Anthony Munday had a very long, very successful career during which he wrote many different types of literature. Between 1577 and 1633 he produced pamphlets, polemics, plays and civic pageants. Few early modern writers can match Munday for quantity or diversity and his career interacted with almost all other well-known writers of the day. Despite this, apart from a select few major titles, most of his work is difficult or impossible to obtain in edited form. It is the aim of this thesis to create a new edition of Munday’s early work which will offer a clear, modernized text, a full commentary, textual notes and a comprehensive introduction to the specific works concerned.
I am exploring Munday’s interest in law and order through his comments on notorious murders and felonies of the day, including his close reporting on the events in a coroner’s court. The Elizabethan government employed Munday’s skill and experience as a pamphleteer in the drive to influence the reading public on matters of national security. I am investigating the dark worlds of treason and rebellion that Munday sought to expose and discourage by means of the printed word.
I hope that this new edition may help to develop a fresh understanding of these little-known texts and to encourage analytical discussion of their content. A modern presentation may attract others to see Munday’s work as an accessible introduction to the exciting literature of Elizabethan life and politics.
Beyond this thesis, I am conscious that Munday’s career extended from the Elizabethan age, throughout the reign of James I and into that of Charles I. The end of Munday’s life is as intriguing as the beginning and I am interested in how Munday the Elizabethan conformist responded to the rise of Puritanism in the post-Mayflower age.