The Will in English Renaissance Drama

Douglas Clark (University of Oxford)

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Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
18 September 2025

Theatre Studies; Literary studies: plays & playwrights; Religious issues & debates; Wills, probate & Succession

Douglas Clark reveals how moments of willing and will-making pervade English Renaissance drama and play a crucial role in the depiction of selfhood, sin, sociality, and succession. This wide-ranging study synthesizes concepts from historical, legal, philosophical, and theological studies to examine the dramatic performance of the will as both an internal faculty and a legal document. Clark establishes the diverse connections that Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, and a range of overlooked playwrights of the early Elizabethan era made between different types and understandings of the will. By doing so, he reveals the little-understood ethical issues to which they gave rise in relation to the mind, emotions, and soul. Understanding the purpose of the will in its multiple forms was a central concern for writers of the time, and Clark shows how this concern profoundly shaped the depiction of life and death in both Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. This title is part of the Flip It Open programme and may also be available as open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

By: Douglas Clark (University of Oxford)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 450g
ISBN: 9781009390941
ISBN 10: 1009390945
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 18 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Douglas Clark is a tutor in English Literature at the University of Oxford. He has published widely on English Renaissance drama and poetry. His scholarship has been supported through awards and fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the John Rylands Research Institute, the Newberry Library and the Rare Book School.

Reviews for The Will in English Renaissance Drama

'A carefully researched, clearly-written, and wide-ranging account of the will as both a psychological faculty and as a testamentary device in a variety of early modern English plays.' Katharine Eisaman Maus, James Branch Cabell Professor of English, University of Virginia 'Clark deftly explores the intertwined meanings of the will in early modern England, as a moral faculty and a legal document expressing that faculty. This expansive study offers vital insights not only into dramatic practice but also early modern notions of liberty, desire, social and familial hierarchy, and the regulation of the self.' Stephanie Elsky, Associate Professor of English, Rhodes College