Drayton's Craftsmanship: The Encomium and the Blazon in "England's Heroicall Epistles"
1975; University of Pennsylvania Press; Volume: 38; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3816912
ISSN1544-399X
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoIN Englands Heroicall Epistles (1619), Michael Drayton made use of a poetic genre, the heroic epistle, which was virtually unknown in English before that time-a genre that could encompass a presentation of history and of passion. The poem is a chronological series of some twenty-four paired epistles exchanged by various renowned lovers from English history and ranges in time from the reign of Henry II to the brief reign of Gilford Dudley.' It includes epistles by such famous and infamous lovers as Owen Tudor and Queen Katherine, Edward IV and Mistress Shore, the earl of Surrey and the Lady Geraldine. Caught by Drayton at a moment of crisis and insight, these lovers send letters to one another that reveal not only their passions, but the momentous historical events raging outside their walls. To present both the bella and the nocturna bella that make up his heroical epistles, Drayton frequently used two commonplace rhetorical formulas for praise, the encomium and the blazon. Examination of these devices in Englands Heroicall Epistles throws light on Drayton's competence as a poetic craftsman. He uses both the forms skillfully, even at times brilliantly, to construct heroic epistles that show at once the power of history and of passion, and the personalities caught up in these forces.
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