Between Spenser and Swift

While recent studies of Edmund Spenser and Jonathan Swift have firmly relocated both writers in their Irish as well as their English context, English writing in Ireland between these monolithic figures has been largely neglected. This study explores in detail the literary territory between Spenser and Swift. Examining a range of texts, from fragments to sophisticated publications such as economic improvement manuals, histories, plays, romances and poems, Deana Rankin demonstrates how writers in Ireland articulated the transition from soldier to settler across this century of war and political turmoil. She illuminates both centre and periphery by revealing for the first time the richness of English writing in Ireland during the period and its sustained engagement with canonical English literature, including Shakespeare, Sidney and Milton. Historians and literary scholars will find much to discover in this significant contribution to early modern British studies.

Deana Rankin reveals the richness of seventeenth-century English writing in Ireland and its engagement with canonical English literature, including Shakespeare, Sidney and Milton. Historians and literary scholars will find much to discover in this significant contribution to early modern British studies.

Introduction; Part I. Rebels, Subjects, Citizens: 1. Between soldier and settler: the English parliamentary writing of Ireland; 2. Writing the Irish subject, 1633-41; 3. An Aphorismical Discovery of Treasonable Faction: the search for citizenship, 1642-52; Coda: Hannibal in Capua; Part II. 'Relating the Truth of Things Past': 4. Staging resolution: restoration, romance and the Dublin theatre; 5. History, romance and the writings of Richard Bellings; 6. 'The paper warre you must expect to be assaulted with': English histories of Ireland, 1660-89; Conclusion: from Spenser to Swift.

An investigation of English writing in seventeenth-century Ireland, and its connections to Shakespeare, Sidney and Milton.