I specialize in English Renaissance drama, ethics, and the reception of classical philosophy in the early modern era. My particular interests are in Aristotelianism (in all its variety) and moral philosophy (across various traditions). I’m especially fascinated by the ways classical philosophy finds unique expression on the popular stage — and by the ethical valences these kinds of appropriations hold. My current project, tentatively titled Shakespeare and the Communal Ethics of Intention, examines the ethical demands the unknowable intentions of others put on moral agents in Shakespearean drama.
The longleat manuscript reconsidered: Shakespeare and the sword of lath Christopher Crosbie English Literary Renaissance, 2014 The principal challenge posed by the Longleat manuscript, or Peacham drawing, has been to account for the few marked discontinuities that exist between an image and its accompanying patchwork of texts, components that otherwise might seem to correspond rather well. Widely considered the only illustration of a Shakespearean play from the author’s lifetime, this single folio sheet (Figure 1) apparently depicts a scene, or perhaps scenes, from Titus Andronicus. Across the top of the leaf appears a drawing of seven figures, consisting from left to right of two Roman soldiers (perhaps Titus’ sons), a victorious Titus returned from war, a kneeling Tamora, Queen of the Goths, two men (presumably her sons) bound as prisoners, and Aaron the Moor, holding in his left hand what seems to be a sword while appearing to point with his right hand at the sword, the two kneeling men, Tamora, or perhaps some combination of them. Beneath the drawing follows approximately forty lines of text, beginning with a stage direction not found in the play itself reading, “Enter Tamora pleadinge for her sonnes going to execution.” The remaining text consists of three main components: Tamora’s plea for her son, drawn from the first act of Shakespeare’s play; a short response by Titus, comprised of one line from the play and two apparently invented
Hughes, Thomas Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature, 2012
Fixing moderation: Titus Andronicus and the Aristotelian determination of value Christopher. Crosbie Shakespeare Quarterly, 2007 Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus examines through its sensational horrors and multiple acts of vengeance how designations of moderation and excess may be constituted, unsettled, and reconstituted in a polity destabilized by shifting ethical referents. By examining Shakespeare's engagement with the Aristotelian ethical mean—the point of moral equilibrium between two diametrically opposed, immoral extremes—this article explains how the construal of ethical value in Elizabethan England invited contest. Titus Andronicus exhibits a preoccupation with fixing moderation, both in the sense of locating but also repairing it as well, to imagine a world in which immoderation threatens to become the norm. By treating the contextual determination of moderation and the mean's ontological fixity as compatible, Titus Andronicus creates a flexible rigidity that positions Titus as both horrible and sympathetic in his revenge, as he negotiates the shifting terms of Rome's civic contract. The play's apparent dislocation of victim and villain derives from the theatrical possibilities inherent in the mean's fluidity, yet the ethical mean paradoxically provides a readable matrix of heroism and villainy. Resituated in a world grown uncontrollably immoderate, Titus acts in direct proportion to his surrounding context, his grotesque revenge functioning, remarkably, as a brutal but necessary type of moderation-in-extremity.
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Performance review: The Comedy of Errors by Simon Godwin C Crosbie Cahiers Élisabéthains 116 (1), 92-96 , 2025 2025
Shakespeare, Communitarianism, and the Social Affordances of Intentionality C Crosbie The 71st Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America , 2025 2025
The Closet Scenes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge C Crosbie The Explicator 83 (1), 67-73 , 2025 2025
Macbeth by William Shakespeare C Crosbie Comparative Drama 58 (3), 399-403 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Aristotelian Time, Ethics, and the Art of Persuasion in Shakespeare’s Henry V C Crosbie Literature 3 (1), 82-93 , 2023 2023 Citations: 3
Entertaining the Idea: Shakespeare, Performance, and Philosophy. Lowell Gallagher, James Kearney, and Julia Reinhard Lupton, eds. UCLA Clark Memorial Library Series. Toronto … C Crosbie Renaissance Quarterly 75 (4), 1437-1439 , 2022 2022 Citations: 1
“Strange Serious Wantoning”: Early Modern Chess Manuals and the Ethics of Virtuous Subterfuge C Crosbie Chapter. In Renaissance Papers, 1-12 , 2021 2021 Citations: 1
Revenge Tragedy and Classical Philosophy on the Early Modern Stage C Crosbie Edinburgh University Press , 2018 2018 Citations: 20
Shakespeare, intention, and the ethical force of the involuntary C Crosbie The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Philosophy, 207-219 , 2018 2018 Citations: 1
Renaissance Suppliants: Poetry, Antiquity, Reconciliation C Crosbie MODERN PHILOLOGY 115 (3), E219-E222 , 2018 2018
Shakespeare's Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World by Paul A. Cantor C Crosbie Shakespeare Quarterly 69 (3), 195-197 , 2018 2018
Refashioning Fable through the Baconian Essay: De sapientia veterum and Mythologies of the Early Modern Natural Philosopher C Crosbie The Essay: Forms and Transformations, 15-33 , 2017 2017
Publicizing the Science of God: Milton's Raphael and the boundaries of knowledge C Crosbie Renascence 67 (4), 239-260 , 2015 2015 Citations: 3
The Longleat Manuscript Reconsidered: Shakespeare and the Sword of Lath C Crosbie English Literary Renaissance 44 (2), 221-240 , 2014 2014 Citations: 4
Family and the State in Early Modern Revenge Drama: Economies of Vengeance C Crosbie Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England 27, 255-257 , 2014 2014
Francis Bacon and Aristotelian Afterlives C Crosbie A Companion to British Literature, 231-248 , 2014 2014 Citations: 1
The Comedy of Errors, Haecceity, and the Metaphysics of Individuation C Crosbie Renaissance Papers 1, 101-13 , 2013 2013 Citations: 1
Deathly Experiments: A Study of Icons and Emblems of Mortality in Christopher Marlowe's Plays. C Crosbie SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL 43 (2), 458-459 , 2012 2012
Hughes, Thomas C Crosbie The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature , 2012 2012
Linda Woodbridge's English Revenge Drama & Marguerite Tassi's Women and Revenge in Shakespeare (Christopher Crosbie) C Crosbie from Shakespeare Quarterly , 2012 2012
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Fixing Moderation:" Titus Andronicus" and the Aristotelian Determination of Value C Crosbie Shakespeare Quarterly, 147-173 , 2007 2007 Citations: 32
Oeconomia and the Vegetative Soul: Rethinking Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy C Crosbie English Literary Renaissance 38 (1), 3-33 , 2008 2008 Citations: 24
Revenge Tragedy and Classical Philosophy on the Early Modern Stage C Crosbie Edinburgh University Press , 2018 2018 Citations: 20
Sexuality, Corruption, and the Body Politic: The Paradoxical Tribute of" The Misfortunes of Arthur" to Elizabeth I CJ Crosbie Arthuriana, 68-80 , 1999 1999 Citations: 17
Philosophies of retribution: Kyd, Shakespeare, Webster, and the revenge tragedy genre CJ Crosbie Rutgers University-Graduate School-New Brunswick , 2007 2007 Citations: 6
The Longleat Manuscript Reconsidered: Shakespeare and the Sword of Lath C Crosbie English Literary Renaissance 44 (2), 221-240 , 2014 2014 Citations: 4
Aristotelian Time, Ethics, and the Art of Persuasion in Shakespeare’s Henry V C Crosbie Literature 3 (1), 82-93 , 2023 2023 Citations: 3
Publicizing the Science of God: Milton's Raphael and the boundaries of knowledge C Crosbie Renascence 67 (4), 239-260 , 2015 2015 Citations: 3
Goodly Physic: Disease, Purgation, and Anatomical Display in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida CJ Crosbie Renaissance Papers, 79-96 , 1999 1999 Citations: 2
Macbeth by William Shakespeare C Crosbie Comparative Drama 58 (3), 399-403 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Entertaining the Idea: Shakespeare, Performance, and Philosophy. Lowell Gallagher, James Kearney, and Julia Reinhard Lupton, eds. UCLA Clark Memorial Library Series. Toronto … C Crosbie Renaissance Quarterly 75 (4), 1437-1439 , 2022 2022 Citations: 1
“Strange Serious Wantoning”: Early Modern Chess Manuals and the Ethics of Virtuous Subterfuge C Crosbie Chapter. In Renaissance Papers, 1-12 , 2021 2021 Citations: 1
Shakespeare, intention, and the ethical force of the involuntary C Crosbie The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Philosophy, 207-219 , 2018 2018 Citations: 1
Francis Bacon and Aristotelian Afterlives C Crosbie A Companion to British Literature, 231-248 , 2014 2014 Citations: 1
The Comedy of Errors, Haecceity, and the Metaphysics of Individuation C Crosbie Renaissance Papers 1, 101-13 , 2013 2013 Citations: 1
Performance review: The Comedy of Errors by Simon Godwin C Crosbie Cahiers Élisabéthains 116 (1), 92-96 , 2025 2025
Shakespeare, Communitarianism, and the Social Affordances of Intentionality C Crosbie The 71st Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America , 2025 2025
The Closet Scenes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge C Crosbie The Explicator 83 (1), 67-73 , 2025 2025
Renaissance Suppliants: Poetry, Antiquity, Reconciliation C Crosbie MODERN PHILOLOGY 115 (3), E219-E222 , 2018 2018
Shakespeare's Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World by Paul A. Cantor C Crosbie Shakespeare Quarterly 69 (3), 195-197 , 2018 2018
