Poetry and Paternity in Renaissance England
Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Jonson

This book explores the notion of paternity in early modern poetry, providing close readings of the major works of the time.

Tom MacFaul (Author)

9780521191104, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 June 2010

288 pages
23.5 x 16.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.6 kg

'MacFaul's argument is neat and controlled.' Notes and Queries

Becoming a father was the main way that an individual in the English Renaissance could be treated as a full member of the community. Yet patriarchal identity was by no means as secure as is often assumed: when poets invoke the idea of paternity in love poetry and other forms, they are therefore invoking all the anxieties that a culture with contradictory notions of sexuality imposed. This study takes these anxieties seriously, arguing that writers such as Sidney and Spenser deployed images of childbirth to harmonize public and private spheres, to develop a full sense of selfhood in their verse, and even to come to new accommodations between the sexes. Shakespeare, Donne and Jonson, in turn, saw the appeal of the older poets' aims, but resisted their more radical implications. The result is a fiercely personal yet publicly-committed poetry that wouldn't be seen again until the time of the Romantics.

1. Presumptive fathers
2. Uncertain paternity: the indifferent ideology of patriarchy
3. The childish love of Philip Sidney and Fulke Greville
4. Spenser's timely fruit: generation in The Faerie Queene
5. 'We desire increase': Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry
6. John Donne's rhetorical contraception
7. 'To propagate their names': Ben Jonson as poetic godfather
Coda: sons.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary theory [DSA], Poetry [DC], Literature & literary studies [D]