A study of the culture of spectatorship and voyeurism that shaped early Tudor English literary life.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on editions and abbreviations; 1. Pretexts: Chaucer's Pandarus and the origins of courtly discourse; 2. The King's Pandars: performing courtiership in the 1510s; 3. The King's hand: body politics in the letters of Henry VIII; 4. Private quotations, public memories: Troilus and Criseyde and the politics of the manuscript anthology; 5. Wyatt, Chaucer, Tottel: the verse epistle and the subjects of the courtly lyric; Notes; Index.