This study examines the image of the poet in early modern plays from 1558–1660, drawing on rarely discussed dramatic material by figures such as Shirley and Brome. It investigates how playwrights depict poets as working professionals and as socially ambivalent figures shaped by patronage, rivalry and shifting literary values. Through close attention to prologues, staged representations and mythological allusions, it highlights the poet’s unstable position between mastery of a quasi-divine art and accusations of parasitism in a culture preoccupied with imitation and theft. By situating these portrayals within early modern society, aesthetics and readerships, the book offers new insight into poetic identity, social distinction and literary authority, enriching research in early modern drama, poetics and cultural history.

This study examines the image of the poet in early modern plays from 1558–1660, drawing on rarely discussed dramatic material by figures such as Shirley and Brome. It investigates how playwrights depict poets as working professionals and as socially ambivalent figures shaped by patronage, rivalry and shifting literary values. Through close attention to prologues, staged representations and mythological allusions, it highlights the poet’s unstable position between mastery of a quasi-divine art and accusations of parasitism in a culture preoccupied with imitation and theft. By situating these portrayals within early modern society, aesthetics and readerships, the book offers new insight into poetic identity, social distinction and literary authority, enriching research in early modern drama, poetics and cultural history.