The advent of relatively cheap editions in the mid-sixteenth century produced an explosion of verse, much of which represented the first person speaker as a version of the author. This book examines ways in which writers, often seeking advancement in their careers, harnessed verse for self-promotional purposes. Texts studied include a manuscript autobiography by Thomas Whythorne, printed verse by a woman, Isabella Whitney, travel and war narratives, as well as canonical texts by Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare.

Introduction 'To Mak My Self to be Known of Many': Miscellanies and the Well-Formed Gentleman The 'Outward Marks' and the 'Inward Man: Thomas Whythorne's Songs and Sonnets Narratives of Experience Spenser as Orpheus Passionate Ejaculations and the Poetics of Presence: Gascoigne's The Adventures of Master F.J. and Sidney's Astrophil and Stella 'My Name is Will': Shakespeare's Sonnets Bibliography

ELIZABETH HEALE is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Reading University. She has published two books, The Faerie Queene. A Reader's Guide (2nd ed 1999) and Wyatt, Surrey and Early Tudor Poetry (1998), and numerous articles on sixteenth-century verse in print and manuscript.