Shakespeare's Bastard

Shakespeare's Bastard PDF Author: Simon Stirling
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) – Poet Laureate and Civil War hero – is one of the most influential and neglected figures in the history of British theatre. He introduced ‘opera’, actresses, scenes and the proscenium arch to the English stage. Narrowly escaping execution for his Royalist activities during the Civil War, he revived theatrical performances in London, right under Oliver Cromwell’s nose. Nobody, perhaps, did more to secure Shakespeare’s reputation or to preserve the memory of the Bard.Davenant was known to boast over a glass of wine that he wrote ‘with the very spirit’ of Shakespeare and was happy to be thought of as Shakespeare’s son. By recounting the story of his eventful life backwards, through his many trials and triumphs, this biography culminates with a fresh examination of the vexed issue of Davenant’s paternity. Was Sir William’s mother the voluptuous and maddening ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and was he Shakespeare’s ‘lovely boy’?

Shakespeare's Bastard

Shakespeare's Bastard PDF Author: Simon Stirling
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) – Poet Laureate and Civil War hero – is one of the most influential and neglected figures in the history of British theatre. He introduced ‘opera’, actresses, scenes and the proscenium arch to the English stage. Narrowly escaping execution for his Royalist activities during the Civil War, he revived theatrical performances in London, right under Oliver Cromwell’s nose. Nobody, perhaps, did more to secure Shakespeare’s reputation or to preserve the memory of the Bard.Davenant was known to boast over a glass of wine that he wrote ‘with the very spirit’ of Shakespeare and was happy to be thought of as Shakespeare’s son. By recounting the story of his eventful life backwards, through his many trials and triumphs, this biography culminates with a fresh examination of the vexed issue of Davenant’s paternity. Was Sir William’s mother the voluptuous and maddening ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and was he Shakespeare’s ‘lovely boy’?

Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard

Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard PDF Author: Richard B Wright
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0730493903
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Shakespeare's legacy lives on in a novel of secrets, illicit love and yearning, brought to us by master storyteller Richard B. Wright. Shakespeare's legacy lives on in a novel of secrets, illicit love and yearning, brought to us by master storyteller Richard B. Wright.In failing health, Aerlene Ward, an elderly housekeeper in an Oxfordshire manor, feels compelled to confess the incredible secret that has shaped her life: she is the illegitimate daughter of William Shakespeare, England's most famous playwright. But will anyone believe her? Even Charlotte, the young mistress of the house, who is writing down Aerlene's words, seems doubtful. Enchanted by the power and rhythm of words that she considers her birthright, coupled with her own imaginative mind, Aerlene draws back the curtain on her life and that of her mother, the sensual Elizabeth, who allowed herself to be seduced by a poor but ambitious writer from Stratford. As her tale unfolds, secrets are revealed, mysteries are uncovered, and lives are changed in the most unexpected of ways. MR. SHAKESPEARE'S BAStARD interweaves an engaging blend of invention and historical detail, with echoes of the Bard himself. Richard B. Wright, master storyteller, brings the teeming streets of Elizabethan London to life in a novel about love, daring, beauty and play that will delight the senses and touch the heart of every reader.

Shakespeare's Insults

Shakespeare's Insults PDF Author: Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474252680
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Why are certain words used as insults in Shakespeare's world and what do these words do and say? Shakespeare's plays abound with insults which are more often merely cited than thoroughly studied, quotation prevailing over exploration. The purpose of this richly detailed dictionary is to go beyond the surface of these words and to analyse why and how words become insults in Shakespeare's world. It's an invaluable resource and reference guide for anyone grappling with the complexities and rewards of Shakespeare's inventive use of language in the realm of insult and verbal sparring.

Shakespeare's Sublime Ethos

Shakespeare's Sublime Ethos PDF Author: Jonathan P. A. Sell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000407888
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Winner of the AEDEAN "Enrique García Díez" Literature Research Award 2023 Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos: Matter, Stage, Form breaks new ground in providing a sustained, demystifying treatment of its subject and looking for answers to basic questions regarding the creation, experience, aesthetics and philosophy of Shakespearean sublimity. More specifically, it explores how Shakespeare generates a sublime mood or ethos which predisposes audiences intellectually and emotionally for the full experience of sublime pathos, explored in the companion volume, Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos. To do so, it examines Shakespeare’s invention of sublime matter, his exploitation of the special characteristics of the Elizabethan stage, and his dramaturgical and formal simulacra of absolute space and time. In the process, it considers Shakespeare’s conception of the universe and man’s place in it and uncovers the epistemological and existential implications of key aspects of his art. As the argument unfolds, a case is made for a transhistorically baroque Shakespeare whose "bastard art" enables the dramatic restoration of an original innocence where ignorance really is bliss. Taken together, Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos and Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos show how Shakespearean drama integrates matter and spirit on hierarchical planes of cognition and argue that, ultimately, his is an immanent sublimity of the here-and-now enfolding a transcendence which may be imagined, simulated or evoked, but never achieved.

Shakespeare's English Kings

Shakespeare's English Kings PDF Author: Peter Saccio
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019988076X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Far more than any professional historian, Shakespeare is responsible for whatever notions most of us possess about English medieval history. Anyone who appreciates the dramatic action of Shakespeare's history plays but is confused by much of the historical detail will welcome this guide to the Richards, Edwards, Henrys, Warwicks and Norfolks who ruled and fought across Shakespeare's page and stage. Not only theater-goers and students, but today's film-goers who want to enrich their understanding of film adaptations of plays such as Richard III and Henry V will find this revised edition of Shakespeare's English Kings to be an essential companion. Saccio's engaging narrative weaves together three threads: medieval English history according to the Tudor chroniclers who provided Shakespeare with his material, that history as understood by modern scholars, and the action of the plays themselves. Including a new preface, a revised further reading list, genealogical charts, an appendix of names and titles, and an index, the second edition of Shakespeare's English Kings offers excellent background reading for all of the ten history plays.

Shakespeare's Symmetries

Shakespeare's Symmetries PDF Author: James E. Ryan
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147666370X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The organization of Shakespeare's plays has challenged, even baffled audiences and critics since the 17th century. Cymbeline has been dismissed as "incoherent." Hamlet "is of no clear shape." And Antony and Cleopatra "bewilders the mind." These judgments result from an incomplete understanding of Shakespeare's constructive practice. It is not the narrative arc alone that organizes the plays but a complex structure of interwoven narrative and thematic actions. While the narrative varies from play to play, thematic actions are invariably created in mirroring pairs around the central scene: A-B-C-B-A. This symmetrical pattern, which can be visualized as an arch with a focal keystone, is the foundation of all of Shakespeare's mature work, as shown through an analysis of the 26 plays in this book. This arch illuminates the structure of plays that have long been puzzling, demonstrating that they are thematically organized and rigorously crafted. It also reveals subtleties otherwise invisible.

Shakespeare's Legal Language

Shakespeare's Legal Language PDF Author: B. J. Sokol
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567145697
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
This encyclopedia-style dicitonary explores early modern social life, legal thought, and the interactions within Shakespearean drama.

A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare

A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description


Shakespeare's Sceptered Isle

Shakespeare's Sceptered Isle PDF Author: Brian Carroll
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476685827
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This work searches Shakespeare's history and Roman plays to find the raw materials of English national consciousness and identity. The messages of Shakespeare's history plays are not principally the plots or "facts" of the dramas but the attitudes and imaginings they elicited in audiences. Reading Shakespeare through the lens of national identity is a study almost as old as the plays themselves, and many scholars have found various articulations of nationhood in Shakespeare's plays. This book argues that Shakespeare's histories furnished modern England with a curriculum for constructing a national identity, a confidence of language and culture, and a powerful new medium through which to communicate and express this negotiated identity. Highlighting the application of semiotics, it studies the playwright's use of symbols, metonymy, symbolic codes, and metaphor. By examining what Shakespeare and playgoers remembered and forgot, as well as the ways ideas were framed, this book explores how a national identity was crafted, contested, and circulated.

The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare's Queens

The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare's Queens PDF Author: Kavita Mudan Finn
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319745182
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
Of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays, fifteen include queens. This collection gives these characters their due as powerful early modern women and agents of change, bringing together new perspectives from scholars of literature, history, theater, and the fine arts. Essays span Shakespeare’s career and cover a range of famous and lesser-known queens, from the furious Margaret of Anjou in the Henry VI plays to the quietly powerful Hermione in The Winter’s Tale; from vengeful Tamora in Titus Andronicus to Lady Macbeth. Early chapters situate readers in the critical concerns underpinning any discussion of Shakespeare and queenship: the ambiguous figure of Elizabeth I, and the knotty issue of gender presentation. The focus then moves to analysis of issues such as motherhood, intertextuality, and contemporary political contexts; close readings of individual plays; and investigations of rhetoric and theatricality. Featuring twenty-five chapters with a rich variety of themes and methodologies, this handbook is an invaluable reference for students and scholars, and a unique addition to the fields of Shakespeare and queenship studies. Winner of the 2020 Royal Studies Journal book prize