Grief and English Renaissance Elegy

Explores the changing attitude of sixteenth century poets towards funeral poems.

G. W. Pigman, III (Author)

9780521268714, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 1985

196 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.332 kg

For most of the sixteenth century, English poets were clearly anxious about the grief expressed in their funeral poems and often rebuked themselves for indulging in it, but towards the end of the century this defensiveness about mourning became less pressing and persistent. The shift is part of a wider cultural change which has escaped recognition: the emergence of a more compassionate attitude towards the process of mourning. In charting the development of elegy this book analyses poems by Surrey, Spenser, Jonson, Henry King and Milton, and also surveys a wide range of forgotten verse, both English and neo-Latin, as well as letter-writing handbooks and moral-theological tracts. The book culminates in a detailed study of the most famous elegy in the language, Milton's Lycidas.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The angry consoler
2. The emergence of compassionate moderation
3. Praise and mourning
4. The shift from anxious elegy
5. Surrey and Spenser
6. Jonson and King
7. Milton
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]