Praise, Patronage, and the Penshurst Poems: From Jonson (1616) to Southey (1799)

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2015-09-24
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Abstract
The Penshurst group of poems (1616-1799) is a collection of twelve poems—beginning with Ben Jonson’s country-house poem “To Penshurst”—which praises the ancient estate of Penshurst and the eminent Sidney family. Although praise is a constant theme, only the first five poems praise the respective patron and lord of Penshurst, while the remaining poems praise the exemplary Sidneys of bygone days, including Sir Philip and Dorothy (Sacharissa) Sidney. This shift in praise coincides with and is largely due to the gradual shift in literary economy: from the patronage system to the literary marketplace. Instead of obligatory laudatory works for aristocratic patrons, print culture offered writers new opportunities and literary authority: poets praised subjects they felt worthy and commercial readers found fashionable. The De L’Isle and Sidney Manuscripts—located in the Kent History and Library Centre—has provided this study with new and invaluable information regarding praise, patronage, and Penshurst.
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Literature--English
Citation
Gray, M. (2015). Praise, Patronage, and the Penshurst Poems: From Jonson (1616) to Southey (1799) (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27395