ABSTRACT
Munday's earliest writing, printed during 1577-79, includes an assortment of genres indicative of first opportunities and attempts at entering the world of print: a commendatory verse in A gorgious gallery of gallant inventions; a ballad and translation of a romance that are no longer extant; The paine of pleasure, a collection of moralizing verse; The admirable deliverance of 266 Christians...from the Turkes, a story of triumphant Christians; The mirrour of mutabilitie, a collection of versified Old Testament narratives; and a prefatory verse for Newes from the North. Then, beginning in 1580, he emerged as a writer of news reports and pamphlets on subjects as seemingly wide-ranging as the London earthquake, the morality of the theatre and other arts, the massacre at Smerwick and, after 1581, the execution of priests, including Edmund Campion. Seemingly disparate, most of Munday's subject matter, both prior to and after 1580, was closely connected to the religious politics of the period and constituent of the public sphere to which he would continue to contribute and within which he would make his living. A review of the relevant religious-political contexts of the late 1570s helps locate the network of relationships and events within which this first work appeared and against which it gains some coherence. As important as tracking unfolding events, an awareness of the patronage networks during this period also clarifies Munday's place within a system in which writers aligned with each other in support of patrons and responded to writers in opposing factions. Studying Munday from this point of view helps locate his work in relationship to writers who have dominated the literary historical narratives of early modern English literature, especially Protestant writers such as Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser, who were also launching their careers at this time. Like these writers, Munday became similarly engaged at an early age with contemporary political issues, albeit on the side opposite theirs. However, two watershed events altered the course on which Munday's career seems to have been set: the Earl of Oxford's defection from Catholicism in December-January 1580-81 and the execution of Edmund Campion in 1581. In addition to broadening our understanding of certain aspects of the developing literary system, studying Munday's earliest writing
serves us well in our efforts to come to terms with the changes in Munday's mode of operating after 1580. Across the years, Munday refined the rhetorical apparatus that represented his loyalty, while inventing various systems for continuing to introduce the opposing ideology.
