Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin is Professor in the English department of the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and a member of the IRCL, Institute for Research on the Renaissance, the Neo-Classical Age and the Enlightenment (UMR 5186 CNRS), France.

Wide-ranging, accessible study of the power of insult across Shakespeare dramatic oeuvre. With its incisive, historically-informed close-readings and attention to the cultural resonance of different forms of insult, this work sheds light on the role and significance of insult within Shakespeare’s plays and in Elizabethan culture more broadly.

• Introduction: ‘No abuse?’Chapter 1: The Spectacular Rhetoric of Insult Chapter 2. The ‘merry war’: Insult as a Love GameChapter 3: ‘Quarrelling by the book’: Insult and Duelling CodesChapter 4: Insults as Actionable WordsChapter 5: Insult and the Taming of the TongueChapter 6: The Trauma of InsultChapter 7: Insult beyond WordsEpilogue: Shakespeare’s Theatre of InsultBibliography of Works citedDetailed outlineIndex

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin is Professor in the English department of the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and a member of the IRCL, Institute for Research on the Renaissance, the Neo-Classical Age and the Enlightenment (UMR 5186 CNRS), France.

Wide-ranging, accessible study of the power of insult across Shakespeare dramatic oeuvre. With its incisive, historically-informed close-readings and attention to the cultural resonance of different forms of insult, this work sheds light on the role and significance of insult within Shakespeare’s plays and in Elizabethan culture more broadly.

• Introduction: ‘No abuse?’Chapter 1: The Spectacular Rhetoric of Insult Chapter 2. The ‘merry war’: Insult as a Love GameChapter 3: ‘Quarrelling by the book’: Insult and Duelling CodesChapter 4: Insults as Actionable WordsChapter 5: Insult and the Taming of the TongueChapter 6: The Trauma of InsultChapter 7: Insult beyond WordsEpilogue: Shakespeare’s Theatre of InsultBibliography of Works citedDetailed outlineIndex

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin is Professor in the English department of the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and a member of the IRCL, Institute for Research on the Renaissance, the Neo-Classical Age and the Enlightenment (UMR 5186 CNRS), France.

Wide-ranging, accessible study of the power of insult across Shakespeare dramatic oeuvre. With its incisive, historically-informed close-readings and attention to the cultural resonance of different forms of insult, this work sheds light on the role and significance of insult within Shakespeare’s plays and in Elizabethan culture more broadly.

• Introduction: ‘No abuse?’Chapter 1: The Spectacular Rhetoric of Insult Chapter 2. The ‘merry war’: Insult as a Love GameChapter 3: ‘Quarrelling by the book’: Insult and Duelling CodesChapter 4: Insults as Actionable WordsChapter 5: Insult and the Taming of the TongueChapter 6: The Trauma of InsultChapter 7: Insult beyond WordsEpilogue: Shakespeare’s Theatre of InsultBibliography of Works citedDetailed outlineIndex