Dealing with plays, poems, songs and the iconography of musical instruments, Robin Headlam Wells re-examines the myth, central to the Orpheus story, of the civilizing power of music and poetry. This book was first published in 1994.

List of illustrations; Preface; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I: Music, Myth and Politics: 1. Spenser and the politics of music; 2. Falstaff, Prince Hal and the New Song; 3. Prospero, King James and the myth of the musician-king; Part II: Defining the Essential: A Humanist Iconography: 4. The ladder of love: verbal and musical rhetoric in the Elizabethan lute song; 5. Microcosmos: symbolic geometry in the Renaissance lute rose; 6. The orpharion: 'a British shell'; Part III. The Game of Love: 7. Ars amatoria: Philip Rosseter and the Tudor court lyric; 8. Dowland, Ficino and Elizabethan melancholy; 9. 'Ydle shallowe things': love and song in Twelfth Night; Coda: floreat Orpheus; Notes; Index.

'Elizabethan Mythologies is a wonderful disquisition on art both as a source of aesthetic pleasure and as a means of social control. Itcontains a wealth of scholarly material and invention ... Wells is unfailingly subtle and insightful ... [he] argues for the importance of art as a philosophical system and a material fact with a winning conviction and confidence.' Shakespeare Survey'Seasoned, thoughtful, at times provocative, and inevitably astute, Wells imparts a truly interdisciplinary view of Renaissance thought ... his perceptions are robust, independent, and charismatic ... A powerful collection [of essays] delivered with style, deliberation, and intelligence, Elizabethan Mythologies may best serve scholars equally adept in Renaissance music, literature, and art.' Renaissance Quarterly'Elizabethan Mythologies is a gathering of graceful and learned essays by the accomplished scholar and lutenist, Robin Headlam Wells ... As a musicological scholar Headlam Wells is at his very best when working out the subtle interplay of a lyric and its setting ...' Essays in Theatre/Etudes theatrales'The most important claim of Wells's book is that Renaissance musical theory and practice provided Elizabethans with a way of thinking about subjectivity that, because of its idealizing cast, has been ignored or prematurely dismissed by critics to whom idealization is anathema. His discussions of this subjectivity ... are important and (to me) often persuasive.' Studies in English Literature'All these essays demonstrate an impressive acquaintance with Renaissance musical thought, and together they form an exceptional collection. They will be valued especially for what they tell us about the transmission of a particular strain of neo-Platonic idealism from Italy into Elizabethan England.' Modern Language Review'... a slim but dense volume that covers a lot of ground in a thoughtful and thought-provoking manner. Having these essays collected into a single volume together with 41 black-and-white illustrations on high-quality trade paper is a real plus, and the organization into three sections makes dipping in easy enough.' The Lute