Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies
An illuminating account of how Shakespeare worked through the tensions of Queen Elizabeth’s England in two canon-defining plays

Conspiracies and revolts simmered beneath the surface of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. England was riven with tensions created by religious conflict and the prospect of dynastic crisis and regime change.
 
In this rich, incisive account, Peter Lake reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus the princes are faced with successions forged under questionable circumstances and they each have a choice: whether or not to resort to political violence. The unfolding action, Lake argues, is best understood in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Relating the plays to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake sheds light on the nature of revenge, resistance, and religion in post-Reformation England.
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Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies
An illuminating account of how Shakespeare worked through the tensions of Queen Elizabeth’s England in two canon-defining plays

Conspiracies and revolts simmered beneath the surface of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. England was riven with tensions created by religious conflict and the prospect of dynastic crisis and regime change.
 
In this rich, incisive account, Peter Lake reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus the princes are faced with successions forged under questionable circumstances and they each have a choice: whether or not to resort to political violence. The unfolding action, Lake argues, is best understood in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Relating the plays to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake sheds light on the nature of revenge, resistance, and religion in post-Reformation England.
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Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies

Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies

by Peter Lake
Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies

Hamlet's Choice: Religion and Resistance in Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedies

by Peter Lake

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Overview

An illuminating account of how Shakespeare worked through the tensions of Queen Elizabeth’s England in two canon-defining plays

Conspiracies and revolts simmered beneath the surface of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. England was riven with tensions created by religious conflict and the prospect of dynastic crisis and regime change.
 
In this rich, incisive account, Peter Lake reveals how in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet Shakespeare worked through a range of Tudor anxieties, including concerns about the nature of justice, resistance, and salvation. In both Hamlet and Titus the princes are faced with successions forged under questionable circumstances and they each have a choice: whether or not to resort to political violence. The unfolding action, Lake argues, is best understood in terms of contemporary debates about the legitimacy of resistance and the relation between religion and politics. Relating the plays to their broader political and polemical contexts, Lake sheds light on the nature of revenge, resistance, and religion in post-Reformation England.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300256703
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 07/21/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
File size: 8 MB

About the Author

Peter Lake is University Distinguished Professor of History and Martha Rivers Ingram Chair of History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage, Bad Queen Bess?,and The Antichrist's Lewd Hat.

Table of Contents

List of Plates vi

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

Part I Titus Andronicus

Chapter 1 Succession and confessional politics combined 17

Chapter 2 Tyranny delineated 35

Chapter 3 Beyond paganism and politics 53

Part II Hamlet

Chapter 4 Hamlet with the confessional and succession politics left in 73

Chapter 5 The generic matrix: revenge tragedy, history play, murder pamphlet and conversion narrative 98

Chapter 6 The (providential) purposes of playing 110

Chapter 7 The politics of conscience 120

Chapter 8 Contemporary resonances 164

Conclusion Pagan/Catholic/Protestant/Christian 179

Notes 192

Further reading 209

Index 211

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