Patronage Poetry in the English Renaissance

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Judith Marie Campbell Owens (University of Manitoba)

Ed. by David Fuller, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1400-1600

Places

England (Location)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,” declared Samuel Johnson, stout proponent of eighteenth-century letters.(1) To twenty-first century sensibilities, which suppose serious authorship to be motivated by higher aims, writing for money amounts to selling out. But Johnson is distinguishing writing for money from aristocratic patronage, not from post-Romantic assumptions about authorial inspiration. As Michael Brennan observes in his

Literary Patronage in the English Renaissance

, the “ambitious writer” in the England of 1550 to 1650 “was expected to keep a sharp eye out for prospective patrons,” because literary writing as the sole means of livelihood was not an option in this period. (2) Patronage, moreover, figured prominently in most aspects of…

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3097 words

Citation: Owens, Judith Marie Campbell. "Patronage Poetry in the English Renaissance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5494, accessed 24 November 2024.]