Paradoxia Epidemica is a broad-ranging critical study of Renaissance thought, showing how the greatest writers of the period from Erasmus and Rabelais to Donne, Milton, and Shakespeare made conscious use of paradox not only as a figure of speech but as a mode of thought, a way of perceiving the universe, God, nature, and man himself. The book consists of an introduction (historical and topological) and sixteen chapters grouped according to broad types of paradox: rhetorical, theological, ontological, epistemological. Within this framework the author interprets individual writings or art forms as parts of a rich tradition. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A noted historian of Renaissance English literature and scholar of comparative literature, Rosalie L. Colie was also a serious poet. This volume brings together 31 of her poems, illustrating the striking interplay between her scholarship and her personal response to the world. The title poem and the shorter poems that follow testify to Professor Colie's versatility as a poet. There are sonnets, elegies, metaphysical speculations, pastorals, love poems all imbued with the intelligence and sensibility that pervaded her life and work. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this, her last book, Rosalie L. Colie suggests that by linking "forms"--verse forms, devices, motives, themes, conventions, genres--to the culture from which a writer springs and to his selection and organization of materials, we can understand the processes by which he becomes what he is, and is enabled to do what he does. She is particularly concerned with uncovering the ways in which Shakespeare used, misused, criticized, re-created, and sometimes revolutionized the received topics and devices of his craft. In this sense, Shakespeare's plays are seen as problem plays, each exploring the problematics of his craft and revealing his assessment of what was problematical. The author has chosen for study topics which connect Shakespeare with the long and rich continental Renaissance, in the hope that in the future Shakespeare might be, like Dante and Cervantes, an essential author in a comparatist's education. Usually a single topic dealing with some formal aspect of a play--the use of stereotypes to create a character highly original in stage practice, or the various manipulations of a mode (the pastoral, for example) rich in potentialities--is used to try to see in what particular ways Shakespeare shaped works that are still unique. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Professor Colie brings together all previous and partial perspectives on Andrew Marvell, adds new ones harvested from her own deep learning and wide research, and transforms the whole into what Professor Joseph Summers of the University of Michigan has called "the best critical book on Marvell's poetry." Rich in details and knowledge of seventeenth-century English poetry, aesthetics, Renaissance and Baroque literature and art, and critical theory, "My Ecchoing Song" first examines Marvell's uses of theme and device in various lyrics. Later parts of the book concentrate on "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden," which Professor Colie reads from the various focuses of political history, Marvell's knowledge and use of emblems and classical authors, contemporary theology, philosophy, and painting. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A noted historian of Renaissance English literature and scholar of comparative literature, Rosalie L. Colie was also a serious poet. This volume brings together 31 of her poems, illustrating the striking interplay between her scholarship and her personal response to the world. The title poem and the shorter poems that follow testify to Professor Colie's versatility as a poet. There are sonnets, elegies, metaphysical speculations, pastorals, love poems all imbued with the intelligence and sensibility that pervaded her life and work. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this, her last book, Rosalie L. Colie suggests that by linking "forms"--verse forms, devices, motives, themes, conventions, genres--to the culture from which a writer springs and to his selection and organization of materials, we can understand the processes by which he becomes what he is, and is enabled to do what he does. She is particularly concerned with uncovering the ways in which Shakespeare used, misused, criticized, re-created, and sometimes revolutionized the received topics and devices of his craft. In this sense, Shakespeare's plays are seen as problem plays, each exploring the problematics of his craft and revealing his assessment of what was problematical. The author has chosen for study topics which connect Shakespeare with the long and rich continental Renaissance, in the hope that in the future Shakespeare might be, like Dante and Cervantes, an essential author in a comparatist's education. Usually a single topic dealing with some formal aspect of a play--the use of stereotypes to create a character highly original in stage practice, or the various manipulations of a mode (the pastoral, for example) rich in potentialities--is used to try to see in what particular ways Shakespeare shaped works that are still unique. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Professor Colie brings together all previous and partial perspectives on Andrew Marvell, adds new ones harvested from her own deep learning and wide research, and transforms the whole into what Professor Joseph Summers of the University of Michigan has called "the best critical book on Marvell's poetry." Rich in details and knowledge of seventeenth-century English poetry, aesthetics, Renaissance and Baroque literature and art, and critical theory, "My Ecchoing Song" first examines Marvell's uses of theme and device in various lyrics. Later parts of the book concentrate on "Upon Appleton House" and "The Garden," which Professor Colie reads from the various focuses of political history, Marvell's knowledge and use of emblems and classical authors, contemporary theology, philosophy, and painting. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Paradoxia Epidemica is a broad-ranging critical study of Renaissance thought, showing how the greatest writers of the period from Erasmus and Rabelais to Donne, Milton, and Shakespeare made conscious use of paradox not only as a figure of speech but as a mode of thought, a way of perceiving the universe, God, nature, and man himself. The book consists of an introduction (historical and topological) and sixteen chapters grouped according to broad types of paradox: rhetorical, theological, ontological, epistemological. Within this framework the author interprets individual writings or art forms as parts of a rich tradition. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.