Selected Essays of Anne Lake Prescott

For nearly half a century Anne Lake Prescott has been a force and an inspiration in Renaissance studies. A force, because of her unique blend of learning and wit and an inspiration through her tireless encouragement of younger scholars and students. Her passion has always been the invisible bridge across the Channel: the complex of relations, literary and political, between Britain and France. The essays in this long-awaited collection range from Edmund Spenser to John Donne, from Clément Marot to Pierre de Ronsard. Prescott has a particular fondness for King David, who appears several times; and the reader will encounter chessmen, bishops, male lesbian voices and Roman whores. Always Prescott's immense erudition is accompanied by a sly and gentle wit that invites readers to share her amusement. Reading her is a joyful education.

Poetic fire: an introduction by Ayesha Ramachandran, Susan Felch, and Susannah Monta

Part I: Spenser
1 Spenser's chivalric restoration: from Bateman's Travayled Pylgrime to the Redcrosse Knight
2 Foreign policy in Fairyland: Henry IV and Spenser's Burbon
3 The thirsty deer and the Lord of Life: some contexts for Amoretti 67-70

Part II: The Psalms and the psalmist
4 Evil tongues at the court of Saul: the Renaissance David as a slandered courtier
5 Musical strains: Marot's double role as psalmist and courtier
6 King David as a 'right poet': Sidney and the psalmist
7 The countess of Pembroke's Ruins of Rome

Part III: Imagining gender
8 Male lesbian voices: Ronsard, Tyard, and Donne play Sappho
9 Family grief: mourning and gender in Marguerite de Navarre's Les Prisons

Part IV: Italy, France, England
10 Translatio lupae: Du Bellay's Roman whore goes north
11 Housing chessmen and bagging bishops: space and desire in Colonna, 'Rabelais', and Middleton's Game at Chess
12 Imperfect pearls from France: Ronsard's conceits meet Donne's
Anne Lake Prescott and Roger Kuin

Afterword: Anne as co-author and editor
The joy of partnership
Roger Kuin
Anne as editor: a small florilegium
William Oram

Bibliography of works by Anne Lake Prescott
Index

Editors and Author

Anne Lake Prescott is a Professor Emeritus at Barnard College

William A. Oram is a Professor Emeritus at Smith College

Roger Kuin is a Professor Emeritus at York University