Antiquarian Readers: The Case of Drayton and Selden
Antiquarian Readers: The Case of Drayton and Selden
This chapter shifts the arguments from antiquarian writers to antiquarian readers by exploring how early modern poets took up the antiquarian baton. It focuses on Michael Drayton, Camden's close friend and the most antiquarian of all English poets, and in particular on Poly-Olbion (1612 and 1622), his massive antiquarian and chorographic epic. With its elaborate paratext and its scholarly apparatus, courtesy of John Selden, Poly-Olbion offers an exemplary study in both antiquarian reading and in the production, publication, and reception of early modern antiquarian books. As well as the familiar context of Camden and his confrères, the chapter also locates Drayton's work in a less known, but long established, tradition of antiquarian poetry. Through the example of Drayton, therefore, it explores how poets more generally responded to and shaped the forms of antiquarian writing that emerged at the time.
Keywords: readers, poets, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, chorographic, paratext, John Selden, antiquarian poetry
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