Rhetorics of Bodily Disease and Health in Medieval and Early Modern England

Contributors analyze works by Dante Chaucer Spenser Shakespeare Donne and Milton among others to track the development of sustained nuanced rhetorics of bodily disease and health physical emotional and spiritual. Focusing on literary genres (epic lyric satire drama sermon) and cultural history artifacts the volume examines the extent to which rhetorical figures of sickness and health inform literature religion science and medicine in medieval and early modern England and Europe.