© 2003 by Oxford University Press
Satire and Sycophancy: Richard Corbett and Early Stuart Royalism
1 University of Exeter
This article examines the poetry and cultural context of Richard Corbett, one of the most influential poets in manuscript circulation during the first half of the seventeenth century. Corbett's work, almost all of which might be categorized as panegyric or satire, is unashamedly controversial. Most notably, he stigmatizes Puritans as enemies of the state, and identifies himself with the interests of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, consistently confronting the plethora of anonymous libels that attacked the notorious royal favourite. Consequently, he not only claims a status as spokesman for the Crown and court, but also emerges as a figure rival poets might attack, in the process refining their own nascent poetics of opposition. The article examines poems by and about Corbett, in an effort to delineate the literary structures of cultural and political division. It also compares his work to that of his contemporaries, including Ben Jonson and Thomas Carew, and argues that it typifies fundamental contemporary shifts in approaches to the poetry of praise and blame. Indeed, it might be argued that Corbett helped to define a literature of early Stuart royalism.