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The Early Tudor Lyric: An Introduction

• Week 1 (September 9):
• Introduction to Course Matters: Including a general survey of the texts, readings, and approaches to be covered; resource and materials (computer lab, &c.); establishment of groups; discussion of assigments.

• Week 2 (September 16): [1] Skelton's collection Agaynste a Comely Coystrowne: including "Of all nacyons vnder the heuyn," "Vppon a deedmans hed," and "Womanhod wanton ye want." [2] Wyatt's "The liuely sparkes," "Madame, withouten many wordes," "Right true it is," and "Vvlcane begat me." [3] Surrey's "The soote season," "When youth had led me," and "Wyatt resteth here."
• Optional Readings: [1] Carpenter, Nan C. "[Skelton's] Life: c. 1460-1529." 13-35 in John Skelton. New York: Twayne, 1967. [2] Sessions, William A. "The Life of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey." 1-19 in Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Boston: Twayne, 1986. [3] Thomson, Patricia. "Part One: Wyatt's Environment and Life." 3-78 in Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Background. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964.

Poets, Playrights, and Literary Systems

• Week 3 (September 23): Skelton's The Bowge of Courte.
• Critical Readings: [1] Loades, David. "Life at Court: Sports, Entertainments, and Pastimes." 96-113 in The Tudor Court. Bangor: Headstart History, 1992. [2] Fox, Alistair. "Literary Patronage: The System and its Obligations." 11-24 in Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. [3] Waller, Gary. "Reading the Poetry of the Sixteenth Century." 1-33 in English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, 1986. [4] Fox, Alistair. "John Skelton and The Bowge of Courte: Self-Analysis and Discovery." 25-36 in Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989.
• Summaries: Groups 1, 2, 3, & 4

• Week 4 (September 30): Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres.
• Critical Readings: [1] Norland, Howard B. "Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres." 233-43 in Drama in Early Tudor Britain, 1485-1558. Lincoln, NB: U of Nebraska P, 1995. [2] Bevington, David. "Chaplain Medwall and the New Tudor Ruling Class." 42-53 in Tudor Drama and Politics: A Critical Approach to Topical Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1968.
• Summaries: Groups 1 & 2
• Presentations: Moira Duggan, Colin Whyte.

The Text and the Idea of Authorship / Communicative Strategies in the Lyric

• Week 5 (October 7): [1] Cornish's "A robyn gentyl robyn" (Henry VIII Ms). [2] Wyatt's "Hey Robyn Ioly Robin" (texts in both the Devonshire and Egerton Mss), "The longe loue, that in my thought I harber" and "Somtime I fled the fire". [3] Surrey's "Loue, that liueth, and reigneth in my thought," "The soote season," and "The fansy, which that I haue serued long." [4] Shakespeare's Twelfth Night 4.2.72-9 (Folio ll. 2057-2064), in any edition. [Plus selections of the presenters.]
• Critical Readings: [1] Spearing, A.C. "Wyatt as Petrarchan Translator." 300-6 in Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. [2] Waller, Gary. "The Englishing of Petrarch." 76-93 in English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, 1986. [3] Thomson, Patricia. "Wyatt and Surrey." 1-20 in Christopher Ricks, ed. English Poetry and Prose, 1540-1674. London: Sphere, 1970. [4] Saunders, J.W. "From Manuscript to Print: A Note on the Circulation of Poetic Manuscripts in the Sixteenth Century." Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 7.5 (1951): 507-28.
• Summaries: Groups 1, 2, 3 & 4
• Presentation: Janet Roggema.

Courtly Service

• Week 6 (October 21; no class on Thanksgiving, October 14): [1] Skelton's "A lawde and prayse" and "A ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge." [2] "Aboffe all thynge," "Whilles lyue or breth is in my brest," "Englond be glad," "I haue bene a foster," "I am a joly foster," and "Yow and I and Amyas" (Henry VIII Ms). [3] Wyatt's "Cesar, when that the traytour of Egypt," "Whoso list to hunt," and "A spending hand." [Plus selections of the presenters.]
• Critical Readings: [1] Spearing, A.C. "Wyatt's Poetic Role [and] Wyatt as Courtly Lyricist." 278-300 in Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. [2] Starkey, David. "The Court: Castiglione's Ideal and Tudor Reality." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 45 (1982): 232-9. [3] Anglo, Sidney. "Court Festivals and their Purpose." 98-123 in Spectacle, Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1969.
• Summaries: Groups 1, 3 & 4
• Presentations: Greg Hollett, Alexis Reitsma.

Courtly Love: Literary Construction and the Dynamics of Power

• Week 7 (October 28): [1] Wyatt's "A lady gaue me a gift," "Whoso list to hunt" (again), "They flee from me," "Madame, withouten many wordes," "Farewell, Loue, and all thy lawes for euer," and "My lute awake." [2] Surrey's "When ragyng loue with extreme payne," "Geue place ye louers," "Svche waiward waies hath loue," and "From Tuskane came my Ladies worthy race." [3] "My loue sche morneth for me," "A the syghes that cum from my hart," "Hey nony nony," "Blow thi horne hunter" (Henry VIII Ms). [Plus selections of the presenters.]
• Critical Reading: [1] Stevens, John. "The Game of Love." 154-202 in Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court. London: Methuen, 1961. [2] Thomson, Patricia. "Courtly Love." 10-45 in Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Background. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964. [3] Spearing, A.C. "Surrey." 311-26 in Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985.
• Summaries: Groups 2, 3 & 4
• Presentations: Sharon Kretz.

• Week 8 (November 4): [1] Youth. [2] Henry VIII's lyrics. [Plus selections of the presenters.]
• Critical Readings: [1] Lancashire, Ian. "The Interlude of Youth." 48-58 [and notes] in the "Introduction" to Two Tudor Interludes: The Interludes of Youth and Hick Scorner. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1980. [2] Herman, Peter C. "Henry VIII of England." 172-86 in The Dictionary of Literary Biography [Vol 132; forthcoming].
• Summaries: Groups 1 & 4
• Presentations: Jennifer Zvekich, Kim Norman.

Courtly Satire: Service and Subversion

• Week 9 (November 18; no class Remembrance Day, November 11): Skelton's Magnificence. [Plus selections of the presenters.]
• Critical Reading: [1] Norland, Howard B. "Skelton's Magnificence." 175-187 in Drama in Early Tudor Britain, 1485-1558. Lincoln, NB: U of Nebraska P, 1995. [2] Walker, Greg. "A Domestic Drama: John Skelton's Magnyfycence and the Royal Household." 60-101 in Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics and the Court of Henry VIII. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. [3] Bevington, David. "Skelton and the Old Aristocracy." 54-63 in Tudor Drama and Politics: A Critical Approach to Topical Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1968.
• Summaries: Groups 2, 3 & 4
• Presentations: Catherine Brittain, Simon Baines.

• Week 10 (November 25): Wyatt's "In court to serue," "Speake thou and spede," "Myne owne Iohn Poyns," "My mothers maides," "A spending hand" (again), with reference to readings from week 7. [Plus selections of the presenters; perhaps Surrey's "Thassirian king in peace."]
• Critical Reading: [1] Fox, Alistair. "The Unquiet Mind of Sir Thomas Wyatt." 257-85 in Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. [2] Spearing, A.C. "Wyatt as Satirist." 306-10 in Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. [3] Greenblatt, Stephen. "Power, Sexuality, and Inwardness in Wyatt's Poetry." 115-156 in Stephen Greenblatt. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. U of Chicago P, 1980.
• Summaries: Groups 1, 2 & 3
• Presentations: Karen Wendelboe, Kelly Thorpe.

Lyrical Coterie: The Devonshire Manuscript

• Week 11 (December 2): Lyrics from the Devonshire Ms [see file and handout].
• Critical Readings: [1] Southall, Raymond. "The Devonshire Manuscript Collection of Early Tudor Poetry, 1532-41." Review of English Studies [n.s.] 15 (1964): 142-50. [2] Southall, Raymond. "Chapter 2." 15-25 in The Courtly Maker: An Essay on the Poetry of Wyatt and His Contemporaries. Oxford: Blackwell, 1964. [3] Remley, Paul G. "Mary Shelton and Her Tudor Literary Milieu." 40-77 in Peter C. Herman, ed. Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1994. [4] Heale, Elizabeth. "Women and the Courtly Love Lyric: The Devonshire MS (BL Additional 17492)." Modern Language Review 90 (1995): 296-313.
• Summaries: Groups 1, 2, 3 & 4
• Presentations: Eva St. Jean, Anya Flagg.

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