Afterword

This afterword considers the different ways Shakespeare and Spenser take up the problem of the human. Whereas Shakespeare grounds his examination in subjectivity, Spenser focuses on vitality, a difference that contributes to the perception, often encountered in the classroom, of Shakespeare as familiar and Spenser as alien. This essay concludes by championing Spenser's seeming alterity-by, that is, noting the continued significance of Spenser's conception of human vitality as both untethered to subjectivity and continuous with animal and vegetable life.