‘Change and decay in all around I see’, as Evelyn Waugh’s Uncle Theodore cheerfully sang (‘Old Lang Syne’); or, to cite another famous author, ‘all that moueth, doth in Change delight’. This editorial marks our last issue of The Spenser Review.
There are, of course, reasons to be cheerful. As was recently announced on twitter (https://twitter.com/SpenserSociety/status/1578130524664725522?s=20&t=tfc94B5QfvWIBSKmNGduFg)[1] the Review will now be overseen by the editors of Spenser Studies – Susannah Monta, Bill Oram, and Ayesha Ramachandran – bringing the Review more closely under the umbrella of the International Spenser Society. They will be looking for guest editors to produce the three annual issues of the journal so please do send them your proposals. The reviews section – edited by Tamsin Badcoe – and the news items will continue as before.
We feel that we are leaving on a high as this is a very full issue with a collection of excellent pieces. We have several reflections on the origin, history, and significance of the Review by past editors and review editors, which seems timely at this turning point in the history of the journal, charting its change from a newsletter to an on-line publication. We are grateful to a number of past editors for responding to our invitation: in addition to those included here, we would also like to thank Craig Berry, Terry Krier, and Beth Quitsland for replying to our request. We have a series of reflections on one of the towering figures in Spenser – and Renaissance – studies, Judith Anderson, who, as you will all know, died recently. Judith was a very important figure for all of us, producing a series of major works over a long period; engaging in robust and critical debate with her peers; mentoring younger scholars; and supporting numerous events throughout the world. She will be missed by those who knew her personally and those who encountered her on the page.
The issue also contains three critical reflections and the series of interventions that were delivered at the revised ‘MacLean Event’ on ‘Spenser and Performance in 2021.’ This revisited the 2017 ISS experiment at Shakespeare’s Globe, London. Here we find extensive multi-media thoughts on transferring Spenser from one medium to another, forming its own mini-archive from Kat Addis, Jeff Dolven and Leah Whittington, Adam Smyth, and Leah Veronese, all collected, edited, and introduced by Will West. This issue also features Ayesha Ramachandran’s timely reflections on the ‘global turn’ in Spenser and Renaissance studies, which has done so much to broaden horizons but has also – perhaps – come at the expense of the ‘local’. It may well be time to take stock and reflect on what sort of scholarship we would like to see sustaining us into the future. However we think of our subject we would surely welcome the two other pieces included here. Ladan Niayesh continues her reflections on the relationship between English literature and Persia, here contributing a thoughtful piece on Spenser’s particular representation of the mitre and how it cuts (at least) two ways for Spenser. In her essay Laetitia Sansonetti argues that we should pay more attention to the ways in which different languages force us to think about the world through their gendering of grammatical agreements, turning, of course, to translations of Spenser. In each of these pieces, more versions of Spenser appear for us to contend with in years to come.
Finally, there is a large quotient of ten reviews, the work of our excellent reviews editor, Tamsin Badcoe, whose labours will continue after we have gone. We would also like to thank Tom Kowalczyk, who has been a splendid assistant editor, and it has been a great pleasure for us to work with him; Katie Mishler, too, was a huge help in the first years of our term. We look forward to reading the Review as much as we have enjoyed editing it.
Jane Grogan and Andrew Hadfield
52.3.1
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