Book excerpt: Language is the central concern of this book. Colonization, poetry and Shakespeare – and the Renaissance itself – provide the examples. I concentrate on text in context, close reading, interpretation, interpoetics and translation with particular instances and works, examining matters of interpoetics in Renaissance poetry and prose, including epic, and the Hugo translation of Shakespeare in France and trying to bring together analysis that shows how important language is in the age of European expansion and in the Renaissance. I provide close analysis of aspects of colonization, front matter (paratext) in poetry and prose, and Shakespeare that deserve more attention. The main themes and objectives of this book are an exploration of language in European colonial texts of the “New World,” paratexts or front matter, Renaissance poetry and Shakespeare through close reading, including interpoetics (liminality), translation and key words.