Skelton and Barclay, Medieval and Modern
Carlson, David R.
Early Modern Literary Studies 1.1 (April 1995)
Abstract
Early Tudor literature was done in distinct circles, the centres of which were not coincident, and which overlapped little: the humanist circle, around More and Erasmus; in the later decades of the reign of Henry VIII, the “new company” of courtier-poets, in Puttenham’s phrase, around Wyatt; and earlier, the less well-defined group of vernacular makers, professional or nearly professional English writers, comprising John Skelton, Alexander Barclay, and Stephen Hawes. Within these circles, relations varied. Generally, they were amicable and supportive amongst the courtier-poets and the humanists, though intergenerational and other quarrels occurred. Amongst the vernacular makers, however, things were otherwise. Evidence of friendship or shared respect is wanting. The courtier Hawes stood apart, as far as can be confirmed, and Skelton and Barclay fought. There is something to be said for finding in their quarrel symptoms of the epochal clash, between modern and medieval, difficult as these terms can be to define agreeably, and even though the terms would have meant little to the antagonists. Neither Skelton nor Barclay fits easily in either category, however, and in the end it appears their quarrel would have come less of their differences than of their likeness: they were similarly situated in the Tudor literary system.
Click here to read/download this article (HTML file)
Related posts:
- Statute and Local Custom: Village Byelaws and the Governance of Common Land in Medieval and Early-modern England
- Gender and Translation in Early Modern England
- Googe Is Scrooge: Barnaby Googe and Poetic Asceticism
- Measure is Treasure: Financial and Political Prudence in John Skelton’s Magnificence
- “Imagining Self and Inwardness: Towards the Invention of Poetic Subjectivity in the Sonnets of Sidney and Shakespeare”