DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/DPP5-XW06
Defense Date
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Joshua Eckhardt
Second Advisor
Dr. Catherine Ingrassia
Third Advisor
Dr. Matteo Pangallo
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Kevin Farley
Abstract
This project studies the contemporary manuscript transmission of three poems written on the 1609 death of Lady Bridget Markham. Lady Markham was the cousin of the influential courtier and patron Lucy, Countess of Bedford and her death prompted an outpouring of verses that were collected in manuscript verse miscellanies during the period. John Donne was in the process of establishing a patronage relationship with Lady Bedford at the time and wrote a respectful elegy on her cousin’s death. Francis Beaumont also wrote, for the same occasion, what has been called the most “repellent” work of the English Renaissance. That same year, Lady Bedford wrote an elegy on the death of another kinswoman, Cecilia Bulstrode, which several scribes redirected to Lady Markham. This project attends to the diverse ways contemporary verse collectors encountered, altered, and situated these poems, mediating the legacy of Markham’s death and Bedford’s patronage. The method for this project adapts elements of single-author critical editing to study the verses as a group. By organizing textual study around Lady Bedford and the death of Lady Markham, it reorients research away from the individual author towards the patron and her circle.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2019