The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty

by Helen Hackett

Overview

The first comprehensive guide to Elizabethan ideas about the mind

What is the mind? How does it relate to the body and soul? These questions were as perplexing for the Elizabethans as they are for us today—although their answers were often startlingly different. Shakespeare and his contemporaries believed the mind was governed by the humours and passions, and was susceptible to the Devil’s interference.
 
In this insightful and wide-ranging account, Helen Hackett explores the intricacies of Elizabethan ideas about the mind. This was a period of turbulence and transition, as persistent medieval theories competed with revived classical ideas and emerging scientific developments. Drawing on a wealth of sources, Hackett sheds new light on works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sidney, and Spenser, demonstrating how ideas about the mind shaped new literary and theatrical forms. Looking at their conflicted attitudes to imagination, dreams, and melancholy, Hackett examines how Elizabethans perceived the mind, soul, and self, and how their ideas compare with our own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300207200
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Helen Hackett is professor of English literature at University College London. An expert on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, she is the author of Shakespeare and Elizabeth and A Short History of English Renaissance Drama.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgements x

A Note on the Text xiii

Abbreviations xv

Introduction 1

Part I Mind and Body

1 The Mind in the Body: Medical Frameworks 19

2 Mind against Body: Philosophical and Religious Frameworks 47

3 Knowing by Feeling: Writing the Passions 77

Part II Marginalised Minds

4 In Other Voices: Female Minds 111

5 The Minds of Africans: Imaginings and Encounters 144

Part III Disturbances and Discipline

6 Stars and Demons: The Permeable Mind 177

7 'Things Feigned in the Mind': The Unruly Imagination 218

8 Governing Self and State: The Politics of the Mind 258

Part IV Writing the Mind

9 Writing Thought and Self: Autobiography, Sonnets, Prose Fiction 285

10 'That Within': Hamlet and the Mind on Stage 314

Epilogue: The Elizabethan Mind and Us 342

Endnotes 351

Bibliography 379

Index 406

Editorial Reviews

An outstanding achievement: broad-ranging, intelligently synthetic and written in unflaggingly lucid prose. . . . Helen Hackett shows us over and again that the inability of the Elizabethans to know themselves as fully as they wanted to mattered to them a great deal. Discomfited though this state of affairs could leave them feeling, it explains why their literature still matters to us today.”—Rhodri Lewis, Times Literary Supplement

“Hackett reads a breathtaking diversity of literature with great sensitivity. . . . The Elizabethan Mind . . . is an impressive achievement.”—P. Kishore Saval, Australian Book Review

“Makes early modern interiority seem accessible, immediate, and exciting, while never losing sight of its distance, strangeness, and mystery.”—Paul Norris, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme

“Hackett shows that the Elizabethans were as fascinated with the mind-body relationship as people are today . . . and writes clearly on a deep and esoteric subject, complemented by 23 illustrations and numerous literary quotations.”—J. J. Butt, Choice

“Hackett’s extraordinary achievement in The Elizabethan Mind combines learning and empathy as she ranges across cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physiological approaches. Come for Hamlet, stay for female complaint, Catholic poetics, sonnets, psychomachia, and much more.”—Emma Smith, author of This is Shakespeare

“Hackett has synthesized an extraordinary range of books to illuminate aspects of the Elizabethan mind. She offers excellent readings of familiar works such as Shakespeare’s tragedies as well as little-known gems such as women’s translations of the Psalms. Readers will come away equipped to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries with renewed understanding.”—Jonathan Bate, author of Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare

“Wonderfully perceptive and illuminating. If you want to understand how the Elizabethans viewed themselves, each other, and the world, read this book.”—Elizabeth Goldring, author of Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist

From the Publisher

“Hackett has synthesized an extraordinary range of books to illuminate aspects of the Elizabethan mind. She offers excellent readings of familiar works such as Shakespeare’s tragedies as well as little-known gems such as women’s translations of the Psalms. Readers will come away equipped to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries with renewed understanding.”—Jonathan Bate, author of Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare

Jonathan Bate

“Hackett’s extraordinary achievement in The Elizabethan Mind combines learning and empathy as she ranges across cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physiological approaches. Come for Hamlet, stay for female complaint, Catholic poetics, sonnets, psychomachia, and much more.”—Emma Smith, author of This is Shakespeare

Emma Smith

“Wonderfully perceptive and illuminating. If you want to understand how the Elizabethans viewed themselves, each other, and the world, read this book.”—Elizabeth Goldring, author of Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist

Elizabeth Goldring

Hackett’s extraordinary achievement in The Elizabethan Mind combines learning and empathy as she ranges across cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physiological approaches. Come for Hamlet, stay for female complaint, Catholic poetics, sonnets, psychomachia, and much more.”

author of This Is Shakespeare Emma Smith

Wonderfully perceptive and illuminating. If you want to understand how the Elizabethans viewed themselves, each other, and the world, read this book.”

author of Nicholas Hilliard Elizabeth Goldring

Hackett has synthesized an extraordinary range of books to illuminate aspects of the Elizabethan mind…Readers will come away equipped to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries with renewed understanding.”

author of Soul of the Age Jonathan Bate

Hackett’s history ranges from ancient through Renaissance medicine, psychology, religion, and literature to provide an erudite but comprehensible study of Elizabethan ideas of the mind and how it works. Helen Lloyd’s performance is the text’s perfect match. Her clarity and vocal precision mirror the clarity of the writing, which is rich and detailed but not obscure. The prevailing accuracy of her emphases and phrasing, and her measured, thoughtful pace support listener comprehension. Her serious, plummy tone and refined English accent fit the high level of the historical and philosophical discussion, but her amiable and unaffected manner helps keep it engaging. Lloyd seems to think through the material, turning this learned and intellectually rewarding book into an absorbing listening experience. W.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile