{"product_id":"the-early-spenser-1554-80-minde-on-honour-fixed-9781526151780","title":"The Early Spenser, 1554–80: 'Minde on Honour","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrink’s provocative biography shows that Spenser was not the would-be court poet whom Karl Marx’s described as ‘Elizabeth’s arse-kissing poet’. In this readable and informative account, Spenser is depicted as the protégé of a circle of London clergymen, who expected him to take holy orders. Brink shows that the young Spenser was known to Alexander Nowell, author of Nowell’s \u003ci\u003eCatechism \u003c\/i\u003eand Dean of St. Paul’s. Significantly revising the received biography, Brink argues that that it was Harvey alone who orchestrated \u003ci\u003eFamiliar Letters \u003c\/i\u003e(1580). He used this correspondence to further his career and invented the portrait of Spenser as his admiring disciple. \u003cbr\u003eContextualising Spenser’s life by comparisons with Shakespeare and Sir Walter Ralegh, Brink shows that Spenser shared with Sir Philip Sidney an allegiance to the early modern chivalric code. His departure for Ireland was a high point, not an exile.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e'In what is arguably the most important contribution to Spenser studies since Andrew Hadfield’s landmark biography, Jean Brink has rendered a superb service to the field, filling in blanks in the poet’s life and opening up fresh lines of inquiry for future scholars. Brink’s account of the 1560s and 1570s is exemplary in its scholarly scrupulousness. A sustained analysis of Spenser’s schooldays and undergraduate experiences, a meticulous reading of \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eShepheardes Calender\u003c\/i\u003e and a firm putting of Gabriel Harvey in his proper, if less witty and familiar place are just some of the highlights of this splendid monograph. It is a work that is sure to be of lasting impact. Brink is less interested in Spenser’s access to Ireland prior to 1580 than some of her readers will be, but she opens a gateway into the poet’s early encounter with that country that her counterparts have yet to fully explore ... We speak nowadays of ‘research monographs’ when we really mean simply book-length arguments. \u003ci\u003eThe Early Spenser\u003c\/i\u003e really is a research monograph. It reads like a volume that was pieced together over decades rather than years and for that reason it is certain to be a work of enduring criticism.'\u003cbr\u003eWilly Maley, \u003ci\u003eThe Spenser Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eShe [Brink] has a special talent for the capsule biography, and she exploits it to considerable advantage.'\u003cbr\u003eStudies in English Literature 1500-1900\u003c\/p\u003e -- .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e1 Lineage and the ‘Nowell Account Book’\u003cbr\u003e2 Spenser’s education and Merchant Taylors’ School\u003cbr\u003e3 Pembroke College (1569–74) \u003cbr\u003e4 ‘Southerne shepheardes boye’ (1574–79)\u003cbr\u003e5 Gabriel Harvey and Immerito (1569–78)\u003cbr\u003e6 ‘Minde on honour fixed’: Spenser, Sidney, and the early modern chivalric code\u003cbr\u003e7 \u003ci\u003eAprill \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNovember\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8 Puzzling identities: From E.K. to Roffy’s ‘boye’ to Rosalind\u003cbr\u003e9 \u003ci\u003eFamiliar Letters\u003c\/i\u003e (1580)\u003cbr\u003e10 Ireland and the preferment of Edmund Spenser (1580)\u003cbr\u003eConclusion\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Manchester University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041017168215,"sku":"9781526151780","price":17.85,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781526151780.jpg?v=1750948617","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-early-spenser-1554-80-minde-on-honour-fixed-9781526151780","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}