Abstract
London, thou art of townes A per se.
Soveraign of cities, semeliest in sight,
Of high renoun, riches, and royaltie;
Of lordis, barons, and many goodly knyght;
Of most delectable lusty ladies bright
Of famous prelatis in habitis clericall;
Of merchauntis full of substaunce and myght:
London, thou art the flour of Cities all
(Anonymous, sixteenth century)
Hell is a city much like London—
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hell," pt. 3, st. 1, Peter Bell the Third)
Divided by three centuries, these differing visions of London offer images and elicit emotions that would have been all too familiar to the Tudor and Hanoverian Englishmen and women for whom they were written. The first anonymous sixteenth century quotation, drawn from the aptly titled poem London and once ascribed to the Scottish poet and priest William Dunbar, provides readers with idyllic impressions of a city (and its people) divinely blessed with virtue, wealth, beauty, and learning. London was, quite literally, in the eyes of the poet, "Soveraign of cities." Over the next two or three centuries, London not only came to dominate the British Isles, but it also became the metropole of a burgeoning archipelagic, and then global, empire. 1 Moreover, as it grew in size and scope throughout the early modern period, so too did the challenges and problems that faced the city fathers and inhabitants of the "old Smoke."
Soveraign of cities, semeliest in sight,
Of high renoun, riches, and royaltie;
Of lordis, barons, and many goodly knyght;
Of most delectable lusty ladies bright
Of famous prelatis in habitis clericall;
Of merchauntis full of substaunce and myght:
London, thou art the flour of Cities all
(Anonymous, sixteenth century)
Hell is a city much like London—
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hell," pt. 3, st. 1, Peter Bell the Third)
Divided by three centuries, these differing visions of London offer images and elicit emotions that would have been all too familiar to the Tudor and Hanoverian Englishmen and women for whom they were written. The first anonymous sixteenth century quotation, drawn from the aptly titled poem London and once ascribed to the Scottish poet and priest William Dunbar, provides readers with idyllic impressions of a city (and its people) divinely blessed with virtue, wealth, beauty, and learning. London was, quite literally, in the eyes of the poet, "Soveraign of cities." Over the next two or three centuries, London not only came to dominate the British Isles, but it also became the metropole of a burgeoning archipelagic, and then global, empire. 1 Moreover, as it grew in size and scope throughout the early modern period, so too did the challenges and problems that faced the city fathers and inhabitants of the "old Smoke."
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 213-240 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Journal | Histoire Sociale-Social History |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 85 |
Publication status | Published - May 2010 |
Keywords
- 17th-Century London
- England
- Revolution