Shakespeare, 'a Lover's Complaint', and John Davies of Hereford

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-521-34961-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 342 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 556 g

When Shakespeare's Sonnets were published in 1609 a poem called A Lover's Complaint was included by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, who was notorious for several irregular publications. Many scholars have doubted its authenticity, but recent editions of the Sonnets have accepted it as Shakespeare's work. Now Vickers, in this 2007 text, first full study of the poem, shows it to be un-Shakespearian both in its language and in its attitude to women. It is awkwardly constructed and uses archaic Spenserian diction, including many unusual words that never occur in Shakespeare. It frequently repeats stock phrases and rhymes, distorts normal word order far more often and more clumsily than Shakespeare did, while its attitude to female frailty is moralizing and misogynistic. By close analysis Vickers attributes the poem to John Davies of Hereford (1565-1618), a famous calligrapher and writing-master who was also a prolific poet. Vickers' book will re-define the Shakespeare canon.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vickers, Brian

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Thomas Thorpe and the 1609 Sonnets; Part I. Background: 2. John Davies of Hereford: a life of writing; 3. A Lover's Complaint and Spenserian pastoral; 4. 'Poore women's faults': narration and judgement in the Female Complaint; Part II. Foreground: 5. A poem anatomized: the rival claims: 1. Diction, 2. Rhetoric, 3. Metaphor; 4. Compositio; 5. Verse form; 6. A Lover's Complaint in Davies's canon: 1. Diction, 2. Rhetoric, 3. Metaphor, 4. Verse form; Appendix 1: the text of A Lover's Complaint; Appendix 2: John Davies, Uncollected Poems; Bibliography.