The Virtue of Sympathy: Magic, Philosophy, and Literature in Seventeenth-Century England

A revealing look at how the cultural meaning of sympathy shifted during the seventeenth century

Beginning with an analysis of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and building to a new reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost, author Seth Lobis charts a profound change in the cultural meaning of sympathy during the seventeenth century. Having long referred to magical affinities in the universe, sympathy was increasingly understood to be a force of connection between people. By examining sympathy in literary...