“Cats will to kind”: William Baldwin, the writing of Protestant politics and the first English novel

Margaret Richmond Reimer, Purdue University

Abstract

This study focuses on William Baldwin, a mid-sixteenth century Protestant reformer, Printer's assistant, and author Baldwin's works, which include the Treatise of Morall Philosophie and the editorial work on the Myrrour for Magistrates, have been consistently underestimated by scholars. This study contexualizes the all of Baldwin's writings, including his little-discussed Canticles and the Funeralles of King Edward the Sixt, in their social, political, and religious milieu in order to more fully explore the significance of his most important contribution to English literature, the novel Beware the Cat. Baldwin emerges as a major figure of the era, a transition between the medieval scholastic methods and the ‘new learning’ that informed the education and reading practices of early modern England Like many reformers, Baldwin sought to reappropriate and reauthorize older forms to legitimate changes in religious and social structures brought about by the break with papal authority. He participated in the attempt to create a Protestant England prepared through widespread vernacular literacy to counter the political and religious claims of the old religious understanding his work helps us to grasp the significance of the changes in the body politic brought about by the Reformation. In addition to providing close readings of all of Baldwin's works, this study compares Baldwin's methods of political commentary with those of some of his most prominent peers, including John Ponet, John Knox, and John Foxe. It also suggests new methods of looking at the relationship between printers, authors, and publishers in Edwardian and Marian England. Finally, it relates the more subtle changes in literary reading practices at mid-century with more public forms of political protest such as surreptitious iconoclasm of public religious monuments and the infamous cat hanging in Cheapside.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Ross, Purdue University.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature|Modern literature|Religious history|Literature

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