Thomas Nashe and literary performance

As an instigator of debate and a defender of tradition a man of letters and a popular hack a writer of erotica and a spokesman for bishops an urbane metropolitan and a celebrant of local custom the various textual performances of Thomas Nashe have elicited and continue to provoke a range of contradictory reactions. Nashe's often incongruous authorial characteristics suggest that as a 'King of Pages' he not only courted controversy but also deliberately cultivated a variety of public personae acquiring a reputation more slippery than the herrings he celebrated in print. Collectively the essays in this book illustrate how Nashe excelled at textual performance but his personae became a contested site as readers actively participated and engaged in the reception of Nashe's public image and his works.