As the “new” of the title suggests, this is a new edition of the superb Companion of the same name, minus the “new”, first published in 2000 (RR 2001/213). All of the essays from the earlier edition have been rewritten and twenty new essays have been added under the continued editorship of Michael Hattaway. This has expanded the Companion from one to two volumes allowing for the material to be presented through a simpler structure. 72 academics who are all specialists in their fields provide 82 essays, including Hattaway's own impressive Introduction which actually does such a fine job of describing the scope and limitations of the Companion that this reviewer's task is (almost) completed before starting. The scope is described as “roughly the period of Sir Thomas More (1478‐1535) to that of John Milton (1608‐1674)” (p. 3). The main features of this period are outlined alongside discussion of the essays that explore these themes. Hattaway identifies three “difficulties” presented by the Companion's title. The first and second are that “only limited attention could be paid to texts associated with three of the four nations that inhabit ‘the British Isles’ (p. 6) [… and] Both narrative history and cultural multiplicity enhance the underlying problems that derive from using ‘Renaissance’ to designate both a period and a category of artistic styles within the art and culture of sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century Britain” (p. 8). The third is the link between “literature” and “culture,” and highlights the significance that “some contributors would read from texts to cultural conditions; fewer would insist that particular material conditions determine rather than enable the texts” (p. 9).
The Companion is presented as three parts. Part One: Contexts, Readings, and Perspectives c.1500‐1650 is in Volume 1. Part Two: Genres and Modes, and Part Three: Issues and Debates are in Volume 2. This forms a neat divide between the two volumes and results in each being approximately the same physical size. Each volume is prefaced by contents pages which also usefully note that essays marked with an asterisk “offer focused readings on particular texts”, a pointer which is particularly useful for students seeking closer readings on specific texts. Following the contents pages, each volume has its own List of Illustrations; Volume 1 boasts the bulk of these – with 34, against two in Volume 2, largely a result of an essay in Volume 1 about The English Broadside Print, c.1550‐c.1650 where many examples of illustrations are given. Hattaway's introductory essay appears in Volume 1 but not volume 2. The Index only appears in Volume 2, a point I will return to later.
Anyone familiar with the earlier edition of this Companion and indeed with other publications in the Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture series will not be disappointed to find that the high standard of scholarship one would expect from this series is continued here. It is pleasing to find that across 82 essays the topics, themes and approaches are extremely wide ranging. Following on from the Introduction, Volume 1 opens with an essay on “The English language of the early modern period” and closes with a piece about “Dreams and dreamers”. Sample titles which give some flavour of the approaches taken include “Early modern handwriting”, “Literary gardens, from More to Marvell” and a piece on Physiognomy which includes an illustration of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's famous painting The Librarian (c.1566), where the open book on top of the librarian's head indicates the entrance to the mind. There are seven essays marked with an asterisk in the contents, which if weighted against the 30 essays which are not marked as focused readings gives some indication of the leaning towards discussion of texts and ideas rather than close readings.
In Volume 2, Part Two (Genres and Modes), there are 35 essays, opening with “Theories of literary kinds” and closing with a piece about Letters. Again, a very wide range of topics and themes are covered, including the Editor's essay on “Playhouses, performances, and the role of drama”, essays on Jacobean tragedy and Caroline Theatre, Allegory, Pastoral, Romance, Love Poetry, amongst many others. Another seven of these essays are marked by the asterisk.
Part Three (Issues and Debates) is by far the shortest part of the Companion, comprising nine essays based around the major topics on which academic research in the humanities often focuses. These topics are named in the essay titles, although one does somewhat stand out from the others: “Identity, sexuality: a renaissance category?”; “Was there a Renaissance feminism?”; “Drama as text and performance”; “The debate on witchcraft”, “Reconstructing the past: history, historicism”; “Histories, race: a renaissance category?”; and “Writing the nations and early modern Europe”.
Every essay is followed by a good section of References and Further Reading. The Index is comprehensive and clearly indicates which volume entries appear in, as well as the page. This is particularly important given that page numbers are not continued across the volumes with the latter numbered as a stand‐alone work. The appearance of a single index at the end of Volume 2 emphasises that this is a two‐volume set, although it does seem unfortunate for the borrower who selects the first but not the second volume. There is some attempt at cross‐referencing across chapters with a minority of essays being followed by a reference to other essays in the Companion that cover related topics.
The inclusivity and scholarship of this Companion builds on the excellence of the earlier edition. Any university library supporting undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Renaissance literature should consider adding this to their collection.
