Works Published Before 1589

Abstract

A Theatre for Voluptuous Worldlings (1569), The Shepheardes Calender (1579) and the two sets of Spenser/Harvey Letters (1580) present very different pictures of a young English writer. In the first we find an unacknowledged translator in a collection of continental Renaissance verse. In the second a ‘New Poet’ is heralded as the equal of the best of those writers. In the third we encounter a ‘University Man’ full of the concerns of London and Cambridge intellectual life. In each case, the author himself remains anonymous. In the persona of ‘Immeritô ’ Spenser writes at the opening of The Shepheardes Calender : Goe little booke: thy selfe present, As child whose parent is vnkent … And when thou art past ieopardee, Come tell me, what was sayd of mee. (11. 1–2; 16–17) The works published before 1589 all show a deep and explicit concern with the response of their readers. In each case prose commentary is pre-applied to the author’s verse. The Theatre has its (lengthy) ‘Brief Declaration’ explaining the visions of the sonnets as Protestant allegory. The Calender includes E. K. ’s ‘Epistle’, ‘Argument’, and ‘Gloss’. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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