Shakespeare and the royal actor : performing monarchy, 1760-1952 / Sally Barnden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barnden, Sally, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Shakespeare in the Royal Collection

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters--Kings and rulers.

Shakespeare, William.

Physical Description:

xii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Shakespeare and the royal actor" argues that members of the royal family have identified with Shakespearean figures at various times in modern history to assert the continuity, legitimacy, and national identity of the royal line. It provides an account of the relationship between the Shakespearean afterlife and the royal family through the lens of a broadly conceived theatre history suggesting that these two hegemonic institutions had a mutually sustaining relationship from the accession of George III in 1760 to that of Elizabeth II in 1952. Identifications with Shakespearean figures have been deployed to assert the Englishness of a dynasty with strong familial links to Germany and to cultivate a sense of continuity from the more autocratic Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart monarchs informing Shakespeare's drama to the increasingly ceremonial monarchs of the modern period. The book is driven by new archival research in the Royal Collection and Royal Archives. It reads these archives critically, asking how different forms of royal and Shakespearean performance are remembered in the material holdings of royal institutions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

019889497X

9780198894971

OCLC:

1390773601