The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England [Paperback]

This book explores how attitudes toward, and explanations of, human emotions change in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England explores how attitudes toward, and explanations of, human emotions change in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. By emphasising the shared concerns of the 'non-literary' and 'literary' texts produced by figures such as Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Robert Burton, and John Milton, Douglas Trevor asserts that quintessentially 'scholarly' practices such as glossing texts and appending sidenotes shape the methods by which these same writers come to analyse their own moods.The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England explores how attitudes toward, and explanations of, human emotions change in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. By emphasising the shared concerns of the 'non-literary' and 'literary' texts produced by figures such as Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Robert Burton, and John Milton, Douglas Trevor asserts that quintessentially 'scholarly' practices such as glossing texts and appending sidenotes shape the methods by which these same writers come to analyse their own moods.Exploring how attitudes toward human emotions changed in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this book emphasizes the shared concerns of the 'non-literary' and 'literary' texts produced by Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Robert Burton, and John Milton. Douglas Trevor asserts that 'scholarly' practices such as glossing texts and appending sidenotes influenced the methods by which these writers came to analyze their own moods.1. The reinvention of sadness; 2. Detachability and the passions in Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender; 3. Hamlet and the humors of skepticism; 4. John Donne and scholarly melancholy; 5. Robert Burton's melancholic England; 6. Solitary Milton; Epilogue: after Galenism: angelic corporeal3