Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Raphael Holinshed's letter dedicating the 1577 Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland to Lord Burghley astutely registers the conditions shaping the reception of historical writing in early modern England. After wisely “craving onlie” that his reader “make a freendlie construction” of his meaning, he reminds his reader that “Manie things being taken out as they lie in authors, may be thought to give offense in time present, which referred to the time past when the author writ.” He then offers the assurance that history is “not onlie tolerable, but also allowable” ( Holinshed 1577 , I: v v ). Holinshed here reveals important things about the reception of historical writing: first, that past accounts of past events resonated poorly with sixteenth-century readers; then, that offense was “thought” and, similarly, that meaning was conferred by the reader; and finally, that historiography met with ecclesiastical censors' favor. Three incidents involving historical writing confirm Holinshed. In 1614 a clergyman accused of treason for writing about “his Majestie's sacred person and gouvernment” justified himself by confessing that according to “the example of preachers and chroniclers, kings' infirmities are to be laid open” ( Willis-Bund 1879 , I: 140). During the clergyman's imprisonment, two histories whose recent publications had been “allowed” – that is, approved for publication ... log in or subscribe to read full text