Renaissance Papers is a collection of the best scholarly essays submitted each year to the Southeastern Renaissance Conference. The conference accepts papers on all subjects relating to the Renaissance -- music, art, history, literature, etc. -- from scholars all over North America and the world. Of the ten essays in the 2003 volume, three have to do with Shakespeare; among the topics here are Shakespeare and social uprising in The Merchant of Venice, politics and masculinity in Julius Caesar, and the churching of women in Taming of the Shrew; another essay on Renaissance drama focuses attention on Elizabeth Cary's Mariam. Other essays consider Erasmus and the problem of strife, George Puttenham as a comedic artificer, the hermeneutics of William Tyndale, the editorial disputes in The Adventures of Master F.J., the wooing of Amoret and Scudamour, and the "writing" of the Virginia Company. Contributors: Jessica Wolfe, Gerald Snare, Jon Pope, Elizabeth Watson, Wayne Erickson, Mary Free, Amy Scott, Aaron Landau, Jeanne Roberts, and Jay Stubblefield.
M. Thomas Hester is professor of English, and Christopher Cobb is assistant professor of English, both at North Carolina State University.