Representations of intimacy and the historiography of early modern private life.
[Thesis]
Bracher, Tricia Amanda.
Birkbeck (University of London)
2000
Ph.D.
Birkbeck (University of London)
2000
This thesis argues that the history of early modern private life has erroneouslydeployed a model of sixteenth-century private/public relations which is by turnsabsolutist and feudal. Specifically challenging the influence of David Starkey'sparadigm of "intimacy" with the monarch as the prior condition of Tudorrepresentation, I submit five case studies of Renaissance literary and visual intimacy,arguing instead for a model of social proximities that takes account of the textuality ofintimacy, the textual construction of privacy and the cultural importance of workswhich lie outside the domain of royal patronage and representation.I consider the ways in which sixteenth-century treatments of the Henry VIII's"minion", Mark Smeaton, and John Heywood's construction of the minion in ThePlay of the Wether (1533) are linked by their attempt to negotiate the subject of sexualintimacy with the king. I argue for Gerlach Flicke's 1554 prison diptych of himselfwith the pirate Henry Strangeways as an articulation of subaltern intimacy betweenmen connected by their criminal status. I contend that the miniature portraits by themid-Tudor court artist Levina Teerlinc are testaments to social and mercantileproximities that are not predicated upon a special intimacy between female artist andfemale monarch. I explore texts relating to Dorothy Percy, wife of the ninth earl ofNorthumberland and sister of the second earl of Essex, in the context of her dealingswith her male relations. Through this I argue for the contemporary existence(particularly in moments of political crisis) of a paradigm of intimacy-as-abuse basedon the genre of the intelligence letter. Finally I suggest that the manuscripts producedby the writing master Esther Inglis during the English succession crisis of 1599,traditionally read as examples of private, female calligraphy, should be seen asintelligence documents, as manifestations of Anglo-Scottish diplomacy which exploitthe textuality of Renaissance intimacy.