ABSTRACT
Whether pamphleteers are attacking women, Calvinists, or poets, most share the opinion that print is an impersonal mechanical force, one that instills an obsessive desire in writers to produce superficial texts indefatigably. As such, the metaphorics of effeminacy is closely related to the symbology of unnatural and bastard births associated with the medium of print. What print, then, adds to traditional associations of problematic writing with bastard births is the notion of impossible or unnatural births - such as births from sodomitical couplings. The highly scandalous, politically threatening, and quite popular character of this controversy makes it an ideal focusing point for issues of gender and procreation associated with the emergence of print culture - particularly as they reflect on notions of traditional authority. An even more crucial strategy for establishing his authority as a coterie writer is Harvey's insistent representation of his scholarly career as the product of a legitimate and authorized genealogy.
