Melancholy Men and English Renaissance Drama: from Marlowe to Ford.

My research examines the ways in which Renaissance writers, and their approaches to melancholy, were informed and inspired by conceptualisations of masculinity and psychology in the period. Considered the "golden age of melancholy" (Starobinski, 1960), the emotional richness of the Renaissance has been well-established in recent scholarship, yet such work lacks specific insight into nuances of melancholy through the lens of masculine studies. Close interpretive readings of canonical and lesser-studied plays written between 1586 and 1638 - the period spanning the first publication of Timothie Bright's 'Treatise of Melancholy' to the final publication of Robert Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' before his death - have uncovered a range of important dramatic and non-literary publications engaging with Renaissance meanings of melancholy. By developing Broomhall and Van Gent's (2011) theory of relational masculinity, my study pairs dramatic works with a range of medical texts and treatises to illustrate new perspectives on Renaissance understandings of melancholic masculinity. Pairing this effective category of textual analysis with Shields' (2002) theory of the continuing influence of gender upon emotion, my research provides a unique contribution to the growing field of masculine studies. At a critical moment for contemporary understandings of gender, my study questions how relevant changes within the historical milieu surrounding my chosen literature affected Renaissance attitudes towards melancholic masculinity.