Cavaliers, clubs, and literary culture: Sir John Mennes, James Smith, and the Order of the Fancy

Abstract

Centered around the lives and poetry of Mennes and Smith, this work explores the largely uncharted territory between the official culture of the court and the often oppositional culture of the city by examining the clubs of city wits (such as the Order of the Fancy), stage actors, and would-be courtiers that flourished during the early and middle years of the seventeenth century.