Motives of Woe: Shakespeare and Female Complaint, a Critical Anthology

This anthology recovers a tradition of writing to which some of the greatest medieval and Renaissance poets--women as well as men--contributed. Centering on Shakespeare's neglected A Lovers Complaint, it includes "female"-voiced lyrics, chronicle poems and fictional letters by a range of authors from Chaucer to Aphra Behn and Henry Carey. In his scholarly introduction, Kerrigan outlines the development of 'female complaint', indicates how cultural pressure shaped it, and argues that the time is ripe for a reevaluation of this literary kind. Shedding new light on Shakespeare and the conventions of historical, pastoral and epistolary discourse, Motives of Woe will be of interest to scholars of medieval and early modern studies, as well as to general readers.