Shakespeare and Renaissance Ethics

Patrick Gray, John D. Cox

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781107071933
• eBook ISBN: 9781139991209
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Written by a distinguished international team of contributors, this volume explores Shakespeare's vivid depictions of moral deliberation and individual choice in light of Renaissance debates about ethics. Examining the intellectual context of Shakespeare's plays, the essays illuminate Shakespeare's engagement with the most pressing moral questions of his time, considering the competing claims of politics, Christian ethics and classical moral philosophy, as well as new perspectives on controversial topics such as conscience, prayer, revenge and suicide. Looking at Shakespeare's responses to emerging schools of thought such as Calvinism and Epicureanism, and assessing comparisons between Shakespeare and his French contemporary Montaigne, the collection addresses questions such as: when does laughter become cruel? How does style reflect moral perspective? Does shame lead to self-awareness? This book is of great interest to scholars and students of Shakespeare studies, Renaissance studies and the history of ethics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Fame, eternity, and Shakespeare’s Romans
• Chapter 2 Shakespeare and the ethics of laughter
• Chapter 3 Aristotelian shame and Christian mortification in Love’s Labour’s Lost
• Chapter 4 Shakespeare’s Virgil
• Chapter 5 Shakespeare’s prayers
• Chapter 6 The morality of milk
• Chapter 7 Hamlet the rough-hewer
• Chapter 8 “Wrying but a little”?
• Chapter 9 “HIDE THY SELFE”
• Chapter 10 Conscience and the god-surrogate in Montaigne and Measure for Measure
• Chapter 11 Shakespeare, Montaigne, and classical reason
• Chapter 12 Madness, proverbial wisdom, and philosophy in King Lear
• Index