ABSTRACT
Fiction of Old Age in Early Modern Literature and Culture is a new and timely exploration of the issues and circumstances at work in representations of old age in the early modern period. It deals with both factual and literary material drawn from a range of genres as a means of rounding out the experience of growing old and aims to give readers a sense of the diversity involved in the theorising, politics and gendering of old age and ageing.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Whirligig of Time
Chapter One: Commonplaces and Stereotypes
(Comedy of Errors, Dialogue of Comfort)
Chapter Two: Old and Young
(The Merchant of Venice, The Old Law, King Lear)
Chapter Three: Disgraceful Old Age (1): men behaving badly
(King Lear, The Old Law, The Broken Heart)
Chapter Four: Disgraceful Old Age (2): women behaving worse
(The Witch, the Witch of Edmonton, The Wise Woman of Hogsdon)
Chapter Five: Politics and the Workplace
(The Courtier, The Old Law, Coriolanus)
Epilogue: All’s Well that Ends Well
Notes
Bibliography
Index
