Includes bibliographical references (pages [199]-221) and index
Introduction: the fabulous dark cloister: Fabulous texts -- Fabulous romance and abortive reform in Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser -- Saint or martyr? reforming the romance heroine in the New Arcadia and Pericles -- Superstitious readers: Glozing phantastes in the Faerie queene -- "Soundly washed" or interpretively redeemed? labor and reading in Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania -- Coda: exceptional romance.