Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Abstract:

While Edmund Spenser is an obvious inclusion in the development of British colonial ideology toward Ireland, William Shakespeare is not. Even though scholars have commented in detail on Shakespeare's depiction of colonialism in The Tempest and his inclusion of Celtic elements in several of his plays, the idea that Shakespeare specifically engaged English imperial policy toward Ireland, especially in his lesser critiqued play Troilus and Cressida, is underexplored. In this article, I wish to contribute to the conversation by focusing on texts not usually read through the lens of postcolonial Irish studies or comparatively understood as addressing Irish topics. I offer a reading of Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare and examine their engagement in literary representations of England's imperial activities in Ireland, specifically the Nine Years War between England and Ireland.