Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe

This unique collection of essays by leading scholars in the field is the first of its kind to examine Shakespeare's representation of Europe and its influence on his writing, providing an original perspective that gives historical, literary, and geographical context for the plays.

 

In each essay, the contributors explore the diverse ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries experienced and imagined Europe. The book charts the aspects of European politics and culture which particularly interested Renaissance English readers and travelers, thus mapping the contexts within which Shakespeare's plays would have been received. Chapters cover the politics of continental Europe, the representation of foreigners on the English stage, the experiences of English travelers abroad, Shakespeare's reading of modern European literature, the influence on him of Italian comedy, his presentation of the Moors from Europe's southern frontier, and his imaginative translation of Europe into settings for his plays.

Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
A Note on Dates
Chronology

Introduction: Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe
   Andrew Hadfield
Chapter One: The Politics of Renaissance Europe
   Susan Doran
Chapter Two: English Contact with Europe
   Michael G. Brennan
Chapter Three: Shakespeare's Reading of Modern European Literature
   Stuart Gillespie
Chapter Four: Shakespeare and Italian Comedy
   Richard Andrews
Chapter Five: Contemporary Europe in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Drama
   Paulina Kewes
Chapter Six: Shakespeare's Imaginary Geography
   Francois Laroque
Chapter Seven: Europe's Mediterranean Frontier: The Moor
   Nabil Matar and Rudolph Stoeckel

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author(s)

By Andrew Hadfield and Paul Hammond

Andrew Hadfield is Professor of English at the University of Sussex. His books include Literature, Travel, and Colonialism in the English Renaissance 1540-1625; Amazons, Savages, and Machiavels: An Anthology of Travel and Colonial Writing 1550-1650; Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Matter of Britain; and Shakespeare and Renaissance Politics in the present series.

Paul Hammond is Professor of Seventeenth-Century English Literature at the University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include Dryden and the Traces of Classical Rome, Figuring Sex between Men from Shakespeare to Rochester, and, as co-editor, the Longman Annotated English Poets edition of The Poems of John Dryden.