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rfmcdonaldThoughts and comments will be happily welcomed. This is particularly the case in connection to medievalists on my friends page--analects, schizmatic, tudor_rose, you'll all be richly rewarded in the appropriate currencies. This is new territory for me, and I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly, and yes I know there are rough edges.
A. Introduction: Wyatt at Court
The early 16th century English Petrarchan poet Thomas Wyatt was an important figure in the Henrician court. The popularity of his modified Petrarchan verse can be explained, in part, by a growing structural similarity between the English court and those of Renaissance Italy. A major theme in Wyatt's poetry is the thwarting of erotic desire by the inconstancy of the objects of desire, rendered problematic to public gaze. The Henrician court of England, over the early 16th century, became much more similar to the courts of Renaissance Italy, in being concerned with public spectacle including public erotics as subjects of concern to the despot. This relates to the application of Foucauldian concepts of control to the court, which contituted the effective political nation of concern.
B. Historical Background: Italy
During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Italian states moved far ahead of contemporary England inasmuch as they developed strong states, as despots sought to ensure their personal and political security, reflecting a generally higher level of socioeconomic development which could support a strong state. The focus of these states was on surveilling the courts, where the most serious threats to a ruler's security could develop. This quasi-bureaucratization of Italian court life had an effect on Italian culture generally. Petrarch--a man long involved in Italian politics, including efforts to modernize Italian life in a project combining Roman/classical and Christian/medieval goals--manifested this in his poetry, which was concerned with the inability to fully express romantic love in the context of a potentially hostile public arena.
C. Historical Background: England
Traditionally, erotics in the English court were given relatively free play. Only when these became sufficiently blatant and controversial--for instance, the homosexual relationship between Edward III and Gaveston--did hostile reaction become a serious possibility. The state was generally non-intrusive and required minimal comformity. The end of the Lancastrians and the rise of the Tudors involved the growth of a relatively strong state; these extra powers were needed in order to control the court and the political nation, given the strong opposition of many powerful families (the Howards, for instance) to the ascension of the Tudors. The Henrician state was not a modern bureaucratic state; in the limited realm of the court, however, it did act as a powerful state within the limited confines of the court.
D. Wyatt's Experience in Between
Wyatt--a courtier who grew up in the environment of the consolidating Henrician court--had extensive experience in Italy and with Italian literature, not least as a court diplomat in the 1520s. His experiences in the politically conflicted and culturally dynamic city-states and other polities of Italy translated readily to the England of the 1530s, which saw extensive religious and dynastic tumult. Wyatt himself was involved in England's increasingly despotic politics, most notably as an accused lover of Anne Boleyn. The similaritiies of Italian and English environments encouraged Wyatt to write Italian-influenced poetry showing the problematic nature of erotics in the late Henrician court, and encouraged the positive if problematic (since connected) reception of this poetry later in the 16th century.
E. Critical Examination of the Poetry
I. Who so list to hount
II. Farewell Love
III. They fle from me
IV. Mye love toke skorne
A. Introduction: Wyatt at Court
The early 16th century English Petrarchan poet Thomas Wyatt was an important figure in the Henrician court. The popularity of his modified Petrarchan verse can be explained, in part, by a growing structural similarity between the English court and those of Renaissance Italy. A major theme in Wyatt's poetry is the thwarting of erotic desire by the inconstancy of the objects of desire, rendered problematic to public gaze. The Henrician court of England, over the early 16th century, became much more similar to the courts of Renaissance Italy, in being concerned with public spectacle including public erotics as subjects of concern to the despot. This relates to the application of Foucauldian concepts of control to the court, which contituted the effective political nation of concern.
B. Historical Background: Italy
During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Italian states moved far ahead of contemporary England inasmuch as they developed strong states, as despots sought to ensure their personal and political security, reflecting a generally higher level of socioeconomic development which could support a strong state. The focus of these states was on surveilling the courts, where the most serious threats to a ruler's security could develop. This quasi-bureaucratization of Italian court life had an effect on Italian culture generally. Petrarch--a man long involved in Italian politics, including efforts to modernize Italian life in a project combining Roman/classical and Christian/medieval goals--manifested this in his poetry, which was concerned with the inability to fully express romantic love in the context of a potentially hostile public arena.
C. Historical Background: England
Traditionally, erotics in the English court were given relatively free play. Only when these became sufficiently blatant and controversial--for instance, the homosexual relationship between Edward III and Gaveston--did hostile reaction become a serious possibility. The state was generally non-intrusive and required minimal comformity. The end of the Lancastrians and the rise of the Tudors involved the growth of a relatively strong state; these extra powers were needed in order to control the court and the political nation, given the strong opposition of many powerful families (the Howards, for instance) to the ascension of the Tudors. The Henrician state was not a modern bureaucratic state; in the limited realm of the court, however, it did act as a powerful state within the limited confines of the court.
D. Wyatt's Experience in Between
Wyatt--a courtier who grew up in the environment of the consolidating Henrician court--had extensive experience in Italy and with Italian literature, not least as a court diplomat in the 1520s. His experiences in the politically conflicted and culturally dynamic city-states and other polities of Italy translated readily to the England of the 1530s, which saw extensive religious and dynastic tumult. Wyatt himself was involved in England's increasingly despotic politics, most notably as an accused lover of Anne Boleyn. The similaritiies of Italian and English environments encouraged Wyatt to write Italian-influenced poetry showing the problematic nature of erotics in the late Henrician court, and encouraged the positive if problematic (since connected) reception of this poetry later in the 16th century.
E. Critical Examination of the Poetry
I. Who so list to hount
II. Farewell Love
III. They fle from me
IV. Mye love toke skorne
