1611 (eBook)

Helen Wilcox is Professor of English at Bangor University, Wales, and Director of the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Bangor. Her most recent major publication was the highly-acclaimed annotated edition of The English Poems of George Herbert (2007).

Preface ix

Acknowledgements x

List of Illustrations xii

Chronology of Selected Historical, Cultural and Textual Events in 1611 xiii

Introduction: 'The omnipotency of the word' 1

1 Jonson's Oberon and friends: masque and music in 1611 24

2 Aemilia Lanyer and the 'fi rst fruits' of women's wit 44

3 Coryats Crudities and the 'travelling Wonder' of the age 68

4 Time, tyrants and the question of authority: The Winter's Tale and related drama 91

5 'Expresse words': Lancelot Andrewes and the sermons and devotions of 1611 112

6 The Roaring Girl on and off stage 132

7 'The new world of words': authorising translation in 1611 151

8 Donne's 'Anatomy' and the commemoration of women: 'her death hath taught us dearly' 174

9 Vengeance and virtue: The Tempest and the triumph of tragicomedy 192

Conclusion: 'This scribling age' 211

Appendix: A List of Printed Texts Published in 1611 219

Bibliography 225

Index 244

"In 1611: Authority, Gender and the Word in Early Modern
England, Helen Wilcox transports us back to the rich textual
history of a single year in Jacobean England, where she
proves to be the most amiable and knowledgeable of
guides. Side by side, elite works next to popular, the
year unfolds with all the curious excitement of an elegantly
presented almanac. Whether your preference is for The King
James Bible or Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl,
Coryates Crudities or The Winter's Tale, this is a splendid
slice-of-life introduction to early modern England that will please
new readers and specialists alike."

--Jonathan F.S. Post, University of California,
Los Angeles

"Fascinating, elegant, and eminently readable, 1611 is
a treasure trove of information and critical insight. Wilcox
displays great range, writing as smartly about Shakespeare as about
Lanyer, about secular as about devotional works. She makes
juxtapositions and connections among texts that are unexpected and
illuminating."

--Achsah Guibbory, Barnard College



"Conventionally, our knowledge of texts is filtered
through canon formations, critical traditions, and political
agendas, producing predictable selectivities, but different
perspectives can be gained by the radically simple method Helen
Wilcox adopts, of assembling the texts, connections and priorities
of a key moment in the past. 1611 offers the student the
chance to share a journey of discovery of a single
year."

--Cedric Brown, Professor Emeritus, University of
Reading