ABSTRACT
Therelationshipbetweenhumanbeingsandtheirphysicalenvironmentisan areaofgreathistoricalinterestandwideextent,whichhasonlyrecentlybegun toattractitsdueshareofattentionfromearlymodernhistorians.1Ithasfairly consistentlybeenassumedthatElizabethanpeoplewereclosertothenatural world,thesoil,theseasons,andeventodeaththantheirtwentieth-century westerncounterparts.Thisgreaterintimacyhasbeenmadetolookalternately romanticorprimitive,justasthementalityoftheperioditselfhasbeenseenas vibrantormelancholy.Shakespeare'scontemporarieswereperhapsbetterable thanmodernpeopletocomprehend,ifnottoresolve,contradictoryexperience, toexpressthesenseofspringaswellasthebitternessofwinter,todescribe beautyaswellasdegradation.2
