William Empson: Essays on Renaissance Literature: Volume 2, The Drama

A collection of essays on Renaissance drama including work by Kyd, Jonson, Webster and Shakespeare.

William Empson (Author), John Haffenden (Edited by)

9780521033800, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 February 2007

304 pages
22.8 x 14.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.456 kg

This collection of William Empson's essays on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama is the second volume of his writings on Renaissance literature. Edited with an introduction by the leading Empson scholar John Haffenden, the contents range from famous essays on The Spanish Tragedy, Volpone, The Alchemist and The Duchess of Malfi to a sprightly piece on Elizabethan spirits. In addition, there are previously unpublished essays which revisit critical controversies, and a magnificent, provocative study of A Midsummer Night's Dream which ventures a major new reading of the play. 'I am attracted by the notion of a hearty indifference to one's own and other people's feelings, when a fragment of the truth is in question,' Empson stated. The incomparable Empson here fights his own critical corner with unequalled zest, intelligence and insight.

Sources and acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Kyd, Jonson, Webster: 1. The Spanish Tragedy (I)
2. The Spanish Tragedy: a letter
3. The Spanish Tragedy (II)
4. Volpone
5. Volpone again
6. The Alchemist
7. 'Mine eyes dazzle'
8. The Duchess of Malfi
Part II. Shakespeare and the Spirits: 9. Elizabethan spirits
10. The spirits of the Dream
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]