George Turberville, Constancy and Plain Style

Abstract

This chapter offers both a comprehensive critical study of George Turberville’s poetry, and an evaluation of plain-style poetics as conceived in this particular historical moment. The mid-Tudor period is when plain style becomes institutionalized; this chapter attempts to identify the various historical institutions (i.e. the Inns of Court) and discursive structures (i.e. readership, Protestantism) that helped facilitate its spread. The idea of “constancy” as a thematic locus is used to explore intersections between these various discourses. A survey of the precursors to plain style in the tradition underlines that plain-style goes through a decisive structural configuration in this period. Special attention is paid to the use of exemplification, epigrammatical statement, homosocial desire, and metrical regularity. Since mid-Tudor poets often imitated poems from Tottel, this chapter considers this trajectory, especially in terms of style and the question of constancy.