Thorns and roses: The international dimension of ‘Old English’ literature in Ireland

Abstract

The amount of extant early modern "Old English" literature written in Ireland in English is scant and little referenced by modern scholars, and its historical and political dimensions are often ignored. This paper surveys the important place of the Old English community in early modern English and Irish letters. The modern, international, often Catholic, and renaissance dimension to Old English art, life, and letters in the Pale and beyond is emphasized. The Old English always looked beyond Ireland and England while directly or subtly referring to their own tumultuous affairs in their writing. Or guarda gl'Ibernesi appresso il piano: sono duo squadre; e il conte di Childera mena la prima, e il conte di Desmonda da fieri monti ha tratta la seconda. (Ariosto, Orlando Furioso X.87.5-8). Then come the Irish men of valiant harts … To fight; both neare and farre aloofe withal, And of these bands the Lords and leaders are, The noble Earls of Ormond and Kildare. (Harington, 1591, p. 78) Literature of the New English "Discourse Community" of colonial administrators, soldiers, and land owners that included writers such as , et al., is plentiful, and study of its relevance to Irish and Transatlantic political and literary history continues to expand: Who knows not Colin Clout? By contrast, the amount of extant published early modern "Old English" literature written in Ireland in English is scant, little referenced (outside of Richard Stanihurst's contributions to Holinshed), and its historical and political dimensions are often ignored (who knows Richard Nugent?). 1 Extended scholarship and scholarly editions have begun to appear, however. 2We might therefore reassess the place of the Old English in early modern Europe and Ireland, at just the time when Ireland reassesses its place in Europe in relation to post-Brexit-decision England. 3 Doing so leads one to stress