Male Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeares England reveals the complex and unfamiliar forms of friendship that existed between men in the late sixteenth century. Using the unpublished letter archive of the Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), it shows how Bacon negotiated a path through life that relied on the support of his friends, rather than the advantages and status that came with marriage. Through a set of case-studies focusing on the Inns of Court, the prison, the aristocratic great house and the spiritual connection between young and ardent Protestants, this book argues that the friendship spaces of early modern England permitted the expression of male same-sex intimacy to a greater extent than has previously been acknowledged.
Acknowledgments.- List of Abbreviations.- 1. Introduction: Anthony Bacon and the Uses of Friendship.- 2. Intimacy: Nicholas Faunt, Faith and the Consolations of Friendship.- 3. Instrumentality: The Prison, Liberty and Writing Friendship in the Space in Between.- 4. Institutionality: Nicholas Trott, the Inns of Court and the Value of Friendship.- 5. Instability: Service, Love and Jealousy in the Essex Circle.- Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Index.-
Through a reading of [Anthony] Bacons archive at Lambeth Palace, Tosh identifies the myriad aspects that constituted a Renaissance friendship: Ciceronian (and almost Petrarchan) ideals, affectional transactions, chivalric brotherhood. & It is at once spry and judicious, humane and knowledgeable; it has, in another of Francis Bacons remarks about friendship, peace in the affections and support of the judgment. (Robert Stagg, Times Literary Supplement, Issue 5947, March, 2017)
This book, part of the Palgrave series Early Modern Literature in History, is a valuable addition to the long-standing examination of major figures in Elizabethan England as well l“
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