Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England

William E. Engel is the Nick B. Williams Professor of English at The University of the South, in Sewanee, TN (USA) and author of six books on literary history including Mapping Mortality (1995) and Death and Drama in Renaissance England; and co-authored with Rory Loughnane and Grant Williams The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2016) and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2022). Rory Loughnane is Reader in Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent. He is the author or editor of many books and play editions, including, for Cambridge UP, Late Shakespeare, 1608-1613 (2012), The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (2016), Early Shakespeare, 1588-1594 (2020), and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (2022). He is a series editor of Cambridge's Elements in Shakespeare and Text. Grant Williams is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada and has coedited five books: Forgetting in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2004), Ars reminiscendi (2009), Taking Exception to the Law (2015), The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2016), and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2022).

'Bridging the fields of memory and death studies, this collection is an important contribution to our understanding of the complex interconnections between memory and mortality in early modern English literature, visual culture, and the commemorative arts. These essays by a group of leading scholars offer thought-provoking, highly readable analyses on how English society confronted such vital questions as how to use the memory arts to prepare for death and how the dead should be memorialized and remembered. Each of these case studies provides fresh insight into the far-reaching aesthetic, political, religious, and cultural ramifications of memory and mortality in the period.' Paul D. Stegner, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

• Introduction: Between memory and death William E. Engel, Rory Loughnane and Grant Williams; Part I. The Arts of Remembering Death: 1. Death and the art of memory in Donne Rebeca Helfer; 2. Spiritual accountancy in the age of Shakespeare Jonathan Baldo; 3. Recollection and preemptive resurrection in Shakespeare's sonnets John S. Garrison; 4. Learn how to die Scott Newstok; Part II. Grounding the Remembrance of the Dead: 5. Memory, climate, and mortality: The Dudley women among the fields Patricia Phillippy; 6. Scattered bones, martyrs, materiality and memory in Drayton and Milton Philip Schwyzer; 7. Theatrical monuments in Middleton's A game at chess Brian Chalk; 8. Thomas Browne's retreat to earth Claire Preston; Part III. The Ends of Commemoration: 9. The Unton portrait reconsidered Peter Sherlock; 10. Andrew Marvell's taste for death Anita Gilman Sherman; 11. The many labours of mourning a virgin queen Andrew Hiscock; 12. Superfluous men and the graveyard politics of the Duchess of Malfi Michael Neill; Bibliography; Index.