Sworn Bond in Tudor England

Cervone (medieval and renaissance literature, U. of Southern California) argues that oath-swearing is a central feature of Tudor thinking. Rather than functioning as an after-thought, she explains, it helped to generate attitudes and behaviors. The work goes beyond cataloging examples of oath-swearing, focusing on key moments in 16th-century English history and culture that helped define the transition from the medieval kingdom to the modern state. Cervone also examines oath-swearing in three plays about King John and Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queen. Two appendices reproduce French and English oaths. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Thea Cervone lectures in medieval and renaissance literature at the University of Southern California. She has published on the ghost tradition of the sixteenth century and on propaganda plays of the Reformation.