William Shakespeare stills stands head and shoulders above any other author in the English language, a position that is unlikely ever to change. Yet it is often said that we know very little about him – and that applies as much to what he believed as it does to the rest of his biography. Or does it? In this authoritative new study, Graham Holderness takes us through the context of Shakespeare’s life, times of religious and political turmoil, and looks at what we do know of Shakespeare the Anglican. But then he goes beyond that, and mines the plays themselves, not just for the words of the characters, but for the concepts, themes and language which Shakespeare was himself steeped in – the language of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Considering particularly such plays as Richard ll, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, Holderness shows how the ideas of Catholicism come up against those of Luther and Calvin; how Christianity was woven deep into Shakespeare’s psyche, and how he brought it again and again to his art.
Table des matières
Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Preface 9
Chapter One “Faith alone”: The Reformation 15
Chapter Two “The only merits”: The faith of William Shakespeare 37
Chapter Three “Pattern to all princes”: The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII 59
Chapter Four “King of snow”: Richard II 79
Chapter Five “Mirror of all Christ ian kings”: Henry V 97
Chapter Six “A pattern in himself”: Measure for Measure 113
Chapter Seven “The quality of mercy”: The Merchant of Venice 137
Chapter Eight “A special providence”: Hamlet 161
Chapter Nine “Incomprehensible just ice”: King Lear 181
Chapter Ten “The hand of God”: The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale 203
Conclusion 215
Index 231
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