The Italian Influence in English Poetry

From Chaucer to Southwell
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-31488-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 364 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 689 g

Reihe: Routledge Revivals

If poetry was the fashionable mode of expression in Tudor England, ‘Great Italy’, as Shakespeare called her, was the land of predilection for Englishmen. They looked to Italy for lessons in philosophy, good breeding, in the art of civilization and the art of government. Englishmen travelled to Italy and lived as students in Padua; Italian Protestants came to England—Vermigli, Gentili, Florio, Bruno. The commerce in politics, religion, court life, manners and the things of the intellect was immense.

First published in 1955, The Italian Influence in English Poetry analyzes the non-dramatic work of various poets to show how, beginning with Chaucer, Englishmen took from Italy many of the forms of their poetry, many of its techniques and much of its subject-matter. But their policy was not to annex; rather to naturalise. Spenser tries to surpass Ariosto; Sidney finds a pattern in Petrarch; Greville adapts Machiavelli; and so on, through the study of Shakespeare, Drayton and Southwell, and a host of minor poets. The results of scattered research are here for the first time drawn together to form a comprehensive picture.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sells, A. Lytton

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface 1. Chaucer 2. The Flowering of Scottish Poetry 3. ‘Two Courtly Makers’ 4. Travellers and Exiles 5. The Approach to Parnassus 6. Sidney; or, the Triumph of Petrarch 7. Spenser 8. Shakespeare 9. Italians ‘anglyfide’ 10. The Sonnet-books 11. Songs, Madrigals and occasional verse 12. Drayton 13. Greville 14. Southwell Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

A. Lytton Sells, a graduate of Cambridge and of the Sorbonne, had an extraordinarily long teaching career which began in 1923. He held various positions at the University of Padua, Indiana University and taught at University of Durham until his retirement.