Edmund Campion

The death of Edmund Campion in 1581 marked a disjunction between the world of printed untruth and private, handwritten, truth in Elizabethan England. Gerard Kilroy here uncovers a fascinating network of scribal communities where Campion manuscripts circulated among a group of families dominated by Sir John Harington and Sir Thomas Tresham. His work provides startling new views about Campion's literary, historical and cultural impact in early modern England. The book lays the foundations of the first full literary assessment of Campion the scholar, the impact he had on the literature of early modern England, and the long legacy in manuscript writing.

Contents: Introduction: Between the lines. Part I The Heart in Hiding: Darkness within: letters from prison; Edmund Campion: 'sweetly in verse'; 'Paper, ynke and pen': a literary memoria; Sir John Harington: 'wise pretender of foolery'; Within these walls: the interior life of Sir Thomas Tresham. Part II Transcriptions: Transcription I: Edmund Campion's Virgilian Epic; Transcription II: 'Why doe I use my paper, ynke and pen'; Transcription III: Four decades: 'All my ydle epigrams'. Bibliography; Index.