Shakespeare and Religious Change [Paperback]

This balanced and innovative collection explores the relationship of Shakespeare's plays to the changing face of early modern religion, considering the connections between Shakespeare's theatre and the religious past, the religious identities of the present and the deep cultural changes that would shape the future of religion in the modern world.Acknowledgments Note on Spelling Conventions Notes on Contributors Introduction: K.J.E.Graham PART I: SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL HISTORY: RELIGION AND THE SECULAR Sanctifying the Bourgeoisie: The Cultural Work of The Comedy of Errors; R.Strier 'In a Christian Climate': Religion and Honor in Richard II; D.Shuger PART II: DRAMATIC CONTINUITIES AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE William Cecil and the Drama of Persuasion; A.F.Johnston The Queen's Men and the Performance of Allegiance, Conformity, and Difference in Elizabethan Norwich; M.A.Blackstone Things Newly Performed: The Resurrection Tradition in Shakespeare's Plays; E.Williamson Staging Allegiance, Re-membering Trials: King Henry VIII and the Blackfriars Theater; K.Sawyer Marsalek PART III: RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES 'Mirth in Heaven': Religion and Festivity in As You Like It ; P.Jensen Speaking Daggers: Shakespeare's Troubled Ministers; G.Clark Othello in the Wilderness: How did Shakespeare Use his Bible?; T.Bishop PART IV: SHAKESPEARE AND THE CHANGING THEATRE: RELIGION OR THE SECULAR Author, King, and Christ in Shakespeare's Histories; J.Knapp The Secular Theater; A.B.Dawson Index

'The volume manages to encompass a surprising amount of diversity, extending its scope to consider the continuum of changes in religious and dramatic culture from the 1520s onwards... This book will interest not only Shakespeare students and scholars but also scholars of the Reformation and of theatre history.' Routledge ABES June 2011

''a highly recommended volume, one that gathers together the work of excellent scholars, offers an enjoyable reading experience, and presents a rich mine of glă