The Senses in Early Modern England, 1558–1660

by Simon Smith (Editor), Jackie Watson (Editor), Amy Kenny (Editor)

Considering a wide range of early modern texts, performances and artworks, the essays in this collection demonstrate how attention to the senses illuminates the literature, art and culture of early modern England. The volume responds to burgeoning interest in the senses from both literary scholars and cultural historians, arguing that early modern ideas about the senses resonate significantly through texts, performances and artworks of the period, even as these art forms themselves provide invaluable suggestions about the place of the senses in early modern culture. Examining canonical and less familiar literary works alongside early modern texts ranging from medical treatises to conduct manuals via puritan polemic and popular ballads, the collection offers a new view of the senses in early modern England.

This book offers dedicated essays on each of the five senses, each relating works of art to particular cultural moments, whilst elsewhere the volume considers the senses collectively in various cultural contexts. It also pursues the sensory experiences that early modern subjects encountered through the very acts of engaging with texts, performances and artworks. Authors discussed at length include George Chapman, Sir John Davies, John Donne, Robert Herrick, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare and Mary Wroth; art forms including drama, poetry, prose, music, dance, pomanders and painting are all the subject of at least one dedicated chapter. This book will appeal to scholars of early modern literature and culture, to those working in sensory studies, and to anyone interested in the art and life of early modern England.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

Simon Smith is Lecturer in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham. He researches early modern drama, music and sensory culture. He is co-editor with Jackie Watson and Amy Kenny of The Senses in Early Modern England, 1558-1660 (2015), and his monograph, Musical Response in the Early Modern Playhouse, 1603-1625 (2017), won the Shakespeare's Globe Book Award and the University English Book Prize. His current book project examines playgoing, pleasure, and judgement in early modern England.