Dear Jean Goodrich (et al.),
I can't help much with your attempt to track down 'matter of the nursery,' but having spent a good
deal of time with the Spenser / Harvey letters, I'm not sure what Harvey meant by the 'Hobgoblin'
phrase but I doubt that he was suggesting Spenser was writing childishly, or for children. Quite
possibly, some later critic put that spin on the allusion to Hobgoblin: either to fault what he took to
be Harvey's misreading, or to enlist the learned man on his side in a criticism of Spenser. In the
1580 correspondence, there's some obscure connection between 'Hobgoblin' and 'Hobbinol,'
and as in the 'Calender' to which the letters form a pendant, Harvey / Hobbinol and Spenser /
Colin are doing an elaborate dance fraught with rivalry, affection, insecurity, all of it in a campy
sort of masquerade, juggling open secrets and empty secrets.
Cheers, Jon Quitslund (Geo. Washington U., emeritus)
> Dear Spenserians,
>
> I know that early on, Gabriel Harvey dismissed Spenser's "faerie project"
> as "Hobgoblin runne away with the garland of Apollo." However, is anyone
> familiar with a criticism that Spenser's topic was the "matter of the
> nursery," (paraphrase) either by Harvey or a later critic (like C.S. Lewis)?
>
> I know I've read this somewhere, and I'd like to relocate the source. Alas,
> I am too young to be having "senior moments"... 8^)
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
>
> Jean Goodrich
> English Department
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, AZ USA
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