ABSTRACT
Of course, no one who actually believes this needs to say it, and the author simply gives us another comic pose, a disingenuous ''apology for his book'' to the ladies. However, the most conventionally comic aspect of the Chaise lies in its unrelenting satire and imitation of other authors and their styles: Ovid, Chaucer, Spenser. One critic even suggests that Nashe occasionally employs a species of anti-Petrarchism, one that seems almost cruel. 27 Clearly, then, this deceptively smutty poem depends upon much more than schoolboy hijinks for its effects, especially for its successes, even if its subject matter seems better suited for a large bathroom wall than a library of higher learning.
