ABSTRACT
One own sense that 'sympathy' is either a superficial term, a vulgar one, or one contaminated by blind egoism is anticipated, although the conception itself remains apparently enabling, in the work of Spenser and other major Renaissance authors, notably including Shakespeare. Sympathy is a concept marginal to serious Renaissance theology, to the medical practices derived from Galen and/or Paracelsus, to the political science of Machiavelli and Bodin, to the philosophy of Montaigne and Bacon. Reservations noted that the topics interestingly discussed under the 'Shakespeare and Poststructuralism' rubric were that of literary representation. There were indications of an emergent poststructuralism unmindful of its own contingent history or present cultural circumstances, and with claims to represent a timeless enlightenment now manifesting itself under the appropriately favorable conditions. The premise that accepted is Spenser's poetic representations, and particularly his representations of Queen Elizabeth, are powerfully charged with animus, this being the case in the highly theatricalized world of Elizabethan court politics.
