Shakespeare and Religious Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: Shakespeare and Religious Change

   1. Introduction: Shakespeare and Religious Change

      • Kenneth J. E. Graham

      Pages 1-13

3. Shakespeare and Social History: Religion and the Secular

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. Sanctifying the Bourgeoisie: The Cultural Work of The Comedy of Errors

      • Richard Strier

      Pages 17-36

   3. ‘In a Christian Climate’: Religion and Honor in Richard II

      • Debora Shuger

      Pages 37-59

4. Dramatic Continuities and Religious Change

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

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   2. William Cecil and the Drama of Persuasion

      • Alexandra F. Johnston

      Pages 63-87

   3. The Queen’s Men and the Performance of Allegiance, Conformity, and Difference in Elizabethan Norwich

      • Mary A. Blackstone

      Pages 88-109

   4. Things Newly Performed: The Resurrection Tradition in Shakespeare’s Plays

      • Elizabeth Williamson

      Pages 110-132

   5. Staging Allegiance, Re-membering Trials: King Henry VIII and the Blackfriars Theater

      • Karen Sawyer Marsalek

      Pages 133-150

5. Religious Identities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. ‘Mirth in Heaven’: Religion and Festivity in As You Like It

      • Phebe Jensen

      Pages 153-175

   3. Speaking Daggers: Shakespeare’s Troubled Ministers

      • Glenn Clark

      Pages 176-195

   4. Othello in the Wilderness: How did Shakespeare Use his Bible?

      • Tom Bishop

      Pages 196-214

6. Shakespeare and the Changing Theater: Religion or the Secular

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. Author, King, and Christ in Shakespeare’s Histories

      • Jeffrey Knapp

      Pages 217-237

   3. The Secular Theater

      • Anthony B. Dawson

      Pages 238-260

7. Back Matter

   Pages 261-281

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This balanced and innovative collection explores the relationship of Shakespeare's plays to the changing face of early modern religion, considering the connections between Shakespeare's theatre and the religious past, the religious identities of the present and the deep cultural changes that would shape the future of religion in the modern world.

• comedy
• cultural change
• drama
• future
• Inuit
• Jesus Christ
• performance
• present
• religion
• social history
• spelling
• theatre
• tradition
• wilderness
• William Shakespeare
• British and Irish Literature

'The volume manages to encompass a surprising amount of diversity, extending its scope to consider the continuum of changes in religious and dramatic culture from the 1520s onwards... This book will interest not only Shakespeare students and scholars but also scholars of the Reformation and of theatre history.' Routledge ABES June 2011

''a highly recommended volume, one that gathers together the work of excellent scholars, offers an enjoyable reading experience, and presents a rich mine of gems to use in the classroom.'' - Shakespeare Studies

• University of Waterloo, Canada

  Kenneth J. E. Graham

• University of Toronto, Canada

  Philip D. Collington

• Niagara University, Lewiston, USA

  Philip D. Collington

TOM BISHOP is Professor of English and Head of Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand MARY A. BLACKSTONE is Professor in the Department of Theatre and Director of the Centre for the Study of Script Development at the University of Regina, Canada GLENN CLARK is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Manitoba, Canada ANTHONY B. DAWSON is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Canada PHEBE JENSEN is Associate Professor of English at Utah State University, USA ALEXANDRA F. JOHNSTON is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Toronto, Canada JEFFREY KNAPP is Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, USA KAREN SAWYER MARSALEK is Associate Professor of English at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA DEBORA SHUGER is Professor of English at UCLA, USA RICHARD STRIER is Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English and the College at the University of Chicago, USA ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON teaches English literature at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, USA

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