The Typographic Imaginary in Early Modern English Literature

At its broadest level, this book contributes to an understanding of how printing changed early modern English literary culture. The author discusses printers' manuals, William Caxton's paratexts, Robert Copland's dramatic dialogues, the prose fictions of William Baldwin, George Gascoigne and Thomas Nashe, and the courtly poetry of Edmund Spenser. This study argues that early modern English literature engages imaginatively with printing and generates a particular aesthetic: the typographic imaginary.

Rachel Stenner lectures in Renaissance Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Contents List of Figures v Acknowledgements vi Note on Quotation vii Abbreviations viii Introduction: Print and the Difference it Makes 1 Implications 7 Critical Mapping 16 Cases 26 Chapter 1: Instructional Texts and Print Symbolism: Christopher Plantin, Hieronymus Hornschuch, and Joseph Moxon 51 Processes 55 People 69 Conclusion 77 Chapter 2: An Emergent Typographic Imaginary in William Caxton's Paratexts 86 Life in Literature, Diplomacy, and Commerce 88 The Benefits of Printing in Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye 90 Imagined Typographic Space 96 Reorganising Continuity: Mirrour of the World 104 Conclusion 112 Chapter 3: Robert Copland, Thomas Blague, and the Printer-Author Dialogue 124 Printer-Author Dialogue and its Mutations 126 Characterising the Printer: Gatekeepers of the Press 130 Print and Metacommunication: Uses of the Dialogue Form 145 Conclusion 153 Chapter 4: Protestant Printing and Humanism in Beware the Cat: Undoing Printing 164 Protestant Printer and Humanist Scholar 168 Dead Bodies and Printer's Devils 174 Printing and Penning 178 Conclusion 183 Chapter 5: George Gascoigne and Richard Tottel: Negotiating Manuscript and Print in the Poetic Miscellany 193 Typographic Value in the Prefatory Poses of A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres 199 The Benefits of Printing in The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire 209 Conclusion 215 Chapter 6: Edmund Spenser's Early and Mid Career: Public Image and Machine Horror 223 Early Career Self-Presentation: The Shepeardes Calender and Three Proper, and Wittie, Familiar Letters 225 Monstrous Typographic Fertility in The Faerie Queene 232 Resonant Errour in 'The Teares of the Muses' 244 Conclusion 247 Chapter 7 St Paul's Churchyard and the Meanings of Print: Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Divell 259 Nashe's Mosaic of the Print Trade 266 Waste and Matter 274 The Figurative Authority of Print 280 Conclusion 282 Conclusion: Love and Loathing in Grub Street 289