Andrew Zurcher <[log in to unmask]> forwarded the following query on
7/20/01 4:41 am:
>Was <italic>The Faerie
>Queene</italic> around in
>early America? Was it
>a common book in the the
>colonies or the early
>republic, say 1750-1850?
>If available, where might
>Americans have found
>it--schools,
>universities?
Belated addendum: Joann Peck Krieg has an article on "America to 1900,
influence and reputation" in the Spenser Encyclopedia, 27-29; includes long
bibliography. Among other things, one learns that "Evidence exists that
seventeenth-century Harvard students copied portions of Spenser's poems,
and eighteenth-century Yale students were familiar enough with them for
John Trumbull to have made Epithalamion the basis of a ribald parody in
1769" (27). On the other hand, "Before the first American edition in 1839,
the unavailability of texts seems to have been as much a factor in
Spenser's lack of popularity as were the perceived obstacles of his
language and mode" (ibid.).
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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c.
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