This study analyses concepts and representations of the soul in the poetry of William Shakespeare and John Donne. It shows how the soul becomes a linking element between the genres of poetry and drama, and how poetry becomes dramatic whenever the soul is at its focus. This double movement can be observed in Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece and Donne's Holy Sonnets: in these texts, the connection between interiority and performance, psychology and religious self-care can be found, which is central to the understanding of early modern drama and its characteristic development of the soliloquy. The study thus offers a new reading of the poems by Shakespeare and Donne by analysing them, in different ways, as staged dialogues within the soul. It contributes to research on the soliloquy as much as on concepts of inwardness during the early modern period. The book is aimed at readers studying early modern literature and culture.

Introduction: stages of the soul and drama in poetry Part I William Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece and the drama of the soul1 Motivating the myth: allegory and psychology 2 'Thou art not what thou seem'st': Tarquin's inner stage and outer action 3 'But with my body my poor soul's pollution': Lucrece, her body, and soul 4 Lust-breathed Tarquin - Lucrece, the name of chaste: antagonism, parallelism, and chiasmus Part II John Donne's Holy Sonnets and the so(u)le-talk of the soul5 Divine comedies: the speaker, his soul, and the poem as stage 6 The sonnet as miniature drama: Donne's Holy Sonnet 'Oh my black Soule' 7 Sole-talk and soul-talk: Donne's so(u)liloquies in the Holy Sonnets 8 The speaker on the stage of the poem: Holy Sonnet 'This is my Playes last Scene' 9 Dialogue and antagonism in Donne's theatre of the soul Part III Conclusion10 So(u)le-talk, self, and stages of the soul Bibliography Index