Courteous Exchanges explores the significant overlap between Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Shakespeare’s plays, showing how both facilitate the critique of Renaissance aristocratic identity. Moving from a consideration of Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier as a text that encouraged reader engagement, the book offers new readings of Shakespeare’s plays in conjunction with Spenser. It pairs Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, and The Winter’s Tale with The Faerie Queene in order to explore how topics such as education, gender, religion, race, and aristocratic identity are offered up to reader and audience interpretation.
Patricia Wareh is professor of English at Union College
Introduction: Courteous exchanges: Spenser’s and Shakespeare's gentle dialogues with readers and audiences1 Imprinting and performance in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier2 Playing by the rules? Pedagogies of pleasure and inset audiences in Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost3 Honorable action upstaged by theatrical wordplay in The Faerie Queene and Much Ado About Nothing4 Courteous competitions: Blood, gold, and outward shows in Nennio, Spenser’s Book of Courtesy, and The Merchant of Venice5 Literary mirrors of aristocratic performance: Readers and audiences of The Faerie Queene and The Winter’s TaleConclusion: Courteous farewells in Spenser and ShakespeareIndex
‘Courteous exchanges is a needed addition to not only Spenser studies and Shakespeare studies but also the study of courtly rhetoric and performance.’—John Garrison, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme‘A number of critical conversations ought to change in response to Courteous exchanges.’—Vincent Mennella, Spenser Review
