In my presentation, I look at the subject of prison and exile in the works of two authors from the 1580s, who are rarely discussed together. Stephen Parmenius of Buda, a Hungarian Protestant exile active in London in the early 1580s, composed Latin poems propagating the colonial ventures of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in which he eventually took part, only to die prematurely on the actual journey in 1583. Thomas Nicholls was a “translator and ship-owner” (ODNB), who as a mercer spent considerable time in Spanish prisons in the 1560s, while later in England he re-fashioned himself as a translator and writer. For different reasons, both authors are connected to utopian literature: Parmenius’ vision of the New World is clearly utopian in nature, reiterating many of the conventions of literary utopias. Besides, his identity as a stranger or foreigner is remarkably emphasised in all of his works, reflecting thereby the authorial image of the outsider. In his translations and original utopian dialogues, Nicholls does something similar: he creates the image of the Poor Pilgrim, who always travels, and thus seems to be deprived of a home at all times. After comparing these two authors, as part of my ongoing project on early modern English utopias, I will try to reflect on how the research areas of prison literature and exile might contribute to establishing connections between literatures and cultures where a direct contact of the kind we see in the case of Parmenius is rather the exception than the rule.
Prison/Exile: Controlled Spaces in Early Modern Europe 