The Penguin Book of Elizabethan Verse [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The anthologist labours under one heavy burden - the burden of being expected to justify himself, of having to 'explain'. Ideally, a book like this should explain itself- the choice of poems should make all the necessary points. Nevertheless, since Elizabethan poetry is so rich, so complex, and in some important aspects so little known, a few words about first principles might possibly prove helpfiil to die reader. To begin with, there is the question of my use of the adjective 'Elizabethan'. I have chosen to interpret it fairly strictly, to mean 'poets whose reputations were made or largely sustained during the reign of Elizabeth'. At one end of the scale, this has meant the omission of earlier Tudor poets such as Wyatt. At the other, it has led to some controversial inclusions. Here are poems not only by Jonson, but also by such characteristically 'Jacobean' figures as Middleton and Donne. While it would be pointless to argue the case for each and every inclusion, I ought perhaps to give reasons for interpreting the word 'Elizabethan' in this way. The answer is a simple one. You cannot, in my opinion, use it simply as a criterion of style. In fact, there is no homogeneous Elizabethan style. Donne's early poetry was written some time béfore Eliza-beth's death, and seems to have circulated widely in manuscript. • His poems are as much a part of the climate of the 1590S as the satires of Marston or the erotic mythological poems of Shake-speare. However, Donne is not widely represented here, in view of the excellent selection from his work which is to be found in Helen Gardner's Penguin, The Metaphysical Poets. The case of Middleton is rather different. I have chosen to illustrate a side of his work which is little known, though very generally despised -the non-dramatic poetry which he wrote in his youth. Some of it was published under Elizabeth, some at the very beginning of the next reign. In these odd, but often striking, poems, Middleton shows us what young poets were thinking and feeling at the moment of Elizabeth's death. This rather strictly historical approach has led to two other features of the book - the paradoxical fact that the poets are