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Royalism and Divinity in Katherine Philips’s Poems

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Perceiving Power in Early Modern Europe
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Abstract

Despite the great popularity of Katherine Philips’s coterie poems in her time, studies of her royalist poems are still relatively few. This chapter explores how Philips, having close association with the royal family, forges the image of King Charles I and Charles II. Philips presents the female elite’s observation of the governance of the two monarchs. Against the fifth onarchist millennialism, Philips subtly transforms the executed and the exiled kings into a Christ figure against unjustified accusations. In denouncing regicide and the Commonwealth government to defend the royal dignity, Philips’s poems provide an alternative view of the Stuart rulership and its impact on English society.

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Yu, HC. (2016). Royalism and Divinity in Katherine Philips’s Poems. In: So, F. (eds) Perceiving Power in Early Modern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58381-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58381-9_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58624-7

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