Food in Shakespeare

Joan Fitzpatrick is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Loughborough, UK. She has published books and articles on Shakespeare and Spenser. She also writes the 'Spenser and Sidney' section of The Year's Work in English Studies.

'For those who thought Shakespeare wasn't much interested in food or nutrition, here is something for rumination. This solid, close textual reading of key characters and themes in Shakespeare's plays uses contemporary English dietaries to explain the obscure imagery. This study is succinct and refreshingly devoid of abstruse critical theory. We are invited to think anew about Falstaff's gluttony, the witches' brew in Macbeth, vegetarian references in As You Like It as well as references in several other lesser-known plays. A welcome addition to the burgeoning field of food and literature studies.' Ken Albala, University of the Pacific, USA and author of Eating Right in the Renaissance ’...looks at eleven of Shakespeare’s plays and the ways in which Shakespeare uses food to clue his audience into the make up of various characters...interesting and certainly opens the way for future scholars to look at the plays...Recommended.’ Choice ’... eye-opening culinary excursions...of monasticism and abstinence, the symbolism of fish, venison, even early modern vegetarianism - are side-roads that prove rewarding in themselves.’ TLS ’In discussions of Hamlet and Titus Andronicus, Fitzpatrick proves adept at drawing together and harmonizing a host of critical insights into the uses of food in the play. And throughout her book her writing remains engaging, clear, and sensitive to evidence from theatrical productions as well as scholarly evaluation... compelling and thoughtful arguments move us closer to the important goal of developing a comprehensive poetics of food in Shakespeare.’ Renaissance Quarterly ’Food in Shakespeare's innovative and close reading of not simply food habits but also metaphors of consumption... represents a usable, scholarly approach not just to Shakespeare but to food and cultural studies and early modern studies.’ Sixteenth Century Journal

• Introduction; Chapter 1 Familiar Extremes: The Case of Sir John Oldcastle; Chapter 2 Celtic Acquaintance and Alterity; Chapter 3 Strange Diets: Vegetarianism and the Melancholic; Chapter 4 Famine and Abstinence, Class War, and Foreign Foodstuff; Chapter 5 Beyond the Pale: Profane Consumption; conclusion Conclusion;