The Rhetoric of Courtship in Elizabethan Language and Literature - Hardcover

Bates, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521414806 ISBN 13: 9780521414807

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

In the sixteenth century the modern meaning of courtship - 'wooing someone' - developed from an older sense - 'being at court'. The Rhetoric of Courtship takes this semantic shift as the starting point for an incisive account of the practice and meanings of courtship at the court of Elizabeth I, where 'being at court' pre-eminently came to mean the same as 'wooing' the Queen. Exploring the wider context of social anthropology, philology, cultural and literary history, Catherine Bates presents courtship as a judicious, sensitive and rhetorically conscious understanding of public and private relations. Gascoigne, Lyly, Sidney, Leicester, Essex, and Spenser are shown to reflect in the fictional courtships of their poetry and prose the vulnerabilities of court life that were created by the system of patronage. The Rhetoric of Courtship thus makes an important contribution to Renaissance cultural history, using the court of Elizabeth I as a test case for representations of the courtier's role and power in the literature of the period.

About this title

Book Description:

The Rhetoric of Courtship is about the literature of the Elizabethan period with a particular focus on the literature of the court. This book considers how writers and courtiers related to Elizabeth I within a system of patronage and how they portrayed this relationship in fictional courtship of poetry and prose.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0521414806
• ISBN 13: 9780521414807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 252