Endorsements

Spenserian satire examines the satirical poetry of Edmund Spenser and argues for his importance as a model and influence for younger poets writing satires in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The book focuses on reading satirical texts of the period in relation to one another, with specific attention to the role that Edmund Spenser plays in that literary subsystem, in order to address several distinct audiences. For Spenser scholars, who recognize Spenser's supremacy in "serious poetry" of the period and have carefully studied his influence on epic, pastoral and lyric poetry, the analysis of Spenser's reputation as a satirical poet will contribute to a fuller understanding of Spenser as "the poet's poet." For scholars of satire, the book offers a more detailed discussion and theorization of the type of satire that Spenser wrote, "indirect satire," than has been provided elsewhere. Spenser's satire does not fit well into the categories that have been used to taxonomize satirical writing from the classical era up to the eighteenth century, but including him with the complaint tradition is also imprecise. A theory of indirect satire benefits not just Spenser studies, but satire studies as well. For scholars of English Renaissance satire in particular, who have tended to focus on the formal verse satires of the 1590s to the exclusion of more indirect forms such as Spenser's, this book is a corrective, an invitation to recognize the influence of a style of satire that has received little attention