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Thomas Wyatt in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Susan Brigden  and
Jonathan Woolfson
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Abstract

This article follows a young Thomas Wyatt (ca. 1503–42) — the Henrician poet and courtier —on his journeys to France and especially to Italy in 1526–27. It finds him at the greatest courts of Europe at a climacteric in European affairs, during which, by default, he had a part to play. It discovers the dramatic circumstances of his kidnap, ransom, and release. The article conjectures upon the ways in which Wyatt's Italian journey was formative for his political and poetic career, and upon the brilliance with which he transmuted the events of a life lived so intensely, so restlessly, into art.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , Summer 2005 , pp. 464 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

*

We acknowledge our debt and gratitude to Professor Neil McLynn for deciphering and transcribing for us the letters printed in the Appendix, nos. 2–4. We also express our thanks to Dr. David Chambers, Professor Trevor Dean, Dr. Jason Powell, the Earl and Countess of Romney, Mr. Nigel Wilson, and Professor Blair Worden. All translations throughout are the authors’.

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