Pseudonymous Shakespeare: Rioting Language in the Sidney Circle

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Ashgate, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 257 pages
An investigation into modes of early modern English literary 'indirection, ' this study could also be considered a detective work on a pseudonym attached to some late sixteenth-century works. In the course of unmasking 'R.L.', McCarthy scrutinizes devices employed by writers in the Sidney coterie: punning, often across languages; repetitio-insistence on a sound, or hiding two persons 'under one hood'; disingenuous juxtaposition; evocation of original context; differential spelling (intended and significant). Among McCarthy's stunning-but solidly underpinned-conclusions are: Shakespeare used the pseudonym 'R.L.' among other pseudonyms; one, 'William Smith', was also his 'alias' in life; Shakespeare was at the heart of the Sidney circle, whose literary programme was hostile to Elizabeth I; and his work, composed mainly from the late 1570s to the early 90s, occasionally 'embedded' in the work of others, was covertly alluded to more often than has been recognized

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Contents

vi
1
vii
48
Second Candidate Dom Diego
59
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Penny McCarthy took her MA and D. Phil. at Sussex University, and now holds an honorary research fellowship with the University of Glasgow, UK.

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