Philip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses

M. J. Kidnie (University of Western Ontario)

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Ed. by John Thieme, University of East Anglia
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), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Protestants

Dates

First circulation or publication 1583

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Pamphlets/ Tracts/ Chapbooks
Treatise

Resources

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The Anatomie of Abuses

Philip Stubbes attacks forcefully and at length both public and private English life, exposing to view – and, he hopes, correction – the supposed abuses of Elizabethan society. The book offers a wide-ranging social critique presented in the form of a dialogue between Philoponus, the educated, worldly-wise traveller, and Spudeus, the country yokel, who chat as they walk along about the manners of the people who live in the foreign land of England (“Ailgna” in the first three editions). These particular character names, which translate from the Greek as “hard worker” and “earnest student”, would have had scholastic resonances for many of Stubbes's readers. The former alludes to John Philoponus, the sixth-century Alexandrian philosopher who confuted…

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924 words

Citation: Kidnie, M. J.. "The Anatomie of Abuses". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1595, accessed 03 April 2025.]