This 1998 book offers an examination of key seventeenth-century writers in the context of their common interest in the republican, libertarian and oppositional potential of the philosophical tradition of Stoicism. The Stoic ethos embraced several paradoxical moral and political concepts, notably 'constancy' accompanied by a fascination with violence, 'indifference' that mirrors extremities of anger and 'retirement' that involves quests for honour and authority. Indeed, Stoicism in England involved not actual withdrawal from society but an intense kind of literacy - reading and writing focused on Seneca, Tacitus, Lucan and Lipsius as they could be seen to comment on contemporary political situations and ideological problems. Through subtly nuanced close readings of Marvell, Katherine Philips and Milton, Andrew Shifflet shows that these writers had more in common than previous philosophical, political and aesthetic categories have allowed, both in their keen Stoic interests and in the struggle to wrest this tradition from absolutist interpretations.

This 1998 book offers an examination of key seventeenth-century writers in the context of their common interest in the republican, libertarian and oppositional potential of the philosophical tradition of Stoicism. The Stoic ethos embraced several paradoxical moral and political concepts, notably 'constancy' accompanied by a fascination with violence, 'indifference' that mirrors extremities of anger and 'retirement' that involves quests for honour and authority. Indeed, Stoicism in England involved not actual withdrawal from society but an intense kind of literacy - reading and writing focused on Seneca, Tacitus, Lucan and Lipsius as they could be seen to comment on contemporary political situations and ideological problems. Through subtly nuanced close readings of Marvell, Katherine Philips and Milton, Andrew Shifflet shows that these writers had more in common than previous philosophical, political and aesthetic categories have allowed, both in their keen Stoic interests and in the struggle to wrest this tradition from absolutist interpretations.

Annual volume collecting new essays on a broad variety of topics in Renaissance studies. Renaissance Papers collects the best scholarly essays submitted each year to the Southeastern Renaissance Conference. The present volume opens with two essays on Shakespeare: one considering the special force of Iago's villainy, the other situating 2 Henry VI in relation to the "clowning" of the Marprelate tracts. The volume then turns to links between religion, rhetoric, technology, and theatrical practice, with interdisciplinary essays on the oral street culture of St. Paul's Cross, cosmetics in Thomas Dekker's Whore of Babylon, and the mixing of genres in George Peele's David and Bethsabe. Following these are essays taking more traditional approachesto two of the most fascinating figures in Renaissance studies: John Donne, whose skill at epistolary insult may have been the real cause of his father-in-law's outrage, and Pietro Aretino, whose "afterlife" in England is engagingly treated. The volume closes with essays showcasing a range of interests in the history of ideas: the metaphysics of light in Patrizi and Caravaggio, the representation of common law courts and special tribunals in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and the anthropocentrism of Sir Francis Bacon. Contributors: Jackson C. Boswell, Jason E. Cohen, Thomas W. Dabbs, George L. Geckle, M. Thomas Hester, Delane Karalow, Robert Kilgore, Kirk Melnikoff, James Schiavoni, Andrew Tumminia. Andrew Shifflett and Edward Gieskes are Associate Professors of English at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.