Renaissance emblem books paired a symbolic picture with a motto and a verse, and Henry Green set out to show how often Shakespeare’s images match them. He surveys emblem literature from Alciati down to 1616, considers what the playwright could have known of it, then sorts parallels into historical, heraldic, mythological and fable emblems, with photo-lithographic plates.
A Victorian scholar’s labour of love, valuable to students of Shakespeare’s imagery and of Renaissance visual culture. Download the free EPUB.