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3 - Ireland: policy, poetics and parody

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Andrew Hadfield
Affiliation:
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
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Summary

During the course of their discussion of Irish customs in A View of the Present State of Ireland, Irenius informs Eudoxus that

the Gaules used to drinke theire enemyes blodd and to painte themselues therewith So allsoe they write that the owlde Irishe weare wonte And so have I sene some of the Irishe doe but not theire enemyes but friendes blodd as namelye at the execucion of A notable Traitour at Limericke Called murrogh Obrien I sawe an olde woman which was his foster mother take up his heade whilste he was quartered and sucked up all the blodd runninge theareout Sayinge that the earthe was not worthie to drinke it and thearewith allso steped her face, and breste and torne heare Cryinge and shrikinge out moste terrible (112)

As the execution of Murrogh O'Brien occurred in 1577 the passage has long been used as evidence for Spenser's presence in Ireland some three years before his officially documented arrival in 1580 as secretary to Lord Arthur Grey, the newly appointed Lord Deputy. But this is to make unwarranted assumptions about the relationship between Irenius and Spenser.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

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