Early Modern Bonds of Trust
From Shakespeare to Milton
Published on 24. April 2025
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-46200-7 (ISBN)
Description
The concepts of trust and risk provide important insights into the social and cultural life of early modern England but remain relatively unexplored in early modern literary studies.
This collection addresses that gap by exploring a wide range of literary genres and texts including comic drama, lyric verse, emblem books, ledgers, wills, polemical prose and religious epic. Contributors explore issues of personal trust through the faith and lies that characterize Shakespeare's sonnets, Donne's sermons and Milton's Paradise Lost. Following the idea of trust and risk into community brings us to a discussion of The Merry Wives of Windsor, the spiritual trust of faith communities and the network of relationships that are traceable though surviving records of women's wills. Following this progression outwards from the personal to the communal, the final essays in the collection consider the role of institutional trust, specifically the early modern obsession with credit in its various guises. The Merchant of Venice, Volpone and The Winter's Tale act as illustrative examples of credit's significance for understanding trust and risk in the early modern period. Taken together the range of texts and genres considered reveal new insights into early modern English literature and its socio-economic context.
This collection addresses that gap by exploring a wide range of literary genres and texts including comic drama, lyric verse, emblem books, ledgers, wills, polemical prose and religious epic. Contributors explore issues of personal trust through the faith and lies that characterize Shakespeare's sonnets, Donne's sermons and Milton's Paradise Lost. Following the idea of trust and risk into community brings us to a discussion of The Merry Wives of Windsor, the spiritual trust of faith communities and the network of relationships that are traceable though surviving records of women's wills. Following this progression outwards from the personal to the communal, the final essays in the collection consider the role of institutional trust, specifically the early modern obsession with credit in its various guises. The Merchant of Venice, Volpone and The Winter's Tale act as illustrative examples of credit's significance for understanding trust and risk in the early modern period. Taken together the range of texts and genres considered reveal new insights into early modern English literature and its socio-economic context.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-46200-7 (9781350462007)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Joseph Sterrett, Associate Professor of English Literature, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Alison Findlay, Professor of Renaissance Drama, Lancaster University, UK.
Helen Wilcox, Professor Emerita of English Literature, Bangor University, Wales, UK.
Alison Findlay, Professor of Renaissance Drama, Lancaster University, UK.
Helen Wilcox, Professor Emerita of English Literature, Bangor University, Wales, UK.
Content
Introduction by Joseph Sterrett (Aarhus University, Denmark), Alison Findlay (Lancaster University, UK), and Helen Wilcox (Bangor University, UK)
Part I: Intimate Trust
1. 'I lie with her and she with me': Shakespeare's Sonnets and the Pleasures of Seeming Trust
Michael Durrant (University of London, UK)
2. Shades of Theological Trust: Calvin, Donne and Herbert
Joseph Sterrett (Aarhus University, Denmark)
3. Falling into Temptation: Risking Vulnerability in Hero and Leander and Paradise Lost
Rachel Willie (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)
Part II: Early Modern Communal Trust
4. Trust and Risk in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Alison Findlay (Lancaster University, UK)
5. A "Breathless Flight" of Faith: Communities of Trust in Robert Southwell's Poetry
Chloe Preedy (University of Exeter, UK)
6. On the Line: Religious Controversy and Trust in Early Modern English Literature
Helen Wilcox (Bangor University, UK)
7. "This I make my testmt": Trust and Risk in the Wills of Three Early Modern Women
Vicki Kay Price (Bangor University)
Part III: Credit and Risk in Early Modern Institutions
8. Trust and Risk in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Line Cotegnies (Sorbonne University, France)
9. Taking Note and the Technologies of Trust in Ben Jonson's Volpone
Angus Vine (University of Stirling, UK)
10. Trust, Risk, and Credit in The Winter's Tale
Rita Banerjee, The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, India
11. Trust and Risk: The Corporation
Liam Haydon, Head of Strategy for the Natural Environment Research Council, UK
14. Romance and the Spirit of Trust: Narratives of Forswearing in Chretien, Shakespeare and Mozart
Laura Hatch (Brigham Young University, USA) and Julia Reinhard Lupton (The University of California, Irvine, USA)
Part I: Intimate Trust
1. 'I lie with her and she with me': Shakespeare's Sonnets and the Pleasures of Seeming Trust
Michael Durrant (University of London, UK)
2. Shades of Theological Trust: Calvin, Donne and Herbert
Joseph Sterrett (Aarhus University, Denmark)
3. Falling into Temptation: Risking Vulnerability in Hero and Leander and Paradise Lost
Rachel Willie (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)
Part II: Early Modern Communal Trust
4. Trust and Risk in The Merry Wives of Windsor
Alison Findlay (Lancaster University, UK)
5. A "Breathless Flight" of Faith: Communities of Trust in Robert Southwell's Poetry
Chloe Preedy (University of Exeter, UK)
6. On the Line: Religious Controversy and Trust in Early Modern English Literature
Helen Wilcox (Bangor University, UK)
7. "This I make my testmt": Trust and Risk in the Wills of Three Early Modern Women
Vicki Kay Price (Bangor University)
Part III: Credit and Risk in Early Modern Institutions
8. Trust and Risk in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Line Cotegnies (Sorbonne University, France)
9. Taking Note and the Technologies of Trust in Ben Jonson's Volpone
Angus Vine (University of Stirling, UK)
10. Trust, Risk, and Credit in The Winter's Tale
Rita Banerjee, The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, India
11. Trust and Risk: The Corporation
Liam Haydon, Head of Strategy for the Natural Environment Research Council, UK
14. Romance and the Spirit of Trust: Narratives of Forswearing in Chretien, Shakespeare and Mozart
Laura Hatch (Brigham Young University, USA) and Julia Reinhard Lupton (The University of California, Irvine, USA)