Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton: Figures of Nonconformity in Early Modern EnglandThe figure of the puritan has long been conceived as dour and repressive in character, an image which has been central to ways of reading sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history and literature. Kristen Poole's original study challenges this perception arguing that, contrary to current critical understanding, radical reformers were most often portrayed in literature of the period as deviant, licentious and transgressive. Through extensive analysis of early modern pamphlets, sermons, poetry and plays, the fictional puritan emerges as a grotesque and carnivalesque figure; puritans are extensively depicted as gluttonous, sexually promiscuous, monstrously procreating, and even as worshipping naked. By recovering this lost alternative satirical image, Poole sheds new light on the role played by anti-puritan rhetoric. Her book contends that such representations served an important social role, providing an imaginative framework for discussing familial, communal and political transformations that resulted from the Reformation. |
Contents
The puritan in the alehouse Falstaff and the drama of Martin Marprelate | 16 |
Eating disorder feasting fasting and the puritan bellygod at Bartholomew Fair | 45 |
Lewd conversations the perversions of the Family of Love | 74 |
Dissecting sectarianism swarms forms and Thomas Edwardss Gangrena | 104 |
The descent of dissent monstrous genealogies and Miltons antiprelatical tracts | 124 |
Not so much as jig leaves Adamites naked Quakers linguistic perfection and Paradise Lost | 147 |
the fortunes of Hudibras | 182 |
Notes | 187 |
241 | |
258 | |
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Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton: Figures of Nonconformity in ... Kristen Poole No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Adamites Anabaptists anti-Martinist anti-sectarian Antinomians appears argues authors Bartholomew Fair becomes bishops body Brownists Busy's carnival century character Christ cited claims contemporaries conventicles cultural discursive dissent doctrine Dryfat early modern ecclesiastical Edwards's Elizabethan English episcopacy Errours example Falstaff Familists Family of Love fast father figure genealogies godly grotesque hath haue Hendrik Niclaes Henry Heresies Hudibras John Knewstub language liberty of conscience linguistic literary literature Lollard London Lord Loue Marprelate controversy Marprelate tracts Marprelate's Martin Marprelate Milton Mistress Purge monstrous naked nakedness Nashe Niclaes's Oldcastle Oxford pamphlets Paradise Lost perceived play political preacher preaching presbyterian Protestant puritan puritan bellygod purity Quakers radical Reformation Religion religious representation rhetoric satire Schisme Scripture sect sectarian Sectaries seems separatists Sermon seventeenth seventeenth-century sexual Shakespeare signify Sir John Oldcastle social speech spiritual swarm Taylor term textual Thomas Nashe tion truth word writes