On the surface, Spenser's dream-like allegory The Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596) seems quite distant from the more familiar and more scrutinized dramatic art of Shakespeare. But in fact the preoccupations of both poets overlap in striking and revealing ways. The cross-dressed heroines who complicate the trajectories of desire in As You Like It (1599) and Twelfth Night (1601) have a provocative counterpart in the cross-dressed female knight who dominates Books 3 and 4 of the FQ. Shakespeare's duplicitous protean villain Iago ("I am not what I am") (1604) has counterparts in both Archimago and Duessa ("I, that do seeme not I, Duessa am") in Book 1 of the FQ, as does his powerful effect on the imagination of the hero. The status of imagination in the poetic enterprise itself comes under scrutiny in Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) and The Tempest (1611) on the one hand, and Books 1 and 6 of the FQ on the other. It is no accident that both associate poetry with fairies and magicians, but why? And what does it mean? This seminar will focus on the plays mentioned above and Books 1, 3, 4, and 6 of the Faerie Queene. It will explore how the dramatic strategies of Shakespeare and the allegorizing narrative strategies of Spenser complement and illuminate one another-and how the shared preoccupations of these two great poets deepen our understanding of the early modern period itself. Requirements: several short papers and presentations (class will be for the most part student-driven) and a final long seminar paper (15-20 pages). Major Seminar. Permission of English Department chair required: see information above. Enrollment limited to 15. (Pre-1800/Pre-1700)