Broadside Ballads, Miscellanies, and the Lyric in Print

Abstract

The story of the English lyric in early modern England is well established. It goes something like this: by the close of the middle ages, English poetry was in disarray; then Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey took trips to Italy and brought back a new kind of poetry. Their influence, though somewhat belatedly, initiated the innovations of Sidney and Spenser and the reformation of English literature in general. Though this account of English poetry's develop ment contains much that is useful and important, recent developments in literary scholarship provide tools through which we can reevaluate this long-standing story. This essay seeks to do just that, demonstrat ing that the development of English poetry in this period depended on more than the influence of the continent. It also depended on the innovations and decisions of printers and the reading public. The traditional story has a long history that begins in the early mod ern period. In The Art of English Poesie (1589), George Puttenham gives the following account of the development of English poetry: