Natural La in English Renaissance Literature [Hardcover]

A wide-ranging study of a concept which underpinned Renaissance literature and continues to absorb contemporary thinkers.The concept of natural law dominated Renaissance thought, where its literary equivalent, poetic justice, underpinned much of the period's creative writing. This work examines a wide range of Renaissance texts to show how writers formulated versions of Natural Law which served to maintain socially established hierarchies.The concept of natural law dominated Renaissance thought, where its literary equivalent, poetic justice, underpinned much of the period's creative writing. This work examines a wide range of Renaissance texts to show how writers formulated versions of Natural Law which served to maintain socially established hierarchies.Natural Law, whether grounded in human reason or divine edict, encourages humankind to follow virtue and shun vice. The concept dominated Renaissance thought, where its literary equivalent, poetic justice, underpinned much of the period's creative writing. Robert White examines a wide range of Renaissance texts to show how writers as radically different as Milton and Hobbes formulated versions of Natural Law that served to maintain socially established hierarchies. This is the first book to apply a vast area of intellectual history to imaginative literature across a variety of genres during the Renaissance period.Preface; Acknowledgements: 1. Natural Law in history and Renaissance literature; 2. The heritage of classical Natural Law; 3. The reception of Natural Law in Renaissance England; 4. Law and literature in sixteenth-century England; 5. More's Utopia; 6. 'Love is the fulfilling of the law': Arcadia and Love's Labour's Lost; 7. 'Hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree': The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure; 8. Shakespeare's The History of King Lear; 9. Milton and Natural Law; Epilogue: Hobbes and the demise of classical Natural Law; Appendix: Aquinas on the right to own private property; Notes; Select bls'