Fortune: All Is but Fortune - Softcover

The phrase "all is but Fortune" (The Tempest 5.1) expresses both the hope and the resignation that characterize the Renaissance attitude to Fortune that is illustrated and discussed here. Throughout the medieval centuries, the fickle goddess survived in all sorts of literary and artistic sources, ready to be appropriated in traditional as well as innovative ways by the artists and writers of early modern Europe. Political thinkers like Machiavelli invoked her, as did physicians, playwrights, printers, painters, pamphleteers, even philosophers.

This book explores the vast array of allusions to Fortune embedded in the Folger Shakespeare Library's books and manuscripts. Representations of Fortune from classical antiquity to the late Renaissance in England and on the Continent are the main focus. In the evolution of the depiction of Fortune over this period of time it is possible to see how the idea itself changes. The idea that Fortune can be controlled is an important aspect of this study since it is an idea found not only in illustrations but in literature as well. Indeed, Fortune is a central element of many plays, poems, and prose works throughout the Renaissance, which the Folger Library's wide collection makes it possible to bring together here.