Overview

How the conscience in early modern England emerged as a fulcrum for public action Bold Conscience chronicles the shifting conception of conscience in early modern England, as it evolved from a faculty of restraint—what Shakespeare labels “coward conscience”—to one of bold and forthright self-assertion. The concept of conscience played an important role in post-Reformation England, from clerical leaders to laymen, not least because of its central place in determining loyalties during the English Civil War and the regicide of King Charles I. Yet the most complex and lasting perspectives on conscience emerged from deliberately literary voices—William Shakespeare, John Donne, and John Milton. Joshua Held argues that literary texts by these authors transform the idea of conscience as a private, shameful state to one of boldness fit for navigating both royal power and common dissent in the public realm. Held tracks the increasing political power of conscience from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Henry VIII to Donne’s court sermons and Milton’s Areopagitica, showing finally that in Paradise Lost, Milton roots boldness in the inner paradise of a pure, common conscience. Applying a fine-grain analysis to literary England from about 1601 to 1667, this study also looks back to the 1520s, to Luther’s theological foundations of the concept, and forward to 1689, to Locke’s transformation of the idea alongside the term “consciousness.” Ultimately, Held’s study shows how conscience emerges at once as a bulwark against absolute sovereignty and as a stronghold of personal certainty.

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9780817361112

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This learned, agile book tracks pivotal changes in views of conscience from Luther through Locke. Offering nuanced readings of works by Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton, Held demonstrates the emergence of the idea of the bold conscience as a site of political resistance and as the locus of a dawning toleration. --Michael Schoenfeldt, editor of John Donne in Context

This learned, agile book tracks pivotal changes in views of conscience from Luther through Locke. Offering nuanced readings of works by Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton, Held demonstrates the emergence of the idea of the bold conscience as a site of political resistance and as the locus of a dawning toleration. -Michael Schoenfeldt, editor of John Donne in Context

Author Information

Joshua R. Held is associate professor, chair of English, and director of the honors program at Trinity International University. His scholarship has appeared in Studies in Philology, Modern Philology, Milton Studies, and Shakespeare Survey.

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