Calling all English Majors...

[neotoma]

I'm looking for romantic poetry from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobin periods -- say 1580 to 1608. I'd like to avoid Shakespeare, since I know there *were* other poets out there then. Donne? Marlowe? Who else might have been popular enough for octavos of their poems to be available?

How familiar would an educated man have been with the Roman poets? I could get to the dirtier bits of Catallus, but is that period? Or would someone else be better for the 'classics' of the time?

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I'm not an Elizabethan, but I'd think pretty much anything Latin would be fair game. Since, "Little Latin, less Greek" was the slam on Shakespeare, presumably gentlemen were expected to know it. As to what was the most popular, dunno.

Ben Jonson, along with Marlowe and Donne, are the other-English-poets who spring to mind. Are you looking for a verse that accomplishes something particular?

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I promised gblvr a Hank/Bobby fic (after making her beta two fics without that pairing -- I'm so cruel), but it's turned into a Hal/Robbie fic.

Which means I need something period for a bit shmoop under a tree.