SHAKESPEARE, politics and the state

The final years of Queen Elisabeth's reign were marked by deep social unrest. Religious feeling, the succession problem, anti-monarchist plots and many other factors all helped to generate a state of political alarm. Shakespeare's histories and political plays bear testimony to his preoccupation with the questions which were being debated at the time. The book sets key passages from Shakespeare beside selections form contemporary historians and political writers, many of them unpublished since the sixteenth century, and provides students of literature and history with an unique opportunity to relate the plays to their historical context.

Robin Headlam Wells is Lecturer in English at the University of Hull.