Peter Lake
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780300247817
- eISBN:
- 9780300256703
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300247817.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This incisive book reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In ...
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This incisive book reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus, the princes are faced with successions forged under questionable circumstances and they each have a choice: whether or not to resort to political violence. The unfolding action, the book argues, is best understood in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Relating the plays to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake sheds light on the nature of revenge, resistance, and religion in post-Reformation England.Less
This incisive book reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus, the princes are faced with successions forged under questionable circumstances and they each have a choice: whether or not to resort to political violence. The unfolding action, the book argues, is best understood in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Relating the plays to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake sheds light on the nature of revenge, resistance, and religion in post-Reformation England.
Peter Lake
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300222715
- eISBN:
- 9780300225662
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300222715.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This book presents an 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 ...
More
This book presents an 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. The text reveals the extent to which Shakespeare's plays speak to the depth and sophistication of Elizabethan political culture and the Elizabethan imagination. The book shows 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 virtu in politics. Through his plays, the text demonstrates, Shakespeare was boldly in conversation with his audience about a range of contemporary issues.Less
This book presents an 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. The text reveals the extent to which Shakespeare's plays speak to the depth and sophistication of Elizabethan political culture and the Elizabethan imagination. The book shows 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 virtu in politics. Through his plays, the text demonstrates, Shakespeare was boldly in conversation with his audience about a range of contemporary issues.