Abstract:This essay examines the role of friendship in Shakespeare’s work. Friendship was a highly valued social relation in early modern England and constituted an important theme for humanist writers attempting to revive the virtues associated with classical antiquity. Recent scholarship has demonstrated how the terms of friendship helped legitimate and define social ties ranging from those between literary collaborators to those between political allies. Shakespeare’s work frequently depicts friendship’s complex rel… Show more
Set email alert for when this publication receives citations?
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.