ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust. Unless otherwise stated, the place of publication for citations in these foot notes is London. The opening of Book the author of Britannia's Pastorals, William Browne announces a patriotic aim: to sing of deare Britannia'. Browne's muse is a homely one, who for lofty pitches shall not rome' beyond the bounds of that renowned Ile' of Great Britain. William Browne of Tavistock and the Singing of Britannia', in Archipelagic Identities: Literature and Identity in the Atlantic Archipelago. Through pastoral, O'Callaghan argues, Browne entered into a critique of Stuart neo-Augustanism', his adoption of the shepherd persona a protest against the perceived absence of the soldierly in Stuart Britain. A new era dawns at court with the rise of William Herbert to high office, and this optimism Browne and his laureate poets' reflect in their exuberant celebration of the poetry festival before Thetis.
