Katharine Goodland is Assistant Professor of English at the City University of New York's College of Staten Island, USA.

• Contents: Introduction; Introduction to part 1; Resistant female grief in the medieval English Lazarus plays; Maternal mourning and tragedy in the nativity and passion plays; Residual lament in the medieval resurrection plays; Introduction to part 2; Constance and the claims of passion; Mourning and communal memory in Shakespeare's Richard III; Monstrous mourning women in Kyd, Webster, and Shakespeare; The gendered poetics of tragedy in Shakespeare's Hamlet; Inverting the pieta in Shakespeare's King Lear; Bibliography; Index.

’Her book is impressive not only in its breadth of coverage but in the tenacity with which its pursues its claims...Goodland's study is well worth reading...teaches us a great deal about the prevalence and significance of female mourning in pre- and post-Reformation drama.’ Renaissance Quarterly ’... compelling study... The strength of this book is its dedication to thinking across the medieval-early modern divide that structures English literary studies. Goodland's sustained interest in medieval drama is a welcome addition to current trend in thinking across the divide between pre- and early modern England... an informative and stimulating read for medievalists and Shakespeareans alike.’ Journal of British Studies