The Grammar Rules of Affection: Passion and Pedagogy in Sidney, Shakespeare, and Jonson

"This well-researched book illuminates an excellent topic from the history of early modern philology and the relationship of literature and grammar-school education: how classroom teaching and the learning of grammar in the age of Shakespeare frequently connected language to emotions, and how this connection was manifested in different forms of conduct presented in drama and poetry by writers who absorbed the grammar curriculum in school."

Goran Stanivukovic, Saint Mary’s University, Renaissance and Reformation

"The Grammar Rules of Affection is a thrilling contribution to the thriving field of early modern affect studies. In a series of theoretically alert readings, Ross Knecht reveals emotion and grammar as twinned social practices which together shape our experience of the world. Early modern poetry and drama emerge as replete with the echoes of childhood learning, and as radiantly expressive of life. An unusually sensitive and ingenious reader, Knecht uncovers something surprising wherever he looks."

Katharine Craik, Research Lead and Reader in Early Modern Literature, Oxford Brookes University

"The Grammar Rules of Affection examines the humanist tradition in grammar in order to uncover its consequences for and influence on the writing of literature. More than this, it uncovers the broader cultural concept of ‘grammar’ in the late work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, as a way of reading literature as a form of code for living. Ross Knecht performs both functions with style and wit."

Brian Cummings, Professor of English and Related Literature, University of York