The Epigrams of Sir John Harington

In this urgently needed new edition of Harington's epigrams, Gerard Kilroy re-instates not only Harington's theological and politically savage epigrams, which were omitted in the early printed editions, but also Harington's very elaborate theological design, previously lost to scholarship.The introduction to the volume, both literary and historical, looks at the tradition of the epigram from Martial to Sir Thomas More, John Heywood, Sir John Davies, Ben Jonson and John Davies of Hereford. This general introduction to epigrams-a genre almost completely ignored in studies of early modern England-is followed by a detailed discussion of Sir John Harington's epigrams: his complex word-play, the deliberate ambiguities of language, the innovations in metrical structure, the political, ecclesiastical and theological ideas behind his poems, the identities of those discussed and, by an examination of the smaller collections and individual copies, the scribal communities among which these epigrams were circulating. Kilroy shows here, too, that the paper used in the manuscript is of considerable importance, linking it with recusant scribal communities transcribing the works of Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell and, very significantly, Sir Philip Sidney.The transcription of the epigrams preserves in type as many features as possible of the handwritten text: for example it includes Harington's sophisticated running titles, page numbers, and complex indentation. Included also is an appendix containing all the deletions and Latin versions of the poems in BL; a commentary on each poem; a glossary of the rare words; and a particularly thorough index of topics and names.This volume constitutes the first printed text of Sir John Harington's epigrams to follow the order he so assiduously laid down in the only two complete manuscripts.

Contents: