Shakespeare and Montaigne

Lars Engle, Chapman Professor of English at Tulsa, is the author of Shakespearean Pragmatism, coauthor of Studying Shakespeare’s Contemporaries, and coeditor of English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology. His essays have appeared in PMLA, Modern Philology, Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Studies, SEL, and in numerous other journals and essay collections. He’s a past Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America. Patrick Gray is Associate Professor of English Studies and Director of Liberal Arts at Durham University. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism, and Civil War (2019), editor of Shakespeare and the Ethics of War (2019), and co-editor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Ethics (2014). His essays have appeared in Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Skenè, JMEMS, Comparative Drama, and Textual Practice. William M. Hamlin is Professor of English at Washington State University and Bornander Distinguished Professor in the WSU Honors College. His books include Tragedy and Scepticism in Shakespeare’s England (Palgrave, 2005), Montaigne’s English Journey (Oxford, 2013), and, most recently, Montaigne: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2020). A recipient of Guggenheim and British Academy fellowships, he has published essays in Renaissance Quarterly, English Literary Renaissance, Shakespeare Studies, Montaigne Studies, and many other journals.

• ContentsAcknowledgements viiNotes on Contributors xPreface: Reading Montaigne by Colin Burrow xvIntrodu ction: Shakespeare and Montaigne:A Critical History 1William M. HamlinIntroduction: Shakespeare and Montaigne asThought-Experiment 28Lars Engle1. Of Birds and Bees: Montaigne, Shakespeare andthe Rhetoric of Imitation 59N. Amos Rothschild2. The Nature of Presence: Facing Violence in Montaigneand Shakespeare 78Anita Gilman Sherman3. Narcissism, Epochal Change and ‘Public Necessity’ inRichard II and ‘Of Custom, and Not Easily Changingan Accepted Law’ 90William McKenzie4. Shakespeare, Montaigne and Ricoeur: Identity as Narrative 105Zorica Bečanović-Nikolić5. Genre and Gender in Montaigne and Shakespeare 123David Schalkwyk6. Shakespeare, Montaigne and Moral Luck 140Maria Devlin McNair7. Cavell’s Tragic Scepticism and the Comedy of the Cuckold:Othello and Montaigne Revisited 166Cassie M. Miura8. Feeling Indifference: Flaying Narratives in Montaigneand Shakespeare 180Alison Calhoun9. On Belief in Montaigne and Shakespeare 198William M. Hamlin10. Making Sense of ‘To be or not to be’ 216Richard Dillane11. ‘The web of our life is of a mingled yarn’: Mixed Worldsand Kinds in Montaigne’s ‘We Taste Nothing Purely’and Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well 233Peter G. Platt12. Radical Neo-Paganism: The Transmission of DiscontinuousIdentity from Plutarch to Montaigne to Shakespeare’sAntony and Cleopatra 246Daniel Vitkus13. Montaigne, Shakespeare and the Metamorphosis ofComedy and Tragedy 263Richard Hillman14. Montaigne’s Essais, Shakespeare’s Trials and OtherExperiments of Moment 282Richard Scholar15. Montaigne’s Shakespeare: The Tempest as Test-case 296Lars Engle16. Falstaff’s Party: Shakespeare, Montaigne and TheirLiberal Censors 326Patrick GrayAfterword: A Philosophical Shakespeare or aDramatic Montaigne? 374George HoffmannAfterword: A Philosophical Montaigne and aDramatic Shakespeare? 384Katharine Eisaman MausBibliography 392Index 435

Describing books as ‘this world’s theatre’, Montaigne admitted his curiosity to read and thereby ‘discover and know the mind of my authors’. This book’s dynamic discoveries about the shared literary, historical and psychological sympathies of Shakespeare and Montaigne illuminates the mind and work of both. It is a field-changing collection.