The end of satisfaction: drama and repentance in the age of Shakespeare

Abstract

A book on satisfaction opens itself up to many puns and allusions, often starting with the Rolling Stones. I try to avoid them here. Instead, I enjoy the opportunity to turn from a vocabulary of repentance, compensation, and atonement to the related, but distinct, language of gratitude and thanks.This project would not have been possible without the financial and ad-ministrative support of scholarly institutions. I am grateful to have held a short- term fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library and to have received from the National Endowment for the Humanities a summer stipend as well as a year- long fellowship. All three were essential to the completion of this book. I have also been the beneficiary of various sources of support at the University of Tennessee: the Department of En glish, the Office of Re-search, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Humanities Center, and the Marco Institute for Medieval and Re nais sance Studies.