Literature, Travel, and Colonial Writing in the English Renaissance, 1545-1625

328 Pages·2007·17.14 MB·English

by  Andrew Hadfield

Literature, Travel
and Colonial Writing
in the English Renaissance
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Literature, Travel, and
Colonial Writing in the
English Renaissance
1545-1625
ANDREW HADFIELD
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
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© Andrew Hadfield 1998
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First published 1998
First published in paperback 2007
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hadfield, Andrew.
Literature, travel, and colonial writing in the English
Renaissance, 15 45-1625 /Andrew Hadfield.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
1. English literature—Early modern, 1500—1700—History and
criticism, 2. Travel in literature. 3. English literature—Great
Britain—Colonies—History and criticism. 4. British—Travel—
Foreign countries—History—16th century. 5. British—Travel—
Foreign countries—History—17th century. 6. Travelers' writings,
English—History and criticism, 7. Politics and literature—Great
Britain—History. 8. Imperialism in literature. 9. Colonies in
literature. 10. Renaissance—England. I. Title.
PR428.T-73H33 1998 820.9 '32171241 '9031—dc21 98-34187
ISBN 978-0-19-818480-5 (Hbk.) 978-0-19-923365-6 (Pbk.)
13579108642
Typeset by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd., Guildford and King's Lynn
FOR ALISON
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Preface
This book and its two predecessors, Literature, Politics and
National Identity: Reformation to Renaissance (1994) and
Spenser's Irish Experience: Wilde Fruit and Salvage SoyI
(1997), form a loosely conceived trilogy analysing the interre-
lationship between literary, cultural and political representation
in early modern England. The first dealt with English concep-
tions of England and Englishness in sixteenth-century litera-
ture; the second, with English representations of Ireland,
simultaneously England's first overseas colony and a sovereign
territory of the English monarch. I have now turned my atten-
tion to the ways in which travel and colonial writing were used
to reflect on, change and, sometimes, redefine perceptions of
English identity and English politics, a process which was often
deliberate and conscious, sometimes dictated by circumstances.
Overall, I hope the three books make some contribution to an
understanding of the ways in which English writers tried to
make sense of their complex and often contradictory notions of
identity.
This book was written while I held a Leverhulme Research
Fellowship for the academic year 1996-7.1 am extremely grate-
ful to the Leverhulme Trust for awarding me the funds to
release me from my teaching and administrative duties for that
year, and for providing additional funds for research expenses.
I am also grateful to my colleagues in the Department of
English, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, for making light of
the additional burdens I placed upon them, especially those
who work in the Medieval and Renaissance team, Michael
Smith, Diane Watt, and Claire Jowitt. Much of the research has
been carried out in the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth, and I am grateful to the staff for making my time
there so pleasant and profitable.
Many scholars have given their time generously to aid me
with my project. For supporting my application for a fellowship,
viii PREFACE
I would like to thank Paul Hammond, Lyn Pykett, and Robert
Welch; for reading chapters and sections of the work, I would
like to thank Michael Brennan, Mark Thornton Burnett, Tom
Healy, Claire Jowitt, John McVeagh, Willy Maley, Robert
Maslen and Michael Smith; for help with some Spanish trans-
lations, I would like to thank Robert Stone; for help with some
sixteenth-century legal questions, I would like to thank Richard
Ireland. Some of the material contained in the book has been
presented in papers at the IFK Institute, Vienna, the University
of Strathclyde, the University of Manchester, the MLA
Conference at Toronto, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth,
Hampton Court, Herefordshire, the NACBS Conference at the
Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California; I would
like to thank Klaus Reichert, Willy Maley, Tony Crowley, Susan
Wofford, Linda Gregerson, Claire Jowitt, David Daniell, and
David Baker, for inviting me to speak at these venues, and the
audiences at each for their often helpful and penetrating ques-
tions. I am also grateful to the institutions who have funded my
visits: the IFK Institute, Vienna, the British Academy, the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the Van Kampen
Foundation. The production of the book has been helped enor-
mously by the working relationship I have had with Jason
Freeman at Oxford University Press. His useful advice, patience,
good humour, and ability to listen to my endless monologues
without nodding off have all been much appreciated.
Various sections of this work have appeared in print before
in earlier guises; I would like to thank the editor of Parergon for
permission to reprint a revised version of my article, 'Two
Representations of Venice in Late Tudor and Early Stuart
England'; the editors of Connotations for permission to reprint
a revised version of my article, 'Peter Martyr, Richard Eden and
the New World: Reading, Experience, and Translation'; the
editor of Reformation for permission to reprint sections from
my article, 'Late Elizabethan Protestantism, Colonialism, and
the Fear of the Apocalypse'; Cambridge University Press for
permission to reprint a part of my essay, 'From English to
British Literature: John Lyly's Euphues and Edmund Spenser's
The Faerie Queene', in Brendan Bradshaw and Peter Roberts
(eds.), British Consciousness and Identity (Cambridge:
PREFACE ix
Cambridge University Press, 1998); The Macmillan Press for
permission to reprint a part of my essay, ' "Hitherto she ne're
could fancy him": Shakespeare's British Plays and the Exclusion
of Ireland', in Mark Thornton Burnett and Ramona Wray
(eds.), Shakespeare and Ireland: History, Politics, Culture
(Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997).
My greatest debt, as ever, has been to my family, Alison,
Lucy, Patrick, and Maud Hadfield, who have ensured that my
self-obsession has had to be limited at times. I would also like
to acknowledge the support I have received from my parents,
David and Hilary Hadfield, and that of David and Mary
Yarnold, which has been so important to me over the years.
A. H.