Envy in Early Modern England

Abstract

Abstract:Emerging from the growing subfield of emotion history, this essay presents a comprehensive analysis of the discourse of envy in Renaissance England. Though scholars have given minor attention to the dynamics of envy in the period, there has yet to be an account that reflects the full complexity and variety of the emotion; drawing on a vast body of contemporary writings on the subject, I review the forms of English Renaissance envy, the background of English Renaissance envy, the mechanics of English Renaissance envy, and envy's relationship to the related concept emulation. The essay argues that scholars have yet to fully appreciate the centrality of envy to the social world of early modern England--it was an emotion that had an enormous hold on the Renaissance imagination, and was implicated in all manner of interpersonal interaction.