Significant Spaces in Edmund Spenser’s View of the Present State of Ireland
Woolway Grenfell, Joanne
Early Modern Literary Studies 4.2/ Special Issue 3 (September, 1998)
Abstract
Eudoxus’ unfolding of a map of Ireland draws attention to the way that issues of place and culture are explored spatially elsewhere in Spenser’s Vewe of the Present State of Ireland. Using contemporary maps of Ireland, including town plans of Galway, Cork, and Marybrough (the town which Spenser holds up as an example of colonial strength), this paper explores Spenser’s recognition that towns are cultural and administrative centres and one of the keys to strong government. It also shows how the simultaneous presentation of different scales and perspectives, often a feature of sixteenth-century cartography, was usefully adapted by Spenser in his own anxious focus on the particularly significant spaces of walled towns, enclosures, and safe pathways in Ireland.
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