#  Folger Institute | Folger Shakespeare Library: How to Read an Early Modern Sentence (weekend seminar, deadline to apply by July 13, 2026) 

 



#### Folger Institute | Folger Shakespeare Library: Please encourage your affiliates to apply for this upcoming fall seminar by July 13, 2026:

#### [How to Read an Early Modern Sentence](https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/scholarly-programs/current-and-upcoming-folger-institute-scholarly-programs/#sentence26) (weekend seminar)

Directed by **Catherine Nicholson** (Yale University) and **Jeff Dolven** (Princeton University)

“Begin at the beginning … and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” The King’s advice to the White Rabbit only gets a reader of early modern sentences so far. This workshop considers what remains: questions of language, syntax, meaning, tone, affect, style, history, and genre. We’ll explore what an early modern sentence is—an oral form or a written one? English or Latin? a grammatical structure or a unit of thought?—and how it relates to other foundational forms, like the sententia, the period, or the line of verse. Participants will contribute to (and help lead discussions about) an archive of exemplary instances: sentences that either anchor or stymie our understanding of a particular writer or text; sentences we love; sentences we wish we had written; and sentences we don’t think are—or should be—sentences at all. Together we’ll arrive at a better understanding of the forms early modern sentences take, the work they do, and the many ways they can be read.

**Director**: [**Jeff Dolven**](https://english.princeton.edu/people/jeff-dolven) teaches poetry and poetics, especially of the English Renaissance, at Princeton University. He is the author of *Scenes of Instruction* (2007), *Senses of Style* (2018), and the admittedly hasty *Take Care* (2017), as well as two books of poems. He was the founding director of Princeton’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM) and is an editor-at-large at *Cabinet* magazine. [**Catherine Nicholson**](https://english.yale.edu/people/tenured-and-tenure-track-faculty-professors/catherine-nicholson) is a Professor of English and Early Modern Studies at Yale University. She is the author of *Reading and Not Reading The Faerie Queene* (2020) and *Uncommon Tongues: Eloquence and Eccentricity in the English Renaissance* (2014). Her current project, “The Renaissance Before Reading,” connects the materials of basic literacy–letter, syllable, word, sentence, and book–to the re-making of early modern literary culture.

**Anticipated Schedule**: Friday and Saturday, **October 9-10, 2026**.

[**Apply**](https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/scholarly-programs/apply-for-scholarly-programs/) **by** **July 13, 2026**, for admission and travel grants-in-aid for [**Folger Institute Consortium**](https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/scholarly-programs/folger-institute-consortium-and-executive-committee/) affiliates.

Questions? Please contact Owen Williams, Ph.D. at <owilliams@folger.edu>.



 



 

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