Article2002

"Bastard Children of Tyranny": The Ancient Constitution and Fulke Greville's "A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney"

4 citations0/0 files storedRenaissance Quarterly

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Renaissance Literature and Culture Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

Abstract

This essay proposes that Fulke Greville structured A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney according to the principles of the Ancient Constitution. Greville departs from the standard view of Sidney in the early seventeenth century as a primarily literary figures by constructing his late friend as an avatar of the Ancient Constitution, and views Elizabeth and Essex in the same light. Greville’s redefinition of all three as exemplars of English constitutionalism directly results from the controversies surrounding James’ increasing absolutism. However, the question remains as to why in 1652 a Royalist would publish such a text, and the answer lies in how shifting political circumstances alters the interpretation of texts.

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References

1977Truth and Method 1993Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England.1995Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric 1996Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, 1558–1640 1909The Constitutional History of England 1995Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570–1640 1997Puritanism and Revolution 1919The Political Works of James I

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