Bednarz, James P. "Imitations of Spenser in a Midsummer Night’s Dream." Shakespearean Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 152, Gale, 2014. Literature Criticism Accessed 23 Apr. 2019. Originally published in Renaissance Drama, vol. 14, 1983, pp. 79-102.

• In this article, Bednarz appears to have a clear dislike for the writings of Edmund Spenser. He goes through a close reading of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and one of Spenser's poems, entitled "The Teares of the Muses." Bednarz creates a dialogue between the two texts as he supports his claim that Shakespeare wrote MSND as a parodic response to Spenser's beliefs as deciphered from his writing.

Cheney, Patrick, and Anne Lake Prescott. "Teaching Spenser’s Marriage Poetry: Amoretti, Epithalamion, Prothalamion." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 261, Gale, 2017, pp. 175-184.

• In their work regarding Spenser, both Cheney and Prescott share very solid interpretations of Spenser’s work. With great deal of focus on the religious tones throughout the considered texts, Prescott and Cheney argue that Spenser’s own religious beliefs, when applied as a lens through which to view the text, provide a parodic tone. In other words, Spenser’s sentiments regarding marriage and the role of women in marriage serve to mock the expectations of traditional Protestant marriages.

Crane, Mary Thomas. Losing Touch with Nature : Literature and the New Science in Sixteenth-Century England. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.

• In this text, Crane dissects several works by Spenser. In so doing, Crane asserts that Spenser demonstrates a disdain for the assumption often made by “new scientists” regarding the Aristotelian views of the natural world. New Science implied a lack of knowledge and understanding of the natural world. Crane argues that this is reflected in his portrayal of the “veiled face” that distorts, and shields, nature's identity. Crane uses this to substantiate her broader claim that nature is intelligible and that Spenser, among others, reflected this in their writings.

Hadfield, Andrew. "Spenser and Religion—Yet Again." Poetry Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 170, Gale, 2016. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com.ccsu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/UYMNMP820646422/GLS?u=a30cc&sid=GLS&xid=2d62379b. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019. Originally published in SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, vol. 51, no. 1, 2011, pp. 21-46.

• In his essay regarding Spenser as a writer driven by religion, Hadfield uses Spenser's "Faerie Queene" to support his assertion that Spenser's Protestant views contributed, largely, to his opposition to premarital sex. This can also be supported by Merchant's words regarding Spenser's "Faerie Queene."

Mallette, Richard. "The Shepheardes Calender' and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, edited by James E. Person, Jr., vol. 5, Gale, 1987. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com.ccsu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/ZCTWYI493774756/GLS?u=a30cc&sid=GLS&xid=2f8c671f. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019. Originally published in Spenser, Milton, and Renaissance Pastoral, by Richard Mallette, Bucknell University Press, 1981, pp. 45-74.

• Mallette focuses this excerpt on the artist, Spenser, and his sexuality as the cause behind his "Shephearde's Tale." Mallette argues that Spenser's lack of sexual knowledge must be applied through his poems in such a way as to explain Colin's role in the poem. He claims that the poem does not depict his misery but his sexuality, or lack thereof.

Quitsland, Jon A. Spenser’s Supreme Fiction: Platonic Natural Philosophy and the Faerie Queene. University of Toronto Press, Schoalrly Publihing Division, 2001. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=46845&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

• Quitsland uses multiple works of Spenser, in this text,  to address the return of Platonism. He claims that Spenser’s writing uses divine intervention, or the presence of God, as the source of nature in an effort to ground his work and better support his own agenda regarding natural order. Quitsland goes on to directly connect the works of Spencer to Book VI of the Aeneid and to Plato’s symposium. He also examines Spenser’s portrayal of the macrocosm in terms of Christianity. He uses these tenets as support to his overall focus: human culture in nature as presented by Plato and his followers, like Spenser.

Taylor, Amanda. “Mutual Comfort’: Courtly Love and Compassionate Love in the Poetry of Sir Philip Sydney and Edmund Spenser.” Poetry Criticism,edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, col. 170, Gale, 2016. http://link.galegroup.com.ccsu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/JDMMQT071806001/LCO?u=a30cc&sid=LCO&xid=1212270d. Originally published in Quidditas, vol. 32, 30 Mar. 2011, pp 172-213.

• In this excerpt from Amanda Taylor, she addresses a shift in attitudes pertaining to sex and women and their portrayal in the poetry of Spenser, among other writers. She claims that Spencer’s discussion of “mutual comfort” in his Amoretti and Epithalamion, push against the traditional courtship writings that, for long, dictated the treatment of women and had, until these woks, been unchallenged.

Teskey, Gordon. "From Allegory to Dialectic: Imagining Error in Spenser and Milton." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, edited by James E. Person, Jr., vol. 5, Gale, 1987. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com.ccsu.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/NLWZQV353813214/LCO?u=a30cc&sid=LCO&xid=81d01930.

• In efforts to answer the question as to whether or not an artist is to be separated from his work, Teskey looks into each of the letters from an age-old correspondence between Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spenser. Though he focuses his argument on the concept of privacy and its effect on today's understanding of Elizabethan culture. That is, the implication of the authors of the letters as opposed to their actual names and how that alludes to a much larger scale of withholding information and of leaving information to be inferred rather than explicitly stated.

Ara, Iffat. “Nature and Art in the Winter’s Tale” The Aligarh Critical Miscellany, vol. 7, no. 2, 1994, pp. 167-91. 

In this article, Iffat discusses the relationship between art and nature through the relationship between Leontes, Hermione, and Perdita. In Iffat’s opening paragraph he says: “through the verbal medium employed by them [the characters] they exhibit their true natures.” (167). Using this method, Iffat discusses the main characters: Leontes, Hermione, Perdita, Florizel, Polixenes, and Paulina. This leads to Iffat discussing these six characters within the camps of Art and Nature. Iffat goes in traditional chronological order and first discusses the suspicions of Leontes and Hermione’s trial scene. In this first section, Iffat primarily discusses the role of nature and its gendered perspective of women embodying nature. In the next section, the essay segways into discussing Perdita and Florizel’s courtship scene which further expands Iffat’s discussion of nature through a sort of artistic lens. In this section Iffat takes the time to discuss Perdita and Polixenes’ conversation on the nature of crossbreeding flowers which exemplifies considering this section and a section in which nature is transferring into art. The final section of Iffat’s argument deals with the final act of the play which encompasses the reconciliation scene. This section entirely considers. The subject of art and Paulina as an artist using art to bring the play to a happy ending.
 
Babula, William. “Nature’s Bastards” and Painted Maids: Artifice in Shakespeare’s Romances” Journal of the Wooden O Symposium, vol. 2, n.p., 2002, pp. 1-8. 

In this article, William Babula discusses the nature of Shakespeare’s late plays or Romances. Using the conversation between Perdita and Polixenes as his framing point. Babula goes on to discuss how Shakespeare uses artifice to create the worlds of his last plays. Going carefully through each of the romances, he argues that there is a downward shift in the nature of artifice and how Shakespeare himself employs it. According to Babula, Shakespeare employs in Pericles, a form of “extreme burlesque” that he does not attempt to hide and in Cymbeline, there are “anachronistic improbabilities”. Beginning with The Winter’s Tale, however, Babula says that Shakespeare moves away from the light-hearted elements of the earlier romances to more serious dimensions in his later romances. This includes the baseless jealousy of Leontes and the permanent death of Mamillius in The Winter’s Tale to the patriarchal control hovering over the plot of The Tempest. Concluding his argument in considering whether the romances are “Nature’s bastards” or cultivated floral object he says, “the answer has to be a complementary both.” (7). Babula’s argument thus ends on a form of compromise that continues to leave the question perpetually open.

 
Buell, Lawrence. “Representing the Environment” Ecocriticism Essential Reader, edited by Ken Hiltner, Routledge, 2015, pp. 97-101.

In this chapter, Buell discusses how in literature the representations of nature are always skewed failing ever to be accurate. Buell, in this brief excerpt, explains how ideology and literary schools of criticism have shape the way in which the environment is to be perceived. The incorporation of specific criticism and ideas would thus become the controlling factor by which the idea of nature becomes directed. As Buell is quoted in the opening sentence: “Ideology […] is after all only one of several filters through which literature sifts the environments it purports to represent.” (97). Thus, according to Buell, nature becomes attached and perceived through ideological framework because it is the ideology that becomes important. Representing the environment in literature, according to Buell, has much more to do with  those who are writing rather than accurate depictions of the natural world. Buell makes the claim that scholars of ecocritical and of literary studies in general should consider the environment on its own terms. Instead of being seen as simply a setting or connected to ideology or belief, Nature should be considered as it’s own individual concept within literature.

Dent, R.W. “Imagination in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol 15, no. 2, 1964, pp. 115-129. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2867882. Accessed 27 Feb 2019.
In this article, R.W. Dent discusses the role of the imagination within Shakespeare’s play. Dent’s article considers in particular, “the contrasting role of imagination in love and in art.” (115) which Dent argues has a major impact upon all the characters within the play. In particular, Dent goes on to focus on the final act of the play, which he says that most scholars have ignored, believing in its irrelevance. However, Dent goes on to argue for the act’s importance and its relation and connections to imagination. Discussing how the Elizabethans would have viewed imagination in connected to the mind (i.e. dreaming). Dent also the role of the imagination as it intertwines with the theater. The role of imagination in bring about the realness of the story. Something that Shakespeare evokes heavily in his late romances such as The Winter’s Tale where the artificiality of the theater bleeds through to the text of the play. Dent, in this, manner believes A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be Shakespeare most authentic defense for poetry due to its dealings with poetry and the imagination at large. In this manner, Dent’s article is applicable to The Winter’s Tale because of the importance of imagination in connecting to the conventions of the theater which is dealt in Shakespeare’s romance.

Dundas, Judith. “Shakespeare’s Imagery: Emblem and the Imitation of Nature” Shakespeare Studies, vol. 16, n.p., 1983, pp. 45-56.

In this article, Dundas discusses the nature of emblematic literature as it relates to Shakespeare’s dramatic works. She makes the case that those scholars that have looked at the play with an emblematic lens have got it wrong. Dundas locates this problem as originating in the renaissance idea of ut pictura poesis, an idea that attempted to equate the visual and literary arts together (45). Through her argument, Dundas demonstrates a number of examples from Shakespeare’s plays in conjunction with consideration of emblem nature. She thoroughly explains the essence of emblem literature as being the recreation of the ut picture poesis doctrine, the “joined together picture and poem” alongside moralistic embellishment (45). In contrast, Dundas writes that, “Shakespeare’s plays…evoke the realities of human existence….in short, not emblem, but mimesis.” (45). So, for Dundas, the symbols inherent in Shakespeare’s plays are not emblematic, but representative signs of natural depictions.

Feerick, Jean E. “Economies of Nature in Shakespeare” Shakespeare Studies, vol. 39, np., 2011, pp. 32-42.
In this article, Jean discusses Shakespeare creating a hybridization between the human and the natural realms. In the article, Jean says that what modern academics and scholars have considered distinct is not hard-lined within the Early Modern Period. Using Shakespeare as the primary example for discussion, Jean first discusses Burgundy’s speech from Henry V in which the Duke uses opposing imagery that involves both humans and nature. What Burgundy is doing, according to Feerick, is demonstrating a type of hybridization that appears common within Shakespeare. Humans are to be considered as enclosed within Nature. In considering ecocritical studies, Feerick says: “It would seem, then, that ecology as a branch of knowledge is called into existence only once a rapture between human and nonhuman has been consolidated.” (35). Feerick in conversing with such a mindset says: “For the premodern world of which Shakespeare was a part the social, the cultural, and the human were still perceived to be within nature., not separated from it” (35-6). Feerick’s major concern is in seeing the connection between human flesh and earth as her point of concern with ecological hybridization.

Laroque, Francois. “Nature’s bastards’: The Hybridity of The Winter’s Tale”, Shakespeare Studies, vol. 55, n.p., 2017, pp. 1-12.
In this article, Laroque discusses the existence of a hybridity in The Winter’s Tale between art and nature as it exists in the conversation between Perdita and Polixenes. However, instead of discussing in favor of nature as Munroe does in her article (below), Laroque takes the oppose angle, discussing the visible importance of the artificial within the play. Discussing four primary examples, Laroque carefully looks at the role art plays and how it is presented as a continuing thread in The Winter’s Tale. Much of the article deals with a historized angle in considering how Shakespeare’s play dealt with the prevailing puritan sentiments leveled at poetry and theater. Laroque’s claim is that The Winter’s Tale depicts “folk celebrations” in another view. One in which these celebrations, “went on and acquired new meanings in the process of resistance.” (3).
 
Merchant, Carolyn. “Nature as Female”, Ecocriticism Essential Reader, edited by Ken Hiltner, Routledge, 2015, pp. 10-34.
In this chapter, Merchant discusses the long history in literature of seeing nature as an embodied female. The main viewpoint that she goes through and discusses is the idea of nature as a benevolent force. Likened to a mother, the earth would generously give her bounty to humanity for their use. On the other hand, as time went on and the view of the earth as a living being, (primary a concept that flourished in ancient to renaissance times) became replaced, people started to deanimate the earth and began seeing it as a resource. As Merchant goes on to discuss, how humans viewed the world affected how they would go about using it. The idea of mother nature elicited a response of respectful use of the world and its available abundance. A divestment of such a notion allowed man to exploit the earth without repercussions in that taking from the earth was what was intend for man. In thoroughly examining her chosen examples Merchant shows how shifting viewpoints of nature and the world elicited certain relational responses from humans. Thus, respect was accorded to the nature world because it was viewed as having a kinship with humanity. The more industrial view of the earth as to be exploited and dominated for resources came from seeing the earth as an object instead of a subjective being.

Munroe, Jennifer, “It’s all about the gillyvors: Engendering Art and Nature in The Winter’s Tale” Ecocritical Shakespeare, edited by Lynne Bruckner and Dan Brayton, Ashgate Publishing, 2011, pp. 139-154.
In Munroe’s article, she discusses the engendering of nature and female and vice versa in relation to the treatment of women as needing to be controlled. Munroe’s central point of discussion in The Winter’s Tale is Perdita’s discussion with Polixenes about crossbred flowers. Munroe relates that while some scholars such as Raphael Lyne have argued that this argument is pointless, she argues instead that what the discussion is about relates to female empowerment. For much of her argument, Munroe interacts with a few texts from Renaissance England concerning husbandry coming from Gervase Markham. Markham, in discussing the nature of husbandry sees Nature as a force to be tamed, controlled. According to Munroe while The Winter’s Tale “enacts what Markham insists is necessary to bring order out” Shakespeare differs by giving the process of renewal to the female characters in the play. Thus, Munroe argues against seeing the conversation between Perdita and Polixenes as pointless but also against seeing Shakespeare as in favor of the attitudes of his time.
 
Neely, Carol Thomas. “The Winter’s Tale: The Triumph of Speech” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 15, no. 2, 1975, pp. 321-338. www.jstor.org/stable/449675. Accessed 8 April 2019.
In this article, Carol Neely discusses the importance of language in The Winter’s Tale. Going through her argument chronologically, Neely discusses how a character or a set of characters (aristocracy vs. commonry) uses language to generate a certain type of effect in the play. Her first example, Leontes, according to Neely, uses language in such a way in order to justify his own ungrounded sense of paranoia. Later as his own errors come to light his usage of language also changes. Neely also pulls examples from the play such as the Shepherd, Florizel, Camillo, and Paulina discussing the variations that are uniquely present to each individual. The most crucial example Neely discusses in her argument is the statue scene where as she notes: “the limitations of language are…forgotten” (335) discuss how it is the usage of language that revives Hermione at the end of The Winter’s Tale. Language thus becomes enabled to resurrect the dead or create anew the presence of life at large. Carol Neely’s argument thus shows how integral the usage of language is to the progression and psychology of The Winter’s Tale.

Bulman, James C. “Bringing Cheek By Jowl's ‘As You Like It’ out of the Closet: The Politics of Gay Theater.” Shakespeare Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 3, 2004, pp. 31–46.  

Bulman’s article primarily focuses on the queering of Shakespeare’s plays through having males playing every character, even the females. He primarily focuses on the 1994 revival of the play and its use of an all male cast. By pointing to this, Bulman is able to focus on queerness by taking a look at the sexual politics surrounding cross dressing. In talking about queerness, Bulman brings up history surrounding gender and cross dressing. This primarily focused on the normalcy around the homoertoticism of boys crossdressing as girls. From there, he goes on to analyze the differences between how boys dressed up as girls are perceived differently today than in the Elizabethan era.

DiGangi, Mario. “Queering the Shakespearean Family.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1996, pp. 269–290. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2871378. Digangi opens up by giving context surrounding queer theory and how it was focused on the domestic and homoerotic elements of courtship in the Shakespeare canon. Early on, he also speaks about the necessity of looking for homoerotic elements in lesser known works outside the Shakespeare canon. Eventually, Digangi begins to focus on these elements of queerness in Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It. He does this by focusing on the role Rosalind takes up of “Jove’s own page”  and the mythology that invites. Digangi argues that this role involves banishment, familial discord, and homerotic desire. These elements, according to Digangi, call back to a tale Shakespeare and his contemporaries were aware of. This story is of Jupiter's replacement, Ganymede. 

Dionne, Craig (ed. and introd. .., and Parmita (ed. and introd) Kapadia. Native Shakespeares: Indigenous Appropriations on a Global Stage. Ashgate, 2008.  

The chapter, An Aboriginal As You Like It: Staging Reconciliation in a Drama of Desire primarily focuses on Deborah Mailman’s portrayal of Rosalind. The author focused on her being in drag, her race and the sexual amorphous of her performance. When describing the effects of her facial makeup, the author states Mailman has both a feminine and masculine look. By doing this, the author effectively proves their thesis of theatre practitioners and audiences being able to “negotiate their identity.” This and the exploration of sex, gender, race,language, and nation, according to the author, are steered between the lines of the Renaissance text and peoples contemporary understandings. 

Barard, Kevin. “Nature's Queer Performativity.” Qui Parle, vol. 19, no. 2, 2011, pp. 121–158.  

Barard’s article talks about the perversion existing around the way humans view nature. To him, the people who are supposedly protecting nature are actually working against it. An example he gives is the meat packaging corporations. To Barard, it is hypocritical for beastaility to be illigal but, for the mass destruction of animals to be legal. Backing his points involves the use of queer theory. For him, the important element of queer theory is performimity. He feels performativity is essential to humans and a major matter of concern.

Knowlton, Edgar C. “Nature and Shakespeare.” PMLA, vol. 51, no. 3, 1936, pp. 719–744. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/458264.             Knowlton’s article starts off by listing several perspectives surrounding nature. One perspective is nature as a creator. This perspective has to do with God and beauty. Nature can also act as a place where human emotion becomes excessive and disturbs the natural balance. Knowlton goes on to talk about how nature relates to Shakespeare’s plays. Some of the plays he talks about are Hamlet and Henry IV.

Laris, Katie. Theatre Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 1995, pp. 300–302. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3208494.             Laris’s article primarily focuses on why the 1981 Cheek by Jowl production of As You Like It proves relationships based on gender are insignificant. Doing so involves her talking about the crossdressing and gender reversals in the production. Also, Laris speaks about how the forest is distinct from civilization. To her, the forest acts as a place where gender expression is free of societal social constructs. Therefore, the forest is where the play expresses the pansexuality of its characters, who have errotic tension in the majority of scenes. 

Rudd, Amanda. “A Fair Youth in the Forest of Arden: Reading Gender and Desire in As You Like It and Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Journal of the Wodden O Symposium,vol. 9, 2009, pp 106-117.   

Rudd argues Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It and sonnets are in a dialogue with each other and that this relationship can tell people about gender in the comedy. To back up her point, Rudd speaks about the cross dressing of Rosalind and how it only happened in the Forest of Arden. Afterwords, she points to the Dramatis Personae of Shakespeare’s sonnets. For Rudd, these two elements are intertwined with each other and help challenge the heterosexual order.   

Sanchez, Melissa E. Shakespeare and Queer Theory. 2019.  

Shakespeare and Queer Theory focuses on applying Queer theory to Shakespeare’s work. This means Sanchez is focused on dynamics of gender, sexuality and social constructs surrounding Shakespeare and his works. For her, this allows discussion on difficult topics surrounding homoerotic desires and the history of sexual minorities. Also, this theory allows for her to talk about homoerotic desires, which exist in Shakespeare plays like, As You Like It.  These reasons are why Sanchez describes queer theory as being connected to gay and lesbian theory, even if there are differences.

Strout, Nathaniel. “‘As You like It, Rosalynde’, and Mutuality.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 41, no. 2, 2001, pp. 277–295.  

Strout’s article argues that the most imperative element in Shakespeare’s As You Like It is the relationship between the audience and the play. To back this up, he speaks on how a theatrical performance is a joint experience between the audience and actors. For Strout a good audience can feed off a crowd a vice versa. He brings up the audience at the Globe and how the applause of the crowd reflected the their enjoyment of the play. Also, he feels an applause means the audience was engaged with many theatrical conventions.

Zajac, Paul Joseph. “The Politics of Contentment: Passions, Pastoral, and Community in Shakespeare's ‘As You Like It.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 113, no. 2, 2016, pp. 306–336.,  

Zajac’s article talks about contentment and how it was seen or upheld by people in history, primarily the Renaissance. Throughout, he poses questions such as, the possibility of  contentment and how can it be achieved. According to Zajac, pastoral was a form authors used to try to answer some of these questions. Also, he believes authors such as Shakespeare used the genre to think of and come up with a contended version of themselves. When speaking about Shakespeare, he uses As You Like It as his primary text. From there, Zajac also talks about the Elizabethan Era.