Scottish Hands and Anglo-Centrism: The Politics of Canon-Formation and the Dalhousie Manuscripts

Abstract

This article discusses the urgent matter of canonicity in early modern manuscript studies. It argues that the archipelagic turn, first articulated by John Kerrigan, encourages new analyses of manuscripts previously studied for their Anglo-centric canonical authors. By permitting the manuscripts to speak for themselves, new evidence for production and reading practices emerge. Our study centers the Dalhousie manuscripts; we examine the evidence for ownership, compilation, and use, ultimately suggesting the contents work together thematically in ways that highlight Scottish aristocratic reading interests in the early seventeenth century. Thinking archipelagically, this article explores Scottish interest in English poetry, examines thematic evidence in the manuscripts for Scottish provenance, and provides comparative examples of orthographical and lexical evidence.