Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature - Hardcover

White, R. S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521481422 ISBN 13: 9780521481427

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Natural Law, whether grounded in human reason or divine edict, encourages humankind to follow virtue and shun vice. The concept dominated Renaissance thought, where its literary equivalent, poetic justice, underpinned much of the period's creative writing. Robert White examines a wide range of Renaissance texts to show how writers as radically different as Milton and Hobbes formulated versions of Natural Law that served to maintain socially established hierarchies. This is the first book to apply a vast area of intellectual history to imaginative literature across a variety of genres during the Renaissance period.

About this title

Book Description:

The concept of natural law dominated Renaissance thought, where its literary equivalent, poetic justice, underpinned much of the period's creative writing. This work examines a wide range of Renaissance texts to show how writers formulated versions of Natural Law which served to maintain socially established hierarchies.

Review:

"This fine, groundbreaking study analyzes the literature of the period from More to Milton for its engagement of the tradition of natural law, once crucial but now hardly ever remembered until very recently. This is a rich and important book." Anthony Dimatteo, Spenser Newsletter

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0521481422
• ISBN 13: 9780521481427
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308