Telling tears in the English Renaissance
By: by Marjory E. Lange.
Series: Studies in the history of Christian thought,; v. 70
Publisher: E.J. Brill
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Leiden, The Netherlands; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 279
Subjects: English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.; Crying -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History of doctrines -- 16th century.; Crying -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History of doctrines -- 17th century.; Christian literature, English -- History and criticism.; Crying in literature.; Tears in literature.; Renaissance -- England.
Description: Tears and weeping are, at once, human universals and socially-constrained phenomena. This volume explores the interface between those two viewpoints by examining medical literature, sermons, and lyric poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to see how dominant paradigms regarded who could, who must, and who must not weep. These paradigms shifted in some cases radically, during these centuries.

Without a clear understanding of how the Renaissance 'read' tears, it is difficult to avoid using our own preconceptions - often quite different and very misleading. There are five chapters; one on medical and scientific material, two on sermons, and two on different types of lyric.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-276) and index.