Subject of Britain, 1603–25

Christopher Ivic is Senior Lecturer in English at Bath Spa University

'... An absorbing and timely book.'Margaret Tudeau-Clayton, Early Modern Literary Studies'... With its scrupulous close readings of an array of literary and political texts, including some that are little-known and others that have rarely been considered in this context, The Subject of Britain sheds powerful new light on what Britishness meant or could mean in the early years of the seventeenth century.’Philip Schwyzer, The seventeenth century'A lively, intelligent work that demonstrates how much more work needs to be done on ideas of Britain and Britishness.'Andrew Hadfield, Journal of British Studies 'Christopher Ivic’s monograph is a very readable study and a timely corrective to received critical thinking inherited down the generations (and endlessly recycled) concerning Jacobean succession literature.'Andrew Hiscock, Modern Language Review

• Introduction: accession, union, nationhood1 ‘Englands King is comming to be Croun’d’: English responses to the accession of King James VI and I2 ‘This mighty worke of vnion’: imagining union in early Jacobean panegyric3 ‘But when this island shall be made Britain’: Hume, Bacon, Britain and Britishness4 ‘Our downfall Birthdome’: reimagining nationhood in Macbeth5 Conclusion: the Jacobean writing of BritainBibliographyIndex