ABSTRACT

Denham's stag hunt begins with the entrance of the royal hunter, in pursuit of his game, but immediately adopts the perspective of 'the gallant beast'. Denham's editor explains, we lack an adequate terminology to describe the subtlety of the formulation: 'The events are not allegorical, but quasi-allegorical: they parallel other events, or resemble other events in details, or obliquely refer to them'. While the model of the rota virgiliana might explain the return to Coopers Hill, there were other reasons why Denham should have focused on the stag hunt while in retirement at Wilton. Wase's reference is to the royal stag hunt in the second canto of Gondibert, an episode generally thought to be indebted for its narrative structure and its allegorical method to Coopers Hill. For Denham and Davenant, the way forward required a rejection of the conceited style of Donne.