Teaching & Learning Guide for: Men Who Weep and Wail: Masculinity and Emotion in Sidney's New Arcadia
Authors: Vaught Jennifer C. 
Published: August 2008

Author's Introduction

In this Teaching and Learning Guide I include my essay ‘Men Who Weep and Wail: Masculinity and Emotion in Sidney's New Arcadia’ in a Sixteenth‐Century Major Writers course on Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare aimed at upper‐level undergraduates and graduate students. This course examines poetry and prose by these writers in roughly chronological order and offers a selection of primary and secondary readings that situates these texts in their literary and historical context and in relation to recent critical works on emotion and masculinity, subjects that have generated considerable critical interest over the past decade. Studies of emotion, which the early moderns described as bodily passions, have become popular in literary studies, cultural history, philosophy, and anthropology among other disciplines. The growing interest of literary critics in the issue of masculinity complements the sustained critical interest in femininity and feminism in gender studies. The broadening of the field of gender studies to include men's as well as women's studies challenges the misleading association of men with the mind and women with the body and avoids perpetuating the illusion that men are the ungendered sex. Recently, literary critics have explored the topic of masculinity extensively with respect to Shakespeare's plays but less so in relation to poetry and prose by his contemporaries. In my essay on emotionally expressive men in Sidney's New Arcadia I demonstrate when, where, how, and to what extent male expressions of desire, grief, anger, melancholy, and pity function as sources of strength rather than weakness. This essay thereby reveals that stoicism and self‐restraint are not always masculine qualities and that emotional demonstrativeness and hysteria are not necessarily feminine or debilitating traits in early modern texts.

Author Recommends:

General Early Modern Criticism:

Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion, eds. Patrick Cheney, Andrew Hadfield, and Garrett A. Sullivan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) provides twenty‐eight original essays that examine major poems by Spenser, Sidney, Wroth, Marlowe, and Shakespeare among other sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century writers in relation to topics ranging from literary genres, modes, and Petrarchism to the body, sexuality, and homoeroticism.

Secondary Works on Emotion:

The interdisciplinary collection Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion, ed. Gail Kern Paster, Katherine Rowe, and Mary Floyd‐Wilson (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) focuses on the meanings and representations of emotion in Renaissance literature, music, and art.

In Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England: Physiology and Inwardness in Spenser, Shakespeare, Herbert, and Milton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) Michael Schoenfeldt explores the close link between psychological inwardness and corporeal processes in English Renaissance literature that resulted from the early modern medical paradigm of the passions as governed by the bodily humors.

In The Gendering of Melancholia: Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Symbolics of Loss in Renaissance Literature (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992) Juliana Schiesari argues that melancholia often functions as a sign of elite exceptionality in men but that women's grief is often a figure for the illness of depression and is thereby disparaged.

In ‘The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and Its (Com)Passionate Women Readers’, Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990) Mary Ellen Lamb demonstrates that Sir Philip Sidney presents passion, which is often associated with feminine displays of affect, as a positive trait that motivates heroic constancy for both sexes in the New Arcadia.

Secondary Works on Masculinity:

Shakespeare and Masculinity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) by Bruce Smith provides a vital, exemplary introduction to the study of masculinity and early modern theories of the bodily humors and gender.

In Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) Mark Breitenberg examines the dialectic of anxiety and desire for masculine subjects in works by Shakespeare, Bacon, Burton, and women writers.

In ‘Early Modern Masculinities and The Faerie Queene’, English Literary Renaissance 35.2 (2005): 210–47 Lisa Celovksy addresses the gap in gender and feminist approaches to Spenser studies by examining what it means to be a man in his epic romance.

General Reference:

The Spenser Encylopedia, eds. A. C. Hamilton et al. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990) is an indispensable reference tool offering over 700 entries on Spenser's life, works, and literary influences.

Online Materials:

See the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and the Armada Portrait in particular in relation to her ‘Speech to the Troops at Tilbury’ at http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Elizabeth_I_of_England.

The Sidney Homepage at http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/sidney provides links to The Sidney Journal, the Sidney‐Spenser Discussion List, and on‐line resources on Sidney's texts, biographies, and bibliographies of literary criticism on his works.

See the Sir Philip Sidney World Bibliography at http://bibs.slu.edu/sidney/index.html for annotated bibliographies about Sidney's life and work.

The Edmund Spenser Homepage at http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/main.htm offers a biography and bibliography about Spenser as well as useful links to Spenser journals, discussion lists, and other Renaissance authors, journals, research libraries, and archives.

See the Edmund Spenser World Bibliography at http://bibs.slu.edu/spenser/index.html for bibliographies, abstracts, and book reviews from Spenser Studies and The Spenser Review.

See the Images of St. George Throughout the Ages: Western Art in relation to Redcrosse's battle with the dragon in Book I of The Faerie Queene at http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=saint+george+and+the+dragon&um=1&ie=UTF‐8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title.

See Botticelli's painting ‘Primavera’ in connection to the dance of the Graces on Mount Acidale in Book VI of The Faerie Queene at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primavera_(painting).

See Botticelli's painting ‘Mars and Venus’ in relation to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Venus_and_Mars.jpg.

Sample Syllabus:

Sixteenth‐Century Major Writers: Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare

Required Texts:

Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier: The Singleton Translation, ed. Daniel Javitch (Norton, 2002)

Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, ed. Maurice Evans (Penguin, 1977)

Sidney, The Major Works, ed. Katherine Duncan Jones (Oxford, 2002)

Edmund Spenser's Poetry, ed. Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott (Norton, 1993)

Christopher Marlowe: Complete Poems and Translations, ed. Stephen Orgel (Penguin, 1973)

Shakespeare's Poems, ed. Katherine Duncan Jones (Thomson Learning, 2007)

Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. Katherine Duncan Jones (Thomson Learning, 1997)

Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion, ed. Patrick Cheney et al. (Oxford, 2006)

Course Objectives:

This course will focus on sixteenth‐century major writers – Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare – and their larger literary context. We will read Sir Philip Sidney's landmark essay The Defence of Poesy and his sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella, which we will discuss in relation to the Italian sonneteer Petrarch and sonnets by his niece, Lady Mary Wroth. We will then turn to selections from the first prose romance, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, which features a soap opera plot. We will read Books I, III, and VI of Spenser's epic romance The Faerie Queene, his pastoral work The Shepheardes Calender, his sonnet sequence The Amoretti, and his marriage ode Epithalamion. We will compare Christopher Marlowe's erotic Hero and Leander to Shakespeare's narrative poem Venus and Adonis and read Shakespeare's Sonnets in terms of his response to Petrarch and his contributions to the development of the English sonnet. Castiglione's Book of the Courtier will provide the springboard for our discussion of the origins of Renaissance court life and its metamorphosis into the cult of Elizabeth so influential on the Golden Age of literature and culture.

Written Requirements:

Students will write a researched essay of 5–7 pages and a conference‐length, researched essay of 10–12 pages, including a 250‐word abstract of it (appropriate for submission to a conference). A research paper proposal and bibliography for the second paper will be due several weeks before the second essay. Written requirements will also include a midterm and final exam.

Oral Requirements:

Each student will give one, ten‐minute oral presentation focused on primary work(s) included on the syllabus. On the day of your presentation please give the other members of the class an annotated bibliography that includes citations (MLA style) and abstracts (150 words each) for three critical essays relevant to the topic of your presentation. Include three relevant discussion questions on your handout as well. This handout will eliminate the need for you to discuss in detail what other critics have to say about your topic. You may refer to these critical works during your presentation, but your main emphasis should be on teaching the class about the primary work(s) you have selected. In order to do so successfully, focus our attention on a few specific poems or an episode or part of a longer narrative poem or prose work (i.e., the October eclogue in The Shepherdes Calendar, the Bower of Bliss in Book III of The Faerie Queene, the bedroom scene in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, or selected sonnets by Shakespeare). Use the discussion questions on your handout to stimulate discussion about your topic toward the end of your presentation.

Course Calendar:

Week 1:

Elizabeth I, ‘Speech to the Troops at Tilbury’ from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. M. H. Abrams, 7th ed. (New York, NY: Norton, 2000), 597. In relation to this ‘Speech’, which Queen Elizabeth I delivered right before the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, see the portraits of the Queen and her Armada Portrait in particular at http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Elizabeth_I_of_England.

Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, Books I and IV (Ladder of Love)

Read Harry Berger Jr., ‘Sprezzatura and the Absence of Grace’, The Book of the Courtier, 295–307.

Week 2:

Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar, 500–45 (Introductory Material and January, February, April, October, November, and December eclogues in Edmund Spenser's Poetry)

Read May eclogue from The Yale Edition of the Shorter Poems of Edmund Spenser, ed. Willam A. Oram et al. (Yale, 1989), 85–105 and John King, ‘Spenser's May Eclogue and Mid‐Tudor Religious Poetry’ in Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion (EMEP).

Weeks 3–4:

Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, Book I, pp. 57–182 and ending, pp. 816–48

Read Mary Ellen Lamb, ‘The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and its (Com)Passionate Women Readers’ in Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle and Jennifer C. Vaught, ‘Men Who Weep and Wail: Masculinity and Emotion in Sidney's New Arcadia’, Literature Compass 2.1 (2005), doi: 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2005.00120.x.

Week 5:

Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 1, 25, 31, 34, 39, 44, 47, 52, 71 (in The Major Works)

Lady Mary Wroth: Sonnets P3, P4, P9, P16, P48, P55, P66, P77, P103 in The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, ed. Josephine A. Roberts (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1983).

Read Naomi Miller, ‘Lady Mary Wroth and Women's Love Poetry’ in EMEP.

Week 6:

Sidney, A Defence of Poetry (in The Major Works)

Read Peter Herman, ‘Tudor and Stuart Defenses of Poetry’ in EMEP.

Paper Due (5–7 pp.)

Weeks 7–8:

Spenser, The Faerie Queene Book I, Proem and canto I (Wandering Wood), canto ii (Fradubio), canto iv (House of Pride), canto ix (Despair), canto x (Contemplation), and cantos xi‐xii (Redcrosse's battle with the dragon) in Edmund Spenser's Poetry

In connection to the Despair episode read Douglas Trevor, ‘Sadness in The Faerie Queene’ in Reading the Early Modern Passions

In relation to Redcrosse's battle with the dragon see images of St. George and the Dragon at http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=saint+george+and+the+dragon&um=1&ie=UTF‐8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title.

Faerie Queene Book II, canto xii (Bower of Bliss)

Midterm Exam

Weeks 9–10:

Faerie Queene Book III, Proem and cantos i–iv (Britomart, Malecaste, and Marinell) and canto vi (Garden of Adonis)

Read Lisa Celovsky, ‘Early Modern Masculinities and The Faerie Queene’, English Literary Renaissance 35.2 (2005): 210–47 and Elizabeth Harvey, ‘Spenser, Virginity, and Sexuality’ in EMEP.

FQ III, cantos ix–xii (House of Busirane)

Read Thomas Roche, A. Kent Hieatt, and Suzanne Wofford on the House of Busirane in Edmund Spenser's Poetry.

Week 11:

Faerie Queene Book VI, Proem and cantos ix and x (Calidore and Melibee) and cantos xi and xii (Calidore, Colin Clout, Pastorella, and the brigands)

See Botticelli's painting ‘Primavera’ in relation to the dance of the Graces on Mount Acidale in canto x of Book VI at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primavera_(painting).

Weeks 12–13:

Spenser, Amoretti 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 29, 32, 35, 39, 42, 54, 62, 67, 68, 71, 83, 87

Spenser, Epithalamion

Research Paper Proposal and Bibliography Due

Week 14:

Marlowe, Hero and Leander (in Marlowe, Complete Poems and Translations).

Read Alan Sinfield, ‘Marlowe's Erotic Verse’ in EMEP.

Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (in Shakespeare's Poems)

See Botticelli's painting ‘Mars and Venus’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Venus_and_Mars.jpg

Read Judith H. Anderson, ‘Venus and Adonis: Spenser, Shakespeare, and the Forms of Desire’ in Grief and Gender: 700–1700, ed. Jennifer C. Vaught with Lynne Dickson Bruckner (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 149–62.

Final Paper and Abstract Due (10–12 pp.)

Week 15:

Shakespeare, Sonnets 1, 12*, 15, 18*, 19, 20*, 29*, 37*, 55*, 60, 65, 73*, 87*, 116*, 126, 127, 128, 129*, 130*, 135, 136, 138, 144, 147*

Read Sasha Roberts, ‘Shakespeare's Sonnets and English Sonnet Sequences’ in EMEP and Michael Schoenfeldt, ‘The Matter of Inwardness: Shakespeare's Sonnets’ in Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England, 74–95.

Final Exam