Why Read Between the Lines?: Derricke, Paratext, and Poetic Reception

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

Abstract

While material discussions of John Derricke’s Image of Irelande (1581) often focus on the woodcarvings and print history, this study focuses on the textual content and presentation, particularly the glosses, dedication, and multiple letters to the reader, to locate Derricke’s text in 16th-century poetic discussions of representation, interpretation, and reception. In the dedication to Phillip Sidney, Derricke reveals his anxiety over these issues—an anxiety further illustrated in the abundance of glosses that clutter the text. The content of the glosses appear to offer a key to the text, yet fail to explicate the text or help a reader decipher the poem, often raising more questions than they answer. By examining the interplay between the glosses and their corresponding lines, this study argues that as the text progresses, the glosses become a free-standing work of sorts and a place where Derricke’s poetic concerns and anxieties can be traced.

Author

• Denna Iammarino, Case Western Reserve University