Thomas Phaer and the Assertion of Tudor English

Abstract

Thomas Phaer's many printed works, including legal and medical texts, occasional verses, and classical translations, all insist upon - even assert - English as a language suitable for learned consciousness. As a physician, legal theorist, man of letters, and member of Parliament, Phaer represents a new English praxis of cultural and intellectual communication. His life and work are centered in the vicissitudes of Tudor polity, wherein he works to mobilize the vernacular and, in so doing, assert early modern English culture.