The Restoration transposed : poetry, place and literary history, 1660-1700

This revisionist study of Restoration literature and culture demonstrates how important the decades between 1660 and 1700 were in transforming, enlarging and diversifying English-language poetry. Wright challenges the longstanding narrative of Restoration poetry as a male, urban, London-centric form obsessed with the contemporary, arguing persuasively that this schema omits crucial literary works and relationships. Framed around three detailed case studies of neglected aspects of Restoration poetry, the book explores the depth of Spenser's influence, the importance of poetry flourishing in Ireland, the significance of natural landscapes and the vital role of women: both as readers, and writers. This book presents a diverse literary Restoration steeped in historical self-awareness and anxieties, engaged with the world outside England's capital, and open to new voices. Its impressive scope encompasses myriad little-known writers, while extensive historical research underpins its fresh perspectives on poets such as Dryden, Rochester, Cowley, Milton, Marvell and Behn. "The satire 'Timon', attributed to the earl of Rochester and probably written in 1674, exemplifies much that is generally thought to be typical of Restoration poetry.2 Densely packed with cultural allusions and expectations, it is preoccupied with money, sex, eating and drinking, and the pleasures and dangers of contemporary London. The world it inhabits is both cliquey and competitive; other men divide into the speaker's allies and the targets of his abuse, while women are present, if at all, only to be mocked or seduced, or both. This is also a world of casual but intense sociability, as witnessed both by the situational premise of the poem, apparently a street encounter between Timon and his interlocutor, and the prior social interactions that form the main substance of the poem. Timon's chance meeting with the 'dull dining sot', carefully placed 'i'th'Mall' - a new and fashionable venue in the heart of London - leads to his near-forced participation in an impromptu dinner with companions whose wit and judgement fall absurdly short of his own nonchalant but exacting standards.3 Literature and politics are the chief topics of conversation: the sot first tries, unsuccessfully, to demonstrate his knowledge of elite satirical poetry, and later, with his dinner guests, gossips ignorantly about drama and jingoistically about the French king's wars. Love, as opposed to sex, is mentioned only by his ageing wife, whose very existence marks him out for further ridicule. The one missing element in this virtuosic array of Restoration conventions is religious scepticism, presumably too advanced and demanding a topic to interest such intellectual lightweights as the sot and his friends"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Acknowledgements 10 Textual Conventions 13 List of Abbreviations 14 Introduction 15 Chapter 1 The Spenser Problem 22 The Poet of Last Resort: Cowley, Milton and Spenser 29 Restoration Readers, 1660–1679 36 The 1679 Edition 48 Spenser in the 1680s: Oldham, Behn, Howard 61 Dryden and Spenser 71 Spenser, Literary History and the Canon 81 Chapter 2 Poetry and Restoration Ireland 86 Coterie Poetry: Dublin 1662–1663 93 Beyond Philips: Orrery and Roscommon 112 Poetry, Plot and Revolution 131 After the War 148 Chapter 3 Poetical Plants and Leafy Landscapes 153 Evelyn, Trees and Poetic Authority 160 Cowley’s English Plants 171 Miscellaneous Shades 189 The Priest of Plants: Cowley’s Sex Libri Plantarum and Its English Readers 208 Trees Ancient and Modern 230 Conclusion: Transposing the Restoration 235 Selected Bibliography 259 Manuscripts 259 Early Printed Sources 259 Modern Editions 263 Secondary Sources 264 Electronic Resources 273 Index 274 Countering stereotypes of Restoration poetry as the topical preoccupations of elite London-based men, this book demonstrates how the period established English as a historically-conscious and diverse global literature. Appealing to scholars and students of early modern, long eighteenth-century literature, eco-criticism and women's literature.