English literary history has long incorporated the category of 'Cavalier' verse, and the critical presuppositions that have shaped such a category continue, even now, to determine the ways in which much civil war writing is read. Through a detailed study of both manuscript and printed texts, James Loxley arrives at an account of the interaction between poetry and royalist political activity which for the first time presents a sustained and coherent challenge to such presuppositions.
'Loxley most convincingly confronts the critical views of Cavalier verse as a poetics of retirement...Royalism and Poetry in the English Civil Wars effectively challenges a still prevalent critical construct of Cavalier verse.' - Jim Daems, Early Modern Literary Studies
'Loxley is particularly good on the university context of these poets, distinguishing between Oxford and Cambridge 'schools' of poetry...the book repays re-reading.' - Paul Dean, English Studies
'Loxley is particularly good on the university context of these poets, distinguishing between Oxford and Cambridge 'schools' of poetry...the book repays re-reading.' - Paul Dean, English Studies