Spenser's Monstrous Regiment - Elizabethan Ireland and the Poetics of Difference (Hardcover)

Spenser's Monstrous Regiment is a stimulating and scholarly account of how the experience of living and writing in Ireland qualified Spenser's attitude towards female regiment and challenged his notions of English nationhood. Including a trenchant discussion of the influence of colonialism upon the structure, themes, imagery, and language of Spenser's poetry, this is the first major study of Spenser's canon to engage with primary Gaelic materials in its assessment of his relationship with native Irish and Old English culture. It also provides the first detailed analysis of his association with Lord Grey through examination of the secretarial letters currently held in the PRO.