The Will in English Renaissance Drama

Douglas Clark reveals how moments of willing and will-making pervade English Renaissance drama and play a crucial role in the depiction of selfhood, sin, sociality, and succession. Exploring the dramatic performance of the will as both internal faculty and legal document, this wide-ranging study synthesizes concepts from historical, theological, philosophical, and legal studies. Clark explores the diverse connections that Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton as well as overlooked playwrights of the early Elizabethan era made between types and understandings of the will, and reveals the little-understood ethical issues to which they gave rise in relation to the mind, emotions, and soul. Understanding the purpose of the will in its multiple forms was a central concern for writers of the time, and Clark shows how this concern profoundly shaped the depiction of life and death in both Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. This title is part of the Flip it Open programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

List of contents

Introduction: where there is a will; 1. The personified will; 2. Punishing the transgressive will; 3. Testamentary drama; 4. Last wills and remembrance; Conclusion: no end?; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Douglas Clark is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a long-term member of the Shakespeare Association of America. His scholarship has been supported through awards and fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the John Rylands Research Institute, the Newberry Library, and the Rare Book School.

Product details

• Authors: Douglas Clark, Clark Douglas
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.08.2025
• EAN: 9781009390941
• ISBN: 978-1-009-39094-1
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; England, Theatre Studies, Literary studies: general, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, Early 17th century c 1600 to c 1650, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Religious issues and debates, Law: wills, probate, succession, inheritance