| Description |
1 online resource (xv, 666 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover page; Halftitle page; Title page; Copyright page; Dedication; Contents; Introduction and acknowledgements; PART I Contexts and structures; Back to the future: Catholics and protestants learn the lessons of history; Putting the (high) politics back into 'power'; Elizabethan political history, now; The arts of history; Putting history on the stage; History and the 'now' of performance; Getting the audience to do the work; Plays and pamphlets, pamphlets and plays; PART II Past into present and future: 2 and 3 Henry VI and the politics of lost legitimacy |
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CHAPTER 1 Losing legitimacy: monarchical weakness andthe descent into disorderThe politics of faction anatomised; The 'good duke' (of Gloucester); Good counsellor/evil counsellor; True tragedy: the fall of Gloucester; Monarchical rule as the enabling condition of good counsel; CHAPTER 2 Disorder dissected (i): the inversion of the gender order; Disorderly wives and witches; Women on top: the resistible rise of Queen Margaret; The 'Amazonian trull'; Not clerical but lay: the cross-dressing Henry VI; Beyond evil counsel: the Christian prince as oxymoron |
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CHAPTER 3 Disorder dissected (ii): the inversion of the social order'We are in order when we are most out of order'; Puritan popularity personified; A mirror for (dysfunctional) magistrates?; CHAPTER 4 Hereditary 'right' and political legitimacy anatomised; The right to rule unravelled; A monarchical republic (not); When honour becomes revenge; From Lancaster to Tudor; 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; Faction politics; Succession politics; The politics of virtue |
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Honour and its enemies: women on top -- againAnti-popery; Divided we fall: the politics of faction in time of war; CHAPTER 6 Richard III: political ends, providential means; The making of a Machiavel; Monstrous bodies and providential signs; Signs and prophecies; The audience as 'high all- seer'; Ambiguities of 'evil counsel'; From providence to predestination: the return of legitimacy; Richard III as a guide to the past, present and future; CHAPTER 7 Going Roman: Richard III and Titus Andronicus compared; PART IV How (not) to depose a tyrant: King John and Richard II |
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CHAPTER 8 The Elizabethan resonances of the reign of King JohnCatholic and protestant appropriations of King John; The Holinshed account; CHAPTER 9 The first time as polemic, the second time as play: Shakespeare's King John and The troublesome reign; Legitimacy problematised; The bastard; Commodity; Popery in The troublesome reign; Popery and the descent into tyranny in King John; The apotheosis of the bastard; England and providence; CHAPTER 10 Richard II, or the rights and wrongs of resistance; Tyranny anatomised; Tyranny outed; The fallacies of sacred kingship |
| Summary |
"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"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
From the reformation of the kingdom to rebellion, usurpation and regicide |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Histories.
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| SUBJECT |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 fast |
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Shakespeare, William 1564-1616 gnd |
| Subject |
Historical drama, English -- History and criticism
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Literature and history.
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Politics in literature.
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DRAMA -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- Shakespeare.
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Chronicle plays of William Shakespeare
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Historical drama, English
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Literature and history
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Politics in literature
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Thronfolge Motiv
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England Motiv
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Macht Motiv
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Historisches Drama
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780300225662 |
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0300225660 |
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