey in Holinshed’s Chronicles The 1577 Edition: Holinshed and Wolsey Wolsey, Post-Holinshed: Abraham Fleming and the 1587 Edition To “frankelie and boldlie speak”: Methods and Concerns Looking Forward Chapter V ‘Griped By Meaner Persons’?: Wolsey in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Henry VIII, or, All is True Mirrors of Courtesy: Buckingham, Norfolk, and Wolsey Making Greatness Familiar: Ceremony and Processions in Henry VIII Katherine and Wolsey: Representations in Conflict Falling like Lucifer: Wolsey’s Final Appearances in Henry VIII Eulogizing and Summarizing Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII Conclusion Traduced by Ignorant Tongues? Bibliography Index
