“Better place no wit can finde”: The Compiler as Author in Early Modern Verse Miscellanies

Abstract

This paper reflects on concepts of early modern authorship during the early modern period based on miscellanies and the roles of their compilors. The statement "I Compyle: I make a boke as an auctor doth" from Palsgrave’s Dictionary of French and English serves as a starting point: here, the compiler becomes a co-creative agent in that he plays with identities in composing the collection of poetry as much as with concepts and notions of individuality and community. This will be illustrated on the basis of a single poem, "Harpalus‘ Complaint" from Tottel’s Miscellany (1557) up unto the second edition of Englands Helicon (1614). A variety of interaction between several roles can be observed: compilors become co-authors themselves but also do readers when poems are newly arranged and integrated into a narrative. While Tottel’s Miscellany plays with identities and attributions, in Englands Helicon the (re)contextualisation of poems within newly created narratives is central. The paper thus shows that concepts of authorship around 1600 go beyond our contemporary notions that are often based on ideas of the creative genius: compilation becomes authorial business, and is creative.

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