Le Simplegadi

Almeno come poeta, Robert Devereux, conte di Essex, non godette di particolare reputazione tra i suoi contemporanei. Furono le generazioni successive (per le quali il Conte fu epitome degli eroi di un’epoca svanita) a far a gara nel procurarsi copie dei suoi versi e delle sue ardenti lettere indirizzate ad Elisabetta I. L’articolo presenta una versione inedita di un suo sonetto “The Ways on Earth, have paths and turnings known”, contenuta in una miscellanea solo recentemente venuta alla luce. Questo documento, oltre a costituire una nuova attribuzione del brano poetico ad Essex, è una significativa testimonianza della sua duratura fama: una reputazione postuma che lo ha reso protagonista di romanzi, melodrammi e film dal XVIII sino al XXI secolo.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-209

Parole chiave: Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, Elizabethan Poetry, Elizabeth I, Elizabethan Courtier Poets, Early Modern Manuscripts.

Bibliografia

Manuscripts

London, British Library, Royal MS 17 B 50.

London, British Library, Sloane MS 4128.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS e.16.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson poetry MS C.744.

Paris, Bibliothèque National, MS Fr 5549(2).

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