eprintid: 10132361 rev_number: 25 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/13/23/61 datestamp: 2021-08-23 15:50:53 lastmod: 2023-07-24 06:10:07 status_changed: 2021-08-23 15:50:53 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Ossa-Richardson, A title: John Taylor Retailored ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C01 divisions: F10 note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. abstract: The works of John Taylor the Water Poet (1578–1653) have in recent years been reappraised by scholars of early modern material culture for their expression of a working-class voice, for their inventive manipulation of the print market, and above all for their embodiment, in contrast to dominant Renaissance paradigms of literary worth, of a poetics of physical labour. In this article I revisit the figure of the tailor in Taylor’s defences of his own literary practice, showing that he cleaved to a simplistic distinction between originality and theft, identifying tailoring with the latter. I then examine three examples of his reworkings of previous poems—a micro-drama about the Thirty Years War, an anti-Papist dialogue, and an extended piece of nonsense verse—in an attempt to demonstrate that, despite Taylor’s critical assertions, they can after all best be thought of retailorings, neither properly original nor stolen. This category, however, is a modern one, and I conclude that we have no choice but to appreciate Taylor’s poems, or those of any other early modern writer, on our own terms. date: 2022-02 publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP) official_url: https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgab047 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1880371 doi: 10.1093/res/hgab047 lyricists_name: Ossa-Richardson, Anthony lyricists_id: AOSSA54 actors_name: Ossa-Richardson, Anthony actors_id: AOSSA54 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: The Review of English Studies volume: 73 number: 308 pagerange: 59-77 citation: Ossa-Richardson, A; (2022) John Taylor Retailored. The Review of English Studies , 73 (308) pp. 59-77. 10.1093/res/hgab047 <https://doi.org/10.1093/res%2Fhgab047>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10132361/1/Ossa-Richardson_John%20Taylor%20Retailored_AAM.pdf