Edmund Spenser, View of the Present State of Ireland

David Roy (University College Cork)

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Political Philosophy

Dates

First circulation or publication 1596

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Essays/ Lectures (any)

Resources

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Edmund Spenser’s

A View of the Present State of Ireland

has successfully stirred up debate and controversy since its completion at the end of the sixteenth century. Spenser was “deeply involved in Ireland, as a politician, writer, colonist and civil servant” (Hadfield and Maley xvi). As such, the ideas that are conveyed through the two speakers in

A View

carry the weight of Spenser’s experience in Ireland. As Elizabeth Fowler remarks, “[in]

A Vewe

the topics of constitutional, customary, and ecclesiastical law and policy are brought out from behind the “dark conceit” of Spenser’s allegory, and faced in an elegant, moving, sometimes chilling example of Renaissance prose dialogue” (328).

A View

has been used as an excellent primary source in examinations of Elizabethan…

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2293 words

Citation: Roy, David. "View of the Present State of Ireland". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 August 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8621, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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