Writing and Political Engagement in Seventeenth-Century England

This volume, first published in 2000, focuses on the relationship between writing and public concerns in seventeenth-century England before, during and after the civil wars and revolution of the mid-century. The distinguished list of contributors represent a variety of disciplines - political scientists, social and political historians and literary critics. They share an intense concern with the relationship between the act of writing and the political and public issues of this extraordinary period. The essays suggest that in the seventeenth-century the private and the public intersected so thoroughly that ostensibly 'private' writing was engaged with public issues and public rhetoric, while on the other hand, political writing was deeply involved with questions of style and inward conscience. This volume illuminates the complex issues of 'public' and 'private', 'art' and 'conscience' in the period.

Introduction Derek Hirst and Richard Strier; 1. 'I am Power': normal and magical politics in The Tempest Richard Strier; 2. 'Void of storie': the struggle for insincerity in Herbert's prose and poetry Stanley Fish; 3. Sir Kenelm Digby's rewritings of his life Jackson I. Cope; 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Renaissance studia humanitatis Quentin Skinner; 5. Casuistry and allegiance in the English Civil War Barbara Donagan; 6. Thomas May and the narrative of civil war J. G. A. Pocock; 7. Samuel Parker, Andrew Marvell and political culture, 1667–73 Derek Hirst; 8. Sidney's Discourses on political imagoes and royalist iconography Victoria Silver; Notes; Index.

This volume, first published in 2000, focuses on the relationship between writing and public concerns in seventeenth-century England before, during and after the civil wars and revolution of the mid-century. The distinguished list of contributors represent a variety of disciplines - political scientists, social and political historians and literary critics.