Court Poet Research Articles

Poems on Liberty: Reflections for Belarus by Alaksandra Makavik Vera Rich (review)

REVIEWS 527 duel, a fatalisticoutlook on life typicalof the currenttransitionperiod and an ongoing disputewith the normsof classicRussianliterature. In summary, Schuchart'sbook makes a welcome contribution not only to the growing number of studiesabout Makanin,but also to our understanding of the evolution of post-Soviet literature and changing literary norms in contemporaryRussia. Institutftir Slawistik R. NEUHAUSER Alpen-Adria-Universitit aKagenfurt,Austria Makavik,Alaksandra(ed.).Poems onLiberty: Reftectionsfor Belarus. Translatedby Vera Rich. Liberty Library:XXI Century. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague and Washington, D.C., 2004. 3I2 pp. Notes. Index. Price unknown. THIs bilingual anthology of poems about liberty in Belarus -still only a dream for many people there was based on 356 broadcastsof Belarusian verse made by Radio Liberty in 200I. Reduced now to I22 poems with Englishversionsby VeraRich, easilythe bestliving translatorfromBelarusian into English, it makes a strong cumulative effect on the reader, and should certainly help to bring a neglected literature to the attention of a wider audience. The poets here range in age from ten to ninety-two, from almost completely unknown figures to the pillars of the present day literary establishment,althoughthelatterwordisalmostcertainlyquiteinappropriate, since the political establishment of Belarus has its own court poets, most of whose connections with Parnassusare, to say the least, negligible; the real culturalleadersof the country,moreover, are mostly ignored or oppressedby the powers-that-be. The parallel Belarusian and translated English texts are by poets from metropolitan and diasporan Belarus, each of whom contributes only one poem each. Despite the relatively large number of verses, many poets are conspicuous by their absence, not only because they may not have been selected fromthose originallybroadcast,but no doubt, in some cases,because theirinterestsare more in preservinga close relationshipwith the authorities, rather than taking the risk of a broadcast or publication (it should be remembered that even such a philanthropistas George Soros was forced to leave this unhappy country). On the subject of numbers, the current outstandinganthologyof Belarusianpoetry(Krasa i sila,Miensk, 2003)features more than twice the number of poets than are to be found in the anthology underreview.Nonetheless, over a hundredpoets preparedto speakout in this way, with verse specificallyon a potentially dangerous topic is testimony to a spirit not yet dead, even if, as one poet from Horadnia suggests: 'Boh rytarycnajfihuraj zamouk' ('Like trope of rhetoric, God holds His peace') (pp. I24-25). Vera Rich has also written a very lively and informative introduction (pp. 5-I 2) in which she not only discussesthe myriadproblems of translation but also initiates those new to this country's literature in much of the 528 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 symbolism, specific lexicon and realia (such as national flags) that recur in variousformsin many of the poems. The anthology'ssingletheme as treatedin the poems featuredhereis broad enough to make a satisfying entity, and the present reviewer, barred by convention from quoting examples, can only recommend the volume warmly as an admirablebilingualintroductionto contemporaryBelarusianpoetry.As the translatorexclaims,withanappropriatepun attheend ofherIntroduction: 'Chaj zyvie svaboda! Chaj zyvie Bielarus!' (Long live liberty! Long live Belarus!)(p. I2). School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Zo)hrab,Irene (ed.). Slavonic Journeys AcrossTwoHemispheres: Festschrift inHonour of ArnoldMcMillin. New ZealandSlavonicJournal, 37, 2003. Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago, New Zealand, 2003. xiv + 332 pp. Illustrations. Notes. NZ$5o.oo (paperback subscription). THIS is the second volume of NZSJ dedicated to ProfessorArnold McMillin. The first,publishedin 2002, was so overwhelmedwith proposalsthata second was required. There can be no one in Slavonic Studies who would argue against the need for such a wealth of material, and no one would surely begrudge two Festschriften for such an internationally distinguished and popularscholar.Contributionsare not only fromhis formerstudents,but also fromsome very respectedfriendsand colleaguesfromaroundthe globe. The volume's contents not only reflectand complement ProfessorMcMillin 's own teaching and researchinterests(articleson Dostoevskii, Belarusian literatureand Russianmusic),but alsoprovide insightsinto otherareaswhere Slavonic Studies has developed in recent years, such as film and literary postmodernism.There are also contributionsthat reflectthe traditionsof the journal (Russian-Australasianaffinities),and a major translation of correspondence between PrinceMeshcherskiiand GrandDuke NikolaiAlekseevich I863-64, with facsimilereproductions. Of the two dozen contributions, the following stand out as being of particularmerit. Zina Gimpelevich on Aleksei Skaldin (I889...

‘A Dittie to the tune of Welsh Sydannen’: a Welsh image of Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth I was affectionately referred to by her Welsh subjects as 'Sidanen' ('the silken one') from at least 1579, when an entry in the Stationers' Registers licensed Richard Jones to print 'a ballat of brittishe Sidanen applied by a courtier to ye praise of ye Quene'. The text in question was 'Flee stately Juno' by the minor court poet Lodowick Lloyd (c.1545‐1610), and abounds with learned classical allusion. It survives in two main versions copied from the later sixteenth century, and was paired with a lost tune called Sidanen. The name was initially applied to any fine lady, but soon acquired royal connotations, apparently with covert reference to the queen's fondness for silk stockings. It also resonates with a series of other affectionate epithets adopted for Elizabeth I by English poets. The concept of Welsh Sidanen had a significant impact on literary texts in both languages: one free‐metre ballad in Welsh is an Anti‐Catholic text that rehearses a series of abortive assassination attempts, while four others emphasize a particular notion of 'Britain' and 'Britishness' that fete the Welsh aspect of the Tudor monarchy.

The Combative Text: Ronsard’s Poetics of Dissent (1562–1563)

In his introduction to Ronsard's political poetry of 1562-63, Paul Laumonier asks why France's most prominent court poet turned from pacificism to military propaganda at that point in his writing career. The anti-Protestant Discours des miseres de ce temps, Remonstrance au peuple de France, and Responce aux injures were all sparked by deeply personal interests, Laumonier argues. That is, in these poems Ronsard was defending his right to request and to receive material rewards from the Church in spite of mounting criticism by Protestants and reform-minded Catholics. The poet was also expressing the personal pain he had experienced upon witnessing and failing to prevent lootings and pillaging of Catholic churches in his native region. Such destruction was all the more unbearable for having been committed not only by heretic Frenchmen but by foreign mercenaries. (1) The dual menace of heresy and foreign influence (inevitably linked to Ancient and New World heathenism, in the sixteenth century) is what I propose to address in this essay. How does Ronsard's construction of the personal in his political poems articulate the poet's attachment to the past (regional nostalgia, greco-toman literary models) and his commitment to the future (promotion of the vernacular and of royal authority)? What role do foreign invaders play in the elaboration of Ronsard's textual persona? One may indeed read the political poems written by Ronsard between 1560 and 1563 as increasingly personal in nature. In the years immediately preceding the French wars of religion Ronsard had argued against armed conflict. His Elegie a G. des Autels, written in 1560, discouraged a policy of military action against Protestants, arguing instead in favor of diplomatic mediation. In 1562, however, the elegy was reprinted bearing textual additions in which Ronsard urged armed resistance against the Huguenot factions. The poet's political about-face becomes clear if one compares the two versions directly: (2) (1560) Ce n'est pas aujourd'huy que les Rois & les princes Ont besoing de garder par armes leurs provinces, Il ne faut acheter ny canons ny harnois, Mais il fault les garder seulement par la voix Car il fault desormais deffendre noz maisons, Non par le fer trenchant mais par vives raisons, Et courageusement noz ennemis abbatre Par les mesmes bastons dont ils nous veullent battre Ainsi que l'ennemy par livres a seduict Le peuple devoye qui faucement le suit, Il fault en disputant par livres le confondre, Par livres l'assaillir, par livres luy respondre (9-22) (1562). C'est donques aujourd'huy que les Roys & les Princes Ont besoin de garder par armes leurs provinces, Et contre leurs sujets opposer le harnois, Usant & de la force & de la douce voix, Car il faut desormais deffendre nos maisons, Et par le fer tranchant, et par vives raisons Et courageusement nos ennemis abbatre Par les mesmes bastons dont ils nous veullent battre. Ainsi que l'ennemy par livres a deduict Le peuple devoye qui faucement le suit, Il faut en disputant par livres le confondre, Par armes l'assaillir, par armes luy respondre (9-22) In 1562 and 1563, Ronsard's poetry is increasingly engage, that is, more overtly engaged with political issues of the day and more representative of the poet's personal concerns. For a court poet to write about current civil unrest was of course, in some measure, obligatory. His duty, in part, was to represent the interests of the monarchy. (3) A poet of renown such as Ronsard would bring all the rhetorical arsenal of the classical canon to bear on such an endeavor. Recent criticism of the Discours des miseres collection has focused on the diversity of oratorical registers deployed in these poems. (4) Ullrich Langer has argued that Ronsard's rhetorical construction of an Aristotelian/Ciceronian ethos, or ethical subjectivity in his political verse, helps the poet confront a national moral crisis as well as a precarious moment in his literary career. …

Goethe's "Ilmenau" and the Origins of the Aesthetic State

MATT ERLIN Goethe's "Ilmenau" and the Origins of the Aesthetic State Goethe's 1775 decision to move to Weimar met with skepticism on all sides. Father Johann Caspar Goethe was openly hostile to his son's attachment to the insignificant statelet and its inexperienced duke, and peers wondered why the erstwhile champion of titanic individualism, the affluent citizen of a free imperial city, would willingly subject himself to the constraints of life as a court poet.1 Many believed that his artistic career was over, and the marked decline in literary activity that characterized his first ten years in the duchy seemed to confirm their suspicions. Goethe was far from inactive during this period, but progress on major projects faltered. After finishing the prose version of Iphigenia in 1779 and a satirical adaptation of Aristophanes' The Birds in 1780, he failed to complete any literary work of length for five years.2 Confronted with both the reduction in volume and the shift in the nature of the works produced during these years, scholars have often viewed them as a kind of latency period that comes to an end only with Goethe's 1786 departure for Italy and his equally decisive engagement with the French Revolution.3 The works that were produced during this period, however, deserve closer attention. No one would deny the impact of Italy and the Revolution on Goethe's artistic and intellectual development, but crucial aspects of his later thought, especially as regards the relationship between art and politics, were already taking shape in response to the challenges of this first Weimar decade. W. Daniel Wilson has pointed out this period's significance as it pertains to Goethe's political activity more narrowly defined. As he writes in Das Goethe-Tabu, " [es gab] in politischen Fragen viel mehr Kontinuität zwischen der vorrevolutionären und der revolutionären Zeit... als meist angenommen wird."4 The evidence suggests that a similar claim can be made for his conception of the political function of art, more specifically, for the notion of aesthetic education that evolves into a central pillar of Weimar Classicism. Goethe and Schiller's efforts to cultivate "true humanity" through art must of course be seen in the context of the perceived catastrophe of the Revolution. Nonetheless, Goethe's early Weimar works already reveal an intense engagement with questions regarding the appropriate and inappropriate relationship between the aesthetic and the political spheres. Torquato Tasso, of which two acts had been completed by 1781, constitutes the most obvious example of this Goethe Yearbook XIII (2005) 54 Matt Erlin engagement, but lphigenia aufTauris can also be read as a reflection on the status of the artist-intellectual in the absolutist state.5 The most remarkable lyric investigation of art and politics from this period is to be found in the poem "Ilmenau" composed on the occasion of the duke's twenty-sixth birthday in September 1783- Given the circumstances surrounding the poem's production, it is not surprising that the few existing interpretations of "Ilmenau" have used it primarily to shed light on Goethe's relationship to Carl August, or on the author's state of mind in the early 1780s. In the words of Hans Tümmler, for example, "Ilmenau" solves "das Rätsel dieser Lebensfreundschaft" between poet and duke.6 Subsequent interpretations have recognized the need for new perspectives and have addressed the poem's significance for understanding the evolution of Goethe's aesthetic views, but here as well the primary goal seems to be a reconnection of the poem's pronouncements to specific events and experiences in the author's life.7 A recent essay by Theo Stammen breaks new ground by emphasizing the political and naturalscientific content of the poem. Stammen, however, is less interested in the way in which this content intersects with the implicit poetological reflections contained in the work.8 Yet precisely the complex character of this intersection makes "Ilmenau" unique and justifies an exhaustive interpretation. Although the biographical looms large in the poem, it can also be seen as a reflection on the political function of poetry in the absolutist state. Its self-referential narrative thematizes and problematizes several conceptions...

Ariostois Threshold Patron: Isabella diEste in the Orlando Furioso

Isabella d'Este makes three significant appearances in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.1 It has always been assumed that all three are completely laudatory, the result of a particularly amicable relationship between Ariosto and Isabella, dating to a visit to Mantua in 1507 during which Ariosto entertained the marchesa with readings from early fragments of the poem. The delighted Isabella immediately wrote to her brother, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Ariosto's nominal patron, to report how much she had enjoyed the poem and the poet, and a friendly relationship appears to have been sealed.2 Ariosto sent copies of the various editions of the poem to Isabella as gifts, and the two enjoyed a lengthy and friendly correspondence. Given Isabella's well-known penchant for gathering artists of all kinds around her and fostering their efforts, and given the proximity both physically and politically of the Mantuan court of Isabella to the Ferrarese where Ariosto worked, it is clear why Ariosto would have nurtured this [End Page 50] relationship. If not expressive of genuine respect and affection, the few stanzas devoted to Isabella d'Este might be presumed to be at worst outrageous flattery, intended to win the favor of the marchesa. Yet what was required to win the favor of a marchesa is precisely the issue which these passages about Isabella d'Este address. Ariosto's own patronage situation was, at least at the first publication of the Orlando Furioso, not secure, and he was operating in a courtly economy where winning patronage was often directly related to writings dedicated to powerful figures. In the courts of Ferrara and Mantua in particular a number of female patrons, including Isabella d'Este, offered an opportunity for advancement, largely because their perpetually vulnerable social position, and the rigid expectations held for their behavior, put them in constant need of praise. Ariosto's consideration of Isabella d'Este functions both as an enactment of that system and an indictment of it. Because Ariosto's own position, and that of his peers, was as vulnerable as that of the noble ladies, one can find hints of identification with these women, in particular with the figure of Isabella d'Este.3 But by the same token Ariosto was aware of the power both that the female patron held over him, in economic terms, and of that which he held over her by his control of the public perception of her virtues. The tension between these last two factors, when read through the lens of the contemporary transmission of treatises and poems, and the terms of patronage within the Mantuan and Ferrarese courts, yields a portrait of Isabella d'Este as an ambiguous and unresolved figure in Ariosto's pantheon of contemporary characters. I will argue that she is, within the Orlando Furioso, a figure of the vulnerable female patron. Where for the court lady chastity was the inevitable term of identity, for the court poet that term is flattery, endlessly produced in an effort to improve the author's standing. Writing itself is therefore the subject of Ariosto's description of Isabella d'Este. Ariosto's position at the Este court was never entirely secure, and [End Page 51] never exclusively literary. Though he spent his years there attempting to establish a position as remunerated court poet, he was used more consistently for diplomacy, to his enormous resentment.4 His role at court from 1503 consisted almost entirely of diplomatic missions, most frequently to Rome. In 1517 Ippolito released Ariosto from his service for refusing to accompany the Cardinalacy to Hungary, where Ippolito had been assigned. Ippolito also cancelled the bulk of his benefices, with which Ariosto had been remunerated in place of a court stipend. Alfonso d'Este assumed Ariosto's patronage in Ippolito's place, asking him to read aloud to him more than to write, but even this position was cancelled in 1520 due to...

Sappho in the Shadows: Essays on the Work of German Women Poets of the Age of Goethe (1749-1832) by Anthony J. Harper , Margaret C. Ives Schriftstellerinnen der Romantik: Epoche: Werk: Wirkung by Barbara Becker-Cantarino (review)

MLRy ioo.i, 2005 253 Prussian nobleman in the worst possible light, cannot be dissociated from this text. As a cause celebre, the Itzig affairdivided public opinion, and by no means always in Arnim's favour (Nienhaus traces its reception through to the twentieth century). The society's anti-Jewish, anti-French, anti-Philistine, xenophobic, and patriotic sentiments provided a heady mix for coming generations. It would, however, be a pity to lose sight of the better traits of the 'Deutsche Tischgesellschaft', its conviviality, its free causerie, its openness to many cultural manifestations. Nienhaus concludes his masterly account by reminding us that no less an authority than Fichte in 1811 deemed Arnim's anti-Semitism offensive and pointed to higher patriotic ideals as being more suited to the tenor of the times. Trinity College, Cambridge Roger Paulin Sappho in theShadows: Essays on the WorkofGerman WomenPoets oftheAge ofGoethe (ij4g-i832). Ed. by Anthony J. Harper and Margaret C.Ives. (British and Irish Studies in German Language and Literature, 19) Bern, Berlin, and Brussels : Peter Lang. 2000. 280 pp. ?28; ?50.10. ISBN 3-906762-83-1. Schriftstellerinnender Romantik: Epoche? Werk? Wirkung. By Barbara BeckerCantarino . (Arbeitsbiicher zur Literaturgeschichte) Munich: Beck. 2000. 320 pp. ?19.90. ISBN 3-406-46515-3. These two books, both products of Auslandsgermanistik, complement each other neatly. The first,in English, comprises an introduction and seven essays, five by the editors and two by other hands, or in gender terms, four by women and three by men. These proportions reflect the principle of inclusiveness underlying the annual day schools organized by Margaret Ives at the University of Lancaster, the proceedings of which appeared as Women Writers of the Age of Goethe from 1988 to 1998. Now that women's writing and gender studies have become an established part of German Studies in Britain, it is fittingthat some of the fruitsof her initiative, which was con? sistently supported by Tony Harper, should themselves emerge from the shadows. The second book, in German, is by an individual feminist scholar. Whereas the essay collection chiefly treats verse, this study is weighted more towards prose. Both focus on selected writers; each devotes an essay or chapter to Karoline von Giinderrode; each discusses Sophie Mereau. In other respects, the overlap between them is limited. The writers examined in Sappho in the Shadows range from Anna Luisa Karsch (1722-91) to Annette von Droste-Hiilshoff (1797-1848). The firstthree essays are by Margaret Ives. The one on Karsch, who rose from cowgirl to court society, shows the importance of biographical information in understanding women writers: a nice touch is the mention of Karsch's refusal to petition for the release of her alcoholic, violent husband from military service, claiming that she would have been honoured to serve in Frederick the Great's army. The Austrian Gabriele Baumberg (1766-1839) came from a farmore comfortable background, but faced greater opposition because she dared to express sexual desire. Set fair to become a court poet, she met and married the Hungarian poet Janos Batsanyi, whose persecution on political grounds ended her career. Karoline von Giinderrode (1780-1806), an impoverished aristocrat, never found a fulfillingpartnership: her love forFriedrich Creuzer and her suicide are well known. Margaret Ives, however, focuses on her collections of poems (1804 and 1805), published under the male pseudonym 'Tian', stressing their range, variety,and originality, and demonstrating that her writing 'speaks to, and of, our whole human condition' (p. 97). The poetry of Mereau (1770-1806) and Luise Hensel (1798-1876) finds in Tony Harper a sensitive and informed interpreter. As he notes, Mereau packed into her 254 Reviews thirty-six years an extensive and varied output, although her second husband, Clemens Brentano, 'gave her no encouragement in her writing, belittling her literary plans and artistic abilities' (p. 128). Brentano later altered Hensel's poems, an act termed by Harper 'a kind of poetic violation' (p. 195). Unable to marry Brentano despite her conversion to Catholicism, as his second wife was still living, Hensel as? sumed caring responsibilities forrelatives, a task which Harper says she seems not to have resented: it should be added, though, that she had almost certainly internalized social expectations...

Monstrous adversary: the life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

The Elizabethan Court poet Edward de Vere has, since 1920, lived a notorious second, wholly illegitimate life as the putative author of the poems and plays of William Shakespeare. The work reconstructs Oxford's life, assesses his poetic works, and demonstrates the absurdity of attributing Shakespeare's works to him. The first documentary biography of Oxford for over seventy years, Monstrous Adversary seeks to measure the real Oxford against the myth. Impeccably researched and presenting many documents written by Oxford himself, Nelson's book provides a unique insight into Elizabethan society and manners through the eyes of a man whose life was privately scandalous and richly documented.

Friendship, Association and Service in The Manciple’s Tale

Friendship, Association and Service in The Manciple’s Tale Stephanie Trigg University of Melbourne Like many of the tales told on the way to Canterbury, The Manciple’s Tale offers a closely observed meditation on power relationships . More precisely, I suggest that this tale is specifically concerned with the difficulties involved in performing a series of subordinate and overlapping roles in hierarchically organized structures: that is, the roles of courtier, servant, and poet. Like many other commentators, I read the tale as self-reflexive, though rather than finding an expression of purely poetic anxiety, I identify an anxiety that is primarily social, about how to speak—or write—in the context of courtly service or literary patronage. In my reading, the tale dramatizes, though it does not resolve , the question of when and how to speak to one’s superiors. But I also want to foreground the Tale’s thematic and moralizing concern with the question of friendship, to suggest that the idea of a relationship among equals provides a powerful counterpoint to the Manciple’s interest in the relationships between servant and master, and between courtier and lord. This counterpoint is almost always problematic, however: at what point, if ever, can the discourses of friendship overlap with those of service? And what are the social and political implications of such crossover? To summarize: I want to argue that the tale sets up two principal axes of relationship among men: a horizontal axis of friendship, or at least of homosocial identity; and a vertical axis of service. At the same time, the tale’s narrative works to confound that distinction. The resultant uncertainty dramatizes Chaucer’s own position as poet and servant. Like the Manciple perhaps, he too is writing, or telling stories, for both his superiors and his friends. Many recent critics foreground the self-reflexive aspects of this tale, in its context as the penultimate contribution to the storytelling context 325 ................. 10286$ CH13 11-01-10 13:54:39 PS STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER and as the ultimate narrative in the collection. It can easily be read as foregrounding the problem, even the mortal danger, of speech and truth-telling. On that reading, and in the context of a concern with master/servant relations, and with respect to the genre of etiological narrative, the fate of the crow constitutes a cautionary tale with the most profound consequences for courtiers. Thinking to please his master Phoebus, the crow says the wrong thing, and is both punished and dismissed from his lord’s service. And once we foreground the crow’s role as storyteller or as singer, his case is even more extreme: thinking to please his patron, the crow sings the wrong song, and is not only punished and dismissed, but loses his poetic gift. The fact that this gift was bestowed on him by his master, the god of music, has the dramatic effect of debasing him further. As the master raised him up and bound him to service in the cage, so he can dismiss him and release him, make him not only unemployed but unemployable. In considering this relationship, we must revisit one of the most suggestive essays on the Manciple’s Tale, written by Louise Fradenburg in 1985. In this essay Fradenburg uses Lacanian theories of subjectivity-inprocess to develop an argument about late medieval courts as ‘‘historical spaces produced by, and producing, certain kinds of relationship between certain types of subjects and others.’’1 In this context, there is no ‘‘given’’ kind of discourse or subjectivity at court. Rather, the mode of master, like the mode of servant, is continually being negotiated, either informally, in the day-to-day encounters of the household, or more formally , in the rhetorical or narrative productions of the court poet. Fradenburg is principally concerned with psychoanalytic relations and linguistic structures, but if we insist on thickening our sense of the sociohistorical frame of the tale, we can see how much more acute the situation becomes in a context where the vernacular is in process of becoming an acceptable medium for court poetry and court discourse, in a period of radical social change and class mobility. If...

Les Jardins qui sentent le sauvage: Ronsard et la poétique du paysage by Dani�le Duport (review)

MLR, 96.4, 2001 I071 LesJardins quisententle sauvage:Ronsardet lapoetiquedupaysage. By DANIELEDUPORT. (Cahiers d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 57) Geneve: Droz. 2000. I44 pp. 51.20 SwF. Daniele Duport investigates the representations of gardens and landscape in Ronsard's poetry, considering them as metaphors for, on the one hand, poetry whose techniques are manifest, and, on the other, poetry which gives the illusion of being artless, masking the fact that it employs similar devices. She has drawn the title from an aside unconnected with poetry, in Ronsard's 'Response aux injureset calomnies', but this statement of the poet's preference for gardenswhich resemble uncultivatedcountrysideprovidesthe basisandjustificationof her study,as she tells us (p. 92), in that it unites the two apparently opposed forms. Gardens are not, however, the startingpoint of the book. The firstpart deals with 'La poetique de l'abondance et de la vari6te', an aspect of Ronsard's poetry which has already received much attention (for example, from Terence Cave). Despite detailed and perceptive analyses of a number of poems (particularlyfruitfulin the case of the hymns of the seasons),the direction of the argumenthere is not alwaysclear, since, although the myths discussed relate the fertility of the natural world to poetic creativity, they do not have a direct bearing on the stated subject. Duport's explanation that 'ce qui parait deviation ramene a la natura naturans les mythes de l'ecriture' (p. 52) does not really resolve this problem. It is the second part, 'Du paysage au jardin', that carries the main weight of her argument and is the more illuminating. Invoking the classical theory which equates different landscapes (naturalgrandeur,pastoralcountrysideand cultivatedland)with the three levels of style, she concludes that Ronsard wishes to embrace all three, blurringthe stylistic distinctionsin his questboth to emulate his classicalpredecessorsand to imitate the luxuriant perfection of nature. Formal gardens do not interest him, because they lack the movement, variation and fluidity of form found in natural vegetation, qualitieshe seeksto incorporateinto his poetry. However, he praisesthe gardener's workfortransformingchaos into harmony. In the courseof analysingthe landscape features he favours, Duport examines Ronsard's use of the topos of the grotto as a sacred source of inspiration, and goes on to argue that his poetic ideal could be describedas 'l'antre,jardin sauvage',representinginspiredpoetry which infusesthe vigour of nature into an ordered aesthetic setting. This section makes her book a usefuladjunctto existingstudiesof Ronsard'spoetics. LANCASTERUNIVERSITY ELIZABETHVINESTOCK Jean-Antoinede Baif and the Valois Court. By YVONNEROBERTS. Bern, Berlin, and Oxford: Peter Lang. 2000. 231 pp. f24. This is a welcome and well-written study of Baif's relations with Catherine de Medicis, whom he served devotedly for thirtyyears, and with her sons Charles IX and Henri III. Focusingon hisreactionsto the eventsof the age asperceivedthrough his politicalverse,Yvonne Roberts tracesthe development of the poet's attitudes,as he moves froma firmlyCatholic and monarchiststanceto 'Politique'views. The book firstrecounts Baif's life, and his role as court poet and contributorto royal entertainments. A short section refers intriguingly to his 'long involvement with the Royal intelligence services'(p. 26), though the evidence for this appearsto be circumstantial.Roberts entersthe controversyover the dating of'L'Hymne de la Paix', which she ingeniously suggests was written in I570 as part of Catherine's campaign to secure Jeanne d'Albret's agreement to the marriage of Henri de MLR, 96.4, 2001 I071 LesJardins quisententle sauvage:Ronsardet lapoetiquedupaysage. By DANIELEDUPORT. (Cahiers d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 57) Geneve: Droz. 2000. I44 pp. 51.20 SwF. Daniele Duport investigates the representations of gardens and landscape in Ronsard's poetry, considering them as metaphors for, on the one hand, poetry whose techniques are manifest, and, on the other, poetry which gives the illusion of being artless, masking the fact that it employs similar devices. She has drawn the title from an aside unconnected with poetry, in Ronsard's 'Response aux injureset calomnies', but this statement of the poet's preference for gardenswhich resemble uncultivatedcountrysideprovidesthe basisandjustificationof her study,as she tells us (p. 92), in that it unites the two apparently opposed forms. Gardens are not, however, the startingpoint of the book. The firstpart deals with 'La poetique de l'abondance et de la vari6te', an aspect...

:Festivals and Ceremonies: A Bibliography of Works Relating to Court, Civic and Religious Festivals in Europe, 1500-1800

Historians, art and theatre historians, musicologists, literary historians, historians of politics and diplomacy are becoming increasingly interested in court festivals as a source of information in the early-modern period. Such festivals are usually recorded in a printed account or festival book. It is, however, extremely difficult to find such accounts, although they are present in major libraries in large numbers. This is because such accounts are often anonymous and, where they are not, the author is often a little-known court poet or historiographer. This text provides a bibliography of court festivals. It orders the material chronologically, grouping different accounts of the same festival together. It indexes rulers' names; places; types of event celebrated (christening, wedding, peace treaty); types of celebration (tournament, firework display, opera, etc); and illustrators, printers and places of publication.

East Slavic Visual Writing: The Inception of Tradition

The synthesis of verbal and message can be observed in many early literary works from various cultures. The earliest literary sources, with unconventional textual configuration, known as technopeignia,1 were created in Hellenistic period (between 325 B.C.E. and C.E. 200) by individuals such as Simmias of Rhodos and Theocritus. These were followed by a few Byzantine pattern poems, tabuloe iliacce by Rome-based Greek poet Theodoros (between 50 B.C.E. and C.E. 50), anonymous Greek and Latin samples from early Christian period, some shaped texts by two Latin poets Lavius (Ist century C.E.) and Optatian (fl. C.E. 325),2 and versus intexti invented by latter.3 The listing of Eastern Slavic texts traditionally begins with Baroque period. Ivan Velychkovskyi (seventeenth century) and Mytrofan Dovhalevskyi (eighteenth century) are usually referred to as poets who made most valuable contribution to development of Ukrainian poetry; while Russian court poet of Belarusian descent, educated in Ukraine, Samuil Petrovskii-Sitnianovich, known by his monastic name Simeon Polotskii (1629-1680), credited as author of Russian carmina figurata. Even though Ukrainian poetry was fully established within framework of Baroque period, and in Russia this poetic form originated in Baroque era, Eastern Slavic writing has a longer tradition than commonly believed. It difficult to establish exactly when Eastern Slavic writing originated. However, its introduction was unquestionably connected with conversion of Kievan Rus' to Christianity. Christianity, which came from Greek Byzantium,4 bringing with verbal culture of Constantinople.5 The Greek Orthodox Church introduced Byzantine education, literature and art to its newly converted neighbour, thus setting grounds for a new literary activity in Kievan Rus'. The works, which reached Eastern Slavs were exclusively religious texts, oriented towards establishing proper monastic habits than toward serious systematic theology or philosophical inquiry.6 They met Christian demands in Kievan land, and therefore served their purpose. No doubt, they were not finest part of Byzantium literary tradition. However, question of existence of Byzantine poetry (or literature in general) as a popular, or at least developed literary genre remains open. Visual poetry expert, Dick Higgins, who documented several Byzantine pieces of pattern poetry,7 doubts potential of Byzantine culture, which influenced Kievan literature, to develop poetry as a specific poetic form. In his opinion, formally conservative Byzantine literature is not notably visual and thus it not sort of milieu where one might expect to find much pattern poetry, although some pieces do exist.8 Nonetheless, Higgins suggests that pillage of Byzantine libraries in 1204 during Fourth Crusade, as well as collapse of Constantinople in 1453, might quite possibly have resulted in destruction of many manuscripts.9 The question of possible import of this intellectual product from Byzantium to Kievan Rus' more complex. Western and Eastern European scholars both share opinion that Byzantine literature was represented in diversity of genres and forms of both religious and secular writing. There little plausibility, however, that Byzantium could direct secular literature to newly converted lands. The literary works which continued the antique practice in most refined traditions of formalism and scholastic casuistry and which were created for Byzantine nobility had never been exported to Kievan Rus' which was perceived as a Byzantine cultural colony.10 The works, which were sent to Kievan Rus', either met most imperative needs of Christian religious leaders or else they could promote by their specific features and content Byzantine cultural hegemony over barbarians who had to be civilized. …

Lessing's Reading of Racinian Tragedy

Recent Lessing scholarship has attempted to show that Lessing's objections to Racinian tragedy are less severe than they appear, and that his dismissal of Racine can be explained almost entirely by his efforts to decry the influence of French neo-classicism on German drama. It has been suggested that Lessing may have been aware of his many similarities to Racine, but realized that his polemical attack against the French would lose its forcefulness if he were to admit exceptions. The present study argues that scholars have wrongly minimized the substance of Lessing's criticisms of Racine in their exclusive emphasis on his polemical goals, and that they have also portrayed his judgment of Racine as more inconsistent – and favorable – than it actually is (Brown 263-65; Ritchie 129). An analysis of a misunderstood passage of Lessing's criticism will reveal similarities between Lessing and Racine that have not received sufficient attention in previous studies. But when read in its proper context, the passage also yields insights into why, even if Lessing actually did recognize his similarities to Racine, this recognition would presumably not have been strong enough to counterbalance his conviction that he is fundamentally dissimilar to Racine. As this study will show, Lessing's rejection of Racine stems both from his larger polemical goals and from his genuine inability to see in Racine anything but a gallant court poet. In the Conclusion to Letter 332 of the Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, Lessing concurs with Johann Nikolaus Meinhard's explanation for why fifteenthcentury Italy produced few great writers despite the generous patronage of the Medicis. In a passage quoted by Lessing, Meinhard claims that there is no correlation between political sponsorship and literary achievement, since the genius needs no incentive to create. After all, Pietro Metastasio produced exceptional libretti as a poor baker's son, Shakespeare became ein groser Poet, ohne irgend eine Aufmunterung zu haben, ja so gar, ohne selbst es zu wissen, and Jean Racine would have produced better tragedies if he had not been obligated to please the government of Louis XIV:

DIE REZEPTION SPANISCHER DRAMEN AM WIENER KAISERHOF DES 17. JAHRHUNDERTS

The study opens with an outline of the state of research concerning the reception of the Spanish drama at the imperial court of Vienna in the 17th century, the historical connections between the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs forming the starting point for a description of Emperor Leopold's I. literary interests as weH as the activities of his ambassador in Spain, Franz Eusebius count pötting. In particular, the Viennese representation of Calderón's Fineza contra fineza (1671) proves its importance by the editio princeps being realised in the imperial capital. The foHowing part of the study offers a chronological analysis of the 15 documented representations of Spanish dramas at the Viennese court. The reader will find short summaries of the identified plays as weH as references to tranlations, adaptations and similarities with contemporary works of imperial court poets.

On the Diverse Duties of the Servants of Princes: Lorenz Beger (1653-1705), Librarian, Antiquarian, and Court Poet in Heidelberg

On the Diverse Duties of the Servants of Princes: Lorenz Beger (1653-1705), Librarian, Antiquarian, and Court Poet in Heidelberg

King James I and the Religious Culture of England (review)

James Doelman, King James I and the Religious Culture ofEngland. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000. 240 pp. $75. by Kate Narveson James Doelman takes as his starting point the assumption that a monarch exercises defining cultural influence on his reign; his book is "an attempt to assess the role of James in that aspect of English culture, religion, which most attracted his interest" (p. 1). Doelman takes issue with Malcolm Smuts's suggestion that James was not a major trendsetter, countering that Jacobean religious culture took its bearing from James. By religious culture, Doelman means areas of thought and activity beyond the church proper, matters on the periphery of church activity that are nonetheless expressions of religious preoccupations, such as efforts to gain patronage for religious verse, gain converts, and use biblical figures to shape James's public image. Doelman proceeds in roughly chronological order through areas to which James paid attention. He begins by presenting the ways in which James's Scottish upbringing led him to chafe against churchmen who set their power over that of the king. James was eager to assume the English throne, which would allow him to be not a "sillie vassal" but a bishop of bishops. At the same time, he devoted significant effort to his poetic endeavors, thereby establishing the expectation that he would be the "chief reader and patron of any religious work" (p. 19). Doelman examines the consequent "outpouring of religious verse" at James's accession that demonstrates the "interaction between royal taste and national culture" (p. 20). Basilikon Down advocated a poetry "not full of vanitie, but of vertue" (p. 23) and a striking number of poets turned to religious verse in a bid for royal patronage, which, however, proved disappointing as James's interests shifted by 1610 toward "straight theology without poetic embellishment" (p. 38). James's interest in religion also prompted writers to adopt the prophetic mode as another way to address a godly king. Doelman examines the range of ways that writers used biblical models of prophecy, and also the difficulty they found in using prophecy to criticize a David who recognized no Nathan. Doelman attends chiefly to George Wither, contending that Wither's early career is wrongly labelled oppositional, since he pursued royal patronage based on the belief that James was still potentially a godly king. However, Doelman argues, Wither disdained aristocratic patronage networks and wished to speak directly to the king. If under Charles the 118Book Reviews prophetic mode was oppositional, under James, who saw himself in terms of biblical kings, it was a more flexible stance. Doelman next traces the career of Scottish theologian Alexander Melville, who initially, in Scotland, balanced the roles of neo-Latin court poet and opponent of episcopacy, but whose increasingly outspoken criticism of James's views of church authority led to a break when Melville sided with the Millenary Petitioners. Silenced from preaching, Melville used satiric Latin epigrams to criticize James, which led to his imprisonment until 1610, whereupon he spent the rest of his life abroad. Melville's epigrams had an ongoing life in religious controversies (being answered by George Herbert, among many), and were revived in battles over the imposition of English worship in Scotland. Doelman argues for their importance both because they had an international audience and because their brevity and ease of circulation meant that, unlike books or sermons, they could evade censorship. Doelman also looks at James's public image, showing how consciously and centrally it was shaped around religious figures — Constantine as Christian emperor and, more often, Solomon as wise ruler and peacemaker, a role that, Doelman argues, reflected a coherent pacifism. Doelman traces the fortunes of James's image in written texts and not visual imagery, despite the misleading use of the term "iconography" throughout the chapter. The next chapter, on conversions to and from Rome, analyzes case studies to show the interrelated influence of political, economic, and religious causes behind most conversions, touching only incidently on James's role. James's presence is more directly felt in the next chapter, on psalm translations. Doelman demonstrates the way that James's own intention to produce a verse translation of the Psalms that...

To Play at Peace: Henry VII, War Against France, and the Chieregato-Flores Mediation of 1490

Henry VII’s image as an innately peace-loving, war-loathing monarch was cultivated by his own court poets, repeated by early Tudor chroniclers, and affirmed for posterity by Sir Francis Bacon in his classic history of Henry’s reign. James Gairdner, one of the first of the modern historians of Henry VII, thus regarded Henry VII’s pacificism as a confirmed fact. More recently Joycelyne Russell, in her study of Renaissance peacemaking, posed Henry VII as “a man of peace” in stark contrast to his war-mongering son. Ian Arthurson, however, in an article about Henry’s planned invasion of Scotland in 1497, exposed Henry’s more bellicose side by showing a king intent on prosecuting a war against Scotland to its violent end, even out of proportion to the initial provocation, because at the time that seemed the best means to attain his particular political end. This essay will consider Henry’s inclinations to war and peace with respect to the mediation undertaken in 1490 by Leonello Chieregato, the humanist and bishop of Concordia, and by Antonio Flores, canon of Seville and papal prothonotary, who were charged by Pope Innocent VIII to mediate a peace or a long truce between England and France.

To Play at Peace: Henry VII, War Against France, and the Chieregato-Flores Mediation of 1490

Henry VII’s image as an innately peace-loving, war-loathing monarch was cultivated by his own court poets, repeated by early Tudor chroniclers, and affirmed for posterity by Sir Francis Bacon in his classic history of Henry’s reign. James Gairdner, one of the first of the modern historians of Henry VII, thus regarded Henry VII’s pacificism as a confirmed fact. More recently Joycelyne Russell, in her study of Renaissance peacemaking, posed Henry VII as “a man of peace” in stark contrast to his war-mongering son. Ian Arthurson, however, in an article about Henry’s planned invasion of Scotland in 1497, exposed Henry’s more bellicose side by showing a king intent on prosecuting a war against Scotland to its violent end, even out of proportion to the initial provocation, because at the time that seemed the best means to attain his particular political end. This essay will consider Henry’s inclinations to war and peace with respect to the mediation undertaken in 1490 by Leonello Chieregato, the humanist and bishop of Concordia, and by Antonio Flores, canon of Seville and papal prothonotary, who were charged by Pope Innocent VIII to mediate a peace or a long truce between England and France.

REBELLION, TREACHERY AND POETIC IDENTITY IN SKELTON'S DOLOROUS DETHE

Like most of John Skelton's earliest English verse, the Dolorous Dethe (1489) is usually dismissed as apprentice work in a moribund fifteenth-century literary tradition from which the poet later broke free. But the lament in fact demonstrates greater poetic and political sophistication than has been recognized. In an act of studied self- promotion, Skelton advertises his skill as a political rhetorician by manipulating an official, aureate style, and by offering a distinctly polemical account of the poem's occasion: the rebellion and treachery that led to the murder of Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland. The account of Percy's retainers is central to the political theme of the work – true service – but the success of their treachery also raises serious questions about the poet's own sincerity and credibility as a political rhetorician. Such concerns make the Dolorous Dethe a somewhat contradictory lament, but the poem is nonetheless important for introducing what became a dominant preoccupation in Skelton's later career: the standing and complicity of the court poet in a world of political subterfuge.

Claudian's In Eutropium: Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch.

From A.D. 395 to 404, Claudian was the court poet of the Western Roman Empire, ruled by Honorius. 399 the eunuch Eutropius, the grand chamberlain and power behind the Eastern Roman throne of Honorius's brother Arcadius, became consul. The poem In Eutropium is Claudian's brilliantly nasty response. it he vilifies Eutropius and calls on Honorius's general, Stilicho, to redeem this disgrace to Roman honor. this literary and historical study, Jacqueline Long argues that the poem was, in both intent and effect, political propaganda: Claudian exploited traditional prejudices against eunuchs to make Eutropius appear ludicrously alien to the ideals of Roman greatness. Long sets In Eutropium within the context of Greek and Roman political vituperation and satire from the classical to the late antique period. addition, she demonstrates that the poem is an invaluable, if biased, source of historical information about Eutropius's career. Her analysis draws on modern propaganda theory and on reader response theory, thereby bringing a fresh perspective to the political implications of Claudian's work.Originally published in 1996.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions

IN OLD NORSE WORKS, kings often steal acts of praise from the poets who normally offer these judgements. The motivation for these thefts comes from a tradition of competitiveness within Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian societies: most characters in sagas and heroic poems, especially in compositions that seem to come from an oral tradition, compete constantly with one another and with characters from the past.' The verbal combat between political leaders and poets in Old Norse works provides a useful case study of this general competition. This king-poet competition appears to have three consecutive stages, which trace a decline in the social influence of court poets, and of oral poets in general, as the kings of Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia come to use the newly introduced and powerful technique of writing to extend their dominance.2