The year of Lear : Shakespeare in 1606 / James Shapiro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shapiro, James, 1955- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Plays--Selections.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Criticism and interpretation.

Literature and society--England--History--17th century.

Literature and society.

England.

History.

English drama--17th century--History and criticism.

English drama.

Great Britain--History--James I, 1603-1625.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 367 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.

Summary:

"Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the three great tragedies he wrote that year--King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare's great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn--King Lear--then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. It was a memorable year in England as well--and a grim one, in the aftermath of a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry that had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation's political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom. It was against this background that Shakespeare finished Lear, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, Macbeth. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: Antony and Cleopatra. The Year of Lear sheds light on these three great tragedies by placing them in the context of their times, while also allowing us greater insight into how Shakespeare was personally touched by such events as a terrible outbreak of plague and growing religious divisions. For anyone interested in Shakespeare, this is an indispensable book"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 The King's Man 15

2 Division of the Kingdoms 33

3 From Leir to Lear 47

4 Possession 65

5 The Letter 89

6 Massing Relics 105

7 Remember, Remember 119

8 Hymenaci 135

9 Equivocation 155

10 Another Hell Above the Ground 181

11 The King's Evil 201

12 Unfinished Business 225

13 Queen of Sheba 249

14 Plague 273.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781416541646

1416541640

OCLC:

904812686