Manchester University Press
1 Prince Henry
-
James Doelman
Abstract
The death of Prince Henry in 1612 elicited the greatest number of funeral elegies for a single death in the period 1603 to 1640, and this chapter considers a limited group of these that presented a note of discord or doubt in the midst of general public sorrow. In some cases, this discord reflected the potentially competitive nature of commemoration, whether competition among poets or with other memorial forms. In particular, the chapter focuses on Arthur Gorges’ use of a dialogic form to question the certainty of those elegists who saw Prince Henry’s death as the loss of future national greatness, and on how John Davies of Hereford’s The Muses Teares boldly raises troubling questions about the relationship between King James and his dead son. Finally, the chapter considers how these elegies on the Prince continued to influence the genre in general, and how his death remained a touchstone for later notable deaths.
Abstract
The death of Prince Henry in 1612 elicited the greatest number of funeral elegies for a single death in the period 1603 to 1640, and this chapter considers a limited group of these that presented a note of discord or doubt in the midst of general public sorrow. In some cases, this discord reflected the potentially competitive nature of commemoration, whether competition among poets or with other memorial forms. In particular, the chapter focuses on Arthur Gorges’ use of a dialogic form to question the certainty of those elegists who saw Prince Henry’s death as the loss of future national greatness, and on how John Davies of Hereford’s The Muses Teares boldly raises troubling questions about the relationship between King James and his dead son. Finally, the chapter considers how these elegies on the Prince continued to influence the genre in general, and how his death remained a touchstone for later notable deaths.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of poems in the online appendix vi
- List of abbreviations and conventions x
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Prince Henry 28
- 2 ‘A Prison is in all things like a Grave’ 61
- 3 Royal deaths 89
- 4 Military deaths of the 1620s 132
- 5 To ‘Silence Slanders toungue’ 169
- 6 A defence of suicide 200
- 7 Funeral elegies on elite women 218
- 8 From robe to winding sheet 244
- 9 Distracted into heresy 276
- Afterword 292
- Appendix 297
- Select bibliography 303
- Index 313
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of poems in the online appendix vi
- List of abbreviations and conventions x
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Prince Henry 28
- 2 ‘A Prison is in all things like a Grave’ 61
- 3 Royal deaths 89
- 4 Military deaths of the 1620s 132
- 5 To ‘Silence Slanders toungue’ 169
- 6 A defence of suicide 200
- 7 Funeral elegies on elite women 218
- 8 From robe to winding sheet 244
- 9 Distracted into heresy 276
- Afterword 292
- Appendix 297
- Select bibliography 303
- Index 313
