The Hunted Stag and the Beheaded King

Seventeenth-century poets of postwar England address the after-math of regicide through traditional elegy and funereal lament. As the century wears on, however, artists come to write about the beheading of the king using a more sophisticated sentimental idiom. Poets such as John Denham, Margaret Cav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in English literature, 1500-1900 1500-1900, 2005-07, Vol.45 (3), p.537-556
Main Author: Carson, Anne Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beheading
Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623-1673)
Deer
Deer hunting
Denham, John, Sir (1615-1669)
English literature
Fawns
Fear
History
Humans
Kings
Literary criticism
Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)
Nymphs
Poetics
Poetry
Poets
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Summary:Seventeenth-century poets of postwar England address the after-math of regicide through traditional elegy and funereal lament. As the century wears on, however, artists come to write about the beheading of the king using a more sophisticated sentimental idiom. Poets such as John Denham, Margaret Cavendish, and Andrew Marvell utilize the allegorical figure of the stalked deer to illustrate more clearly the brutality of which men are capable and to vivify the pain and suffering experienced by the vanquished monarch. This essay examines their methods and reasons for fusing Charles's memory with the pathetic symbol of the hunted stag.
ISSN:0039-3657
1522-9270
1522-9270
DOI:10.1353/sel.2005.0026