Synopses & Reviews
'The volume's awesome range makes it a valuable preserve for scholars and an ambitious reference for students.' -
Times Higher Education Supplement'This impressive tome must certainly be the last word on English Renaissance literature culture, at least for some considerable time to come.' - Reference reviews
In this comprehensive Companion over fifty of the most eminent modern scholars come together to offer an original and far-reaching survey of English Renaissance literature and culture.
The first part of the volume considers pertinent issues such as humanism, English reformations, the development of the language, court culture and playhouses, in terms of the way in which these aspects of Renaissance culture influenced literary production. There are provocative essays on canonical genres such as love poetry and Jacobean tragedy, but also accounts of popular and occasional drama and verse, and the visual arts.
The Companion also approaches key texts of the period through a number of new readings, providing original perspective and positions on both canonical and non-canonical texts. The essays include a range of approaches to a variety of texts from The Spanish Tragedy and The Faerie Queen to 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, the poems of Lady Mary Wroth, and a selection of critical elegies.
In the final section, the book moves on the explore contemporary debates in Renaissance studies such as feminism, sexuality, historicism, and nation.
This Companion is the only book of its kind to travel beyond the stage and is an invaluable guide for both student and teacher.
Review
"The inclusivity and scholarship of this Companion builds on the excellence of the earlier edition. Any university library supporting undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Renaissance literature should consider adding this to their collection." (Reference Reviews, 2011)
"The volume's awesome range makes it a valuable preserve for scholars and an ambitious reference for students." Times Higher Education Supplement
"This impressive tome must certainly be the last word on English Renaissance literature and culture, at least for some considerable time to come." Reference Reviews
Review
"The volume's awesome range makes it a valuable preserve for scholars and an ambitious reference for students." Times Higher Education Supplement
"This impressive tome must certainly be the last word on English Renaissance literature and culture, at least for some considerable time to come." Reference Reviews
Review
"The inclusivity and scholarship of this Companion builds on the excellence of the earlier edition. Any university library supporting undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Renaissance literature should consider adding this to their collection." (Reference Reviews, 2011)
"The volume's awesome range makes it a valuable preserve for scholars and an ambitious reference for students." Times Higher Education Supplement
"This impressive tome must certainly be the last word on English Renaissance literature and culture, at least for some considerable time to come." Reference Reviews
Synopsis
This is a one volume, up-to-date collection of more than fifty wide-ranging essays which will inspire and guide students of the Renaissance and provide course leaders with a substantial and helpful frame of reference.
About the Author
Michael Hattaway is Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield. His many publications include Elizabethan Popular Theatre (1982) and he has edited plays by Shakespeare, Beaumont and Jonson. He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays (2002), and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama (1990) and Shakespeare in the New Europe (1994).
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations.
Notes on Contributors. .
Part I: Introduction.
1. Introduction (Michael Hattaway).
Part II: Contexts and Perspectives ca 1500-1650.
2. Early Tudor 'Humanism (Mary T. Crane).
3. English Reformations (Patrick Collinson).
4. Platonism, Stoicism, Scepticism, and Classical Imitation (Sarah Hutton).
5. History (Patrick Collinson).
6. The English Language of the Early Modern Period (N.F. Blake).
7. Publication: Print and Manuscript (Michelle O'Callaghan).
8. Literacy and Education (Jean R. Brink).
9. Court and Coterie Culture (Curtis Perry).
10. The Literature of the Metropolis (John A. Twyning).
11. Playhouses and the Role of Drama (Michael Hattaway).
12. The Writing of Travel (Peter Womack).
Part III: Readings.
13. Translations of the Bible (Gerald Hammond).
14. Wyatt's 'Who So List to Hunt' (Rachel Falconer).
15. Courtship and Counsell: John Lyly's Campaspe (Greg Walker).
16. Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book V: Poetry, Politics, and Justicem (Judith Anderson).
17. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (Amanda Piesse).
18. Donne's 19th Elergy (Germaine Greer).
19. Lanyer's 'The Description of Cookham' and Jonson's 'To Penshurst' (Nicole Pohl).
20. A Bacon Essay ('Of Simulation and Dissimulation') (Martin Dzelzainis).
21. Lancelot Andrewes Good Friday 1604 Sermon (Richard Harries).
22. Herbert's 'The Elixir' (Judith Weil).
23. The Heart of the Labyrinth: Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (Robyn Bolam).
24. The Critical Elegy (John Lyon).
25. The final scene of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Robyn Bolam).
Part IV: Genres and Modes.
26. Theories of Literary Kinds (John Roe).
27. Allegory (Clara Mucci).
28. Pastoral (Michelle O'Callaghan).
29. Romance (Helen Moore).
30. Epic (Rachel Falconer).
31. Criticism (Arthur Kinney).
32. The English Print c.1550-c.1650 (Malcolm Jones).
Verse.
33. Traditions of Complaint and Satire (John King).
34. Love Poetry (Diana Henderson).
35. Erotic Poems (Boika Sokolova).
36. Religious Verse (Elizabeth Clarke).
37. Poets, Friends and Patrons: Donne and his Circle; Ben and his Tribe (Robin Robbins).
38. 'Such Pretty Things Would Soon be Gone': The Neglected Genres of Popular Verse 1480-1650 (Malcolm Jones).
Drama.
39. Local and "Customary" Drama (Thomas Pettitt).
40. Continuities between 'Medieval' and 'Early Modern' Drama (Michael O'Connell).
41. Heroic, Political, and Problem Plays (Stephen Longstaffe).
42. Women and Drama (Alison Findlay).
43. Tales of the City: The Comedies of Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton (Peter J. Smith).
44. 'Tied/To Rules of Flattery?': Court Drama and the Masque (James Knowles).
45. Jacobean Tragedy (Rowland Wymer).
46. Caroline Theatre (Roy Booth).
Prose.
47. Scientific Writing (David Colclough).
48. Prose Fiction (Andrew Hadfield).
49. Theological Writings and Religious Polemic (Donna Hamilton).
50. The English Renaissance Essay: Churchyard, Cornwallis, Florio's Montaigne, and Bacon (John Lee).
51. Diaries (Elizabeth Clarke).
52. Letters (Jonathan Gibson).
Part V: Issues and Debates.
53. Rhetoric (Marion Trousdale).
54. Identity (A.J. Piesse).
55. Was There a Renaissance Feminism (Jean Howard).
56. The Debate on Witchcraft (James Sharpe).
57. Reconstructing the Past: History, Historicism, Histories (James R .Siemon).
58. Sexuality: A Renaissance Category (James Knowles).
59. Race: A Renaissance Category (Margo Hendricks).
60. Writing the Nation (Nicola Royan)