"Who Knows Not Colin Clout:" The Apparatus of The Shepheardes Calender

Abstract

<p>This thesis examines the apparatus added to The Shepheardes Calender by E.K. and the woodcuts to determine how, or whether, they function as criticism in the modern sense of the term. The arguments are generally not in sympathy with the eclogues to Which they pertain, although some of them do highlight the advertising aspects of the Calender. The woodcuts, however, besides showing many instances of one-to-one correspondence with the eclogues, often interpret and even extend the poem along sympathetic lines. This contrast between the arguments and the woodcuts, both appearing before the text of the eclogue, suggests that a cross-reference between E.K.'s verbal and the artist's visual representation, and between these and the text, is intended, and that these parts of the apparatus constitute a lesson in reading Spenser.</p> <p>The, glosses contain much padding, many errors, and some misleading interpretations, which implies that their purpose is not criticism. They are to be seen rather than read, for their cumulative effect is to make the Calender look like, a heavily glossed edition of a classical author. That is, E.K.'s material is primarily an advertising strategy, as is much of the poem itself. In his introduction, arguments, and glosses he often works directly to promote the "New Poete," and more often obliquely by producing an apparatus whose existence takes priority over the content.</p>