Shakespeare and the Courtly Aesthetic

Shakespeare and the Courtly Aesthetic, by Gary Schmidgall, situates *The Tempest* and the other late plays within the elaborate cultural and political framework of Jacobean court art. Schmidgall argues that to understand Shakespeare’s final dramas, one must examine the courtly aesthetic that shaped—and was shaped by—royal entertainments, masques, and visual allegories, particularly those patronized by James I. Drawing on analogies with painting, music, and spectacle, he demonstrates how Sha...