Edmund Waller (1606–1687): New Perspectives reappraises the life and works of an important but neglected seventeenth-century English poet. Admired at court in the 1630s and at the Restoration, Waller made a deep impression on contemporary poetry: his collection of
Poems (1645) was widely acclaimed and had an ‘extraordinary impact’ on future poets. The book investigates, among other things, Waller’s political views on affairs of state, his social and literary interactions with younger poets, his friendship with John Evelyn while in exile, his technical poetic innovations, his rivalry with Andrew Marvell, his elegies, and his contemporary and posthumous reputation.
Contributors: Warren Chernaik, Daniel Cook, Stephen Deng, Martin Dzelzainis, Richard Hillyer, Philip Major, Michael P. Parker, Tessie Prakas, Geoffrey Smith, Thomas Ward, and Gillian Wright.
Philip Major is the author of
Writings of Exile in the English Revolution and Restoration (Ashgate, 2013), and has edited several volumes of essays, including
Royalists and Royalism in 17th-Century Literature: Exploring Abraham Cowley (Routledge, 2020).
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Philip Major 1 ‘Power Unbounded and a Will Confined’: Waller’s Politics
Warren Chernaik 2 Banished from the ‘frantic isle’: Edmund Waller in Exile
Geoffrey Smith 3 Waller, Marvell, and ‘La Belle Stuart’ Reconsidered
Martin Dzelzainis 4 ‘… and Musick too’: Edmund Waller on the Pages of
Ayres and Dialogues (1653)
Thomas Ward 5 ‘We Plough the Deep, and Reap What Others Sow’: Waller’s
Panegyrick and the Empire of Trade
Stephen Deng 6 ‘… like Orpheus, with My Numerous Moan’: Wit by Association in Waller’s 1645
Poems Tessie Prakas 7 ‘Such Huge Extremes’: Waller, Denham and the Emergence of Neoclassical Distichs
Richard Hillyer 8 Waller’s Elegies
Daniel Cook 9 In Praise of Mr. Waller
Gillian Wright 10 Waller and the Wits: Poetry, Reputation, and Generational Conflict at the Court of Charles
II
Michael P. Parker
Index
Scholars and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) of Renaissance poetry, the literature and politics of the English Revolution and Restoration, seventeenth-century British history, Milton and Marvell studies, exile studies, music studies. Keywords: English civil wars, English Revolution, exile, Renaissance literature, seventeenth-century literature, Charles I, Charles II, panegyric.