Romance and reformation
Subtitle: the Erasmian spirit of Shakespeare's Measure for measure
By: Robert B. Bennett.
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Newark
Language: eng
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.; Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536 -- Influence.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- 17th century.; Brothers and sisters in literature.; English drama -- Dutch influences.; Reformation in literature.; Chastity in literature.; Humanism in literature.; Comedy.
Description: "This book is an inquiry, through Measure for Measure, into Shakespeare's understanding of drama as a vehicle for social reform.

It examines an assumption central to Shakespeare's inherited humanist tradition: that literature, and particularly drama, is capable of promoting a better society and it finds Shakespeare interrogating this assumption, asking whether drama that has been fashioned according to reformist principles of the great humanist educator Erasmus can, after all, achieve the remediating effects it seeks.

Shakespeare explored this question in Measure for Measure at a time when the humanist consensus of roughly a century's duration in English culture seemed about to be eclipsed by a hardening of the positions of people who held opposing views on social issues."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-183) and index.