This volume illuminates the complex issues of 'public' and 'private', 'art' and 'conscience' in the period.

Introduction Derek Hirst and Richard Strier; 1. 'I am Power': normal and magical politics in The Tempest Richard Strier; 2. 'Void of storie': the struggle for insincerity in Herbert's prose and poetry Stanley Fish; 3. Sir Kenelm Digby's rewritings of his life Jackson I. Cope; 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Renaissance studia humanitatis Quentin Skinner; 5. Casuistry and allegiance in the English Civil War Barbara Donagan; 6. Thomas May and the narrative of civil war J. G. A. Pocock; 7. Samuel Parker, Andrew Marvell and political culture, 1667-73 Derek Hirst; 8. Sidney's Discourses on political imagoes and royalist iconography Victoria Silver; Notes; Index.