The Elizabethan Courtier Poets: Their Poems and Their Contexts

"This monumental study of the elite social environment of the Elizabethan court fuses two of the most productive trends in current Renaissance studies: the court as the center of artistic consumption and patronage, and the circulation of literary texts in manuscripts. The ""courtly aesthetic"" is investigated for the role poetry played in the lives of those at court, rather than the efforts of outsiders to influence the court through poetry. Part I, a critical history of the verse, elucidates the social, cultural, and political dimensions of the works and their authors. Part II provides biographies of 32 courtier poets, with generous selections of their poetry."