"Patternes of Rebellion": Derricke and Criminal Biography

• In Event: John Derricke's Image of Irelande: Text, Paratexts, and Contexts

Abstract

The final sections of Derricke's Image of Irelande, containing the contrasting tales of Rorie Ogge and O Neale, contain a shift of focus, metre and rhyme scheme. When the narrative perspective changes to that of Rorie, Derricke drops into a ballad form of sorts. Both this form and the format of the condemned criminal lamenting his wicked life echo a popular early modern genre: criminal biography. Yet while there are similarities of format, there are also important differences between "biographical" pamphlets and broadsheets and Derricke's rebel biographies - most notably that he contrasts the tale of an unrepentant rebel with that of a repentant one. This paper compares the final section of The Image of Irelande to early modern criminal biography and proposes that Derricke adapted the popular genre to serve his main purpose of glorifying Henry Sidney, who is a central character in the accounts of both rebels’ lives.

Author

• Elisabeth Chaghafi, Universität Tübingen