Digressive Voices In Early Modern English Literature

This book examines how seventeenth century English writers used digressive speech to capture the ambiguities of political occasion and aristocratic patronage. The authors argue that the use of digressive speech allowed writers to express their anxieties about speech and attack.

Digressive Voices in Early Modern English Literature looks afresh at major nondramatic texts by Donne, Marvell, Browne, Milton, and Dryden, whose digressive speakers are haunted by personal and public uncertainty. To digress in seventeenth-century England carried a range of meaning associated with deviation or departure from a course, subject, or standard. This book demonstrates that early modern writers trained in verbal contest developed richly labyrinthine voices that captured the ambiguities of political occasion and aristocratic patronage while anatomizing enemies and mourning personal loss. Anne Cotterill turns current sensitivity toward the silenced voice to argue that rhetorical amplitude might suggest anxieties about speech and attack for men forced to be competitive yet circumspect as they made their voices heard. Review: Cotterill has chosen her texts carefully. Times Literary Supplement an impressive volume, deserving the attention of all who are concerned with English literature from Donne to Swift. Modern Law Review