Gibson, Jonathan
(2004).
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier) Link: | https://doi.org/10.1093/res/55.218.24 |
|---|---|
| Google Scholar: | Look up in Google Scholar |
Abstract
Daphnaïda (1591), Spenser's narrative elegy for the heiress Douglas Howard, is dominated by the melancholic figure of the shepherd Alcyon, who mourns the death of his lover Daphne. Alcyon represents Douglas's husband Arthur Gorges, while Daphne represents Douglas herself. Most recent critics read the poem as an attempt by Spenser to upbraid Gorges for mourning Douglas too extravagantly. Building on the early twentieth-century scholarship of Helen E. Sandison, this article instead emphasizes Daphnaïda's connection with a bitter legal dispute between Gorges and Douglas's Howard relatives. The Howards claimed that Ambrosia, Douglas's and Gorges's daughter, was 'a forged or changed childe' and therefore not eligible to inherit land from her mother. Alcyon's indecorous mourning combines with a number of other features of Daphnaïda to help build sympathy for Gorges in his legal struggle. The complaint spoken by Alcyon in the poem thus functions implicitly both as a poetic and a legal complaint. The article also explores connections between Gorges's manuscript poetry and Daphnaïda.
| Item Type: | Journal Item |
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| Copyright Holders: | 2004 Oxford University Press |
| ISSN: | 1471-6968 |
| Academic Unit/School: | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Arts and Humanities > English & Creative Writing Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) |
| Research Group: | History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) |
| Item ID: | 36863 |
| Depositing User: | Jonathan Gibson |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Jun 2013 15:47 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Aug 2019 08:44 |
| URI: | http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/36863 |
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