The Civil War / / Abraham Cowley; ed. by Allan Pritchard.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Cowley, Abraham,
• HerausgeberIn: Pritchard, Allan,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©1973
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (206 p.)

The Civil War is a poem which Abraham Cowley (1618-67) did not complete, for political and historical reasons, and of which only the first volume was published; the other two volumes have been considered irrecoverably lost since Cowley's death. Professor Pritchard recently found two copies of the complete poem in a collection of family papers at the Hertfordshire County Record Office and here presents a corrected edition of the first and previously published book, and the text of the hitherto unpublished books two and three.The poem is a major addition to the body of Cowley's poetry; it has close and sometimes surprising connections with much of his other work. It is not only the most extended and important of his political poems but a significant addition to the genre of the political poem. It is also unique as the attempt by a poet of stature to give epic treatment to the events of the English Civil War.Professor Pritchard provides a discussion of the personal, historical, and literary contexts of the poem in the introduction, as well as of textual problems and methods, showing the way in which the poem is shaped both by contemporary history and polemics and by classical and later literary tradition.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- References and Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. The Survival of the Suppressed Poem -- 2. Circumstances of Composition -- 3. History and Propaganda -- 4. Literary Tradition -- 5. The Civil War and Cowley's Later Writings -- 6. The Text -- The Civil War -- The Civill Warre -- The second Booke -- The third Booke -- Notes -- Appendixes and Index -- Index