Overview

Greco-Roman mythology and its reception are at the heart of the European Renaissance, and mythographies-texts that collected and explained ancient myths-were considered indispensable companions to any reader of literature. Despite the importance of this genre, English mythographies have not gained sustained critical attention, largely because they have been wrongly considered mere copies of their European counterparts. This volume focuses on the English mythographies written between 1577 and 1647 by Stephen Batman, Abraham Fraunce, Francis Bacon, Henry Reynolds, and Alexander Ross: it places their texts into a wider, European context to reveal their unique English take on the genre and also unfolds the significant role myth played in the broader culture of the period, influencing not only literary life, natural philosophy and poetics, but also religious conflicts and Civil War politics. In doing so it demonstrates, for the first time, the considerable explanatory value classical mythology holds for the study of the English Renaissance and its literary culture in particular, and how early modern England answered a question we still find fascinating today: what is myth?

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9780191845529

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Reviews

Overall, this book is a strong contribution to reception studies and literary history and theory, both for scholarly contribution, useful at any level of scholarship and for its direct argumentative style which makes it highly accessible to undergraduates and beyond. -- Kathleen Burt, Classical Journal Online This learned and insightful study analyses six key mythographies composed in Tudor and Stuart England [...] there is much of value in Hartmann s analysis of English mythographic writings, both for scholars of Renaissance literature and culture and for Classicists interested in the early modern reception of classical myth. -- Jessica Wolfe, The Classical Review Hartmann s authoritative account of the English mythographers will be of lasting value to the field as a whole. -- Daniel Moss, The Spenser Review This is an extremely detailed and well-researched book, exploring role of myths and their reception in Renaissance culture, in all senses of that word. This topic is absolutely fundamental, yet it has been significantly understudied. Hartmann's study of English mythography is thorough and exceedingly well contextualized. She situates English mythographers within a wider European context while also offering close readings of them that reveal their distinctively English perspective. Her style is clear and refreshingly free of jargon. The committee admired the relevance and applicability of this book to a wide range of fields covered by the Sixteenth Century. -- Roland H. Bainton Prize Committee Hartmann's book makes an important contribution to scholarly arguments about religion and poetry in early modern England. In particular, much work on anti-poetic English discourse takes for granted oppositions between pagan and Christian poetry that closer attention to mythography complicates. English mythography is an exemplary work of fine-grained, close textual scholarship which will interest readers across disciplinary boundaries. -- Raphael Magarik, University of California, Bryn Mawr Classical Review The book is richly informative, a pleasure to read, and much to be recommended. -- Charles Eager, The Seventeenth Century

Author Information

Anna-Maria Hartmann, Fellow and College Lecturer in English, Trinity College, Cambridge Dr Anna-Maria Hartmann is a Fellow and College Lecturer in English at Trinity College, Cambridge. She was previously a Departmental Lecturer in English Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and also held the post of Christopher Tower Junior Research Fellow in Greek Mythology at Christ Church between 2012 and 2016. She completed her doctorate in English at Trinity College, Cambridge. Her research focuses on the reception of ancient mythology in the Renaissance.

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