How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage : Power and Succession in the History Plays / Peter Lake.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lake, Peter, author.

Series:

University press scholarship online.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Histories.

Shakespeare, William.

Historical drama, English--History and criticism.

Historical drama, English.

Literature and history.

Politics in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (683 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A masterful, highly engaging analysis of how Shakespeare's plays intersected with the politics and culture of Elizabethan England With an ageing, childless monarch, lingering divisions due to the Reformation, and the threat of foreign enemies, Shakespeare's England was fraught with unparalleled anxiety and complicated problems. In this monumental work, Peter Lake reveals, more than any previous critic, the extent to which Shakespeare's plays speak to the depth and sophistication of Elizabethan political culture and the Elizabethan imagination. Lake reveals the complex ways in which Shakespeare's major plays engaged with the events of his day, particularly regarding the uncertain royal succession, theological and doctrinal debates, and virtue and virtù in politics. Through his plays, Lake demonstrates, Shakespeare was boldly in conversation with his audience about a range of contemporary issues. This remarkable literary and historical analysis pulls the curtain back on what Shakespeare was really telling his audience and what his plays tell us today about the times in which they were written.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction and acknowledgements

PART II: Past into present and future: 2 and 3 Henry VI and the politics of lost legitimacy

CHAPTER 1: Losing legitimacy: monarchical weakness and the descent into disorder

CHAPTER 2: Disorder dissected (i): the inversion of the gender order

CHAPTER 3: Disorder dissected (ii): the inversion of the social order

CHAPTER 4: Hereditary 'right' and political legitimacy anatomised

PART III: Happy endings and alternative outcomes: 1 Henry VI and Richard III

CHAPTER 5: How not to go there: 1 Henry VI as prequel and alternative ending

CHAPTER 6: Richard III: political ends, providential means

CHAPTER 7: Going Roman: Richard III and Titus Andronicus compared

PART IV: How (not) to depose a tyrant: King John and Richard II

CHAPTER 8: The Elizabethan resonances of the reign of King John

CHAPTER 9: The first time as polemic, the second time as play: Shakespeare's King John and The troublesome reign

CHAPTER 10: Richard II, or the rights and wrongs of resistance

CHAPTER 11: Shakespeare and Parsons - again

Part V: The Essexian circle squared, or a user's guide to the politics of popularity, honour and legitimacy

CHAPTER 12: The loss of legitimacy and the politics of commodity dissected

CHAPTER 13: Learning to be a bastard: Hal's second (plebeian) nature

CHAPTER 14: Festive Falstaff: of popularity, puritans and princes

CHAPTER 15: Henry V and the fruits of legitimacy

PART VI :Using plays to read plays: the court politics of the dramatic riposte

CHAPTER 16: Contemporary readings: Oldcastle/Falstaff, Cobham/Essex

CHAPTER 17: Oldcastle redivivus

PART VII: Julius Caesar: the dangers of playing pagan and republican politics in a Christian monarchy

CHAPTER 18: The state we're in

CHAPTER 19: The politics of honour (in a popular state)

CHAPTER 20: Performing honour and the politics of popularity (in a popular state)

CHAPTER 21: The politics of popularity and faction (in a popular state)

CHAPTER 22: The politics of prodigy, prophecy and providence (in a pagan state)

CHAPTER 23: Between Henry V and Hamlet

PART VIII: Disillusion: Christian and pagan style

CHAPTER 24: Hamlet

CHAPTER 25: The morning after the night before: Troilus and Cressida as retrospect

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

OCLC:

1059275615