The Poetry of Kissing in Early Modern Europe: From the Catullan Revival to Secundus, Shakespeare and the English Cavaliers (Studies in Renaissance Literature, 34) (Volume 34)

The "kissing-poem" genre was wide-spread in Renaissance literature; this book surveys its form and development. There is a great deal of kissing in Renaissance poetry, but modern critics do not generally recognise (as early readers did) that the literary conventions of the kiss were closely related to a fully-formed, lively and popular genre of Neo-Latin "kissing-poems". Beginning with the imitation of Catullus in fifteenth-century Italy, this specialised form was securely established in the next century by the Dutch poet Janus Secundus, whose elegant Basia ("Kisses") were an extraordinary international success. Secundus stimulated a long-lived tradition of Latin and vernacular "kisses", willfully repetitious and yet meticulously varied, which can tell us much about humanist poetics. This book offers a critical account of the Renaissance kiss-poem, using an abundance of vivid and often racy examples, many of them drawn from authors who are all but forgotten today. It shows that the genre had a sophisticated rationale and clear but flexible conventions. These include habits of irony, mood and structure that proved widely influential, and some slippery, self-conscious ways of dealing with masculine sexuality. Presenting new readings of English writers including Sidney, Shakespeare and Donne, the study also reminds us how important Neo-Latin writing was to the literary culture of early modern Britain. A number of well known texts are thus placed in a context unfamiliar to most modern scholars, in order to show how deftly their kisses engage with an international tradition of humanist poetry. Alex Wong is currently a Research Fellow in English literature at St John's College, University of Cambridge. Frontcover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Notes on Editorial Matters -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 The Rise and Fall of a Genre -- Generic History -- The Career of the Kiss-Poem -- Tradition, Kind and Mode -- 2 A Thousand Kisses -- Rome to Renaissance -- Latin into English -- 3 Erotic Transformation -- Euphemism and Titillation -- Tongues, Teeth and Role-Play -- A Mixed Classical Heritage -- 4 Sexual and Generic Tensions -- The 'Catullan Law' -- The Hard and Soft in Kiss-Poetry -- Women Poets and Masculine Convention -- A Dual Posterity? -- 5 The Soul in the Kiss: A Theme and its Variations -- Soul-Kisses before Secundus -- Poetic Platonism -- Janus Secundus -- The Later Soul-Kiss Poem -- Questions of Form -- 6 The Kiss-Poem in the British Isles -- Basium into Sonnet: Sir Philip Sidney and Giles Fletcher the Elder -- Vernacular Strains: Drummond of Hawthornden -- Scottish Neo-Latin: Buchanan, Ayton and Leech -- 7 Sophistication of the English Kiss -- From Genre to Mode: Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis -- Imitation and Parody: Campion to Cowley -- Cavalier Secundanism: Sir Thomas Stanley -- Conclusion -- Select Bibliography -- Index Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. The Rise And Fall Of A Genre -- Generic History -- The Career Of The Kiss-poem -- Tradition, Kind And Mode -- 2. A Thousand Kisses -- Rome To Renaissance -- Latin Into English -- 3. Erotic Transformation -- Euphemism And Titillation -- Tongues, Teeth And Role-play -- A Mixed Classical Heritage -- 4. Sexual And Generic Tensions -- The `catullan Law' -- The Hard And Soft In Kiss-poetry -- Women Poets And Masculine Convention -- A Dual Posterity? -- 5. The Soul In The Kiss: A Theme And Its Variations -- Soul-kisses Before Secundus -- Poetic Platonism -- Janus Secundus -- The Later Soul-kiss Poem -- Questions Of Form -- 6. The Kiss-poem In The British Isles -- Basium Into Sonnet: Sir Philip Sidney Arid Giles Fletcher The Elder -- Vernacular Strains: Drummond Of Hawthornden -- Scottish Neo-latin: Buchanan, Ayton And Leech -- 7. Sophistication Of The English Kiss -- From Genre To Mode: Shakespeare's Venus And Adonis -- Imitation And Parody: Campion To Cowley -- Cavalier Secundanism: Sir Thomas Stanley. Alex Wong. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.