520 Class 3
THE HISTORICAL AND SPATIAL AXES
Primary readings:
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Stow. Sections from A Survey of London entitled
The Citie of London divided into parts
(also available on MoEML with links to streets, sites, and wards),Towerstreet warde,
andCheape warde.
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feedback Jonson.
On the Famous Voyage
(.pdf). Roslyn Knutson (Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock) has provided a transcription with annotations based on Ian Donaldson’s edition of Jonson’s poems (1975); you’ll need to scroll down past a number of other Jonson poems. You can also read Knutson’s transcription at the Sewer History website (with thanks to my colleague, Michael Best, for the reference).
Secondary reading: Collinson (.pdf), McRae (.pdf). McRae’s essay was first published in the open-source
journal, Early Modern Literary Studies; click here to go directly to the essay.
Discussion Questions:
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How does Stow justify his information as authoritative, and what does this mean for the purpose of his survey? (EK)
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Stow structures his descriptions of London in specific ways (e.g. through wards, East to West, North to South, et cetera). Are his conceptualisations of London significant? For which type of audience do you imagine Stow is writing? (EK)
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Jonson discards familiar themes of high poetry, yet still uses a similar form and even sarcastically invokes a muse. Is Jonson’s poem
heightened
through being linked to traditional heroic poetic forms, or does it rather parody these forms? Does his format enhance or detract the realism of the depicted events? (EK)
References
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Citation
Collinson, Patrick.John Stow and Nostalgic Antiquarianism.
Imagining Early Modern London: Perceptions and Portrayals of the City from Stow to Strype, 1598–1720. Ed. J.F. Merritt. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. 29–51.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
McRae, Andrew.
Literature, Mapping, and the Politics of Space in Early Modern Britain. Ed. Andrew Gordon and Bernhard Klein. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. 181–203.On the Famous Voyage
: Ben Jonson and Civic Space.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. [Also available as a reprint from Elibron Classics (2001). Articles written before 2011 cite from the print edition by volume and page number.]This item is cited in the following documents:
