Elizabethan Complaints

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Anna Swärdh (Stockholm University)

Ed. by Neil Forsyth, Université de Lausanne
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)

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Literature Topic

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Date of occurrence 1592-1600

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United Kingdom (Location)

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Within the last decade of the sixteenth century, a number of narrative poems were published, usually referred to as complaints. Besides time of publication, they share formal and thematic concerns and an intertextual awareness indicating intended generic belonging. The principal texts are: Samuel Daniel’s “The Complaint of Rosamond” (1592, augmented in 1594), Thomas Churchyard’s “The Tragedy of Shore’s Wife” (1593), Anthony Chute’s

Beauty Dishonoured Written under the Title of Shore’s wife

(1593), Thomas Lodge’s “The Tragical Complaint of Elstred” (1593), Shakespeare’s

The Rape of Lucrece

(1594), Michael Drayton’s

Matilda. The Fair and Chaste Daughter of the Lord Robert Fitzwater

(1594, augmented in 1596 and then abbreviated in 1604), John Trussell’s

Raptus

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1787 words

Citation: Swärdh, Anna. "Elizabethan Complaints". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 May 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=16298, accessed 31 October 2024.]

Elizabethan Complaints

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