Introduction

Employing a blend of historical, philological, literary and linguistic methods, the book paints a full-bodied portrait of Richard Rowlands Verstegan (or Verstegen, 1550?-1640) – a man whose multiple and variously-spelled name reflects a multi-faceted public personality. English by birth and upbringing, Dutch by fatherly descent, Verstegan spent most of his life on the Continent, employed intermittently as a Catholic spy, poet, religious translator, polemicist, and philologist. While this many-sidedness is typical of the Renaissance period, some of Verstegan’s interests and positions were innovative or extravagant – witness his familiarization of the epigram in the Netherlands (1617), or his depiction of Teutonic England in the Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1605). An all-encompassing view demonstrates the centrality of a figure who has long been relegated to the margins of English, Dutch and European history.