Fictions of Authorship in Late Elizabethan Narratives: Euphues in Arcadia by Katharine Wilson (review)

Abstract

274 Reviews which their subjects operate. Yet a clearer sense of the disruptive energies inherent in Donne's erotic and devotional verse, and the contexts fromwhich thisverse emerged, would have enhanced thisportrait. THE OPEN UNIVERSITY RicHARD DANSON BROWN Fictions of AuthorshipinLate ElizabethanNarratives: Euphues inArcadia. By KATHARINE WILSON. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006. vii + I85 PP. ?49. ISBN: 978-0I-9-925253-4. Katharine Wilson's volume on Elizabethan prose romances represents a welcome and livelycontribution to theongoing scholarly studies thathave proliferated in recentyears concerning the literaryoutput of such figuresasGascoigne, Greene, and Lodge. Wilson writes persuasively about the heated debate in the I590S that focused on the cultural status of these romances in a literary market thatwas stillverymuch in its infancy. Gabriel Harvey, forone, isshown tohave been anxious thatsuch new, derivative arrivals amongst thebooksellers were turning the 'nourishing images inSidney's pastoral [ ...] into fastfood' (p. i); and in Wilson's account he was clearly not alone amongst contem poraries in responding to the astounding rise inpopularity of thissubgenre in the final decade of Elizabeth's reign. Unlike many recent studies, thematerial culture of the romances (questions of production, circulation, consumption, and patronage) is not a central interest in this volume. In fact, Wilson ismuch more exercised by enquiries into genre expectation, narrative structure,authorial self-display,and textual effect.She isparticularly interest ing indrawing attention to theways in which thediscourse of dramatic taxonomy bleeds through intodiscussions within and about prose romances in theperiod. This isan inves tigation thatcould usefullybe pursued further. This isalso the case forher brief discus sions about the seriousnesswith which readers should accept instances ofmoral tuition embedded in these romances, and the implications of repetition as a textual device. The main focus of interest in Fictionsof Authorshipremains upon Gascoigne, Lyly, Greene, and Lodge. The account of Gascoigne's 'Master E J.' rehearsesmuch of the familiar information about the text,and thedecision to give a blow-by-blow account of the byzantine workings of the plot means, unfortunately, that the discussion often remains summative in nature.Much more might have been made of the ambivalent status of Dame Frances, for example, and the narrative's obsession with questions of textual ownership and composition. However, the decision to juxtapose 'Master E J.' with narratives byGeorge Whetstone,John Grange, and Gabriel Harvey himself consid erably enlivens theanalysis of thisincreasinglypopular work in theuniversityclassroom. In turning to Lyly,Wilson clearly engages much more enthusiastically with her material and covers a lotof useful ground very economically, paying attention toques tions of allusiveness and didacticism. This discussion is particularly illuminating in revealing how 'Lylyplunges his readers into aworld of competitive clauses inwhich the real and the fantastic are equally valid' (p. 55). However, the real strengthof thisbook lies in itsenergetic account of intertextuality inGreene's romances and theways in which he allows his readers 'tocontemplate thegap between the ideals of the tales and YES, 38.i & 2, 2008 275 thecourtiers' own lives' (p. 93). The final section, devoted toLodge, makes some telling points about the textual status of culturally displaced females in his prose fictions,and the abilities of such characters to author theirown destinies. Here, Wilson is eager to differentiate the authorial ambitions of Lodge from other figures considered in the volume, and her brief account of the influence upon Lodge of Senecan tragedy and Marguerite de Navarre's Heptame'ron, forexample, indicates furtheravenues for fruitful enquiry. UNIVERSITY OFWALES, BANGOR ANDREw HISCOCK BenJonson inthe RomanticAge. ByTOMLOCKWOOD. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. Xii + 257 PP. ?5I. ISBN: 978-0-I9-928078-0. According to the standard accounts, theRomantic age seems to have been both friend and foe tojonson: it managed to see Jonson anew and, most would agree, better; but it also, and rather ironically, managed to lose sight of him. As often, Shakespeare was Jonson's problem. Having previously been forced to play the role of dull foil in argu ments on behalf of Shakespeare's bright genius, once Shakespeare's greatness was agreed,Jonson was allowed tobe himself again. Yet, asJonson had largelybeen seen to be of interestjust because of his role as Shakespeare's envious antithesis, a friendly Jonson was lefttowander quietly in the culturalmargins. As Ben Jonsonin the RomanticAge shows, the standard...