Botanical Culture and Popular Belief in Shakespeare's England

Author:   Bonnie Lander Johnson (Newnham College, Cambridge)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009396523


Pages:   202
Publication Date:   09 January 2025
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Botanical Culture and Popular Belief in Shakespeare's England


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Author:   Bonnie Lander Johnson (Newnham College, Cambridge)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009396523


ISBN 10:   1009396528
Pages:   202
Publication Date:   09 January 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: theatre, nostalgia and the reformation of plants; Part I. Plants: Monarchs, signatures and the recuperation of the 'common': 1. Trees, kings, Christ: almanacs, ballads and the divinity of matter in Richard II; 2. Pansies, queens, midwives: fairy flowers, travellers' tales and domestic practice in a midsummer night's dream; Part II. Places: Domestic and civic: negotiating botanical cultures in the theatre: 3. The theatre as medical marketplace: poison, desire and cultures of diagnosis: Romeo and Juliet; 4. The theatre as bower: botanical tapestries, the passion of Christ and the book of nature in Cymbeline; Conclusion: the mulberry tree; Index.

Reviews

'Expertly grafting Shakespeare and critical plant studies, this book establishes that Shakespeare's botanical imagery savoured of the vanishing rural world outside London as well as the burgeoning trade networks of global modernity. Lander Johnson reveals the ubiquitous material presence of plants in early modern households in the form of textiles, dyes, medicines, and food to offer fresh perspectives on four Shakespearean plays, while distilling the rhetorical power of Shakespeare's plants in thorny debates about medical authority, God's immanence in the natural world, and monarchical sovereignty over the realm.' Todd Borlik, Professor of Shakespeare Studies & Renaissance Literature, University of Huddersfield 'Drawing on an abundance of rich material and insightful analysis, Lander Johnson breaks new ground in the growing body of research around the culture of botany, plants, and horticulture in early modern England. The book stands out for its focus on the profound religious and popular beliefs associated with the plants evoked in Shakespeare's plays, beliefs that are now lost in time.' Rebecca Bushnell, School of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors Emerita Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania


Author Information

Bonnie Lander Johnson is Fellow and Associate Professor at Downing College, Cambridge University. Her academic books include Chastity in Early Stuart Literature and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Blood Matters (2018) and The Cambridge Handbook of Literature and Plants (forthcoming). She also writes fiction and non-fiction about early modernity and our changing relationship to the natural world.

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