Shakespeare and Republicanism

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jul 21, 2005 - Literary Criticism - 363 pages
This groundbreaking work, first published in 2005, reveals exactly how Shakespeare was influenced by contemporary strands in political thought that were critical of the English crown and constitution. Shakespeare has often been seen as a conservative political thinker characterised by an over-riding fear of the 'mob'. Hadfield argues instead that Shakespeare's writing emerged out of an intellectual milieu fascinated by republican ideas. From the 1590s onwards, he explored republican themes in his poetry and plays: political assassination, elected government, alternative constitutions, and, perhaps most importantly of all, the problem of power without responsibility. Beginning with Shakespeare's apocalyptic representation of civil war in the Henry VI plays, Hadfield provides a series of powerful new readings of Shakespeare and his time. For anyone interested in Shakespeare and Renaissance culture, this book is required reading.

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Contents

Forms of republican culture in late sixteenthcentury England
17
Literature and republicanism in the Age of Shakespeare
54
Shakespeares early republican career
99
Venus and Lucrece
130
Titus Andronicus and Julius Caesar
154
The radical Hamlet
184
After the republican moment
205
Conclusion
230
Bibliography
314
Index
356
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About the author (2005)

Adrew Hadfield is Professor of English at the University of Sussex.

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