Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII

This revisionary study of the origins of courtly literature reveals the culture of spectatorship and voyeurism that shaped early Tudor English literary life. Through new research into the reception of Chaucer''s Troilus and Criseyde it demonstrates how Pandarus became the model of the early modern courtier. In close readings of early Tudor poetry court drama letters manuscript anthologies and printed books Seth Lerer illuminates a Pandaric world of displayed bodies surreptitious letters and transgressive performances.