The dominant view of poetry in the early 17th century was ‘poetry, imagined as the product of an aristocratic social ethos, sustained and policed the social boundaries that defined ‘equals or near equals in social status. Writing private poetry was thus an act of social classification’ (Wendy Wall, The Imprint of Gender , Cornell University Press 1993 p. 13). Much poetry from this period was therefore circulated in manuscript form, and sometimes published posthumously. Even among the poets who did publish in their lifetime, such as Ben Jonson, considerable effort was put into making their work appear sufficiently literary.
Purcell, Inigo
Supervisors: Craik, K
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2017
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