Richard Robinson, The Rewarde of Wickednesse.
Edited by Allyna E. Ward

MHRA Critical Texts Vol. 17
ISBN 978-0-947623-85-2
6 July 2009
pp. 188
Pbk £12.99 / $24.99 / €19.99

This volume provides the first printed critical edition of a text which has recently attracted the attention of scholars working on early modern English literature. The Rewarde of Wickednesse (1574) is a univocal poem that imitates the de casibus form of A Mirror for Magistrates and makes a clear indication of the hellish position of the damned. The poem is a vehemently anti-Catholic poem that draws a distinct link between sinful behaviour on earth and Hell by locating both the consequences and the origin of sin in Hell.

Robinson stages the laments in the space of Hell, not simply as ghosts reporting back from the underworld. The importance of the text lies in the clues it provides as to how Elizabethans were working with a lingering Catholic heritage in a distinctly Protestant nation. The poem’s exploration of matters of sin and damnation in relation to Hell and Pluto acknowledge the relevance of these issues to an Elizabethan audience. Robinson’s application of the de casibus form to the examples places them in the Elizabethan mirror tradition by making them proffer warnings about the rewards for sin.

Allyna E Ward is Assistant Professor of English at Booth College in Winnipeg, Canada where she works on Tudor and Early Modern Literature.

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Richard Robinson, The Rewarde of Wickednesse. Edited by Allyna E. Ward

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Richard Robinson, The Rewarde of Wickednesse.
Edited by Allyna E. Ward