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The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare

Online ISBN:
9780191819933
Print ISBN:
9780199660841
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare

Malcolm Smuts (ed.)
Malcolm Smuts
(ed.)
History, University of Massachusetts Boston
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R. Malcolm Smuts is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His publications include Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in Early Stuart England (1987), Culture and Power in England 1585-1685 (1998) and numerous articles and edited works relating to the politics and culture of early modern England and Europe.

Published online:
7 July 2016
Published in print:
12 May 2016
Online ISBN:
9780191819933
Print ISBN:
9780199660841
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This handbook presents a broad sampling of current historical scholarship on Shakespeare’s period that it is hoped will prove useful to scholars of his poems and plays. Rather than attempting to summarize the historical ‘background’ to Shakespeare, individual chapters explore numerous topics and methodologies at the forefront of current historical research. An initial cluster shows how political history has expanded beyond a traditional focus on relations between Crown and Parliament to encompass attention to attempts by the government to manage opinion; military challenges; problems in subduing Ireland and mediating relations between the British kingdoms; and the interplay between national affairs and local factions and concerns. Additional chapters deal with relationships between intellectual culture and political imagination, with detailed attention to varieties of early modern historical thought and the emergence of a ‘public sphere’. Other contributors examine facets of religious and social history, including scriptural translation, concepts of the devil, cultural attitudes concerning honour, shame and emotion, and life in London. A final section deals with vernacular architecture, Renaissance gardens, visual culture and theatrical music.

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