3 Creating a feigned commonwealth
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Felicity Jane Stout
Abstract
Giles Fletcher's ambition in the early 1590s to write a Latin history of the queen's reign may also have been guided by a deep-seated belief in the role of the poet to counsel the monarch and commonwealth. Richard Pipes surmises that Richard Hakluyt must have had access to an early draft of Fletcher's text, which was still in the process of being created when Hakluyt was collating his work for publication in the autumn of 1589. The most obvious changes to the text as it developed over the period 1589 to 1591 are represented by the additions of geographical and historical information. Fletcher was acutely aware of the literary style of the popular generic mode of cosmography. A significant difference between the printed edition of 1591 and the earlier manuscript versions of the text was Fletcher's treatment of the subject of the Tartars, the nomadic tribes on Russia's borders.
Abstract
Giles Fletcher's ambition in the early 1590s to write a Latin history of the queen's reign may also have been guided by a deep-seated belief in the role of the poet to counsel the monarch and commonwealth. Richard Pipes surmises that Richard Hakluyt must have had access to an early draft of Fletcher's text, which was still in the process of being created when Hakluyt was collating his work for publication in the autumn of 1589. The most obvious changes to the text as it developed over the period 1589 to 1591 are represented by the additions of geographical and historical information. Fletcher was acutely aware of the literary style of the popular generic mode of cosmography. A significant difference between the printed edition of 1591 and the earlier manuscript versions of the text was Fletcher's treatment of the subject of the Tartars, the nomadic tribes on Russia's borders.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of abbreviations xi
- Note on style, dates and terminology xiii
- Introduction 1
- 1 An adventuring commonwealth 15
- 2 A commonwealths-man in Russia 59
- 3 Creating a feigned commonwealth 93
- 4 A corrupted commonwealth 117
- 5 A commonwealth counselled 147
- 6 A controversial commonwealth 189
- Conclusion 227
- Select bibliography 232
- Index 244
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- List of abbreviations xi
- Note on style, dates and terminology xiii
- Introduction 1
- 1 An adventuring commonwealth 15
- 2 A commonwealths-man in Russia 59
- 3 Creating a feigned commonwealth 93
- 4 A corrupted commonwealth 117
- 5 A commonwealth counselled 147
- 6 A controversial commonwealth 189
- Conclusion 227
- Select bibliography 232
- Index 244
