In a book which brings together language, text and context, Patricia Canning synthesizes models of contemporary stylistics with both critical and literary- historical theory. In doing so, the author maintains a specific and sustained stylistic focus on the religious, political and ideological issues that animated and defined Reformation England. Each chapter interrogates the dichotomous concept of ‘word’ and ‘image’ by considering the ways in which writers of this period deal with these contentious subjects in their dramatic and poetic works. ‘Representation’, Canning argues, ‘is not just as a matter of semiotics but of ideology’. Whereas stylistics enjoys extensive application in the analysis of contemporary texts, it has, until now, been markedly under-used in the exploration of the historical literary genre. Addressing this shortcoming squarely and robustly, Canning’s book is a showcase for the stylistic method. Among its many insights, this book shows how stylistics can enrich our understanding and critical interpretation of a particular literary genre in its ideological and historical context.

'Patricia Canning’s adventurous interdisciplinary study brings together in new and exciting ways the two fields of linguistics and literary criticism in her examination of selected texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The range and detail of her analysis, evident especially in her microscopic examination of linguistic forms, cultural assumptions, and histoirical contexts in plays by Shakespeare and Middleton, and in the poetry of George Crashaw, is impressive. Here is a rare combination of strenuous scholarly rigour, and uncompromising analysis, replete with a full and clear awareness of what interdisciplinarity involves. A welcome new voice offering unique insights into texts that we thought we knew.' Professor John Drakakis,University of Stirling, UK

Acknowledgements \ Introduction: In the Beginning was the Word \ Chapter One: Constructing Plausible Stories: Ideology, Conceptual Integration Theory and the Politics of Representation in George Herbert’s ‘JESU’ \ Chapter Two: ‘A Deed Without a Name’: Murder and the Linguistics of Agency in Shakespeare’s Macbeth \ Chapter Three: ‘Bit-Part’ Actors: Metonymy in Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling \Chapter Four: Picturing Words: Ekphrasis and the Word-as-Image in Early Modern Poetry \ Conclusion: ‘Being Nothing’: The value of the W/word \ Notes \ Bibliography \ Index<