ABSTRACT
LATHAM’s edition of the courtier’s poems, which were not previously available in easily accessible form, marks an important contribution to Ralegh scholarship. To Latham, Ralegh’s poetry “was no part of his public character, but some-thing essentially intimate and private”, a comment which Greenblatt would later argue. But Latham may not be as naive as Greenblatt thinks, for she recognizes that the courtier could be as artificial as anyone and, further, that his poetry no matter that he did not care to make it public-was indeed designed to win the Queen’s favor, and her patronage. As such, Latham perhaps anticipates the work of critics like Oakeshott and even Greenblatt himself, who demonstrate the inseparability of Ralegh from his art. While her chronology and canon have since been debated, Latham’s edition, which includes a good biographical sketch of Ralegh, as well as explanatory and textual notes to the poems, still remains useful.
