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Homosexuality is writ large in English Renaissance Literature, but its inscription is only rarely direct and unambiguous. Except for a few texts--including several penned by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and John Donne--homoeroticism is expressed implicitly rather than explicitly, seen from the outside rather than the inside.
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 Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) condemned homosexuality in his more magisterial,
philosophical works, though he inserted homosexual innuendo elsewhere
in his writings, particularly in several essays. |
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The English
Renaissance poet Richard
Barnfield (1574-1620?) wrote two volumes of homoerotic verse,
but appears to have stopped writing poetry after the age of 24. |
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 John Donne (1572-1631) was
England's supreme poet of heterosexual love in the late Renaissance. He
also wrote a series of homoerotic verse letters to a young man and a
remarkable dramatic monologue in a lesbian voice. |
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 Sponsor of the English translation of the Bible that bears his name and himself an accomplished author, King James VI of Scotland (and later James I of England) (1566-1625) was well known for his passionate attachments to handsome young men.
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 Ben Jonson (1572-1637) is
one of the most important figures in English literature. Though he was
probably never involved in same-sex sexual relationships, he deserves
attention for his depictions of same-sex relationships in both dramatic
and nondramatic works. |
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 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) represents homoerotic situations and incidents in his plays
and poems more frequently and more variously than any other major
English Renaissance writer. |
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 John Milton (1608-1674) may
be the greatest poet in the English language. While he accepted
the biblical condemnation of sodomy, some of his works suggest that his
attitude toward same-sex relations was enlightened for his age. |
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 Katherine Philips (1632-1664) was considered "The English Sappho" of her day. Two-thirds
of her poems concern erotic relationships among women. |
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 William Shakespeare is
one of the key figures that western civilization has used to define
itself. He stands in a complicated, fiercely contested relationship to
homosexuality. |
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