Remembering 1625: George Wither'sBritain's Remembrancerand the Condition of Early Caroline England

Abstract

Britain's Remembrancer attempts many things, from a description of the plague and a reflection upon the nature of poetry and prophecy, to a critique of politics in the early Caroline years. The poem is deeply engaged with the condition of England at the time of its composition. Wither explores lines of division in the state, and reflects archly upon the nature of tyranny. Although this is not an overtly oppositional poem, it helps us to appreciate the formation, in these vital early Caroline years, of an image of Charles's rule as arbitrary. Through its preoccupation with the nature of political speech under conditions of constraint, it also exposes with remarkable clarity the challenges facing writers in these years, and the impact that these had on an early Stuart literature of political critique. [A.M.]

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