1. The Poetics of Diplomatic Appeasement in the Early Modern Era; Nathalie Rivère de Carles.- PART I. FROM TRUCE TO NEGOTIATED PEACE: THE TEMPORAL DIPLOMACIES OF A LITERATURE OF APPEASEMENT.- 2. The Slumber of War Diplomacy, Tragedy, and the Aesthetics of the Truce in Early Modern Europe; Timothy Hampton.- 3. 'Ces petits livres en françois de Messieurs les Hotmans': Peace in a/the European Family; Dominique Goy-Blanquet.- 4. 'Mediating Amicably'? The Birth of the Trauerspiel out of the Letter of Westphalia; Jane O. Newman.- PART II. A VERY POLITICAL PEACEMAKER: THE STAGE AMBASSADOR BETWEEN DIPLOMATIC TACTICS AND POLITICAL STRATEGIES.- 5. The Performative Power of Diplomatic Discourse in the Italian Tragedies Inspired by the Wars against the Turks; Valeria Cimmieri.- 6. The Ambassador as Proteus: Indirect Characterisation and Diplomatic Appeasement in Catiline and Measure for Measure; Nathalie Rivère deCarles.- 7. Galleries and Soft Power: The Gallery in The Winter's Tale; Patricia Akhimie.- PART III. CONCILIATORY NETOWRKS AS SOFT POWER: A DYNAMIC DIPLOMACY OF CROSS-CONFESSIONAL APPEASEMENT.- 8. Marginal Diplomatic Spaces during the Jacobean Era, 1603-25; Roberta Anderson.- 9. Venetian Merchants as Diplomatic Agents: Family Networks and Cross-Confessional Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe; Diego Pirillo.- 10. The Fabric of Silk Power in the Sherley Portraits; Ladan Niayesh.- Selected Bibliography.- Index.-