Introduction -- Richard III as nature's "black intelligencer" -- The gravid earth: exploring the ecological imaginary in the Spanish tragedy and Titus Andronicus -- The problem of indistinction in Measure for measure and 'Tis pity she's a whore -- Vanitas and the ecopolitics of despair in Macbeth -- "Desolate strangers": an ecocritique of vulnerability in The New Atlantis