Parker, D.H.McLaren, Margaret Cameron2025-10-012025-10-011977https://hdl.handle.net/10289/17679In this thesis a range of secular lyrics written during the reign of Charles I, and often slighted since, is surveyed. Special attention is directed to the work of Thomas Carew and Robert Herrick. First the historical background of the period, with its social and political tensions, is examined. The court is seen as a bastion of privilege, a cause for resentment and, at the same time, a nurturing ground for great poetic talent. In the tradition of earlier monarchs, Charles I was an earnest patron of the arts; and from their country estates, literary aristocrats like Lord Falkland also gave personal and practical encouragement to artists, especially poets. The poets in their turn, though they did not always admit it, took their work seriously, creating a myriad of lovely lyrics in which classical, medieval and Renaissance themes and conventions are used, challenged and reworked. The influence of John Donne and Ben Jonson is seen to have been considerable. Donne had provided a model of personal, dramatic and closely-reasoned “strong lines”. And Jonson encouraged controlled reliance on classical poets “as Guides, not Commanders”, and wrote poetry and criticism in clear idiomatic English, with a respect for the rhythms of both speech and song. The development of music, in particular the increasing popularity of the declamatory air in which individual words were heard clearly so that each was important, affected early Caroline lyrics, and was affected by them. To a lesser extent, but just as surely, drama, masque and dance left their mark on the lyric form. Whether, like Carew, the early Carolines wrote lyrics to be circulated in manuscript, or like Herrick, to be published, the best of them were highly conscious of their craft, and sensitive to the laws of proportion and decorum. They treated their favourite themes, love, philosophy, court and country living, politics and social occasions, the occult, the abnormal and the comic, from many angles, with varying degrees of sensitivity, knowledge and sophistication. Thomas Carew’s polished amatory and occasional poems “netts, of passions finest thred”, are shown to investigate human relationships with frankness and scintillating wit. For all their unpretentious charm and freshness, the lyrics of Robert Herrick, in the context of the whole of Hesperides, are seen to have immense range, depth and assurance. With his love of friends and family, his appreciation of living things, his acceptance of the beautiful and the ugly, his delightful sense of fun, his bold comments on the world about him, and his insistence on the worth of human joy, Herrick has earned the immortality he considered his due. The court poets, and in particular Thomas Carew and Robert Herrick, wrote an abundance of thoughtful finished lyrics, “rare perfections” to use Carew’s words, which can both give great pleasure and increase our understanding of the complexities of life.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.Thesis