The Usurer's Daughter: Male Friendship and Fictions of Women in 16th Century England

The Usurer's Daughterprovides an entirely new approach to Renaissance literature, covering a wide range of classical and continental as well as English texts, including Shakespeare. Original scholarship and critical sophistication combine to reveal links between the complex legal and economic workings of sixteenth-century culture and the representation of women in the period literature.The Usurer's Daughtermakes an outstanding contribution to its field and is a must-read for those interested in feminist and materialist approaches to the Renaissance. Contents: Acknowledgements, Notes on transcriptions, references and abbreviations; Introduction: The Signs of Friendship Part I: Mental husbandry 1. The Housewife and the Humanists 2. Economies of Friendships: The Textuality of Amicitia Part II: Anxieties of Textual Access 3. From Errant Knight to Prudent Captain: Masculinity and "Romantic" Fiction 4. Usurers' Daughter and Prodigal Sons: The Gendered Plot ofAauthorship in the 1570s PartIII: The Theatre of Clandestine Marriage 5. Household Stuff: Terence in the Reformation, 6. Why do Shakespeare's women have "characters"?: Error, Credit and Sex in The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew Conclusion: Shylock: Why This Usurer Has a Daughter; Notes; Primary Sources; Secondary Sources; Index.