I have my doubts about the new book on Complaints by Brown, although it's
not terrible. I like the little collection of, admittedly, condensed
essays on Muiopotmos that Hugh Maclean and I put together for the third
Norton Spenser. Doesn't Mark Hazard have a book in the works on
Complaints? I hope I have that right.
If I had to bone up quickly on Muiopotmos or whatever here's what
I'd do: first go to the Maclean/Prescott Norton Critical Ed. of Spenser,
which has Muiopot and some other Complaints and photocopy (or buy the
volume!) the bibliography. I'd also check the Spenser Encyclopedia. Then
I'd go to the MLA database and limit the search to after 1992. I'd check
the bibliog. in the *second* edition of the Norton Spenser for earlier
stuff that the third leaves out. When in a rush there's always the
patented Anne Prescott method for quick and easy boning up on a topic: you
begin with the very latest (or as late as the MLA data base gets) and
consult the most recent essays on a topic. Then you work backwards and if
virtually everybody refers to some ancient essay, like in this case the
D.C. Allen, you then figure that it must be a golden oldie and go read it.
The trick is not to work forward in time, which means going into some dead
ends. A couple of admiring footnotes alluding to Anderson's "Nat worth a
Boterfly" and you know that Anderson is somebody to conuslt. You'd be
right, too. Good luck with this. Anne Prescott.
On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Thomas herron wrote:
> Like many, I find the best article on "Muiopotmos," in style and matter, to
> be D.C. Allen's "Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie," reprinted
> (with some changes) in his *Image and Meaning: Metaphoric Traditions in
> Renaissance Poetry* (1960).
>
> I'd be interested in book-length studies of the *Complaints* as an entity,
> or articles that make multiple connections between the poems therein. As I
> plunge into Hugh Maclean's terrific 'Complaints' bibliography in *Sp.
> Enc.*, does anyone have recommendations as to obscure and/or worthy
> criticism/dissertations on the same?
>
> Best wishes, Thomas Herron
>
>
>
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