Reading Renaissance Ethics

Marshall Grossman

Bringing together eminent historicist and formalist critics, this volume examines how Renaissance texts were read, how they were put to use and why this matters for the study of Renaissance literature and for the future of literary studies.

Acknowledgements. Contributors. List of Illustrations. Part 1: 1. Introduction: Reading Renaissance Ethics Part 2: The Ethics of Renaissance Forms 2. Gender, Justice and the Gods in The Faerie Queene, Book 5 3. The Ethics of Posing: Visual Epideixis in Some 17th Century Dutch Group Portraits 4. Textual Ethics: Reading Transference and Translation: Milton and Tragedy 5. Aesthetics as Critique in Samson Agonistes Part 3: Historicizing Renaissance Ethics 6. The Ethics of Renaissance Bible Translation 7. Eating Montaigne 8. Marvell's 'Scaevola Scoto-Brittannus' and the Ethics of Political Violence Part 4: Philosophy and Renaissance Ethics 9. The Ethics of Inspiration 10. Shakespeare Against Morality 11. The Skeptical Ethics of John Donne: The Case of Ignatius his Conclave 12. Winning the Initiative Part 5: Assessments 13. Ethics or Politics? An Exchange Passing through the Areopagitica 14. Reading Reading Renaissance Ethics: 'with modesty enough'