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Hopkins argues the succession to the throne was a burning topic not only in the final years of Elizabeth but well into the 1630s, and drama, with its disguised identities and oblique relationship to reality, was a safe way to air it. Hopkins analyzes some of the ways in which plays-from Marlowe's and Shakespeare's to Webster's and Ford's-reflect, negotiate and dream the issue of the succession.

Church and state collide when England's king defies papal authority by seeking to divorce his wife, Katherine of Aragon. The consequences will be epochal for the country - and calamitous for the king's adviser, Cardinal Wolsey, who has been playing a dangerous game of his own. Passion, political intrigue and personal faith drive the action as Shakespeare brings vividly to life the thrilling human drama behind a pivotal moment in history. Filmed live at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Canada in 2019.

Shakespeare's history plays have been performed more in recent years than ever before, in Britain, North America, and in Europe. This 2002 volume provides an accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's history and Roman plays. It is attentive throughout to the plays as they have been performed over the centuries since they were written. The first part offers accounts of the genre of the history play, of Renaissance historiography, of pageants and masques, and of women's roles, as well as comparisons with history plays in Spain and the Netherlands. Chapters in the second part look at individual plays as well as other Shakespearean texts which are closely related to the histories. The Companion offers a full bibliography, genealogical tables, and a list of principal and recurrent characters. It is a comprehensive guide for students, researchers and theatre-goers alike.

Richard the Lionheart is dead. His brother John is King of England. Threatened from all sides by Europe, the English noblemen and even his own family, King John will stop at nothing to keep hold of his crown. Shakespeare's rarely performed tale of a nation in turmoil vibrates with modern resonance in this vivid new production by Director Eleanor Rhode in her debut at the RSC.

No detailed description available for \"Tragedies of Tyrants\".

This study of the political and romantic impulses of Shakespeare's tragic characters - including Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Iago, among others - discusses the overblown ambition of these characters as they embrace cunning and evil in order to acquire power and romance. The excessive ambition shown by these characters fuels action in the plays and significantly contributes to their downfall. In other words, the book interrogates, in a pluralist critical frame, the forces behind the quest for power and romance by Shakespeare's protagonists, and explores how these forces propel the demise or fall of the heroes and heroines. While Edmund in King Lear, for example, is analysed as a crafty villain who exploits any opportunity to politically aggrandise himself, Claudius in Hamlet is portrayed as a diabolical schemer who acts mostly independently in his bid to secure the Danish throne. On the other hand, Macbeth's killing of Duncan is considerably invigorated by the ambition of Lady Macbeth to become queen and the prophecy of the witches that Macbeth shall be king. However, Iago is seen to display the scheming and ruthlessness of a traditional stage villain in his mission to unseat Cassio and overthrow Othello. The study contends that most of the politically and romantically driven characters of Shakespeare in the Four Great Tragedies are avaricious, artful and callous. As a result, the actions of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Claudius, Edmund, Iago, for instance, are activated by their excessive political and romantic cravings, which subvert the norms of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. In depicting these characters, Shakespeare decries unorthodox methods of realising one's dreams, and demonstrates attempts to challenge Elizabethan and Jacobean orthodoxy.