Spanish and English Literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries: Studies in Discretion, Illusion and Mutability

Edward M. Wilson’s reputation as a scholar of Calderon, and of classical Spanish literature in general, is almost unrivalled. He was also an expert in English works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in the popular literature of both languages. These essays, written at various stages of Wilson’s career, reflect his scholarship in all these fields. They also reveal the recurrent themes which Wilson found in the literature of this period: discretion and the dangers of rashness, and desengano, the need to rid oneself of worldly illusions. Eight of the fourteen articles concentrate on different aspects of Calderon’s work, revealing the playwright’s consistency of outlook. The essays on Lope de Vega deal with three of his most important plays. Wilson’s study of Othello shows the special insight that may be gained into Elizabethan drama by a scholar of the contemporary Spanish theatre.