English Renaissance Studies

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting. This site is dedicated to publishing essays, reviews and resources on the writers of the English Renaissance, with particular reference to the works of Shakespeare and Bacon.

Refer to the site map to find out where everything is.

If you have any queries or suggestions, or if you would like to submit a paper for publication, drop me a line.

David Hurley ,
April 2009

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"Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia."

What's Up?

April 2009: Finding Machiavelli And His Ideas In The Plays Of Shakespeare: I will give an introductory lecture on Machiavelli and Shakespeare to the Sekai O Miru Kai, an English language cultural study group, at Aster Plaza in Hiroshima on April 16th. The talk will be in English, with simultaneous Japanese translation.

1. Who was Machiavelli? - An introduction to his life. [10 minutes]

2. Machiavelli's Shocking Book - The Prince. [10 minutes]

3. The Prince In England - The Protestant Response... Bacon & Machiavelli... Did Shakespeare read The Prince? [5 minutes]

4. The Machiavel: Machiavelli on the English Stage - A caracature of wickedness. [5 minutes]

5. Machiavellian Moments In Shakespeare's Plays - Shakespeare's engagement with Machiavellian ideas. [15 minutes]

6. Q&A

See Machiavelli And His Influence On Shakespeare for an introduction to the subject.

December 2008: All three of my MA essays are now available on this site.

Bacon and Machiavelli looks at the way in which Bacon was influence by and adapted the works of Niccolo Machiavelli and how he was careful to distinguish between the useful and the corrupt aspects of his political philosophy.

Magi Imaginationis discusses the role of magicians and magi in three key texts of the English Renaissance, Bacon's New Atlantis, Jonson's The Alchemist and Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Janus of Imagination is a discussion of Francis Bacon's Theory of the Imagination and the Wisdom of the Ancients.

Publication Schedule

A Movéd Prince: The Judgement of Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet. (Published: Studies in English Language and Literature, No. 13, March 2005.) Scheduled for publication on this site in September 2009.

The Politics of "Occasion" in King Lear. (Published: Studies in English Language and Literature, No. 14, March 2006.) Scheduled for publication on this site in December 2009.

Precipitous Romeo and Peremptory Petruchio: Two Young Gentlemen of Verona Compared. (Published: Studies in English Language and Literature, No. 15, March 2007.) Scheduled for publication on this site in January 2010.

Other Stuff

Francis Bacon Quotations
A pithy selection of aphorisms and apophthegms by the Viscount St. Albans, Baron of Verulam.

Shakespeare Hangman
How fast can you guess the word from Shakespeare without getting hanged?

Shakespeare's Sonnets
Browse Shakespeare's Sonnets via this easy Google Gadget courtesy of Nathaniel Story.

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Every essay comes with fully sourced notes and a complete bibliography as well as translations of any foreign or Latin quotations.

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Results

Petruchio: 1 Romeo: 1

Best Reason

"Romeo: Because he had a sports car named after him!"
Andy Lightfoot