In reshaping Lodge's
Rosalyndeinto
As You Like It,Shakespeare not only undermines the Petrarchan and pastoral traditions of the romance, but also refutes the implicit gender structures upon which such Petrarchanisms are based. In refashioning
The True Chronicle Historie of King Leirinto the tragedy of
King Lear,Shakespeare does not simply reject the explicit Christian setting and happy ending of
Leir,but engages and responds to the highly Reformational and Calvinistic assumptions that shape and inform the source play. In rewriting Greene's
Pandostointo
The Winter's Tale,Shakespeare not only adapts the plot and characterization of the source, but consistently counters and refutes the rhetorical and linguistic structures of Greene's romance. And in
Pericles,Shakespeare adapts the Appolinus story from Gower's
Confessio Amantis,but also responds to suggestions in the source text about the authority of the role of the author.STEPHEN J. LYNCH is Professor of English at Providence College. He has published articles on Shakespeare in scholarly journals such as
Shakespeare Studies,
Philological Quarterly,
Mediaevalia,
The Upstart Crow, and
South Atlantic Review. He has also taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and at the University of Georgia.
Introduction: Rethinking Shakespeare's Sources
Representing Gender in Rosalynde and As You Like It
English Reformations in King Leir and King Lear
The Role of the Author in the Confessio Amantis and Pericles
Language in Pandosto and The Winter's Tale
Source Texts and Contexts
Works Cited
Index